d’Alamanno and Alamanno d’Jacopo, and some others.  At Florence every one is called by his proper name or his surname; and the common usage, unless there be some marked distinction of rank or age, is to say thou and not you; only to knights, doctors, and prebendaries is the title of messere allowed; to doctors that of maestro, to monks don, and to friars padre.  True, however, is it that since there was a Court at Florence, first that of Giulio, the Cardinal de’ Medici, then that of the Cardinal of Cortona, which enjoyed more license than the former, the manners of the city have become more refined—­or shall I say more corrupt?

APPENDIX III.

The Character of Alexander VI., from Guicciardini’s Story, Fiorentina, cap. 27. See Chap. vii. p. 412 above.

So died Pope Alexander, at the height of glory and prosperity; about whom it must be known that he was a man of the utmost power and of great judgment and spirit, as his actions and behavior showed.  But as his first accession to the Papacy was foul and shameful, seeing he had bought with gold so high a station, in like manner his government disagreed not with this base foundation.  There were in him, and in full measure, all vices both of flesh and spirit; nor could there be imagined in the ordering of the Church a rule so bad but that he put it into working.  He was most sensual toward both sexes, keeping publicly women and boys, but more especially toward women; and so far did he exceed all measure that public opinion judged he knew Madonna Lucrezia, his own daughter, toward whom he bore a most tender and boundless love.  He was exceedingly avaricious, not in keeping what he had acquired, but in getting new wealth:  and where he saw a way toward drawing money, he had no respect whatever; in his days were sold as at auction all benefices, dispensations, pardons, bishoprics, cardinalships, and all court dignities:  unto which matters he had appointed two or three men privy to his thought, exceeding prudent, who let them out to the highest bidder.  He caused the death by poison of many cardinals and prelates, even be rich in benefices and understood to have hoarded much, with the view of seizing on their wealth.  His cruelty was great, seeing that by his direction many were put to violent death; nor was the ingratitude less with which he caused the ruin of the Sforzeschi and Colonnesi, by whose favor he acquired the Papacy.  There was in him no religion, no keeping of his troth:  he promised all things liberally, but stood to nought but what was useful to himself:  no care for justice, since in his days Rome was like a den of thieves and murderers:  his ambition was boundless, and such that it grew in the same measure as his state increased:  nevertheless, his sins meeting with no due punishment in this world, he was to the last of his days most prosperous.  While young and still almost a boy,