§ 52. SIXTUS IV. 1471-1484. 433
which Jerome was the chief actor, — one of the most coldblooded conspiracies of history. The pope was conversant with the plot and talked it over with its chief agent, Montesecco and, though he may not have consented to murder, which Jerome and the Pazzi had included in their plan, he fully approved of the plot to seize Lorenzo's person and overthrow the republic. 1
The terrible tragedy was enacted in the cathedral of Florence. When Montesecco, a captain of the papal mercenaries, hired to carry out the plot, shrank from committing sacrilege by shedding blood in the church of God, its execution was intrusted to two priests, Antonio Maffei da Volterra and Stefano of Bagnorea, the former a papal secretary. While the host was being elevated, Julian de' Medici, who was inside the choir, was struck with one dagger after another and fell dead. Lorenzo barely escaped. As he was entering the sanctuary, he was struck by Maffei and slightly wounded, and made a shield of his arm by winding his mantle around it, and escaped with friends to the sacrist}^ which was barred against the assassins. The bloody deed took place April 26, 1478.
The city proved true to the family which had shed so much lustre upon it, and quick revenge was taken upon the agents of the conspiracy. Archbishop Salviati, his brother, Francesco de' Pazzi and others were hung from the signoria windows. ^ The two priests were executed after having their ears and noses cut off. Montesecco was beheaded. Among those who witnessed the scene in the cathedral was the young cardinal, Raphael, the pope's grandnephew, and without having any previous knowledge of the plot. His face, it was said, turned to an ashen pallor, which in after years he never completely threw off.
With intrepid resolution, Sixtus resented the death of his archbishop and the indignity done a cardinal in the imprison-
1 So Pastor, II. 585, Gregorovius, VII. 239, Karl Miiller, II. 130 and Creighton, III. 75. They all agree that Sixtus knew the details of the plot, and approved them, except in the matter of the murder, which, however, he did not peremptorily forbid.
2 See the account of the legate of Milan, publ. by Pastor, II. 785 sq. Of Sixtus' connivance at the plot against the Medici, Pastor, II. 641, says, " It calls for deep lament that a pope should play a part in the history of this conspiracy."
2p
434 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
ment of Raphael as an accomplice. He hurled the interdict at the city, branding Lorenzo as the son of iniquity and the ward of perdition, — iniquitatis filius et perditionis alumnus, — and entered into an alliance with Naples against it. Louis XL of France and Venice and other Italian states espoused the cause of Florence. Pushed to desperation, Lorenzo went to Naples and made such an impression on Ferrante that he changed his attitude and joined an alliance with Florence. The pope was checkmated. The seizure of Otranto on Italian soil by the Turks, in 1480, called attention away from the feud to the imminent danger threatening all Italy. In December of that year, Sixtus absolved Florence, and the legates of the city were received in front of St. Peter's and touched with the rod in token of forgiveness. Six months later. May 2G, 1481, Rome received the news of the death of Mohammed II., which Sixtus celebrated by special services in the church, Maria del Popolo,^ and the Turks abandoned the Italian coast.
Again, in the interest of his nephew, Jerome, Sixtus took Forli, thereby giving offence to Ferrara. He joined Venice in a war against that city, and all Italy became involved. Later, the warlike pontiff again saw his league broken up and Venice and Ferraramaking peace, irrespective of his counsels. He vented his mortification by putting the queen of the Adriatic under the interdict.
In Rome, tlie bloody pope fanned the feud between the Colonna and the Orsini, and almost succeeded in blotting out the name of the Colonna by assassination and judicial murder.
Sixtus has the distinction of having extended the eflieacy of indulgences to souls in purgatory. He was most zealousln distributing briefs of indulgence. ^ The Sixmish Inquisition rejceived his solemn sanction in. 14 1^. Himself a FranciscanTIie augmented the privileges of the Franciscan order in abuUwhicli that order calls its great ocean — mare magnum. He canonized the official biographer of Francis d'Assisi, IJonaventura.
He issuedtwo bulls with reference to the worship of Mary and
^ Infessura, p. 8C.
2 Pastor, II. 610 sqq., Is very cautious in his remarks on the subject of Sixtus' indulgences, ahnost to reticence.