prosperity, and knowing Florence well, he remained firm to the
traditional policy of his house, that of dominating the
Republic, while apparently respecting it. He was well
determined to render his power solid and durable; but to that
end he had recourse to a most ingenious reform, by means of
which, without abandoning the old road, he thoroughly
succeeded in his object. In place of the usual five-yearly
Balia, he instituted, in 1480, the Council of Seventy, which
renewed itself and was like a permanent Balia with still wider
power. This, composed of men entirely devoted to his cause,
secured the government to him forever. By this Council, say
the chroniclers of the time, liberty was wholly buried and
undone, but certainly the most important affairs of the State
were carried on in it by intelligent and cultivated men, who
largely promoted its material prosperity. Florence still
called itself a republic, nominally the old institutions were
still in existence, but all this seemed and was nothing but an
empty mockery. Lorenzo, absolute lord of all, might certainly be
called a tyrant, surrounded by lackeys and courtiers. ... Yet
he dazzled all men by the splendour of his rule, so that
[Guicciardini] observes, that though Lorenzo was a tyrant, 'it
would be impossible to imagine a better and more pleasing
tyrant.' Industry, commerce, public works had all received a
mighty impulse. In no city in the world had the civil equality
of modern States reached the degree to which it had attained
not merely in Florence itself, but in its whole territory and
throughout all Tuscany. Administration and secular justice
proceeded regularly enough in ordinary cases, crime was
diminished, and, above all, literary culture had become a
substantial element of the new State. Learned men were
employed in public offices, and from Florence spread a light
that illuminated the world. ... But Lorenzo's policy could
found nothing that was permanent. Unrivalled as a model of
sagacity and prudence, it promoted in Florence the development
of all the new elements of which modern society was to be the
outcome, without succeeding in fusing them together; for his
was a policy of equivocation and deceit, directed by a man of
much genius, who had no higher aim than his own interest and
that of his family, to which he never hesitated to sacrifice
the interests of his people."
P. Villari,
Machiavelli and his Times,
chapter 2, section 2 (volume 1).
"The state of Florence at this period was very remarkable. The
most independent and tumultuous of towns was spellbound under
the sway of Lorenzo de' Medici, the grandson of Cosimo who
built San Marco; and scarcely seemed even to recollect its
freedom, so absorbed was it in the present advantages
conferred by 'a strong government,' and solaced by shows,
entertainments, festivals, pomp, and display of all kinds. It
was the very height of that classic revival so famous in the
later history of the world, and the higher classes of society,
having shaken themselves apart with graceful contempt from the
lower, had begun to frame their lives according to a pagan
model, leaving the other and much bigger half of the world to
pursue its superstitions undisturbed. Florence was as near a
pagan city as it was possible for its rulers to make it. Its
intellectual existence was entirely given up to the past; its
days were spent in that worship of antiquity which has no
power of discrimination, and deifies not only the wisdom but
the trivialities of its golden epoch. Lorenzo reigned in the
midst of a lettered crowd of classic parasites and flatterers,
writing poems which his courtiers found better than
Alighieri's, and surrounding himself with those eloquent
slaves who make a prince's name more famous than arms or
victories, and who have still left a prejudice in the minds of
all literature-loving people in favour of their patron. A man
of superb health and physical power, who can give himself up
to debauch all night without interfering with his power of
working all day, and whose mind is so versatile that he can
sack a town one morning and discourse upon the beauties of
Plato the next, and weave joyous ballads through both
occupations--gives his flatterers reason when they applaud
him. The few righteous men in the city, the citizens who still
thought of Florence above all, kept apart, overwhelmed by the
tide which ran in favour of that leading citizen of Florence,
who had gained the control of the once high-spirited and
freedom-loving people. Society had never been more dissolute,
more selfish, or more utterly deprived of any higher aim.
Barren scholarship, busy over grammatical questions, and
elegant philosophy, snipping and piecing its logical systems,
formed the top dressing to that half-brutal,
half-superstitious ignorance which in such communities is the
general portion of the poor. The dilettante world dreamed
hazily of a restoration of the worship of the pagan gods;
Cardinal Bembo bade his friend beware of reading St. Paul's
epistles, lest their barbarous style should corrupt his taste;
and even such a man as Pico della Mirandola declared the
'Divina Commedia' to be inferior to the 'Canti
Carnascialeschi' of Lorenzo de' Medici. ... Thus limited
intellectually, the age of Lorenzo was still more hopeless
morally, full of debauchery, cruelty, and corruption,
violating oaths, betraying trusts, believing in nothing but
Greek manuscripts, coins, and statues, caring for nothing but
pleasure. This was the world in which Savonarola found
himself."
Mrs. Oliphant,
The Makers of Florence,
chapter 9.
"Terrible municipal enmities had produced so much evil as to
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.
"In 1502, it was decreed that the Gonfalonier should hold
office for life--should be in fact a Doge. To this important
post of permanent president Piero Soderini was appointed; and
in his hands were placed the chief affairs of the republic.
... During the ten years which elapsed between 1502 and 1512,
Piero Soderini administered Florence with an outward show of
great prosperity. He regained Pisa, and maintained an
honourable foreign policy in the midst of the wars stirred up
by the League of Cambray. Meanwhile the young princes of the
house of Medici had grown to manhood in exile. The Cardinal
Giovanni was 37 in 1512. His brother Giuliano was 33. Both of
these men were better fitted than their brother Piero to fight
the battles of the family. Giovanni, in particular, had
inherited no small portion of the Medicean craft. During the
troubled reign of Julius II. he kept very quiet, cementing his
connection with powerful men in Rome, but making no effort to
regain his hold on Florence. Now the moment for striking a
decisive blow had come. After the battle of Ravenna in 1512,
the French were driven out of Italy, and the Sforzas returned
to Milan [see ITALY: A. D. 1510-1513]; the Spanish troops,
under the Viceroy Cardona, remained masters of the country.
Following the camp of these Spaniards, Giovanni de' Medici
entered Tuscany in August, and caused the restoration of the
Medici to be announced in Florence. The people, assembled by
Soderini, resolved to resist to the uttermost. ... Yet their
courage failed on August 29th, when news reached them of the
capture and the sack of Prato. Prato is a sunny little city a
few miles distant from the walls of Florence, famous for the
beauty of its women, the richness of its gardens, and the
grace of its buildings. Into this gem of cities the savage
soldiery of Spain marched in the bright autumnal weather, and
turned the paradise into a hell. It is even now impossible to
read of what they did in Prato without shuddering. Cruelty and
lust, sordid greed for gold, and cold delight in bloodshed,
could go no further. Giovanni de' Medici, by nature mild and
voluptuous, averse to violence of all kinds, had to smile
approval, while the Spanish Viceroy knocked thus with mailed
hand for him at the door of Florence. The Florentines were
paralysed with terror. They deposed Soderini and received the
Medici. Giovanni and Giuliano entered their devastated palace
in the Via Larga, abolished the Grand Council, and dealt with
the republic as they listed. ... It is not likely that they
would have succeeded in maintaining their authority--for they
were poor and ill-supported by friends outside the
city--except for one most lucky circumstance: that was the
election of Giovanni de' Medici to the Papacy in 1513. The
creation of Leo X. spread satisfaction throughout Italy. ...
Florence shared in the general rejoicing. ... It seemed as
though the Republic, swayed by him, might make herself the
first city in Italy, and restore the glories of her Guelf
ascendency upon the platform of Renaissance statecraft. There
was now no overt opposition to the Medici in Florence. How to
govern the city from Rome, and how to advance the fortunes of
his brother Giuliano and his nephew Lorenzo (Piero's son, a
young man of 21), occupied the Pope's most serious attention.
For Lorenzo, Leo obtained the Duchy of Urbino and the hand of
a French princess. Giuliano was named Gonfalonier of the
Church. He also received the French title of Duke of Nemours
and the hand of Filiberta, Princess of Savoy. ...
{1147}
Giulio, the Pope's bastard cousin, was made cardinal. ... To
Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, the titular head of the family, was
committed the government of Florence. ... Florence now for the
first time saw a regular court established in her midst, with
a prince, who, though he bore a foreign title, was in fact her
master. The joyous days of Lorenzo the Magnificent returned.
... But this prosperity was no less brief than it was
brilliant. A few years sufficed to sweep off all the chiefs of
the great house. Giuliano died in 1516, leaving only a bastard
son, Ippolito. Lorenzo died in 1519, leaving a bastard son,
Alessandro, and a daughter, six days old, who lived to be the
Queen of France. Leo died in 1521. There remained now no
legitimate male descendants from the stock of Cosimo. The
honours and pretensions of the Medici devolved upon three
bastards,--on the Cardinal Giulio, and the two boys,
Alessandro and Ippolito. Of these, Alessandro was a mulatto,
his mother having been a Moorish slave in the Palace of
Urbino; and whether his father was Giulio, or Giuliano, or a
base groom, was not known for certain. To such extremities
were the Medici reduced. ... Giulio de' Medici was left in
1521 to administer the State of Florence single-handed. He was
archbishop, and he resided in the city, holding it with the
grasp of an absolute ruler. ... In 1523, the Pope, Adrian VI.,
expired after a short papacy, from which he gained no honour
and Italy no profit. Giulio hurried to Rome, and, by the
clever use of his large influence, caused himself to be
elected with the title of Clement VII." Then followed the
strife of France and Spain--of Francis I. and Charles V.--for
the possession of Italy, and the barbarous sack of Rome in
1527.
See ITALY: A. D. 1523-1527, 1527, and 1527-1529.
"When the Florentines knew what was happening in Rome, they
rose and forced the Cardinal Passerini [whom the Pope had
appointed to act as his vicegerent in the government of
Florence] to depart with the Medicean bastards from the city.
... The whole male population was enrolled in a militia. The
Grand Council was reformed, and the republic was restored upon
the basis of 1495. Niccolo Capponi was elected Gonfalonier.
The name of Christ was again registered as chief of the
commonwealth--to such an extent did the memory of Savonarola
still sway the popular imagination. The new State hastened to
form an alliance with France, and Malatesta Baglioni was
chosen as military Commander-in-Chief. Meanwhile the city
armed itself for siege--Michel Angelo Buonarroti and
Francesco da San Gallo undertaking the construction of new
forts and ramparts. These measures were adopted with sudden
decision, because it was soon known that Clement had made
peace with the Emperor, and that the army which had sacked
Rome was going to be marched on Florence. ... On September 4
[1529], the Prince of Orange appeared before the walls, and
opened the memorable siege. It lasted eight months, at the end
of which time, betrayed by their generals, divided among
themselves, and worn out with delays, the Florentines
capitulated. ... The long yoke of the Medici had undermined
the character of the Florentines. This, their last glorious
struggle for liberty, was but a flash in the pan--a final
flare up of the dying lamp. ... What remains of Florentine
history may be briefly told. Clement, now the undisputed
arbiter of power and honour in the city, chose Alessandro de'
Medici to be prince. Alessandro was created Duke of Cività di
Penna, and married to a natural daughter of Charles V.
Ippolito was made a cardinal." Ippolito was subsequently
poisoned by Alessandro, and Alessandro was murdered by another
kinsman, who suffered assassination in his turn. "When
Alessandro was killed in 1539, Clement had himself been dead
five years. Thus the whole posterity of Cosimo de' Medici,
with the exception of Catherine, Queen of France [daughter of
Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, the son of Piero de' Medici], was
utterly extinguished. But the Medici had struck root so firmly
in the State, and had so remodelled it upon the type of
tyranny, that the Florentines were no longer able to do
without them. The chiefs of the Ottimati selected Cosimo," a
descendant from Lorenzo, brother of the Cosimo who founded the
power of the House. "He it was who obtained [1569] the title
of Grand Duke of Tuscany from the Pope--a title confirmed by
the Emperor, fortified by Austrian alliances, and transmitted
through his heirs to the present century."
J. A. Symonds,
Sketches and studies in Italy,
chapter 5 (Florence and the Medici).
ALSO IN:
H. Grimm,
Life of Michael Angelo,
chapters 8-15 (volumes 1-2).
T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
book 9, chapter 10, book 10 (volume 4).
H. E. Napier,
Florentine History,
volumes 4-5.
W. Roscoe,
Life and Pontificate of Leo X,
chapters 9-23 (volumes 1-2).
P. Villari,
Machiavelli and his Times,
volumes 3-4.
FLORENCE: A. D. 1803.
Becomes the capital of the kingdom of Etruria.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.
FLORENCE: A. D. 1865.
Made temporarily the capital of the kingdom of Italy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1862-1866.
----------FLORENCE: End----------
FLORIANUS, Roman Emperor, A. D. 276.
FLORIDA: The aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: APALACHES;
MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY; SEMINOLES; TIMUQUANAN FAMILY.
FLORIDA: A. D. 1512.
Discovery and Naming by Ponce de Leon.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1512.
FLORIDA: A. D. 1528-1542.
The expeditions of Narvaez and Hernando de Soto.
Wide Spanish application of the name Florida.
"The voyages of Garay [1519-1523] and Vasquez de Ayllon
[1520-1526] threw new light on the discoveries of Ponce, and
the general outline of the coasts of Florida became known to
the Spaniards. Meanwhile, Cortes had conquered Mexico, and the
fame of that iniquitous but magnificent exploit rang through
all Spain. Many an impatient cavalier burned to achieve a
kindred fortune. To the excited fancy of the Spaniards the
unknown land of Florida seemed the seat of surpassing wealth,
and Pamphilo de Narvaez essayed to possess himself of its
fancied treasures. Landing on its shores [1528], and
proclaiming destruction to the Indians unless they
acknowledged the sovereignty of the Pope and the Emperor, he
advanced into the forests with 300 men. Nothing could exceed
their sufferings. Nowhere could they find the gold they came
to seek. The village of Appalache, where they hoped to gain a
rich booty, offered nothing but a few mean wigwams. The horses
gave out and the famished soldiers fed upon their flesh.
{1148}
The men sickened, and the Indians unceasingly harassed their
march. At length, after 280 leagues of wandering, they found
themselves on the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and
desperately put to sea in such crazy boats as their skill and
means could construct. Cold, disease, famine, thirst, and the
fury of the waves, melted them away. Narvaez himself perished,
and of his wretched followers no more than four escaped,
reaching by land, after years of vicissitude, the Christian
settlements of New Spain. ... Cabeça de Vaca was one of the
four who escaped, and, after living for years among the tribes
of Mississippi, crossed the River Mississippi near Memphis,
journeyed westward by the waters of the Arkansas and Red River
to New Mexico and Chihuahua, thence to Cinaloa on the Gulf of
California, and thence to Mexico. The narrative is one of the
most remarkable of the early relations. ... The interior of
the vast country then comprehended under the name of Florida
still remained unexplored. ... Hernando de Soto ... companion
of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru ... asked and obtained
permission [1537] to conquer Florida. While this design was in
agitation, Cabeça de Vaca, one of those who had survived the
expedition of Narvaez, appeared in Spain, and for purposes of
his own spread abroad the mischievous falsehood that Florida
was the richest country yet discovered. De Soto's plans were
embraced with enthusiasm. Nobles and gentlemen contended for
the privilege of joining his standard; and, setting sail with
an ample armament, he landed [May, 1539] at the Bay of
Espiritu Santo, now Tampa Bay, in Florida, with 620 chosen
men, a band as gallant and well appointed, as eager in purpose
and audacious in hope, as ever trod the shores of the New
World. ... The adventurers began their march. Their story has
been often told. For month after month and year after year,
the procession of priests and cavaliers, cross-bowmen,
arquebusiers, and Indian captives laden with the baggage,
still wandered on through wild and boundless wastes, lured
hither and thither by the ignis-fatuus of their hopes. They
traversed great portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi,
everywhere inflicting and enduring misery, but never
approaching their phantom El Dorado. At length, in the third
year of their journeying, they reached the banks of the
Mississippi, 132 years before its second [or third?] discovery
by Marquette. ... The Spaniards crossed over at a point above
the mouth of the Arkansas. They advanced westward, but found
no treasures,--nothing indeed but hardships, and an Indian
enemy, furious, writes one of their officers, 'as mad dogs.'
They heard of a country towards the north where maize could
not be cultivated because the vast herds of wild cattle
devoured it. They penetrated so far that they entered the
range of the roving prairie-tribes. ... Finding neither gold
nor the South Sea, for both of which they had hoped, they
returned to the banks of the Mississippi. De Soto ... fell
into deep dejection, followed by an attack of fever, and soon
after died miserably [May 21, 1542]. To preserve his body from
the Indians his followers sunk it at midnight in the river,
and the sullen waters of the Mississippi buried his ambition
and his hopes. The adventurers were now, with few exceptions,
disgusted with the enterprise, and longed only to escape from
the scene of their miseries. After a vain attempt to reach
Mexico by land, they again turned back to the Mississippi, and
labored, with all the resources which their desperate
necessity could suggest, to construct vessels in which they
might make their way to some Christian settlement. ... Seven
brigantines were finished and launched; and, trusting their
lives on board these frail vessels, they descended the
Mississippi, running the gauntlet between hostile tribes who
fiercely attacked them. Reaching the Gulf, though not without
the loss of eleven of their number, they made sail for the
Spanish settlement on the River Panuco, where they arrived
safely, and where the inhabitants met them with a cordial
welcome. Three hundred and eleven men thus escaped with life,
leaving behind them the bones of their comrades, strewn
broadcast through the wilderness. De Soto's fate proved an
insufficient warning, for those were still found who begged a
fresh commission for the conquest of Florida; but the Emperor
would not hear them. A more pacific enterprise was undertaken
by Cancello [or Cancer], a Dominican monk, who with several
brother-ecclesiastics undertook to convert the natives to the
true faith, but was murdered in the attempt. ... Not a
Spaniard had yet gained foothold in Florida. That name, as the
Spaniards of that day understood it, comprehended the whole
country extending from the Atlantic on the east to the
longitude of New Mexico on the west, and from the Gulf of
Mexico and the River of Palms indefinitely northward towards
the polar Sea. This vast territory was claimed by Spain in
right of the discoveries of Columbus, the grant of the Pope,
and the various expeditions mentioned above. England claimed
it in light of the discoveries of Cabot, while France could
advance no better title than might be derived from the voyage
of Verrazano and vague traditions of earlier visits of Breton
adventurers."
F. Parkman,
Pioneers of France in the New World,
chapter 1.
ALSO IN:
T. Irving,
Conquest of Florida by De Soto.
Discovery and Conquest of Terra Florida;
written by a Gentleman of Elvas (Hakluyt Society).
J. W. Monette,
Discovery and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley,
chapters 1-4.
J. G. Shea,
Ancient Florida (Narrative and Critical
History of America,
volume 2, chapter 4).
FLORIDA: A. D. 1562-1563.
First colonizing attempt of the French Huguenots.
About the middle of the 16th century, certain of the
Protestants of France began to turn their thoughts to the New
World as a possible place of refuge from the persecutions they
were suffering at home. "Some of the French sea-ports became
strong-holds of the Huguenots. Their most prominent supporter,
Coligny, was high admiral of France. These Huguenots looked
toward the new countries as the proper field in which to
secure a retreat from persecution, and to found a new
religious commonwealth. Probably many of the French
'corsarios' following the track of the Portuguese and
Spaniards to the West Indies and the coasts of Brazil, were
Huguenots. ... The first scheme for a Protestant colony in the
new world was suggested by Admiral Coligny in 1554, and intended
for the coast of Brazil, to which an expedition, under Durand
de Villegagnon, was sent with ships and colonists. This
expedition arrived at the Bay of Rio de Janeiro in 1555,
and founded there the first European settlement.
{1149}
It was followed the next year by another expedition. But the
whole enterprise came to an end by divisions among the
colonists, occasioned by the treacherous, despotic, and cruel
proceedings of its commander, a reputed Catholic. The colony
was finally subverted by the Portuguese, who, in 1560, sent
out an armament against it, and took possession of the Bay of
Rio de Janeiro. ... After the unfortunate end of the French
enterprise to South America, Admiral Coligny, who may be
styled the Raleigh of France, turned his attention to the
eastern shores of North America; the whole of which had become
known in France from the voyage of Verrazano, and the French
expeditions to Canada and the Banks of Newfoundland." In
February, 1562, an expedition, fitted out by Coligny, sailed
from Havre de Grace, under Jean Ribault, with Réné de
Laudonnière forming one of the company. Ribault arrived on the
Florida coast in the neighborhood of the present harbor of St.
Augustine, and thence sailed north. "At last, in about 32° 30'
North he found an excellent broad and deep harbor, which he
named Port Royal, which probably is the present Broad River,
or Port Royal entrance. ... He found this port and the
surrounding country so advantageous and of such 'singular
beauty,' that he resolved to leave here a part of his men in a
small fort. ... A pillar with the arms of France was therefore
erected, and a fort constructed, furnished with cannon,
ammunition, and provisions, and named 'Charlesfort.' Thirty
volunteers were placed in it, and it became the second
European settlement ever attempted upon the east coast of the
United States. Its position was probably not far from the site
of the present town of Beaufort, on Port Royal River. Having
accomplished this, and made a certain captain, Albert de la
Pieria, 'a soldier of great experience,' commander of
Charlesfort, he took leave of his countrymen, and left Port
Royal on the 11th day of June," arriving in France on the 20th
of July. "On his arrival in France, Ribault found the country
in a state of great commotion. The civil war between the
Huguenots and the Catholics was raging, and neither the king
nor the admiral had time to listen to Ribault's solicitations,
to send relief to the settlers left in 'French Florida.' Those
colonists remained, therefore, during the remainder of 1562,
and the following winter, without assistance from France; and
after many trials and sufferings, they were at last forced, in
1563, to abandon their settlement and the new country." Having
constructed a ship, with great difficulty, they put to sea;
but suffered horribly on the tedious voyage, from want of food
and water, until they were rescued by an English vessel and
taken to England.
J. G. Kohl,
History of the Discovery of Maine
(Maine Historical Society Collection,
2d series, volume 1), chapter 11.
ALSO IN:
F. Parkman,
Pioneers of France in the New World,
chapter 3.
Father Charlevoix,
History of New France;
translated by J. G. Shea,
book 3 (volume 1).
T. E. V. Smith,
Villegaignon
(American Society of Church History, volume 3).
FLORIDA: A. D. 1564-1565.
The second Huguenot colony, and the cry in Spain against it.
"After the treacherous peace between Charles IX. and the
Huguenots, Coligny renewed his solicitations for the
colonization of Florida. The king gave consent; in 1564 three
ships were conceded for the service; and Laudonnière, who, in
the former voyage, had been upon the American coast, a man of
great intelligence, though a seaman rather than a soldier, was
appointed to lead forth the colony. ... A voyage of 60 days
brought the fleet, by the way of the Canaries and the
Antilles, to the shores of Florida in June. The harbor of Port
Royal, rendered gloomy by recollections of misery, was
avoided; and, after searching the coast, and discovering
places which were so full of amenity that melancholy itself
could not but change its humor as it gazed, the followers of
Calvin planted themselves on the banks of the river May [now
called the St. John's], near St. John's bluff. They sung a
psalm of thanksgiving, and gathered courage from acts of
devotion. The fort now erected was called Carolina. ... The
French were hospitably welcomed by the natives; a monument,
bearing the arms of France, was crowned with laurels, and its
base encircled with baskets of corn. What need is there of
minutely relating the simple manners of the red men, the
dissensions of rival tribes, the largesses offered to the
strangers to secure their protection or their alliance, the
improvident prodigality with which careless soldiers wasted
the supplies of food; the certain approach of scarcity; the
gifts and the tribute levied from the Indians by entreaty,
menace or force? By degrees the confidence of the red men was
exhausted; they had welcomed powerful guests, who promised to
become their benefactors, and who now robbed their humble
granaries. But the worst evil in the new settlement was the
character of the emigrants. Though patriotism and religious
enthusiasm had prompted the expedition, the inferior class of
the colonists was a motley group of dissolute men. Mutinies
were frequent. The men were mad with the passion for sudden
wealth; and in December a party, under the pretence of
desiring to escape from famine, compelled Laudonnière to sign
an order permitting their embarkation for New Spain. No sooner
were they possessed of this apparent sanction of the chief
than they began a career of piracy against the Spaniards. The
act of crime and temerity was soon avenged. The pirate vessel
was taken, and most of the men disposed of as prisoners or
slaves. The few that escaped in a boat sought shelter at Fort
Carolina, where Laudonnière sentenced the ringleaders to
death. During these events the scarcity became extreme; and
the friendship of the natives was forfeited by unprofitable
severity. March of 1565 was gone, and there were no supplies
from France; April passed away, and the expected recruits had
not arrived; May brought nothing to sustain the hopes of the
exiles, and they resolved to attempt a return to Europe. In
August, Sir John Hawkins, the slave merchant, arrived from the
West Indies. He came fresh from the sale of a cargo of
Africans, whom he had kidnapped with signal ruthlessness; and
he now displayed the most generous sympathy, not only
furnishing a liberal supply of provisions, but relinquishing a
vessel from his own fleet. The colony was on the point of
embarking when sails were descried. Ribault had arrived to
assume the command, bringing with him supplies of every kind,
emigrants with their families, garden-seeds, implements of
husbandry, and the various kinds of domestic animals. The
French, now wild with joy, seemed about to acquire a home, and
Calvinism to become fixed in the inviting regions of Florida.
{1150}
But Spain had never abandoned her claim to that territory,
where, if she had not planted colonies, she had buried many
hundreds of her bravest sons. ... There had appeared at the
Spanish court a commander well fitted for reckless acts. Pedro
Melendez [or Menendez] de Aviles ... had acquired wealth in
Spanish America, which was no school of benevolence, and his
conduct there had provoked an inquiry, which, after a long
arrest, ended in his conviction. ... Philip II. suggested the