nged with
the others from the windows of the civic buildings. Sixtus made the
execution, or the "murder" as he called it, of Salviati, his pretext for
calling on his allies to make war on Florence. When he saw, however, that
this action was only throwing the city more completely than ever into the
arms of the Medici, he changed his tactics and said he had no quarrel
with "his well-beloved children of Florence," but only with "that son of
iniquity and child of perdition, Lorenzo de' Medici," and those who had
aided and abetted him, among whom the humanists were expressly mentioned.
Against Lorenzo and his associates a brief of excommunication was
launched, and the city was urged to regain the papal favor by
surrendering the offenders.

The result might have been predicted. The "brief" only tended to knit the
bonds of association closer between Lorenzo and the "City of the Flower,"
while the humanists to a man rallied round their patron. Even the
choleric Filelfo, now a very old man, who had been on anything but
friendly terms with the Medici, addressed two bitter satires to Sixtus,
in which the Pope was styled the real aggressor, while the great humanist
offered to write a history of the whole transaction, that posterity might
know the true facts. The only power which gave its adhesion to Sixtus was
Naples, while Venice, Ferrara, and Milan declared for Florence.

Thus commenced that tedious war which not only ruined so many Florentine
merchants, but retarded the cause of learning so materially. When the
people were groaning under heavy taxes, when all coin which Lorenzo
could scrape together had to be poured out to pay the _condottieri_, or
soldiers of fortune, by whom the battles of Florence were fought, there
was of course but short commons for the humanists who had made Florence
their home. Many of those adapted themselves to circumstances, but
others, to whom money was their god, left the banks of the Arno for those
southern cities where the pinch of scarcity did not prevail.

In this campaign the Florentines gained but little prestige. The larger
share of the cost was quietly suffered by their allies to fall on the
city of bankers. The Milanese were occupied with their own affairs,
owing to the _coup d'etat_ accomplished by Lodovico Sforza. The Duke of
Ferrara withdrew owing to some disagreement with the condottieri
engaged by Lorenzo. The Venetians only despatched a small contingent
under Carlo Montone and Diefeb