In
this country, finally, where individuality of every sort attained its
highest development, we find instances of that ideal and absolute
wickedness which delights in crimes for their own sake, and not as
means to an end, or at any rate as means to ends for which our
psychology has no measure.
Among these appalling figures we may first notice certain of the
'Condottieri,' such as Braccio da Montone, Tiberto Brandolino, and that
Werner von Urslingen whose silver hauberk bore the inscription: 'The
enemy of God, of pity and of mercy.' This class of men offers us some
of the earliest instances of criminals deliberately repudiating every
moral restraint. Yet we shall be more reserved in our judgement of them
when we remember that the worst part of their guilt--in the estimate of
those who record it-- lay in their defiance of spiritual threats and
penalties, and that to this fact is due that air of horror with which
they are represented as surrounded. In the case of Braccio, the hatred
of the Church went so far that he was infuriated at the sight of monks
at their psalms, and had them thrown down from the top of a tower; but
at the same time 'he was loyal to his soldiers and a great general.' As
a rule, the crimes of the 'Condottieri' were committed for the sake of
some definite advantage, and must be attributed to a position in which
men could not fail to be demoralized.
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