Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 | Page 3

Italian Authors against the Papal Court and the Convents--Superstitious Respect for Relics--Separation between Religion and Morality--Mixture of Contempt and Reverence for the Popes--Gianpaolo Baglioni--Religious Sentiments of the Tyrannicides--Pietro Paolo Boscoli--Tenacity of Religions--The direct Interest of the Italians in Rome--Reverence for the Sacraments of the Church--Opinions pronounced by Englishmen on Italian Immorality--Bad Faith and Sensuality--The Element of the Fancy in Italian Vice--The Italians not Cruel, or Brutal, or Intemperate by Nature--Domestic Murders--Sense of Honor in Italy--Onore and Onesta--General Refinement--Good Qualities of the People--Religious Revivalism P. 447.

CHAPTER IX
.
SAVONAROLA.
The Attitude of Savonarola toward the Renaissance--His Parentage, Birth, and Childhood at Ferrara--His Poem on the Ruin of the World--Joins the Dominicans at Bologna--Letter to his Father--Poem on the Ruin of the Church--Begins to preach in 1482--First Visit to Florence--San Gemignano--His Prophecy--Brescia in 1486--Personal Appearance and Style of Oratory--Effect on his audience--The three Conclusions--His Visions--Savonarola's Shortcomings as a patriotic Statesman--His sincere Belief in his prophetic Calling--Friendship with Pico della Mirandola--Settles in Florence, 1490--Convent of San Marco--Savonarola's Relation to Lorenzo de' Medici--The death of Lorenzo--Sermons of 1493 and 1494--the Constitution of 1495--Theocracy in Florence--Piagnoni, Bigi, and Arrabbiati--War between Savonarola and Alexander VI.--The Signory suspends him from preaching in the Duomo in 1498--Attempts to call a Council--The Ordeal by Fire--San Marco stormed by the Mob--Trial and Execution of Savonarola P. 497.

CHAPTER X
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CHARLES VIII.
The Italian States confront the Great Nations of Europe--Policy of Louis XI. of France--Character of Charles VIII.--Preparations for the Invasion of Italy--Position of Lodovico Sforza--Diplomatic Difficulties in Italy after the Death of Lorenzo de' Medici--Weakness of the Republics--Il Moro--The year 1494---Alfonso of Naples--Inefficiency of the Allies to cope with France--Charles at Lyons is stirred up to the Invasion of Italy by Giuliano della Rovere--Charles at Asti and Pavia--Murder of Gian Galeazzo Sforza--Mistrust in the French Army--Rapallo and Fivizzano--The Entrance into Tuscany--Part played by Piero de' Medici--Charles at Pisa--His Entrance into Florence--Piero Capponi--The March on Rome--Entry into Rome--Panic of Alexander VI.--The March on Naples--The Spanish Dynasty: Alfonso and Ferdinand--Alfonso II. escapes to Sicily--Ferdinand II. takes Refuge in Ischia--Charles at Naples--The League against the French--De Comines at Venice--Charles makes his Retreat by Rome, Siena, Pisa, and Pontremoli--The Battle of Fornovo--Charles reaches Asti and returns to France--Italy becomes the Prize to be fought for by France, Spain, and Germany--Importance of the Expedition of Charles VIII. P. 537.
* * * * *
APPENDICES.
No. I.--The Blood-madness of Tyrants 589
No. II.--Translations of Nardi, 'Istorie di Firenze,' lib. l. cap. 4; and of Varchi, 'Storia Fiorentina,' lib. iii. caps. 20, 21, 22; lib. ix. caps. 48, 49, 46 592
No. III.--The Character of Alexander VI., from Guicciardini's 'Storia Fiorentina,' cap. 27 603
No. IV.--Religious Revivals in Medi?val Italy 606
No. V.--The 'Sommario della Storia d' Italia dal 1511 al 1527, by Francesco Vettori 624

RENAISSANCE IN ITALY.

CHAPTER I
.
THE SPIRIT OF THE RENAISSANCE.
Difficulty of fixing Date--Meaning of Word Renaissance--The Emancipation of the Reason--Relation of Feudalism to the Renaissance--Medi?val Warnings of the Renaissance--Abelard, Bacon, Joachim of Flora, the Proven?als, the Heretics, Frederick II.--Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio--Physical Energy of the Italians--The Revival of Learning--The Double Discovery of the World and of Man--Exploration of the Universe and of the Globe--Science--The Fine Arts and Scholarship--Art Humanizes the Conceptions of the Church--Three Stages in the History of Scholarship--The Age of Desire--The Age of Acquisition--The Legend of Julia's Corpse--The Age of the Printers and Critics--The Emancipation of the Conscience--The Reformation and the Modern Critical Spirit--Mechanical Inventions--The Place of Italy in the Renaissance.
The word Renaissance has of late years received a more extended significance than that which is implied in our English equivalent--the Revival of Learning. We use it to denote the whole transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern World; and though it is possible to assign certain limits to the period during which this transition took place, we cannot fix on any dates so positively as to say--between this year and that the movement was accomplished. To do so would be like trying to name the days on which spring in any particular season began and ended Yet we speak of spring as different from winter and from summer. The truth is, that in many senses we are still in mid-Renaissance. The evolution has not been completed. The new life is our own and is progressive. As in the transformation scene of some great Masque, so here the waning and the waxing shapes are mingled; the new forms, at first shadowy and filmy, gain upon the old; and now both blend; and now the old scene fades into the background; still, who shall say whether the new scene be finally set up?
In like manner we cannot refer the whole phenomena of the Renaissance to any one cause or circumstance, or limit them within the field of any one department of human knowledge. If we ask the students of art what they mean by the Renaissance, they will reply that it was the revolution