Pazzi Conspiracy

A Word on Revenge

I have taken time to narrate these rather grisly events to show that there was more to this business of supressing the revolt than mere personal retribution. The repeated hangings from the Signoria tower were not legally necessary (though they were legal). Nor were they traditional. These were the acts of a government that had had a nasty fright and was making sure that it asserted its authority in a public way. The actions of the mob show that the people themselves were behaving in ritualized ways, almost like exorcising a demon. It was not enough to kill the enemy, it was necessary to humiliate the enemy. By the acts of ritualized mockery, the commune was demonstrating to itself that this enemy was not a threat.