Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading - George Park Fisher

THE MEDICI.

V. ITALY.

CONDITION OF ITALY.—Italy, at the epoch of the French invasions, was the most prosperous as well as the most enlightened and civilized country in Europe. Its opulent and splendid cities were the admiration of all visitors from the less favored countries of the North. But national unity was wanting. The country was made up of discordant states. Venice was ambitious of conquest; and the pontiffs in this period, to the grief of all true friends of religion, were absorbed in Italian politics, being eager to carve out principalities for their relatives. Italy was exposed to two perils. On the one hand, it was menaced by the Ottoman Turks; not to speak of the kings of France and Spain, who were rival aspirants for control in the Italian peninsula. On the other hand, voyages of discovery were threatening to open new highways of commerce to supersede the old routes of traffic through its maritime cities.

MILAN.—The fall of Constantinople produced a momentary union in Italy. At Lodi, in 1454, the principal states took an oath of perpetual concord,—Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan; Cosmo de Medici, to whom Florence had given the name of "Father of his Country;" Alfonso V. the Magnanimous, king of Naples and Sicily; the Popes Calixtus III. and Pius II. (1458-1464). But conflicts soon arose among them. An abortive attempt was made by John of Calabria to deprive Ferdinand of Naples of his inheritance (1462). In 1478 there was a coalition against Florence; in 1482, a coalition against Venice. The Turks made the best use of these quarrels, and captured Otranto (1480), killing or enslaving twelve thousand Christians. The idea of the ancients that tyrannicide is a virtue, whether the master be good or bad, was caught up, and gave rise to conspiracies. At Milan, in 1476, the cruel Duke Galeazzo Maria was assassinated by three young men, near the Church of St. Stephen. Giovanni Galeazzo, his son, a minor, married a daughter of the king of Naples. But his uncle, Ludovico il Moro, had seized on power, and ruled in the name of Giovanni (1480). He imprisoned Giovanni and his young wife; and being threatened by the king of Naples, who had for an ally Peter de Medici, he formed an alliance with the Pope and the Venetians; and, not confiding in them, he invited Charles VIII. of France to invade the kingdom of Naples. Genoa fell under the yoke of Ludovico, who was invested with it by Charles VIII. as a fief of France.

VENICE.—Venice, which up to the fall of Constantinople had been the strongest of the Italian states, forgot its duties and its dangers in relation to the Turks, in order to aggrandize itself in Italy. It could not avoid war with them, which broke out in 1464. The Turks took Negropont and Scutari, passed the Piave, and the fires kindled by their troops could be seen from Venice. The city made a shameful treaty with them, paying them a large sum (1479). But four years after, it conquered Cyprus, which it did not scruple to demand the privilege of holding as a fief of the Sultan of Egypt. The great power of Venice at this time was a cause of alarm to all the other states; but their first combination against it in 1482, in defense of the Duke of Ferrara, was of no effect. In 1454 the government of Venice was placed practically in the hands of three "inquisitors", who exercised despotic power under the old forms, and, by such means as secret trials and executions, maintained internal order and quiet at the cost of liberty. Its soldiers were condottieri, under foreign leaders, whom it watched with the utmost jealousy.

FLORENCE.—Cosmo de Medici had continued to be a man of the people. But the members of his family who followed him, while they copied his munificence and public spirit, behaved more as princes. Against Peter I. plots were formed by the nobles, but were baffled (1465). Jerome Riario, a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV., strove with papal help to conquer for himself a principality in the Romagna. The Florentines protested against it as a breach of the treaty of Lodi. Hence Riario took part in the conspiracy of the Pazzi against the lives of Lorenzo and Julian, sons of Cosmo. They were attacked in the cathedral of Florence by the assassins, during the celebration of mass; Julian was killed, but Lorenzo escaped. The Archbishop of Pisa, one of the accomplices, was hung from his palace window in his pontifical robes. The Pope excommunicated the Medici, and all the Italian states plunged into war. The capture of Otranto at this time by the Turks frightened the princes. Lorenzo de Medici repaired in person to Naples to negotiate with Ferdinand, the Pope's ally, and peace was concluded. Lorenzo earned the name of "The Magnificent" by his lavish patronage of literature and art.

SAVONAROLA.—Against the rule of Lorenzo, one voice was raised, that of the Dominican monk Jerome Savonarola, a preacher of fervid eloquence, who aimed in his harangues, not only to move individuals to repentance, but to bring about a thorough amendment of public morals, and a political reform in the direction of liberty. In his discourses, however, he lashed the ecclesiastical corruptions of the time, not sparing those highest in power. There were two parties, that of the young nobles,—the arribiati, or "enraged;" and that of the people,—the frateschi, or friends of the monks. Savonarola proclaimed that a great punishment was impending over Italy. He predicted the invasion from north of the Alps.

FLORENCE IN THE AGE OF LORENZO.—Florence in the time of Lorenzo presented striking points of resemblance to Athens in its most flourishing days. In some respects, the two communities were quite unlike. Florence was not a conquering power, and had no extensive dominion. Civil and military life were distinct from one another: the Italian had come to rely more upon diplomacy than upon arms, and his wealth and mercantile connections made him anxious to avoid war. In Florence, moreover, trade and the mechanic arts were in high repute; industry was widely diffused, and was held in honor. But in equality and pride of citizenship, in versatility of talent and intellectual activity, in artistic genius and in appreciation of the products of art, in refinement of manners, cheerfulness of temper, and a joyous social life, the Florentines in the fifteenth century compare well with the Athenians in the age of Pericles. In Florence, the burgess or citizen had attained to the standing to which in other countries he only aspired. Nobility of blood was counted as of some worth; but where there was not wealth or intellect with it, it was held in comparatively low esteem. Prosperous merchants, men of genius and education, and skillful artisans were on a level with the best. Men of noble extraction engaged in business. The commonwealth conferred knighthood on the deserving, according to the practice of sovereign princes. Persons of the highest social standing did not disdain to labor in their shops and counting-houses. Frugal in their domestic life, the Florentines strove to maintain habits of frugality by strict sumptuary laws. Limits were set to indulgence in finery, food, etc. The population of Florence somewhat exceeded one hundred thousand. In the neighborhood of the city, there was a multitude of attractive, richly furnished villas and country-houses. Among the industries in which the busy population was engaged in 1472, a chronicler enumerates eighty-three rich and splendid warehouses of the silk-merchants' guild, thirty-three great banks, and forty-four goldsmiths' and jewellers' shops. The houses of the rich were furnished with elegance, and decorated with beautiful works of art. There was a great contrast between the simplicity of ordinary domestic life, especially as regards provisions for the table, and the splendor displayed on public occasions, or when guests were to be hospitably entertained. The effect of literary culture was seen in the tone of conversation. It is remarkable that the great sculptors were all goldsmiths, and came out of the workshop. A new generation of painters had a like practical training. In those days, there was a union of manual skill with imagination. The art of the goldsmith preceded and outstripped all the others. In such a society, there was naturally a great relish for public festivals, both sacred and secular. Everywhere in Italy the Mysteries, or religious plays, exhibiting events of scriptural history, were in vogue; brilliant pantomimes were enjoyed, and the festivities of the yearly carnival were keenly relished. In the government of Florence, the liberty of the citizens was mainly confined to the choosing of their magistrates. Once in office, they ruled with arbitrary power. There was no liberty of the press, nor was there freedom of discussion in the public councils. It was a community where, with all its cultivation and elegance, morality was at a low ebb. Lorenzo himself, although "he had all the qualities of poet and statesman, connoisseur and patron of learning, citizen and prince," nevertheless "could not keep himself from the epicureanism of the time," and was infected with its weaknesses and vices. "These joyous and refined civilizations," writes M. Taine, "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."

THE POPES.—The Popes, Nicholas V. (1447-1455), a protector of scholars and a cultivated man, and Pius II. (1458-1464),