Most dear Son,--Thou tellest me to send thee the grey cape lined with lynx, because thou hast suffered from the cold. But why? For hadst thou asked for it before I should have sent it as I did the other. It appears to me you have all decided not to return to Careggi on Monday where, thanks be to God, we are all well. It will be a happy hour, for it seems to me a thousand years till you come home again. I am sure you are all very busy there, particularly Ginevra,[40] so help her in every way that thou knowest and canst, and keep thy things in order and don’t leave one thing here and another there, and tell the other boy to do the same. It would be well that both of you should order a pair of shoes from P. Thou hast a pair of hose with the shoes, but he has not. So I send thee a pair of his oldest hose which button on to the shoes. Tell the bearer who it was that sent thee those new shoes which do not fit, and he will inform Francesco Martelli who ordered them for thee. If thou hast aught to send in the bag of Antonio Martelli’s messenger do so, unless it is something that has to pay duty. I was going to send some cloth hose, but as thou art coming back so soon I shall not trouble about them. Let me know what thou sendest by the messenger. No more. God guard thee.--Florence, the 14th day of October 1438.[41] The two following documents relate to the celebrated Council of the Church which met at Florence during Cosimo’s second term of office as Gonfalonier, or chief magistrate. The Œcumenical Council of Basel had actually come into conflict with Pope Eugenius, in the end deposed him, and declared the papal chair vacant. Whereupon Eugenius ordered the Council to transfer its sittings to Ferrara, excommunicated all its members who refused to obey and packed the assembly with his adherents. But a pestilence broke out at Ferrara, and proposals were made to bring the assembled ecclesiastics to Florence. The citizens were eagerly excited, for both the Patriarch and the Emperor of Constantinople were expected to attend. The Pope arrived in Florence on January 2nd, 1439-40, the Patriarch on the 12th, and the Emperor John Palæologus on the 15th February (the entry of the latter is represented in the fresco in the chapel of the Riccardi palace), and were all sumptuously lodged. The essential findings of this Council are important, for they were reproduced in the Canons of Trent. It was supposed to unite the Greek and Latin Churches, but its real result was to introduce the Italians to ancient Greek literature, and, if such things can be dated, it marks the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. Cosimo’s brother Lorenzo de’ Medici was sent to Ferrara in December 1438 to arrange with the Pope about transferring the Œcumenic Council to Florence. The instructions given by the Signory are curious and show how burdensome the Councils were to the cities in which they were held. Commissio Laurentii de’ Medicis, _3 Decembris 1438_