Full Idea
Machiavelli emancipated politics from religion.
Gist of Idea
Machiavelli emancipated politics from religion
Source
report of Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince [1513]) by Peter Watson - Ideas Ch.24
Book Reference
Watson,Peter: 'Ideas: from fire to Freud' [Phoenix 2006], p.674
A Reaction
Interestingly, he seems to have done it by saying that ideals are irrelevant to politics, but gradually secular ideals crept back in (sometimes disastrously). A balance needs to be struck on idealism.