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1478 Assassination Solved. The Humanist Did It. By FELICIA R. LEE On April 26, 1478, Lorenzo de' Medici (who escaped) and his brother Giuliano (who died) were repeatedly attacked with knives by a gang of men who invaded the Duomo cathedral in Florence during a high Mass. It was part of a plot against the powerful Medici family, de facto rulers in the Florentine republic for hundreds of years. Now a Wesleyan University scholar says he has cracked the 500-year-old case with the help of a recently discovered coded letter. For hundreds of years historians have known the plot was...

Italy's Medici Murder Plot Solved By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Lorenzo dei Medici Feb. 24, 2004 — One of the most notorious crimes of the Renaissance, the attempted assassination of Florence's grandest son, Lorenzo dei Medici, has been solved more than 500 years later. Known as the Pazzi conspiracy, the plot was led by Francesco dei Pazzi, whose banking family had resented for years the Medici climb to power. The Pazzi plotted to kill Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano during a High Mass in the city's cathedral in April 1478. Wounded, Lorenzo managed to escape and barricade himself behind the...

[This is part of Catholic Analysis' special series on Pope Alexander VI. This part, the fifth, explains Alexander's connections with the Italians. Read the fourth part.] Once his installment was settled, the pope set about making many changes. Alexander was a reformer. He despised the corruption prevalent in some ranks of clergy, and so he proclaimed, "We are well aware that morals have notably fallen back. No longer can we tolerate the way in which the former salutary measures instituted by our predecessors to keep sensuality and avarice within bounds have been violated so that we fall headlong into corruption....