ior;
and those formerly far beneath them were now become their equals. No
respect or deference was paid to them; they were often ridiculed and
derided, and frequently heard themselves and the republic mentioned in
the open streets without the least deference; thus they found it was not
Cosmo but themselves that had lost the government. Cosmo appeared not to
notice these matters; and whenever any subject was proposed in favor
of the people he was the first to support it. But the greatest cause
of alarm to the higher classes, and his most favorable opportunity of
retaliation, was the revival of the catasto, or property-tax of 1427, so
that individual contributions were determined by statute, and not by a
set of persons appointed for its regulation.

This law being re-established, and a magistracy created to carry it into
effect, the nobility assembled, and went to Cosmo to beg he would rescue
them and himself from the power of the plebeians, and restore to the
government the reputation which had made himself powerful and them
respected. He replied, he was willing to comply with their request, but
wished the law to be obtained in the regular manner, by consent of the
people, and not by force, of which he would not hear on any account.
They then endeavored in the councils to establish a new balia, but did
not succeed. On this the grandees again came to Cosmo, and most humbly
begged he would assemble the people in a general council or parliament,
but this he refused, for he wished to make them sensible of their great
mistake; and when Donato Cocchi, being Gonfalonier of Justice, proposed
to assemble them without his consent, the Signors who were of Cosmo's
party ridiculed the idea so unmercifully, that the man's mind actually
became deranged, and he had to retire from office in consequence.
However, since it is undesirable to allow matters to proceed beyond
recovery, the Gonfalon of Justice being in the hands of Luca Pitti,
a bold-spirited man, Cosmo determined to let him adopt what course he
thought proper, that if any trouble should arise it might be imputed
to Luca and not to himself. Luca, therefore, in the beginning of his
magistracy, several times proposed to the people the appointment of
a new balia; and, not succeeding, he threatened the members of the
councils with injurious and arrogant expressions, which were shortly
followed by corresponding conduct; for in the month of August, 1458, on
the eve of Saint Lorenzo,