Chapter 51

BOOK VIII

CHAPTER I

State of the family of the Medici at Florence--Enmity of Sixtus
IV. toward Florence--Differences between the family of the Pazzi
and that of the Medici--Beginning of the conspiracy of the Pazzi--
Arrangements to effect the design of the conspiracy--Giovanni
Batista da Montesecco is sent to Florence--The pope joins the
conspiracy--The king of Naples becomes a party to it--Names of the
conspirators--The conspirators make many ineffectual attempts to
kill Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici--The final arrangement--Order
of the conspiracy.

This book, commencing between two conspiracies, the one at Milan
already narrated, the other yet to be recorded, it would seem
appropriate, and in accordance with our usual custom, were we to treat
of the nature and importance of these terrible demonstrations. This we
should willingly do had we not discussed the matter elsewhere, or
could it be comprised in few words. But requiring much consideration,
and being already noticed in another place, it will be omitted, and we
shall proceed with our narrative. The government of the Medici having
subdued all its avowed enemies in order to obtain for that family
undivided authority, and distinguish them from other citizens in their
relation to the rest, found it necessary to subdue those who secretly
plotted against them. While Medici contended with other families,
their equals in authority and reputation, those who envied their power
were able to oppose them openly without danger of being suppressed at
the first demonstration of hostility; for the magistrates being free,
neither party had occasion to fear, till one or other of them was
overcome. But after the victory of 1466, the government became so
entirely centred in the Medici, and they acquired so much authority,
that discontented spirits were obliged either to suffer in silence,
or, if desirous to destroy them, to attempt it in secrecy, and by
clandestine means; which plots rarely succeed and most commonly
involve the ruin of those concerned in them, while they frequently
contribute to the aggrandizement of those against whom they are
directed. Thus the prince of a city attacked by a conspiracy, if not
slain like the duke of Milan (which seldom happens), almost always
attains to a greater degree of power, and very often has his good
disposition perverted to evil. The proceedings of his enemies give him
cause for fear; fear suggests the necessity of providing for his own
safety, which involves the injury of others; and hence arise
animosities, and not unfrequently his ruin. Thus these conspiracies
quickly occasion the destruction of their contrivers, and, in time,
inevitably injure their primary object.

Italy, as we have seen