This revolt was the work of Fra Girolamo Savonarola. For sixty years Florence had enjoyed prosperity under Medici. She was the centre of learning, the mediating power of Italy with influence in every state; in fact, as the Lord Boniface P.P. VIII said on receiving the Orators of the Powers in Rome at the Jubilee of 1300, “_i fiorentini sono il quinto elemento_.” But the Dominican Friar had roused in Her those moral aspirations which Medici had lulled to atrophy; and the contemptible blunders of Don Piero had proved a final exasperation. The newly-formed republic set up Donatello’s statue of Judith with the Head of Holofernes on a pedestal before Palazzo Vecchio, with this inscription for the benefit of budding despots, EXEMPLUM SALUTIS PUBLICAE CIVES POSUERE MCCCCXCV. And on the day of the expulsion of the Medici, little Pisa revolted also, and threw off the yoke of Florence. * * * * * The fortune of the Lord Alexander P.P. VI appeared to be in serious danger. The French unhindered were advancing, and sedition was sown in Rome. One more overture the Supreme Pontiff made, sending Cardinal Raymond Perrauld, a creature of His Own, to treat with the Christian King, who with no difficulty persuaded the French Cardinal to turn traitor to the Pope. A Brief, appealing to the Elect-Emperor Maximilian for help proved ineffectual. The forces of Colonna beleaguered the Eternal city. Within the walls, three disaffected cardinals, the Lords Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti, Friderico Sanseverini, and Bernardino de’ Lunati, were interned with the Pope in the Mola for the sake of safety. When the pontifical citadel of Civita Vecchia fell, the loyalists became yet more disheartened. Orsini turned its coats and joined the French. Cesarini alone of all the patricians of Rome continued to be staunch and true. Resistance was useless, things being as they were; and the Lord Alexander P.P. VI gave leave to the Christian King to enter Rome. He came. He humanly was master of the City and of the situation, face to face with the Holiness of the Pope, practically having His person in his power. The Majesty of France demanded the calling of a General Council; and God’s Vicegerent opposed him with a blunt and unconditional _Non Possumus_. Whenever the World has driven the Church against the wall, She has become inexorably invincible.