final extinction of liberty, four great parties:  the Piagnoni, passionate for political freedom and austerity of life; the Palleschi, favourable to the Medicean cause, and regretful of Lorenzo’s pleasant rule; the Compagnacci, intolerant of the reformed republic, neither hostile nor loyal to the Medici, but desirous of personal licence; the Ottimati, astute and selfish, watching their own advantage, ever-mindful to form a narrow government of privileged families, disinclined to the Medici, except when they thought the Medici might be employed as instruments in their intrigues.

XX

During the short period of Savonarola’s ascendency, Florence was in form at least a Theocracy, without any titular head but Christ; and as long as the enthusiasm inspired by the monk lasted, as long as his personal influence endured, the Constitution of the Grand Council worked well.  After his death it was found that the machinery was too cumbrous.  While adopting the Venetian form of government, the Florentines had omitted one essential element—­the Doge.  By referring measures of immediate necessity to the Grand Council, the republic lost precious time.  Dangerous publicity, moreover, was incurred; and so large a body often came to no firm resolution.  There was no permanent authority in the State; no security that what had been deliberated would be carried out with energy; no titular chief, who could transact affairs with foreign potentates and their ambassadors.  Accordingly, in 1502, it was decreed that the Gonfalonier should hold office for life—­should be in fact a Doge.  To this important post of permanent president Piero Soderini was appointed; and in his hands were placed the chief affairs of the republic.

At this point Florence, after all her vicissitudes, had won her way to something really similar to the Venetian Constitution.  Yet the similarity existed more in form than in fact.  The government of burghers in a Grand Council, with a Senate of forty, and a Gonfalonier for life, had not grown up gradually and absorbed into itself the vital forces of the commonwealth.  It was a creation of inventive intelligence, not of national development, in Florence.  It had against it the jealousy of the Ottimati, who felt themselves overshadowed by the Gonfalonier; the hatred of the Palleschi, who yearned for the Medici; the discontent of the working classes, who thought the presence of a Court in Florence would improve trade; last, but not least, the disaffection of the Compagnacci, who felt they could not flourish to their heart’s content in a free commonwealth.  Moreover, though the name of liberty was on every lip, though the Florentines talked, wrote, and speculated more about constitutional independence than they had ever done, the true energy of free institutions had passed from the city.  The corrupt government of Cosimo and Lorenzo bore its natural fruit now.  Egotistic ambition and avarice supplanted patriotism and industry.  It is necessary to comprehend these circumstances, in order that the next revolution may be clearly understood.