of them in Florence has bred much mischief. For any one reading the
history of our city may perceive, how many calumnies have at all times
been aimed against those of its citizens who have taken a leading part
in its affairs. Thus, of one it would be said that he had plundered
the public treasury, of another, that he had failed in some enterprise
because he had been bribed; of a third, that this or the other disaster
had originated in his ambition. Hence hatred sprung up on every side,
and hatred growing to division, these led to factions, and these again
to ruin. But had there existed in Florence some procedure whereby
citizens might have been impeached, and calumniators punished,
numberless disorders which have taken there would have been prevented.
For citizens who were impeached, whether condemned or acquitted,
would have had no power to injure the State; and they would have been
impeached far seldomer than they have been calumniated; for calumny, as
I have said already, is an easier matter than impeachment.

Some, indeed, have made use of calumny as a means for raising themselves
to power, and have found their advantage in traducing eminent citizens
who withstood their designs; for by taking the part of the people, and
confirming them in their ill-opinion of these great men, they made them
their friends. Of this, though I could give many instances, I shall
content myself with one. At the siege of Lucca the Florentine army was
commanded by Messer Giovanni Guicciardini, as its commissary, through
whose bad generalship or ill-fortune the town was not taken. But
whatever the cause of this failure, Messer Giovanni had the blame; and
the rumour ran that he had been bribed by the people of Lucca. Which
calumny being fostered by his enemies, brought Messer Giovanni to very
verge of despair; and though to clear himself he would willingly have
given himself up to the Captain of Justice he found he could not, there
being no provision in the laws of the republic which allowed of his