Chapter 16 - Page 2

quarters, and for each
created three signors. They abolished the office of Gonfalonier of
Justice, and also the Gonfaloniers of the companies of the people; and
instead of the twelve Buonuomini, or good men, created eight
counsellors, four from each party. The government having been
established in this manner, the city might have been in repose if the
great had been content to live in that moderation which civil society
requires. But they produced a contrary result, for those out of office
would not conduct themselves as citizens, and those who were in
government wished to be lords, so that every day furnished some new
instance of their insolence and pride. These things were very grievous
to the people, and they began to regret that for one tyrant put down,
there had sprung up a thousand. The arrogance of one party and the
anger of the other rose to such a degree, that the heads of the people
complained to the bishop of the improper conduct of the nobility, and
what unfit associates they had become for the people; and begged he
would endeavor to induce them to be content with their share of
administration in the other offices, and leave the magistracy of the
Signory wholly to themselves.

The bishop was naturally a well-meaning man, but his want of firmness
rendered him easily influenced. Hence, at the instance of his
associates, he at first favored the duke of Athens, and afterward, by
the advice of other citizens, conspired against him. At the
reformation of the government, he had favored the nobility, and now he
appeared to incline toward the people, moved by the reasons which they
had advanced. Thinking to find in others the same instability of
purpose, he endeavored to effect an amicable arrangement. With this
design he called together the fourteen who were yet in office, and in
the best terms he could imagine advised them to give up the Signory to
the people, in order to secure the peace of the city; and assured them
that if they refused, ruin would most probably be the result.

This discourse excited the anger of the nobility to the highest pitch,
and Ridolfo de' Bardi reproved him in unmeasured terms as a man of
little faith; reminding him of his friendship for the duke, to prove
the duplicity of his present conduct, and saying, that in driving him
away he had acted the part of a traitor. He concluded by telling him,
that the honors they had acquired at their own peril, they would at
their own peril defend. They then left the bishop, and in great wrath,
informed their associates in the government, and all the families of
the nobility, of what had been done. The people also expressed their
thoughts to each other, and as the nobility made preparations for the
defense of their signors, they