clean and neat; and it may be said with truth that the artisans and
handicraftsmen live at Florence even better than the citizens
themselves: for whereas the former change from tavern to tavern,
according as they find good wine, and only think of joyous living; the
latter in their homes, with the frugality of merchants, who for the most
part make but do not spend money, or with the moderation of orderly
burghers, never exceed mediocrity. Nevertheless there are not wanting
families, who keep a splendid table and live like nobles, such as the
Antinori, the Bartolini, the Tornabuoni, the Pazzi, the Borgherini, the
Gaddi, the Rucellai, and among the Salviati, Piero d'Alamanno and
Alamanno d'Jacopo, and some others. At Florence every one is called by
his proper name or his surname; and the common usage, unless there be
some marked distinction of rank or age, is to say _thou_ and not _you_;
only to knights, doctors, and prebendaries is the title of _messere_
allowed; to doctors that of _maestro_, to monks _don_, and to friars
_padre_. True, however, is it that since there was a Court at Florence,
first that of Giulio, the Cardinal de' Medici, then that of the Cardinal
of Cortona, which enjoyed more license than the former, the manners of
the city have become more refined--or shall I say more corrupt?
APPENDIX III.
_The Character of Alexander VI., from Guicciardini's Story,
Fiorentina, cap. 27._ See Chap. vii. p. 412 above.
So died Pope Alexander, at the height of glory and prosperity; about
whom it must be known that he was a man of the utmost power and of great
judgment and spirit, as his actions and behavior showed. But as his
first accession to the Papacy was foul and shameful, seeing he had
bought with gold so high a station, in like manner his government
disagreed not with this base foundation. There were in him, and in full
measure, all vices both of flesh and spirit; nor could there be imagined
in the ordering of the Church a rule so bad but that he put it into
working. He was most sensual toward both sexes, keeping publicly women
and boys, but more especially toward women; and so far did he exceed all
measure that public opinion judged he knew Madonna Lucrezia, his own
daughter, toward whom he bore a most tender and boundless love. He was
exceedingly avaricious, not in keeping what he had acquired, but in
getting new wealth: and where he saw a way toward drawing money, he had
no respect whatever; in his days were sold as at auction all benefices,
dispensations, pardons, bishoprics, cardinalships, and all court
dignities: unto which matters he had appointed two or three men privy to
his thought, exceeding prudent, who let them out to the highest bidder.
He caused the death by poison of many cardinals and prelates, even be
rich in benefices and understood to have hoarded much, with the view of
seizing on their wealth. His cruelty was great, seeing that by his
direction many were put to violent death; nor was the ingratitude less
with which he caused the ruin of the Sforzeschi and Colonnesi, by whose
favor he acquired the Papacy. There was in him no religion, no keeping
of his troth: he promised all things liberally, but stood to nought but
what was useful to himself: no care for justice, since in his days Rome
was like a den of thieves and murderers: his ambition was boundless, and
such that it grew in the same measure as his state increased:
nevertheless, his sins meeting with no due punishment in this world, he
was to the last of his days most prosperous. While young and still
almost a boy, having Calixtus for his uncle, he was made Cardinal and
then Vice-Chancellor: in which high place he continued till his papacy,
with great revenue, good fame, and peace. Having become Pope, he made
Cesare, his bastard son and bishop of Pampeluna, a Cardinal, against the
ordinances and decrees of the Church, which forbid the making of a
bastard Cardinal even with the Pope's dispensation, wherefore he brought
proof by false witnesses that he was born in wedlock. Afterwards he made
him a layman and took away the Cardinal's dignity from him, and turned
his mind to making a realm; wherein he fared far better than he
purposed, and beginning with Rome, after undoing the Orsini, Colonnesi,
Savelli, and those barons who were wont to be held in fear by former
Popes, he was more full master of Rome than ever had been any Pope
before. With greatest ease he got the lordships of Romagna, the March,
and the Duchy; and having made a most fair and powerful state, the
Florentines held him in much fear, the Venetians in jealousy, and the
King of France in esteem. Then having got together a fine army, he
showed how great was the might of a Pontiff when he hath a valiant
general and one in whom he can place faith. At last he grew to that
point that he was counted the balance in the war of France and Spain. In
one word he was more evil and more lucky than ever for many ages
peradventure had been any pope before.
APPENDIX IV.
_Religious Revivals in Mediæval Italy._ See Chap. viii. p. 491 above.
It would be unscientific to confound events of such European importance
as the foundation of the orders of S. Francis and S. Dominic with the
phenomena in question. Still it may be remarked, that the sudden rise
and the extraordinary ascendency of the mendicants and preachers were
due in a great measure to the sensitive and lively imagination of the
Italians. The Popes of the first half of the thirteenth century were
shrewd enough to discern the political and ecclesiastical importance of
movements which seemed at first to owe their force to mere fanatical
revivalism. They calculated on the intensely excitable temperament of
the Italian nation, and employed the Franciscans and Dominicans as their
militia in the crusade against the Empire and the heretics. Again, it is
necessary to distinguish what was essentially national from what was
common to all Europeans in the Middle Ages. Every country had its
wandering hordes of flagellants and penitents, its crusaders and its
pilgrims. The vast unsettled populations of mediæval Europe, haunted
with the recurrent instinct of migration, and nightmare-ridden by
imperious religious yearnings, poured flood after flood of fanatics upon
the shores of Palestine. Half-naked savages roamed, dancing and groaning
and scourging their flesh, from city to city, under the stress of
semi-bestial impulses. Then came the period of organized pilgrimages.
The celebrated shrines of Europe--Rome, Compostella, Monte Gargano,
Canterbury--acted like lightning-conductors to the tempestuous devotion
of the mediæval races, like setons to their over-charged imagination. In
all these universal movements the Italians had their share: being more
advanced in civilization than the Northern peoples, they turned the
crusades to commercial count, and maintained some moderation in the
_fakir_ fury of their piety. It is not, therefore, with the general
history of religious enthusiasm in the Middle Ages that we have to do,
but rather with those intermittent manifestations of revivalism which
were peculiar to the Italians. The chief points to be noticed are the
political influence acquired by monks in some of the Italian cities, the
preaching of peace and moral reformation, the panics or superstitious
terror which seized upon wide districts, and the personal ascendency of
hermits unaccredited by the Church, but believed by the people to be
divinely inspired.
One of the most picturesque figures of the first half of the thirteenth
century is the Dominican monk, John of Vicenza. His order, which had
recently been founded, was already engaged in the work of persecution.
France was reeking with the slaughter of the Albigenses, and the stakes
were smoking in the town of Milan, when this friar undertook the noble
task of pacifying Lombardy. Every town in the north of Italy was at that
period torn by the factions of the Guelfs and Ghibellines; private feuds
crossed and intermingled with political discords; and the savage tyranny
of Ezzelino had shaken the fabric of society to its foundations. It
seemed utterly impossible to bring this people for a moment to
agreement. Yet what popes and princes had failed to achieve, the voice
of a single friar accomplished. John of Vicenza began his preaching in
Bologna during the year 1233. The citizens and the country folk of the
surrounding districts flocked to hear him. It was noticed with especial
wonder that soldiers of all descriptions yielded to the magic of his
eloquence. The themes of his discourse were invariably reconciliation
and forgiveness of injuries. The heads of rival houses, who had
prosecuted hereditary feuds for generations, met before his pulpit, and
swore to live thenceforth in amity. Even the magistrates entreated him
to examine the statutes of their city, and to point out any alterations
by which the peace of the commonwealth might be assured. Having done his
best for Bologna, John journeyed to Padua, where the fame of his
sanctity had been already spread abroad. The _carroccio_ of the city, on
which the standard of Padua floated, and which had led the burghers to
many a bloody battle, was sent out to meet him at Monselice, and he
entered the gates in triumph. In Padua the same exhortations to peace
produced the same results. Old enmities were abandoned, and hands were
clasped which had often been raised in fierce fraternal conflict.
Treviso, Feltre, Beliuno, Conegliano, and Romano, the very nests of the
grim brood of Ezzelino, yielded to the charm. Verona, where the Scalas
were about to reign, Vicenza, Mantua, and Brescia, all placed themselves
at the disposition of the monk, and prayed him to reform their
constitution. But it was not enough to restore peace to each separate
community, to reconcile household with household, and to efface the
miseries of civil discord. John of Vicenza aimed at consolidating the
Lombard cities in one common bond. For this purpose he bade the burghers
of all the towns where he had preached to meet him on the plain of
Paquara, in the country of Verona. The 28th of August was the day fixed
for this great national assembly. More than four hundred thousand
persons, according to the computation of Parisio di Cereta, appeared
upon the scene. This multitude included the populations of Verona,
Mantua, Brescia, Padua, and Vicenza, marshaled under their several
standards, together with contingents furnished by Ferrara, Modena,
Reggio, Parma, and Bologna. Nor was the assembly confined to the common
folk. The bishops of these flourishing cities, the haughty Marquis of
Este, the fierce lord of Romano, and the Patriarch of Aquileia, obeyed
the invitation of the friar. There, on the banks of the Adige, and
within sight of the Alps, John of Vicenza ascended a pulpit that had
been prepared for him, and preached a sermon on the text, _Pacem meam do
vobis, pacem relinquo vobis_. The horrors of war, and the Christian duty
of reconciliation, formed the subject of his sermon, at the end of which
he constrained the Lombards to ratify a solemn league of amity, vowing
to eternal perdition all who should venture to break the same, and
imprecating curses on their crops, their vines, their cattle, and
everything they had. Furthermore, he induced the Marquis of Este to take
in marriage a daughter of Alberico da Romano. Up to this moment John of
Vicenza had made a noble use of the strange power which he possessed.
But his success seems to have turned his head. Instead of confining
himself to the work of pacification so well begun, he now demanded to be
made lord of Vicenza, with the titles of Duke and Count, and to receive
the supreme authority in Verona. The people, believing him to be a
saint, readily acceded to his wishes; but one of the first things he
did, after altering the statutes of these burghs, was to burn sixty
citizens of Verona, whom he had himself condemned as heretics. The
Paduans revolted against his tyranny. Obliged to have recourse to arms,
he was beaten and put in prison; and when he was released, at the
intercession of the Pope, he found his wonderful prestige
annihilated.[1]
[1] The most interesting accounts of Fra Giovanni da Vicenza
are to be found in Muratori, vol. viii., in the Annals of
Rolandini and Gerardus Maurisius.
The position of Fra Jacopo del Bussolaro in Pavia differed from that of
Fra Giovanni da Vicenza in Verona. Yet the commencement of his political
authority was very nearly the same. The son of a poor boxmaker of Pavia,
he early took the habit of the Augustines, and acquired a reputation for
sanctity by leading the austere life of a hermit. It happened in the
year 1356 that he was commissioned by the superiors of his order to
preach the Lenten sermons to the people of Pavia. 'Then,' to quote
Matteo Villani, 'it pleased God that this monk should make his sermons
so agreeable to every species of people, that the fame of them and the
devotion they inspired increased marvelously. And he, seeing the
concourse of the people, and the faith they bare him, began to denounce
vice, and specially usury, revenge, and ill-behavior of women; and
thereupon he began to speak against the disorderly lordship of the
tyrants; and in a short time he brought the women to modest manners, and
the men to renunciation of usury and feuds.' The only citizens of Pavia
who resisted his eloquence were the Beccaria family, who at that time
ruled Pavia like despots. His most animated denunciations were directed
against their extortions and excesses. Therefore they sought to slay
him. But the people gave him a bodyguard, and at last he wrought so
powerfully with the burghers that they expelled the house of Beccaria
and established a republican government. At this time the Visconti were
laying siege to Pavia: the passes of the Ticino and the Po were occupied
by Milanese troops, and the city was reduced to a state of blockade.
Fra Jacopo assembled the able-bodied burghers, animated them by his
eloquence, and led them to the attack of their besiegers. They broke
through the lines of the beleaguering camp, and re-established the
freedom of Pavia. What remained, however, of the Beccaria party passed
over to the enemy, and threw the whole weight of their influence into
the scale of the Visconti: so that at the end of a three years' manful
conflict, Pavia was delivered to Galeazzo Visconti in 1359. Fra Jacopo
made the best terms that he could for the city, and took no pains to
secure his own safety. He was consigned by the conquerors to the
superiors of his order, and died in the dungeons of a convent at
Vercelli. In his case, the sanctity of an austere life, and the
eloquence of an authoritative preacher of repentance, had been strictly
subordinated to political aims in the interests of republican liberty.
Fra Jacopo deserves to rank with Savonarola: like Savonarola, he fell a
victim to the selfish and immoral oppressors of his country. As in the
case of Savonarola, we can trace the connection which subsisted in Italy
between a high standard of morality and patriotic heroism.[1]
[1] The best authorities for the life and actions of Fra Jacopo
are Matteo Villani, bks. 8 and 9, and Peter Azarius, in his
Chronicle (Groevius, vol. ix.).
San Bernardino da Massa heads a long list of preachers, who, without
taking a prominent part in contemporary politics, devoted all their
energies to the moral regeneration of the people. His life, written by
Vespasiano da Bisticci, is one of the most valuable documents which we
possess for the religious history of Italy in the first half of the
fifteenth century. His parents, who were people of good condition, sent
him at an early age to study the Canon law at Siena. They designed him
for a lucrative and important office in the Church. But, while yet a
youth, he was seized with a profound conviction of the degradation of
his countrymen. The sense of sin so weighed upon him that he sold all
his substance, entered the order of S. Francis, and began to preach
against the vices which were flagrant in the great Italian cities. After
traveling through the length and breadth of the peninsula, and winning
all men by the magic of his eloquence, he came to Florence. 'There,'
says Vespasiano, 'the Florentines being by nature very well disposed
indeed to truth, he so dealt that he changed the whole State and gave
it, one may say, a second birth. And in order to abolish the false hair
which the women wore, and games of chance, and other vanities, he caused
a sort of large stall to be raised in the Piazza di Santa Croce, and
bade every one who possessed any of these vanities to place them there;
and so they did; and he set fire thereto and burned the whole.' S.
Bernardino preached unremittingly for forty-two years in every quarter
of Italy, and died at last worn out with fatigue and sickness. 'Of many
enmities and deaths of men he wrought peace and removed deadly hatreds;
and numberless princes, who harbored feuds to the death, he reconciled,
and restored tranquillity to many cities and peoples.' A vivid picture
of the method adopted by S. Bernardino in his dealings with these cities
is presented to us by Graziani, the chronicler of Perugia: 'On September
23, 1425, a Sunday, there were, as far as we could reckon, upwards of
3,000 persons in the Cathedral. His sermon was from the Sacred
Scripture, reproving men of every vice and sin, and teaching Christian
living. Then he began to rebuke the women for their paints and
cosmetics, and false hair, and such like wanton customs; and in like
manner the men for their cards and dice-boards and masks and amulets
and charms: insomuch that within a fortnight the women sent all their
false hair and gewgaws to the Convent of S. Francis, and the men their
dice, cards, and such gear, to the amount of many loads. And on October
29 Fra Bernardino collected all these devilish things on the piazza,
where he erected a kind of wooden castle between the fountain and the
Bishop's palace; and in this he put all the said articles, and set fire
to them; and the fire was so great that none durst go near; and in the
fire were burned things of the greatest value, and so great was the
haste of men and women to escape that fire that many would have perished
but for the quick aid of the burghers.' Together with this onslaught
upon vanities, Fra Bernardino connected the preaching of peace and
amity. It is noticeable that while his sermon lasted and the great bell
of S. Lorenzo went on tolling, no man could be taken or imprisoned in
the city of Perugia.[1]
[1] See Vespasiano, _Vite di Uomini Illustri,_ pp. 185-92.
Graziani, _Archivio Storico,_ vol. xvi. part i. pp. 313, 314.
The same city was the scene of many similar displays. During the
fifteenth century it remained in a state of the most miserable internal
discord, owing to the feuds of its noble families. Graziani gives an
account of the preaching there of Fra Jacopo della Marca, in 1445: on
this occasion a temporary truce was patched up between old enemies, a
witch was burned for the edification of the burghers, the people were
reproved for their extravagance in dress, and two peacemakers
(_pacieri_) were appointed for each gate. On March 22, after undergoing
this discipline, the whole of Perugia seemed to have repented of its
sins; but the first entry for April 15 is the murder of one of the
Ranieri family by another of the same house. So transitory were the
effects of such revivals.[1] Another entry in Graziani's _Chronicle_
deserves to be noticed. He describes how, in 1448, Fra Roberto da Lecce
(like S. Bernardino and Fra Jacopo della Marca, a Franciscan of the
Order of Observance) came to preach in January. He was only twenty-two
years of age; but his fame was so great that he drew about 15,000
persons into the piazza to listen to him. The stone pulpit, we may say
in passing, is still shown, from which these sermons were delivered. It
is built into the wall of the Cathedral, and commands the whole square.
Roberto da Lecce began by exhibiting a crucifix, which moved the
audience to tears; 'and the weeping and crying, _Jesu misericordia!_
lasted about half an hour. Then he made four citizens be chosen for each
gate as peacemakers.' What follows in Graziani is an account of a
theatrical show, exhibited upon the steps of the Cathedral. On Good
Friday the friar assembled all the citizens, and preached; and when the
moment came for the elevation of the crucifix, 'there issued forth from
San Lorenzo Eliseo di Christoforo, a barber of the quarter of Sant
Angelo, like a naked Christ with the cross on his shoulder, and the
crown of thorns upon his head, and his flesh seemed to be bruised as
when Christ was scourged.' The people were immensely moved by this
sight. They groaned and cried out, _'Misericordia!'_ and many monks were
made upon the spot. At last, on April 7, Fra Roberto took his leave of
the Perugians, crying as he went, _'La pace sia con voi!'_[2] We have a
glimpse of the same Fra Roberto da Lecce at Rome, in the year 1482. The
feuds of the noble families della Croce and della Valle were then raging
in the streets of Rome. On the night of April 3 they fought a pitched
battle in the neighborhood of the Pantheon, the factions of Orsini and
Colonna joining in the fray. Many of the combatants were left dead
before the palaces of the Vallensi; the numbers of the wounded were
variously estimated; and all Rome seemed to be upon the verge of civil
war. Roberto da Lecce, who was drawing large congregations, not only of
the common folk, but also of the Roman prelates, to his sermons at Santa
Maria sopra Minerva, interrupted his discourse upon the following
Friday, and held before the people the image of their crucified Saviour,
entreating them to make peace. As he pleaded with them, he wept; and
they too fell to weeping--fierce satellites of the rival factions and
worldly prelates lifting up their voice in concert with the friar who
had touched their hearts.[3] Another member of the Franciscan Order of
Observance should be mentioned after Fra Roberto. This was Fra Giovanni
da Capistrano, of whose preaching at Brescia in 1451 we have received a
minute account. He brought with him a great reputation for sanctity and
eloquence, and for the miraculous cures which he had wrought. The
Rectors of the city, together with 300 of the most distinguished
burghers upon horseback, and a crowd of well-born ladies on foot, went
out to meet him on February 9. Arrangements were made for the
entertainment of himself and 100 followers, at public cost. Next
morning, three hours before dawn, there were already assembled upwards
of 10,000 people on the piazza, waiting for the preacher. 'Think,
therefore,' says the _Chronicle,_ 'how many there must have been in the
daytime! and mark this, that they came less to hear his sermon than to
see him.' As he made his way through the throng, his frock was almost
torn to pieces on his back, everybody struggling to get a fragment.[4]
[1] See Graziani, pp. 565-68.
[2] Graziani, pp, 597-601.
[3] See Jacobus Volaterranus. Muratori, xxiii. pp. 126, 156,
167.
[4] See _Istoria Bresciana._ Muratori, xxi. 865.
It did not always need the interposition of a friar to arouse a strong
religious panic in Italian cities. After an unusually fierce bout of
discord the burghers themselves would often attempt to give the sanction
of solemn rites and vows before the altar to their temporary truces.
Siena, which was always more disturbed by civil strife than any of her
neighbors, offered a notable example of this custom in the year 1494.
The factions of the Monti de' Nove and del Popolo had been raging; the
city was full of feud and suspicion, and all Italy was agitated by the
French invasion. It seemed good, therefore, to the heads of the chief
parties that an oath of peace should be taken by the whole body of the
burghers. Allegretti's account of the ceremony, which took place at dead
of night in the beautiful Cathedral of Siena, is worthy to be
translated. 'The conditions of the peace were then read, which took up
eight pages, together with an oath of the most horrible sort, full of
maledictions, imprecations, excommunications, invocations of evil,
renunciation of benefits temporal and spiritual, confiscation of goods,
vows, and so many other woes that to hear it was a terror; _et etiam_
that _in articulo mortis_ no sacrament should accrue to the salvation,
but rather to the damnation of those who might break the said
conditions; insomuch that I, Allegretto di Nanni Allegretti, being
present, believe that never was made or heard a more awful and horrible
oath. Then the notaries of the Nove and the Popolo, on either side of
the altar, wrote down the names of all the citizens, who swore upon the
crucifix, for on each side there was one, and every couple of the one
and the other faction kissed; and the bells clashed, and _Te Deum
laudamus_ was sung with the organs and the choir while the oath was
being taken. All this happened between one and two hours of the night,
with many torches lighted. Now may God will that this be peace indeed,
and tranquillity for all citizens, whereof I doubt.'[1] The doubt of
Allegretti was but too reasonable. Siena profited little by these
dreadful oaths and terrifying functions. Two years later on, the same
chronicler tells how it was believed that blood had rained outside the
Porta a Laterino, and that various visions of saints and specters had
appeared to holy persons, proclaiming changes in the state, and
commanding a public demonstration of repentance. Each parish organized a
procession, and all in turn marched, some by day and some by night,
singing Litanies, and beating and scourging themselves, to the
Cathedral, where they dedicated candles; and 'one ransomed prisoners,
for an offering, and another dowered a girl in marriage.'
In Bologna in 1457 a similar revival took place on the occasion of an
outbreak of the plague. 'Flagellants went round the city, and when they
came to a cross, they all cried with a loud voice: _Misericordia!
misericordia!_ For eight days there was a strict fast; the butchers shut
their shops.' What follows in the Chronicle is comic: 'Meretrices ad
concubita nullum admittebant. Ex eis quâdam quæ cupiditate lucri
adolescentem admiserat, deprehensâ, aliæ meretrices ita illius nates
nudas corrigiis percusserunt, ut sanguinem emitteret.'[2] Ferrara
exhibited a like devotion in 1496, on even a larger scale. About this
time the entire Italian nation was panic-stricken by the passage of
Charles VIII., and by the changes in states and kingdoms which
Savonarola had predicted. The Ferrarese, to quote the language of their
chronicler, expected that 'in this year, throughout Italy, would be the
greatest famine, war, and want that had ever been since the world
began.' Therefore they fasted, and 'the Duke of Ferrara fasted together
with the whole of his court. At the same time a proclamation was made
against swearing, games of hazard, and unlawful trades: and it was
enacted that the Jews should resume their obnoxious yellow gaberdine
with the O upon their breasts. In 1500 these edicts were repeated. The
condition of Italy had grown worse and worse: it was necessary to
besiege the saints with still more energetic demonstrations. Therefore
'the Duke Ercole d' Este, for good reasons to him known, _and because it
is always well to be on good terms with God,_ ordained that processions
should be made every third day in Ferrara, with the whole clergy, and
about 4,000 children or more from twelve years of age upwards, dressed
in white, and each holding a banner with a painted Jesus. His lordship,
and his sons and brothers, followed this procession, namely the Duke on
horseback, because he could not then walk, and all the rest on foot,
behind the Bishop.'[3] A certain amount of irony transpires in this
quotation, which would make one fancy that the chronicler suspected the
Duke of ulterior, and perhaps political, motives.
[1] See Muratori, vol. xxiii. p. 839.
[2] _Annales Bononienses._ Mur. xxiii. 890.
[3] _Diario Ferrarese._ Mur. xxiv. pp. 17-386.
It sometimes happened that the contagion of such devotion spread from
city to city; on one occasion, in 1399, it traveled from Piedmont
through the whole of Italy. The epidemic of flagellants, of which
Giovanni Villani speaks in 1310 (lib. viii. cap. 121), began also in
Piedmont, and spread along the Genoese Riviera. The Florentine
authorities refused entrance to these fanatics into their territory. In
1334, Villani mentions another outburst of the same devotion (lib xi.
cap. 23), which was excited by the preaching of Fra Venturino da
Bergamo. The penitents on this occasion wore for badge a dove with the
olive-branch. They staid fifteen days in Florence, scourging themselves
before the altars of the Dominican churches, and feasting, five hundred
at a time, in the Piazzi di S. M. Novella. Corio, in the _Storia di
Milano_ (p. 281), gives an interesting account of these 'white
penitents,' as they were called, in the year 1399: 'Multitudes of men,
women, girls, boys, small and great, townspeople and countryfolk, nobles
and burghers, laity and clergy, with bare feet and dressed in white
sheets from head to foot,' visited the towns and villages of every
district in succession. 'On their journey, when they came to a
cross-road or to crosses, they threw themselves on the ground, crying
_Misericordia_ three times; then they recited the Lord's Prayer and the
Ave Maria. On their entrance into a city, they walked singing _Stabat
Mater dolorosa_ and other litanies and prayers. The population of the
places to which they came were divided: for some went forth and told
those who staid that they should assume the same habit, so that at one
time there were as many as 10,000, and at another as many as 15,000 of
them.' After admitting that the fruit of this devotion was in many cases
penitence, amity, and alms-giving, Corio goes on to observe: 'However,
men returned to a worse life than ever after it was over.' It is
noticeable that Italy was devastated in 1400 by a horrible plague; and
it is impossible not to believe that the crowding of so many penitents
together on the highways and in the cities led to this result.
During the anarchy of Italy between 1494--the date of the invasion of
Charles VIII.--and 1527--the date of the sack of Rome--the voice of
preaching friars and hermits was often raised, and the effect was always
to drive the people to a frenzy of revivalistic piety. Milan was the
center of the military operations of the French, the Swiss, the
Spaniards, and the Germans. No city suffered more cruelly, and in none
were fanatical prophets received with greater superstition. In 1516
there appeared in Milan 'a layman, large of stature, gaunt, and beyond
measure wild, without shoes, without shirt, bareheaded, with bristly
hair and beard, and so thin that he seemed another Julian the hermit.'
He lived on water and millet-seed, slept on the bare earth, refused alms
of all sorts, and preached with wonderful authority. In spite of the
opposition of the Archbishop and the Chapter, he chose the Duomo for his
theater; and there he denounced the vices of the priests and monks to
vast congregations of eager listeners. In a word, he engaged in open
warfare with the clergy on their own ground. But they of course proved
too strong for him, and he was driven out of the city. He was a native
of Siena, aged 30.[1] We may compare with this picturesque apparition of
Jeronimo in Milan what Varchi says about the prophets who haunted Rome
like birds of evil omen in the first years of the pontificate of Clement
VII. 'Not only friars from the pulpit, but hermits on the piazza, went
about preaching and predicting the ruin of Italy and the end of the
world with wild cries and threats.'[2] In 1523 Milan beheld the
spectacle of a parody of the old preachers. There appeared a certain
Frate di S. Marco, whom the people held for a saint, and who 'encouraged
the Milanese against the French, saying it was a merit with Jesus Christ
to slay those Frenchmen, and that they were pigs.' He seems to have
been a feeble and ignorant fellow, whose head had been turned by the
examples of Bussolaro and Savonarola.[3] Again, in 1529, we find a
certain monk, Tommaso, of the order of S. Dominic, stirring up a great
commotion of piety in Milan. The city had been brought to the very
lowest state of misery by the Spanish occupation; and, strange to say,
this friar was himself a Spaniard. In order to propitiate offended
deities, he organized a procession on a great scale. 700 women, 500 men,
and 2,500 children assembled in the cathedral. The children were dressed
in white, the men and women in sackcloth, and all were barefooted. They
promenaded the streets of Milan, incessantly shouting _Misericordia!_
and besieged the Duomo with the same dismal cry, the Bishop and the
Municipal authorities of Milan taking part in the devotion.[4] These
gusts of penitential piety were matters of real national importance.
Writers imbued with the classic spirit of the Renaissance thought them
worthy of a place in their philosophical histories. Thus we find Pitti,
in the _Storia Fiorentina (Arch. Stor._ vol. i. p. 112), describing what
happened at Florence in 1514: 'There appeared in Santa Croce a Frate
Francesco da Montepulciano, very young, who rebuked vice with severity,
and affirmed that God had willed to scourge Italy, especially Florence
and Rome, in sermons so terrible that the audience kept crying with
floods of tears, _Misericordia!_ The whole people were struck dumb with
horror, for those who could not hear the friar by reason of the crowd,
listened with no less fear to the reports of others. At last he preached
a sermon so awful that the congregation stood like men who had lost
their senses; for he promised to reveal upon the third day how and from
what source he had received this prophecy. However, when he left the
pulpit, worn out and exhausted, he was seized with an illness of the
lungs, which soon put an end to his life. Pitti goes on to relate the
frenzy of revivalism excited by this monk's preaching, which had roused
all the old memories of Savonarola in Florence. It became necessary for
the Bishop to put down the devotion by special edicts, while the Medici
endeavored to distract the minds of the people by tournaments and public
shows.
[1] See Prato and Burigozzo, _Arch. Stor._ vol. iii. pp. 357,
431. It is here worth noticing that Siena, the city of civil
discord, was also the city of frenetic piety. The names of S.
Caterina, S. Bernardino, and Bernardo Tolomei occur to the
mind.
[2] _Storia Fiorintina,_ vol. i. p. 87.
[3] _Arch. Stor._ vol. iii. p. 443.
[4] Burigozzo, pp. 485-89.
Enough has now been quoted from various original sources to illustrate
the feverish recurrences of superstitious panics in Italy during the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It will be observed, from what has been
said about John of Vicenza, Jacopo del Bussolaro, S. Bernardino, Roberto
da Lecce, Giovanni della Marca, and Fra Capistrano, that Savonarola was
by no means an extraordinary phenomenon in Italian history. Combining
the methods and the aims of all these men, and remaining within the
sphere of their conceptions, he impressed a rôle, which had been often
played in the chief Italian towns, with the stamp of his peculiar
genius. It was a source of weakness to him in his combat with Alexander
VI., that he could not rise above the monastic ideal of the prophet
which prevailed in Italy, or grasp one of those regenerative conceptions
which formed the motive force of the Reformation. The inherent defects
of all Italian revivals, spasmodic in their paroxysms, vehement while
they lasted, but transient in their effects, are exhibited upon a tragic
scale by Savonarola. What strikes us, after studying the records of
these movements in Italy, is chiefly their want of true mental energy.
The momentary effect produced in great cities like Florence, Milan,
Verona, Pavia, Bologna, and Perugia is quite out of proportion to the
slight intellectual power exerted by the prophet in each case. He has
nothing really new or life-giving to communicate. He preaches indeed the
duty of repentance and charity, institutes a reform of glaring moral
abuses, and works as forcibly as he can upon the imagination of his
audience. But he sets no current of fresh thought in motion. Therefore,
when his personal influence was once forgotten, he left no mark upon the
nation he so deeply agitated. We can only wonder that, in many cases, he
obtained so complete an ascendency in the political world. All this is
as true of Savonarola as it is of S. Bernardino. It is this which
removes him so immeasurably from Huss, from Wesley and from Luther.
APPENDIX V.
_The 'Sommario della Storia d'Italia dal_ 1511 _al_ 1527,'_ by Francesco
Vettori._[1]
I have reserved for special notice in this Appendix the short history
written of the period between 1511 and 1527 by Francesco Vettori; not
because I might not have made use of it in several of the previous
chapters, but because it seemed to me that it was better to concentrate
in one place the illustrations of Machiavelli and Guicciardini which it
supplies. Francesco Vettori was born at Florence in 1474 of a family
which had distinguished itself by giving many able public servants to
the Commonwealth. He adopted the politics of the Medicean party,
remaining loyal to his aristocratic creed all through the troublous
times which followed the French invasion of 1494, the sack of Prato in
1512, the sack of Rome in 1527, and the murder of Duke Alessandro in
1536. Even when he seemed to favor a republican policy, he continued in
secret stanch to the family by whom he hoped to obtain honors and
privileges in the state. Like all the Ottimati, so furiously abused by
Pitti, Francesco Vettori found himself at last deceived in his
expectations. To the Medici they sold the freedom of their native city,
and in return for this unpatriotic loyalty they were condemned to exile,
death, imprisonment, or frosty toleration by the prudent Cosimo. Two
years after Cosimo had been made Duke, Vettori died, aged upwards of
sixty, without having shared in the prosperity of the princes to whose
service he had consecrated his life and for whose sake he had helped to
enslave Florence. To respect this species of fidelity, or to feel any
pity for the men who were so cruelly disappointed of their selfish
expectations, is impossible.
[1] Printed in _Arch. Stor. It._ Appendice No. 22, vol. vl.
Francesco Vettori held offices of importance on various occasions in the
Commonwealth of Florence. In 1520, for example, he entered the Signory;
and in 1521 he was Gonfalonier of Justice. Many years of his life were
spent on foreign missions, as ambassador to the Emperor Maximilian,
resident ambassador at the Courts of Julius and Leo, ambassador together
with Filippo Strozzi to the Court of Francis I., and orator at Rome on
the election of Clement. He had therefore, like Machiavelli and
Guicciardini, the best opportunities of forming a correct judgment of
the men whose characters he weighed in his _Sommario_, and of obtaining
a faithful account of the events which he related. He deserves a place
upon the muster-roll of literary statesmen mentioned by me in chapter
V.; nor should I have omitted him from the company of Segni and Varchi,
had not his history been exclusively devoted to an earlier period than
theirs. At the same time he was an intimate friend both of Guicciardini
and Machiavelli. Some of the most precious compositions of the latter
are letters addressed from Florence or San Casciano to Francesco
Vettori, at the time when the ex-war-secretary was attempting to gain
the favor of the Medici. The clairvoyance and acuteness, the cynical
philosophy of life, the definite judgment of men, the clear
comprehension of events, which we trace in Machiavelli, are to be found
in Vettori. Vettori, however, had none of Machiavelli's genius. What he
writes is, therefore, valuable as proving that the Machiavellian
philosophy was not peculiar to that great man, but was shared by many
inferior thinkers. Florentine culture at the end of the fifteenth
century culminated in these statists of hard brain and stony hearts, who
only saw the bad in human nature, but who were not led by cynicism or
skepticism to lose their interest in the game of politics.
In the dedication of the _Sommario della Storia d' Italia_ to Francesco
Scarfi, Vettori says that he composed it at his villa, whither he
retired in 1527. I do not purpose to extract portions of the historical
narrative contained in this sketch; to do so indeed would be to
transcribe the whole, so closely and succinctly is it written; but
rather to quote the passages which throw a light upon the opinions of
Machiavelli and Guicciardini, or confirm the views of men and morals
adopted in my previous chapters.
After touching on the sack of Prato and the consternation which ensued
in Florence, Vettori describes the return of the Medici in 1512.
Giuliano, the son of Lorenzo, was the first to appear: after him came
the Cardinal Giovanni, and Giuliano's son Giulio.[1] The elder among
their partisans persuaded them to call a Parlamento and assume the
government in earnest. On September 16, accordingly, the Cardinal took
possession of the palace, _fece pigliare il Palazzo_; the Signory
summoned the people into the piazza--a mere matter of form; a Balia of
forty men was appointed; the Gonfalonier Ridolfi resigned; and the city
was reduced to the will and pleasure of the Cardinal de' Medici. Then
reasons sons Vettori:[2] 'This was what is called an absolute tyranny;
yet, speaking of the things of this world without prejudice and
according to the truth, I say that if it were possible to institute
republics like that imagined by Plato, or feigned to exist in Utopia by
Thomas More, we might affirm they were not tyrannical governments: but
all the commonwealths or kingdoms I have seen or read of, have, it seems
to me, a savor of tyranny. Nor is it a matter for astonishment that
parties and factions have often prevailed in Florence, and that one man
has arisen to make himself the chief, when we reflect that the city is
very populous, that many of the burghers desire to share in its
advantages, and that there are few prizes to distribute: wherefore one
party always must have the upper hand and enjoy the honors and benefits
of the state, while the other stands by to watch the game.' He then
proceeds to criticise France, where the nobles alone bear arms and pay
no taxes, and where the administration of justice is slow and expensive;
and Venice, where three thousand gentlemen keep more than 100,000 of the
inhabitants below their feet, unhonored, powerless, unprivileged,
oppressed. Having demonstrated the elements of tyranny and injustice
both in a kingdom and a commonwealth reputed prosperous and free, he
shows that, according to his own philosophy, no blame attaches to a
burgher who succeeds in usurping the sole mastery of a free state,
provided he rule wisely; for all kingdoms were originally founded either
by force or by craft. 'We ought not therefore to call that private
citizen a tyrant who has usurped the government of his state, if he be a
good man; nor again to call a man the real lord of a city who, though he
has the investiture of the Emperor, is bad and malevolent.' This
critique of constitutions from the pen of a doctrinaire, who was also a
man of experience, is interesting, partly for its positive frankness,
and partly as showing what elementary notions still prevailed about the
purposes of government. Vettori's ultimate criterion is the personal
quality of the ambitious ruler.
[1] Giovanni and Giulio were afterwards Leo X. and Clement VII.
[2] P. 293.
Passing to what he says about Leo X.,[1] it is worth while to note that
he attributes his election chiefly to the impression produced upon the
Cardinals by Alexander and Julius. 'During the reign of two fierce and
powerful Pontiffs, Cardinals had been put to death, imprisoned, deprived
of their property, exiled, and kept in continual alarm; and so great was
the dread among them now of electing another such Pope, that they
unanimously chose Giovanni de' Medici. Up to that time he had always
shown himself liberal and easy, or, rather, prodigal in squandering the
little that he owned; he had moreover managed so to dissemble as to
acquire a reputation for most excellent habits of life.' Vettori adds
that his power in Florence helped him, and that he owed much to the
ability displayed by Bernardo da Bibbiena in winning votes. The joy of
the Florentines at his election is attributed to mean motives: 'being
all of them given over to commerce and gain, they thought they ought to
get some profit from this Papacy.'[2]
The government which Lorenzo, afterwards Duke of Urbino, now established
in Florence is very favorably described by Vettori.[3] 'Lorenzo, though
still a young man, applied himself with great attention to the business
of the city, providing that equal justice should be administered to all,
that the public moneys should be levied and spent with frugality, and
that disputes should be settled to the satisfaction of all parties. His
rule was tolerated, because, while the revenues were large and the
expenses small, the citizens were not troubled with taxes; and this is
the chief way to please a people, seeing their affection for a prince is
measured by the good they get from him. Taking this opinion of Lorenzo,
it is possible for Vettori in another place to say of him that 'he
governed Florence like a citizen;'[4] and on the occasion of his death
in 1520, he passes what amounts to a panegyric on his character. 'His
death was a misfortune for Florence, which it would be difficult to
describe. Though young, he had the qualities of virtuous maturity. He
bore a real affection toward the citizens, was parsimonious of the
moneys of the Commune, prodigal of his own; while a foe to vice, he was
not too severe on those who erred. Though he began his military life at
twenty-three, he always bore the cuirass of a man at arms upon his
shoulders day and night on active service. He slept very little, was
sober in his diet, temperate in love. The Florentines did not love him,
because it is not possible for men used to freedom to love a ruler; but
he, for his part, had not sought the office which was thrust upon him by
the will of others. Madonna Alfonsina, his mother, brought unpopularity
upon him; for she was avaricious, and the Florentines, who noticed every
detail, thought her grasping: and though he wanted to restrain her, he
found himself unable to do so through the high esteem in which he held
her. Maddalena, his wife, died six days before him, after giving birth
to a daughter Catherine.' This is the, no doubt, highly favorable
portrait of the man to whom Machiavelli dedicated his _Principe_. The
somewhat negative good qualities of Lorenzo, his prudence and parsimony,
his freedom from despotic ambition, and dislike of dangerous service,
combined with his deference to the powerful members of his own family,
are very unlike Machiavelli's ideal of the founder of a state. Cesare
Borgia was almost the exact opposite. The impression produced by
Vettori's panegyric is further confirmed by what he says about
Lorenzo's disinclination to undertake the Duchy of Urbino.[5]
[1] P. 297.
[2] P. 300.
[3] Ibid.
[4] P. 306.
[5] P. 321. See too p. 307.
But to return to the early days of Leo's pontificate. Vettori marks his
interference in the affairs of Lucca as the first great mistake he
made.[1] His advisers in Florence had not reflected 'what infamy it
would bring upon the Pope in the opinion of all men, or what suspicion
it would rouse among the princes, if in the first months of his power he
were led to sanction an attack by the Florentines upon the Lucchese,
their neighbors and allies. How too could the burghers of Florence, who
had urged him to this step, remind the pontiff that he ought to moderate
his desire of gaining dominion for the Church and for his kin, by the
example of former Popes, all of whom, in the interest of their
dependents, had acquired to their own dishonor with peril and expense
what in a few days upon their death returned to the old and rightful
owners?' The conduct of Leo with regard to Lucca, his policy in
Florence, and the splendor maintained by his brother at Rome, did in
fact rouse the jealousy of the Italian powers both great and small.[2]
'King Ferdinand remarked: If Giuliano has left Florence, he must be
aiming at something better, which can be nothing but the realm of
Naples. The Dukes of Milan, Ferrara, and Urbino said the same. The
Sienese thought: If the pope allows the Florentines to attack Lucca,
which is so strong, well furnished, and harmonious, far more will he
consent to their encroaching upon us, who are weak, ill-provided, and at
odds among ourselves. The Duke of Ferrara had further reasons for
discontent in respect to Modena and Reggio.' Altogether, Leo began to
lose credit. Secret alliances were formed against him by the della
Rovere, the Baglioni, and the Petrucci; and though he took care to
attend public services and to fast more than etiquette required, nobody
believed in him. Vettori's comment reads like an echo of Machiavelli and
Guicciardini.[3] 'Assuredly it is most difficult to combine temporal
lordship with a reputation for religion: for they are two things which
will not harmonize. He who well considers the law of the Gospel will
observe that the pontiffs, though called Christ's Vicars, have
originated a new religion unlike that of Christ except in name. His
enjoins poverty; they desire riches. He preached humility; they follow
after pride. He commanded obedience; they aim at universal sovereignty.
I could enlarge upon their other vices; but it is enough to allude to
these, without entering into inconvenient discourses.' While treating of
the affairs of Urbino,[4] however, Vettori remarks that Leo could not
have done otherwise than punish Francesco Maria della Rovere, if he
wished to maintain the Papacy at the height of reputation to which it
had been raised by his predecessors.
[1] P. 301.
[2] P. 303.
[3] P. 304.
[4] P. 319.
In his general estimate of Leo, Vettori confirms all that we know about
this Pope from other sources. He insists more perhaps than other
historians upon the able diplomacy by which Lodovico Canossa, Bishop of
Tricarico, made terms with Francis after Marignano,[1] and traces Leo's
fatal alliance with Charles V. in 1520 to the influence of Jeronimo
Adorno.[2] The secret springs of Leo's conduct, when he was vainly
endeavoring to steer to his own profit between the great rivals for
power in Europe, are exposed with admirable precision at both of these
points. Of the prodigality which helped to ruin this Pope, and which
made his two successors impotent, he speaks with sneering sarcasm. 'It
was as easy for him to keep 1,000 ducats together as for a stone to fly
into the air by its own weight.'[3] When the news of the capture of
Milan reached him on November 27, 1520, Leo was at the Villa Magliana in
the neighborhood of Rome.[4] Whether he took cold at a window, or
whether his anxiety and jealousy disturbed his constitution, Vettori
remains uncertain. At any rate, he was attacked with fever, returned to
Rome, and died. 'It was said that his death was caused by poison; but
these stories are always circulated about men of high estate, especially
when they succumb to acute disease. Those, however, who knew the
constitution and physical conformation of Leo, and his habits of life,
will rather wonder that he lived so long.' After summing up the
vicissitudes of his career and passing a critique upon his vacillating
policy, Vettori resumes:[5] 'while on the one hand he would fain have
never had one care to trouble him; on the other he was desirous of fame
and sought to aggrandize his kindred. Fortune, to rid him of this
ambition, removed his brother and his nephew in his lifetime. Lastly,
when he had engaged in a war against the King of France, in which, if he
won, he lost, and was going to meet obvious ruin, fortune removed him
from the world so that he might not see his own mischance. In his
pontificate at Rome there was no plague, no poverty, no war. Letters and
the arts flourished, and the vices were also at their height. Alexander
and Julius had been wont to seize the inheritance not only of the
prelates but of every little priest or clerk who died in Rome. Leo
abstained entirely from such practices. Therefore people came in crowds;
and it may be said for certain that in the eight years of his papacy,
the population of Rome increased by one third.' Vettori prudently
refuses to sum up the good and bad of Leo's character in one decisive
sentence. He notes, however, that he was blamed for not keeping to his
word: 'it was a favorite expression with him, that princes ought to give
such answers as would send petitioners away satisfied; accordingly he
made so many promises; and fed people with such great expectations, that
it became impossible to please them.'
[1] P. 313.
[2] P. 334.
[3] P. 322.
[4] P. 338.
[5] P. 339.
The election of Adrian is attributed by Vettori to the mutual hatred and
jealousy of the Cardinals.[1] He ascribes the loss of Rhodes to the
Pope's want of interest in great affairs, adds his testimony to his
private excellence and public incapacity, and dismisses him without
further notice.[2]
[1] P. 341.
[2] Pp. 343, 347.
What he tells us about Clement is more interesting. In the dedication to
the _Sommario_ he apologized in express terms for the high opinion
recorded of this Pope. Yet the impression which he leaves upon our mind
by what he writes is so unfavorable as to make it clear what Clement's
foes habitually said against him. He remarks, as one excuse for his
ill-success in office, that he succeeded to a Papacy ruined by the
prodigality in war and peace of Leo.[1] As knight of Rhodes, as governor
of Florence, and as Cardinal, Clement had shown himself an able man.
Fortune heaped her favors on him then. As soon as he was made Pope, she
veered round. 'From a puissant and respected Cardinal, he became a
feeble and discredited Pope.' His first care was to provide for the
government of Florence. In order to arrive at a decision, he asked
council of the Florentine orators and four other noble burghers then in
Rome, as to whether he could advantageously intrust the city to the
Cardinal of Cortona in guardianship over Ippolito and Alessandro, the
young bastards of the Medici.[2] 'All men nearly,' says Vettori, 'are
flatterers, and say what they believe will please great folk, although
they think the contrary. Of the thirteen whom the Pope consulted, ten
advised him to send Ippolito to Florence under the guardianship of the
Cardinal of Cortona.' The remaining three, who were Ruberto Acciajuoli,
Lorenzo Strozzi, and Francesco Vettori, pointed out the impropriety of
administering a free city through a priest who held his title from a
subject town. They recommended the appointment of a Gonfalonier for one
year, and so on, till a member of the Medicean family could take the
lead. Clement, however, decided on the other course; and to this cause
may be traced half the troubles of his reign.
[1] P. 348.
[2] P. 349. They were 14 and 13 years of age respectively.
The greater part of what remains of the _Sommario_ is occupied with the
wars and intrigues of Francis, Charles, and Clement. Vettori, it may be
said in passing, records a very unfavorable opinion of the Marquis of
Pescara, who was, he hints, guilty of first turning a favorable ear to
Moroni's plot and then of discovering the whole to his master.[1] A few
days after his breach of faith with the Milanese, he fell ill and died.
'He was a man whose military excellence cannot be denied; but proud
beyond all measure, envious, ungrateful, avaricious, venomous, cruel,
without religion or humanity, he was born to be the ruin of Italy; and
it may be truly said that of the evil she has suffered and still
suffers, a large part was caused by him.'
[1] Pp. 358, 359.
Of the breach of faith of Francis, after he had left his Spanish prison,
Vettori speaks in terms of the very highest commendation.[1] His refusal
to cede Burgundy to Charles was just and patriotic. That he broke his
faith was no crime; for, though a man ought rather to die than forswear
himself, yet his first duty is to God, his second to his country,
Francis was clearly acting for the benefit of his kingdom; and had he
not left his two sons as hostages in Spain? The whole defense is a good
piece of specious pleading, and might be used to illustrate the chapter
on the Faith of Princes in the _Principe_.
[1] P. 362.
By far the most striking passage in Vettori's _Sommario_ is the
description of the march of Frundsberg's and De Bourbon's army upon
Rome.[1] He makes it clear to what extent the calamity of the sack was
due to the selfishness and cowardice of the Italian princes. First of
all the Venetians refused to offer any obstacles before the passage of
the Po, feeling that by doing so they might draw trouble on their own
provinces. Then the Duke of Ferrara supplied the Lutherans with
artillery, of which they hitherto had stood in need. The first use they
made of their fire-arms was to shoot the best captain in Italy, Giovanni
de' Medici of the Black Bands. The Duke of Urbino, the Marquis of
Saluzzo, and Guido Rangoni watched them cross the river and proceed by
easy stages through the district of Piacenza, 'following them like
lacqueys waiting on their lords.' The same thing happened at Parma and
Modena, while the Duke of Ferrara kept supplying the foreigners with
food and money. Clement meanwhile was penniless in Rome. Rich as the
city was, he had so utterly lost credit that he dared not ask for loans,
and was so feeble that he could not rob. The Colonnesi, moreover, who
had recently plundered the Vatican, kept him in a state of terror. As
the invaders, now commanded by the Constable de Bourbon, approached
Tuscany, the youth of Florence demanded to be armed in defense of their
hearths and homes. The Cardinal of Cortona, fearing a popular rising,
refused to grant their request. A riot broke out, and the Medici were
threatened with expulsion: but by the aid of influential citizens a
revolution was averted. The Constable, avoiding Florence and Siena,
marched straight on Rome, still watched but unmolested by the armies of
the League. He left his artillery on the road, and, as is well known,
carried the walls of Rome by assault on the morning of May 3, dying
himself at the moment of victory. From what has just been rapidly
narrated, it will be seen how utterly abject was the whole of Italy at
this moment, when a band of ruffians, headed by a rebel from his
sovereign, in disobedience to the viceroy of the king he pretended to
serve, was not only allowed but actually helped to traverse rivers,
plains, and mountains, on their way to Rome. What happened after the
capture of the Transteverine part of the city moves even deeper scorn.
'It still remained for the Imperial troops to enter the populous and
wealthy quarters; and these they had to reach by one of three bridges.
They numbered hardly more than 25,000 men, all told. In Rome were at
least 30,000 men fit to bear arms between the ages of sixteen and fifty,
and among them were many trained soldiers, besides crowds of Romans,
swaggering braggarts used to daily quarrels, with beards upon their
breasts. Nevertheless, it was found impossible to get 500 together in
one band for the defense of one of the three bridges.' What immediately
follows gives so striking a picture of the sack: that a translation of
it will form a fit conclusion to this volume. 'The soldiers slew at
pleasure; pillaged the houses of the middle classes and small folk, the
palaces of the nobles, the convents of both sexes, and the churches.
They made prisoners of men, women, and even of little children, without
regard to age, or vows, or any other claim on pity. The slaughter was
not great, for men rarely kill those who offer no resistance: but the
booty was incalculable, in coin, jewels, gold and silver plate,
clothes, tapestries, furniture, and goods of all descriptions. To this
should be added the ransoms, which amounted to a sum that, if set down,
would win no credence. Let any one consider through how many years the
money of all Christendom had been flowing into Rome, and staying there
in a great measure; let him remember the Cardinals, Bishops, Prelates,
and public officers, the wealthy merchants, both Roman and foreign,
selling at high prices, letting their houses at dear rents, and paying
nothing in the way of taxes; let him call to mind the artisans, the
poorer folk, the prostitutes; and he will judge that never was a city
sacked of which the memory remains, whence greater store of treasure
could be drawn. Though Rome has at other times been taken and pillaged,
yet never before was it the Rome of our days. Moreover, the sack lasted
so long that what might not perhaps have been discovered on the first
day sooner or later came to light. This disaster was an example to the
world that men proud, avaricious, envious, murderous, lustful,
hypocritical, cannot long preserve their state. Nor can it be denied
that the inhabitants of Rome, especially the Romans, were stained with
all these vices, and with many greater.'
[1] Pp. 372-82.
INDEX
A
Abelard, 9.
Adrian VI., 441.
Agrippa quoted, 459.
Ahmed, 589.
Albigenses, 9.
Aldi, the, 23.
Aleander, 27.
Alexander VI., 406, 407 _seq._., 603;
death, 430 (see Papacy).
Alfonso I. of Naples, 568.
Alfonso II., 119, 572.
Allegre, 418,
Allegretti, works, 292;
cited, 165;
quoted, 616
America, effects of its discovery, 540.
Ammanati, works, 489.
Anjou, house of, transfers its claims to Sicily, 539.
Appiani, 148.
Ariosto, works, 119;
cited, 413;
quoted, 130
Aristotle, influence of his writings, 197;
quoted, 234, 235.
Art in Middle Age, 17;
effect of religious conventionalism, 18;
revolution made by Renaissance, 18, 19.
Italian, inimical to ugliness, 490;
flourishes under despots, 79.
Ascham, R., quoted, 472.
B
Bacon, Francis, 26;
Roger, 9, 10.
Baglioni, 122, 148.
Barbiano, 159.
Bartoli, A., cited, 252.
Beccadelli, 174.
Bellini, works, 488.
Bentivogli, 102, 115, 123.
Bergamo, V. da, 618.
Bernard, St., 13.
Berni cited, 443.
Bibbiena, 184;
quoted, 190.
Bible, discovery of the original, 20.
Blood-madness, 109, 589 _seq._
Boccaccio, 11, 20.
Boiado, 171.
Bologna, 123, 617.
Boniface VIII., 76.
Borgia, Cesare, 117, 324, 345 _seq._, 426, 577;
murders, 352.
Borgia, Lucrezia, 419;
character cleared of calumny, 420.
Borgia, Roderigo (see Alexander VI).
Boscoli, P. P., 466.
Bracciolini, P., 274.
Brantôme quoted, 117.
Brescia, 615;
Arnold of, 64.
Browning, R., quoted, 13.
Bruni, L., 274.
Buonarottí, 491;
works, 19.
Burchard cited, 430, 431.
Burckhardt cited, 428;
quoted, 434.
Burton, Robert, cited, 475.
Bussolaro, J. del, 610.
Byzantine empire, effect of its fall, 14
C
Capistrano, G. da, 615.
Capponi, P., 284, 563.
Carducci, 284, 289;
works, 293.
Carmagnuola, F., 161.
"Carmina Burana," 9.
Carrara, 149.
Carroccio, 58.
Castiglione, works, 183, 457.
Catholic Church (see Papacy).
Support of Church required by good society, 455;
philosophy and theology fused, 456;
religion divorced from morality, 462, 493;
influence of ancient literature, 464;
æstheticism, 465;
humanism antagonistic to Christianity, 493;
its corruption, 448 _seq._;
not universal, 470;
immorality of priests, 458, 459;
superstition, 466;
relics, 461;
sanctity of pope, 462;
power of forms, 471;
counter-reformation, 25;
power of ecclesiastical eloquence, 491;
revivals, 490, 606 _seq_.;
indestructable vigor of religious faith, 469.
Cellini, B., 104, 462, 492; memoirs, 325.
Charles VIII. (see Italy, history), 540 _seq_.;
escape, 580.
Charles of Anjou, 75.
Charles the Great, 50.
Chivalry, 483.
Christianity (see Catholic Church, Morals),
influence in forming modern society, 7;
how affected by Renaissance, 25.
Clement VII., 443, 633.
Colonnesi, 375.
Columbus, 15.
Comines cited, 416;
quoted, 214, 475, 541, 553, 572, 578.
Condottieri, 86, 113, 131, 156 _seq_.; 245, 361;
character of warfare, 102, 363.
Compagni, Dino, chronicle of, 262;
its authenticity, 266 _seq_.
Copernicus, 15.
Corio, works, 292;
quoted, 135, 143, 145, 152. 160, 385, 391, 392, 619.
Coryat, T., quoted, 475.
Croce, della, 614.
Cromwell, 454.
Cruelty (see Blood-madness),
instances of, 151, 478, 571;
of French, 557, 583;
its use, 354.
Crusades, 7.
D
Dante, political views, 261;
works, 10, 11, 73, 260;
quoted, 73, 76, 77, 133.
Democratic idea, its gradual growth, 8.
Dennistoun cited, 160.
Descartes, 26.
Djem, 415, 566, 576.
Dürer, works, 490;
cited, 475.
E
Erasmus, 24, 27.
Este, house of, 395, 420;
Nicolo, 168.
F
Fanfoni, P., cited, 263, 268.
Feltre, V. da, 171, 176.
Ferdinand of Arragon, 296, 358; of
Naples, 570.
Ferrara, 499, 617;
court, 423.
Ficino, 175, 456.
Fiesole, G. da, Works, 488.
Filelfo, 171;
quoted, 381.
Flora, Joachim of, 9.
Florence, its constitution, 195, 201, 592, 596, 598;
number of citizens, 598;
parties, 211;
perpetual flux, 221;
government by merchants, 225;
the "parlamento," 230;
cause of failure of popular government, 231;
population, 256;
the "arti," 597;
militia, its value, 601;
Machiavelli's reforms, 312;
revenues, 255;
topography, 595;
history (see Italy), rule of the Medici, 277, 305, 629,
years 1527-31, 282;
recovers liberty through the French, 560;
occupation, 562;
commonwealth, 282;
divisions of popular party, 283;
siege, 285;
effect of Savonarola's prophecies, 290;
Pazzi conspiracy, 398;
final subjugation, 446;
character of its historians, 248 _seq_., 274.
Society, character of people, 600;
their enlightenment and immorality, 504;
absence of religious faith, 295;
excess of intellectual mobility, 237;
commercial character, 238;
social life, 242.
A city of intelligence, 232, 246.
Fondulo, G., 463.
Ford, J., cited, 477.
Foscari, F., 215; quoted, 600.
Francia, works, 489.
Frattcelli, 9.
Frederick I., 63.
Frederick II., 10, 68, 105.
Froben, J., 23.
G
Gambacorta, 147.
Gemistos Plethon, 173.
Genezzano, 506, 522.
Genoa, 79; history, 201.
Giacomini, 313.
Giannotti cited, 217;
quoted, 169, 196, 216, 238, 278, 280.
Giotto, works, 488.
Giovio, quoted, 249.
God, medieval idea of, 16.
Gonzaghi, 146.
Government, Guicciardini's theories, 305. [See Machiavelli.]
Graziani quoted, 614.
Greek, knowledge of, in Renaissance, 182.
Greene, R., quoted, 473.
Gregorovius cited, 421, 430, 479,.
Guarino, 171.
Guarnieri, 158.
Guelphs and Ghibeliines, 69, 206.
Guicciardini, 278, 280, 285, 295, 482;
works, 291, 294, 301 _seq_.;
political theories analyzed, 304 _seq_.;
quoted, 44, 91, 92, 119, 169, 223,
284, 404, 409, 412, 417, 431, 434,
451, 536. 541. 547, 549, 582, 583,
603.
H
Hawkwood, J., 113.
Hegel quoted, 367.
Hegel, C, cited, 252.
Heribert, 58.
Hildebrand, 59.
Hirsch cited, 567.
Hogarth, works, 490.
Howell cited, 473.
Hussites, 9.
Hutten, 27.
I
Infessura, works, 292; cited, 405;
quoted, 395, 404, 474,
Innocent VIII., 403.
Inquisition in Spain, 399.
Inventions of Renaissance, 29.
Italy, history (see Condottieri, Papacy), its character, 32;
papacy and empire, 33, 41, 43, 94, 97, 99;
variety of governments, 35, 43;
their influence on national development, 44;
politics, 36;
invasions, 39;
want of historical continuity, 41;
the despotisms, 42;
origin of modern history, 46;
the Lombards, 48;
Charles the Great, 51;
Berengar, 52;
Otho I., 52;
growth of power of Church, 53;
Frederick I., 63;
Charles of Anjou, 75;
convulsions of 14th century, 81;
states of 15th century, 88;
obstacles to unity, 89;
to monarchy, 92;
to federalism, 95;
in time of Machiavelli, 365;
policy of Lorenzo, 543;
equilibrium destroyed, 545;
French invasion, 549;
character of their army, 565;
league against them, 576;
cause of their failure, 340;
effect of their example, 583;
on other nations, 585;
Charles V., 98.
Italians incapable of helping themselves, 586;
responsible for their despots, 115;
development precocious and unsound, 495;
fatal effects of want of union, 538, 552.
_The Republics_, character of their history, 33, 193;
beginning of the power of the cities, 53;
their origin, 54;
count and bishop, 55;
"people," 55;
commune, 56;
consuls, 56;
effect of struggle of papacy and empire, 61;
influence of latter, 198;
Guelphs and Ghibeliines, 69, 80, 206;
wars of cities, 62;
Frederic I., 64;
struggle with nobles, 66;
the podesta, 67;
"captain of the people," 71;
the "arti," 72;
distinction between parties, 74;
not representative governments, 196;
not democratic, 195;
factions, 195, 210;
small number of active citizens, 209;
temporal character of alliances, 212.
_The Despotisms_, 42, 76;
their justification, 83;
idea of liberty, 78;
republican freedom unknown, 91;
policy commercial, 85;
taxation, 86;
diplomacy substituted for warfare, 87;
illegitimacy, 102;
good government, 103;
bad effect of their example, 104;
courts, 106, 186;
varieties of despotisms, 109;
claims of despots due to force, not rank, 116;
their democratic character, 117;
uncertainty of tenure of power, 117, 129;
domestic crime, 119;
murders, 120;
tastes and pursuits, 126;
degeneracy of their houses, 126, 151;
bad effects of rule, 130;
centralizing tendencies, 131;
cruelty, 151;
absence of all morality, 168.
_Society_. Why Italy took the lead in the Renaissance, 5;
Italians gentle and humane, 478;
not gluttons, 479;
personal originality not discouraged, 488;
Italy originates type of gentleman, 192;
courtiers, idea of nobility, 186;
community of interest with that of Roman Church, 470;
immorality not great relatively, 487;
superiority to their contemporaries, 489;
purity of their art shows that heart of the people was not
vitiated, 488;
commercial integrity, 474;
demoralization of society, 472;
immorality came from above, 489;
commonness of crime, 170, 480;
exceptions to rule, 183;
murders, 480;
deficiency in sense of honor, 481;
chastity in women, 486;
unnatural passions, 477;
charms of illicit love, 476;
immoral literature, 475.
Literature, early, 53.
J
Jews, expulsion from Spain, 400.
Julia, daughter of Claudius, 22, 23.
Julius II., 389, 406, 432 seq.
L
Lecce, Roberto da, 614.
Leo X., 435, 630.
Libraries of Renaissance, 21.
Locke, J., 26.
Lombards, 48 seq.
London, mediæval, 137.
Louis XII., 339.
Luini, works, 489.
Lungo, del, cited, 273.
Luther, 26, 442, 454, 530.
M
Macaulay on the despots, 127, 320.
Machiavelli, 232, 278, 308 seq.;
property, 309;
education, 310;
political career, 311;
cringing character, 317;
intercourse with Cesare Borgia, 347;
compared with Savonarola, 368;
last years, 328;
death, 333.
Works, 76, 169, 203, 249, 332, 369, 457, 494;
military system, 312;
Art of War, 328;
History, 331;
The Prince, 319;
object in writing it, 321;
appeal to the Medici, 366;
apology for the author, 367;
morality of the work, 324-6;
author's sincerity, 333;
not the inventor of Machiavellianism, 335;
it assumes Reparation of statecraft and morality, 335;
an abstract of political expediency, 336;
how permanently to assimilate provinces, 338;
colonies, 338;
founders of monarchies, 343;
distinction between monarch and despot, 341;
use of cruelty, 354;
value of distrust, 358;
military precautions, 360;
the work condemned
by the Inquisition, 336;
opinion of it in France, 326;
quoted, 45, 82, 84, 96, 98, 115, 116, 146, 152, 187, 202, 214,
215, 245, 325, 447, 450, 453, 460.
Madonna, conventional idea of, 18.
Malatesta, 172.
Malespini, chronicle, 251.
Mantegna, works, 489.
Mantuanus, B., quoted, 394.
Marlowe quoted, 336.
Marston, cited, 473, 475.
Massa, B. da, 611.
Masuccio quoted, 458, 486.
Matarazzo, works, 292; quoted, 583.
Medici, their policy, 87, 90, 128, 155, 228, 230;
expulsion, 222;
connection with papacy, 404;
services to literature, 600.
Alessandro, 298;
Cosimo, 300, 492;
Lorenzo, 504, 628;
death, 523;
Piero, 558.
Michelet quoted, 15, 585.
Middle Age: mental condition, 6, 13;
inaccessibility to mental ideas, 7;
political character, 8;
art, 17;
scholarship, 20.
Milan, 58; Visconti and Sforza, 154.
Milman quoted, 530.
Milton, 454.
Mirandola, 171, 456, 520;
quoted, 401, 511.
Monaldeschi, L. B., 252.
Montferrat, 146.
Montone, B. da, 123, 159.
Morals (see Italy, society; Papacy, court; Virtu;) in Cellini's memoirs,
325;
sexual immorality,474;
tyrannicide defended, 468.
Müntz, E., cited, 384.
Muzio quoted, 174.
N
Naples (see Italy), attraction for foreigners, 566;
claims of house
of Anjou, 539;
flight of king, 574.
Nardi, 278, 280, 290;
works, 291;
quoted, 292, 511, 534, 592.
Nerli, 278, 290; works, 293 seq.;
quoted, 328.
Nicholas V., 378.
Normans In Italy, 58.
O
Olgiati, 166.
Orsini, 375.
Otho 1., 52.
P
Pamponazzo, 456.
Pandolfini, 239;
works, 241.
Papacy (see Catholic Church), "the ghost of the Roman empire," 6;
church and state, 8;
Charles the Great, 51;
imperial nominees, 59;
change in mode of election, 60;
effect of crushing the Hohenstauffen, 101;
nepotism, 114;
authority in 14th century, 371, 375;
secularization, 371, 375;
temporal power, 376; its consolidation, 378;
its extent, 434;
persecution, 402;
of Platonists, 417;
its effect, 418;
plan to transform Papacy to kingdom, 392;
sale of pardons, 404, 439;
no horror felt at election of Alexander VI., 410;
Turks invited to Italy, 415, 551;
censure of press, 416:
alliance with France, 427, 566;
political crimes of Alexander VI., 428;
tide turns with Julius II., 433;
reforms of Adrian VI., 441;
moral advantage of sack of Rome, 445.
Court, 372;
its scandalous history, 390, 403, 411, 414, 420, 424, 439, 457;
extravagance, 390, 436, 437;
extortion, 437;
monopolies, 394;
nepotism, 419, 438;
simony, 394, 405, 414;
art patronage, 384, 401, 433, 436.
Paterini, 9.
Paul II., 383.
Pazzi conspiracy, 396.
Perrotti quoted, 179.
Perugia, 612.
Pescara, marquis of, 634.
Petrarch, 11, 20; quoted, 250.
Piccolomini (see Pius II.).
Pisa, 342, 560.
Pitti, 275, 280; works, 291,
Pius II., 380.
Poggio quoted, 187.
Poliziano, 171,
Poontano cited, 481.
Printers of Renaissance, 23,
Provence, civilization of, 9.
Puritanism, 25, 37.
R
Raffaella quoted, 483.
Raphael, works, 488.
Reformation, 433;
how affected by Renaissance, 27.
Rembrandt, works, 490.
Renaissance (see Middle Age), not synonymous with "revival of
learning," 1;
not completed, 2;
extent of signification, 2-3;
origin, 4;
idea not separable from "Reformation," "Revolution," 5;
effect on old beliefs, 14, 16;
all its tendencies worldly, 455;
restores double past, Christian and pagan, 506;
obstacles in the way, 5;
preparation, 9;
opposition of the Church, 10;
character of the men, 12;
discoveries, 15;
scholarship, 20;
assimilation of paganism, 25;
reaction against enlightenment, 25;
inventions, 29.
Reuchlin, 27.
Reumont, A. von, cited, 212, 524.
Ripamonti quoted, 163, 167.
Robbia, works, 489.
Romagna, 349.
Romano, Ezzelino da, 69, 75, 106, 119;
Giulio, works, 490.
Rome (see Italy, Papacy), effect of its ruins, 253;
appearance at time of French occupation, 564;
early mediæval history, 47;
opposition to Lombards, 49;
government semi-independent of pope, 376;
advantages derived from presence of papal court, 377;
improvements under Nicholas V., 378;
impunity of criminals, 405;
factions destroyed, 413;
rising of Colonnas, 443;
sack, 444, 636;
prostitutes, 474.
Romeo and Juliet, 74,
Rosellini, works, 489,
Rosenbaum cited, 567.
Royere, F. della (see Sixtus IV.);
Francesco Maria, 393;
Giuliano (see Julius II,);
Pietro, 390.
Rubens, works, 490.
S
Sadoleto, quoted, 446.
Savelli, 375.
Savonarola, 202, 221, 230, 277, 283, 290, 345, 368, 453, 454, 456, 491,
498 seq., 561, 622;
poems, 502;
settles in Florence, 504;
portraits, 508;
eloquence, 510;
creed, 513;
prophecies, 514;
political career, 526;
hatred of secular culture, 527;
dares not break with Rome, 531;
martyrdom, 533;
works, 536;
quoted, 128.
Savoy, 146.
Scala, della, family, 145, 258.
Scheffer-Bolchorst cited, 252, 269.
Segal, 278, 280, 289;
works 292, seq.
Sforza family, 131 seq.;
their magnificience, 164;
to be made kings of Lombardy, 392;
Francesco, 153, 159 seq., 345;
Galeazzo, 165;
Ludovico, 543 seq.
Shelley cited, 477.
Siena, 207, 616.
Sismondi quoted, 138, 144, 159, 226, 533.
Sixtus IV., 388 seq., 502.
Soderini, P., 289, 324.
Spaniards, cruelty of, 478.
Spinoza, 26.
Stendhal cited, 482.
Stephani, the, 23.
Strozzi, Ercole, 423; F., 285.
Swiss, 450.
Syphilis, history of, 567.
T
Tasso, 486.
Temporal Power (see Papacy).
Tenda, Beatrice di, 152.
Theodoric, 47.
Theology, effect of Renaissance upon, 16.
Tiraboschi, quoted, 173.
Titian, works, 19
Torre, della, 132.
Trinci, 122.
U
Urbino, dukes of, 174 seq., 393, 438.
V
Valois, Charles of, 76.
Varani, 121.
Varchi, 278, 290;
works, 279, 303 seq.;
quoted, 204, 244, 505.
Venice, 79, 88, 91;
an exception
among the republics, 195, 214;
constitution, 215;
the Ten, 218;
fascination exercised by government, 220;
military system, 220;
no initiative mining citizens, 233;
compared with Sparta, 234;
indifference to prosperity of Italy, 550.
Vespusiano quoted, 174, 477, 612.
Vettori, F., 624; works, 626.
Vicenza, John of, 607.
Villani, M., works, 251 seq., quoted, 128, 139.
Villari, quoted, 195, 500.
Vinci, da, 326, 548;
works, 489.
Virgil, 20.
Virtu, 171, 337, 345, 484, 493.
Visconti, family, 131 seq.;
their realm falls to pieces, 150;
Filippo, 152;
Gisa, 141;
Violante, 137.
W
Webster, J., quoted, 119, 557.
Witchcraft persecutions, 402.
Y
Yriarte, quoted, 210, 217.