DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71556#0121
PATRIOTISM OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
87
tional rights, and to stifle altogether the indepen-
dent functions of their ancient republic.
Soon after his death, this party, availing itself of
a favourable occasion, excited the people to cast off
the yoke thus imposed upon them; an act which
cost Florence a struggle extending through thirty-
eight years, and which at last terminated disas-
trously for the cause of liberty, by the establish-
ment of a hated tyranny in the person of the noto-
rious Alessandro de' Medici.
When this struggle commenced, Michael Angelo's
feelings of gratitude and affection to the memory
of Lorenzo were fresh and ardent, and he would
have deemed it almost a parricidal act to have
taken any part against the interests of his patron's
family. Nevertheless, in his heart of hearts, he
was a partizan of the old republic ; and in after life,
when the same struggle was revived, and the legi-
timate descendants of Lorenzo had all passed from
the stage, finding himself at full liberty to exercise
his independent judgment, he ranged himself, with
all the fervour of patriotism, in the ranks of those
who were prepared, at any sacrifice, to maintain
the liberties of Florence. It therefore becomes the
duty of his biographer briefly to sketch the mode
in which the ancient constitution of the republic
was practically superseded by the Medici.
After Florence became, in the course of the
twelfth century, an independent republic, its insti-
tutions gradually verged towards intense demo-
04
87
tional rights, and to stifle altogether the indepen-
dent functions of their ancient republic.
Soon after his death, this party, availing itself of
a favourable occasion, excited the people to cast off
the yoke thus imposed upon them; an act which
cost Florence a struggle extending through thirty-
eight years, and which at last terminated disas-
trously for the cause of liberty, by the establish-
ment of a hated tyranny in the person of the noto-
rious Alessandro de' Medici.
When this struggle commenced, Michael Angelo's
feelings of gratitude and affection to the memory
of Lorenzo were fresh and ardent, and he would
have deemed it almost a parricidal act to have
taken any part against the interests of his patron's
family. Nevertheless, in his heart of hearts, he
was a partizan of the old republic ; and in after life,
when the same struggle was revived, and the legi-
timate descendants of Lorenzo had all passed from
the stage, finding himself at full liberty to exercise
his independent judgment, he ranged himself, with
all the fervour of patriotism, in the ranks of those
who were prepared, at any sacrifice, to maintain
the liberties of Florence. It therefore becomes the
duty of his biographer briefly to sketch the mode
in which the ancient constitution of the republic
was practically superseded by the Medici.
After Florence became, in the course of the
twelfth century, an independent republic, its insti-
tutions gradually verged towards intense demo-
04