Medici, he changed his tactics and said he had no quarrel with “his well-beloved children of Florence,” but only with “that son of iniquity and child of perdition, Lorenzo de’ Medici,” and those who had aided and abetted him, among whom the humanists were expressly mentioned.  Against Lorenzo and his associates a brief of excommunication was launched, and the city was urged to regain the papal favor by surrendering the offenders.

The result might have been predicted.  The “brief” only tended to knit the bonds of association closer between Lorenzo and the “City of the Flower,” while the humanists to a man rallied round their patron.  Even the choleric Filelfo, now a very old man, who had been on anything but friendly terms with the Medici, addressed two bitter satires to Sixtus, in which the Pope was styled the real aggressor, while the great humanist offered to write a history of the whole transaction, that posterity might know the true facts.  The only power which gave its adhesion to Sixtus was Naples, while Venice, Ferrara, and Milan declared for Florence.

Thus commenced that tedious war which not only ruined so many Florentine merchants, but retarded the cause of learning so materially.  When the people were groaning under heavy taxes, when all coin which Lorenzo could scrape together had to be poured out to pay the condottieri, or soldiers of fortune, by whom the battles of Florence were fought, there was of course but short commons for the humanists who had made Florence their home.  Many of those adapted themselves to circumstances, but others, to whom money was their god, left the banks of the Arno for those southern cities where the pinch of scarcity did not prevail.

In this campaign the Florentines gained but little prestige.  The larger share of the cost was quietly suffered by their allies to fall on the city of bankers.  The Milanese were occupied with their own affairs, owing to the coup d’etat accomplished by Lodovico Sforza.  The Duke of Ferrara withdrew owing to some disagreement with the condottieri engaged by Lorenzo.  The Venetians only despatched a small contingent under Carlo Montone and Diefebo d’Anguillari; accordingly, in the end, the whole burden of the struggle fell on Florence.  The Magnifico’s position gradually became precarious, inasmuch as many persons declared the war to be in reality a personal quarrel between Pope Sixtus and the Medici.  Complaints began to be heard that the public treasury was exhausted and the commerce of the city ruined, while the citizens were burdened with oppressive taxes.  Lorenzo had the mortification of being told that sufficient blood had been shed, and that it would be expedient for him rather to devise some means of effecting a peace than of making further preparations for the war.