He only undertook the reorganization of the State for the reason that
otherwise his enemies would have got the government into their own
hands. It is unfair to judge him by the semi-democratic constitution of
the beginning of the year 1495, which was neither better nor worse than
other Florentine constitutions.
He was at bottom the most unsuitable man who could be found for such a
work. His idea was a theocracy, in which all men were to bow in blessed
humility before the Unseen, and all conflicts of passion wert not even
to be able to arise. His whole mind is written in that inscription on
the Palazzo della Signoria, the substance of which was his maxim as
early as 1495, and which was solemnly renewed by his partisans in 1527:
'Jesus Christus Rex populi Florentini S.P.Q. decreto creatus.' He stood
in no more relation to mundane affairs and their actual conditions than
any other inhabitant of a monastery. Man, according to him, has only to
attend to those things which make directly for his salvation.
This temper comes out clearly in his opinions on ancient literature:
'The only good thing which we owe to Plato and Aristotle, is that they
brought forward many arguments which we can use against the heretics.
Yet they and other philosophers are now in Hell. An old woman knows
more about the Faith than Plato.
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