of the tyrants against their subjects and the
members of their own families had produced a correlative order of crime
in the people over whom they tyrannized. Cruelty was met by conspiracy.
Tyrannicide became honorable; and the proverb, 'He who gives his own
life can take a tyrant's,' had worked itself into popular language. At
this point it may be well to glance at the opinions concerning public
murder which prevailed in Italy. Machiavelli, in the _Discorsi_ iii. 6,
discusses the whole subject with his usual frigid and exhaustive
analysis. It is no part of his critical method to consider the morality
of the matter. He deals with the facts of history scientifically. The
esteem in which tyrannicide was held at Florence is proved by the
erection of Donatello's Judith in 1495, at the gate of the Palazzo
Pubblico, with this inscription, _exemplum salutis publicae cives
posuere_. All the political theorists agree that to rid a state of its
despot is a virtuous act. They only differ about its motives and its
utility. In Guicciardini's Reggimento di Firenze (Op. Ined. vol. ii. pp.
53, 54, 114) the various motives of tyrannicide are discussed, and it is
concluded that _pochissimi sono stati quelli che si siano mossi
meramente per amore della liberta della sua patria, a' quali si conviene
suprema laude_.[1] Donato Giannotti (Opere, vol. i. p. 341) bids the
conspirator consider whether the mere destruction of the despot will
suffice to restore his city to true liberty and good government--a
caution by which Lorenzino de' Medici in his assassination of Duke
Alessandro might have profited; for he killed one tyrant in order only
to make room for another. Lorenzino's own Apology (Varchi, vol. iii. pp.
283-295) is an important document, as showing that the murderer of a
despot counted on the sympathy of honorable men. So, too, is the verdict
of Boscolo's confessor (Arch. Stor. vol. i. p. 309), who pronounced that
conspiracy against a tyrant was no crime. Nor did the demoralization of
the age stop here. Force, which had been substituted for Law in
government, became, as it were, the mainspring of society. Murders,
poisoning, rapes, and treasons were common incidents of private as of
public life.[2] In cities like Naples bloodguilt could be atoned at an
inconceivably low rate. A man's life was worth scarcely more than that
of a horse. The palaces of the nobles swarmed with professional
cut-throats, and the great ecclesiastics claimed for