Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second SeriesSymonds, John Addington
History
Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series
Symonds, John Addington
Greece -- Description and travel; Italy -- Description and travel
Giuliano, of the two brothers, was the one whom the conspirators would
the more willingly have spared. The whole church was in an uproar. The
city rose in tumult. Rage and horror took possession of the people.
They flew to the Palazzo Pubblico and to the houses of the Pazzi,
hunted the conspirators from place to place, hung the archbishop by
the neck from the palace windows, and, as they found fresh victims
for their fury, strung them one by one in a ghastly row at his side
above the Square. About one hundred in all were killed. None who had
joined in the plot escaped; for Lorenzo had long arms, and one man,
who fled to Constantinople, was delivered over to his agents by the
Sultan. Out of the whole Pazzi family only Guglielmo, the husband of
Bianca de' Medici, was spared. When the tumult was over, Andrea del
Castagno painted the portraits of the traitors head-downwards upon the
walls of the Bargello Palace, in order that all men might know what
fate awaited the foes of the Medici and of the State of Florence.[15]
Meanwhile a bastard son of Giuliano's was received into the Medicean
household, to perpetuate his lineage. This child, named Giulio, was
destined to be famous in the annals of Italy and Florence under the
title of Pope Clement VII.
XV
As is usual when such plots miss their mark, the passions excited
redounded to the profit of the injured party. The commonwealth felt
that the blow struck at Lorenzo had been aimed at their majesty.
Sixtus, on the other hand, could not contain his rage at the failure
of so ably planned a _coup de main_. Ignoring that he had sanctioned
the treason, that a priest had put his hand to the dagger, that the
impious deed had been attempted in a church before the very Sacrament
of Christ, whose vicar on earth he was, the Pope now excommunicated
the republic. The reason he alleged was, that the Florentines had
dared to hang an archbishop.
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