Religion

Primary Source

The Bianchi in Florence, 1399

. . . In these extraordinary times, it appears that nearly all of the citizens of Florence, as well as those subject to the city and residents of surrounding cities and regions, have put on white linen garments, and after making confession and receiving the sacraments, have joined in processions. They have gone outside of the city to various places, piously singing lauds, engaging in acts of penitence, abstaining from meat for nine consecutive days, and from wine for another day, not sleeping in beds. The air vibrating with their voices, they have petitioned the Almighty for peace and mercy. . . . The lord priors are firmly convinced that all of this has proceeded from divine inspiration, since where and when the spirit wishes, it animates many to give alms in bread and wine to the multitude, and the penitents who have come to Florence . . . have been warmly welcomed.

Among the works of mercy, [the priors] have considered one, namely, the visitation and subsidizing of prisoners in the Stinche . . . who have been incarcerated for debts . . . and who may be treated with mercy and liberated from the misery of imprisonment. They realized, however, that this cannot be done without suspending those laws which prohibit this, and so desiring to open the way to this pious and holy objective, they have decided on the following measures. . . . [The provision suspends, until October 15, those laws which limit the authority of the priors and their colleges to release prisoners from jail.]

Taken from Brucker, The Society of Renaissance Florence, pp. 174-75. The translation is by Brucker. The original is in Archivo di Stato, Firenze, Provvisioni, 88, fols. 147v-148v, September 10, 1399.