Note 386 — LORENZO DI PIERO DE’ MEDICI (continued 4)

Laurentii Medicis Vita, op. cit. ii. 293. (By some mistake Fabroni gives the date as August 1492. Lorenzo died on April 8 of that year.) During a visit to Rome in 1486 Pico della Mirandola had promulgated nine hundred theses on theology, philosophy, magic, and the Cabbalah, which he offered to maintain in public disputation. Heresies contained in them were pointed out by his enemies and Innocent VIII. issued a Brief against those considered as dangerous. Pico fled to France and published an apology protesting his orthodoxy, but it was only by Lorenzo’s influence that the Pope was induced to suspend proceedings. Pico then returned to Florence and Lorenzo, as this and the two former letters show, pressed the Pope hard to grant his friend a full pardon.