The main theme of Little Flowers is the fact that all friars had to undergo poverty to become holy, however, they would have to spend some time in purgatory to pay for their already forgiven sins. Someone in the story, Pacifico, had a vision of brother Umile rising up into heaven without going through purgatory. One day, while people were moving Umile’s bones, Pacifico washed them in wine and kissed them. The people moving the bones thought he was just being weird, until he told them of his vision. They immediately understood. However, if you went through purgatory before you went to heaven, what hope was there for a regular person to go to heaven without going through an indefinite time in purgatory? My guess is no, not at all.

According to Wikipedia, “The First Italian War, sometimes referred to as the Italian War of 1494 or Charles VIII’s Italian War, was the opening phase of the Italian Wars.” The members of the Italian War were Charles VIII of France and Milanese aid against the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and an alliance of Italian powers known as the League of Venice lead by Pope Alexander VI.

The war began when Charles VIII of France was encouraged to invade Italy while using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. Charles VIII began conquering city after city leaving all of the other Italian states shocked at these attacks. Pope Alexander VI finally had enough of this and formed the League of Venice. Together, the League of Venice defeated France in the Battle of Fornovo and drew them back. Charles VIII retreated back to France and died before he could launch another attack on the Italian states.