of Filippo Strozzi) made it to their interest to favor the cause of the French.  See Guicc. i. 2, p. 62.  This loyalty rose to enthusiasm under the influence of Savonarola, survived the stupidities of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., and committed the Florentines in 1328 to the perilous policy of expecting aid from Francis I.

In spite of its transitory character the invasion of Charles VIII., therefore, was a great fact in the history of the Renaissance.  It was, to use the pregnant phrase of Michelet, no less than the revelation of Italy to the nations of the North.  Like a gale sweeping across a forest of trees in blossom, and bearing their fertilizing pollen, after it has broken and deflowered their branches, to far-distant trees that hitherto have bloomed in barrenness, the storm of Charles’s army carried far and wide through Europe thought-dust, imperceptible, but potent to enrich the nations.  The French alone, says Michelet, understood Italy.  How terrible would have been a conquest by Turks with their barbarism, of Spaniards with their Inquisition, of Germans with their brutality!  But France, impressible, sympathetic, ardent for pleasure, generous, amiable and vain, was capable of comprehending the Italian spirit.  From the Italians the French communicated to the rest of Europe what we call the movement of the Renaissance.  There is some truth in this panegyric of Michelet’s.  The passage of the army of Charles VIII. marks a turning-point in modern history, and from this epoch dates the diffusion of a spirit of culture over Europe.  But Michelet forgets to notice that the French never rightly understood their vocation with regard to Italy.  They had it in their power to foster that free spirit which might have made her a nation capable, in concert with France, of resisting Charles V. Instead of doing so, they pursued the pettiest policy of avarice and egotism.  Nor did they prevent that Spanish conquest the horrors of which their historian has so eloquently described.  Again, we must remember that it was the Spaniards and not the French who saved Italy from being barbarized by the Turk.

For the historian of Italy it is sad and humiliating to have to acknowledge that her fate depended wholly on the action of more powerful nations, that she lay inert and helpless at the discretion of the conqueror in the duels between Spain and France and Spain and Islam.  Yet this is the truth.  It would seem that those peoples to whom we chiefly owe advance in art and knowledge, are often thus the captives of their intellectual inferiors.  Their spiritual ascendency is purchased at the expense of political solidity and national prosperity.  This was the case with Greece, with Judah, and with Italy.  The civilization of the Italians, far in advance of that of other European nations, unnerved them in the conflict with robust barbarian races.  Letters and the arts and the civilities of life were their glory.  ’Indolent princes and most despicable arms’ were their ruin.  Whether the Renaissance of the modern world would not have been yet more brilliant if Italy had remained free, who shall say?  The very conditions which produced her culture seem to have rendered that impossible.