ch of St. Stephen,
with the permission of Lorenzo Ridolfi and Francesco Gianfigliazzi, both
members of the Signory. Giovanni de' Medici was not among them either
because being under suspicion he was not invited or that entertaining
different views he was unwilling to interfere.

Rinaldo degli Albizzi addressed the assembly, describing the condition
of the city, and showing how by their own negligence it had again fallen
under the power of the plebeians, from whom it had been wrested by their
fathers in 1381. He reminded them of the iniquity of the government
which was in power from 1378 to 1381, and that all who were then present
had to lament, some a father, others a grandfather, put to death by its
tyranny. He assured them they were now in the same danger, and that the
city was sinking under the same disorders. The multitude had already
imposed a tax of its own authority; and would soon, if not restrained
by greater force or better regulations, appoint the magistrates, who, in
this case, would occupy their places, and overturn the government which
for forty-two years had ruled the city with so much glory; the citizens
would then be subject to the will of the multitude, and live disorderly
and dangerous, or be under the command of some individual who might make
himself prince. For these reasons he was of opinion, that whoever loved
his country and his honor must arouse himself, and call to mind the
virtue of Bardo Mancini, who, by the ruin of the Alberti, rescued the
city from the dangers then impending; and that the cause of the audacity
now assumed by the multitude was the extensive Squittini or Pollings,
which, by their negligence, were allowed to be made; for thus the palace
had become filled with low men. He therefore concluded, that the
only means of remedying the evil was to restore the government to the
nobility, and diminish the authority of the minor trades by reducing the
companies from fourteen to seven, which would give the plebeians less
authority in the Councils, both by the reduction in their number and
by increasing the authority of the great; who, on account of former
enmities, would be disinclined to favor them. He added, that it is
a good thing to know how to avail themselves of men according to the
times; and that as their fathers had used the plebeians to reduce the
influence of the great, that now, the great having been humbled, and the
plebeians become insolent, it was well to restrain the insole