of money to the Viceroy. Giuliano de' Medici, and his nephew Lorenzo, the son of the unlucky Pietro, entered the city quietly. The Florentines began to make some changes in their government, but these did not in any way favour the Medici. But in a few days the Cardinal Giovanni entered the city with a good many soldiers. The next day Giuliano, at the head of some armed men, interrupted the discussion of the Signoria, took possession of the palace, and seized on the public plate. Then he had the common bell rung out, and the people came together in the Piazza. Then they found that they were surrounded by armed men, and so they agreed that a Balia should be formed to remodel the government. The old system of scrutiny was again brought into use, by which the names of all who were disaffected were withdrawn from the lists for the ballot. Affairs were put in the same position as they were in before 1494, and the Medici returned to their former greatness in the city.

17. Summary.—The vain ambition of Charles the Eighth was the first cause of the entrance of the Barbarians into Italy. His invasion and conquest of the kingdom of Naples brought him no fruit, but he left behind him the seeds of many evils. Ludovico succeeded in his designs. He became Duke of Milan by the help of the French, and, when their rapid success threatened his safety, he got rid of them by making an alliance against them with foreign as well as with Italian powers. The military success of the King of France taught other kings to look on Italy as a tempting and easy prey. The political success of the Duke of Milan taught Italian powers to seek the overwhelming advantages which were to be gained by alliance with one of the great foreign states, and thus the hopes and plans of ambitious kings were forwarded. Through the conquest of Milan by Lewis the Twelfth, and that of Naples by Ferdinand of Aragon, two

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foreign and unfriendly powers were established in Italy. From that time Italian politics became the means by which foreigners sought their own advancement. The first great question which, though purely Italian, was used by foreign invaders for their own purposes, was the Pisan War of Independence. Lewis and Ferdinand helped sometimes one side and sometimes the other, either openly or by intrigue, just as suited their convenience. In the same way the great power of Venice, which had been looked at with suspicion by the Italian powers before the coming of the French, was humbled, not to preserve the balance of power in Italy, which would have been the case in the days of Lorenzo de' Medici, but to gratify the ambition of the Kings of France and Spain, and the spite of the King of the Romans. Papacy was the power which most effectually thwarted the designs of the foreign invaders of Italy, for the Popes would have lost most of all, if any one gained a decided predominance. All their greatness depended on their being independent. Their power did not lie for the most part in material strength, but in being able to combine and use the strength which others had; and for this end it was needful that they should not depend on any greater power. An Italian prince or republic might gain by acting for a time as second to some great foreign power, but the Pope could only be the head or the servant of others. This perfect independence of action threw great difficulties in the way of the foreign invaders of Italy, and made the Papacy rank as the greatest temporal power in the peninsula. It was counterbalanced by one serious drawback. Each Pope struggled to make his own family a princely house, and for this reason the policy of each Pope died with him. Alexander the Sixth used the French and the Spaniards alike to set his son Cæsar at the head of a newly-created Italian state. He thus hindered the advance of the King of Spain, and, towards the end, that of

King Lewis also. As long as he lived, his policy prospered, and his son became far the most powerful of all the Italian princes. At his death his policy ended, his son lost his possessions and his liberty. Pope Julius the Second followed a nobler policy; he strove for temporal dominion, not to enrich his family, but to raise the power of the Holy See. He set himself first of all to regain the cities which Venice had seized on the death of Cæsar Borgia, and for this purpose he made use of the League of the foreign powers against Venice. He gained his end, and then because he saw the danger of oppressing the Venetians too far, he took up an independent line and left the League. Then, moved by feelings of ambition and patriotism, seeing his country oppressed by foreigners, fearing doubtless lest the Holy See should be made of secondary importance, he took on himself the task of driving the Barbarians out of Italy. He began with the French. In the first part of the war which followed, the possession of Bologna was the point on which politics turned, as the possession of Pisa had been a few years before. The Pope gained the city, and laid the foundation for more Papal intrigues by seizing Parma and Piacenza. He succeeded in driving out the French, but the Spaniards were left all the stronger. " If Heaven allow," he said, "the Neapolitans shall soon have another master." But it was not to be. He died in 1513, and his hopes died with him. The Cardinal Giovanni de Medici was chosen Pope, and took the name of Leo the Tenth. His first object was to keep his power over Florence, and he owed that power to the interference of the Spanish Viceroy.

CHAPTER VIII.

ITALY CONQUERED.

Italian art and literature at the beginning of the sixteenth century (1) -Lewis tries to regain Milan (2)—Francis the First defeats the Swiss at Marignano, and regains Milan (3)—the schemes of Pope Leo (4)-the dominions of Charles V.; he is called into Italy by Pope Leo, and becomes master of Milan (5)—Francis I. tries to regain Milan (6)—but is defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia (7)-the Duke of Milan tries to shake off the yoke of Spain by a conspiracy with the Marquess of Pescara (8)—Francis regains his liberty, and makes the Holy League against Spain, with the Pope, England, Venice, and Milan; the army of the Constable in want of supplies (9)—marches southwards; the Florentines desire to defend themselves, and rise against the Medici (10)—the sack of Rome by the army of the Constable (11)—the French army weakened by excess; Genoa deserts the French cause, which fails in Italy (12)—the Medici are turned out of Florence; the different parties in the city (13).

1. Art and Literature.—The early part of the sixteenth century was a time in Italy of wonderful growth in literature and art. The use of the word 'Barbarians' for foreigners marks the fact that Italy was the home of that literary and artistic revival which is called the Renaissance. It also seems to show that now for the first time the Italians felt themselves a nation. The old influence of the Emperor and the Pope had passed away. There were no longer Guelf or Ghibelin principles to bind Italians together. Pope and Emperor, Guelf and Ghibelin, still went on; but the names had now no longer anything to do with the principles with which they were once associated. Those ties no longer L

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existed. In their place a national feeling had arisen; and the fact that Italy was the home of literature and art served in no small degree to awaken and encourage the national pride of the people, and the dislike and contempt which they felt towards foreigners. For a long time men had been shaking off the stiffness which marked the art of earlier days, and which arose from their choice of religious subjects. The chapel of Masaccio now became the school of disciples who surpassed their master. Men were helped in returning to a more faithful following of Nature, by the study of the masterpieces of antiquity. Lorenzo the Magnificent had made a collection of these in Florence, but that which gave the greatest encouragement to this study was the finding of the group of the Laocoon in the ruins of the Baths of Titus during the reign of Pope Julius. The Popes led the way in the new fashion of art which arose from these discoveries. They had become worldly in their lives and in their plans. They now did not care so much for the things of the Church, as Gregory the Seventh and his successors for three centuries and a half cared for them, as for the things of the world. They were not therefore hindered by any scruples from encouraging in others, or from following themselves, a more secular spirit in art and literature than had ever before been patronized by the head of the Church. Something of this feeling led Pope Julius to pull down the old basilican church of St. Peter at Rome to make way for a more stately building. He employed Donato Lazzari, surnamed Bramante, as the architect of his new church; and this artist planned a building so noble and great that the church remained unfinished long after he and his patron had died. A great many different artists were employed at various times on this great building, and the expense of the work was the cause, or at least was put forward as the cause by Pope Leo, for getting a large sum of money all through Christendom. One of the

ways