At this point we are going to speed up a bit and gallop through the next few chapters, highlighting some of the most interesting features of the discussion as we pass them by.
In Chapter 4, Machiavelli talks about the Turks, but not the Italians, which begs the question as to why the chapter is even here. The Turks stand in for Islam. So why speak of the Turks but not the Italians? Think about it. If you were in the Soviet Union reading a book about the Soviet Union and you got to a chapter where the Soviet Union is never mentioned, but where the author discussed an ancient tyrant, what would you think? You would likely conclude that the chapter was really about the Soviet Union, it is really about those of whom one is afraid to speak, say Stalin. Machiavelli is scared to speak of the Church, so when re-reading you should ponder what the implication of this is.