“Once all was ready, the archbishop of Milan ordered the leading citizens of Bologna to be arrested as though they were guilty of a conspiracy. He extracted from them under torture, as he had intended, a confession that they had held discussions with the Florentine People about throwing off his lordship and freeing the city. This became the pretext for war. Is there anything more common than for tyrants to invent false reasons in place of true ones?” — Leonardo Bruni, History of the Florentine People, vol II, book VII