Commentary on the Pazzi Conspiracy

...that all detested this slaughter, crying out that it was a disgraceful crime. That an excellent young man, the delight of the Florentine youth, had been killed by such wickedness, such deceit, and such treachery, by those whom it least of all should have been. That a family so arrogant and so prone to crime, hateful to gods and men alike, had perpetrated such a deed. The memory of his virtue recently stirred the plebs. For when, a few years earlier, that equestrian contest of armored knights was celebrated, the wondrous virtue of Giuliano had been manifest, and he had carried home the palm and the spoils. This matter greatly reconciled the spirits of the commoners. To this was added the indignity of the crime. For nothing so wicked could be said or imagined that could equal the atrocity of this crime. Everyone grumbled that a pious, innocent young man had been cruelly slaughtered in the temple, between the altars and the sacred rites. That hospitality was violated, the sacred things were violated, the temple was polluted with human blood. And that Lorenzo himself—the one man upon whom the entire Florentine republic rested, that same Lorenzo in whom all the hopes and wealth of the people lay—had been sought with the sword; that, they clamored, was truly most disgraceful. Now from all the municipalities, as each was nearest to the city, a great force of armed men began to flow into the forum in trivia and especially into the Medici house. Each one showed his own zeal for him. Citizens in droves, together with their clients, promised their service, their strength, and all their resources. They repeated that the public and private safety of all of them hung on Lorenzo alone. It was possible to see for several continuous days, from everywhere into the Laurentian house, food...