Good and Evil

The Republic of Florence, like all the other Italian States, suffered severely in the bitter contest between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines--a contest between the civil and the ecclesiastical powers, which began in the eleventh century and extended over three hundred years. The Ghibellines upheld the supremacy of the German Emperors and the claims of the free cities to independence; the Guelphs sided with the Pope in his pretensions to supremacy.

The city of Florence had become greatly depressed by this long-continued struggle, when the Ghibelline family of the Medici, who had risen to wealth under the banker Giovanni de' Medici, came forward as patrons of the people, and began to rise in power, in spite of the utmost efforts of the opposite faction. Giovanni died in 1428, leaving an enormous fortune to his two sons, Cosmo (born in 1383) and Lorenzo (born in 1394).

Cosmo was appointed Gonfaloniere (standard-bearer) in 1434, and gained universal approbation by the magnificence with which he entertained the illustrious guests who came to the Council of Florence in 1439.

The enthusiasm of Cosmo on the subject of Platonic philosophy led him to found the famous Platonic Academy of Florence; his wonderful zeal for Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and other languages, brought about the founding of the Medician Library, and his love of art gave rise to the decorations of St. Marco by Fra Angelico. His intercourse with men of genius caused him to be regarded as a typical patron of the arts and sciences, while in the financial world he was the Rothschild of his time, and so much beloved by the people was he that, in 1464, shortly before his death, the title "Father of his Country" was bestowed upon him by a public decree.

His grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent (1448-1492), pursued the same policy as his grandfather. He encouraged literature and the arts, employed learned men to collect choice books from every part of the known world, and he established printing presses throughout his dominions as soon as the art of printing was invented. He filled his gardens with collections of the remains of ancient art, and it was there that the young Michael Angelo began his studies.

The gardens of the Medici were the beginning of the galleries and museums of Florence, which are still so nobly kept up, and whose treasures seem inexhaustible. In 1512, Giovanni de' Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, ascended the papal throne as Leo X. He was an able man, and made his court one of the most splendid of that time. He was the great patron of Michael Angelo and Raphael.

In order to defray the expenses of building St. Peter's, at Rome, which had been begun by his predecessor, Julius II., Leo X. inaugurated the sale of indulgences (or licenses to sin), by which not only past sins, but those that might afterwards be committed, could be pardoned. Agents were sent into the different countries of Europe to sell these indulgences, and the Pope obtained a great profit from the sale.

Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic professor of theology in the University of Wittenberg, wrote and read in public his famous ninety-five theses, in which he boldly denied the right of the Pope to offer pardon to any but the penitent. This was the beginning of the great religious "Reformation" which convulsed Europe during the sixteenth century.

Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) was married, when only fourteen years of age, to the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Henry II. of France. She ruled France as regent for her sons, Charles IX. and Henry III. Bred in the Italian court, she was true to no party, and faithful to no creed. Siding, as she did, at one time with the Romanists and again with the Protestants, it is to her influence that the civil war is attributed which in the name of religion was waged for thirty-two years, and deluged France with blood. To her, also, as prime instigator, is due the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 24th, 1572, in which 30,000 persons perished.

Marie de' Medici, queen of Henry IV., of France, and regent for her son Louis XIII., also incited a civil war. She died in exile and want, in 1642.

Thus to the Medici family the world is indebted for eminent good and for great evil.

The family became extinct in 1737.