A cousin of Filigno, Salvestro de’ Medici, led the Florentine troops against Giovanni Visconti, Archbishop and Lord of Milan, and was knighted on the battlefield of Scarperia. Gonfalonier of Justice in 1370, when Florence was distracted by the rivalry of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, he, being a Ghibelline, took the side of the people against the nobles, and advocated enforcing the enactments of the _Ordinamenti della Giustizia_, which excluded the nobles from power. But for the moment he failed, and was nigh being exiled when his name was again drawn from the _borsa_, or ballot-bag, as Gonfalonier in 1378. Once more he proposed to apply the law against the Guelph nobles, and meeting with opposition, threatened to resign. One of his friends then appealed to the populace, and the result was the Ciompi riot. The mob broke into the Palazzo de’ Priori and the Palazzo del Podestà, burnt many palaces, and knighted sixty-four citizens in the Piazza della Signoria, of whom Salvestro was the first. His popularity is shown by a sonnet addressed to him by Franco Sacchetti, author of many tales, who rather profanely calls him “non gia Salvestro, ma Salvator mundi.” Salvestro was, however, a canny burgher and made some profit out of the revolution, as the rents of the shops on the Ponte Vecchio were assigned to him. Henceforward the Medici were looked upon as the friends and defenders of the people against the _Grandi_ or nobles. The founder of the line of citizens who ruled Florence like princes was Giovanni d’Averardo, surnamed Bicci, de’ Medici, born in 1360. He was several times a Prior, and in 1421 Gonfalonier of Justice. During the Councils of Basel and Constance he made a fortune in exchange, and being charitable was much beloved by the people. His popularity increased when, against his advice, the nobles insisted on advancing to meet the Duke of Milan instead of waiting for him to attack them in Tuscany, with the result that at Zagonara the Florentines were beaten. The expenses of the war exhausted the treasury, and disturbances broke out in Florence. The nobles, fearing a repetition of the Ciompi riots, attempted to form a government of _Ottimati_, as the party of the oligarchy were called, and thus undermine the power of the minor guilds. Some even suggested seizing the property of charitable confraternities in order to obtain money. Giovanni de’ Medici was consulted, and declared he would have nothing to do with such robbery. A few years later he successfully advocated the abolition of the odious system of forced loans, and the institution of the _catasto_, which regulated all the taxes to be paid to the Commune of Florence. He then became the idol of the people. Cavalcanti writes that when he lay dying on 20th February 1429, “he called his sons Cosimo and Lorenzo, and in the presence of their mother, Piccarda Bueri, of their wives, and of other citizens, spoke to them thus: ‘Beloved sons, neither