relax ancient republican energy. After so much destruction
repose was necessary. To antique sobriety and gravity succeed
love of pleasure and the quest of luxury. The belligerent
class of great nobles were expelled and the energetic class of
artisans crushed. Bourgeois rulers were to rule, and to rule
tranquilly. Like the Medicis, their chiefs, they manufacture,
trade, bank and make fortunes in order to expend them in
intellectual fashion. War no longer fastens its cares upon
them, as formerly, with a bitter and tragic grasp; they manage
it through the paid bands of condottieri, and these as cunning
traffickers, reduce it to cavalcades; when they slaughter each
other it is by mistake; historians cite battles in which
three, and sometimes only one soldier remains on the field.
Diplomacy takes the place of force, and the mind expands as
character weakens. Through this mitigation of war and through
the establishment of principalities or of local tyrannies, it
seems that Italy, like the great European monarchies, had just
attained to its equilibrium.
{1143}
Peace is partially established and the useful arts germinate
in all directions upon an improved social soil like a good
harvest on a cleared and well-ploughed field. The peasant is
no longer a serf of the glebe, but a metayer; he nominates his
own municipal magistrates, possesses arms and a communal
treasury; he lives in enclosed bourgs, the houses of which,
built of stone and cement, are large, convenient, and often
elegant. Near Florence he erects walls, and near Lucca he
constructs turf terraces in order to favor cultivation.
Lombardy has its irrigations and rotation of crops; entire
districts, now so many deserts around Lombardy and Rome, are
still inhabited and richly productive. In the upper class the
bourgeois and the noble labor since the chiefs of Florence are
hereditary bankers and commercial interests are not
endangered. Marble quarries are worked at Carrara, and foundry
fires are lighted in the Maremmes. We find in the cities
manufactories of silk, glass, paper, books, flax, wool and
hemp; Italy alone produces as much as all Europe and furnishes
to it all its luxuries. Thus diffused commerce and industry
are not servile occupations tending to narrow or debase the
mind. A great merchant is a pacific general, whose mind
expands in contact with men and things. Like a military
chieftain he organizes expeditions and enterprises and makes
discoveries. ... The Medicis possess sixteen banking-houses in
Europe; they bind together through their business Russia and
Spain, Scotland and Syria; they possess mines of alum
throughout Italy, paying to the Pope for one of them a hundred
thousand florins per annum; they entertain at their court
representatives of all the powers of Europe and become the
councillors and moderators of all Italy. In a small state like
Florence, and in a country without a national army like Italy,
such an influence becomes ascendant in and through itself; a
control over private fortunes leads to a management of the
public funds, and without striking a blow or using violence, a
private individual finds himself director of the state. ...
These banking magistrates are liberal as well as capable. In
thirty-seven years the ancestors of Lorenzo expend six hundred
and sixty thousand florins in works of charity and of public
utility. Lorenzo himself is a citizen of the antique stamp,
almost a Pericles, capable of rushing into the arms of his
enemy, the king of Naples, in order to avert, through personal
seductions and eloquence, a war which menaces the safety of
his country. His private fortune is a sort of public treasury,
and his palace a second hotel-de-ville. He entertains the
learned, aids them with his purse, makes friends of them,
corresponds with them, defrays the expenses of editions of
their works, purchases manuscripts, statues and medals,
patronizes promising young artists, opens to them his gardens,
his collections, his house and his table, and with that
cordial familiarity and that openness, sincerity and
simplicity of heart which place the protected on a footing of
equality with the protector as man to man and not as an
inferior in relation to a superior. This is the representative
man whom his contemporaries all accept as the accomplished man of
the century, no longer a Farinata or an Alighieri of ancient
Florence, a spirit rigid, exalted and militant to its utmost
capacity, but a balanced, moderate and cultivated genius, one
who, through the genial sway of his serene and beneficent
intellect, binds up into one sheaf all talents and all
beauties. It is a pleasure to see them expanding around him.
On the one hand writers are restoring and, on the other,
constructing. From the time of Petrarch Greek and Latin
manuscripts are sought for, and now they are to be exhumed in
the convents of Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France. They
are deciphered and restored with the aid of the savants of
Constantinople. A decade of Livy or a treatise by Cicero, is a
precious gift solicited by princes; some learned man passes
ten years of travel in ransacking distant libraries in order
to find a lost book of Tacitus, while the sixteen authors
rescued from oblivion by the Poggios are counted as so many
titles to immortal fame. ... Style again becomes noble and at
the same time clear, and the health, joy and serenity diffused
through antique life re-enters the human mind with the
harmonious proportions of language and the measured graces of
diction. From refined language they pass to vulgar language,
and the Italian is born by the side of the Latin. ... Here in
the restored paganism, shines out Epicurean gaiety, a
determination to enjoy at any and all hours, and that instinct
for pleasure which a grave philosophy and political sobriety
had thus far tempered and restrained. With Pulci, Berni,
Bibiena, Ariosto, Bandelli, Aretino, and so many others, we
soon see the advent of voluptuous debauchery and open
skepticism, and later a cynical unbounded licentiousness.
These joyous and refined civilizations based on a worship of
pleasure and intellectuality--Greece of the fourth century,
Provence of the twelfth, and Italy of the sixteenth--were not
enduring. Man in these lacks some checks. After sudden
outbursts of genius and creativeness he wanders away in the
direction of license and egotism; the degenerate artist and
thinker makes room for the sophist and the dilettant. But in
this transient brilliancy his beauty was charming. ... It is
in this world, again become pagan, that painting revives, and
the new tastes she is to gratify show beforehand the road she
is to follow; henceforth she is to decorate the houses of rich
merchants who love antiquity and who desire to live daintily."
_H. Taine, Italy,
Florence and Venice,
book 3, chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_A. von Reumont,
Lorenzo de' Medici._
_W. Roscoe,
Life of Lorenzo de' Medici._
_F. T. Perrens,
History of Florence, 1434-1531,
book 2, chapters 2-6._
FLORENCE: A. D. 1490-1498.
The preaching of Savonarola.
The coming of Charles VII. of France,
and expulsion of the Medici.
The great religious revival and Christianization of
the Commonwealth.
Conflict with the Church and fall of Savonarola.
Girolamo, or Jerome Savonarola, a Dominican monk, born at
Ferrara in 1452, educated to be a physician, but led by early
disgust with the world to renounce his intended profession and
give himself to the religious life, was sent to the convent of
St. Mark, in Florence, in 1490, when he had reached the age of
37. "He began his career as a reader and lecturer, and his
lectures, though only intended for novices, drew a large
audience. He then lectured in the garden of the cloister,
under a large rosebush, where many intellectual men came from
the city to hear him.
{1144}
At length he began to preach in the Church of St. Mark's, and
his subject was the Apocalypse, out of which he predicted the
restoration of the Church in Italy, which he declared God
would bring about by a severe visitation. Its influence upon
his hearers was overpowering; there was no room in the church
for the brethren; his fame spread abroad, and he was next
appointed to preach the sermons in the cathedral. ... Amid the
luxurious, æsthetic, semi-pagan life of Florence, in the ears
of the rich citizens, the licentious youth, the learned
Platonists, he denounced the revival of paganism, the
corruptions of the Church; the ignorance and consequent
slavery of the people, and declared that God would visit Italy
with some terrible punishment, and that it would soon come. He
spoke severe words about the priests, declared to the people
that the Scriptures were the only guides to salvation; that
salvation did not come from external works, as the Church
taught, but from faith in Christ, from giving up the heart to
Him, and if He forgave sin, there was no need for any other
absolution. Scarcely had he been a year in Florence when he
was made prior of the monastery. There was a custom in vogue,
a relic of the old times, for every new prior to go to the
king or ruler and ask his favour. This homage was then due to
Lorenzo di Medici, but Savonarola declared he would never
submit to it, saying--'From whom have I received my office,
from God or Lorenzo? Let us pray for grace to the Highest.'
Lorenzo passed over this slight, being anxious to acquire the
friendship of one whom he clearly saw would exert great
influence over the Florentines. Burlamachi, his contemporary
biographer, tells us that Lorenzo tried all kinds of plans to
win the friendship of Savonarola: he attended the church of
St. Mark; listened to his sermons; gave large sums of money to
him for the poor; loitered in the garden to attract his
attention--but with little success. Savonarola treated him
with respect, gave his money away to the poor, but avoided him
and denounced him. Another plan was tried: five distinguished men
waited on Savonarola, and begged him to spare such elevated
persons in his sermons, to treat more of generalities; and not
to foretell the future. They received a prophetic answer: 'Go
tell your master, Lorenzo, to repent of his sins, or God will
punish him and his. Does he threaten me with banishment? Well,
I am but a stranger, and he is the first citizen in Florence,
but let him know that I shall remain and he must soon depart!'
What happened shortly after caused the people to begin to
regard Savonarola as a prophet, and won him that terrible fame
which caused his downfall. ... Lorenzo died on the 8th April,
1492, and from that time Savonarola becomes more prominent. He
directed his exertions to the accomplishment of three
objects--the reformation of his monastery, the reformation of
the Florentine State, and the reformation of the Church. He
changed the whole character of his monastery. ... Then he
proceeded to State matters, and in this step we come to the
problem of his life--was he a prophet or a fanatic? Let the
facts speak for themselves. Lorenzo was succeeded by his son
Pietro, who was vastly inferior to his father in learning and
statesmanship. His only idea appears to have been a desire to
unite Florence and Naples into one principality; this created
for him many enemies, and men began to fancy that the great
house of Medici would terminate with him. So, it appears,
thought Savonarola, and announced the fact at first privately
amongst his friends; in a short time, however, he began to
prophecy their downfall publicly. During the years 1492 and
1494, he was actively engaged in preaching. In Advent of the
former year, he began his thirteen sermons upon Noah's Ark. In
1493 he preached the Lent sermons at Bologna, and upon his return
he began preaching in the cathedral. In these sermons he
predicted the approaching fall of the State to the
astonishment of all his hearers, who had not the slightest
apprehension of danger: 'The Lord has declared that His sword
shall come upon the land swiftly and soon.' This was the
burden of a sermon preached on Advent Sunday, 1492. At the
close of 1493, and as the new year approached, he spoke out
more plainly and definitely. He declared that one should come
over the Alps who was called, like Cyrus, of whom Jeremiah
wrote; and he should, sword in hand, wreak vengeance upon the
tyrants of Italy. ... His preaching had always exerted a
marvellous influence upon people, as we shall hereafter note,
but they could not understand the cause of these predictions.
The city was at peace; gay and joyous as usual, and no fear
was entertained; but towards the end of the year came the
fulfilment. Charles VIII., King of France, called into Italy
by Duke Ludovico of Milan, came over the Alps with an immense
army, took Naples, and advanced on Florence. The expulsion of
the Medici from Florence soon followed: Pietro, being
captured, signed an agreement to deliver up all his
strongholds to Charles VIII., and to pay him 200,000 ducats.
See ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496.
The utmost indignation seized the Florentines when they heard
of this treaty. The Signori sent heralds to Charles, to
negotiate for milder terms, and their chief was Savonarola,
who addressed the King like a prophet, begged him to take pity
on Italy, and save her. His words had the desired effect.
Charles made more easy terms, and left it to the Florentine
people to settle their own State. In the meantime Pietro
returned, but he found Florence in the greatest
excitement--the royal palace was closed; stones were thrown at
him; he summoned his guards, but the people took to arms, and
he was compelled to fly to his brothers Giovanni and Giuliano.
The Signori declared them to be traitors, and set a price upon
their heads. Their palace and its treasures fell into the hands
of the people. The friends of the Medici, however, were not
all extinct; and as a discussion arose which was likely to
lead to a struggle, Savonarola summoned the people to meet
under the dome of St. Mark. ... In fact, the formation of the
new State fell upon Savonarola, for the people looked up to
him as an inspired prophet. He proposed that 3,200 citizens
should form themselves into a general council. Then they drew
lots for a third part, who for six months were to act together
as an executive body and represent the general council,
another one-third for the next three months, and so on; so
that every citizen had his turn in the council every eighteen
months. They ultimately found it convenient to reduce the
number to 80--in fact, Savonarola's Democracy was rapidly
becoming oligarchic. Each of these 80 representatives was to
be 40 years of age; they voted with black and white beans, six
being a legal majority.
{1145}
But the Chief of the State was to be Christ; He was to be the
new monarch. His next step was to induce them to proclaim a
general amnesty, in which he succeeded only through vigorously
preaching to them that forgiveness was sweeter than
vengeance--that freedom and peace were more loving than strife
and hatred. ... He was now at the height of his power; his
voice ruled the State; he is the only instance in Europe of a
monk openly leading a republic. The people regarded him as
something more than human: they knew of his nights spent in
prayer; of his long fasts; of his unbounded charity. ... Few
preachers ever exerted such influence upon the minds of
crowds, such a vitalizing influence; he changed the whole
character of Florentine society. Libertines abandoned their
vices; the theatres and taverns were empty; there was no card
playing, nor dice throwing; the love of fasting grew so
general, that meat could not be sold; the city of Florence was
God's city, and its government a Theocracy. There was a custom in
Florence, during Carnival time, for the children to go from
house to house and bid people give up their cherished
pleasures; and so great was the enthusiasm at this period that
people gave up their cards, their dice and backgammon boards,
the ladies their perfumed waters, veils, paint-pots, false
hair, musical instruments, harps, lutes, licentious tales,
especially those of Boccaccio, dream books, romances, and
popular songs. All this booty was gathered together in a heap
in the market place, the people assembled, the Signori took
their places, and children clothed in white, with olive
branches on their heads, received from them the burning
torches, and set fire to the pile amid the blast of trumpets
and chant of psalms, which were continued till the whole was
consumed. ... His fame had now reached other countries;
foreigners visited Florence solely for the purpose of seeing
and hearing him. The Sultan of Turkey allowed his sermons to
be translated and circulated in his dominions. But in the
midst of his prosperity his enemies were not idle: as he
progressed their jealousy increased: his preaching displeased
them, terrified them, and amongst these the most bitter and
virulent were the young sons of the upper classes: they called
his followers 'howlers' (piagnoni), and so raged against him
that they gained the name, now immortalised in history, of the
Arrabiati (the furies): this party was increased by the old
friends of the Medici, who called him a rebel and leader of
the lower classes. Dolfo Spini, a young man of position and
wealth, commanded this party, and used every effort to destroy
the reputation of Savonarola, to incite the people against him,
and to ruin him. They bore the name of 'Compagnacci'; they
wrote satires about the Piagnoni; they circulated slanders
about the monk who was making Florence the laughing stock of
Europe: but Savonarola went on his way indifferent to the
signs already manifesting themselves amongst his countrymen,
ever most sensitive to ridicule. He also strove to reform the
Church: he delineated the Apostolic Church as a model upon
which he would build up that of Florence. ... By this time,
the intelligence of his doings, and the gist of his preaching
and writing, which had been carefully transmitted to Rome by
his enemies, began to attract the attention of the Pope,
Alexander VI., who tried what had frequently proved an
infallible remedy, and offered Savonarola a Cardinal's hat,
which he at once refused. He was then invited to Rome, but
thought it prudent to excuse himself. When the controversy
between him and the Pope appeared to approach a crisis,
Savonarola took a step which somewhat hurried the catastrophe.
He wrote to the Kings of France and Spain, and the Emperor of
Germany, to call a General Council to take into consideration
the Reform of the Church. One of these letters reached the
Pope, through a spy of Duke Ludovico Moro, of Milan, whom
Savonarola had denounced. The result was the issue of a Breve
(October, 1496), which forbade him to preach. The Pope then
ordered the Congregation of St. Mark to be broken up and
amalgamated with another. For a time Savonarola, at the advice
of his friends, remained quiet; but at this last step, to
break up the institution he had established, he was aroused to
action. He denounced Rome as the source of all the poison
which was undermining the constitution of the Church; declared
that its evil fame stunk in men's nostrils. The Pope then
applied to the Signori to deliver up this enemy of the Church,
but to no purpose. The Franciscans were ordered to preach
against him, but they made no impression. Then came the last
thunderbolt: a Bann was issued (12th May, 1497), which was
announced by the Franciscans. During the time of his
suspension and his excommunication, many things happened which
tended to his downfall, although his friends gathered round him,
the rapid change of ministry brought in turn friends of the
Medici to the helm; they introduced the young, Compagnacci
into the Council, and gradually his enemies were increasing in
the Government to a strong party." The fickle Florentine mob
now took sides with them against the monk whom it had recently
adored, and on the 7th of April, 1498, in the midst of a
raging tumult, Savonarola was taken into custody by the
Signori of the city. With the assent of the Pope, he was
subjected seven times to torture upon the rack, to force from
him a recantation of all that he had taught and preached, and
on the 23d of May he was hanged and burned, in company with
two of his disciples.
_O. T. Hill,
Introduction to Savonarola's "Triumph of the Cross."_
ALSO IN:
_P. Villari,
History of Savonarola and his times._
_Mrs. Oliphant,
The Makers of Florence._
_H. H. Milman,
Savonarola, Erasmus, and other Essays._
_George Eliot,
Romola._
_H. Grimm,
Life of Michael Angelo,
volume 1, chapters 3-4._
FLORENCE: A. D. 1494-1509.
The French deliverance of Pisa and the long war of reconquest.
See PISA: A. D. 1404-1509.
FLORENCE: A. D. 1498-1500.
Threatened by the Medici, on one side,
and Cæsar Borgia on the other.
A new division of parties.
"After the death of Savonarola things changed with such a
degree of rapidity that the Arrabbiati had not time to
consider in what manner they could restrict the government;
but they soon became convinced that the only salvation for the
Republic was to adopt the course which had been recommended by
the Friar. Piero and Giuliano dei Medici were in fact already
in the neighbourhood of Florence, supported by a powerful
Venetian army. It became, therefore, absolutely necessary for
the Arrabbiati to unite with the Piagnoni, in order to defend
themselves against so many dangers and so many enemies.
{1146}
By great good fortune, the Duke of Milan, from jealousy of the
Venetians, came to their assistance to ward off the danger;
but who could trust to his friendship--who could place any
reliance on his fidelity? As to Alexander Borgia, he who had
held out such great hopes, and had made so many promises, in
order to get Savonarola put to death, no sooner was his object
attained than he gave full sway to his unbridled passions. It
seemed as if the death of the poor Friar had released both the
Pope and his son, Duke Valentino, from all restraints upon
their lusts and ambition. The Pope formed intimate alliances
with Turks and Jews, a thing hitherto unheard of. He, in one
year, set up twelve cardinals' hats for sale. The history of
the incests and murders of the family of Borgia is too well
known to render it necessary for us to enter into any detailed
account of them here. The great object of the Pope was to form
a State for his son in the Romagna; and so great was the
ambition of Duke Valentino, that he contemplated extending his
power over the whole of Italy, Tuscany being the first part he
meant to seize upon. With that view he was always endeavouring
to create new dangers to the Republic; at one time he caused
Arezzo to rise against it; at another time he threatened to
bring back Piero de' Medici; and he was continually ravaging
their territory. The consequence was, that the Florentines
were obliged to grant him an annual subsidy of 36,000 ducats,
under the name of condotta (military pay); but even that did
not restrain him from every now and then, under various
pretexts, overrunning and laying waste their territory. Thus
did Alexander Borgia fulfil those promises to the Republic by
which they had been induced to murder Savonarola. The
Arrabbiati were at length convinced that to defend themselves
against the Medici and Borgia, their only course was to
cultivate the alliance with France, and unite in good faith
with the Piagnoni. Thus they completely adopted the line of
policy which Savonarola had advised; and the consequence was,
that their affairs got order and their exertions were attended
with a success far beyond what could have been anticipated."
_P. Villari,
History of Savonarola and of his Times,
volume 2, conclusion._
"A new division of parties may be said to have taken place
under the three denominations of 'Palleschi' [a name derived
from the watchword of the Mediceans, 'palle, palle,' which
alluded to the well-known balls in the coat of arms of the
Medici family], 'Ottimati,' and 'Popolani.' The first ... were
for the Medici and themselves. ... The 'Ottomati' were in
eager search for a sort of visionary government where a few of
the noblest blood, the most illustrious connexions and the
greatest riches, were to rule Florence without any regard to
the Medici. ... The Popolani, who formed the great majority,
loved civic liberty, therefore were constantly watching the
Medici and other potent and ambitious men."
_H. E. Napier,
Florentine History,
book. 2, chapter 8 (volume 4)._
FLORENCE: A. D. 1502-1569.
Ten years under Piero Soderini.
Restoration of the Medici and their second expulsion.
Siege of the city by the imperial army.
Final surrender to Medicean tyranny.
Creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.