He was a decent man and there is a sarcasm through the works. He wasn’t writing an instruction manual as simple people usually think. He was giving a very pointed description of what he saw happening everywhere around him in government at the time with popes, and in the city states.
But of course, saying that directly would have had him killed quickly.
He wasn’t a despot. Nobody send to notice that he didn’t follow his own blueprint. It’s as dumb to call him father of evil as it would be to think Screwtape letters means CS Lewis wanted to teach people how to destroy others.
Excellent analysis.
L