Rival bankers tried to assassinate Florence's rulers during Easter Mass

In 1478, the Pazzi family conspired with a disgruntled pope's nephew to kill Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici inside Florence Cathedral, timing the attack to the moment the priest raised the host at Mass so the assassins would know when heads were bowed. Giuliano was stabbed to death, but Lorenzo survived and crushed the conspiracy within weeks, executing plotters from the cathedral's windows and tightening Medici control over the city.

— Angelo Poliziano (contemporary account), Pazzi Conspiracy — 26 April 1478