Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/641

 THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 585 power. He was careful, however, to keep all real power in his own hands, although he too preserved the Rule of the old republican forms. He catered, nevertheless, Medici to the lower classes in the city and to the peasantry outside the walls, while he taxed the wealthy citizens heavily and was harsh toward men of too prominent family or politi- cal promise. Both Cosimo (1435-1464) and his grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici (1 469-1 492), were generous patrons of the Renaissance and among the most enlightened of the des- pots. They preserved order, were peacefully inclined, good business men, and astute diplomats. In the field of foreign affairs they were aided by their extensive banking connec- tions and loans to other European governments. The republican government of Florence had been crip- pled by the eagerness of all its citizens to hold office and by their general reluctance to allow any one person Defects to hold office for any length of time. They there- Florentine fore multiplied magistracies until they conflicted constitution with one another, shortened the term of office in most cases to two months, and elected their officials by lot. Thus au- thority was too divided, the time in office was too short for any one to accomplish much or acquire experience, and officials were not selected with a view to their fitness. The clever and conceited Florentines, however, believed that they were all capable of holding any office. But really some political ring or boss was needed behind the scenes to run things, especially the intricacies of foreign affairs. The method of election by lot, too, lent itself to such external control. A "scrutiny" was first held for the purpose of de- termining who were "good citizens"; that is, acceptable to party or person in power. The names of these citizens were then placed in bags and were drawn out from time to time as there were offices to fill until the bags were empty, when a new scrutiny would be held. Whoever had hold of the bags evidently controlled the situation. To have any real change a revolution was necessary, and when a revolu- tion occurred the old bags were always destroyed whether they were emptied yet or not.