As to the history of his policy in Genoa, if it were our office to write the life of Andrea, there is much that deserves to be rendered more clear. It was not a sagacious policy to subject the Republic to Spain at a time when the seeds of civil concord were springing up. It was more foolish to permit a foreign ruler to carry on her government, and despite the entreaties of his relatives to permit Savona to be torn from the body of the Republic.
Nor should it be forgotten that soon after this, he, to promote his own ends, wished to make Genoa a partner in his alienation from France, though his family favoured the union promoted by the amiable Trivulzio and the King of France. Truth requires us, also, to assert that he did not enter the service of Spain with the praiseworthy object of recovering Savona for Genoa. He drove out the French from Genoa in September, 1528, but Savona had been from the first of July reconciled and restored to the Republic, a fact which is proved by a decree of Francis I. soon to be printed.[17] When Guicciardini wrote that, “among the motives attributed to Doria for his change of masters, it was believed that the most probable and the principal one was, not offended pride for having been too highly esteemed or any other personal discontent, but the desire to advance his own greatness under the name of national liberty,” we think the verdict creditable to the first of our Italian historians.
But these accusations cannot deprive Doria of the merit of having refrained from assuming the absolute sovereignty of his country; though we know that the love of liberty in his fellow citizens must have been, sooner or later, fatal to such an ambition. In such an open assault upon popular liberty, he would have found enemies in his own house, as he did, in fact, when he enlisted in the service of Spain. This is proved by the documents which Molini[18] found in the French Archives, and is a conspicuous proof of the profound antipathy of Liguria to Spain. Doria, knowing well the liberal tendencies of his fellow citizens, contrived to get princely authority and power without assuming the name.
The laws of the union shaped by him changed the face of the Republic. His chief reform consisted in removing the middle classes from the public offices by adding new families to the nobility. The gentlemen resented the elevation of plebeians to their side; the lower classes complained; for though the law left them free to ascribe themselves to the nobility, it was soon seen that this law was a new deception. The constitution of Doria was fashioned with aristocratic aims, and if it established equality, it was only among the nobles. The people had neither guaranty nor representation. Leo writes that however wisely the instrument was framed, it failed to establish the rights of the plebeians. This class had no more share in the state than the peasantry of the Riviera, and remained, with its precarious and humble title of citizenship, subject to the nobility.
The law which changed a family into a collection of persons, or Albergo, was more than unjust, it was iniquitous. Those who entered these Alberghi were forced to renounce their own names, however honourable they might be, to extinguish their own memory and that of their ancestors, in order to assume the name of the congregation; so that for example, a Biagio Asereto would be compelled to take the name of a Vivaldi for no other reason than that the latter name was borne by more persons. Many truly illustrious and most honourable houses preferred to remain in the number of the people; and it is related that of two brothers Castelli; one made himself a noble under the title of Grimaldi, while the other remained a man of the people under his christian name Giustiniano.
It can no longer be denied that the laws of 1528 destroyed the government by the people and created that by the nobility. The book of gold was opened every year to eight plebeians of the city and of the Riviera; but this was not enough to silence the just complaints of that portion of the people, who until these reforms had always taken part in public affairs. In 1531, to satisfy the common grievance, forty-seven families, who before had been left forgotten among the lower class, were enrolled among the nobles; the expedient did not at all tend to remove the defects of the constitution. These admissions into the class who held power were controlled by the caprices of a single person or at best only a few. Every year eight senators were appointed to select the eight families for promotion, and in practice each senator selected one from his friends among the people. The gravest abuses grew out of this, and the book of gold was often opened to the most vulgar and degraded plebeians.
Neither moral nor intellectual qualifications, nor even distinguished services rendered to the country, could break down the barrier to the patriciate; but the inscribing of a name often served for the dowers of Senator’s daughters—nay, it was even sold.
The new nobles, in order to increase their numbers and to retain the friendship of the people, inscribed their relatives and friends, however despicable might be their social condition. There was even a greater abuse. The chancellors, who kept the book of gold, inscribed names at their pleasure. In 1560 the names of three families were ordered to be erased, having been entered without authority.
These abuses were never fully abolished until the reforms of 1576 which entirely excluded the people from the public offices.
We have seen that the reforms of Doria, practically placed the government in the hands of the nobles. The newly inscribed were few in number; and things were so arranged that the old patricians always had the control in the administration. This created a new element of discord in the hatred which sprung up between the old and the new nobles. A profound rancour diffused its virus through the body politic, and clanships grew strong and fought hard against each other. Nothing was wanting but names; and names are sometimes a great power, by which to designate the opposing factions. The names were found, and the old nobles were called the Portico of San Luca, and the new, Portico of San Pietro. Both epithets were derived from the places where the hostile factions were accustomed to assemble.