War of The Eight Saints - The Eight Saints

The Eight Saints

The Eight Saints (Italian: otto di santi) may refer to one or both of two, eight-member balía appointed by the Signoria of Florence during the war. When Florence arranged a nonaggression pact with Hawkwood at a cost of 130,000 florins, a special commission of eight citizens was created to levy a one-year, forced loan on the clergy of Florence and Fiesole to cover the sum. A second council of eight men was later created to make the military and diplomatic arrangements necessary to carry on a war against the Pope.

The group identity of the Eight Saints remains a controversial subject. The levy committee is most widely accepted as the otto di santi by scholars, though some argue that otto di santi refers to the war council. The first historical reference to the Eight of War (Italian: otto della guerra) as the otto santi occurs in 1445 with the account of Florentine historian Domenico Buoninsegni; it does not appear in the accounts of contemporaries of the war such as Leonardo Bruni and Giovanni Morelli. Buoninsegni had applied the appellation—used in August 1378 to refer to an eight-member group (Gli Otto Santi del Popolo di Dio) formed by the Ciompi revolt, which ensued immediately after the War of the Eight Saints—to the otto della guerra. In contrast, the moniker is used in the March 31, 1376 bull of excommunication to refer to the otto dei preti (the levy committee, literally meaning "eight priests").

The otto dei preti, appointed July 7, 1375 to carry out the taxation of the clergy for the nonaggression pact included:

The otto della guerra (war council) were appointed August 14, 1376 and consisted of four guild representatives and four members of the nobility.