hesitate, even in his presence, to assert their own independence, and, casting the Florentine ensign, the Marzocco, into the Arno, made instant preparations for war. Between 1499 and 1505 they heroically withstood three sieges and repulsed three attacking armies. But their adversaries always returned to the assault, and, what was worse, yearly laid waste their territories and destroyed all their crops. Soderini, who was perpetual gonfalonier of Florence, and Machiavelli, the secretary of the Ten, urged on the war. In 1509 Florence encamped her forces on three sides of the distressed city, which at last, reduced to extremity by famine, was compelled to surrender on the 8th of June 1509. Thenceforth the Florentines remained lords of Pisa. But now, mainly owing to the efforts of Soderini and Machiavelli, the conquerors showed great magnanimity. They brought with them large stores of provisions, which were freely distributed to all, they tried to succour the suffering populace in every way, and gave other assistance to the wealthier classes. Nevertheless, emigration continued even on a larger scale than in 1406, and the real history of Pisa may be said to have ended. In Naples, in Palermo, in all parts of Italy, Switzerland and the south of France, we still find the names of Pisan families who quitted their beloved home at that time. The Florentines immediately built a new citadel, and this was a great bitterness to the Pisans. The Medici, however, remained well disposed towards the city. Leo X. was an active patron of the university, but it again declined after his death. The grand duke Cosmo I., a genuine statesman, not only restored the university, but instituted the “uffizio dei fossi,” or drainage office for the reclamation of marsh lands, and founded the knighthood of St Stephen. This order played a noble part in the protection of Tuscan commerce, by fighting the Barbary pirates and establishing the prestige of the grand-ducal navy (see Medici). Under the succeeding Medici, Pisa’s fortunes steadily declined. Ferdinand I. initiated a few public works there, and above all restored the cathedral, which had been partly destroyed by fire in 1595. These dreary times, however, are brightened by one glorious name—that of Galileo Galilei.
The population of Pisa within the walls had been reduced in 1551 to 8574 souls, and by 1745 it had only risen to the number of 12,406. Under the house of Lorraine, or more correctly during the reign of that enlightened reformer the grand duke Peter Leopold (1765–1790), Pisa shared in the general prosperity of Tuscany, and its population constantly increased. By 1840 it contained 21,670 souls, exclusive of the suburbs and outlying districts.
Authorities.—Paolo Tronci, Annali di Pisa, edited by E. V. Montazio (2 vols, Lucca, 1842–1843), which comes down to 1840; Ranieri Grassi, Pisa e le sue adiacenze (Pisa, 1851), which is a useful historical guide; Roncioni, “Istorie Pisane,” in the Archivio storico italiano, vol vi., pt. 1; “Cronache Pisane,” in the same Archivio, vol. vi., pt. 2, for the early constitution of the city, see G. Volpe’s Studii sulle istitutioni, comunali di Pisa (Pisa, 1902), and for the laws, F. Bonaini’s Statuti inediti della città di Pisa (3 vols., Florence, 1851, &c.). The maritime and commercial history of the republic is dealt with in A Schaube’s Das Konsulat des Meeres in Pisa (Leipzig, 1888) and in Pawinski’s Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Konsulats in den Communen Nord- und Mittel-Italiens (Berlin, 1867); for the monuments and inscriptions see A. Da Morrona, Pisa illustrata (Leghorn, 1812) and G. R. de Fleury’s Les Monuments de Pise au moyen âge (Paris, 1866); also Repetti’s Dizionario geografico della Toscana, s.v. “Pisa.” For Dante’s connexion with Pisa, see Dante e i Pisani, by Giovanni Sforza (Pisa, 1873). Among the more recent historical guides to Pisa of a popular character is The Story of Pisa and Lucca, by Janet Ross and Nellie Erichsen, in Dent’s “Medieval Towns” (London, 1907), and T. B. Supino’s Pisa, in the “Italia artistica Series.”) (P. V.)
PISA, COUNCIL OF (1409) The great schism of the west
had already lasted thirty years, and the efforts which had been
made to restore unity within the Church by the simultaneous
resignation of the two rival pontiffs had been in vain, when in the
spring of 1408, the state of affairs being desperate, the idea arose
of assembling a council to effect a union without the co-operation
of the popes. The initiative came from those cardinals who had
one after the other seceded either from Gregory XII. or
Benedict XIII. They were forestalled by the popes, who each
summoned a council, the former to Cividale (in Friuli), the
latter to Perpignan, so the dissident cardinals sent out antedated
letters inviting Christendom to assemble at Pisa on the 25th
of March 1409. Their appeal met with a response in a great
part of Italy, France, Navarre, Portugal and England, and in
Germany in the states subject to Wenceslas king of the Romans,
the electors of Cologne and Mainz, the margrave of Brandenburg,
&c. For a time the number of the fathers exceeded five
hundred.
The day after the opening of the council, proceedings were started against the two popes, who, it was agreed, were to be eliminated. An act of accusation, containing in 37 articles the chief complaints against them, was read out to the people; not only their policy, but their orthodoxy was attacked, and there was even an insinuation of sorcery. The reason is, that in order to depose them with some show of legality, it was necessary, as a preliminary, to convict them of heresy, and it began to be seen that their tenacity of power, and the ruses by which they evaded the necessity of abdicating, however harmful might be their consequences, did not in themselves constitute a clearly-defined heresy. On the 5th of June 1409 was read the definitive sentence: that as heretics, and therefore separated from the Church, Pedro de Luna (Benedict XIII.) and Angelo Corrario (Gregory XII.) were ipso facto deposed from any office; they must not be obeyed, nor assisted, nor harboured. In the course of the rejoicings which followed this sentence among the populace of Pisa, occurred the somewhat scandalous event of the burning of two images crowned with parchment mitres, representing Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. It was in vain that the ambassadors of Benedict XIII. presented themselves at Pisa. The crowd greeted their arrival with mockery and derision, and being treated as the envoys of heretics they escaped without having obtained a hearing.
In order to complete their task the cardinals present at Pisa, authorized by delegation of the council, shut themselves up in conclave, and elected one of their number, Peter Philarges, cardinal of Milan, as the new pope, who assumed the name of Alexander V. They had hoped to save the Church, but unfortunately the result of their efforts, generous as they were, was that the schism increased in bitterness, and that instead of the unity for which the Church craved, three popes continued to flourish. Both the deposed pontiffs protested against the legality of the council of Pisa; each had numerous partisans, and the thesis, constructed rather to meet the exigencies of the case, which attributed to a synod assembled by the cardinals the right of constituting itself judge of a sovereign pontiff, was far from being established.
Originally the council of Pisa was to have occupied itself not only with effecting the union, but also with the reform of the Church. As a matter of fact, it confined itself to expressing certain desiderata in a “libellus supplicatorius” which it submitted to the new pope. Alexander V. only partially acceded to these demands, many of which constituted serious encroachments on the prerogative of the Holy See; he then declared the work of reform suspended, and dissolved the council (August 7, 1409).
See Jacques Lenfant, Histoire du concile de Pise (Utrecht, 1731); Mansi, Concil., xxvii., F. Stuhr, Die Organisation und Geschäftsordnung des Pisaner und Konstanzer Konzils (Schwerin, 1891); N. Valois, La France et le grand schisme d'occident, iv. 3–107, 175 seq. (Paris, 1902). (N. V.)
PIŚĀCA LANGUAGES, the name which has been given to a
family of languages spoken immediately to the south of the
Hindu Kush, and north of the frontier of British India. The
family includes the group of Kāfir languages spoken in Kafiristān,
Khowar, spoken in the Chitral country, and the group of Shīnā
languages, which includes the Shīnā of Gilgit, Kōhistānī, spoken
in the Kohistans of the Indus and Swat rivers, and Kashmiri.
Of all these Kashmiri is the only one which has received any
literary cultivation, and of which the number of speakers is
known. The Piśāca languages are Aryan by origin, but are
neither Iranian nor Indo-Aryan. (See Indo-Aryan Languages
and Kashmiri.)
(G. A. Gr.)
