He recognised with due appreciation the good intention of Medici, as he esteemed the advantage and honour which would arise to him and his house from a connection with the most powerful king of the world. The conditions, however, he added, were contrary to his honour. Neither against his uncle of Aragon nor his ally the Duke of Burgundy would he ever act, and respecting Anjou, King Louis must judge himself what chastisement he had to inflict on one who was his own enemy. He was not to take it ill that he, Ferrante, was determined to preserve his honour and knightly word as well as the best of his family, instead of drawing distrust and contempt upon himself. He ought to be content with his beautiful kingdom, and thank God that it was at peace, instead of longing for the possessions of others. If Lorenzo could make more honourable conditions, acceptable to the king, he would be well inclined to accede to such.[191] The affair went no farther. By Louis XI. the proposal could hardly have been seriously intended, but was only a feeler. That he exposed himself, however, to such sharp observations as those of the Neapolitan might excite surprise, were it not that the language adopted in the diplomatic writings of the time, and the communications of princes with one another, was not particularly measured or courteous. While foreign rulers had such intercourse with Lorenzo, his fellow-citizens did not yield to strangers in the honours they showed to him. They were accustomed to the pre-eminence which he and his house assumed. In December 1470, the Commune determined to bestow the dignity of knighthood for services to the State on the Gonfaloniere, at that time Bongianni Gianfigliazzi, an elderly man, of an illustrious and rich family, whose houses, near the bridge of Sta. Trinità, enclosed the church of the same name on both sides; and Lorenzo was chosen, notwithstanding his youth, as syndic of the people, according to custom, to perform the ceremony, which was usually done either by princes of reigning houses or by wise and distinguished men who were themselves knights. When the same distinction had been shown the year before to the retiring Gonfaloniere, Jacopo de’ Pazzi, uncle of Lorenzo’s brother-in-law, Tommaso Soderini, upon whom Pope Paul II. had conferred this dignity, represented the Commune, and the ceremony took place in the Baptistery, on a scaffolding built over the great font, well known from Dante’s time downwards. House and villas were always full of guests. Lorenzo divided his time between his residences in the city and the country, especially Careggi and Cafaggiuolo, which was the most agreeable residence in the hot summer on account of its high situation and shady woods. In Piero’s lifetime we already find him and his brother in the grey mountain convents, whose natural beauty was enhanced by the historical reminiscences of the founders of Holy Orders—in Vallombrosa on the Pratomagno, the foundation of St. John