The king was as good as his word; that same spring he conferred on the child not only the abbacy of Font Doulce in the diocese of Saintes, but also the archbishopric of Aix, which was supposed to be vacant. ‘On May 19, 1483,’ says Lorenzo in his memoirs,[485] ‘news came that the King of France, of his own free will, had conferred the abbacy of Font Doulce on our Giovanni; and on the 31st we heard from Rome that the Pope (Sixtus IV.) had confirmed the appointment, declared him capable of holding benefices at the age of seven, and appointed him a protonotary.[486] On June 1, Giovanni, accompanied by me, came from Poggio (a Cajano) to Florence, whereupon he was confirmed and tonsured by the Lord Bishop of Arezzo, and was thenceforth called Messer Giovanni. The aforesaid ceremonies took place in our private chapel, and in the evening we returned to Poggio. On the morning of June 8, Jacopino the courier came with a letter from the French king, whereof the contents were that he had conferred on our Messer Giovanni the archbishopric of Aix in Provence. In the evening he went on to Rome with letters from the king to the Pope and the Cardinal of Maçon (Philibert Hugonet), and at the same time a courier was sent to Forlì with a letter for Count Girolamo. On the 11th the courier came back from Forlì with letters from the count for the Pope and San Giorgio (Cardinal Riario), which were forwarded to Rome by the Milanese post. May God direct all for good. On the same day, after mass, all the children, except Messer Giovanni, were confirmed in the chapel. On the 15th, about the sixth hour of the evening, intelligence came from Rome that the Pope raised difficulties about the appointment to the archbishopric on account of Messer Giovanni’s youth; of which news the king was at once informed by the same messenger. On the 20th came from Lionetto (de’ Rossi) the announcement that the archbishop was still alive! On March 1, 1484 (1485), the Abbot of Passignano died, and an express was sent to Messer Giovan Antonio Vespucci, envoy at Rome, to beg the abbey from the Pope (Innocent VIII.) for our Messer Giovanni. On the 2nd, in pursuance of an ordinance of the Signoria, possession was taken of it, in virtue of the reservation made in Messer Giovanni’s favour by Pope Sixtus and confirmed by Pope Innocent when our Piero went to Rome to do him homage.’ These details show but too plainly how benefices were dealt with, and how at the mere rumour of a prelate’s death temporal sovereigns disposed of a high spiritual office in favour of a child. A few years after this, King Matthias Corvinus conferred on a boy of seven—his nephew Ippolito of Este—the primatial see of Hungary, the archbishopric of Gran. Like Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII. at first refused to confirm the appointment, but he ended by yielding.
The abbey of Passignano, belonging to the monks of Vallombrosa, was one of the richest in Tuscany. The young abbot continued to enjoy its possession till 1499, when he gave it up to the General of the Order for a pension of 2,000 scudi. The grand fortress-like building, which remained in the possession of the Order down to our own day, stands in the valley of the Pesa, sixteen miles south of Florence, on the left of the Roman military road; its church is adorned with paintings by Domenico Cresti, who was somewhat of the Caracci school, and was called by the name of his birthplace, Passignano. Everything in the shape of benefices of all kinds, commanderies, rectorships, and so forth, that came within reach of the Medici, fell to Lorenzo’s son; in 1486 he actually obtained, as a commandery, the abbey of Monte Cassino; King Ferrante having, in order to conciliate the Pope, given him free disposal of the famous convent of S. Benedict.[487] How anxious the king was to appease the Medicean hunger after benefices is shown by his letter of August 23, 1486, in answer to Lorenzo’s thanks.[488] ‘Thanks from you were needless, for God knows we are ready and willing to do anything in the world to prove to you our gratitude for what you have continually done for our good and that of our state, on which you may reckon as on your own property. Our obligations to you demand this; and we can never do enough in favour of you and your house to satisfy the thousandth part of our desire, as we hope you will perceive more clearly every day.’ Lodovico il Moro answered in the same strain when Lorenzo thanked him for giving his son the abbacy of Miramondo.[489]
All this, however, was but the prelude. There is something very repulsive in the impatience with which Lorenzo looked forward to his son’s cardinalate, and pressed the Pope to confer it. For the ambassadors of the Republic there seemed to be nothing more important than this. Lorenzo always took special good care that men who were in his own deepest confidence should be sent to the Popes. In the spring of 1487 Innocent wished that Pier Filippo Pandolfini, who had formerly been in Rome, should be appointed to the vacant post of ambassador; but he could not leave Florence, and the place was taken by Giovanni Lanfredini, whose capabilities had lately been tested at Naples. ‘I have used my influence with the Signoria,’ wrote Lorenzo to the Pope on May 6,[490] ‘to procure the appointment of a man with whom your Holiness will be perfectly satisfied. For besides that Giovanni Lanfredini (he who is destined for Rome) is an excellent honest man and conversant with business, he also possesses my heart (il core mio), as I am much attached to him on account of his merits.’ To Lanfredini himself Lorenzo wrote on June 16 of the following year:[491] ‘I have heard what his Holiness said to you about the creation of cardinals. I think the Pope should not put off the nomination any longer than is absolutely necessary. According to my view his Holiness will be quite another Pope after it. For whereas hitherto he has been a head without members, he must get some; whereas he has been the creature of others, now others must be the creatures of him. Therefore persuade him, yea, urge him, to take the needful decision; the sooner the better. Periculum est in mora; as much as he gains by acting he loses by hesitating. Use all your influence to procure this blessed promotion as soon as possible. As the matter is before the Sacred College, it cannot be delayed without great damage to the holy father’s dignity and power. As to the persons to be nominated, I approve of all the names which are marked; they are those of which you have spoken to me. If he can do us that pleasure, let him do it. If the promotion were to be put off on our account, tell him he may act according to his judgment. If he thinks it well to begin with a single one to show that it is in his power, he can nominate more by degrees till everybody is satisfied.’
Months passed away; the Pope’s indecision was unconquerable, and Lorenzo’s impatience increased. ‘As I understand from our ambassador,’ he wrote to Innocent on October 1, 1488,[492] ‘that your Holiness intends shortly to create some cardinals, I should think myself deserving of grave censure did I not put you in mind of the honour of this city and my own, though I am sure that your Holiness in your goodness remembers both. I do not believe that in the whole course of your pontificate you could do anything that would deserve more gratitude from the city; and as the dignity of a cardinal is lofty and much sought after, this city would feel it deeply should her hopes not be fulfilled.’ It concerned the honour of Florence that a son of Lorenzo—a mere boy—should be received into the senate of the Church! Meantime, while Lorenzo thus unceasingly urged his claim, he was taking equal trouble to prevent the same dignity from being conferred on some fellow-countryman for whom he had no predilection. ‘The Pope,’ he wrote to the ambassador,[493] ‘does not know our people’s ways (i polli nostri) as we do. Not only the cardinalate, but any increase of position and dignity, would be dangerous if it came otherwise than in the right way.’ Who can tell whether the chief cause of this long delay in the only promotion undertaken by this Pope was not really a scruple, struggling with political considerations? Innocent himself had decided that no one under thirty should be admitted to the cardinalate, and Giovanni de’ Medici was not yet fourteen. Lorenzo never ceased writing,[494] Lanfredini never ceased talking. Cardinals Sforza, Borgia, La Balue, and Zeno, were pressed into the service. ‘The services daily rendered us by Monsignor Ascanio,’ says Lorenzo in a letter to the ambassador, February 21, 1489, ‘deserve better thanks than words. My obligations to him could not be greater if I were recalled from death to life.’ The story current in Florence—perhaps exaggerated—of the sums spent on the occasion furnishes a commentary on these words.
At last, on March 9, 1489, the promotion took place.[495] It resulted in five cardinals, among whom were the Pope’s relative Lorenzo de’ Mari, who took the name of Cybò, and the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, the heroic defender of Rhodes, Pierre d’Aubusson. But besides these five, at the same consistory, Innocent conferred the same dignity on three others, without publishing their names—what is now called a reservation in petto. One of these was Maffeo Gherardi, a Camaldulensian, patriarch of Venice; the second was Federigo Sanseverino, son of Roberto; the third was Giovanni de’ Medici.
It was quite clear that the Pope was ashamed of himself. In the worst days of the Church no child had yet been made a cardinal. The nomination was to be kept secret for three years; whosoever divulged it was to be excommunicated. It was very soon seen how this was observed. On the day of the promotion, cardinals Sforza and La Balue, the Bishop of Cortona, prefect of the Apostolic Chamber, and the ambassador, announced to Lorenzo that his son had been made cardinal-deacon of Sta. Maria in Domenica.[496] ‘God be thanked,’ wrote Lorenzo to the last-mentioned,[497] ‘for the good news received yesterday about Messer Giovanni; news which gave me all the greater pleasure, because I expected it the less on account of the importance of the matter and its difficulty bordering on impossibility, besides which it far exceeds my deserts.... I know not whether the Pope is displeased at the rejoicings which have taken place here on all sides, and in such a degree as I never saw before; there would have been a yet more brilliant expression of general joy, had I not interfered. To prevent the demonstration was out of my power. As Messer Giovanni’s promotion is secret, these festivities certainly seem out of place. But you at Rome have let the thing become so well known that it could not be otherwise here; and it would have been impossible for me to keep aloof from the congratulations of whole cities, small and great. If it is wrong, it cannot be helped. Now I want to know how we are to behave ourselves in future, and how Messer Giovanni’s mode of life, dress, and servants are to be arranged; for I would not reward so great a benefit by not making a proper display according to the manner most likely to please the Pope. Messer Giovanni keeps at home; the house is full of people. (The foreign ambassadors had immediately come to offer their congratulations.) I wait to hear from you whether I shall, as I proposed to you, send Piero to Rome. Perhaps it would be more befitting the importance of the favour that I should go there myself.’ Poliziano had written a letter to the Pope, taking occasion of the nomination to praise Innocent and describe the lad as worthy of his new distinction. He wanted to have it read out in the Consistory; but Lorenzo had too much tact to join in such an absurdity, and sent the letter to the ambassador, not concealing his own adverse opinion, and leaving it to Lanfredini to do with it what he thought fit.[498]
On the same day, March 4, Lorenzo addressed to the Pope the following letter of thanks.[499] ‘I have received with the utmost reverence your Holiness’s brief of the 9th instant, concerning the promotion of Messer Giovanni. As this news had already reached me through our ambassador, I at once wrote to your Holiness, more to put into words my inability to thank you fittingly, than to give expression to my gratitude. That God alone can do, not I. This only can I say in reference to this undying benefit, that through what your Holiness has done for my son you have at the same time elevated me; and this increase of authority, as well as whatever more may accrue to me, I place at the disposal of your Holiness, to whom it belongs rather than to me.’ Then comes an apology for the publication of the news, which had originated not with Lorenzo but in Rome. The Italian princes by no means undervalued this new proof of Lorenzo’s influence over the Pope. The Duke of Calabria said to Vettori, the ambassador,[500] that one could see how great was Lorenzo’s power, and that the Florentine ambassador ruled Innocent. He wished he could be together with Lorenzo and Sforza to talk over the strife with Rome. He believed it would not be difficult for him to make the alliance of the three states such as should be apparent in their whole conduct. One could see how much the Pope did for Lorenzo, and how he had made his son a cardinal at an unheard-of age; so that one might conclude that everything could be arranged if he chose to do all he could.
The man who had contributed most to overcome the Pope’s scruples, Giovanni Lanfredini, only survived his success a few months. In November 1488, he had lost at Rome his eldest son, Orsino, a youth of sixteen.[501] ‘It is with much regret,’ wrote Lorenzo,[502] ‘that I have heard of your son’s death; the news was the more painful to me as I had not known of his illness. If I did not know your strength of mind, and how accustomed you are to both good and evil, I should use more words of consolation than I do, and represent to you my own heavy losses, which are but too well known to you. Resign yourself to the decree of God; the more so as your son is far rather to be envied than pitied. You and yours will never want for friends who regard your concerns as their own. As for me, on account of the sympathy I feel for you and for the sake of your old and tried attachment, I shall always conduct myself towards you as your sentiments and actions, and my duty and gratitude, require. Be comforted, Giovanni; take courage, trust in God, and reckon on your friends.’ Another letter[503] is expressed in equally cordial terms. But the loss of the son broke the father’s heart. ‘Giovanni Lanfredini,’ wrote the Ferrarese ambassador on March 16, 1489,[504] ‘is at Rome confined to his bed; and as business presses, the Signoria has ordered Pier Filippo Pandolfini, who is now at Pitigliano, to proceed thither immediately. Lanfredini has asked for leave of absence. He seems to have had quite enough of his post, and I think he feels he can now give it up with honour, after helping the son of the illustrious Lorenzo to attain the dignity of cardinal.’ As soon as the promotion took place, Lorenzo had expressed his strong sense of what he owed to Lanfredini.[505] ‘I recognise the duty of always remembering him who has directed the whole affair, and of putting those who shall come after me in mind of it. For no greater event has ever befallen our house, and I owe more than three quarters of it to your zeal and attachment.’ Lanfredini’s condition improved so that he could resume his duties; but this did not last. He died on January 5, 1490, in the house of the Acciaiuoli in the Leonine city.[506]
The Bishop of Rimini wrote to Lorenzo:[507] ‘The man is dead who kept this court at your service. Henceforth things may take another turn; and they have already gone so far that it has been said you will no longer have everything your own way.’ It seems, indeed, that the weak-minded Pope had allowed some suspicious remarks to escape him, to the effect that he could not safely trust to Florence, where individual interests were in the ascendant. These expressions induced Lorenzo to send Bernardo Dovizi to Rome to consult with Pandolfini. The instructions drawn up by Lorenzo[508] show his irritation at the changeableness of the Pope. ‘Such as neither know me personally nor have seen me put faith in my word; and now I am met with want of confidence after all my trouble and exertions, and the experience there has been of my sentiments.’ The ill-feeling, however, seems to have soon passed away.
One of the last affairs in which Lanfredini had to act was the canonisation of the Archbishop Antonine, in which the Emperor Frederic III. was also interested. Lorenzo proposed that the Bishop of Arezzo and Volterra should undertake the cause. Lanfredini’s successor Pandolfini continued the negotiations; but it was not till 1523 that the reverence of the Florentine people for this worthy and pious man received the sanction of the Church from Pope Hadrian VI.