Part 25
As to the Council they declare that they are well-disposed towards the Apostolic See if the Church is reformed _pro Religione et fide Christi, quam vident in magno periculo vel potius ruina_. They also affirm that they initiated nothing, but only acted according to the wishes of the Emperor, from whom an explicit answer is expected in a few days. When it arrives they will tell me at once so that I can write to my Signoria who can then send prelates and ambassadors as I have promised. For this I thanked them with opportune words. I see that I am everything in their eyes, besides which Craina depends entirely on me and has not been happy since he entered into this business until I spoke officially. He will not let me out of his sight, either to go to the Emperor or elsewhere. A thousand times a day he raises his hands to heaven thanking God for sending me to him. You have no idea how intently these Doctors of the University read the documents I have published. What can I say more? The Pope is more hated here than he is with us, and if the Emperor does not spoil our game _non sum sine spe_ to arrive at something.
This is all I write to-day as I send this by a man who is passing through in haste. Will Your Magnificence be good enough to make my excuses to the Eight? Your letter was begun and there is no time to write another. This must serve also for their Excellencies. I commend myself to Your Magnificence.--Basel, September 30, 1482.[300]
Ugolino Baccio _to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici
_Magnifice vir_, &c.,--By my last of the 24th to the Honourable Eight Your Magnificence will have seen my hopes and designs, and nothing has occurred since to alter my opinion about the Council, although there are doubts as to where it is to be held and as to Craina himself, on account of the great opposition made by our enemies against God and justice. I am in great tribulation at not receiving any reply from Florence to my many letters, sent by trustworthy messengers so long ago that there has been ample time to send an answer to the first three.
Had I only received a hint from Your Magnificence as to the choice of Pisa about which Craina made me write, I should know which way the wind blows and how to steer this unsteady bark. But without any reply, although I know the intentions of Your Magnificence up to a certain point, I do not know them absolutely, as happens to those who, like me, have several affairs in hand.
Although Craina hopes for success here he is feeling his way elsewhere; if he fails here and can extricate himself he will throw himself into the arms of him who promises most. Till now I have only been able to give assurances of my personal aid, promising him support and favour from the League in order to pacify him. But how do I know what will be my fate? Perchance the League will have nought to do with the Council save at Basel, or has some other plan of which I know nothing. So that although I have a general mandate to do all I can to help forward the Council, which I, although you do not write, am doing, yet I do wish for your own particular views, otherwise I grope in darkness.
However now we are here making every effort that things should go forward, and though we found the foundations rather weak we have so propped the house that we do not fear it will fall at every small stroke. But if, through the Emperor or the Swiss, Basel was shut to us, I do not see why the League after such a beginning should abandon the enterprise. I gave the reasons in other letters, but the decision lies with others who perhaps are of a contrary opinion.
I have written a detailed account of what happens to the Eight. My own impressions, such as they are, I write to Your Magnificence, to whom I can explain things with more freedom than to such eminent magistrates. You can therefore guess at the truth; to me it appears that although there is danger there is also hope.
_Exitus in Diis est: tamen_ if a month after our arrival here a bishop had declared for us things would not be so backward or so ill looked on as they are; even if one was now on the way here so as not to delay giving medicine to the corpse! _At inquies._ Either the Emperor has not manifested his approval, what then? or he has not openly turned against the enterprise. For my designs it would be sufficient to stay here long enough for things to make a little progress, and then I would gladly pay ready money for a valid impediment in order to transfer all to a more convenient spot. I pray Your Magnificence to take the follies I have written for what they are worth and to judge and command according to your own wishes. _Ego jussa exequar_ and to that I commend myself.--Basel, October 25, 1482.[301]
Sixtus IV. had been thoroughly frightened by the threatened Council at Basel and had also fallen under the influence of his nephew Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who feared the growing power of Venice and was friendly to the Medici. In December 1482 he hurriedly made peace with Naples and Ferrara, and received the Duke of Calabria in the Vatican. Alfonso then started for Ferrara, passing through Florence early in January, where he stayed three days in the house of Giovanni Tornabuoni. Venice refused to obey the Pope’s commands to make peace with Ferrara, and the city was in dire straits. It was only the encouragement and advice of Bongianni Gianfigliazzi, the Florentine ambassador, that prevented Duke Ercole from quitting Ferrara and taking refuge at Modena. A Congress of the Allies was summoned at Cremona, to which Lorenzo went early in February 1483, in spite of strong opposition from his fellow-citizens, who feared he might be assassinated by his arch-enemy Girolamo Riario. Louis XI. shared these fears as is seen in his letter. The Congress at Cremona consisted of the Cardinal Legate Gonzaga, Alfonso Duke Of Calabria, Lodovico and Ascanio Sforza, Ercole d’Este Duke of Ferrara, Federigo Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua, Giovanni Bentovoglio of Bologna, Girolamo Riario,[302] Lorenzo de’ Medici, and various envoys.[303]
Louis XI., _King of France, to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici
My Cousin,--By your letter of January 30th I learn your wishes regarding your son Giovanni, if I had only known this before the death of the Cardinal de Rohan I should have done all in my power to please you. I will gladly do whatever I can when a benefice falls vacant. As to Ferrara, where you have promised to go, I should have advised you to abstain, and to be very careful about your personal safety, for I do not know the people or the place you will be in. I would gladly have sent an ambassador from here to excuse you. However as you have promised I leave it to you, to good fortune, and to God.--Written at Plessis du Parc, February 17, 1482 (1483).
Luy.[304]
The following tale and poem in Latin (which I have done into prose) were sent to Lorenzo by Bartolommeo Scala,[305] who prided himself on his literary conceits and on his pure Latinity. I insert them as they are typical of the conceits of the fifteenth century.
Bartolommeo Scala _to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici _at Bagno a Morba_
My Patron, greeting,--Last September when I was at Morba, where you now are, for my gout, I composed a conceit on the nymph Amorba, childish enough perhaps. If you have time to read this it may not displease you. Trifles of this kind sometimes give pleasure. Indeed those who have been with you inform me that you have sought anew the society of the Muses and are their constant boon companion. Of a truth they can heal our diseases much more pleasantly than any baths.
This indeed is attested with perhaps a certain neatness by an apologue of mine. It is as follows.
Once upon a time Immortality and Old Age were quarrelling. The cause was small, the quarrel was and still is a grievous one. Immortality had reared from the nest a tame jackdaw, cunning, thievish, clever, with a power of imitating our language not unmusically. She had kept it in luxury for ninety years. The neighbours actually approved of it in their enjoyment of the constant jesting and laughter which it caused. For it used secretly to steal from the tailor’s workboxes rings and needles and other implements, and then, when the fancy seized it, all of a sudden gave them back. How the onlookers used to laugh and applaud when it brought a modest blush to a maiden’s cheek as she walked along the road by calling with a gentle chuckle Ω χόρη καλη[306] (it had learnt Greek as well as Latin) Ἡλίου ὡς ὁμοιῷ φωτί.[307] But Old Age was envious and sent disease, her frequent minister, and killed the jackdaw. So was war kindled. Then when Old Age had taken many towns, and sacked many cities, she forced Immortality at length to take refuge in her citadel.
Her citadel stands on a high mountain. Its walls and battlements are of brass, but the rooms of its inner chambers of sweetest-smelling cedarwood. The enemy is held at bay (and this no one who did not know would easily believe) by maidens alone, by three maidens with their songs and verses. Now, could you but extract the harmonies of these maidens from the letters in which they are written and manage to apply them to your bare breast and heart, there is nothing so health-giving against all diseases of body and mind. I commend myself to you. Farewell.--Florence, April 15, 1484.
Thy Bartolommeo Scala.[308]
“_In Amorpham Nympham_,” _Latin poem by_ Bartolommeo Scala, _sent to_ Lorenzo De’ Medici _at Bagno a Morba, April 25, 1484_
Thou askest who I am, what is my name, and whence comes this hot and health-giving water that springs perennial? Once I was the loveliest nymph of these woods. Apollo loved me and gave me the power of curing all ills. Fleeter of foot than the stag or the roe, I was the most renowned and the most welcome of the Oread sisters or the Dryads. But we have long known how cruel and potent is fate, and how unstable are all things here below. When wandering one day, bow in hand, my quiver on my shoulder, O unhappy nymph! Cerberus saw me and was inflamed with brutal lust. Of no avail were my bow, my arrows, or my swift feet. Furiously he pursued me and deaf to my prayers and tears he seized me, O unhappy one. In vain I screamed and struggled, and called upon all the Gods of heaven. Almost vanquished I cried out, imploring aid: “O you sylvan nymphs, have mercy, hasten to save me.” The goddesses heard, changed me into a hot stream and thus delivered me from those ferocious hands. As a spring I still preserve the power bestowed by Apollo of curing all ills. Phœbus pitied and wept over my fate, and swore by the Styx to undo thee, O Cerberus. A huge stone, high as a mountain, surrounded by precipices and broken rocks, was torn asunder and a yawning and dark cave opened, whence issued a horrid wind charged with fetid odours. Inside all was putrid, in festering matter lay the entrails and bones of oxen which he bore while yet alive into the cave to satiate his rabid hunger. Whilst intent on devouring the raw flesh and sucking the stream of hot blood, the highborn Archer wounded him. His torn and bleeding entrails gushed forth. But as he could change his form at will, Cerberus became a dog. From three throats came despairing howls and the vapour of burning sulphur when Apollo hurled him down from the rock into deepest hell, where it is rumoured that he still retains the semblance of a dog. There, where the brute sank, remain signs of hell, and they say that sinners are there drawn down to well-deserved punishment. All around are lakes of deep mud; mud and sulphur are belched up, and from afar one still hears the ever-renewed howling of dogs. The rock preserved the name and the mountain whence it fell is called Cerberus. But I remain unknown, no kind Muse remembered me and I waited for one to tell of my woes. Lo he comes, and here he writes a poem for me. Read it, O pilgrim; then thou wilt know that Amorba is the name of the nymph. The waters will drive away all illness, let the sick come here and they will find health.[309]
Lorenzo’s great enemy Sixtus IV. died on August 12, 1484, killed, say contemporaries, by a violent fit of anger at the proclamation of the peace of Bagnolo. The Cardinals entered into Conclave on August 26th, and three days later Giovanni Battista Cibò, born at Genoa in 1432, was elected Pope under the name of Innocent VIII.
Guidantonio Vespucci, _Florentine Ambassador at Rome, to_ Lorenzo de’ Medici _at Florence_
_Magnifice vir_,--If my letter about the election of the Pope [Innocent VIII.] was delayed, the fault lies with Antonio Tornabuoni who sent off the courier without waiting for me. I was at Mass with the other ambassadors and could not leave before them. The Milanese courier was despatched by Francesco da Casale and not by the ambassador. I beg you to excuse me.
Of the new Pope I will tell you all I have heard. As Cardinal he passed for a kindly and benign man, and was most courteous to all, kissing any and all even more than one you know of. His political experience is small and he is not learned, though not ignorant. He was always devoted to S. Pietro in Vincula [Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Julius II.] and indeed was made a cardinal by his influence. He is tall, full in the face, about fifty-five years of age, and very robust. He has a brother, at least one grown-up bastard son and some daughters, who are married here. As cardinal he did not agree well with the Count [Girolamo Riario, nephew of the late Pope]. S. Pietro in Vincula is now as good as Pope and will have more power than under Sixtus if he knows how to steer. The Pope has a Genoese friar who is said to have a mistress of the house of Cibò, Guelph of course. Here he has a nephew, a priest, related to Filippo di Nerone, whose mistress is a certain Maria Clemenza--she was wife to Stoldo Altoviti. The late Captain of infantry is married to a relation of his. The Pope seems rather a man in need of advice than one capable of giving it to others.
The election took place thus. The Rev. Monsignori of Aragona and Visconti seeing that they could not effect the election of the Vice-Chancellor and that he stood on the defence, tried to persuade him to play their game, and _ante omnia_ reconciled the Camarlingo and Ursino with S. Pietro in Vincula, towards whom they were beginning to be friendly, and I think they promised to arrange the affairs of the Count and of the Camarlingo. Many other promises were made. First, to the Cardinal of Aragona the Pope gives his own house; to Messer di Visconti the house belonging to the Count, which the Pope will pay for, besides 12,000 ducats, the legation of the Patrimony, and I know not what besides at Castello; to Savello the legation of Bologna; to Milan that of Avignon; all of which latter legations were held by S. Pietro in Vincula who consented to everything in order to carry this business through, he has also renounced certain abbeys to satisfy others whose names I know not. Colonna will no doubt also be recompensed, and the Vice-Chancellor has obtained certain things he wanted in Spain. Noara has had I know what castle. Of others I have not heard. No doubt there are many similar cases.
To conclude, this election is attributed entirely to Monsignore di Visconti and I think you ought to write to him that he should help us when I have need of aid in your affairs. Also send a proper letter to S. Pietro in Vincula for he is the only one I have any fear of in the business of Fonte Dolce,[310] he is the Pope, _et plusquam Papa_. Believe me that Monsignori Aragona and Visconti will plunder this court at every election, they are the two biggest scoundrels in the world.
In a few days I shall begin to adjust your affairs and shall succeed, as in the beginning these princes and popes are usually very gracious, and His Holiness is well disposed towards you and has always been very friendly to me. Remember before the new Signori are named to have my leave arranged as I want to be at home during September, and I hope you will grant my desire that my Simone should be made one of the Eight.--Roma, August 29, 1484. Remember also to push on the enterprise of Sarzana, afterwards there might be danger.[311]
According to custom the Republic of Florence sent an embassy to congratulate Innocent VIII. on his nomination. With them went Lorenzo’s eldest son, Piero, then fourteen years of age, to whom his father wrote the following letter containing minute instructions as to his speech and conduct. From Lorenzo’s remark, “Though thou art my son, thou art but a citizen of Florence,” and his impressing upon him to be polite and not to take precedence of his elders, one sees he was already anxious about the boy’s overbearing, turbulent temper.
Lorenzo de’ Medici _to his son_ Piero _in Rome, November 26, 1484_
Thou wilt have only four letters of introduction for Siena, one to Messer Paulo di Gherardo, one to Messer Cristofano di Guido, and one to Messer Andrea Piccolomini, whom thou art to visit at their houses and there deliver the letters to them. Commend me to Their Magnificences, using the same words to all, thus: that passing through Siena on thy way to Rome with these ambassadors I charged thee to visit Their Magnificences whom I love and revere as fathers; that I hope they will regard thee as a son, command thee at any time or in any place, as I do, and that thou wilt obey them; and that as they can dispose of my property, State, and children, of whom thou art one, thou presentest thyself to them as being theirs to dispose of according to their pleasure. Use proper words to this effect without affectation or constraint, and do not try to appear learned with them or with others, but speak graciously, pleasantly, and seriously.
Thou wilt have a list of Sienese citizens to whom, if there is time, thou art to pay visits, using the same words I have already indicated and offering me to them, as well as to the three above-named, for the protection of their State, all the more that our city is of this mind.
When together with other youths of the ambassadors bear thyself sedately, politely, and kindly, towards thy equals. Be careful not to take precedence of those who are thine elders, for although thou art my son, thou art but a citizen of Florence, as they are. When Giovanni [Tornabuoni] thinks fit to present thee to the Pope privately first inform thyself well of all the needful ceremonies, then when presented to His Sanctity kiss my letter which will be given thee for the Pope, entreating him to deign to read it. When it is thy turn to speak, first place me at the feet of His Beatitude, saying that I am aware it was my duty to prostrate myself in person at the feet of His Holiness, as I did at those of his Predecessor of saintly memory; but that I trust in his goodness to forgive me, because at that time I had my brother who was well able to fill my place, whereas at present I have no man of greater years and authority than thyself, and therefore I do not think it would have been pleasing to His Holiness if I had left Florence. Say that I send thee in my stead as the strongest proof I could give of my desire to go in person. Besides other reasons also I have sent thee in order that thou shouldst learn early to regard His Beatitude as thy Father and Lord, and be encouraged to continue in this devotion, in which I educate my other children, whom I would rather not have if they were not so inclined. Then thou wilt inform His Holiness that I am firmly resolved not to transgress his commands, because, besides my natural devotion to the Holy See, my devotion to His Beatitude himself arises from many causes and from obligations which ever since I was _in minoribus_ our house has received from him. Add that I have experienced how hurtful it has been to be out of favour with the late Pontiff although, as it seems to me, I was unjustly persecuted rather for others’ sins than for any insult or offence to him of holy memory. But I leave this to the judgment of others. Be it as it may I am firmly determined, not only not to offend His Beatitude in any way, but to think day and night on what I can do to please him; thus I trust that the joy and pleasure which the nomination of His Beatitude to the Pontificate caused me will endure for long, and I supplicate His Beatitude to accept me and my children and all that is mine as his humble sons and servants, and to preserve to us his grace, inasmuch as we shall make every effort to deserve his goodwill.
After this thou art to say to His Holiness that having thus recommended me, brotherly love constrains thee to recommend also Messer Giovanni, whom I have brought up as a priest, and endeavour to educate morally and intellectually in such a way that he should not be put to shame among others. All my hope in this matter is in His Beatitude who has already, out of his clemency and humanity, shown him some affection, and as we are in his good graces I entreat him to continue his benevolence, and to add to the other obligations our house has towards the Holy See by favouring this affair of Messer Giovanni; strive with these and other words to recommend thy brother. I have now said enough about the Pope. Thou wilt have my letters to all the cardinals which thou wilt deliver or not according to Giovanni’s directions. Commend me to them and say thou art come to Rome to express my devotion to Their Most Reverend Lords, and also in order that they may make acquaintance with him who will continue the devotion of our house towards them, and that they are to command thee and make use of thee as of all that is mine, offering thyself, &c. This thou wilt say to all in general, but to those on the marked list thou wilt say as follows.