The counsels at Montughi were divergent and acrimonious. At length a resolution was agreed to, as offering a suitable and secure locality for the perpetration of the deed in contemplation, namely, to invite Lorenzo to Rome in the name of Sixtus. Such a step would be regarded as a proof that the Pope no longer opposed Lorenzo’s government, but that a modus vivendi had been reached, agreeable to all parties. Giuliano was to be included in the invitation as well. Of course the hope was entertained that a favourable opportunity would be afforded, during the Papal hospitalities, for the murder of the two brothers.
The Archbishop took the lead in all these deliberations—he and Giacopo de’ Pazzi were boon companions. “They made no profession of any virtue,” wrote Ser Varillas, in his Secret History of the Medici, “either moral or Christian; they played perpetually at dice, swore confoundedly, and showed no respect for religion.”
Confident in the general support of all the members of his family, in any demonstration against the hated Medici, he took into his personal confidence his brother, Giacopo de’ Salviati—“an obscure, sordid man”—and his nephew, Giacopo—“a wastrel and a fanatical anti-Medicean.”
Among the trustworthy Florentine confederates the Archbishop enrolled Giacopo, son of the famous scholar, Poggio Gucchio de’ Bracciolini, originally a protégé of Lorenzo, but “dismissed his service for insolence and rapacity”; Giovanni Perugino, of San Gimignano, a physician attached to Cavaliere Giacopo’s household; Giovanni Domenico, a bridle-maker and athlete, but “an idle sort of fellow”; and Napoleone de’ Franzesi, a friend of Guglielmo de’ Pazzi, Lorenzo’s brother-in-law. Another adherent was Messer Giovanni da Pisa, a notary, but “a factious and bad man.”
Before leaving Rome, Francesco de’ Pazzi and the Archbishop had agreed with Count Girolamo de’ Riari to engage the services of two desperadoes in the pay of the Pope—Bernardo Bandino of the Florentine family of Baroncelli, “a reckless and a brutal man and a bankrupt to boot,” and Amerigo de’ Corsi, “the renegade son of a worthy father,”—Messer Bernardo de’ Corsi of the ancient Florentine house of that ilk. Two ill-living priests were also added to the roll of the conspirators —Frate Antonio, son of Gherardo de’ Maffei of Volterra, and Frate Stefano, son of Niccolo Piovano da Bagnore. The former was exasperated against Lorenzo for the reckless sack of Volterra, and because he had taken possession of a valuable alum-pit belonging to his family. The latter was Vicario of Monte Murlo, an upstart Papal précis-writer, whose family was plebeian and employed upon Pazzi property in that locality; he was “a man steeped in crime and a creature of Cavaliere Giacopo de’ Pazzi.”
So many having been admitted into the secret of the conspiracy, it became a matter of urgent importance that no delay should arise in the fulfilment of the design; the fear of espionage and leakage was ever present to the minds of the leaders. But what to do, and where, and how, baffled all their ingenuity. At last a lead came, quite unexpectedly from Sixtus himself.
At Pisa was a youth, studying law and philosophy—Raffaelle Sansoni—the son of Count Girolamo’s only sister, just sixteen years of age, and “very tender in the heart of the Pope.” Early in 1478 Sixtus had preconised him Cardinal of San Giorgio, and added the honour of Legate for Archbishop Salviati’s induction to that See—the richest, by the way, in all Italy.
The boy Cardinal, in April, was directed, by Sixtus, to make a progress to Imola on a visit to his uncle and aunt, and to take Florence on his way, for the purpose of paying his respects to Lorenzo. There was, of course, much more in this apparently innocent proceeding than appeared at first view. Francesco de’ Pazzi at once obtained Cavaliere Giacopo’s permission to offer the hospitality of his villa to his youthful eminence and his suite.
Montesicco was ordered to furnish an escort of cavalry in the name of the Pope—“men who were perfectly trustworthy and prepared to carry out whatever commands they received.”
After the cavalcade had set forth, Francesco sent a message to Lorenzo de’ Medici, suggesting that it might be agreeable to all parties if he could see his way to entertain the Cardinal. Both he and the Archbishop, who was in the company of the Cardinal, knew very well that the proposition would be cordially entertained by the hospitable Magnifico.