The Poet Prince (44 page)

Now that her uncle had lost his faith, it was up to Felicity to carry on the holy war against those who would continue the blasphemy started here by the Medici five hundred years earlier. She would be the one to
continue Savonarola’s work. There would be a new Renaissance, to be sure, but this rebirth would not be one of Lorenzo’s heresy through the Paschal witch’s blasphemy. It would be a resurrection of the great Savonarola’s efforts to cleanse Florence of sin. She would re-create the bonfire of the vanities, beginning with the commemoration the confraternity was hosting this week in honor of the anniversary of Savonarola’s death.

Having gained permission to create a bonfire in the courtyard behind Santa Felicita, Felicity was challenging confraternity members to gather vanity items, specifically books considered heretical and blasphemous, to feed the flames. She would supply copies of everything Maureen Paschal had ever published. She had versions in English and Italian.

Meanwhile, the American campaign had worked brilliantly. The confraternity members here in Italy had mobilized their sister organizations in the States to attack Maureen Paschal online in every possible forum. Some were hired guns, others were merely faithful followers who were willing to do whatever it took to stamp out such blasphemy as she created. But they had been quick and effective in spreading the rumors created in Rome against Maureen—and inspiring the death threats. The death threats were the icing on the cake, the final, sweet element. When the media ran with the story that Maureen had been threatened, the confraternity’s team hit the Web again with the rumor that Maureen’s publicist had manufactured that rumor to gain more publicity and sympathy. It was a beautifully vicious circle, which appeared to be effectively chipping away at Maureen’s reputation. And it was only the beginning. There was much more to
come.

After Felicity’s last encounter with the blasphemer and her cohort, she was more determined than ever to step up her campaign against their godlessness. Unfortunately, the Antica Torre, where they were living in Florence, was relatively impenetrable. She was still formulating the second half of her plan, the means by which she could eliminate the blasphemy permanently—by eliminating the blasphemer.

The time returns?
she thought.
You bet it does.

Confraternity of the Holy Apparition
Vatican City
present day

F
ATHER GIROLAMO DE PAZZI
was making his final preparations for his departure to Florence. He was tired, so tired, and wanted nothing more than to stay in the sunny sanctity of Rome for the rest of his days. But there were too many pressing issues to be dealt with in Tuscany, and he could no longer sit idle when he knew so much.

Felicity would certainly have to be dealt with, but that was not his first priority. He knew that action was about to be taken to eliminate the Buondelmonti problem, and he would need to be in Florence to deal with the repercussions. The Confraternity of the Holy Apparition had existed for nearly five hundred years, and while its public purpose was to study and celebrate visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it had a deeper, private purpose. The confraternity had become a rogue element operating outside the Vatican, one that made its own determinations about protecting the Church. If a threat was perceived, that threat was systematically eliminated.

Before his stroke, Girolamo de Pazzi had been the most effective and ruthless leader of the confraternity in the last century. There was a time when signing off on the death sentence of any enemy of the Church was effortless. Protecting the faith was necessary, a holy mission that he would not abandon. And while he still believed passionately in his Church, the events of the last three years had changed him. He was no longer willing to take lives quite so quickly or easily. This was what had caused the rift between him and Felicity, indeed between Girolamo and the rest of the confraternity. He had been put out to pasture, essentially, once it was determined that he had been too soft on Maureen Paschal during the Book of Love debacle.

He was a still a venerated elder who was worthy of respect, but he had been retired from making operational decisions for the confraternity. Still, the confraternity’s new leaders in Rome had approached him for urgent consultation on this matter of Vittoria Buondelmonti. Father Girolamo was an expert on the bloodline families, the Order, and all their secrets. Did he believe that Vittoria Buondelmonti was dangerous to the established Church? What was she proposing to do with all this public posturing about her baby? Why was the paternity of this child so important? Their intelligence underground was effective enough to understand that she posed a threat to them, but they didn’t understand the nuances of her plot.

The report Girolamo de Pazzi gave was distressing. It appeared that there was a high-level conspiracy among several of the noble families of Europe to unite behind this child, who they claimed was a messiah—perhaps even the Second Coming of Christ—and there was a clear threat to the Church within that strategy. It appeared to be a very serious threat, as the families involved had access to a great many secrets about the origins of Christianity. They were also in possession of priceless holy relics. Forces within the confraternity had tried for hundreds of years to get their hands on the Libro Rosso and the Spear of Destiny. Their goal was to stop them from ever becoming known beyond the secret societies, to keep their authenticity from ever being proven. The Libro Rosso was the most damaging single piece of evidence against the Church’s authority that existed, whereas the Spear of Destiny held the power of victory over all opposition. Both were priceless and worth fighting for, regardless of the collateral
damage.

The Buondelmonti threat was real, and it was therefore determined that Vittoria and her child must be removed from the game board. Vittoria had been followed and monitored by the confraternity since she made the announcement about her son. When it became known through their advanced intelligence operations that Vittoria was meeting with Bérenger Sinclair in Florence later that night, a plan was put into action.

They could kill three birds with one stone.

Girolamo de Pazzi would not give the order to harm Bérenger, Vittoria, and the child. Those days were over for him. But he knew that there would always be someone within the confraternity leadership who was willing to do whatever was deemed necessary to ensure the safety of the status quo and eliminate any threat. That was what the confraternity attracted, after all: the most fanatical element, the self-appointed soldiers for Christ who would take any action they felt protected their Church.

Vittoria Buondelmonti had gone too far, and she would die as a result, as would the baby and his father. He had no doubt of that, nor could he stop it.

They were deemed to be an unholy trinity that threatened the Church, and they would be eradicated accordingly.

Florence
1477

L
ORENZO SIGHED
heavily and took another large gulp of the strong wine from the elegant goblet on his desk, careful not to spill any on the official document that currently absorbed his complete attention. This particular piece of parchment represented one of the most challenging diplomatic puzzles of his life.

In his role as the head of the Medici Bank, now the most profitable and powerful banking institution in the world, Lorenzo was often petitioned to provide loans that were risky or otherwise unusual. Most often, these requests came from powerful personages: kings, cardinals, or influential merchants who knew how to wield their weight. Lorenzo had learned well by watching his grandfather handle these difficult problems masterfully. He had learned equally from witnessing his father botch these negotiations and create formidable enemies in the mishandling of these requests. Lorenzo understood that balance in
such negotiations was critical. And this particular request, from no less than Francesco della Rovere, was going to be the most difficult he had ever considered.

There was nothing regal about Francesco della Rovere. He was a large man, uncouth and almost completely toothless, and fat in the manner that comes only from massive self-indulgence. There was little about his speech that could be called eloquent, despite the fact that he was well educated. He was clever in the way that all the della Rovere family were renowned to be: shrewd, manipulative, excessively ambitious, and entirely self-serving. This cleverness had lifted them out of the poverty-stricken fishing village where they originated and into the exalted place they currently held in Roman society. And none of the della Rovere clan had raised themselves up quite as high as the gruff, unpleasant, and enormously narcissistic Francesco della Rovere.

In fact, he was no longer known as Francesco della Rovere. Since 1471, he had been known as Pope Sixtus IV.

During his climb to the throne of Saint Peter, the man now known as Sixtus had bribed, traded, finagled, and promised his way through the maze of Roman politics. No others benefited as well as his own family, most specifically his sister’s relatives, the Riario family. Within a few months of attaining the title of Pope Sixtus IV, he bestowed the title of cardinal upon six of his nephews. This action coined a phrase that would be used for centuries into the future to illustrate the corrupt practice of rewarding unworthy family members with positions and power that were far better suited to others. From the Italian word for nephew—
nipote
—evolved the word
nipotismo
. Nepotism.

It was one of these “nephews” that was the source of Lorenzo’s current predicament. There was much smirking when Girolamo Riario was mentioned. While he was recognized as one of the huge brood of Sixtus’ nephews, it was whispered that Girolamo was, in fact, the illegitimate son of the pope. Unlike the other Riario boys, who had some charm and culture, although each was ostentatious and boastful, Girolamo was brash and uncouth, also given to corpulence in a way that showed a tremendous resemblance to his “uncle” the pope. It was often
remarked, albeit in Roman whispers, that Girolamo’s appearance and mannerisms proved that the apple did not fall far from the tree.

That his sister had kept his scandalous secret by claiming Girolamo as her own was one of many reasons that Sixtus was in debt to her and eager to hand out favors to his nephews.

And now the convoluted and often dirty family politics of the della Rovere and Riario family had landed squarely on Lorenzo’s doorstep. These people and their corruption made him shudder with revulsion, and yet they were now the first family of Rome. Lorenzo had made the trek to the Vatican when Sixtus had ascended the throne, to pay his respects and to reaffirm the position of the Medici as the primary bankers to the Curia. They had been so for three generations, since the days when his great-grandfather, Giovanni, had first influenced papal politics by providing strategic loans to the Church. Pope Sixtus had embraced Lorenzo, welcoming him and assuring him that the Medici position was as strong as ever in Rome.

Lorenzo needed it to stay that way. Banking with the Church was a cornerstone of Medici profit. It also strengthened his position in other areas of Europe.

All these factors weighed heavily on Lorenzo’s mind as he considered the papal request before him, which had arrived via messenger from Rome this morning. Pope Sixtus IV was requesting a loan of forty thousand ducats—a huge sum—for his so-called nephew Girolamo. It was a type of real estate loan, as the acquisitive Girolamo wanted to buy the town of Imola to add to his holdings.

The money wasn’t the issue here. The bank could easily afford the loan, and it would be guaranteed by papal authority, so in that regard there was little risk. The complicating factor was the location of Imola and the unstable, aggressive nature of Girolamo himself. Imola was in a strategic position, just outside Bologna, therefore between Florence and the rich Emilia-Romagna region. It was the perfect base from which to expand one’s holdings, if one were inclined to begin conquering and acquiring territories. And from what Lorenzo knew of Girolamo Riario, this was precisely what he was intending. Further, the
largest road connecting Florence to the north ran through Imola and would be entirely controlled by the lord of Imola.

Essentially, if Lorenzo gave this loan to Girolamo Riario, he was endangering surrounding territories, which were under the protection of Florence. His Florence. And that was something he would never do, even under threat from the Curia.

Lorenzo denied the loan. He sent a messenger to Rome with a carefully drafted letter, indicating that the Medici bank was currently undergoing a series of changes in structure, and as a result loans of that amount were on a temporary hold. He was stalling, and everyone knew it—including Pope Sixtus IV.

Rome
1477

“T
HAT MERCHANT SON
of a gout-stricken idiot and a Florentine whore!”

Pope Sixtus roared with anger when Lorenzo’s reply was brought before him. He disrupted the bowl of fruit before him, grapes and cherries flying across the table as he gesticulated wildly. “How dare he re-
fuse me!”

Girolamo Riario was petulant. He picked up one of the grapes and threw it in a fit of pique. “I want Imola. I
need
Imola!”

“I know that, you ingrate,” snapped the pope. “Can’t you see I am working on it? The Medici aren’t the only bankers in Italy. Send for the Pazzi. They are always happy to pick up Lorenzo’s scraps.”

The Pazzi, whose name translated from Tuscan to mean “madmen,” were a rival banking family from Florence who had deeply held jealousies toward the Medici monopoly. No doubt the Pazzi bankers would jump on an opportunity to ingratiate themselves into the papal circle. They were a family possessed of rogue personalities, exacerbated by their envy and their greed. A perfect match for what Sixtus needed at the moment.

“I will get the Pazzi here, then,” Girolamo grumbled in his high-pitched whine of a voice. “But that’s not enough. I want Lorenzo punished for his offense to me . . . er, to you. How dare the Medici put himself above Your Holiness?”