long as the enthusiasm inspired by the monk lasted, as long as his
personal influence endured, the Constitution of the Grand Council
worked well. After his death it was found that the machinery was too
cumbrous. While adopting the Venetian form of government, the
Florentines had omitted one essential element--the Doge. By referring
measures of immediate necessity to the Grand Council, the republic
lost precious time. Dangerous publicity, moreover, was incurred; and
so large a body often came to no firm resolution. There was no
permanent authority in the State; no security that what had been
deliberated would be carried out with energy; no titular chief, who
could transact affairs with foreign potentates and their ambassadors.
Accordingly, in 1502, it was decreed that the Gonfalonier should hold
office for life--should be in fact a Doge. To this important post of
permanent president Piero Soderini was appointed; and in his hands
were placed the chief affairs of the republic.

At this point Florence, after all her vicissitudes, had won her way to
something really similar to the Venetian Constitution. Yet the
similarity existed more in form than in fact. The government of
burghers in a Grand Council, with a Senate of forty, and a Gonfalonier
for life, had not grown up gradually and absorbed into itself the
vital forces of the commonwealth. It was a creation of inventive
intelligence, not of national development, in Florence. It had against
it the jealousy of the Ottimati, who felt themselves overshadowed by
the Gonfalonier; the hatred of the Palleschi, who yearned for the
Medici; the discontent of the working classes, who thought the
presence of a Court in Florence would improve trade; last, but not
least, the disaffection of the Compagnacci, who felt they could not
flourish to their heart's content in a free commonwealth. Moreover,
though the name of liberty was on every lip, though the Florentines
talked, wrote, and speculated more about constitutional independence
than they had ever done, the true energy of free institutions had
passed from the city. The corrupt government of Cosimo and Lorenzo
bore its natural fruit now. Egotistic ambition and avarice supplanted
patriotism and industry. It is necessary to comprehend these
circumstances, in order that the next revolution may be clearly
understood.

XXI

During the ten years which elapsed between 1502 and 1512, Piero
Soderini administered Florence with an outwar