Savonarola 
 
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 SAVONAROLA: 
 
 HIS LIFE AXD TIMES. 
 
 BT / 
 
 WILLIAM e/cLAEK, M.A., 
 
 PREBEXDAKT OF WK.I.LS AM) VICAR OF TAUNTOX. 
 
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 NEW YORK : POTT, Y'OUNG AND CO. 
 1878. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
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PEEFACE. 
 
 The life and character of Savonarola have been 
 supposed to present no ordinary difficulties to the 
 historian. From the day of his death, nay, more, 
 from the day of his power in Florence up to our own 
 times, opinions the most diverse have been enter- 
 tained respecting his character, his motives, his 
 conduct. While his enemies have denounced him 
 as a rebel against the Sovereign Pontiff — in later 
 times they have hardly dared to call him a heretic 
 — and as a disturber of the Commonwealth, his 
 followers and admirers have regarded him as a saint 
 and a hero, and have venerated his memory as thafc 
 of a martyr. 
 
 The supporters of despotism, ecclesiasticai and 
 civil, have cherished a feeling of bitter enmity 
 
 h 
 
iv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 against the man wlio Lad such an ardent love of 
 liberty ; and they have been joined by the prophets 
 of scepticism, who have had nothing but contempt 
 and hatred for one who was so powerful a witness for 
 religion and for God. 
 
 According to the sceptic Bayle, he was a ridiculous 
 and base impostor, who richly deserved the fate that 
 befell him. According to Koscoe, who found it diffi- 
 cult to believe anything good of one who was so 
 consistent and steadfast an opponent of his idolized 
 Medici, he was an arrogant and ambitious priest, 
 half impostor, and half fanatic. The errors of Koscoe 
 .were partly traditional, partly depended upon his 
 defective point of view, and partly arose from his 
 being unacquainted with many of the original docu- 
 ments which throw light upon the age of which 
 he wrote. 
 
 It was only quite lately that an attempt was made 
 to rewrite the history of Savonarola and his times 
 on the basis of contemporary documents, and the 
 testimony of contemporary writers. Eudelbach was 
 the first who seriously undertook this work, and he 
 accomplished his task with German industry and 
 laboriousness. Although he has considerably de- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 V 
 
 tracted from the value of his book by his persistent 
 attempt to prove that Savonarola was a Protestant, 
 all subsequent "writers are greatly indebted to his 
 researches. 
 
 Kudelbach's work was published in 1835, and 
 was succeeded in 1836 by that of his countryman 
 Meier, who also brought to light documents and 
 facts which had been previously unknown. This 
 writer also marred his work by endeavouring to 
 prove that Savonarola held the doctrines of Luthei^ 
 In spite of this, I have been greatly indebted to him 
 and his predecessor. 
 
 The next important life of Savonarola was written ^ 
 by Perrens, a Frenchman, and published in 1853. 
 This writer had the advantage of using the materials 
 collected by the Padre Marchese, who had taken a 
 deep interest in the life of Savonarola, and belonged 
 to his own order.* It cannot be denied that Perrens 
 made diligent use of these materials and of other 
 documents which he found at Florence. He made 
 himself thoroughly acquainted with his subject, and 
 
 * He edited some of the unpublished letters of Savonarola ; and 
 published a history of the Convent of S. Mark's, and other works 
 bearing on the same subject. 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 lie produced a well-written and readable book ; still, 
 there is a want of consistency in his views of Savona- 
 rola's character and history which renders his work 
 in many respects unsatisfactory. 
 
 This life of Perrens was, however, the best that 
 had been written until Signer Villari published his 
 History of Girolamo Savonarola and Ms Times 
 Whether we consider the fulness of his researches, or 
 the true historical spirit in which Yillari composed 
 his bookj^it must be allowed that he has done the 
 work almost as well as it can be done.) As a book 
 for Italians and for those w^ho take an interest in the 
 pliilosophical doctrines of Savonarola, it can hardly 
 ever be excelled, and can never be entirely set aside. 
 
 To Villari I owe much more than to any other 
 writer, and I have hardly ever ventured to differ 
 from him without much consideration. It will be 
 evident, however, to careful readers, that I have 
 followed him in no servile spirit. I. can honestly 
 say that I have done my best to understand the 
 history and character of the man whom I have 
 
 * La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola e de* suoi tempi, narrata 
 (la Pasquale Villari, con Vaiuto di nuovi documenti. Firenze, Le 
 Monnier, vol. i. 1859 ; vol. ii. ISGl. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 undertaken to describe, and that I have endeavoured 
 to tell the story simply and plainly to ordinary 
 English readers, as I myself was able to under- 
 stand it. 
 
 The works of Savonarola are scarce and costly, 
 and I have been able to procure only a few of them ; 
 but I have read with care the original works of 
 Burlamacchi, and Giovan Francesco Pico della 
 Mirandola,* as well as the work of Barsanti, and 
 the Cedrus Lihana of Fra Benedetto, published in 
 the splendid Arcliivio Storico which I found in the 
 British Museum. I have also consulted the various 
 works of Padre Marchese, published in the same 
 collection. I agree with this writer j that " there 
 has seldom been a history more fruitful of griefs 
 and hopes ; " but I also think with him that Savona- 
 
 rola was "|the greatest man of his age and of many 
 
 other ages.") If this little book shall produce the 
 same conviction in the minds of others ; if it shall 
 lead any to a more thorough and enthusiastic study 
 of the wonderful era to which Savonarola belonged, it 
 
 * He was the nephew of the better-known Giovanni Pico della 
 3Iiraudola. 
 
 t Sunto Storico del Convento di S. Marco, lib. ii. 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 will not have been wholly useless, even if it should 
 speedily be forgotten. 
 
 It will be inferred, from what I have said, that I 
 have had to quote many of the Sermons of Savonarola 
 at second hand. This I regret, but it was unavoid- 
 able, and I have done my best to secure accuracy 
 by comparing the quotations which I have taken 
 from one author with those of another. The works 
 of Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Sismondi, I have 
 myself consulted with care ; and more recently I 
 have had the advantage of reading two works of 
 great value and interest lately published — Capponi's 
 Storia della RepulMica di Firenze, and Von Keumont's 
 Lorenzo de^ Medici the Magnificent 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. 
 
 Italy in the Fifteenth Century 
 
 1 
 
 II. 
 
 Birth and Early Years 
 
 24 
 
 III. 
 
 Monastic Life at Bologna 
 
 44 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Brother of S. Mark's 
 
 GO 
 
 V. 
 
 Florence and the Medici . . . 
 
 SI 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Prior of S. Mark's, and Lorenzo the Mag- 
 
 
 
 nificent ...... 
 
 105 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Preacher and Piero de' Medici . 
 
 124 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Monastic Keform ..... 
 
 139 
 
 IX. 
 
 The French in Italy .... 
 
 157 
 
 X. 
 
 Revolution ...... 
 
 18G 
 
 XI. 
 
 Reformation op Manners 
 
 •208 
 
 XII. 
 
 Divisions ...... 
 
 227 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Departure of the French 
 
 239 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Pope Alexander VI. and Savonarola . 
 
 252 
 
 XV. 
 
 The Burning of the "Vanities" 
 
 285 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Treason . * . 
 
 301 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Renewed Conflict with Rome 
 
 328 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The Orde.\l by Fire .... 
 
 341 
 
 XIX. 
 
 MaRTYRD03I ..... 
 
 355 
 
SAVONAEOL A 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 In order to understand the character and work of 
 a man who belonged so entirely to his own age as 
 Savonarola, it will be necessary to attempt some 
 estimate, however slight and imperfect, of the times 
 in which he lived. We must try to understand 
 something of the state of the Roman Empire, of 
 which Italy was, in theory at least, the centre ; of 
 the condition of the Papacy, the great fountain 
 of authority in the Western Church; of the re- 
 ligious orders ; of the intellectual and moral con- 
 dition of the people at large. 
 
 Although it would be quite impossible to under- 
 stand the course of Florentine history, with its 
 fierce struggles between Guelfs and Ghibellines, 
 apart from the history of the Empire, these struggles 
 had long ceased before the age of Savonarola. 
 They had indeed left behind them political 
 
 I. B 
 
2 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 parties which had sprung out of them, and party- 
 feelings whose roots were buried deep in those an- 
 cient animosities ; but, as a practical question, the 
 state of the Empire hardly concerns the student 
 of Italian ecclesiastical history in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. The Empire was at its lowest point and the 
 Papacy at its highest. Frederick III. was Emperor 
 and Xicholas Y. was Pope when Savonarola was 
 born. *''In Frederick the Third's reign," says Dr. 
 Bryce,* '''the Empire sank to its lowest point. It 
 had shot forth a fitful gleam under Sigismund, 
 who, in convoking and presiding over the Council of 
 Constance, had revived one of the highest functions 
 of his predecessors. . . . Never afterwards was he 
 [the Emperor], in the eyes of Europe, anything 
 more than a German monarch." It was just the 
 reverse with the Papacy. "The Pontificate of 
 Nicholas V.," says Dean Milman,t "is the culmi- 
 nating point of Latin Christianity." 
 
 Slowly, gradually, surely the change had taken 
 place. The time had long gone by when men had 
 dreamt of a state of things in which the world 
 should be governed by two masters acting in 
 harmony, the Emperor and the Pope. The theory 
 of Dante, born a Guelf, but forced by the violence 
 of the papal party into the Ghibelline ranks, was 
 
 * The Holy Boman Empire, ch. svii. This ■work can hardly be 
 too Mghly recommended to the student of mediaeval history. A 
 knowledge of its subject is of the greatest necessity for such ; and 
 it is difficult to mention a ^^^ork from which it could more easily 
 and effectually be obtained. 
 
 I Latin C?irigtianity, bk. xiii. ch. xvii. 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 3 
 
 a beautiful one ; but it could not be worked. Even 
 when the faith of the Church was the religion of 
 the Empire, it became a hopeless task to reconcile 
 the claims of the master of the world with those 
 lof the Vicar of Christ. That the Pope should hold 
 his secular possessions of the Emperor as his suze- 
 rain : that the Emperor should receive his authority 
 from the Head of the Church, through His Vicar, 
 by whom he was anointed and crowned — all this 
 might seem reasonable, natural, simple in theory : 
 but innumerable complications arose in working it 
 out. The difficulty of serving two masters continu- 
 ally presented itself ; and men drifted into the party 
 of the Guelfs or into that of the Ghibellines, not 
 only from the intelligible reason that they sided 
 with the papal party on the one hand, or with the 
 Imperialists on the other, but from multitudes of 
 other reasons, arising out of local position and 
 family or national history. To us, for instance, it 
 seems strange to find the most strenuous supporters 
 of the Papacy among the strongest Kepublicans; 
 but our surprise vanishes when we remember that the 
 aristocratic party was headed by those great nobles 
 who derived their chief authority from the Emperor, 
 and were devoted to the support of his claims. 
 
 It would be out of place to sketch here, even in 
 barest outline, the rise of the papal power, and 
 therefore we must be contented merely to indicate 
 those points which will render our narrative in- 
 telligible. The power of the Roman Bishop had 
 grown up by slow degrees, and had derived its 
 
4 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 strength from a variety of elements. It would be 
 a mistake to fasten upon any one cause as sufficient 
 to account for the almost absolute dominion which 
 the Bishop of Kome came to exercise over the 
 Western Church. 
 
 It was not only his position in the metropolis 
 of the world-empire, although this went for much ; 
 it was not simply the early fable that the Pope 
 was the successor of S. Peter, that gave him his 
 authority. This was an effect quite as much as a 
 cause of his predominance. The New Testament 
 knows nothing of S. Peter as the founder of the 
 Church of Kome. When he is mentioned in this 
 connection by Irenaeus, it is only as associated, 
 apparently on equal terms, with S. Paul. 
 
 But there were other causes at work. The piety, 
 orthodoxy, learning, and ability of a series of Pontiffs 
 who adorned that chair in the earliest days, con- 
 tributed to strengthen the influence and confirm 
 the power which seemed naturally to belong to the 
 Bishop of the Mother City, and to engender the 
 idea that this was the Mother Church.* Perhaps it 
 
 * Dr. Freeman remarks : " From the time of Constantine 
 onwards, the divisions of the Empire and the constant absence 
 of the Emperors from Rome had greatly increased the power of 
 the Popes. They had not, like the Patriarchs of Constantinople, 
 a superior always at hand. Charles the Great had fully asserted 
 the imperial power over the Church, but, after his Empire broke 
 up, the power of the Popes grew again. It was checked only by 
 their own wickedness and their divisions among themselves, which 
 kings like Otto the Great and Henry the Third had to step in 
 and put an end to." — General Sketch of European History, ix. 2. 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 5 
 
 must be added that a strong central ecclesiastical 
 power was almost a necessity in the ages through 
 which the Church had to pass from Constantine to 
 Charles the Great, and from his days to those of 
 another Charles, who witnessed the beginning of 
 the great and wide-spread revolt against the papal 
 power. We have said nothing of the false decretals. 
 Although they did undoubtedly lend support to the 
 papal theory in its days of advance and develop- 
 ment, it must yet be confessed that the main points 
 of that theory were set forth and conceded before 
 those famous documents were promulgated.* 
 
 Whether a sagacious anticipation of the dangers 
 inherent in the secular character which began to be 
 associated with the spiritual power of the Papacy 
 would have led to their being averted, we cannot 
 tell. Humanly speaking, it is difficult to imagine, 
 as we trace the course of history, that the Popedom 
 could have been very different from what it was. 
 Be this as it may, it seems inevitable that it should 
 have become a secular power, and equally so that 
 its spiritual character, the world being what it is, 
 should have suffered from the connection. 
 
 The deterioration is, in fact, undeniable. As 
 we follow the solemn and impressive history from 
 Pontiff to Pontiff, from age to age, we become aware 
 that the voice of the Vicar of Christ no longer 
 
 * The first steps in the progress of papal power are strikingly 
 illustrated in Dr. Lightfoot's appendix to his edition of S. Clement's 
 Epistles, pp. 252 ff. On the general subject, cf. Hussey or Eobert- 
 son, on the rise of tbe papal power. 
 
6 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 speaks in the pure tones of a Leo or a Gregory ; 
 the world also has its prophet on the throne of Peter, 
 and the spirit of the world is blended, in a com- 
 bination sometimes blasphemous, sometimes touch- 
 ing upon the ludicrous, with the higher spirit of 
 the kingdom. The first Bishop of Christendom is 
 serving two masters. 
 
 The moral deterioration of the Koman see is a 
 simple fact of history. It was not rapid, and 'there 
 were breaks and suspensions and recoils in its course ; 
 but it was, on the whole, gradual and certain. We 
 mark it, perhaps, most in the period which elapsed 
 between the beginning of the fourteenth century 
 and the era of the Eeformation. The evil, how- 
 ever, was at work long before this time. In the 
 struggles between the great Popes, like Gregory 
 VII. (Hildebrand), and the great Emperors, like 
 Henry IV., there was of necessity a secularizing of 
 the spirit of the ecclesiastical power, far more than 
 a spiritualizing of the secular; and the Popes 
 were quite as much the victims as they were the 
 causes of the circumstances in which they found 
 themselves. 
 
 John of Salisbury, almost exactly a century later 
 than Gregory VII. — he died in 1180, — tells us that, 
 when asked by his friend Hadrian IV. what people 
 said of him and of the Roman Church, he replied : 
 " ^lany people say that the Roman Church, which 
 is the mother of all other Churches, shows herself 
 to other Churches not as a mother, but as a step- 
 mother. * Scribes and Pharisees sit upon her seat 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 7 
 
 who bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, 
 and lay them on men's shoulders ; but they them- 
 selves will not move them with one of their fingers.' 
 They lord it over God's heritage, and do not walk 
 in the way of life, as ensamples to the flock. They 
 heap up precious things and load their tables with 
 gold and silver. . . . With them godliness is prac- 
 tised for the sake of gain, not for the dissemination 
 of the truth. ... To many even the Koman Bishop 
 has become unbearable ; and people complain that, 
 while the churches which were built by the devotion 
 of our fathers are falling to ruin, and while the 
 altars are deserted, he is going about in purple and 
 gold. The palaces of the priests are resplendent, 
 while the Church of Christ is left polluted and 
 uncared for. ... In my judgement," he added, " so 
 long as they go this way, the scourge of the Lord 
 will never depart from them." 
 
 This was towards the end of the twelfth century ; 
 but about a century later began a period which 
 tended still further to destroy the better features 
 of the papal power. This was the famous Baby- 
 lonish Captivity — the residence of the Popes for a 
 period of seventy years (1305 — 1376) at Avignon in 
 France. One of its evil results was seen in the 
 schism which immediately followed, and lasted for 
 about half the time of the Captivity, imtil the 
 Council of Constance, when Martin Y. was raised 
 to the papal throne in 1417, and was finally ac- 
 cepted by the whole Western Church. 
 
 When Milman speaks of the Pontificate of 
 
8 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 .Nicholas V. as "the culminating point of Latin 
 Christianity," he does not ignore the facts and 
 circumstances which had long been at work to 
 undermine the monarchy of Hildebrand. " The 
 papal power," he says, " had long reached its zenith. 
 From Innocent III. (1198—1216) to Boniface VIII. 
 (1294—1303) it had begun its decline." That is 
 to say, from near the time of John of Salisbury to 
 the beginning of the period of the papal residence 
 at Avignon, the power of the Pope relatively to that 
 of the secular rulers began to decline; and the 
 Captivity and the schism almost annihilated any 
 real authority that still remained in his hands. But 
 the Pope as the representative of the Church ; 
 perhaps, rather, the Church presided over by the 
 Pope, was supreme in the middle of the fifteenth 
 century. It had burned Huss, and Jerome of Prague, 
 and it seemed at peace and irresistible. This was 
 the appearance of things as it would strike the eye 
 of a statesman. But there were unseen forces at 
 w^ork which we, at least, cannot overlook. An age 
 which endured a Papacy in virtual subjection to 
 the French crown for the best part of a century, 
 another which could tolerate the worse scandal of 
 rival Popes for more than a whole generation, must 
 have fallen from the faith, as well as the order, of 
 earlier times. 
 
 " The transfer of the papal throne from Kome to 
 Avignon, for a space of seventy years, during the 
 early part of the fourteenth century, entailed enor- 
 mous evils on Europe, and on the estates of the 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 9 
 
 Church in particular. It was a deliberate renun- 
 ciation by the Popes of their most sacred duties as 
 Bishops of Kome and as temporal sovereigns. While 
 they passed their days in epicurean ease and luxury 
 on the banks of the Rhone, the patrimony of the 
 Church was trodden down by lawless barons and con- 
 tending factions, and, as was natural in such a state 
 of things, the people, both clerical and lay, equally 
 despised the laws of God and of man. Yenality, 
 impurity, and licentiousness pervaded the papal 
 court, and had reached such a pitch at the time 
 that Petrarch was a resident at or near Avignon, 
 that he points to the Eomish court there, in his 
 epistles sine titulo, and in three of his sonnets, as 
 the Western Babylon, a sink of iniquity, a very hell 
 upon earth." * 
 
 It would be absurd to charge the Popes with the 
 whole guilt of the corruption of the fifteenth 
 century. If they were in part the causes, they 
 were also, in part, only the indications of a state of 
 things against which some of them struggled hard, 
 but which, for the most part, they were powerless to 
 amend. It is by no means true that the Popes of 
 this time were all bad men ; but unfortunately some 
 of the best seemed the least fitted for the evil times 
 on which they had fallen. Nicholas Y.,t one of the 
 
 * Harford's Life of Michael Angelo, vol. i. ch. viii. pt. i. ; where 
 
 the references will be found. 
 
 t "In Nicholas V., in three short years, the Pope had become 
 again a great Italian potentate. . . . Nicholas V. laid the founda- 
 tion of his power, not so much in the strength of the Fioman see 
 as a temporal sovereignty, as in the admiration and gratitude of 
 
10 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 best of Popes, liad liis soul saddened, his heart 
 almost broken, by rebellion breaking out among his 
 imgrateful Koman subjects. 
 
 To him succeeded Pius II. (1458—1464), the 
 famous ^neas Sylvius, who, although he was not a 
 man of the same depth and spirituality as his pre- 
 decessor, would yet, by the elevation of his mind, 
 the purity of his character, and the splendour of his- 
 abilities, have shed lustre upon any throne. If it 
 was the age of silver succeeding the age of gold, it 
 was succeeded by one far baser than itself. Paul II, 
 (1464 — 1471), the successor of Pius, was the sister's 
 son of Eugenius IV., who reigned during the sixteen 
 troubled years which intervened between Martin V. 
 and Nicholas Y. If his character as Pope had 
 resembled that of his earlier years, he might have 
 left behind him the reputation of his uncle ; but 
 the arrogance of his pretensions, his love of display, 
 his unscrupulousness in accumulating money, and 
 his disregard for his word, or even his oath, have 
 deeply stained his name. " You venture to appeal to 
 judges," he cried, with a glare* at Platina. "As if 
 you did not know that all laws are lodged in our 
 
 Italy, which was rapidly reported over the whole of Christendom. 
 . . . The famous architect Leo Alberti describes the unexampled 
 prosperity under Nicholas, for which the conspirators would have 
 made that cruel return. ' The whole of Latium was at peace. . . . 
 The domain of the Church was in a high state of cultivation ; the 
 city had become a city of gold through the jubilee ; the dignity of 
 the citizens was respected ; all reasonable petitions were granted at 
 once by the Pontiff.'" — Milman, Latin Christianity (2nd ed.)^ 
 vol. vi. p. 169. 
 
 * Torvis Ociilis. Cf. Bower, Popes, a.d. 1465. 
 
ITALY IX THE FIFTEENTH CEXTURY. 
 
 11 
 
 breast ? The sentence is given. I am Pope, and I 
 liave power to rescind or to approve, at my pleasure, 
 the acts of all other men." 
 
 It has been truly said that, at this time, every 
 other precious thing was as cheap at Eome as the 
 Pope's oath. But the course was still downwards : 
 Paul II. was succeeded by Sixtus lY. (1471—1484). 
 In his reign simony was open and undisguised ; 
 no benefice was given away without being paid for. 
 The unscrupulousness of his conduct towards his 
 (opponents we shall have to notice when we come to 
 speak of his quarrel with the ^Medici. Murder he 
 held in certain cases to be justifiable ; and his 
 general character may be judged from the generally 
 believed report that his death was brought on by ^ 
 chagrin at a peace being concluded, without his 
 sanction, between the Venetians and certain allied 
 powers who were at war with them. Of darker 
 charges against him, made and believed, we say 
 nothing. The chief excuse alleged for his crimes 
 consists in the plea that they all proceeded from 
 an immoderate affection for his relations, and his 
 desire to promote and enrich them. 
 
 Innocent YIII. (1484—1493), if not as bad a man, 
 was possibly a worse Pope than Sixtus had been. 
 When the latter died, a contemporary wrote : 
 "On this most happy day God Almighty showed 
 His power upon earth, and delivered His people out 
 of the hand of this most impious and iniquitous 
 sovereign, in whom dwelt no fear of God, no love 
 for the flock of Christ, but shameful lust, avarice. 
 
12 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 and vain glory." But it was worse in the days of 
 his successor. Murders were frequent, and were 
 seldom punished, when their authors were protected 
 by the princes of the Church. A man who had 
 murdered his own two daughters was set at liberty 
 on the morning of the day appointed for his execu- 
 tion, because he had paid 800 ducats. And the 
 papal Vice-Chamberlain, when asked why such 
 criminals escaped, gave with bitter irony the reply : 
 God willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he 
 shall pay and live ; and so we think in Bologna," * 
 One incident of this Pope's reign may suffice to 
 show its character. We suppress the most offensive 
 portion of the Pope's words in reference to it. 
 
 The Pope's vicar for the city of Kome on one 
 occasion issued an edict forbidding concubinage, and 
 threatening the laity who w^ere guilty of it with 
 excommunication, and the clergy with suspension 
 and loss of their benefices. Innocent had the vicar 
 summoned before him, and gave orders that the 
 edict should be withdrawn, as concubinage, or some- 
 thing worse, was universal. It should be added, 
 however, that he did, although apparently with 
 reluctance, consent to the renewal of a constitution 
 of Pius IL, forbidding priests to keep taverns, play- 
 houses, and houses of ill-fame, or to act as the secret 
 agents of prostitutes. This Pope, let it be remem- 
 bered, was the friend of Lorenzo de' Medici ; and one 
 of his natural sons married Lorenzo's daughter Mad- 
 
 * No mere story. Steph. Infessura declares that he was pre- 
 sent when it was said. (Diar. p. 1988 in Rudelbach.) 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 13 
 
 dalena. It was he who, on account of this family- 
 connection, conferred the cardinal's hat on Giovanni, 
 the brother of Maddalena, afterwards Leo X., when 
 he was only thirteen years of age. 
 
 This brings us to the reign of Alexander VI. 
 (1493 — 1503). It was under this Pope, one of the 
 worst, perhaps the very worst, that ever brought 
 dishonour upon the loftiest seat in Christendom, 
 Savonarola was put to death. 
 
 The hasty sketch which has been given of the 
 occupants of the Eoman see during these years — 
 nearly half a century — will prepare our readers to 
 understand something of the times to which our 
 narrative belongs. We turn from the Popes to the 
 monks — in other words, to the special representatives 
 of the inward and religious life of the Church. 
 
 There was a time when, however it might be in 
 the world, there was purity and devotion in the 
 cloister. Without arguing the question, whether 
 those who fled from the world to the convent did 
 not carry the world with them into their retreat, — or 
 the other question, whether the monastic life was 
 more a means of deepening or of narrowing the 
 spiritual life of men, — there can be no question that 
 we are indebted to the religious orders for splendid 
 examples of learning, of piety, of intellectual power 
 and influence. 
 
 But it is equally undeniable that, like other 
 human institutions, these were liable to corruption 
 and decay. We see recurring evidences of their 
 degeneracy in the rise of reformed communities — 
 
14 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 like that of Clairvaux breaking off from Clugny, for 
 example. The most remarkable attempt to deliver 
 monasticism from its tendency to luxury and self- 
 indulgence, from its forgetfulness of the vow of 
 poverty, was the almost contemporaneous rise of th<' 
 two great mendicant orders of the Dominicans or 
 Preaching Brothers, and the Franciscans or Lesser 
 Brothers. Of the vast achievements of these two 
 great orders there could be no question, even if we 
 had only the name of Aquinas as a son of the former, 
 and that of Bonaventura as belonging to the latter. 
 Yet these also fell into such decay that their refor- 
 mation seemed almost hopeless; as we shall have 
 occasion to remark in the course of this history. 
 
 On this subject one witness may be adduced, and 
 one shall suffice, Nicolas de Clemangis.* He was 
 born in the latter half of the fourteenth century, and 
 survived the period of the Council of Basel, dying 
 about 1434. He was rector of the University of 
 France, and, together with his master Pierre D'Ailly 
 and Gerson, formed the triumvirate of Catholic re- 
 formers who were the glory of France at the begin- 
 ning of the fifteenth century. The sad condition of 
 the Church was the subject of various appeals which 
 he addressed to the King of France, Charles VII., 
 and to the Antipope, Clement VII. ; but his principal 
 work was his treatise on the corrupt condition or 
 ruin of the Church.f In this treatise he has the 
 following remarks : — 
 
 * Cf. Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexicon, s. v., and Eudelbach. 
 t De Corrtipto Ecclesix, Stato, s. cle Euina Ecclesix. 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 15 
 
 " As for the monks, what can we say in commen- 
 dation of those who, according to their vows, ought 
 to be the most perfect of all the sons of the Church, 
 since they are removed from anxiety about the 
 things of the world, and are thus able to devote 
 themselves to the contemplation of heavenly things, 
 but who are plainly the reverse of all this? For 
 they are, in fact, the most covetous and avaricious 
 of all, and are mere slaves of the world, instead of 
 fleeing from it. Nothing is so hateful to them as 
 their cell and their convent, reading and praying, 
 their rule and religion. Monks they are externally 
 in their dress, but in their life and works they are 
 as far as possible removed from perfection. And 
 this is the righteous punishment which they suffer, 
 that they do not find what they seek; for the 
 revenues of the convents dwindle away more and 
 more from their insatiable pursuit of earthly goods ; 
 so that where formerly a hundred could live con- 
 veniently, now hardly ten can exist with the greatest 
 care, and they are scarce able to keep their build- 
 ings in a habitable condition. 
 
 " And what shall I say of the mendicant friars, 
 who by their vow are devoted to the most absolute 
 poverty, and glory in being the true disciples and 
 followers of Christ, and boast that they alone can 
 give to the people the true food of the soul, and 
 show them the way of eternal life ; that they alone 
 fulfil the obligations of the true servants of God, 
 and by their zeal make amends for the neglect, 
 ignorance, and omissions of others who are luke- 
 
16 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 warm and asleep ? In truth, if they had attained to 
 such a degree of perfection, they certainly would 
 not thus exalt themselves, and despise all others in 
 comparison with themselves. For it is the true 
 perfection of the righteous, that they never regard 
 themselves as perfect, but ever increase in humility 
 as they grow in grace. By the contrary course 
 the good which they really have is corrupted and 
 destroyed. Just as the synagogue had its Pharisees, 
 against whom Christ spoke most strongly in the 
 Gospel, so are these new apostles to be regarded as 
 the Pharisees of the Church, to whom is applicable 
 all that Christ said of the Pharisees, or even much 
 worse. For they are like ravening wolves in sheep's 
 clothing, who have the outward appearance of 
 holiness, but inwardly are defiled with all lusts; 
 who, like the priests of Bel, consume that which is 
 offered to God in their secret chambers, revelling 
 with their wives and children ; preaching, indeed, 
 what people ought to do, but not doing it them- 
 selves, and thus through their own preaching be- 
 coming reprobate ; clothing themselves like an angel 
 of light, and in that garb serving not Satan indeed, 
 and yet not Christ either, but their own bellies; 
 alluring the hearts of the innocent by their seduc- 
 tive words. 
 
 " And what shall we say of the nuns, if we would 
 avoid the appearance of describing not virgins 
 consecrated to God, but brothels and deeds of shame ? 
 In truth, the nuns' convents are in these days nothing- 
 else than public houses of unchastity, places for 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTUHY. 
 
 17 
 
 receiving immoral and licentious young men, so that 
 to let a maiden enter a convent is very much the 
 same as offering her for open prostitution." 
 
 There is no reason for doubting the general truth 
 of this testimony, and the condition of the Papacy 
 at the time sufficiently prepares us to believe it. 
 But if these were the shepherds, what must have 
 been the character of the flock ? Doubtless . God 
 had, then as always, many secret ones who served 
 Him faithfully and devoutly, and of these it was 
 the delight of Savonarola to speak ; but, as regards 
 the Church at large, the times were evil, and nothing 
 but revolution or root-and-branch reformation could 
 save the Christian communion from dissolution. 
 
 The moral tone of Christendom, at least, had never 
 been lower. The most brutal selfishness stalked 
 shamelessly abroad. Despotism, oppression, cruelty 
 were practised all but universally by the rulers of 
 the people. Murder had become a trade, and poison- 
 ing an art ; and both became part of the policy 
 of princes. " In Italy," said Pontanus, " there is 
 nothing cheaper than human life." The Church 
 was worst of all. "Through the example of the 
 papal court," said Machiavelli, "Italy has lost all 
 piety and religion. We have to thank the Church 
 and the priests for our abandoned wickedness." * 
 
 In considering the work of Savonarola, and the 
 various reforming tendencies which were in operation 
 in his times, there is another class of influences which 
 -must not be overlooked. Leaving out of consider- 
 
 I. 
 
 * Viscorsi, i. 12. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 ation, for the moment, the spirit of mysticism, which 
 had awakened in Germany, and was extending itself 
 widely, and fostering a more inward and spiritual 
 life, there was the spread of learning through the 
 imiversities, the invention of printing, and that 
 great classical movement which is known as the 
 Renaissance. 
 
 The organization of the higher instruction of the 
 nations in universities was preparing also for the 
 great revival of learning, which was to work a 
 revolution not only in the opinions of men, but in 
 their very modes of thought, of reasoning, and of 
 investigation. Paris and Oxford arose in the 
 thirteenth century, Koln and Prague in the four- 
 teenth; and these not only produced controversialists 
 who called in question the absolute authority claimed 
 for himself by the Eoman Bishop, but earnest 
 reformers who had no thought of creating a schism 
 in the Church, but earnestly demanded her purifica- 
 tion. If Paris had the great names which have just 
 been mentioned, we in England are not likely to 
 forget that Oxford had her Wickliffe, or even that 
 Prague had her Huss. 
 
 With respect to the great literary movement 
 known as the Renaissance, so full of light and of 
 darkness, of liberty and of bondage, the subject is 
 not merely of great extent, but involves so many 
 points of controversy that we must keep simply on 
 its outskirts ; yet certain facts may be noted with 
 regard to which there is at least a substantial agree- 
 ment. 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 19 
 
 The Renaissance, so often connected with the cap- 
 ture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, was 
 not simply the result of an event which led to the 
 emigration of a large number of Greeks to Italy. 
 No doubt it received its most powerful and most 
 visible impulse from this occurrence ; but it was 
 in full progress before. The literary movement in 
 (question " is anterior by more than a century to the 
 great event which is assigned as its date. It is 
 impossible to deny that there was a strong taste for 
 antiquity during the period of the sojourn of the 
 Popes at Avignon. Cola di Kienzi was a distin- 
 guished humanist before becoming a celebrated 
 revolutionary." * It would be easy to add other 
 names in whom the same tendency is conspicuous. 
 
 In regard to the inward character of the move- 
 ment, it was essentially humanistic or naturalistic, 
 and in so far it was a revolt not only against 
 Catholicism, but against Christianity. It was virtu- 
 ally a return to Greek Paganism. It knew nothing 
 of grace : it was the mere worship of nature. A Pro- 
 testant, looking back upon those days from his own 
 present point of view, is apt to imagine that it was 
 essentially a protest against the corruptions and 
 tyranny of the times, especially as that tyranny was 
 embodied in the Roman see. No doubt it was, in a 
 measure, such a protest ; but for the most part 
 accidentally. We may even say that it was become 
 a necessity for the age in which it arose, and at least 
 a means in the hand of Divine Providence for 
 
 * Christophe, La Popaute pendant le 15™^- Siecle, i. 431. 
 
20 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 bringing about certain sorely needed changes in the 
 Church and the world. All this may fairly be 
 allowed. 
 
 To attribute such high principles and purposes 
 to the movement itself, however, would be palpably 
 absurd. It had no genuine sympathy — to take one 
 example — with rational liberty as being the right 
 of all men, and a benefit to humanity at large. No 
 doubt, it despised monkery, asceticism, and re- 
 strictions of all kinds. But the liberty which it 
 preached was the liberty of education, philosophy, 
 refinement, culture. No Horace could have more 
 hated and despised the profane mob. The Benais- 
 sance would never have emancipated the serf, or 
 struck the fetters from the hands and feet of the 
 slave. 
 
 In short, it was heathen and not Christian, and 
 so it had no conception of the lofty charity of the 
 Gospel, even as it was destitute of its spiritual power. 
 This judgement is not a mere theoretical opinion 
 deduced from the nature of the case : it is amply 
 confirmed by the facts of history. The Renaissance 
 had no more sympathy with the self-denial of Christ 
 than it had with the absurdities of mediaeval self- 
 torture. It had no more sympathy with down- 
 trodden humanity than it had with ecclesiastical 
 despotism. 
 
 To a certain extent, it was a power working in 
 favour of reform. Perhaps its best fruits may be 
 seen in men like Erasmus. But it had no real depth 
 of earnestness. AVhen the necessity for sacrifice 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEEXTH CENTUEY. 21 
 
 arose, then came the evidence that it was not of 
 Christ. It could criticize, gibe, sneer, even denounce ; 
 but it could not suifer. At bottom, it was much 
 more in sympathy with a cultivated tyrant than 
 with his uncultured victims. 
 
 " That spirit," says Dr. Bryce, * " whether we call 
 it analytical, or sceptical, or earthly, or simply 
 secular, for it is more or less all of these — the 
 spirit which was the exact antithesis of medigeval 
 mysticism, had swept in and carried men away, with 
 all the force of a pent-up torrent. People were 
 content to gratify their tastes and their senses, caring 
 little for worship and still less for doctrine: their 
 hopes and ideas were no longer such as had made 
 their forefathers crusaders or ascetics : their ima- 
 gination was possessed by associations far different 
 from those which had inspired Dante : they did not 
 revolt against the Church, but they had no enthu- 
 siasm for her, and they had enthusiasm for whatever 
 was fresh and graceful and intelligible." 
 
 It might seem strange, but to a deeper view of 
 human nature it will seem not unreasonable, that, 
 along with the sceptical indifference to Divine 
 revelation and Christian truth begotten by this 
 movement, there came a growing belief in astrology 
 and cognate superstitions. Popes who did not 
 believe in God believed in the influences of the 
 stars and in the power of magic ; just as unbelievers 
 in our own day have attained to a faith in table- 
 turning and "spiritualism." Even at the univer- 
 
 * Holy Roman Empire, ch. xvii. 
 
22 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 sities they taught astrology as a science. Paul II. 
 declared that the astrologers had predicted that he 
 should become first cardinal and then Pope ; and 
 the same destiny was assigned to Giovanni de' 
 Medici, afterwards Leo X., by Marsilio Ficino, who 
 cast his horoscope at his birth. Later on, it is 
 asserted, Paul III. never held a consistory without 
 first ascertaining from the astrologers what hour 
 would be favourable for the purpose. 
 
 Apart from the interest of the question in its 
 connection with our present subject, it is still quite 
 needful to see clearly the true nature of this move- 
 ment. An absurd renaissance of the Renaissance 
 seems to be having some influence in our own days. 
 "We say it is absurd, because it is a mere sentimental 
 fancy which may lay hold of eccentric artists and 
 their admirers for a few days or years, but which has 
 no roots in the real thought and conviction of the 
 age. It is, however, necessary that the nature of the 
 thing should be known. 
 
 The characteristics of this movement, as here 
 indicated, will receive illustration from the history 
 of Savonarola. The Renaissance at first helped him. 
 It was high-toned, liberal, educated ; and therefore 
 it would give a hearing to this new prodigy. Nay, it 
 took in hand to patronize him. Savonarola knew, 
 by a spiritual instinct, how alien its mind was from 
 his, and kept aloof. Some of its better representa- 
 tives, like the elder Pico della Mirandola and Angelo 
 Poliziano, came under his influence and died his 
 disciples: the movement itself was apart from his 
 
ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 23 
 
 work, was ultimately opposed to it, and became his 
 persecutor.* 
 
 * On the general subject of this chapter, besides Gibbon, Milman, 
 and other standard authorities, cf. Gebhart's Essais : De Vltalie 
 (Paris: Hachette); Eistorisches Taschenbuch for 1875. 
 
24 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 GiROLAMO Savonarola was born at Ferrara on 
 Matthew's Day, September 21, 1452. His grand- 
 father, a native of Padua and the member of a 
 noble family belonging to that city,* had been 
 invited to Ferrara by JSTiccolb d'Este.f The house 
 of Este, hardly less distinguished than that of the 
 Medici for its patronage of literature, art, and 
 science, gloried in attracting to the city which it 
 ruled the most distinguished meii of the day. 
 Michele Savonarola, equally renowned as a man of 
 letters and a physician, removed to Ferrara in the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century, and had two 
 sons, Giovanni and Mccolo. 
 
 * " The Porta Savonarola at Padua recalls to mind the neigh- 
 bouring residence of that noble family; and in the Prato della 
 Valle stands a statue of Antonio Savonarola, who manfully de- 
 fended his native city in the middle of the thirteenth century." — 
 Von Reumont, Jjorenzo de' Medici, bk. vi. c. 6 (Mr. Harrison's- 
 Translation). 
 
 1 t This Este is known as Niccolo III., Marquis of Ferrara. 
 
J 7. 
 
 BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 25 
 
 Of this Niccolb, his second son, . we have very 
 little information : even his profession, if he had 
 one, is unknown. What is certain is, that he married 
 a daughter of the illustrious house of Buonaccorsi of 
 Mantua, Elena by name, and that they had two 
 daughters and five sons, of whom our Girolamo was 
 the third.* Born, as we have said, September 21, 
 he was baptized on October 4, the feast of S. 
 Francis, in the church of Sta. Maria del Vaio, and 
 received the> baptismal names of Girolamo Maria 
 Francesco Matteo.f 
 
 If we know nothing of Savonarola's father, we are 
 told enough of his mother to prove that there was 
 in his case no exception to the theory that great 
 men have usually had remarkable mothers. She 
 was a woman of a powerful understanding, and of a 
 masculine force of character ; and we have a touch- 
 ing proof of the affection with which her greatest 
 son continued through life to regard her in the 
 fact that, whilst his first letter after entering the 
 
 * Burlamacchi gives us the following information respecting 
 them. The sons were : 1. Ognibene, who became a soldier ; 
 2. Bartolommeo, whose profession is unknown ; 3. Girolamo ; 
 4. Marco, first a secular priest, afterwards a Dominican monk 
 under his brother, taking the name of Fra Maurelio or Marco 
 Aurelio; 5. Alberto, a skilful physician and kind to the poor, in 
 both respects emulating the fame of his grandfather. The 
 daughters were Beatrice, who remained unmarried, and Clara, 
 who, losing her husband while young, lived a widow with her 
 mother and her brother Alberto. — Burlamacchi, Vita di Savonarola, 
 p. 3 (Lucca, 1764). 
 
 t The names are given by his father in a note appended to a 
 copy of his son's work, Sul Dispregio del Mondo ; also by Burla- 
 macchi. 
 
26 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Dominican order was written to his father, it was 
 to his mother that he addressed himself in the 
 days of sorrow and trial which were so frequent in 
 his later life. 
 
 As a child it would appear that Savonarola was 
 distinguished by the seriousness, it might be said 
 almost the sorrowfulness, which was his lasting 
 characteristic, as well as the character of the higher 
 mind of the whole age to which he belonged. In 
 person, as we may judge from the agreement of 
 several existing portraits, he was by no means at- 
 tractive; and the fascination which he exercised 
 over those who came in contact with him proceeded 
 from tone, spirit, and character, and not from any 
 physical endowments. Of his personal appearance 
 we are enabled to judge not only from the portraits, 
 but also from the careful descriptions of his three 
 contemporary biographers.* 
 
 In stature he was rather below the middle size, but 
 erect and easy in carriage. His complexion was fair 
 and somewhat ruddy. His forehead was massive 
 and broadjt and deeply furrowed with wrinkles ; his 
 eyes dark blue, bright, and penetrating, with long 
 reddish eyelashes, and surmounted by thick eye- 
 brows. His nose was prominent and hooked, and he 
 had a large mouth with full under-lip, which is said 
 
 * Pico della Mirandola, c. i. ; Burlamacchi ; and Fra Benedetto, 
 Cedrus Lihani, c. 5. 
 
 f Burlamacchi speaks of it as "eminente e elevata," and Pico 
 as "sublimis;" but. judging from all the portraits, this must 
 describe the effect produced by its massiveneas and not by its 
 height. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 27 
 
 to have communicated a most pleasing expression 
 to his whole countenance. His limbs were well 
 proportioned, inclining neither to leanness nor cor- 
 pulency, but of a fine and delicate organization. 
 His hands were very thin — so thin that when 
 he was preaching they seemed transparent, and 
 his fingers were unusually long and tapering. 
 Naturally he was of the sanguino-bilious tempera- 
 ment ; * but his face was wonderfully calm, and 
 of such sweetness of expression that it seemed 
 to have descended from heaven." In conversation 
 and deportment he was of unequalled gentleness, 
 ''affable, sweet, and without any asperity." Such 
 was the man as he appeared to his most intimate 
 friends in the maturity of his life, activity, and 
 power. We can imagine what the boy was like 
 in those early days at Ferrara, before that mas- 
 sive brow was furrowed, when the sorrows of the 
 future were only dimly foreshadowed in the 
 calm and serious life of the brooding, meditative, 
 retiring boy. 
 
 Whether because his eldest brother Ognibene was 
 early marked out for the army, and his second 
 brother Bartolommeo was destined to succeed to his 
 father's possessions, or because of his own con- 
 spicuous native powers, he was intended by his 
 parents, and by his illustrious grandfather, for the 
 medical profession, the chief source of their glory 
 as a family. It was, perhaps, for this reason that 
 
 * S^ingnigno-bilioso," says Villari ; corresponding to what we 
 should call choleric and melancholic. 
 
28 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 the aged Michele Savonarola interested himself so 
 deeply in this grandchild, that for several years he 
 superintended his education, and taught him with 
 the greatest energy and patience, and with more 
 than fatherly affection. The instructor did not 
 want an apt and willing pupil : he found in his 
 grandson a mind thirsting for knowledge, of more 
 than ordinary clearness and acuteness, and en- 
 dowed with a "marvellous love of truth," and a 
 " judgement which seemed carried towards truth by 
 its own nature." * 
 
 When Savonarola was but ten years of age, in 
 1462, his grandfather died, and he was sent to one 
 of the public schools of his native town, while his 
 father privately instructed him in logic and philo- 
 sophy. His progress at school was most decided. 
 The devotion with which he addicted himself to his 
 studies was not more remarkable than the quick- 
 ness which he displayed; and he particularly dis- 
 tinguished himself by the "skill and acuteness" 
 w^hich he showed in debate, so that even in those 
 early days his companions began to predict his 
 future greatness. It was indeed " difficult to de- 
 cide whether he most excelled in learning or in the 
 gravity of his manners ; " but the gentleness of his 
 disposition seems to have secured for him the esteem 
 even of those whom he excelled. 
 
 In those days, as in after life, he loved retirement 
 
 * Sentences or phrases thus marked will be understood to be 
 derived from one or other of the original authorities, unless when 
 it is otherwise specified. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 29 
 
 and shunned publicity. When playing with the 
 other boys, he would run away and employ himself 
 in erecting little altars ; but this kind of tendency 
 is so common among boys in every country, that it 
 would be unsafe to infer that he was already think- 
 ing of devoting himself to the monastic, or even to 
 the clerical life. There is no doubt that in later 
 years he often spoke of the " religious life " as that 
 which is supremely happy, and that he strove to 
 lead men and women to enter this state ; but it 
 was long before the thought of it was deliberately 
 adopted by himself. When at last he took refuge 
 in the convent, his parents were evidently unpre- 
 pared for such a step, and in one of his sermons he 
 tells us that he had declared a thousand times, 
 while still living in the world, that he "would 
 never become a monk." * 
 
 The determination to enter the religious life 
 was brought about by a variety of causes, and not 
 by any single incident or series of events. As a 
 child he was of a serious and devout disposition ; 
 his studies inclined him in the same direction. A 
 personal disappointment doubtless disposed him to 
 take the darkest views of the evil age in which his 
 lot was cast, and he refers to a sermon which he 
 heard when about two and twenty as a kind of 
 turning point in his spiritual history. 
 
 At the time that Savonarola was being educated 
 for the medical profession, the sciences were so little 
 distinguished that the scholastic philosophy was an 
 
 ♦ Frediche sopra Amos e Zacharia. Venet. 1528, fol. 251. 
 
30 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 essential part of his professional studies. In this 
 way he became acquainted with the writings of 
 S. Thomas Aquinas, and with the Arabian com- 
 mentaries on Aristotle. The hold which these 
 studies gained on his mind, and the attachment to 
 the great schoolman which grew up within him, 
 fostered his native tendencies, and gave that direc- 
 tion to his intellectual and religious convictions 
 and purposes by which he was influenced through 
 life. Indeed, so absorbed did he become in philo- 
 sophy and theology — spending whole days over 
 them — that he could hardly spare any thoughts 
 for the special department of medicine. 
 
 The study of Plato belongs to a later period. It 
 was, indeed, impossible for a thoughtful Italian to 
 remain ignorant of the Platonic philosophy in the 
 days of Politian and Pico della Mirandola. It was 
 impossible for Savonarola to escape entirely the 
 influence of the Renaissance ; and he tells us that 
 he studied the dialogues with care, and wrote many 
 notes on them, and that he was in some danger of 
 being misled by their fascinations. He speaks in 
 one of his sermons of the fashion for Platonism 
 liaving become so strong, that one heard of nothing 
 irom public teachers " but Plato, that divine man.'* 
 " I was in that error myself," he says, and studied 
 much those dialogues of Plato ; but when God gave 
 me light, I destroyed all that I had written on that 
 subject." 
 
 There was much in the circumstances of his times 
 to deepen the natural seriousness of Savonarola. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 31 
 
 The state of Ferrara must have given rise to grave 
 reflections in one who was little apt to be dazzled 
 by the splendour of pomp and show. Few could 
 have been more welcome in the halls of the Este 
 than the members of the house of Savonarola ; but 
 we are told that never but once could Girolamo be 
 induced to appear at court. 
 
 Niccolb III., who had invited Michele Savonarola 
 to Ferrara, had died before the subject of this 
 memoir was born, and was succeeded by his two 
 natural sons, Lionello and Borso, whom he had 
 caused to be legitimized in his lifetime, in conse- 
 quence of the youth of his legitimate son Ercole. 
 Lionello succeeded his father in 1441, and died in 
 1450. He ruled with such success in troubled 
 times that his country was called the "land of 
 peace." Borso was a man of a different stamp.* 
 He was the " Magnificent " of Ferrara, as Lorenzo 
 de' Medici was of Florence, and was so renowned 
 for the splendour of his court, and for his abilities 
 and influence, that in distant lands he was spoken 
 of as the King of Italy. 
 
 It was while Borso was Marquis of Ferrara, and 
 in the very year of Savonarola's birth (1452), that 
 Frederick III. passed through Ferrara, on his way to 
 Rome, to receive the imperial crown at the hands 
 of the reigning Pope, Nicholas V. He was received 
 with great state by the Marquis and Court of 
 Ferrara ; but as he had decided, on his return from 
 Rome, to raise Borso to the ducal dignity, prepara- 
 
 * Cf. Signer Villari's remarks, lib. i. cap. i. p. 7. 
 
32 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 tions were made on the most splendid scale for the 
 celebration of the event. 
 
 But these festivities were entirely thrown into the 
 shade by the reception accorded to Pius II., in 1458, 
 on his way to the Council of Mantua, at which he 
 was hoping to stir up Western Christendom to under- 
 take a crusade for the recovery of Constantinople. 
 We need not dwell upon the hopeful beginning or 
 the ridiculous failure of this enterprise and we 
 have no means of knowing how the youthful mind 
 of Savonarola was impressed either by the splendid 
 pomps of his native city or by the hopes excited 
 on behalf of the suffering Eastern Christians. He 
 was only six years of age when the Pope passed 
 through Ferrara, on his way to the council. He 
 must have been a witness of these festivals; and 
 he probably knew something of the miseries and 
 the hopes of the Greeks. All that we know is, 
 that he was not attracted to the ruling family. 
 When Borso died, and his half-brother, the legiti- 
 mate son of Niccolb III., came to the throne as 
 Ercole I., in 1471, Savonarola was nineteen. 
 
 The glory of the Este had not dazzled him. His 
 true eye saw the hollowness of courtly splendour. 
 His deep religious nature was shocked by the 
 worldliness and worthlessness of the lives of the 
 great. His instinctive and unquenchable love of 
 liberty could never delight in the degradation and 
 misery of his fellow-men which always result from 
 even the most graceful despotism. The chains might 
 be gilded, or even golden, but in his eyes they were 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 none the less fetters npon the bodies and souls of 
 men. 
 
 Of his early thoughts we know nothing. Of the 
 progress of his education we have hardly any infor- 
 mation from his biographers, only such scanty facts 
 as we have noted, besides occasional allusions in his 
 sermons. But we are now coming to the period 
 in which we have his own record of the thoughts 
 and emotions that were passing in his mind. He 
 had been a solitary, brooding boy ; " living little in 
 the society of his fellows, much in his own ; " caring 
 only for learning and knowledge, and for these only 
 as the way to truth. Much he thought and medi- 
 tated on the life of man and the end for which he 
 was created ; but as the light within grew brighter, 
 he became more and more conscious of the darkness- 
 without. Hora novissima ; Temjpora pessima : " The 
 world is very evil ; the times are waxing late," — 
 this was the burden of his thought. The words 
 which the spirit of Polydorus uttered with groans 
 in the ears of j5]neas, as he told his father after- 
 wards, he recited many times in a day with tears : 
 Heu! fuge crudeles terras, fuge litus avarum! 
 "Ah! flee from this cruel land, flee from this 
 covetous shore." * 
 
 Of the letter in which he makes this declaration, 
 we shall have to speak presently. It contains his 
 reasons for abandoning the world. The desire arose, 
 he says, from his beholding "the great misery of 
 the world, the iniquities of men, the rapes, the 
 
 * Ml. iii. 44. 
 
 I. D 
 
34 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 adulteries, the robberies, the pride, the idolatry, the 
 cruel blasphemy, which have come to such a height 
 in the world that there is no longer any one found 
 who does good. I could not bear," he goes on, " the 
 great wickedness of the blinded peoples of Italy; 
 and so much the more that I saw virtue everywhere 
 disdained and vice held in honoar. This was the 
 greatest suffering that I could have had to endure 
 in this world; on which account I prayed every 
 day to the Lord Jesus Christ that He would deign 
 to raise me u-p out of this mire. And I made con- 
 tinually short prayers to God with the most earnest 
 devotion, saying, ' Show Thou me the way that I 
 should walk in, for I lift up my soul unto Thee ' " * 
 (Notam fac mihi viam in qua amhulem, quia ad te 
 levavi animam meam). 
 
 It is clear that these were not mere afterthoughts 
 which suggested themselves as a justification of the 
 course he had taken ; for the same feelings are ex- 
 pressed in a poem which he composed three years 
 before, when he was onlv twenty, in 1472, " On the 
 Kuin of the World." t 
 
 If he did not believe, he says, in the infinite pro- 
 vidence of God, what he saw in the world would 
 make him agree with those who deny Him or say 
 that He sleeps ; for everywhere virtue is perished 
 and every decent custom, and there is no true light 
 in the world, nor even shame for vices. Eapine and 
 murder are so common that he is happy who prac- 
 tises such sins. 
 
 *Ps. cxliii. 8. 
 t JDe Buina Mundi; in Foesie (Firenze, 1847), pp. 3 — 6. 
 
BIETH AND EAELY YEAES. 
 
 35 
 
 At one moment in his life at Ferrara it seemed 
 as though the world might begin to have a new 
 interest for him ; but this new hope had scarcely- 
 arisen upon him when it set, leaving him involyed 
 in a thicker darkness. It is curious that his bio- 
 graphers, with one exception, seem to have known 
 nothing of Savonarola's disappointment in love ; and 
 it was only quite recently that this incident in the 
 history of his early manhood was brought to light. 
 It is, however, recorded by his own disciple, Fra 
 Benedetto,* and there is no reason to doubt the 
 truth of the story. 
 
 It would be inconsistent with all the testimonies 
 respecting his early character to suppose that it was 
 this event which gave all its sadness to his life. 
 But it can hardly be doubted that it added greatly 
 to his previous despondency. The incident is not 
 only interesting in itself, but throws some light 
 upon his natural disposition. 
 
 A citizen of Florence, of the noble family of the 
 Strozzi, banished from his native city, had come to 
 Ferrara, bringing with him a natural daughter. 
 Living in the house next to Savonarola's, she at- 
 tracted the attention and gained the affections of 
 Girolamo, who one day availed himself of the 
 opportunity offered of speaking to her on the sub- 
 ject of his affection. The answer which he received 
 was haughty and insolent: "Do you imagine that 
 the blood and the great house of the Strozzi could 
 
 * Vutnera Diligentis, lib. i. c. g. It was first discovered by Meier 
 (cf. Meier s Lehen, c. i. s. 15) 
 
36 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 form an alliance with that of Savonarola ? " It was 
 an unfortunate reply. The girl remembered only 
 one-half of her parentage ; and the mortified lover, 
 provoked by her foolish pride, fiercely reminded 
 her of the stain on her birth. We may be sure 
 that he repented of his anger when the flushing 
 face revealed the feelings which she could find no 
 words to express. We may be quite sure that the 
 bitter taunt which he had cast at her often came 
 back with pain to the memory of the chastened 
 Fra Girolamo in after years. 
 
 The feelings of weariness and revulsion which the 
 condition of the Church and the world had aroused 
 within him went on deepening, until at last he 
 resolved to leave his home and enter a monastery. 
 By day and by night his thoughts were of God 
 and eternity, and he was meditating continually on 
 the possibility of living a better and a higher life. 
 When he was twenty-two years of age, we are told, 
 he spent a whole night in considering what course 
 he ought to take. In order to assist his meditations 
 he had sprinkled his body with the coldest water ; 
 and he ended by dedicating himself entirely to the 
 service of Jesus Christ.* It was about this time 
 that he was deeply moved by the preaching of an 
 Augustinian monk at Faenza, which seems finally 
 to have decided his taking the step he had been 
 already meditating. Long afterwards he refers to 
 the impression then made upon him as deep and 
 
 * An incident mentioned, and his age at the time, both by Pico 
 and Burlamacchi. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 37 
 
 powerful. " Once," he says, " while I was still in 
 the world, I went for amusement to Faenza, and 
 entering by chance the Church of S. Augustine, I 
 heard a word from an Augustinian preacher, which 
 I will not tell you now, but which to this hour I 
 have in my heart ; and I went and became a friar 
 before a year had passed."* Era Benedetto says 
 that Savonarola would never repeat that word ; and 
 that, strangely, the monk from whom he heard it 
 was known as a man of irregular life ; from which 
 Savonarola took occasion to observe that we might 
 learn to do well from the divine word, whoever 
 preached it. 
 
 When he had once resolved to become a monk, 
 he had little difficulty in deciding for the Domi- 
 nican order, to which he was probably attracted by 
 many considerations, but chiefly by his devotion to 
 S. Thomas, the great glory of the order. We can 
 imagine the emotions with which he passed through 
 Bologna (probably the route he took), on his way 
 back from Faenza to Ferrara, with these new 
 resolves working in his mind. 
 
 The resolution he had formed at once lifted a 
 burden from his heart, for he felt he had now 
 broken with the ungodly world ; but this joy was 
 darkened by the thought of the pain he was about 
 to inflict upon his parents, to whom he did not dare 
 to disclose his purpose. It seemed to him that his 
 mother was watching him with a new and painful 
 interest, as though she were striving to read his 
 
 * Vrediche sopra L'zechiel, Yen. loll, fol. 172. 
 
88 
 
 SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 very heart. For a whole year this struggle went 
 on. In the letter to his father from which we have 
 already quoted, he says, " If I had shown you my 
 purpose, I believe verily my heart would have 
 broken before I could have parted from you, and 
 I should have abandoned the intention I had 
 formed." 
 
 It was hard to leave them in any case. The 
 night before he set forth on his new life, he took 
 his lute in his hand and played on it a strain so 
 sorrowful that his mother seemed to divine what 
 was passing in his heart, and turning to him with 
 saddened looks exclaimed, " My son, this is a sign 
 of parting." By a great effort he kept his eyes on 
 the ground, and continued with a trembling hand to 
 touch the lute, without venturing to answer. 
 
 On the 24th of April, the whole city of Ferrara 
 was celebrating the festival of S. George; and it 
 was this day, when the thoughts of the populace 
 and of his own family were entirely occupied with 
 the festivities, that Girolamo had chosen as a time 
 when he could escape without being observed. He 
 took his way to Bologna, and prayed for admission 
 to the Dominican convent of that city, where the 
 great founder of the order lies enshrined. He 
 made but one special request, that he might be 
 appointed to perform the most menial duties of the 
 fraternity. 
 
 To a mind like that of Savonarola, the convent 
 might have possessed many attractions. His ten- 
 dencies were towards solitude rather than inter- 
 
BIRTH AXD EAELY YEARS. 
 
 39 
 
 course with his fellow-men ; and here lie might 
 2:ratifv his tastes. His love for S. Thomas and for 
 theological study might have led him to desire a 
 manner of life in which such studies might reason- 
 ably have formed his principal occupation. How 
 little such considerations weighed with him, we may 
 judge not only from his declaration to his father 
 that he had come to the resolution of leaving the 
 world, because he could no longer endure the cor- 
 ruption of the age, but also from the purpose 
 which he formed respecting his employments when 
 he entered the convent. 
 
 Savonarola was not unaware of the dangers and 
 temptations of the monastic life. He was, indeed, 
 so fearful of putting on the habit of the religious in 
 a worldly spirit, that, as he afterwards informed his 
 friend and biographer, Pico della Mirandola, he had 
 resolved not to take holy orders, nor even to addict 
 himself to his favourite philosophical studies. It 
 was his fixed intention to ask to be employed in 
 manual labour, to work in the garden, to make 
 clothes for the brethren, and the like. This resolu- 
 tion, says Pico, he providentially forgot, God intend- 
 ing him for a teacher of others. It is equally 
 probable that in the same spirit of humility which 
 prompted the resolve, he abandoned it in obedience 
 to those under whom he was placed, and who dis- 
 cerned in him a fitness for higher work. 
 
 Although he had shrunk from divulging to his 
 parents his intention of taking the religious habit, 
 yet ho would not, for a moment longer than he 
 
40 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 thought necessary, leave them in ignorance or 
 anxiety as to the step he had taken. Among his 
 books in his desk he left a paper, of which a copy 
 has recently been found, on Gontem]^t of the World, 
 and on the following day he wrote a letter to his 
 father, explaining the reasons which had moved him 
 to leave his home. 
 
 The treatise simply sets forth the thoughts which 
 had been growing so strong within him of the evils 
 of the world. The copy recently discovered bears 
 upon it the following touching words, in Italian, 
 from his father's hand : — " I remember how, on the 
 24th of April, which was S. George's Day, in 1475, 
 Geronimo my son, student in arts, departed from 
 his home and went to Bologna, and entered among 
 the brothers of S. Dominic in order to become a 
 brother ; and left me, me Niccolb della Savonarola 
 his father, the underwritten consolations and exhor- 
 tations for my satisfaction." 
 
 The letter, from which we have already quoted, 
 was marked by the most tender affection as well as 
 by the greatest earnestness. He tells his father, 
 " I wish you, as a true man and one who despises 
 fleeting things, to be influenced by truth and not 
 by passion, like women; and to judge, under the 
 dominion of reason, whether I am right in flying 
 from the world." And then he speaks of the evils 
 of the age in words already quoted. " And so, dear 
 father," he goes on, " instead of weeping, you have 
 rather to thank the Lord Jesus, who has given you 
 a son, and then has preserved him to you for twenty- 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 41 
 
 two years; and not only this, but besides has de- 
 signed to make him his knight militant {militanto 
 cavalier 6). Ah, do you not regard it as a great 
 grace to have a son a knight of Jesus Christ ? But, 
 to speak shortly, either it is true that you love me 
 or it is not true. I know well that you will not say 
 you do not love me. If then you love me, since I 
 have two parts, that is the soul and the body, do 
 you love most the soul or the body ? You cannot say 
 the body, because you would not love me if you 
 loved the baser part of me. If then you love the 
 soul best, why should you not seek the good of the 
 soul ? Therefore you ought to rejoice, and to regard 
 this as a triumph. ... Do you believe that it is not 
 a great grief for me to be separated from you? 
 Believe me, that never since I was born have I had 
 a greater grief nor a greater affliction of mind — see- 
 ing myself abandon my own blood, and go among 
 people unknown, in order to make a sacrifice to 
 Jesus Christ of my body, and to sell my will into 
 the hands of those whom I never knew. But yet, 
 considering that God calls me, and that He does not 
 disdain of us worms to make Himself servants, I 
 could not be so bold as not to incline to His most 
 sweet voice, which says, * Come unto me, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest. Take my yoke upon you.' ... I pray you 
 then, my dear father, put a stop to your lamenta- 
 tions, and do not give me more sadness and grief 
 than I now endure — not for grief of that which I 
 have done, which I certainly do not wish to recall. 
 
42 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 even if I thought I could become greater than 
 Ceesar ; but because I am still made of flesh, as you 
 are, and the senses fight against the reason. ... It 
 only remains for me to pray you, like a man, to 
 comfort my mother, whom I pray, together with 
 you, to give me your benediction ; and I will always 
 pray fervently for your souls. Ex Bononia, die 
 XXV. Aprilis (Bologna, April 25), 1475. . . . Sierony- 
 mus Savonarola filius vester. To the noble and 
 excellent man Nicolas Savonarola, the best of 
 parents (jparenti ojptimo)^ * 
 
 What effect this letter may have produced we 
 cannot tell; but there is a second letter extant, 
 without date, in which he complains of their exces- 
 sive grief. "Why do ye weep, blind ones?" he 
 begins. " Why do ye complain so much ? If our 
 temporal prince had called me now to gird a sword 
 on my side, in the midst of the people, and to make 
 me one of his knights, what joy you would have 
 experienced! And if I had then repudiated such 
 an honour, would you not have thought me a fool ? 
 . . . And now the Prince of princes. He who is of 
 infinite power, calls me with a loud voice, even 
 prays me (0 great love ! ) with a thousand tears, to 
 gird a sword on my side, of the finest gold and pre- 
 cious stones, and wishes to place me among the 
 number of His knights militant. And now, because 
 
 * This letter lias been often published; but an accurate copy 
 was for the first time printed, from the autograph, by the Count 
 Carlo Capponi. Yillari reproduces this text, and from his work 
 ; our translation is made. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
 
 43 
 
 I have not refused so great honour, although I am 
 unworthy (and who would refuse it?) — because I, 
 giving thanks to so great a Lord, since He thus wills, 
 have accepted it, — you all afflict me, when you ought 
 to rejoice and give thanks ; and the more you do 
 so the more you show that you love me." 
 
44j 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 When Savonarola arrived in Bologna, the city, 
 after many variations of fortune, had become, in 
 name at least, the second capital of the papal States ; 
 although the family of Bentivoglio, by whom it was 
 governed, held the papal supremacy very lightly. 
 But the young novice had, at this time, no thoughts 
 for questions which he afterwards felt to be of vital 
 importance to the well-being of Italy. We may 
 even doubt whether that splendid shrine in the 
 convent church, one of the greatest works of Mcola 
 da Pisa, upon which so many pilgrims have gazed 
 with admiration, interested him otherwise than 
 as the resting-place of the great founder of his 
 order. 
 
 During his noviciate, and indeed during his 
 whole life at Bologna, he abstained, as far as possi- 
 ble, from all social intercourse with his fellow-men. 
 Every hour that he could gain for the purpose he 
 spent in silent meditation and prayer.. His com- 
 panions compared his manner and conduct to those 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 45 
 
 of the ancient ascetics and hermits of Egypt, as 
 they saw him moving about like a ghost, worn to a 
 shadow by fasts and vigils. 
 
 In every respect he kept his vow of poverty to 
 the letter, or rather in excess. He ate only enough 
 to sustain life. His garments were the roughest 
 and the coarsest that he could procure, but always 
 scrupulously clean. His shoes were long and turned 
 up at the points, for, he said, " they would be full 
 of precious stones in Paradise." His bed consisted 
 of 'pieces of wood and sticks laid across so as to 
 form a kind of lattice-work, on which were placed a 
 sack of straw and a woollen sheet, with a coarse 
 frock thrown over them. 
 
 As regards his vow of purity, his biographers 
 speak of his eminence in this respect as being repre- 
 sented in his writings, and as the reason for his 
 being favoured with visions of the world of spirits. 
 Nor was his obedience less remarkable ; for while 
 he was in most perfect subjection to his superiors, 
 he was humble and gentle to equals and inferiors, 
 and, although he spoke very little, he was always 
 kind and affable in manner. It was perhaps the 
 happiest and most tranquil period in all his life. 
 Speaking of it afterwards,* he says : " It was said 
 to me. Go forth from your home and your country, 
 and leave all. And I was guided to the harbour of 
 the sea, that is, to religion, which is the true and 
 safe harbour to him who seeks for salvation. And 
 I came to this port when I was twenty-three years 
 
 * Prcdiche sopra alqiianti Salmi ed Aggeo, Yen. 1544, fol. 141. 
 
46 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 old. And two things above all others I loved, which 
 drew me to this harbour — liberty and peace." 
 
 With all his gentleness and humility, he did not 
 lack those powers of sarcasm which were afterwards 
 displayed in his preaching. There is a story told 
 of two monks of Yallombrosa who came to visit him, 
 who were themselves so struck by the contrast 
 between his coarse garments and their own more 
 luxurious attire, that they thought it necessary to 
 give some explanation of their usages. Their frocks, 
 they said, were made of fine cloth because it wore 
 so much longer. "Ah," replied the Frate, drily, 
 " what a pity it is that S. Benedict and S. Giovanni 
 Gualberto did not know that ; for then they might 
 have worn the same ! " * 
 
 During the seven years that he remained in the 
 convent at Bologna he was unremitting in his 
 studies. His old favourite S. Thomas he never 
 abandoned, and he greatly delighted in works of 
 devotion like those of Augustine and Cassian ; but 
 there grew in him an ever-increasing tendency to 
 turn from other books, and give himself more and 
 more to the study of the Holy Scriptures. He is 
 said t to have committed the whole of the Canonical 
 Books to memory, a practice which bore abundant 
 fruits in his after labours ; and it was here that he 
 formed the habit, never afterwards abandoned, of 
 making notes on the margins of his Bible, his 
 
 * Burlamacclii gives the story here ; it is quite as likely, how- 
 ever, to have belonged to the period of his reforms at Florence, 
 t Burlamacchi. 
 
MOXASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 47 
 
 Breviary, and other books. Several ot these are 
 still in existence, and one of the most interesting 
 objects now shown in the Convent of S. Mark at 
 Florence is one of his Bibles, kept in his cell, the 
 margins of which are covered with notes in his 
 beautiful but minute handwriting. It is an instance 
 of the affectionate interest which his early bio- 
 graphers took in the smallest particulars of his life 
 and habits, and also of the uncertain inferences they 
 drew from them, that Burlamacchi mentions that 
 this habit of annotating his Bible and Breviary 
 with all that was necessary for preaching and hear- 
 ing confessions enabled . him to travel without a 
 valise {la valigia) ! 
 
 It was not long before his superiors deteimined to 
 make use of his gifts for the benefit of the commu- 
 nity; and therefore they set him to instruct the 
 novices of the convent. It was with no small reluc- 
 tance that he complied with this command, foresee- 
 ing, as he did, that it would involve the sacrifice of 
 many hours of solitude, of meditation and prayer ; 
 but he obeyed, and in this, as in every other 
 occupation, he gained the esteem and admiration of 
 his brethren. 
 
 The "peace and liberty" which he had sought 
 and found might now have secured to him a calm 
 and tranquil life, if he could have forgotten the 
 evils of the world, if he had not found these evils 
 asserting their dominion within the walls of the 
 convent. Already, we are told, he was struck with 
 the contrast between the monks of his own dav and 
 
48 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 those of earlier and better days, when he saw multi- 
 tudes around him heedless of the Word of God and 
 the life of grace, and " intent only upon enriching 
 the churches and building the most beautiful con- 
 vents, and many others occupying themselves in 
 numberless vanities." 
 
 It might seem to be a proud boast which he 
 uttered in later days, that he was entirely devoted 
 to the pursuit of truth ; but those who follow him 
 from the time of his entering the Dominican order 
 throughout his life, and thoughtfully ponder his 
 words and his deeds, his utterances in public and 
 in private, and his conduct as a priest and a patriot, 
 will hardly refuse to allow the truth of his claim. 
 
 " I have always," he says, " striven after truth 
 with all my might, and sought unceasingly to win 
 all men to it, as I have declared a constant war 
 against falsehood, which I have always hated. The 
 more trouble I bestow upon it, the greater becomes 
 my longing, so that for it I could abandon life itself. 
 When I was but a boy, I had such thoughts ; and 
 from that time the desire and longing after this 
 good has gone on increasing to the present day." * 
 " Truth," he says in another place, " should be loved 
 for its own sake, and brings great joy to those who 
 find it. It enlightens the spirit with a divine splen- 
 dour, and leads the soul to communion with God, 
 who is Truth itself." t 
 
 * Dialogo della verita 'profetica, fol. 72. 
 
 t Prediche sopra diversi Salmi, etc., fol. 42. (Qu. by Meier, 
 p. 21.) 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGXA. 
 
 49 
 
 To such a man tlie condition of men and things 
 aroimd him was intolerable. His first poem has 
 shown us what he thouo^ht of the world before he 
 left it. He had not been long in the convent 
 before he wrote a second on the ruin of the 
 Church {Be ruina Ecclesise), It is said to have 
 been composed in the year 1475, the first of his 
 monastic life. "Where," he asks, addressing the 
 Church as a " chaste virgin " to whom he, although 
 unworthy, belongs, being one of the members of her 
 eternal Spouse — " where is the light of the early 
 days ? Where are the gems and the fine diamonds ? 
 Where are the burning lamps and the beautiful 
 sapphires ? " — meaning the saints and martyrs, the 
 love and devotion of the early Church. "Where 
 are the white stoles and the sweet chants ? " The 
 virgin takes him by the hand and leads him to a 
 cave, and tells him that, when she saw proud ambi- 
 tion enter Eome, she departed and dwelt where she 
 could lead her life in lamentation. Then she shows 
 him her woimded body and her dishevelled hair; 
 and when he asks who it is that has thus dethroned 
 her and broken her peace, she answers, "A false, 
 proud harlot, Babylon." " And I : * In God's name, 
 lady, teU me, can these great wings be broken?' 
 And she : * Mortal tongue must not speak it, nor is 
 it allowed to take up arms. Weep and be silent, for 
 this is best.' " * 
 
 AVhen we remember that Sixtus IV. was Pope 
 
 * The poem is given, with copious notes, in the Poesie, edited by 
 Audin de Kians. (Firenze, 1847.) 
 
 I- E 
 
50 
 
 SAYOXAROLA. 
 
 during the whole of the seven years that Savonarola 
 spent at Bologna, we shall understand what hope of 
 reformation he could have drawn from the character 
 of the Head of the Church. But the secular rulers 
 of Italy were no better — how could they heve been 
 better? — than its spiritual chief. Liberty had 
 perished in all the ancient republics, Venice alone, 
 perhaps, excepted. Bologna was ruled by a Benti- 
 voglio. Milan was under the weak but tyrannical 
 Galeazzo Sforza. Florence, after being ruled by the 
 wise and able Cosimo de' Medici, who never discarded 
 the forms of liberty even when the reality was gone, 
 had been succeeded (1464) by his weak and in- 
 capable son, Piero,* who, happily for the prospects 
 of his family, died in 1469, and was succeeded by 
 Lorenzo. 
 
 It is not merely in order to illustrate the condition 
 of the world at this time, but also on account of its 
 direct bearing upon the history of Savonarola, that 
 we pause for a moment to relate the history of a 
 tragedy, neglected by no historian of this period, 
 which took place at Florence in 1478, three years 
 after Savonarola entered the convent at Bologna, four 
 years before he left it and came to Florence. Whether 
 we consider the character and position of the family 
 assailed, the nature and ramifications of the con- 
 spiracy formed against them, the designs of the 
 conspirators, or the actual results of the attempt, 
 
 * Yon Eenmont shows, however, that this Piero was a man 
 possessed of many admirable qualities — very diflferent from his 
 grandson who bore the same name. 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 51 
 
 the conspiracy of the Pazzi will appear to be one of 
 the most remarkable events of the period to which 
 it belongs. 
 
 The name of the Medici will hold a prominent 
 place in these pages. They were the most powerful 
 family in Florence, and, in some respects, they had 
 merited the influence to which they had attained. 
 The Pazzi were among the oldest families and the 
 greatest of the same State. They were connected 
 with the Medici by marriage ; but for some reasons, 
 real or imagined,* they bore a grudge against them, 
 and they envied them the power which they possessed 
 in Florence. But the Pazzi were not alone in the 
 conspiracy. It has even been doubted whether they 
 were its prime movers. That place has, by some 
 historians, been assigned to the Holy Father him- 
 self ; and if Sixtus IV. was not the instigator of the 
 attempt,t there is no doubt that he gave it the 
 most energetic support, and his nephew, the Count 
 Girolamo Kiario, took an active part in the whole 
 scheme. Their design was to murder Lorenzo de* 
 Medici and his brother Giuliano, and so crush the 
 power which was inconvenient to the Pope and 
 hateful to the Pazzi. Determined to stop at no 
 obstacles, when they found it almost impossible to 
 slay the two brothers at once, they determined at 
 last to assassinate them at the time of High Mass, 
 
 * They were not merely imaginary. Cf. Yon Eeumont, Lorenzo 
 de' Medici, bk, ii. c. 1. 
 
 t The Pope professed, at least, to discountenance the murder. 
 
52 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 on the occasion of a great solemnity in the cathedral 
 of Florence. 
 
 A soldier of some reputation, by name Montesecco, 
 had been employed to perpetrate the crime; but 
 the man who was ready to commit murder was not 
 prepared to incur the guilt of sacrilege. They had 
 to find other tools, and they found them in two 
 priests. This can hardly seem wonderful, when the 
 conspirators were supported by the Pope, and had for 
 their most active leader Francesco Salviati, Arch- 
 bishop of Pisa. This man had been appointed by 
 the Pope, in opposition to the wishes of the Medici, 
 and he was now in Florence, taking counsel with the 
 other conspirators, waiting to reap his revenge. The 
 murder accomplished, they were going to raise the 
 populace, under the pretence of restoring their lost 
 liberty, and to take possession of the property of the 
 murdered men. 
 
 The signal for the striking of the blow was the 
 bell which announced the elevation of the host ; 
 and Giuliano de' Medici* fell dead under the knife 
 of one of the assassins. Lorenzo was only wounded, 
 and was able to defend himself until, with the assist- 
 ance of his friends, he escaped into the sacristy of 
 the church. Still the conspirators hoped their work 
 was not in vain : they might raise the populace and 
 finish it by open violence. The populace rose in 
 defence of the Medici. In a few hours the Arch- 
 bishop of Pisa was swinging, in his episcopal robes, 
 
 * Of this Giuliano, Pope Clement VII. was the illegitimate 
 
 son. 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 53 
 
 from a window of the Palazzo Vecchio, and one of 
 the Pazzi was hanged beside him. The conspiracy 
 had failed, and many of the conspirators were hunted 
 down, and caught and slain. 
 
 The wrath of the Pope knew no bounds, and 
 broke forth in threats and anathemas — not against 
 the sacrilegious desecrators of temples, the con- 
 spirators, the assassins; but against Florence and 
 the Medici. It is worth while to glance at the 
 document in which he set forth the wrongs he had 
 suffered from the Florentines, and the punishment 
 he found it necessary to inflict upon them. "Accord- 
 ing to the example of the Saviour," said his Holiness, 
 "he had long suffered in peace the insults and 
 the injuries of his enemies, and he should still have 
 continued to exercise his forbearance, had not 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, with the magistrates of Florence, 
 and their abettors, discarding the fear of God, 
 inflamed with fury, and instigated by diabolical 
 suggestions, laid violent hands on ecclesiastical 
 persons, hung up the archbishop, imprisoned the 
 cardinal [his nephew], and by various means 
 destroyed and slaughtered their followers [the 
 accomplices of the assassins.] He then proceeded 
 to excommunicate Lorenzo and the magistrates of 
 the republic, and their " immediate successors, 
 declaring them incapable of receiving or transmit- 
 ting property by inheritance or will, and prohibit- 
 ing their descendants from enjoying any ecclesiastical 
 employment. By the same instrument he sus- 
 pended the bishops and clergy of the Florentine 
 
54 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 territories from the exercise of their spiritual 
 ftmctions." * 
 
 These things were not done in a corner: the 
 sound of them went throughout all the world. We 
 may judge whether the Dominican friar at Bologna 
 who, three years before, had in his Canzona spoken 
 of Eome as Babylon, " a false, proud harlot," could 
 now shake off the horror with which he regarded 
 the state of the visible Church in its root and in 
 its branches. The Pope, be it remembered, was 
 that Sixtus IV. who occupied the " chair of Peter " 
 during the whole of the seven years in which 
 Savonarola was watching and praying, and studying 
 and teaching, and grieving over the ruin of the 
 Church, at Bologna. Amid such circumstances 
 were his thoughts and purposes for the future being 
 shaped. Under such influences was he trying to 
 learn what work his Master had set him to do in 
 the world. 
 
 Savonarola's success as a teacher was so great that 
 his superiors appointed him to preach ; nor was he 
 slow in yielding obedience to the command. The 
 fire was kindling within him, and he was preparing, 
 unconsciously perhaps, to speak with his tongue 
 words that would be felt and remembered. This 
 result was not, however, achieved at once. It is 
 with some astonishment that we learn how little his 
 first sermons seem to have gained the attention of 
 his hearers. The reasons were manifold, and they 
 
 * Eoscoe, Life of Lorenzo de* Medici^ c. iv. Cf. also Capponi, 
 RepubUica di Firenze, lib. v. c. 5. 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 55 
 
 are to be sought partly in the corrupt taste of the 
 age, and partly in the peculiar genius and mission 
 of the preacher. 
 
 It had been the fashion with the popular preachers 
 of those days to indulge in the most fanciful conceits 
 and tricks of rhetoric, for the purpose of attracting 
 and amusing their hearers. A sermon was, in their 
 eyes, either a light recreation or a means of exer- 
 cising their own dialectical subtlety. To the deep 
 moral earnestness of Savonarola all this was horrible 
 and revolting ; and it is possible that, in shrinking 
 from the use of artifice in the pulpit, he may have 
 shown a disregard of those rules of spoken composi- 
 tion which few can afford to neglect. None of the 
 early sermons have been preserved, so that we have 
 no means of judging of them. It is very probable, 
 however, that the Frate had not yet found his own 
 proper manner of address ; that the emotions which 
 were struggling within him had hardly shaped 
 themselves into definite thoughts, so as to be ready 
 for articulate and coherent utterance. Indeed, the 
 testimony on the subject is not quite consistent. 
 We learn, for example, that he was ordered by his 
 superiors to go and preach at Ferrara ; and while we 
 are told that his fellow-citizens heard his preaching 
 with great favour, he himself complains, in a letter 
 written to his mother, from Pavia, eight years after, 
 that in him was fulfilled the saying : Neiiio loropheta 
 in patria sua — " No prophet is accepted in his own 
 country." * On the occasion of this visit to his 
 
 * S. Lukeiv. 24. 
 
56 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 native town he avoided meeting any of his old 
 acquaintances, and he saw very little even of his 
 parents, for fear of awakening sentiments which he 
 wished to remain for ever dead. 
 
 Although his public teaching seems to have been 
 unsuccessful, this was not the case either with his 
 private instructions or his personal admonitions. A 
 story is told by his biographers of the remarkable 
 effect produced on a number of hardened and reck- 
 less men by his remonstrances. On a certain occa- 
 sion he journeyed from Ferrara to Mantua in a boat 
 alone with eighteen soldiers, who were playing and • 
 using obscene language, when he asked leave to 
 speak a few words to them. Pico says that he 
 spoke to them for the space of half an hour most 
 earnestly on the sinfulness of their life ; and both i 
 he and Burlamacchi relate that, before he had 
 ended his address, eleven of them fell prostrate 
 at his feet, confessing their great and innumerable 
 sins, and asking pardon with tears for the offences 
 of which they had been guilty against the Frate 
 and against God. 
 
 But a series of events were about to occur, which 
 were destined to alter the whole course of his life. 
 In the same year in which he had been sent to 
 preach in his native town (1482), a war broke out 
 between Venice and Ferrara, which was at first 
 carried on between these two states alone, but 
 soon divided all Italy into two hostile factions. 
 Florence alone remained undisturbed by the tumult 
 which arose, while Ferrara was its very centre. 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGNA. 
 
 57 
 
 It was in many respects a strange and curious 
 struggle. Pope Sixtus, it is said, had stirred up 
 the Venetians at the beginning of the war, and 
 there is no doubt that he was on their side; but 
 he shortly afterwards came to see that his interests 
 would be more advanced by espousing the cause of 
 their enemies. He thereupon turned round, ex- 
 communicated the Venetians, and did his utmost 
 to inflame and keep alive the strife he had kindled. 
 With such an ally on either side, it is not wonderful 
 that the contending powers became anxious to con- 
 clude a peace ; and this they accomplished in two 
 years from the beginning of the war, 1484. This 
 was the peace which proved the death of the Holy 
 Father. " You announce to me," he said, " a peace 
 of shame and disgrace." His grief and rage brought 
 on an attack which carried him off on the following 
 day. 
 
 Savonarola was at Ferrara, in the convent of 
 Santa Maria degli Angeli, when the war broke out ; 
 and the Venetians having threatened to storm the 
 city and massacre the inhabitants, a number of the 
 brethren were sent away and distributed among 
 different cities of Italy. Savonarola was among 
 those who were sent to the convent of S. Mark 
 at Florence. 
 
 It was apparently with reluctance that he had 
 gone to Ferrara, and in a letter afterwards written 
 to his mother, he points out that it was better he 
 should not remain there. " It is very seldom," he 
 says, "that a monk can do his best work in his 
 
58 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 native country. People have less confidence in 
 the counsels of a fellow-citizen than in those of 
 a stranger. *No prophet is accepted in his own 
 country/ said our Saviour ; and He was not accounted 
 one by his own countrymen. If I wanted to do in 
 Ferrara what I do in other cities, they would say, 
 as they said of Christ : * Is not this the Carpenter, 
 the son of a carpenter and of Mary ' — so of me : 
 * Is not this Master Girolamo, who committed such 
 and such sins, and who was no better than we were ? 
 We know him well.' And they would give no heed 
 to my W'ord. . . . Out of my own country," he adds, 
 — it is a son writing in all simplicity to a mother 
 — " it is not so. On the contrary, when I want to 
 leave, men and women weep." 
 
 It was not destined that the brother should 
 remain at Ferrara ; and this change in his circum- 
 stances was of the greatest import, as a turning 
 point, perhaps the most important, in his life. He 
 was bidding a last farewell to Ferrara and to those 
 whom he loved so tenderly, and whom he was never 
 again to see on earth. But w hat was the past which 
 he was leaving, compared with the future upon 
 which he was now entering? He might continue 
 to be spoken of as Girolamo of Ferrara, but hence- 
 forth it is as a brother of S. Mark's and a citizen 
 of Florence that he belongs to the world and to 
 history. 
 
 How much depends upon what men call accidents ! 
 Who can tell what the fortune of Savonarola would 
 have been, if he had been sent to some other town 
 
MONASTIC LIFE AT BOLOGXA. 
 
 59 
 
 of Italy, undisturbed by the storms which raged in 
 his new home ? There was not a second Florence ; 
 and at a distance from this great city he might 
 have been a great teacher, preacher, reformer — he 
 could hardly have been insignificant anywhere — but 
 his place in history would have been altogether 
 different ; and so, indeed, would the history of 
 Italy itself have been, for we may say, without 
 hesitation, there was no other man of that age who 
 could have filled his place. If there was no second 
 Florence there was no second Savonarola. 
 
SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BKOTHER OF S. MARK'S. 
 
 The convent of S. Mark in Florence was originally 
 built by a company of Sylvestrine monks from Val- 
 lombrosa at the close of the thirteenth century, about 
 the same time that the Palazzo Yecchio was built for 
 the Signoria. The order of the Sylvestrines had its 
 beginning some sixty years before, and came to 
 have as many as twenty-five convents and three 
 hundred brethren; but it is now almost extinct, 
 many of its members having been absorbed into 
 other societies. For a whole century these monks 
 lived in their convent, honoured by the citizens 
 of Florence for their virtues and their work. But 
 the great plague of Florence, which broke out in 
 1400, and which has been so powerfully described 
 by Boccaccio in the introduction to the Decameron, 
 seems to have produced the same twofold effects 
 which resulted from the plague at Athens, described 
 by the still more powerful pen of Thucydides. While 
 some had their devotion deepened and strengthened, 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. IMARK'S. 
 
 61 
 
 others became reckless, or fell into thoughtless and 
 irreligious courses. 
 
 With the Sylvestrines of S. Mark's the effect 
 of the plague was to relax their discipline and to 
 engender all those evils which flow from a neglect 
 of rule. This degeneracy seems to have gone on 
 for a whole generation. About the time of the 
 plague there was a society of Dominicans which, 
 after several vicissitudes of fortune and of character, 
 had been settled at the small convent of San Georgio, 
 on the south side of the Amo, in the San Miniato 
 district, behind the Boboli Gardens.* This Domini- 
 can society had imdergone more than one removal, 
 but had been so improved by the discipline that it 
 was determined by the Pope and the Signoria that 
 they should take possession of the larger convent of 
 S. Mark, and transfer their own to the Sylvestrines. 
 
 When these reformed Dominicans of the Lombard 
 congregation f took possession of San Marco, it was 
 in a state of the utmost dilapidation. The dormitory 
 had recently been destroyed by a fire, so that the 
 monks were forced to seek for shelter in wooden 
 huts. Cosimo de' Medici, the great founder of 
 Medicean influence in Florence, undertook the 
 restoration of the buildings. He promised the 
 monks ten thousand scudi for the purpose, but he is 
 said to have spent as much as thirty-six thousand. 
 
 * The gardens were, of course, still in the future. In fact, 
 the Pitti Palace is said to have been undertaken in the very year 
 of the exchange mentioned in the text, and the building to havo 
 been commenced five or six years later. 
 
 t It is of some importance to note their description. 
 
62 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 The work extended over seven years (1436 — 1443), 
 and was carried on under the direction of Michel- 
 ozzo Michelozzi, an architect of some celebrity. It 
 should be stated, however, that the buildings have 
 since his time been greatly altered. The church, for 
 example, which dates back as far as 1290, had its 
 fagade reconstructed by Pronti, in 1777. It should 
 be added that Cosimo — Fater Fatrise, as he was 
 called, and not altogether without reason — did not 
 rest contented with having merely reconstructed the 
 buildings of the convent. He resolved upon a more 
 difficult enterprise — to bestow upon the monks the 
 gift of a valuable library. Luckily for his purpose, 
 there had just died Niccolo Niccoli, the most cele- 
 brated collector of books and manuscripts, and one 
 of the most learned men of that age. His collec- 
 tion, which was of great value, he left to the public, 
 but burdened by very heavy debts. Cosimo paid 
 off the debts, and, after retaining some valuable 
 manuscripts as his own, he presented the remainder 
 to the convent of S. Mark. It was the first public 
 library in Italy, and was not merely highly prized 
 by the brethren, but was the means of stimulating 
 the literary industry of the society. 
 
 But the rebuilding of the monastery was only a 
 preparation for those nobler works of art which, 
 are some of the most striking illustrations of the 
 heavenly spirit of a brother of the newly settled 
 society, Fra Angelico, or as he was then called, Fra 
 Giovanni da Fiesole. It was a wonderful era in 
 .Florentine art. Exactly a century before, Giotto 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK'S. 
 
 63 
 
 had been raising his matchless Campanile by the 
 side of the ancient Baptistery of S. John. While 
 Fra Giovanni was covering the walls of San Marco 
 with the fruits of his devotion, Brunelleschi was 
 planning and carrying out the execution of that 
 glorious dome, the admiration and perhaps the 
 inspiration of Michael Angelo,* which was to soar 
 aloft and dominate the whole city, rising a hundred 
 feet higher even than Giotto's tower. Of these 
 charming frescoes we can say but little here. No 
 one who has seen them in their marvellous freshness 
 on the walls of S. Mark's is likely to forget them. 
 Untravelled Englishmen may study them in the 
 admirable copies of the Arundel Society ; and we 
 may well believe that they often kindled the pious 
 imagination and soothed the troubled heart of the 
 new friar. 
 
 Fra Angelico's is not the only great name con- 
 nected with S. Marco. There was another, which, 
 in those days at least, was held in still greater 
 esteem, that of Antonino, "one of those charac- 
 ters which do real honour to the human race." f 
 He was the creator of many beneficent institutions 
 in Florence; and he renovated and reorganized 
 many' others. It was he who converted the society 
 of the Bigallo, founded by S. Peter Martyr for the 
 extermination of heretics, into a charitable institu- 
 
 * Michael Angelo's reply is well known, when he was told that 
 he was about to erect for St. Peter's at Rome a finer dome than 
 Brunelleschi's. " Piu grande," he said, " ma non piii bello." 
 
 t Villari. 
 
64 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 tion. Instead of carrying on the bloody work of 
 the Inquisition, the brethren now devoted them- 
 selves to the care of orphan children. He was also 
 the founder of the *'Good Men of S. Martin" 
 (Buon' TJomini di San Martino), who collected alms 
 for the relief of the deserving and shame-faced 
 poor (poveri vergognosi) at their own houses. His 
 self-denial was equal to his warm love for God and 
 man, and his active charity on behalf of the suffering 
 and needy. He died in 1459, lamented as a public 
 loss by all Florence; and Savonarola found his 
 name revered, and his life held up as the highest 
 example for the imitation of the brotherhood, when 
 he arrived in Florence, in 1482. 
 
 When Savonarola came to Florence, he often 
 heard the brethren of San Marco extolling the piety 
 of Sant' Antonino ; but it was not long before he 
 discovered that their admiration did not involve the 
 purpose of imitation. His was more a name to 
 boast of than an ideal to reach after. In this 
 convent, too, all was worldliness and irreligion. The 
 immorality of the people had assumed a more 
 refined form under the influence of the prophets 
 of the Benaissance. In this mediaeval Athens there 
 was little that seemed coarse and outwardly re- 
 pulsive; but its polished cynicism, its refined 
 sensuality, its utter heartlessness and unbelief were, 
 if possible, more disgusting to the serious, earnest 
 spirit of Savonarola than evil more coarse and less 
 disguised would have been. The " religious " were 
 hardly different from the men of the world. Keli- 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. :MARK'S. 
 
 65 
 
 gion was the thing they cared for least; even 
 theology had little interest for them. We can 
 imagine with what bitter grief and disappointment 
 Savonarola beheld the eager interest manifested 
 in Plato and Aristotle, and the utter neglect of 
 S. Thomas and even of S. Paul. 
 
 It must be remembered that Fra Girolamo had no 
 personal reason for mortification. His reputation 
 had gone before him, and he had hardly entered the 
 new brotherhood when the prior, Yincenzo Badella, 
 apjDointed him to the same post which he had held 
 at Bologna, that of Lettore, or instructor of the 
 novices ; and he discharged the duties of his office 
 with great success for the four years of his first 
 residence at Florence (1482 — 1486). It was probably 
 for this reason that he was appointed in the year 
 1483 to preach the Lent sermons at S. Lorenzo; 
 but here, as in his former attempts, he met with no 
 success. It is said that only five and twenty persons 
 could be induced to listen to his sermons ; and this 
 at a time when the church of Santo Spirito was 
 crowded by multitudes who listened eagerly to a 
 rival preacher, a favourite of the Medici, named 
 Mariano da Gennazzano. 
 
 The reasons for Savonarola's failure are to be 
 found both in his subjects and in his manner. The 
 topics on which alone he cared to preach were 
 connected with those subjects in which his hearers 
 took no interest. The Frate was in deadly earnest, 
 whilst the Florentines had lost all depth and 
 seriousness of thought. He had started on a crusade 
 
 I. F 
 
66 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 against sin and unbelief in all their forms, burning 
 with an unquencliable love of God and an irrepres- 
 sible zeal for the salvation of souls. To them, for 
 the time at least, sin and holiness, condemnation 
 and salvation, were become almost unintelligible 
 expressions. 
 
 It would hardly be possible to give a more clear 
 and intelligible idea of the contrast than that which 
 is set forth by contemporaries respecting the preach- 
 ing of Savonarola on the one hand, and this Mariano 
 da Gennazzano on the other. * 
 
 Benivieni, in a letter written long afterwards to 
 Pope Clement VII., the natural son of the murdered 
 Giuliano de' Medici, in defence of Savonarola's teach- 
 ing, relates that on one occasion he said to the Frate, 
 " Father, it cannot be denied that your doctrine is 
 true, useful, and necessary; but your manner of 
 expression is wanting in grace, especially as this 
 admirable Fra Mariano is here every day." Savo- 
 narola replied, " This elegance of language must be 
 allowed to give way before the simplicity of preach- 
 ing sound doctrine." There is no doubt that Savo- 
 narola's preaching was at that time defective in 
 various respects. His voice is said to have been 
 weak, his intonation bad, his action awkward, his pro- 
 nunciation wanting in refinement, his style heavy. 
 Oppressed by the weight of his matter, he probably 
 neglected the order and method without which it is 
 almost impossible to convey effectively and impres- 
 sively one's thoughts in public speaking. But there 
 * For this I am indebted to Villari. 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK'S. 
 
 67 
 
 were other reasons to be found in the utter corruption 
 of the public taste, in the false notions almost 
 universally prevailing on the mission and work of 
 the Christian preacher. 
 
 A better proof of this statement could hardly be 
 adduced than that which is found in the judgement 
 pronounced on the preaching of Fra Mariano by a 
 critic no less competent than Politian. His com- 
 mendations of this preacher, as Villari remarks, form 
 the best illustration of his own defects and those of 
 the admiring audience in general. " I went," he says, 
 "rather prejudiced against him, for the loud applause 
 had made me distrustful. I had hardly, however, 
 entered the church, when the dress, the countenance, 
 the figure changed my mind, and 1 instantly desired 
 and expected something great. I confess that some- 
 times in the pulpit he seemed to grow to a super- 
 human stature. He began to speak. I am all ears 
 [mark] at his melodious voice, his well-chosen words, 
 his sonorous sentences. Then I remark the divisions, 
 I observe the periods, I am dominated by the 
 harmonious cadence," and so forth. This was the 
 judgement of a man of great learning, and of the 
 most refined taste. What, then, must have been the 
 opinion and sentiments of the masses? It can 
 hardly be surprising that the rough prophetic 
 utterances of Fra Girolamo failed at first to gain 
 the ears* which sought for gratification in elegant 
 language, apt quotation, classical allusions, graceful 
 
 * BurlamaccM says that his failure seemed then so complete that 
 he thought of giving up preaching and keeping to the exposition 
 
68 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 gestures — in oratory wliicli was intended merely to 
 charm, sometimes to amuse, but which was never 
 animated by any more lofty purpose. 
 
 Brooding on the evils of the age ; striving with all 
 his might to deliver his testimony for God and for 
 righteousness ; preparing himself by long vigils, fasts, 
 prayers, Savonarola found that his was indeed a voice 
 "crying in the wilderness," and he must often have 
 asked whether some clearer and higher guidance 
 might not be vouchsafed from on high to one who so 
 truly desired and laboured to win back this people to 
 Christ. In two things he never wavered — in his faith 
 in God, and in his consciousness of a divine mission. 
 He knew the righteousness of God and the love of 
 God. He was sure that such a Being would not look 
 with complacency upon the corruptions of Florence, 
 of Italy, of the world and the Church. It must be 
 His will not to destroy these erring children, but to 
 bring them back to Himself ; to bring them back by 
 loving and gentle ways, if that could be done — if 
 otherwise, by chastisements and sufferings. And 
 what was his own part in this work ? and how could 
 he accomplish it? If he alone were left of the 
 prophets of the Lord, he must not shrink from his 
 mission. 
 
 Then he turned to the Bible, which was now, more 
 and more, his constant, almost his exclusive com- 
 panion, and he found in the condition of Israel of 
 old a picture of that which was passing around him 
 
 of Scripture : that he was advised to do this, and actually announced 
 publicly his intention of doing so. 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK'S. 69 
 
 in the Christian Church, and in the voices of the 
 prophets those very warnings which were forming 
 themselves within his own heart and striving for 
 utterance on his tongue. If God spoke to His ser- 
 vants then, why should He not speak now ? The need 
 could never have been greater, more urgent ; the 
 perplexities of the age could never have been more 
 involved. What could man do in such a case ? 
 Must not God speak ? 
 
 At last the vision came. One day the heavens 
 seemed to open before him, and there appeared a 
 representation of the future calamities of the Church. 
 At the same time a voice was heard commanding 
 him to go and proclaim these things to the people. 
 At last he had obtained the guidance for which ho 
 had been waiting, the command which he had no 
 right and no power to disobey. Ho had seen a 
 vision which told him that the Church was to bo 
 chastised and reformed, and he was ready to go forth, 
 like the Baptist of old, and cry: "Kepent, for the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." " Now, also" — the 
 words seem to express exactly what was passing in 
 his mind, what he believed he was receiving from 
 God — " the axe is laid unto the root of the trees : 
 therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good 
 fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." 
 
 This was in the year 1484. It must almost have 
 seemed as though Divine Providence were preparing 
 for a change in the state of the Church ; for in this 
 very year Sixtus IV. died. Surely there must be 
 a change for the better. We have already heard 
 
70 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 what the change was. Sixtus was succeeded by 
 Innocent VIII. The hopes that were excited by 
 the death of his predecessor were now abandoned. 
 The Papacy, at least, would give no help in the 
 reformation of the Church. 
 
 Whether because of his failure in Florence or 
 for some other reason, Savonarola was sent on the 
 two following Lents (1484 and 1485) to preach at 
 San Geminiano, a small town in the mountains of 
 Siena. Although in those days a place of far greater 
 importance than at present, San Geminiano was 
 found to contain a population more open to impres- 
 sions such as Savonarola wished to produce. It 
 may have been for this reason, in part, but doubt- 
 less also, and far more, in consequence of the new 
 convictions which had been wrought within him, 
 that he now began to announce, as with prophetic 
 voice, the three points which were henceforth to be 
 the great subject of his preaching. That he did 
 already believe them to be the subject of revelation 
 to his own spirit, there can be no doubt ; although 
 for the present he was contented to declare them as 
 deductions from the Bible, regarding his hearers as 
 not yet ready to receive them as the echoes of the 
 voice of God. The three statements which he now 
 for the first time clearly set forth were the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 1. That the Church will be scourged, 
 
 2. And then renovated ; 
 
 3. And this will be soon.* 
 
 * La Chiesa sark flagellata, e poi rinnovata ; e cio sara presto. 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARE'S. 
 
 71 
 
 It appears that lie obtained a hearing from these 
 mountaineers, which had not hitherto been accorded 
 to him ; and when he returned to Florence, it was 
 with the conviction deepened that he was now 
 walking in the path marked out for him by the 
 providence and grace of God. 
 
 But his first period of residence at Florence was 
 drawing to a close, and he was now to leave it for 
 four years. These four years form a very obscure 
 part of his history ; but we can trace his life and 
 his work at various points during that period of 
 time. Of his thoughts at this time we know little : 
 only we are sure that a great part of his solitary 
 hours was spent in meditating upon the evils of the 
 age and upon the work which it was given him to 
 perform, and we know that this consciousness of his 
 work was ever and anon breaking out in his public 
 utterances. 
 
 It is at Brescia that we first meet with him (1486), 
 and now expounding the Apocalypse. From this time 
 we must date his plain and open announcement of 
 the evils coming upon Italy, and the powerful effects 
 of his words. Visions now seem to multiply, and 
 he is no longer, in his own consciousness at least, a 
 mere expositor of the written word ; he is, in some 
 sense, a prophet sent by God, proclaiming his warn- 
 ings and counsels with the tone of one who can say. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 It may be expected that something should be 
 said on the nature of these visions and revelations;, 
 but history refuses to give a decisive explanation 
 
72 
 
 SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 of questions like these. Who can tell when a 
 gracious illumination ceases and a supernatural 
 guidance begins ? Who can tell when the percep- 
 tion of the thoughts and destinies of men arises 
 from a devout meditation on Holy Scripture, and 
 an earnest contemplation of the ways and works of 
 men and of nations, and when it is given by direct 
 inward revelation from God? How uncertain the 
 Frate himself felt about this line of division, we 
 shall have occasion to see hereafter. It may here 
 be said, once for all, that we make no pretension to 
 solve these mysteries. Of one thing only we are 
 sure — that Savonarola was profoundly convinced of 
 his visions, that he believed he was speaking in the 
 name of the Lord, that he was prepared to suffer 
 even death itself in vindication of his testimony, and 
 that, before long, he saw clearly enough that this 
 was the probable end of the work to which he felt 
 himself called. 
 
 At Brescia, as we have said, he began to expound 
 the Apocalypse, and this with special reference to 
 Brescia itself. One of the four and twenty elders 
 mentioned in that book, he declared,* had come to 
 him, and had foretold the terrible calamities that 
 were in store for this city. It was to become a 
 prey to its enemies; wives were to be snatched away 
 from their husbands, and virgins were to be vio- 
 lated; children would be slain before the eyes of 
 
 * Burlamacchi states that this was related to the brethren of 
 S. Clark's, in 1520, by the Prior of Brescia, who had heard the 
 sermon in which Savonarola announced these future calamities. 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK'S. 
 
 73 
 
 their motliers, and the streets would flow with blood. 
 His words were not forgotten ; and when, six and 
 twenty years afterwards, the city was sacked by the 
 soldiers of Gaston de Foix, and six thousand of 
 its inhabitants perished, it was believed by many 
 that the prophecy of Era Girolamo was being 
 fulfilled. 
 
 From this time he seemed to be assured, not 
 only of his mission, but of the divine communi- 
 cations which he received respecting the future of 
 the Church. He told his friend and biographer, 
 the younger Pico della Mirandola, that on one 
 occasion, while meditating on the text. Bonus es 
 Til, et in honitate Tua doce me justificationes Tuas 
 (" Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord : teach me Thy 
 statutes." — Ps. cxix. 12), he felt his mind illumi- 
 nated, and all doubts left him, and he felt more 
 certainty of the things that were shown to him 
 than a philosopher did of first principles.* 
 
 It was not Savonarola alone who received these 
 convictions during his residence at Brescia. Eazzi 
 relates that a lady wrote to the Frate, announcing 
 that she had received a revelation of his future 
 history; but he, regarding her communication 
 as a device of the devil, threw the letter into the 
 fire. It is further related by his biographers t that, 
 on Christmas night in this year, he remained im- 
 movable for five hours, in an ecstasy, and that his 
 
 * Burlamacchi, p. 22. 
 
 t On the testimony of a brother, called by some Sebaatiano, by 
 othcrs Angelo. See p. 127. 
 
74 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 face shone so as to illuminate the whole church; 
 and this, it is said, occurred several times. 
 
 Shortly afterwards we find him at Eeggio, still 
 absorbed in those great thoughts of the reforma- 
 tion and renovation of the Church and the world. 
 A chapter of Dominicans was assembled for the 
 consideration of questions of theology and of dis- 
 cipline. While points of casuistry were being 
 discussed, Savonarola sat silent and, as it seemed, 
 wrapped in his own meditations, his monk's cowl 
 drawn over his wrinkled forehead. In mere theo- 
 retical disputations which tended to foster curiosity 
 and dialectical subtlety, he took no interest. When, 
 however, they turned to the question of manners 
 and discipline, then the prophet of Brescia arose, 
 and, in the midst of the assembled clergy and laity 
 who had come to take part in the deliberations of 
 the meeting, he spoke those words which had 
 already moved the hearts of men when uttered 
 from the pulpit. It was like a thunderbolt falling 
 in the midst of them ; and they sat as though 
 transfixed with astonishment. He spoke of the 
 evils of the Church, but still more earnestly of the 
 awful corruption of the clergy, as the fountain from 
 which those evils flowed. Clergy and laity were 
 alike impressed by his words. The fame of his 
 power spread throughout Northern Italy, and many 
 princes and others, who had begun to see the neces- 
 sity for reform, entered into correspondence with the 
 man who had given such distinct and powerful utter- 
 ance to their own reflections. 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK'S. 
 
 75 
 
 Among the laymen who were present at the con- 
 ference was one who bore a distinguished name, 
 whose friendship was once and for ever secured for 
 the Frate by the impressions which he then received 
 from his words. This was the elder Pico della 
 ^lirandola, the intimate friend of Lorenzo de' Medici, 
 then only twenty-three years of age. Savonarola, it 
 will be remembered, was thirty-foui", and Lorenzo 
 four years older — thirty-eight. This Giovanni Pico 
 della Mirandola was the uncle of that Giovanni 
 Francesco Pico della 3Iirandola who was afterwards 
 the friend and subsequently the biographer of 
 Savonarola. 
 
 It was indeed a remarkable conquest in many 
 ways. It was, so to speak, the first point at which 
 the Frate had touched the men of the new learning. 
 It was a victory where one could be least expected. 
 Pico was one of the most refined and cultivated men 
 of his age — one of those who took the greatest de- 
 light in the intellectual subtleties which Savo- 
 narola had already learnt to despise. He did not 
 despise them because he had a mind incapable of 
 discerning them. Perhaps it was the sense of their 
 attraction for him, together with his conviction of 
 their utter worthlessness, that made him turn from 
 them almost with indignation. What things had 
 been gain to him, these he now " counted loss for 
 Christ." 
 
 It was, perhaps, the sense of these twofold elements 
 in his spirit that was the secret of the fascination he 
 immediately exercised over Pico. This illustrious 
 
76 
 
 SA.V0NAI10LA. 
 
 man, even in his youth — and he did not live to be an 
 old man — was reckoned the marvel of his aire. His 
 knowledge of Latin was not perhaps wonderful : it 
 was the literary language of his time and of his 
 country. Greek, too, had begun to be extensively 
 and profoundly studied. It is said that he knew 
 both languages as well as his own. But he had also 
 studied oriental lansiuaofes with success — a much 
 more rare accomplishment; and he was an expert 
 logician and a well-read philosopher. It is likely 
 enouo^h that the charo;e of shallowness which was 
 brou2:ht accainst him was well-founded. Few men 
 can play the part of an " Admirable Crichton " with- 
 out some compensating disadvantages. Still he was 
 a man of prodigious attainments, of an unresting 
 activity, with a memory the most retentive ; adding 
 to all a simplicity and unworldliness which were 
 rare among scholars, and a grace and vivacity which 
 attracted and fascinated every one who came within 
 the sphere of his influence. 
 
 This was the man, distinguished beyond all who 
 were present at this conference, into whose heart the 
 words of Savonarola now fell with an irresistible 
 power. From that moment Pico "felt," says Bur- 
 lamacchi, " as if he could not live without him ; " 
 and it appears he lost no time in giving effect to 
 his new sentiments, for he shortly after sought 
 to induce Lorenzo de' Medici to have the Frate 
 recalled to Florence and San Marco. This request 
 of Pico, the same writer tells us, Lorenzo imme- 
 diately complied with, because " he was much loved. 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK's. 77 
 
 by liim." The feelings now engendered in tlie 
 heart of Pico towards his new friend were never 
 extinguished. It was only his premature death, as , 
 we shall see in the sequel of our narrative, that pre- 
 vented his entering the Dominican convent, and it 
 was his last request that he might be buried within 
 its walls, in the habit of the order. 
 
 Savonarola did not return to Florence for three 
 years after this meeting. He had still work to do 
 in Lombardy. His course we are able to trace only 
 somewhat indistinctly. In July, 1489, we find him 
 in his first convent at Bologna, where they wish him 
 to undertake his old office of Lettore. On Christmas 
 Day, in the same year, he is again at Brescia. In the 
 following January he is at Pavia ; and he preached 
 the Lent sermons at Genoa shortly afterwards. 
 These bare facts have been recently made out, but 
 nothing more is known of his work or its effect. As 
 we were told that, when he left Ferrara for Florence, 
 eight years before, he then bid a last farewell to 
 his home, we may infer that he did not renew his 
 intercourse with his family during these journeys. 
 It was not that he forgot his parents or '\\ as destitute 
 of natural affection. Before he left Pavia, on the 
 25th of January, 1490, he wrote a long and affec- 
 tionate letter to his mother, regretting that his 
 religious profession prevented his helping them in 
 future otherwise than by his prayers. Although he 
 could no longer see them face to face, he told them 
 that he sympathized with them in all their joys and 
 sorrows ; but he had for ever reno'inced the world. 
 
78 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 and given himself to labour in the vineyard of the 
 Lord, for the salvation of his own soul and the souls 
 of others. If God had given him this power, it must 
 be his duty to use it ; and since he was chosen 
 to this - holy office, his mother must be contented 
 to see him exercise it away from his native place, 
 because he would have more fruit elsewhere than at 
 Ferrara. And then he uses the language already 
 quoted. " Be assured," he concludes, " that my 
 heart is still more firm in its purpose to give up all 
 for the love of God and the salvation of my neigh- 
 bours ; and, since I could not do this in my own 
 native place, I must do it elsewhere." He had 
 " forsaken all " and taken up his cross, and he would 
 not lay it down for a moment. 
 
 Although it is distinctly stated by his biographers 
 that Lorenzo de' Medici did, in accordance with the 
 request of Pico, at once invite Savonarola to return 
 to Florence, some doubts have been suggested on 
 the subject by Perrens, on the ground that he did 
 not receive a call from the Prior of San Marco until 
 July, 1489, and did not actually return to Florence 
 until August, 1490. Such a theory, entirely unsup- 
 ported by testimony, would need stronger arguments 
 to render it credible. It is possible that the invita- 
 tion of Lorenzo, who, on account of his father's and 
 his own munificence to the convent, regarded him- 
 self as almost its proprietor, or at least its patron, 
 may have seemed to Savonarola no sufficient reason 
 for a monk's adopting a particular society as his 
 own. Even if at that time the prior joined in the 
 
THE BROTHER OF S. MARK'S. 
 
 79 
 
 invitation, Savonarola may have formed engagements 
 which required his continued residence in Lombardy. 
 Whatever the reason may have been, we find he was 
 unable to return to Florence until a whole year after 
 the prior had invited him to do so. 
 
 But Perrens adds a suggestion still more impro- 
 bable. Lorenzo, he thinks, had refused to comply 
 with Pico's request because he did not wish to have 
 the Frate in Florence again ; and Savonarola re- 
 sented his backwardness. This, he imagines, was 
 the beginning of his antipathy to the Magnificent ! 
 Such a theory is quite inconsistent with the whole 
 facts of the case, and it is inconsistent with the view 
 which the French biographer himself gives of the 
 character and conduct of Savonarola. Lorenzo never 
 showed the slightest disposition to keep Savonarola 
 at a distance. The Frate, in shunning all inter- 
 course with the Medici, was only acting as the boy 
 had done at Ferrara. The disciple of Him who was 
 " not of the world," and who told His disciples that 
 they were not of the world, stood in need of no 
 personal affront to make him careful to avoid the 
 appearance of the slightest compliance with the 
 most refined and inveterate worldliness which per- 
 haps Christendom had ever seen. 
 
 It is related that he accomplished the journey 
 from Genoa to Florence on foot, but that his 
 strength was unequal to the journey, and failed him 
 near Bologna. From that point, it is told, he re- 
 ceived supernatural assistance, which was continued 
 to him until he came to the gate of San Gallo. Be 
 
80 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 this as it may, he reached Florence in the year 1490, 
 and from this point we are able to trace his history 
 continuously and without interruption to its -close. 
 We must now make a brief pause, and try to under- 
 stand his position and circumstances in this new 
 and most important stage of his career. 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 FLOEENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 There are names which carry with them something 
 of- a charm. We have but to say " Athens ! " 'and 
 all the great deeds of antiquity break upon our 
 hearts like a sudden gleam of sunshine ; "Florence!" 
 and the magnificence and passionate agitation^of 
 Italy's prime sends forth its fragrance towards us like 
 blossom-laden boughs, from whose dusky shadows 
 we catch whispers of the beautiful tongue. 
 
 Athens was the first city of Greece ; rich, power- 
 ful, with a policy which extended almost over the 
 entire world of that age. Florence, however, in her 
 fairest days, was never the first city of Italy, and in 
 no respect possessed extraordinary advantages. She 
 does not lie on the sea, and the Arno has never 
 been navigable. The situation of Naples is more 
 beautiful ; that of Genoa more royal ; Rome is richer 
 in treasm*es of art; Venice possessed a greater 
 political power, and yet, notwithstanding all that 
 happened in Italy between 1250 and 1530, is colour- 
 less when placed side by side with the history of this 
 
 I. G 
 
82 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 one city. Her internal life surpasses in splendour 
 the efforts of the others at home and abroad. The 
 events, through the intricacies of which she worked 
 her way with vigorous determination, and the men 
 whom she produced, raise her fame above that of 
 the whole of Italy, and place Florence as a younger 
 sister by the side of Athens.* 
 
 The origin of Florence is lost in obscurity, and its 
 early history is mingled with fable.t Machiavelli, 
 following Dante and Villani, tells us that the city of 
 Fiesole being situated on the summit of the mountain, 
 the inhabitants, in order to make its markets more 
 convenient, had removed them to the spot between 
 the roots of the mountain and the river Arno. By 
 degrees this settlement, which is said to have origin- 
 ally borne the name of Yilla Arnina or Camarzo, was 
 greatly augmented ; among others by the soldiers of 
 Sulla, and afterwards by those of Caesar, who were 
 stationed there. 
 
 The origin of its name, Florentia — afterwards and 
 still called Firenze — has been disputed ; some think- 
 ing that it was originally Fluentia, others that it 
 was derived from the fact that the valley in which 
 the city stands is richly covered with flowers. It 
 would appear at least that the Florentines them- 
 selves inclined to this opinion, since they gave their 
 
 * These paragraphs are condensed from chap. i. of Grimm's 
 
 Life of Michael Angela. 
 
 t On the general subject of this chapter, see Machiavelli, Istorie 
 Florentine; Sismondi, E^publiqiies Italiennes; and G. Capponi, 
 Storia delta Ilejpuhhlica di Firenze. A very full account is given in 
 the Misses Homer's Walks in Florence. 
 
FLOEENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 83 
 
 cathedral church the name of Santa Maria del Fiore. 
 The lily, too, is painted on the shield of the republic, 
 and on the banner of Santa Eeparata, the patron 
 saint of Florence, who gave its name to the church 
 which formerly stood on the site of the cathedral. 
 
 Cicero and Sallust both speak of the wealth of 
 the Florentines; and Tacitus relates that, in the 
 reign of the Emperor Tiberius (a.d. 17), a Florentine 
 embassy came to Kome to petition the Senate that 
 the waters of the Chiana — Tacitus calls it Clanis — 
 should not be allowed to flow into the Arno, which, 
 they said, would bring destruction upon them. 
 
 When the Empire fell, Tuscany, like the other 
 provinces of Italy, became subject to the Goths. 
 It is said that a horde of these barbarians attacked 
 the city, A.D. 405, under a leader called Kadaga- 
 sius, but were defeated by the Koman general, 
 Stilicho. This battle was fought on the 8th of 
 October, the feast of Sta. Eeparata, a young Cappa- 
 docian martyr, who was put to death at the age of 
 twelve. It was reported that she appeared in the 
 thick of the battle, bearing a red banner in her 
 hand, on which was emblazoned the lily, the emblem 
 of the Blessed Virgin. Hence the Florentine de- 
 votion to this saint, whose festival they continued 
 to celebrate in memory of that day; hence the 
 adoption of her banner as the shield of the republic, 
 and the dedication to her memory of that which was 
 formerly their principal church. The story of the 
 destruction of the city by Totila, and its subsequent 
 reconstruction by Charles the Great, is a fable. 
 
84 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Florence had bishops in the fourth century ; and 
 towards the end of this period the most distinguished 
 among them was Zenobis or Zanobius, in whose time 
 S. Ambrose, who was a friend of his, is said to have 
 come to Florence and consecrated the church of 
 San Lorenzo.* It was believed that the appearance, 
 of Sta. Keparata was an answer to the prayers of 
 Zanobius, who was then bishop. Slowly the city 
 went on increasing ; stretching out towards Fiesole, 
 until about the year 1000 the inhabitants of the 
 two cities had become one people, when they decided 
 to unite their armorial bearings, making them red and 
 white ; the red with a white lily being the ancient 
 arms of Florence, and the white with an azure moon 
 the arms of Fiesole. There is no truth in the story 
 that Fiesole became subject to Florence by conquest. 
 
 In the wars between the Empire and the Papacy 
 Florence was deeply implicated, and was driven by 
 her undying love of liberty to devote herself ardently 
 to the side of the Pope. Such a statement may 
 seem extraordinary and unintelligible to ourselves in 
 these days ; but it is notwithstanding susceptible of 
 easy explanation. In the conflict with the Emperors, 
 the Popes when driven from Kome not unfrequently 
 came to reside at Florence, and Victor II. died there 
 in 1057; but the reason for the espousal of the 
 papal cause by the Florentines lies deeper. It is 
 easy to understand the point of , view of either party 
 in this long-standing quarrel. From the German or 
 
 * This is what Capponi says. Miss Horner says he consecrated 
 Zanobius bishop in the church of San Lorenzo. 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 85 
 
 imperial side, nothing could be more natural than 
 the Ghibelline view of the matter. From the 
 Italian or papal side the Guelf policy was equally 
 defensible. The Florentine leaning in this dispute, 
 however, did not arise from any high notions of the 
 papal prerogatives; but from the conviction that 
 only in proportion as the Empire, and with it the 
 power of the nobles, was held in check, could 
 the liberties of the republic be established and se- 
 cured. In illustration of this view of the subject, it 
 may be noticed that, during the ascendency of the 
 aristocracy, Florence was generally Ghibelline. 
 
 Florence, like Athens, seems to have had, through- 
 out all the days of its greatness at least, an un- 
 quenchable passion for liberty ; and it owed all its 
 greatness to its freedom. It is true that Florence, 
 like other republics, was fickle, changeable, capri- 
 cious, wayward, ungrateful ; but the free constitution 
 of the city, in spite of all the abuses connected with 
 its exercise and its history, gave scope to industry and 
 rendered possible the development of the resources 
 of the city. A man had power not alone or chiefly 
 because he bore an honoured name, but because he 
 actually possessed in himself that vital force which 
 the public conscience and the public will were con- 
 strained to acknowledge. A man was raised to 
 authority because he was worthy of authority. It is 
 true that jealousy and envy might remove him from 
 his place and drive him from the State; but the 
 commonwealth had profited by his services even 
 when it had proved itself in a measure unworthy of 
 
86 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 them. The Florentines knew that the aristocratic 
 party were hostile to their liberties, and that the 
 oligarchy was sustained by the Emperor as suzerain ; 
 and therefore they were Guelfs. In the same way, 
 Pisa, subject to Florence, ever resenting the yoke 
 whicli it was unable to shake off, took sides with its 
 adversaries and became Ghibelline. It ought to 
 be mentioned, as an important event in the history 
 of the conflict, that Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, 
 who held Florence and the other cities of that pro- 
 vince under the Emperor, warmly espoused the 
 cause of the Pope, and placed her wealth and her 
 possessions at his service. In the great struggle 
 between Gregory YII. (Hildebrand), and the Em- 
 peror, Florence voluntarily took the same side. At 
 her death the Countess left to the Eoman see the 
 whole of her vast territories, which enormously 
 increased the power of the Pope, but naturally em- 
 bittered the strife between him and the Emperor, 
 who regarded these possessions as legitimately 
 falling by reversion to himself. 
 
 From ancient times the Italian cities had ordi- 
 narily been governed by two Consuls, in imitation 
 of their mistress Kome ; and about the time of its 
 union with Fiesole, Florence had associated with 
 these, one hundred senators, chosen from the best 
 men of the State. The consuls afterwards varied 
 in number, sometimes being as many as twelve ; but 
 they were always chosen from the nobility. By 
 degrees — we cannot be quite sure of the time ; it was 
 probably about the beginning of the thirteenth 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 87 
 
 century — these consuls came to be called Consuls 
 of the Arti, or trades ; and here we have the germ 
 of that institution which endured, under various 
 names, as long as the liberties of Florence endured. 
 Sometimes they were called Priors (Priori), some- 
 times Buon' iiomini (Good men), sometimes Anziani, 
 or Ancients ; sometimes they numbered four or six, 
 sometimes ten, twelve, or twenty-four; but the general 
 character of the office was maintained throughout. 
 
 Amid all the changes in the form of the govern- 
 ment, the Emperor was always, in theory at least, 
 regarded as supreme, however little of actual power 
 might be conceded to him. But when, by means of 
 the Lombard league, the cities of Italy obtained at 
 the peace of Constance a local government, there was 
 appointed an officer of a very mixed character, as 
 regarded both his position and his functions. He 
 was named the Podesta, or Potesta, and was, during 
 his term of office, at once the head of the State and 
 the representative of the Emperor. His powers were 
 both judicial and administrative : he had the power 
 of the sword, and he was known as the Lord of the 
 place. The Emperor originally intended that this 
 official should be appointed and invested by him- 
 self ; but this prerogative was rarely exercised, and 
 eventually fell into disuse, so that the Podesta was 
 elected by the citizens. The election was only for 
 a year or six months, to prevent the abuse of 
 powers so great as those with which he was en- 
 trusted. He was required to be of a noble family ; 
 and, to prevent his giving partial judgements, he 
 
88 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 was never cliosen from among the citizens, but from 
 another city or country. Originally, in Florence, 
 he had his residence at the archbishop's palace; 
 afterwards in the palace which bore his name, the 
 Palazzo del Podesta, now known as the Bargello ; 
 finally in the Palazzo della Signoria, or Palazzo 
 Vecchio. He was supreme over all the other magis- 
 trates, and all public acts were performed in his 
 name and under his authority. His dress was, like 
 his office, peculiar and distinctive. He wore a long 
 robe, white, yellow, or formed of cloth of gold : on 
 his head he wore a red cap. 
 
 In 1248, through the influence of Frederick, 
 Prince of Antioch, the natural son of the Emperor 
 Frederick II., the Guelfs were cast out of Florence, 
 and the Ghibellines were for a time supreme ; but 
 their triumph was of short duration. In 1250 the 
 citizens met together, and forming themselves into 
 a number of groups — reported diversely as 36 and 
 50 — they chose as many leaders and captains of a 
 kind of local militia, who were also a council of 
 government. In place of the Podesta, they elected 
 a Captain of the People, with very much the same 
 qualifications and powers ; but they soon afterwards 
 restored the Podesta, assigning to him and the 
 Captain independent tribunals, so that the one 
 might be a check upon the other. They then 
 divided the city into six wards, each ward, sesto or 
 sestiere (sixth) as it was called, having over it two 
 anziani (ancients or seniors) — twelve in all. These 
 twelve seniors, who were elected for the space of two 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 80 
 
 months only, were required to live, to eat^ and to sleep 
 in the public palace, and could only go out together. 
 The collective body was called the Signoria. 
 
 We see the government of the republic here 
 assuming the shape which, in its general outlines, 
 it retained up to the sixteenth century. Capponi 
 divides the history of Florence into four periods : 
 1. The heroic stage, from 1183 to 1321; 2. The 
 levelling stage, from 1321 to 1382 ; 3. The reac- 
 tionary or aristocratic stage, from 1382 to 1434 ; 
 4. The Medicean or servile stage. But each of 
 these was characterized by many changes. Hardly 
 had the measures just described been adopted when 
 the Guelfs were recalled and the Ghibellines ex- 
 pelled. In 1267 (two years, let us remark, after 
 the birth of Dante) the names of the twelve magis- 
 trates were called, as we have said, Buori* uomini. In 
 1282 they are six in number, and are called Priori 
 delle arti ; and now they are not the elect of wards, 
 but the representatives of guilds, these arti or 
 corporations of trades being first three and then 
 six. The six priors, afterwards eight, are known 
 as the College of Priors ; and over them, ten 
 years later, is placed a Gonfaloniere (standard-bearer) 
 of justice, elected, like the priors, for two months 
 only. For our present purpose it may be sufficient 
 to add that various councils were afterwards formed, 
 to whom all laws proposed by the Signoria had to be 
 referred before they were finally promulgated ; be- 
 sides two smaller bodies known as the "Ten of War," 
 whose name indicates their office, and the Magistracy 
 
90 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of Eight {Otto di Guardia), who had to try criminal 
 cases, and were appointed for a period of four 
 months.* 
 
 It may be suflB.cient further to note here that 
 the tendency of Florence was, for many generations, 
 more and more to democracy. To such an extent 
 was this tendency carried that nobility, instead of 
 being a qualification as in former days, became an 
 absolute bar to office in the government of the 
 republic; in consequence of which, a member of 
 a noble family had to lay aside his privileges of 
 nobility before he became qualified for election. 
 There were, of course, fluctuations in the carrying 
 out of these tendencies. When the citizens grew 
 weary of popular turbulence, they would throw 
 themselves into the arms of a despot, as in the case 
 of the Duke of Athens ; but their native love of 
 freedom made them speedily throw off the yoke, 
 and there arose among them a new nobility, which 
 was likely to prove no less dangerous than the old — 
 a nobility which was derived from the trades or pro- 
 fessions of Florence, and which drew its authority, 
 not from ancient titles, but from intelligence, from 
 wealth, and from the influence by which they are 
 accompanied. One of these was the family of the 
 Medici. 
 
 There had been various names of distinction in 
 this family; but the true founder of its greatness 
 
 * A detailed account of the changes in the government of 
 Florence will be found in Capponi, under the various dates; a 
 good compressed account in Yon Eeumont, Lorenzo, bk. i. ch, 6. 
 
FLOEEXCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 91 
 
 was Giovanni de' Medici, the father of Cosimo, called 
 Pater Fatrise, and the great-grandfather of Lorenzo, 
 surnamed " the Magnificent." By industry and in- 
 telligent enterprise, Giovanni acquired enormous 
 wealth; and this, together with his liberality and 
 affability, made him one of the most influential men 
 in the city. He left two sons. From the younger 
 descended that line of Medicean Grand Dukes under 
 whom Florence fell so low as to forget all its former 
 glory. It is with the elder, Cosimo, and his de- 
 scendants that we have now to do. 
 
 Cosimo, born in 1389, was thirty-nine years of 
 age at the death of his father in 1429. Before 
 this time, however, he had attained to great in- 
 fluence and authority. He accompanied John 
 XXIII. to the Council of Constance ; and when that 
 Pope was deposed by the council, and Martin V. 
 elected, Cosimo redeemed him from the Duke of 
 Bavaria, by whom he had been detained a prisoner, 
 and gave him a shelter in Florence during the 
 remainder of his life. It is, perhaps, impossible for 
 us who remember the evils that the Medici have 
 inflicted on Florence, to regard with complacency 
 their rise to power in the State. Yet it would 
 be difficult to enumerate the attributes of a good 
 citizen without including some of the conspicuous 
 excellences of Cosimo de' Medici. There is at least 
 a measure of truth in Voltaire's remark, that no 
 family ever obtained its power by so just a title." 
 
 By degrees Cosimo attained to so great authority 
 in the republic, that he was practically absolute. 
 
92 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The executive power was at this time exercised by 
 eight priors — and a Gonfalonierey elected every two 
 months; the judicial power was in the hands of 
 officers, aliens to the State, bearing the names of 
 Podesta and Captain of the People, chosen once a 
 year ; and while Cosimo had sufficient influence to 
 procure the election of magistrates who were willing 
 to give effect to his wishes, he was at the same time 
 careful to preserve the forms to which the citizens 
 had been accustomed. While, therefore, the liberties 
 of the people were being gradually but steadily 
 undermined, this was carried on without any sus- 
 picion being excited that they were parting with 
 their birthright. It was by a kind of true instinct 
 that they entitled Cosimo the father of his country ; 
 but they did not reflect that " paternal government," 
 which in the family is the only allowable method, 
 has a tendency to weaken and enslave a nation. 
 
 Whether animated by sentiments of patriotism, 
 or by feelings of personal jealousy and enmity, 
 there was a party in the city which could not 
 regard the influence of the Medici with indiffer- 
 ence or equanimity ; and a Signoria, or body of 
 magistrates (comprehending the priors and the 
 Gonfaloniere) was elected in opposition to them 
 (1433). Kinaldo degli Albizzi, the leader of this 
 opposition, obtained from the new magistracy a 
 decree sentencing the Medici and their adherents 
 to banishment. Cosimo was exiled to Padua for ten 
 years. It was feared, however, that his enemies who 
 had put him in prison, might make an attempt, on 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 93 
 
 his life ; and Cosimo provided for his safety by brib- 
 ing his keepers, and so secured his escape. During 
 his exile, it may be mentioned, he made the ac- 
 quaintance of that Michelozzo Michelozzi whom he 
 was afterwards to employ in the reconstruction of 
 S. Mark's. 
 
 Everywhere he was received and entertained as if 
 he had been a prince on his travels, rather than a 
 citizen banished from his home. Partly through 
 his own patient fortitude, partly through the in- 
 decent violence of his enemies, a reaction soon took 
 place in Florence; and before a year had elapsed 
 from the time of his departure, a magistracy friendly 
 to the Medici was appointed, and Cosimo and his 
 brother were recalled, and their opponents driven 
 into exile. 
 
 When Cosimo returned to Florence, although he 
 did not spare his foes, he showed no resentment 
 towards the citizens ; but proceeded to multiply his 
 benefactions to every useful object. Among these 
 he gave a prominent place to the advancement of 
 learning. It has been said that Cosimo was merci- 
 ful to his enemies. The truth, however, is that he 
 took care to preserve the forms of law while driving 
 numbers of them into banishment.* We have 
 referred to his munificence in being the second 
 founder of S. Marco, and in having provided it 
 
 * When remonstrated -with on account of the numbers banished^ 
 and told that the city would be wasted (guasta), he replied : Meglio 
 guasta che perduta (" Better wasted than lost "). Under his bland 
 courtesy there was fixed and ruthless determination. 
 
94 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 with a library; but he may indirectly have for- 
 warded a still greater work than this. The man 
 whom he selected to assist in the arrangement of 
 the library left by Niccolo Niccoli, and presented 
 by Cosimo to the Dominicans of S. Marco, was 
 Tomaso Calandrino, the son of a poor physician of 
 Sarzana. Within a few years this Thomas of Sarzana, 
 as Pope Nicholas V., was to begin the formation of 
 the great library of the Vatican. 
 
 While Cosimo was thus wisely and liberally, out 
 of his princely fortune, promoting special works of 
 utility, he was not only interesting himself in the 
 government of the State, but he was effectually 
 promoting the spread of learning, and especially 
 the study of the Greek language, which, after being 
 revived in the days of Petrarch and Boccaccio, had 
 begun to languish. Among those whose studies he 
 encouraged and assisted was Marsilio Ficino, the son 
 of his favourite physician, whom he appointed over 
 the academy which he established at Florence for 
 the study of the Platonic philosophy. It was under 
 his patronage that Ficino commenced the trans- 
 lations of Plato which he was enabled afterwards 
 to publish by the liberality of Lorenzo. 
 
 Cosimo died at the age of seventy-five, in 1464. 
 He was full of honours as of years ; but his last days 
 were not unclouded with anxieties. His younger 
 son Giovanni, of whoni he had entertained the 
 highest expectations, died before him; and Piero, 
 who had married a daughter of the house of 
 Tornabuoni, had not inherited the genius of his 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 95 
 
 family. Piero's eldest son, Lorenzo, was only six- 
 teen at the time of his grandfather's death; and, 
 although he had given promise of remarkable 
 powers, his youth rendered any calculations re- 
 specting the future very uncertain. Indeed, Cosimo 
 never seems to have felt very confident with regard 
 to the fortunes of his family. When he was adorning 
 Florence by building palaces, churches, monasteries, 
 he used to say: " I know the humours of this city " — 
 he had had some experience of them in this very 
 way — " fifty years will not pass before we are driven 
 out of it ; but the buildings will remain." " Words 
 as wise as they were magnanimous," says Capponi,* 
 "and a good foundation for the greatness of his 
 house." 
 
 Piero lived only five years after the death of his 
 father ; and it was well, perhaps, for his house that 
 it had not longer to suffer from his weakness and 
 incapacity.! Well, also, it was for Lorenzo that his 
 mother was Lucrezia Tornabuoni ; one who was able 
 to form his young mind, and to impress upon it a 
 stamp which it never lost. Next to her influence 
 was that of his tutor, his father's friend and jproUge, 
 Marsilio Ficino. Of this man it is necessary to say 
 something, not only because of his part in forming 
 the opinions and character of Lorenzo, but also on 
 account of his place in the great intellectual move- 
 ment of those times. 
 
 * L. V. c. 3. 
 
 t Von Kernnont has, however, shown that Piero was not so 
 contemptible as he has been represented. He was an affectionate 
 parent and friend, and a gentle and merciful ruler, — Life of Lorenzo^ 
 bk. ii. eh. 4. 
 
9a 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The great schoolmen of the Middle Ages had been 
 almost entirely under the influence of Aristotle ; 
 but the revived study of Plato in the East was 
 speedily transferred to the West, and was the signal 
 for fierce controversies between the adherents of the 
 two .schools. Men like the elder Pico might attempt 
 a reconciliation between them ; but history will have 
 taught us the fruitlessness of such attempts, and 
 will enable us to understand that the champions 
 of orthodoxy, with S. Thomas at their head, were 
 generally. Aristotelians, while the followers of Plato 
 were frequently tainted with latitudinarianism or 
 even heresy. It was the intention and chief en- 
 deavour of Ficino, not merely to teach the Pla- 
 tonic philosophy, but to show its accordance with 
 Christianity. His thoughts on the subject will be 
 better conveyed by a slight description of a short 
 treatise which he wrote. On the Christian Religion.^' 
 
 He sets forth with the intention of proving the 
 Divine mission of Christ, and the truth of His 
 doctrine ; and, by way of introducing this theme, 
 he remarks that the coming of Christ had been 
 many times prophesied by the Sibyls — the famous 
 verses of Virgil are known to all. Plato, when he 
 was asked how long the precepts of his philosophy 
 would endure, had replied, "Only until He shall 
 come Who shall open the fountain of all truth;" 
 and Porphyry had said that the gods pronounced 
 Christ supremely pious and religious, and declared 
 that He was immortal, testifying very benignantly 
 
 * Delia religione Cristiana (Fiorenza, 1568) cf. Villari, i. 4. 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 of Him (moUo henignamente testificando di lui). It 
 would not, perhaps, be quite fair to judge of the 
 author's own most inward sentiments from argu- 
 ments such as these, as it may be answered that 
 he was here only addressing himself to Platonists, 
 and commending to their acceptance the religion 
 of Christ ; but it is, in fact, much nearer the truth 
 to say that he cared more for Platonism than for 
 Christianity, and sought to find disciples for his 
 master by conciliating those who from the side of 
 the Church looked upon his system with suspicion. 
 We can understand, when we reflect on tendencies 
 like these, how Savonarola revolted from this 
 Platonism, and turned with ever-deepening affec- 
 tion and reverence to his Bible. He saw clearly 
 that the aim of the great promoters of the new 
 learning in Florence was not to strengthen, or even 
 to broaden the Christian doctrine and system, but 
 to undermine it. They Platonized the Gospel, and 
 they professed to Christianize Platonism; but the 
 result was simply a refined heathenism, adorned 
 with Christian phrases, and sent forth with a 
 Christian sanction. 
 
 Among the hearers of Ficino were Angelo Poli- 
 ziano and the elder Pico, as well as Lorenzo. The 
 friendship between Ficino and Cosimo was of the 
 most intimate character. " Come to me as quickly 
 as possible," writes the latter from his villa at 
 Careggi, "and bring with you our Plato's treatise 
 , on the Summum Bonum. which vou have now trans- 
 lated, I believe, according to your promise, from 
 
 I. H 
 
98 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 Greek into Latin." " Nobody," says Ficino, " was 
 ever dearer to me than the great Cosimo;" and, 
 writing to Lorenzo, after his father's death, he says, 
 " When we had thus read together, as you well know, 
 for you were present, Plato's treatise on the Summum 
 Bonum, Cosimo died soon after, as if to enter on the 
 abundant possession of that good of which he had 
 tasted , in discussion." * It is the same spirit of 
 paganism which pervades all his thoughts and his 
 life. He had a bust of Plato in his chamber, and a 
 lamp continually burning before it. He considered 
 that the character of Socrates was a foreshadowing 
 of that of Christ, and wished that the Platonic 
 philosophy were taught in churches. This is the 
 man and these are the principles under the influence 
 of which Lorenzo grew up to manhood. 
 
 The work of suppressing and exterminating the 
 enemies of his house had been so thoroughly carried 
 out by Cosimo that, in spite of the feeble govern- 
 ment of Piero, and the youth of his two sons — 
 Lorenzo was only one and twenty, and Giuliano 
 only sixteen, at the time of their father's death, — 
 they succeeded at once to the authority of their 
 family in the government of Florence and the 
 administration of its affairs. It is to Lorenzo that 
 we are now to look as the guiding spirit in the 
 republic; and we cannot understand the attitude 
 assumed towards him by Savonarola, unless we first 
 obtain a fairly clear notion of his character and 
 designs. Few can be unaware that opinions on this 
 * Cf. Harford's Life of Michael Angela, ch. iv. 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 99 
 
 subject the most diverse have been, and perhaps 
 still are, entertained by different writers on this 
 period of history. According to Eoscoe and writers 
 of his school, Lorenzo, if not faultless, was at least 
 a great, an enlightened, and a benignant ruler, the 
 patron of literature and art, and the benefactor of 
 the republic. Such a man could be opposed only 
 by the factious, the turbulent, or the selfish. Ac- 
 •ording to others, he was a crafty tyrant, seeking by 
 every means, however unscrupulous, to gain power 
 and popularity ; preserving the appearance of liberty 
 *o Florence only that he might the more effectually 
 enslave it; pampering every evil appetite of its 
 citizens that he might secure their support, and 
 destroy their power of resistance. Either side must 
 have something to say for itself; and if the wor- 
 shippers of Lorenzo are absurd and irrational in 
 their idolatry, it is possible that his enemies do not 
 take sufficient account of the corruption of the age 
 in which he lived. It may be granted on behalf 
 of the former that Lorenzo did much for Florence 
 and its people; but it is equally certain that he 
 made no stand against the evils which were slowly 
 bringing the city to ruin ; that he probably cared 
 little for the deterioration which was going on around 
 him ; and that he used it for his own purposes. 
 The more convincing are the proofs of his abilities 
 and accomplishments, the more heavy must be his 
 condemnation for having failed to use them for the 
 true well-being of Florence. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 
100 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 cent was a man of varied accomplishments and of 
 considerable attractiveness of manner. In stature 
 he .was above the middle size, and he was strongly- 
 built and robust. He had a dark complexion, weak 
 sight, a harsh and nasal voice, a large mouth, and 
 a nose which, like that of his great contemporary- 
 Michael Angelo, had suffered an injury which dis- 
 figured it. For this reason, perhaps, he had lost 
 all sense of smell. But his eye was bright and 
 penetrating, his forehead lofty, and his manners 
 peculiarly cultivated and graceful. In conversation 
 he showed himself well-informed, ingenious, and 
 vivacious; and he exercised a remarkable fascina- 
 tion over all who were admitted to intimacy with 
 him. The effects of his eloquence on public audi- 
 tories were on several occasions very considerable. In 
 morals he was the reflection of his own age ; to the 
 pleasures which he encouraged among the Floren- 
 tines he was, in no moderate degree, himself addicted. 
 
 There was, indeed, in the social life of Florence 
 at this time, a very remarkable combination of 
 characteristics. If literature had degenerated, the 
 age could still produce writers like Machiavelli and 
 Guicciardini ; but painting had entered upon a new 
 and its greatest era, and architecture was asserting 
 a place beside the sister art. With all this, morality 
 had sunk to its lowest ebb. It had become a subject 
 for animated discussion and controversy ; but it had 
 ceased to be regarded as having a right to regulate 
 men's lives. It was not that the principles of the 
 Christian faith, or its rules of life, were contradicted 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 101 
 
 or denied : they were simply ignored or refined 
 away. If men did not deny the religion of the 
 gospel, or express their doubts of its reality, it was 
 because they were too indifferent as to the truth or 
 falsehood of its claims. 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici was essentially a man of his 
 age. In himself — in his own character and life — ho 
 represented its contradictions, and he did his best 
 to foster the worst side of the popular taste. His 
 gracious manners did not proceed from a generous 
 spirit: they were the result of training. He had 
 inherited from his grandfather the politic sense 
 which enabled him to discern what was most capti- 
 vating to the mob ; and even his encouragement of 
 learning did not proceed entirely from enthusiasm 
 for the spread of knowledge and truth, but was 
 rather a means of amusement or a measure of policy. 
 The strange contrasts in Lorenzo's life are hardly 
 intelligible to ourselves. He was equally at home 
 in the Platonic assembly, disputing on the nature 
 of virtue ; in the society of artists, discussing the 
 theory of beauty and its exemplification in the 
 creations of the Italian painters and sculptors; in 
 the gardens of San Marco, contemplating with 
 satisfaction his own work in advancing at once the 
 fine arts and the interests of religion; and in the 
 Carnival, joining in the wildest orgies of its votaries. 
 
 If testimony seem insufficient to verify the last 
 statement, there is additional confirmation in his 
 encouragement of this festival, and in his actually 
 having written songs to be used in its celebra- 
 
102 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 tion. Of these celebrated songs for the Carnival 
 (Canti Carnascialeschi), which were an invention of 
 his own, and which were sung by the young nobles 
 in their masquerades throughout the city, we need 
 only say that they are so coarse and obscene that 
 they could not now be read, in any society, with- 
 out being regarded as an offence against ordinary 
 decency. It is difficult to say whether he did 
 more mischief by the destruction of liberty or by 
 the encouragement of immorality. 
 
 " It is impossible," says Sismondi, " to place him 
 in the rank of the greatest men of whom Italy 
 boasts. Such honour is reserved for those who, 
 superior to personal interests, secure by the labour 
 of their life the peace, the glory, or the liberty of 
 their country. Lorenzo, on the contrary, habitually 
 pursued a selfish policy: he sustained by bloody 
 executions an usurped power ; he every day added 
 to the weight of a yoke detested by a free city ; he 
 deprived the legitimate magistrates of the authority 
 assigned to them by the constitution ; and he ex- 
 cluded his fellow-citizens from that political career, 
 in which, before his time, they had developed so 
 much talent. We shall see," he adds, " in the sequel 
 of this history, the fatal consequences of his ambition, 
 and of the overthrow of the national institutions." * 
 In this extract there is an allusion to the sacrifice 
 of human life on the part of Lorenzo ; and there is 
 one instance of this kind of cruelty which must not 
 be left unnoticed, on account of its connection with 
 
 * Repuh. Ital. vol. xi. p. 369. 
 
FLORENCE AND THE MEDICI. 
 
 103 
 
 our story. We refer to the sack of Volterra. This 
 was one of the subject towns of Florence, which, 
 in the year 1466, revolted in consequence of the 
 rapacity of Lorenzo himself.* Many of the Floren- 
 tines were inclined to try gentle measures, and 
 would have extended pardon to the offenders ; but 
 Lorenzo, then only eighteen years of age, in a spirit 
 which reminds us of his grandfather's " better that 
 the city should be wasted than lost," pronounced in 
 favour of recovering and holding it by the sword. 
 This decision, sufficiently criminal in itself, led to 
 others even more so. The Venetians having secretly 
 favoured the rebellion of Volterra, the work of 
 subjugation became more difficult, and this again 
 involved a considerable outlay of money. In order 
 to meet the expense incurred, a sum of 100,000 
 florins was withdrawn from the Monte delle Dotif 
 (Dowry Bank) — a fund instituted for providing por- 
 tions for orphan girls at their marriage, — in conse- 
 ijuence of which, numbers of girls, thus deprived of 
 their dower, abandoned themselves to an evil life. 
 Yet Lorenzo took credit for this act, as having saved 
 the expedition, t During the siege of Volterra it 
 was promised to the inhabitants that their lives and 
 property should be respected on condition of their 
 surrendering. In spite of this assurance, when the 
 Florentine army entered the gates, the city was 
 
 * Cf. Capponi, lib. v. c. 5. 
 
 t Called also Monte delle Fanciulle. Monte was the word used in 
 Florence for a bank.- 
 
 + See his letter in Capponi. 
 
104 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 sacked, tlie cliiirclies plundered, the men taken 
 prisoners, and the women ravished. There is reason 
 to believe that these atrocities were perpetrated with 
 the sanction of Lorenzo. 
 
 The conspiracy of the Pazzi, already mentioned, 
 will show that the tyranny of the Medici was not 
 acquiesced in by all ; but that conspiracy was 
 originated far more by personal envy and hatred 
 than by motives of patriotism, and it was carried 
 out in a manner the least likely to engage the 
 sympathies of those who most deeply resented the 
 tyranny under which the liberties of Florence were 
 being destroyed. Its effect was, consequently and 
 quite naturally, to confirm and strengthen the power 
 of Lorenzo, who was regarded by his sycophants as a 
 martyr, and who availed himself of the opportunity 
 of putting down all opposition by procuring the 
 death and banishment of his enemies. Four years 
 after this conspiracy, Savonarola came to Florence. 
 We have remarked on the state of the republic and 
 of the Church which he found there; and we can 
 understand with what feelings he regarded the family, 
 and its living and ruling representative, through 
 whose influence all that he most venerated was set 
 at nought, all that he most detested was propagated 
 and supported. It is important to bear these facts 
 and considerations in mind while we follow the history 
 of the man who began to feel that one great part of 
 his mission in Florence must be to show a strong, 
 continuous, and unyielding opposition to the policy 
 of its virtual ruler, Lorenzo the Magnificent. 
 
( 105 ) 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 THE PRIOR OF S. MAEK's, AND LORENZO THE 
 MAGNIFICENT. 
 
 When Savonarola returned to Florence in 1490,* 
 he was not unmindful of his failure as a preacher 
 during his previous residence in the city, four years 
 before ; and he had no desire again to encounter the 
 cold indifference of his fellow-townsmen. He was 
 accordingly reinstated in his office of Lettore, and 
 resumed his work of instructing the novices of the 
 convent. But the fame of his work in Lombardy 
 had gone before him to Florence, and the admira- 
 tion and affection conceived for him by Pico della 
 Mirandola speedily became known. 
 
 In order to meet the wishes of those who desired 
 to have the advantage of his instmctions, he was 
 forced to remove his lectures to the convent garden, 
 where they were delivered under a rose-tree which 
 
 * Kudelbach, Meier, and others give the date as 1489, following 
 the custom of the time, which made the year begin on the 28th of 
 3Iarch. As a rule, the dates are given here as though the year began 
 Jan. 1. 
 
106 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 grew near the door of a chapel. Although this 
 garden is now separated from the convent by a 
 narrow street, the rose-tree has been renewed from 
 generation to generation by those who have venerated 
 the memory of the teacher. This proved only a tem- 
 porary arrangement. His expositions of the Apo- 
 calypse attracted so many hearers that it was found 
 necessary to remove into the convent church. Per- 
 mission was granted by Domenico da Finario, the 
 prior of the convent. After some reflection, Savo- 
 narola announced one Saturday to his hearers that 
 to-morrow he should begin to preach ; and it is said 
 that he added, he should continue to preach for 
 eight years, which actually happened. 
 
 The change was greater than might appear. As 
 a teacher or lecturer, Savonarola addressed himself 
 to the understanding of his hearers, and instructed 
 them in the meaning of the subject or book which 
 was his theme. As a preacher, he spoke as the 
 ambassador of Christ, and the servant of God, to the 
 heart and conscience of men. In the pulpit he was 
 not merely the teacher — he was the prophet. His 
 first sermon was preached on the 1st of August — 
 soon, therefore, after his return to Florence — and his 
 success was assured from the beginning. The church 
 was so crowded that the brothers had to st-and on the 
 walls of the choir ; and the effect of the sermon was 
 prodigious. Savonarola, referring to it afterwards, 
 said it was a terrible sermon (tina prediea terrihile) ; 
 and, from the account which he has left, we may learn 
 that he had now, once and for ever, taken up that 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. IVIARK's, AND LORENZO. 107 
 
 great theme which was to be the uninterrupted 
 subject of his teaching and warnings so long as he 
 was permitted to preach. 
 
 "On the 1st of August of this year," he says,* 
 "on a Sunday, I began to explain publicly the 
 Apocalypse in our church of S. Mark. Dui'ing 
 the whole course of that year I continued to set 
 forth to the Florentines these three propositions: 
 1. The Church of God must be renovated, and that 
 in our time ; 2. Italy is to be scourged before this 
 renovation ; 3. All these things will happen very 
 soon. I endeavoured to demonstrate these three 
 points to my hearers, and to persuade them by 
 probable arguments, by allegories taken from Holy 
 >Scripture, and by other similitudes or parables 
 drawn from what was taking place in the Church. 
 I insisted upon reasons of this kind, and I kept back 
 the knowledge which God gave me of these things 
 by other means, because men's minds did not seem 
 to me at that time in a condition to understand 
 those mysteries." 
 
 The same account is given by Burlamacchi, v,'ho 
 says that he began by proving his three propositions 
 from reason and Scripture, not considering the 
 people prepared to believe in the visions by means 
 of which he had obtained this knowledge ; and 
 afterwards, when he saw in his hearers a better 
 disposition, he began to make known to them the 
 revelations which he had received, but by way of 
 parables and figuratively. 
 
 * Compendio di JRevelatione. 
 
108 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The impression which his preaching made upon 
 all classes was deep and powerful. Naturally- 
 enough, it was also diverse. Such ideas could not 
 be promulgated without exciting opposition as well 
 as attracting attention and interest. So it has been 
 with all great teachers. Of the greatest of all 
 teachers we read that " some said, He is a good man : 
 others said, Nay ; but He deceiveth the people ; " * 
 and the biographer of Savonarola tells us that, when 
 he began his sermons at S. Mark's, some said he 
 was " a simple and good man," while others said he 
 was "learned, but most cunning." Friends and 
 foes, men of the world, and philosophers, as well as 
 earnest and simple-minded Christians, continued to 
 crowd around the pulpit of S. Mark's, until it 
 became evident that a larger arena must be found 
 for his work and influence. 
 
 Accordingly, when the Lent of the following year 
 (1491) arrived, he was called to preach in the 
 cathedral, and became at once the accepted teacher, 
 the acknowledged spiritual power of Florence — a 
 position which he retained, amid all the many 
 wondrous vicissitudes of fortune and condition 
 through which the great city was destined to pass, 
 during the next seven years. There is no reason to 
 believe that Savonarola ever wavered in his con- 
 victions with regard to the main propositions which 
 he had set himself to proclaim and enforce ; but it 
 appears clearly that he was not at this moment 
 prepared, at all hazards, to force them upon an un- 
 
 * S. John vii. 12. 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK'S, AND LORENZO. 109 
 
 willing audience.* Finding that, in certain quarters, 
 a very determined opposition was arising to the 
 subjects of his preaching, he "became at times 
 pusillanimous, and made up his mind no longer to 
 preach on these points," but to restrict himself to 
 the general doctrines of morality and religion.f 
 
 This course soon proved unpalatable and impos- 
 sible. Everything which drew him away from these 
 studies proved uninteresting and wearisome, and 
 filled him with " disgust ; " so that he began to " hate 
 himself." How could he preach with full conviction 
 and power, when he was not speaking of the things 
 of which his heart was full ? Thus to preach would 
 have been to abandon his mission, to give up the 
 special work which he felt called upon to perform. 
 He seems to have done his very best to tread in the 
 paths of ordinary preachers; but he failed in this 
 attempt. He had resolved on one occasion that he 
 would not preach on the subject of the future history 
 of the Church and of Italy ; but on the Saturday 
 preceding he found he could think of nothing else. 
 " Grod is my witness," he says, " that during the 
 whole of Saturday and through the whole night 
 antil the morning, I lay awake, and every other way, 
 every doctrine except that, was taken from me. At 
 
 * This we learn from Burlamacchi and from his own Compendia di 
 Uevelatione. 
 
 t According to Villari, this change in his method was brought 
 about, in part, by remonstrances from Lorenzo de' Medici and 
 others. As this eminent writer has cited no authorities for chang- 
 ing the ordinarily received order of these events, I ha^ e preferred 
 to folio Ay that given by Burlamacchi. 
 
110 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 daybreak, wearied and depressed by this long vigil, 
 I heard, whilst I was praying, a voice which said to 
 me : * Fool, dost thou not see that God wills thee to 
 follow the same way ? ' And so that day I delivered 
 a tremendous sermon." * It was, says his biogra- 
 pher, " a wonderful and stupendous sermon." 
 
 From this time he seems to have struggled no 
 more against his convictions — against those voices 
 which were speaking in his heart, and which domi- 
 nated all his thought and his action. It was no 
 longer the teacher expounding the text of Scripture, 
 and enforcing its precepts by the arguments of 
 reason, and the testimonies of experience and history; 
 it was the seer standing face to face with the in- 
 visible world, looking away into the future, near or 
 distant, and telling with passionate conviction all 
 that he saw and heard in that sphere from which 
 ordinary men were shut out. Nor did he confine 
 himself to such general statements as were contained 
 in his three famous propositions; he ventured to 
 predict particular events. It was, apparently, at 
 this time that he announced the near death of Pope 
 Innocent, the coming descent of the French upon 
 Italy, and the calamities which were about to befall 
 the house of the Medici, and Lorenzo himself. 
 
 In the July of 1491 the Prior of S. Mark's died, 
 and Savonarola was elected to fill his place. It had 
 become a custom in the convent for the new prior 
 to go and do homage to the head of the house to 
 which it was so deeply indebted ; but Savonarola 
 
 * Compendium Bevelatiomim. 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK'S, AND LORENZO. Ill 
 
 saw in this a dangerous concession, which was at 
 variance with his sense of independence as a priest. 
 " I acknowledge my election," he said, " as the act 
 of God, and to Him I will pay my homage." The 
 remonstrances of the monks were of no avail. 
 They were met by the simple question : " Is it God 
 or Lorenzo who has made me prior ? " When " The 
 Magnificent " heard of this refusal, he was greatly 
 excited. "You see," he exclaimed, "a foreigner is 
 come into my own house, and will not even con- 
 descend to visit me." * 
 
 However deeply Lorenzo may have resented this 
 want of courtesy or deference on the part of the new 
 prior, he was too skilled in the arts of government to 
 manifest his resentment ; and he set himself to con- 
 ciliate the man whom he was unable to command. 
 Accordingly, he was often to be seen at mass in 
 the convent church, and he further attempted to 
 throw himself in the way of the Frate by coming 
 and walking in the convent garden. On one occa- 
 sion this happened while Savonarola was engaged 
 in his studies ; and one of the brethren thought 
 right to run and tell the prior that their benefactor 
 was walking in the garden and probably expected to 
 see him. "Has he asked for me?" inquired the 
 
 prior. " No, but " " Very well, then, let him 
 
 continue his walk as long as he pleases," was the 
 reply. Li the eyes of a man who so loved liberty, 
 and saw in it the only hope and possibility of raising 
 
 * The theory of Perrens on the original cause of Savonarola's 
 antipathy to Lorenzo has been examined in chapter iv. 
 
112 
 
 SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 Florence out of its wretched ungodliness, frivolity, 
 and wickedness, the man who was enslaving it could 
 be no object of admiration or complacency. To go 
 out of his way to recognize Lorenzo further than 
 strict duty demanded, would be, in his judgement, to 
 make himself the accomplice of one whom he re- 
 garded as encouraging all the worst evils by which 
 the city was afflicted. 
 
 Lorenzo was not to be discouraged. There might 
 be other ways of conciliating a man who was be- 
 coming a power too formidable to be ignored. He 
 continued to send gifts to the convent, which 
 were accepted and made over to the general 
 funds of the society, without, however, producing 
 any alteration in the manners or attitude of the 
 prior. He was not ungrateful for them, but he 
 estimated them at their true value. "The good 
 dog," he said one day in his pulpit, " always barks 
 in order to defend the master's house ; and if a thief 
 comes and throws him a bone or anything else to 
 put him off his guard, the good dog takes it, but 
 at the same he also barks and bites the thief." 
 
 Perhaps, thought Lorenzo, he dislikes the con- 
 nection between the giver and the gifts being made 
 so evident ; and he caused a considerable amount 
 of gold to be deposited in the alms-box of S. Mark's 
 Church. Savonarola knew too well where it came 
 from ; and separating the smaller pieces of money 
 placed in the chest, which, according to custom, he 
 reserved for the needs of the convent, he sent the 
 gold to the good men (biion' iiomini) of S. Martin, to 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK'S, AND LORENZO. 113 
 
 be distributed among the poor of the city. And so, 
 says Burlamacclii, Lorenzo came to see ^' that this 
 was not the soil to plant vines in." 
 
 It would appear, moreover, that Savonarola, so far 
 from being conciliated by this conduct, did not cease 
 to denounce the evil that was being wrought in 
 Florence by the arts of the Medici. In spite of 
 every advance made by Lorenzo, he went on re- 
 proving the vices of the age, and threatening the 
 great tribulations which he saw coming upon the 
 earth. Whether he made direct allusion to the 
 influence of the man in authority or not, his mean- 
 ing was not obscure ; and Pico tells us that Lorenzo, 
 hearing that Savonarola had inveighed against his 
 tyrannical customs and ways {tijrannkos nsiis), 
 attempted to conciliate him, while a number of 
 citizens, " stirred up," says Burlamacchi, " by luke- 
 warm religious, went and urged him not to go on 
 preaching in that manner." At last Lorenzo sent 
 to him five citizens of great authority to entreat 
 him, as though they came of their own accord, that, 
 " for the sake of the common good and peace of the 
 city, and also for the good of the convent, he would 
 adopt another style of preaching, and one more 
 general, and .that he would not predict the future 
 or refer to particular things beyond what was neces- 
 sary." The names of the five are given by Burla- 
 macchi, and it is possible that they were chosen by 
 Lorenzo because they were known to be friendly to 
 the Frate. If this were so, it would be another 
 proof of his desire to win him by conciliatory 
 
 I. I 
 
114 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 measures. Be this as it may, all the five were 
 afterwards found among his followers. One name 
 we may mention, as we shall hear again of him who 
 bore it, and under circumstances of deep and painful 
 interest, the name of Francesco Valori. When they 
 came into the presence of Savonarola, they all but 
 lost courage to speak, and made their appeal in a 
 very feeble and half-hearted manner. They were 
 received with great kindness by the Frate. He 
 told them that he knew they were not speaking 
 their own mind, but that of Lorenzo ; and he genth' 
 rebuked them for thus allowing themselves to be 
 the instruments of another. He bade them go and 
 admonish Lorenzo to repent of his errors, as a 
 calamity sent by God was now impending over him 
 and his house. 
 
 Again, it is said, three other men came to him 
 on the same errand;* and he gave them these 
 words for answer : " Tell Lorenzo from me, that he 
 is a Florentine, and the first man in the city, and 
 I am a foreigner, a poor mean friar. Nevertheless, 
 tell him, that it is he who is to depart, and I who 
 am to remain: he will go, but I shall stay." Not 
 knowing what to reply, they departed, and delivered 
 their message. Lorenzo, it is said, remembered the 
 warning in the solemn hour which was then drawing 
 near. 
 
 Kesolving not to be baffled, he attempted other 
 means of dealing with the unapproachable friar. If 
 he could not win him to his side, he might, perhaps, 
 
 * Pico says he had heard that these came of their own accord. 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK'S, AND LORENZO. 115 
 
 destroy his popularity and influence among the 
 people. For this purpose he stirred up his old rival, 
 the Augustinian Fra Gennazzano, to resume his 
 preaching. We remember the enormous popularity 
 achieved by this preacher at the time that Savo- 
 narola was attempting to gain the ear of his five and 
 twenty listeners in the church of S. Lorenzo. He 
 must have been, in some sense, a man of eminence, 
 although, as Burlamacchi says, he was " more en- 
 dowed with eloquence than with holy doctrine." 
 Up to this time he had professed to rejoice in the 
 success of Savonarola; but no sooner had he received 
 from Lorenzo the hint to attack him, than he pre- 
 pared to do so with all vehemence. On Ascension 
 Day, 1492,* he preached in the chui'ch of San Gallo 
 after vespers, and taking for his text the words of 
 our Lord : " It is not for you to know the times or 
 the seasons" (No?i est vestrum nosse tempora vel 
 momenta), he made a most violent attack upon 
 Savonarola; denouncing him as a false prophet, as 
 a sower of sedition and disorder, and, in short, pro- 
 ceeded to such lengths as to disgust his audience, 
 so that in that one day he almost entirely lost the 
 reputation which he had previously acquired, and 
 many of his own friends fell away from him. Next 
 Sunday Savonarola preached from the same text, 
 showing that it was quite compatible with all that 
 he had taught; so that the attempt of Lorenzo 
 utterly failed, and left Savonarola more than ever 
 master of the situation. 
 
 * The date given : at present I am unable to see how thia can b© 
 consistent with the time of the death of Lorenzo. 
 
116 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Althougli Gennazzano discontinued his preaching, 
 to which those who had now been arrested by the 
 enthusiasm of his rival were little likely to give 
 heed, he professed the greatest regard for Savo- 
 narola, invited him to his convent, asked him to 
 sing mass, and joined with him in the celebration, 
 and exchanged all kinds of courtesies with him. 
 This was, however, only a dissembling of his real 
 feelings. It was not easy for a man, especially for 
 a man of his character, who had been regarded as 
 the greatest preacher of his time, to see the relative 
 positions of himself and another so suddenly and 
 utterly changed. It was not easy to forget the 
 admiring crowds that had hung upon his lips in the 
 Santo Spirito nine years ago, while the immature 
 utterances of the Frate of San Marco were resound- 
 ing within the almost empty walls of »San Lorenzo, 
 and to see with patience that now, whilst he was 
 neglected, all men had gone after that other. 
 Hatred and the desire for revenge took possession 
 of him. Shortly afterwards, going to Kome, he 
 not only denounced his rival in private to the 
 Pope, but publicly, in a sermon, declared him 
 to be in league with the author of evil; or, as 
 Burlamacchi puts it, he exclaimed: "'Burn, Holy 
 Father, burn, I say, this instrument of the devil, 
 this scandal of the whole GhurcTi : ' speaking openly 
 of the Father Fra Girolamo." AVhen the Frate 
 heard of it, he only expressed the hope that God 
 would forgive him. 
 
 It is creditable to Lorenzo that he should now 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK's, AND LORENZO. 117 
 
 have abstained from any further attempts to inter- 
 fere with. Savonarola. Such a course may have been 
 dictated by that regard to policy which distinguished 
 the more able members of his family ; and it is 
 most likely that he had other thoughts suggested 
 by the malady which, now increasing in strength, 
 was before long to carry him off. But there can be 
 no doubt that he had conceived a genuine admira- 
 tion for this bold friar, who would not be deterred 
 by threats or blandishments from speaking the 
 words which he believed that God had put in his 
 mouth, and who commended his message by the 
 splendour of his genius and the unfeigned sanctity 
 of his life. It is at least certain that, when Lorenzo 
 felt the approach of the last enemy, he experienced 
 an earnest desire to see the man whom, in his life, 
 he had vainly striven to conciliate. As his sickness 
 increased, he had retired to the villa at Careggi, 
 built by Cosimo; and it became evident, early in 
 April, that he had not long to live. For a time he 
 was able to enjoy the society of his friends, and to 
 receive the visits of some of the more distino'uished 
 citizens of Florence. The better side of his character 
 came out, as he was withdrawn from the temptations 
 of the great city, and lost the power of gratifying his 
 baser passions. Those who read only the hymns in 
 which the undoubtedly religious character of his 
 mind is expressed, would find it impossible to 
 believe that he could be the writer of those Car- 
 nival Songs of which we have already heard. 
 Politian, who was constantly with him in these 
 
118 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 last days of his life, relates that he called his 
 son Piero to him, and gave him solemn counsels 
 as to his conduct as a citizen and as a possible 
 ruler of Florence in the future. "Kemember," he 
 said — how little the warning was remembered, we 
 shall shortly be forced to tell — "remember, in 
 every position to pursue that course of conduct 
 which strict integrity prescribes, and to consult 
 the interests of the whole community, rather than 
 the gratification of a part." 
 
 As the end drew near, he expressed a wish to see 
 Savonarola, " because," he said, " I have never yet 
 found a religious like him." * " Tell him," said 
 Savonarola, when he received the request, " that I 
 am not what he wants, because we shall not be in 
 accord; and therefore it is not expedient that I 
 come." " Go back to the prior," said the Magnifi- 
 cent, " and tell him that at all events he must come, 
 for I want to be in accord with him and do all that 
 he shall tell me." It is generally known that there 
 are two accounts of this interview ; that of Politian, 
 who was present at the time, and that given by the 
 younger Pico and Burlamacchi. Koscoe, unable to 
 see any good in the priest who would not be the mere 
 tool of the destroyers of Florentine liberty, and 
 hardly any evil in Lorenzo the Magnificent, treats 
 the latter account as improbable and untrue; al- 
 though, if he had considered the matter more 
 maturely, he would have found the story told by 
 the friends and biographers of Savonarola much 
 
 * Burlamacchi, p. 37. 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK's, AND LORENZO. 119 
 
 more illustrative of the haughtiness which he 
 ascribes to him, than the narrative of Politiau 
 which he adopts. It may be possible to show that 
 the contradiction between the two accounts is not so 
 great as it would at first sight appear. 
 
 Here is Eoscoe's version of the interview. " This 
 interview [between Lorenzo a.nd the elder Pico] was 
 scarcely terminated, when a visitor of a very dif- 
 ferent character arrived. This was the haughty and 
 enthusiastic Savonarola, who probably thought that 
 in the last moments of asritation and of sufferins: 
 he might be enabled to collect materials for his 
 factious purposes. Witli apparent charity and kind- 
 ness, the priest exhorted Lorenzo to remain firm in 
 the Catholic faith ; to which Lorenzo professed his 
 strict adherence. He then required an avowal of 
 his intention, in case of recovery, to live a virtuous 
 and well-regulated life ; to this Lorenzo also signified 
 his sincere assent. Lastly, he reminded him that, if 
 needful, he ought to bear his death with fortitude. 
 ' With cheerfulness,' replied Lorenzo, * if such be the 
 will of Grod.' On his quitting the room, Lorenzo 
 called him back, and, as an unequivocal mark that 
 he harboured no resentment asfainst him for the 
 injuries which he had received, requested the priest 
 would bestow upon him his benediction ; with which 
 he instantly complied, Lorenzo making the usual 
 responses with a firm and collected voice." 
 
 The animus of this statement is evident;* but 
 
 * Compare Eoscoe's report with Politian's own language: 
 ■"Scarcely had Pico left when Hieronymus of Ferrara entered 
 
120 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 it is with the facts alone that we have now to deal. 
 Roscoe refers, in a note, to a different account of the in- 
 terview given by Pico, which is " deserving of notice," 
 he says, "only by the necessity of its refutation." 
 The account of which he speaks is given by Bur- 
 lamacchi as well as by Pico,* with different degrees 
 of detail. We shall reproduce it here, and consider 
 briefly its internal probability and its consistency 
 with the story given by Politian. According to the 
 friends and contemporaries of Savonarola, it was at 
 Lorenzo's earnest request that he came to see him. 
 The dying man said he had three sins to confess, 
 for which he asked absolution : the sack of Volterra, 
 the money taken from the Monte delle Fanciulle, and 
 the blood shed in punishing those who were impli- 
 cated in the Pazzi conspiracy. While speaking of 
 these things he became greatly agitated, and Savo- 
 narola, to calm him, kept on repeating : " God is 
 good, God is merciful ; but," he went on, " you must 
 do three things." " What are they, father ? " asked 
 Lorenzo. The countenance of Savonarola became 
 grave as, extending the fingers of his right hand, 
 he replied : " First, you must have a great and 
 living faith in the mercy of God." " In that I have 
 the greatest faith." "Secondly, you must restore 
 all that you have wrongly taken away, or instruct 
 
 the chamber, a man distinguished for his learning and holiness, 
 an eminent preacher of heavenly doctrine {insignis et doctrina et 
 sanctirnonia vir, ccelestisque doctrine inxdicator egregius)." And 
 Roscoe professes to reproduce the testimony of Politian ! 
 
 * Also by Barsanti, Razzi, and other authorities of no less 
 credibility. 
 
THE PRIOR OF S. MARK'S, AND LORENZO. 121 
 
 your sons to make restitution for you." For a 
 moment this demand seemed greatly to distress 
 Lorenzo ; but, at last, making an effort, lie signified 
 Kis assent by the inclination of his head. The 
 third requirement was yet to be made. Savonarola 
 became still more solemn in manner, and seemed to 
 increase in stature as with terrible earnestness he 
 continued: "Lastly, you must restore liberty to 
 your native country, as it was in the early days 
 of the republic of Florence." It was touching the 
 root of the man's family pride and ambition. Sum- 
 moning his remaining strength, he angrily turned 
 his back upon the friar, and refused to utter another 
 word. Savonarola departed without pronouncing- 
 absolution, and Lorenzo died soon afterwards, on the 
 same day, April 8th, 1492. 
 
 By those who deny the accuracy, even the 
 general credibility of this account, it is assumed 
 that Politian was present during the whole of the 
 interview, and heard all that passed between the 
 confessor and his penitent. Neither assumption can 
 be sustained. Politian himself, in his letter which 
 describes the last day of Lorenzo's life, states that 
 he several times went into an adjoining chamber, 
 and Razzi asserts expressly that, during the inter- 
 view, "the others left the room." Besides, is it 
 probable that even the dearest friends of the dying 
 man would be permitted to hear, or would desire 
 to hear, the last words which he spoke in confession 
 to a priest? There is indeed a certain agreement 
 between the two narratives, and Politian's report 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 may refer to the first words which passed between 
 the two men. It is customary, at the beginning of 
 a confession, to ask and obtain the priest's blessing ; 
 and so much may have been seen before the others 
 quitted the chamber. And this is all that Politian 
 says. Of the ^dthholding of the absolution he may 
 have seen and known nothing. If he knew of it, as 
 the devoted friend of Lorenzo, he would have been 
 little likely to record it. 
 
 Perrens, indeed, goes so far as to deny the inter- 
 nal probability of the story of the biographers. He 
 says that the demand for the restoration of the 
 liberties of Florence is a mere anticipation of the 
 course of conduct which was afterwards pursued by 
 Savonarola in the revolutionary times which were 
 soon to follow. This objection may safely be left 
 to the judgement of those who are acquainted with 
 the whole history of the period. In the very height 
 of the revolution, Savonarola never professed to be 
 in theory a republican. He preferred the monarchi- 
 cal form of government, where it was possible ; and 
 before the death of Lorenzo, it is agreed by all, he 
 denounced his influence as destructive alike of the 
 liberties of the State and of public morality. Even 
 in the minutest details, the account of Savonarola's 
 friends is the more probable. Was it likely that he 
 who had refused to have intercourse with " The 
 Magnificent " when he was lord of Florence, would 
 have almost forced himself upon him when he was 
 at the point of death ? 
 
 The death of Lorenzo de' Medici was an event 
 
THE PRIOK OF S. MAEK's, AND LORENZO. 123 
 
 fruitful in consequences to his own family, to Savo- 
 narola, and to the State of Florence. Had he lived 
 to the natural life of man — he was only forty-four 
 years of age when he died — how different might 
 have been the future historv of the republic and 
 of Italy ! 
 
 In the same year, July 25th, Pope Innocent VIII. 
 died, and was succeeded by Alexander YI. Events 
 are thickening, and we can with difficulty realize 
 the fact that the wonderful chansres which have 
 now to be related should have taken place within a 
 period of time so limited. 
 
124 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE PREACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 
 
 The reputation of Savonarola was never at a higher 
 pitch than in the first days of the administration of 
 Piero de' Medici. All the attempts of Lorenzo had 
 failed to silence, to intimidate, or to conciliate the 
 man who felt that he was sent by God, and did not 
 owe his position, as priest or as prior, to human 
 authority. He had even made a conquest of the 
 potentate who had thought to be his master, as he 
 was the master of Florence. The dying Lorenzo 
 had sought counsel in his last moments of the Prior 
 of S. Mark's, the terrible preacher of Santa Maria 
 del Fiore. If he could thus influence the greatest 
 among them, whose word had been as law to the 
 whole people, how could he be any longer resisted ? 
 
 But these were only the effects of the real and 
 mighty inward power which dwelt in the heart of 
 the man himself, and which made itself felt in his 
 every word and deed and gesture. The saintliness 
 of his life was known to all by the testimony of his 
 brethren, and by many infallible proofs. The clear- 
 
THE PREACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 125 
 
 ness of his spiritual perceptions gave to his utter- 
 ances a distinctness and a certainty which coukl not 
 be mistaken, and which produced instant conviction. 
 The singleness of his aims, the high unworldliness of 
 his designs, the strength of his will, the capacious- 
 ness of his intellect, all combined to make him well- 
 nigh irresistible. He was universally recognized at 
 this time as the great spiritual power in Florence, 
 even as some years after he became, in fact and 
 almost in name, the ruler of the republic. 
 
 Savonarola's biographers seem to feel, rather than 
 to say, that here was a new starting-point in his 
 marvellous career ; for his history is the history of 
 Florence. They pause at this crisis to speak of 
 the man himself ; of his power as a preacher, of his 
 character, deportment, life. "This great father," 
 says Burlamacchi, "was endowed with infinite and 
 most rare virtues. He was benignant and pleasant 
 with all, humble and gentle with every one of the 
 novices, and universally affable in conversation. 
 The familiarity of his manner produced joy and 
 gladness in others; and those who once came to 
 know him had the greatest desire and avidity 
 for his company; and when he spoke of spiritual 
 things, no one was able to withdraw from his 
 presence." To this he added a marvellous power of 
 divining what was passing in the minds of others, as 
 well as of influencing their opinions and judgements. 
 On a certain occasion he discerned in one of the 
 novices a desire to abandon the religious life. A 
 glance from the prior told the halting youth that 
 
126 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 his thoughts were being interpreted, and decided 
 him to abide in his vocation. 
 
 The testimony of Pico is entirely to the same 
 eftect. He was ever accessible even to his enemies, 
 and he was of wonderful placability. Pico says it 
 was " native ; " but we may be permitted to doubt 
 this, and to ascribe his meekness and gentleness to 
 a source higher than nature. He was never known 
 to utter a harsh or rough rebuke, or to raise his 
 voice in anger, or to show a trace of passion on his 
 countenance, however much he might be provoked. 
 He was fervent in the denunciation and eradication 
 of vices ; but in his public admonitions it was by 
 gentleness of speech, by simplicity of language, 
 rather than by vehemence or exaggeration of ex- 
 pression, that he sought to carry conviction to his 
 hearers. 
 
 His manner of life was in keeping with the un- 
 worldliness of his mind. He partook of the com- 
 monest food, and ate the coarsest bread that he 
 could obtain. If a finer quality were placed before 
 him, he would change it, and give it to some old 
 and feeble person. He was most sparing in food 
 and drink; and from this rule he never departed, 
 except when he was showing hospitality — a duty 
 which he never neglected, although he had almost 
 lost all taste for it himseK. His dress was as plain 
 as his diet; but, although coarse, it was always 
 scrupulously clean. He was fond of repeating the 
 words of S. Bernard:"^ "That he liked poverty, 
 but not dirt." 
 
 * Paiipertatem sihi placere, non sordes. 
 
THE PREACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 127 
 
 For nothing was lie more remarkable than for his 
 deep, earnest, and constant habits of devotion. He 
 was indeed one of those who " pray without ceasing." 
 If he lay awake at night, he spent every moment in 
 prayer and holy meditation. Some of the stories 
 related of him, in connection with this habit, border 
 upon the miraculous. On a certain Christmas Eve, 
 we are told, when lauds were being sung in the 
 church, his body remained perfectly motionless for 
 five hours, and " so entirely were his thoughts and 
 affections absorbed in God by the presence of the 
 Holy Spirit, that his face emitted a strong light. 
 When the divine office was completed, those who 
 returned to the church testified that even after they 
 had extinguished the lamps, the face of Girolamo 
 shone in the darkness and seemed to light up the 
 choir of the church." Doubtless, imagination had 
 some part in producing these impressions; but the 
 candid reader will confess the existence of some 
 extraordinary depth of devotion in the man who 
 could so powerfully influence his contemporaries. 
 Fra Silvestro, his most intimate friend among the 
 brethren, declared that more than once he had 
 seen the figure of a dove hovering over his head. 
 
 Yet the devotional and contemplative character 
 of his life did not destroy its practical side, or lead 
 him to dispense with the labour of study. His 
 own native tendencies were towards philosophical 
 speculation. We have seen that he regarded these 
 tendencies with suspicion, fearing lest they should 
 divert him from the true business of the religious 
 
128 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 life. Yet he did not allow himself to be driven into 
 the opposite fanatical extreme of despising reading 
 and study. He laboured as well as prayed. With 
 him also work was worship, even as worship was 
 w^ork. He often quoted the saying of S. Francis 
 of Assisi, that a man's knowledge was in proportion 
 to his work, that " a man knows as much as he 
 works." * 
 
 That such a man, filled with an overwhelming 
 sense of his divine calling to speak forth the word 
 of truth in an age which had almost forgotten God, 
 should prove "mighty in word and deed," was a 
 simple necessity of the case ; and so we are told his 
 preaching was almost miraculous, " for the rapidity 
 of his utterance, the sublimity and greatness of the 
 things discoursed upon, and the elegance of his words 
 and sentences were equally wonderful. His voice 
 was clear and sonorous, his countenance animated 
 and impassioned, and his gesture graceful and im- 
 pressive." 
 
 These testimonies, his enemies allege, are those of 
 his friends and admirers. The objection reminds us 
 of the well-known theory which professes to explain 
 the spread of Mahometanism. The false prophet, it 
 is said, propagated his religion by the sword. The 
 retort is just : How did he get his sword ? In the 
 case of Savonarola, the power which he exercised is 
 indisputable. To reject the testimony given to his 
 character and work is to admit the effect and deny 
 the only reasonable explanation of the cause. 
 
 * Tanto sa ciascuno quanta opera. 
 
THE PREACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 129 
 
 The preaching of Savonarola was intensely 
 biblical. We have seen how he ever, more and 
 more, turned to the Holy Scriptures, as his favourite 
 iind supreme subject of study. Nearly all his 
 sermons started from the exposition of a passage 
 drawn from the Bible. To us many of his explana- 
 tions must seem far-fetched and fanciful ; but it was 
 the manner of his day, and he adopted it on 
 principle. His peculiarities, as we should deem 
 them, did not however consist in forcing the Bible to 
 prove that which it did not contain ; but rather in 
 finding the recoo^nized doctrines of the Chui'ch in 
 texts which, to ordinary minds, seem to have nothing 
 whatever to do with them. But whether he was a 
 trustworthy interpreter or not, he was always a true 
 and earnest preacher, speaking to the intelligence, 
 the heart, the conscience. The words which he 
 spoke were spirit and life and power. "Whatever art 
 and skill as an orator he possessed came from 
 within, not from without. He was singularly desti- 
 tute of what might be called rhetorical culture ; and 
 this explains the failure of his first efforts. The 
 great and burning thoughts within him were labour- 
 ing in vain for articulate expression. It was only as 
 he saw more clearly the evils which he was called to 
 denounce, and the only remedy which could be suc- 
 cessfully applied, that the clearness of his percep- 
 tions came to be expressed in his language ; and 
 this grew to be well ordered by reason of his 
 severely trained intellect, and again was set on fire 
 by his deep conviction, his ardent zeal, and his 
 
 I. K 
 
180 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 fervent love for God and man. Guicciardini, no 
 mean judge, says that, after having read and studied 
 the sermons of Savonarola, he found them most 
 eloquent, and of an eloquence that was natural and 
 not artificial. He adds that for ages there had not 
 been seen a man so learned in the sacred writings ; 
 and that, whilst no one ever succeeded in preaching 
 at Florence more than two Lents without wearying 
 his hearers, Savonarola was able to do so for many 
 y^'ars, ever rising higher in the estimation of the 
 people. Those who study his sermons most carefully 
 will understand this criticism, and they will perceive 
 something of the secret of his mighty power ; the 
 power itself, however, is a simple fact of history. 
 
 The popularity of Savonarola went on increasing ; 
 and he was more and more regarded, not only as 
 the denouncer of all the frightful evils of the age, 
 but as the steady and unflinching opponent of the 
 enslavers of Florence, the Medici. He had predicted 
 the death of Lorenzo, and his prediction had speedily 
 been fulfilled ; also of Innocent VIII., and he had 
 died in the same year as the Magnificent. When 
 Alexander YI. ascended the papal throne, if the 
 need of renovation became more evident, the pros- 
 pect grew more remote. Nothing short of some 
 special divine intervention seemed caj)able of bring- 
 ing about the wished-for change. 
 
 As the power of Savonarola went on increasing, 
 and his influence was more evidently than ever 
 lending itself to defeat the measures of the ruling 
 family, it was natural and inevitable that he should 
 
THE PEEACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 131 
 
 jDrovoke the determined enmity of the Medicean 
 party; and this opposition was strengthened by 
 the accession of those who envied the Frate his 
 success, and perhaps even more by the numerous 
 body of ecclesiastics whose sensual and worklly 
 mode of life he denounced with peculiar energy. 
 Malignant men, " under the instigation of the evil 
 one," lost no opportunity of persecuting him ; and 
 among these, " the most bitter were the men of the 
 most abandoned lives, and especially those prelates 
 of the Church whose disgraceful lives were corrupt- 
 ing the whole world." 
 
 Brooding on these things — meditating upon the 
 terrible evils of the age, and on his own powerlessness 
 to check them, the Frate looked ever more for divine 
 guidance and illumination ; expecting to learn from 
 visions the will of God and the future of the Church, 
 as he believed he had done in the past. The vision 
 did not tarry. In the very year which had witnessed 
 the death of the master of Florence, and of the head 
 of the Church (1492), while he was preaching the 
 Advent sermons, he had a vision or dream which he 
 did not hesitate to regard as a divine revelation. In 
 the midst of heaven he beheld a hand grasping a 
 sword, under which the words were written : Gladius 
 Domini super terram cito et velociter (" The sword of 
 the Lord upon the earth quickly and swiftly "). At 
 the same time he heard a multitude of voices clearly 
 and distinctly promising mercy to the good, and 
 threatening punishment to the wicked, and proclaim- 
 ing that the wrath of God was nigh. Great thun- 
 
182 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 derings were heard from heaven, weapons and fire 
 seemed to fall from the skies, and the whole earth 
 became a prey to wars and pestilences and famines. 
 As the vision disappeared, Savonarola received the 
 command to announce these chastisements, to teach 
 men the fear of God, to bid them pray to the Lord 
 to send good pastors to the Church, and finally to 
 have a special care for troubled souls. This vision 
 became a leading subject of his preaching and 
 teaching — we might almost say, for a considerable 
 time its very centre — and was represented in numer- 
 ous pictures and medals of the period. 
 
 It was not to be expected that Piero de' Medici 
 should look upon these doings with indifference. 
 Indeed, as the matter would present itself to his 
 mind, it must have seemed to be now the question 
 whether he or Savonarola should rule Florence. His 
 father, when he found that he could not control the 
 speech and action of the Frate, had left him alone. 
 He was wise enough, in all things, to remain con- 
 tented with the possession of the substance of power, 
 and to dispense with the form and appearance of it 
 when it was inexpedient to contend for it. It was 
 for this reason that he had wisely preserved all the 
 ancient forms of the government of the republic, 
 while he was in fact supreme. Piero was a man of 
 a totally different spirit. He had all the ambition 
 and love of power which characterized Cosimo and 
 Lorenzo ; but he was entirely destitute of their policy 
 Indeed, he was in most ways a striking contrast to 
 his father, in appearance as well as in character. He 
 
THE PREACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 133 
 
 was a man of a handsome and attractive person, and 
 his intellectual abilities were of no mean order. 
 Politian speaks of him as being beloved by the 
 citizens ; " a man not less eminent for his own glory 
 than for that of his family ; combining the talents of 
 his father, the virtues and great kindliness of his 
 imcle, the probity of his grandfather, the prudence and 
 piety of his great-grandfather ; in short, the heart 
 and head of all his noble ancestors." 
 
 If this description were to be taken literally, we 
 should be forced to conclude that Piero made a 
 miserable use of his advantages. He had, however, 
 considerable abilities. His memory was remarkably 
 retentive ; he had a ready wit, and improvised verses 
 with the greatest ease, and showed himself a friend 
 and patron of literature. Bat he knew too little of 
 the spirit of the people of Florence, and forgot that, 
 while they might part with the substance of liberty, 
 they were attached to the form. Piero had all the 
 haughtiness of the Orsini, his mother's family, and 
 was rude and rough in his manners ; in this respect 
 presenting a striking and unpleasing contrast to his 
 father. Sometimes he would break into violent fits 
 of passion at the slightest opposition, and make it 
 too evident that, in carrying out his own wishes, 
 he had little regard for those of others. 
 
 Such conduct was more offensive to the Florentines 
 than an open violation of their laws. Lorenzo had 
 besought his son to remember that, whatever his 
 power and influence might be, he was " only a citizen 
 of Florence." This had never been forgotten by 
 
184 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Cosimo, Fater Fatrise, nor by Lorenzo himself ; and 
 the citizens were flattered by the thought that the 
 greatest among them was still one of themselves. 
 For such feelings Piero entertained and exhibited 
 no respect. The appearances of liberty which his 
 father had carefully preserved, even while he was 
 undermining the reality, the son proceeded deliber- 
 ately to destroy. The widest disaffection began to 
 spring up throughout the whole State. The leaders 
 of the people, who had willingly followed Lorenzo, 
 now secretly or openly fell away from his son ; and 
 a party, continually increasing in numbers and in- 
 fluence, was being formed against him. Savonarola, 
 unintentionally, perhaps unconsciously to himself, 
 was regarded, if not as the head, yet as the heart of 
 this party ; and he was looked upon by Piero as his 
 most dangerous adversary. It was in the midst of 
 these growing antagonisms that the crowds at the 
 cathedral first heard the terrible announcement of 
 the Sword of the Lord coming speedily and swiftly 
 upon Italy. 
 
 Piero could not be expected to look on with 
 equanimity while the discontent of the people was 
 finding expression in the first pulpit of Florence, 
 and gathering strength from the warnings which 
 were there proclaimed. He saw that in the Prior of 
 S. Marco lay the greatest danger for himself and 
 his authority. But he had neither the prudence 
 nor the self-control of Lorenzo. The Magnificent, 
 when he could neither repress nor conciliate the 
 preacher, would have allowed the movement which 
 
THE PREACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 135 
 
 he guided to spend its force — would have temporized 
 where he could not command. Piero was too im- 
 patient and imperious to submit to such delay. He 
 could not silence the preacher or withdraw the 
 people from listening to him ; and therefore he used 
 his influence with his superiors in Eome and Milan, 
 to have him removed for a season from Florence. 
 This measure filled the brethren with grief and dis- 
 may. The prior alone was calm, resigned, hopeful. 
 He was grateful for their affection, he told them ; 
 but, he said, " if you are too much cast down, if 
 you begin to think that you cannot live without me, 
 your love is yet imperfect, and therefore God has 
 taken me from you for a season." This was in the 
 beginning of 1493, and the same year we find him 
 preaching the Lent sermons at Bologna. 
 
 The Bentivogiio family were still possessed of 
 supreme authority in Bologna. He found himself 
 hampered by the circumstances of the city, and lost 
 much of the power and fervour which had marked 
 his sermons at Florence. They called him a *^ simple 
 man and a ladies' preacher." Still his fame drew 
 multitudes to hear him ; and among the congrega- 
 tion there appeared the wife of Bentivogiio. This 
 lady habitually came late into the church, bringing 
 with her a large retinue of attendants, who greatly 
 interrupted the preacher and disturbed the people. 
 Savonarola was unwilling to take needlessly offensive 
 measures to abate this nuisance ; so, at the beginning 
 of the interruptions, he contented himself with 
 merely finishing his sermon, or rather, Avith leaving 
 
136 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 off preaching. This tacit reproof proved insufficient. 
 Then he would pause in his sermon, and remark on 
 the impropriety of disturbing the faithful during 
 their religious exercises. This indirect rebuke only- 
 inflamed the anger of the lady. She continued to 
 come late, and every day with more noise, as if in 
 contempt of his remonstrances. At last it became 
 intolerable. One morning, while he was preaching 
 with great energy and fervour, the usual interrup- 
 tion occurred. Then his indignation broke forth. 
 "Behold," he exclaimed, "how the devil comes to 
 interrupt the word of God." The proud wife of 
 Bentivoglio in a rage gave orders to her followers to 
 despatch the insolent preacher in the pulpit; but 
 even they shrank from the commission of such a 
 crime. The delay brought her no better thoughts. 
 She ordered two of her servants to find him out in 
 his cell, and inflict some grievous injury upon him. 
 Savonarola encountered them with such calmness 
 and dignity, and spoke to them with such an air 
 of authority, that they listened respectfully and 
 departed in confusion. Happily, it was near the end 
 of Lent, and he had soon to depart from Bologna. 
 He would not have it supposed that the servant of 
 God was driven from his place by fears for his per- 
 sonal safety. His parting words from the pulpit 
 declared his unwavering confidence in. God and in 
 his mission. " This evening," he said, " I shall take 
 my way to Florence with my staff and my wooden 
 flask, and I shall lodge at Pianoro. If any one has 
 business with me, let him come to me before I leave. 
 
THE PEEACHER AND PIERO DE' MEDICI. 137 
 
 Know, however, that my death will not take place 
 at Bolo2:na." 
 
 Florence was now ever his first and deepest 
 thought. Even during the time of his anxious work 
 at Bologna, he never forgot his beloved brethren and 
 sons of S. Marco. They were longing for his return, 
 and he wrote to them frequently in a spirit of the 
 most tender affection. Sometimes in general terms 
 he exhorted them to keep themselves above and 
 apart from this present world. Sometimes he would 
 descend to the minute details of their daily life. 
 Those who knew only the preacher, " mighty in the 
 Scriptures," knew only half the man. It was in the 
 words of loving wisdom which he spoke to his brethren 
 that all his beautiful simplicity, all his tender love 
 for the souls of men, all his deep devotion to the 
 work of God, found most attractive expression. 
 
 On his way back to Florence many thoughts 
 occupied his mind respecting the state of the city,, 
 the growing enmity against the Medici, the diffi- 
 culties which beset his future work. Yillari thinks 
 that the vision, which is related to have occurred on 
 his former return to Florence, took place at this 
 time. There is one circumstance in favour of this 
 supposition. The words which his supernatural 
 guide is said to have addressed to him, when he 
 parted from him at the gate of San Gallo, vrould cer- 
 tainly seem better suited to this crisis in his history. 
 *' Remember," he said, as he vanished from his 
 sight, "remember to do that for which thou art 
 commissioned of God." That he who believed him- 
 
138 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 self to have peculiar intercourse with the invisible 
 world should, at this period of his history, have had 
 such a vision or dream, will seem quite reasonable. 
 Be this as it may, it can hardly be doubted that it 
 was with thoughts like these, and under the influ- 
 ence of the emotions which they would excite, that 
 he now returned to Florence. Grave events were 
 coming near; and he had to prepare, as best he 
 €oxild, to meet them in the strength of God. 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 MONASTIC EEFOEM. 
 
 We have already seen clearly that Savonarola hoped 
 for a reformation of the clergy as a means towards 
 the renovation of the Church. This was the very 
 fountain of the evil, that the leaders of the blind 
 were themselves blind. The bitter fountain could 
 not give forth sweet waters. But the greatest evil, 
 in the view of the ardent reformer, was the corrup- 
 tion of the monasteries. The greatest and most 
 bitter sorrow of his heart had been aroused by dis- 
 covering that the vices of the outer world had 
 penetrated into the very heart of the "religious 
 life " in the convent. 
 
 From the moment that he was appointed Prior of 
 San Marco he had entertained the purpose of effect- 
 ing that thorough reform which he saw to be of 
 absolute necessity. Eemoved for a season from the 
 daily care of the society whose head he was, he had 
 probably more leisure to meditate on its general 
 condition, circumstances, and needs. If the monks 
 and friars were to be reformed — if he proclaimed the 
 
140 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 necessity of this reform, how could he abstain from 
 the endeavour to begin this reformation at home? 
 If anything were needed to deepen his convictions 
 and strengthen his resolves, he found it in all that 
 he heard of the city while he was absent from it, in 
 all that he saw when he returned. 
 
 In a sermon which he preached in the Advent of 
 1493, he speaks of the frightful corruption prevail- 
 ing among the clergy. After giving one example 
 of the evils which he deplores, he exclaims, "All 
 the cities of Italy are full of these horrors. If you 
 knew all that I know! things disgusting! things 
 horrible ! you would shudder. When I think of all 
 this — of the life which is led by the priests, I cannot 
 restrain my tears. How do they protect their sheep? 
 I will tell you in a word, without lacking respect for 
 those who are good. The evil pastors have made 
 themselves mere instruments for leading the sheep 
 into the jaws of the wolf." Again he exclaims, " O 
 prelates, 0 supports of the Church, look upon that 
 priest who goes tricked out witli his finery and his 
 perfumes. Go to his house, and you will find his 
 table loaded with plate, like the tables of the great ; 
 the rooms adorned with carpets, with hangings, with 
 cushions. They have so many dogs, so many mules, 
 so many horses, so many ornaments, so much silk, 
 80 many servants ! Can you believe that these fine 
 gentlemen will open for you the Church of God ? 
 Their cupidity is insatiable. Look ! in the churches 
 everything is done for money. The bells are rung 
 from covetousness; they resound only ^ money, bread. 
 
MONASTIC EEFORM. 
 
 141 
 
 and candles.' The priests go into the choir to get 
 money ; to vespers, to the other oiBfices, because at 
 these the money is distributed. See if they are at 
 matins ! No ; because there is no distribution then. 
 They sell benefices, they sell the sacraments, they 
 sell the marriage-mass, they do everything from 
 covetousness ! " There are some charges in the 
 sermon which are too gross to be repeated here. 
 Yet these charges were undoubtedly true, and it 
 was needful that they should be publicly made by 
 one who was resolved upon the work of reform. 
 
 The difficulty in the way of effecting a thorough 
 reform in his own convent arose in great measure 
 from the fact that the Tuscan congregation of the 
 Dominican order was united with the Lombard, and 
 subject to the Father Provincial of Lombardy. In 
 consequence of this state of things, it was possible 
 for the enemies of Savonarola, at any time, by means 
 of the authorities of Lombardy or of Rome to procure 
 at least his temporary removal from Florence. It 
 had not always been so. Previously to the great 
 plague which had devastated Tuscany, the two con- 
 gregations had been separate; and they had been 
 united, in consequence of the desolation of the con- 
 vents caused by that calamity, in the year 1448. 
 Now that the numbers of the religious had greatly 
 increased, there ought to be no difficulty in separating 
 them again; and Savonarola set himself, with all 
 ;his energies, to restore the independence of the 
 Tuscan congregation. The Frate on this occasion 
 showed that he was not only a great speaker, but an 
 
142 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 able doer ; as great in organization and administra- 
 tion as in the power of influencing men by bis 
 spoken words. By tbe vigour with which he took 
 his measures he prevented opposition to his schema 
 being organized by his enemies. 
 
 It is indeed wonderful that Piero de' Medici should 
 not have perceived that a most heavy blow was 
 being aimed at his own authority, and that his great 
 adversary was achieving an independence which was 
 sure to be used against himself. It was only in this 
 very year that Piero had used for his own purposes 
 the power possessed by the Father Provincial, so as 
 to have Savonarola removed during Lent to Bologna. 
 It was another proof of his dissimilarity to his father 
 that he allowed himself to be persuaded into sup- 
 porting the request which Savonarola was now 
 making. He went so far as to instruct the Floren- 
 tine ambassador at Kome to give it his warmest 
 support, and to solicit the influence of the Cardinal 
 of Naples on the same side.* Savonarola was not 
 contented with forwarding his petition and obtaining 
 this powerful support to his cause. He immediately 
 sent to Eome two of the members of the brother- 
 hood of S. Mark, Fra Alessandro Kinuccini, a 
 member of one of the principal families of Florence, 
 and Fra Domenico da Pescia, his first disciple. 
 This sincere and constant friend of Savonarola was 
 
 * Villari has remarked that his advocacy of the cause of the 
 Dominicans was the more astonishing, as he had always favoured 
 their rivals, the Franciscans. He suggests that he may have been 
 influenced by his dislike to the governor of Lombardy, Ludovico 
 «IlMoro» 
 
MONASTIC EEFORM. 
 
 143 
 
 the most remarkable of all liis fellow-workers. 
 Ardent and daring, he was a man of intense simpli- 
 city, of deep and living faith, and of absolute and 
 entire devotion to his superior. Of the divinity of 
 his master's mission he never seems to have enter- 
 tained even a momentary doubt. 
 
 It was no easy matter to obtain their request. 
 The Lombards, powerfully aided by Ludovico Sforza, 
 made the most strenuous opposition to the separa- 
 tion; so that the friends of Savonarola wrote and 
 told him that they had no hope of succeeding. 
 " Do not doubt," was his answer ; " be brave, and you 
 will have the victory : ' the Lord . . . maketh the 
 devices of the people to be of none effect, and casteth 
 out the counsels of princes.'" And, in fact, the 
 victory was obtained by what would be called a 
 strange accident, which must have appeared nothing 
 short of a providential interposition. It was obtained 
 at a moment when hope was at its lowest ebb. 
 
 On the 22nd of May, 1493, the Pope dismissed 
 the Consistory, in consequence of fatigue, declaring 
 that he would transact no more business on that 
 day. The Cardinal of Naples alone remained with 
 him ; and, believing that he had found a moment 
 suitable for urging the claims of the Tuscans, 
 brought forth the brief authorizing the separation, 
 and entreated the Pope to confirm it. After 
 some pleasantries and altercation on the subject, 
 the Cardinal in play snatched the Pope's ring 
 from his finger and sealed the brief. Hardly had 
 this been accomplished when the most urgent re- 
 
144 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 monstrances arrived from the Lombards, entreating 
 the Pope to refuse his consent to the measure. But 
 the Pope had heard enough of the matter, and 
 refused to reopen it. "That which is done, is done," 
 he made answer ; and the Tuscan congregation was 
 now independent of Lombardy. Even the entreaties 
 of Piero himself, who began too late to perceive the 
 mistake he had committed, were unavailing. 
 
 The Pope's sanction had not come a moment too 
 soon. The Father Provincial, foreseeing the possi- 
 bility of defeat, had sent an order to Savonarola and 
 his principal adherents to quit San Marco instantly, 
 and to disperse themselves among certain other 
 convents, subject to his jurisdiction, which he 
 named. It was intended that these instructions 
 should reach S. Mark's before the papal brief 
 arrived; and, in that case, there would have been 
 an end to all the prior's plans of reform. Again he 
 was favoured by a happy circumstance, which was 
 also naturally attributed to the interposition of 
 Divine Providence. The order had been addressed 
 to the Superior of the convent of Fiesole, to be 
 communicated to those concerned. Through his 
 absence from home, and the neglect of his represen- 
 tatives, it did not reach S. Mark's for more than a 
 week afterwards. It was then of no avail, as the 
 deed of separation had arrived. It has been sug- 
 gested that, even if it came in time, Savonarola may 
 have delayed opening it, suspecting its contents. 
 This is not impossible ; but it seems likely that it 
 actually arrived after the papal brief. 
 
MONASTIC EEFORM. 
 
 145 
 
 It was now time to begin the work of reorganiza- 
 tion and reform. Savonarola was at once elected 
 anew as Prior of S. IMark's, and a number of con- 
 vents asked to be admitted into the new congrega- 
 tion. First among them was S. Domenico of 
 Fiesole ; and this, after intervals shorter or longer, 
 was followed by many others, some of them adhering 
 spontaneously, others constrained by a little gentle 
 pressure. To make the new congregation complete, 
 the prior convoked a union of the various bodies, to 
 arrange their rules and to elect a Superior. At this 
 meeting he was unanimously chosen Vicar-General ; 
 and he held this new dignity with his accustomed 
 gentleness and humility to the end of his life. 
 
 From what we have read of Savonarola's own 
 character and habits, and of the indignation with 
 which he spoke of the luxury and self-indulgence of 
 the clergy, we are prepared to hear that this was 
 the first object of his attack, and the first subject of 
 reform. The Dominicans had been a mendicant 
 order; but there seems to have been always some 
 uncertainty as to the extent to which they might 
 become possessed of property. Savonarola himself 
 appears to have wavered on the subject ; but on one 
 point he had no doubt whatever. He was convinced 
 that the Church ought to possess no more than was 
 actually necessary. We have seen how he acted on 
 this conviction, even with respect to the giving of 
 alms. It was not fitting that the profuse bounty 
 of Lorenzo should be distributed by the members 
 of his society ; he made it over to the Buon uomini 
 
 I. L 
 
146 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of San Martino. But there were great difficulties in 
 giving full expression to his convictions with resj)ect 
 to the Yow of Poverty, especially having regard to 
 the past history of S. Mark's. 
 
 At one time he had formed the plan of retiring to 
 1 solitary mountain with his brethren, and there 
 living a life of solitude and poverty. He had even 
 chosen Monte Cane, near Careggi, for that purpose ; 
 but, however this scheme might have commended 
 itself to his tastes, it was at once apparent that it 
 must defeat all his larger designs for the renovation 
 of the Church. It is said that he gave way to the 
 remonstrances of the younger friars, and to objec- 
 tions arising from the unhealthy character of the 
 locality; but there were doubtless graver reasons 
 for his change of purpose. 
 
 Upon the walls of S. Mark's were written the 
 last terrible words of S. Dominic, in which he 
 denounced those who should introduce among his 
 disciples the holding of property. " Have charity, 
 preserve humility, possess voluntary poverty : may 
 my malediction and that of God fall upon him who 
 shall bring possessions into this order." The words 
 still stood written upon the cloister walls ; but they 
 had been disregarded since the days of Sant' 
 Antonino. By a new rule, the convent had been 
 declared capable of holding property ; and since that 
 time had become very wealthy. Savonarola deter- 
 mined to return to the original constitution. He 
 began by selling all the property of the society, and 
 thus cut off at once its too abundant supplies. 
 
^rOXASTIC REFOEir. 
 
 147 
 
 Hence it became necessary, in other ways, to provide 
 for their needs. 
 
 As a first measure for reducing the expenditure, 
 he required the friars to wear less costly clothing ; 
 he made their cells simpler and less ornate ; he 
 forbade them to possess illuminated books, gold and 
 silver crucifixes, and the like. But his reforms on 
 the positive side were no less important. He 
 designed that they should live by the labours of 
 their own hands, and so introduced the study of 
 painting and sculpture, and the art of writing and 
 illuminating manuscripts. These occupations were 
 assigned to the lay brethren, and to those of the 
 clerical brethren who were less advanced in the 
 spiritual life ; while the cure of souls, the hearing 
 of confessions, and preaching were reserved for the 
 more advanced. 
 
 He was peculiarly anxious to raise the standard of 
 education in his convent ; and more particularly of 
 the education that would fit the brethren for being 
 able dispensers of the word of God. For this reason 
 he made prominent three subjects of study : Theo- 
 logy, dogmatic and controversial ; morals and the 
 canons ; and especially the study of Holy Scripture. 
 To these he added a subject which at the time was 
 even less common, the study of Oriental languages. 
 
 The difficulty of carrying out changes and reforms 
 so sweeping, was greatly lessened by the conviction 
 of the Superior's sincerity and earnestness, produced 
 by his own manner of life. He imposed no restraints 
 ■upon others which he had not for long willingly 
 
148 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 accepted himself; he prescribed no rules of life 
 which he had not already more powerfully recom- 
 mended by his own obedience; and for a time at 
 least, it seemed that the whole convent had caught 
 his enthusiasm and become partakers of his ascetic 
 spirit. And this enthusiasm not only gave a power- 
 ful stimulus to the studies, the labours, and the 
 devotions of the friars ; it spread beyond the walls 
 of the convent, until men of the noblest families of 
 Florence came forward and prayed to be admitted 
 into the number of the brethren. A w^hole convent 
 offered to change its rules for those of S. Mark, and 
 to become incorporated into the society presided over 
 by Fra Girolamo. The terms of the papal brief had 
 given no such authority to Savonarola ; and he 
 declined their application, resolved to give no 
 occasion to his enemies to bring charges against 
 him of overstepping his own province and powers. 
 Indeed, ho had difficulties enough with the houses 
 belonging to his own order ; some of them disliking 
 the separation from Lombardy, others probably 
 shrinking from the more stringent discipline to 
 which they were being subjected. 
 
 His own labours were manifold. He was con- 
 stantly consulted by those who needed guidance in 
 their perplexities. He gave himself only four hours 
 of sleep — so much time was of necessity consumed in 
 the work of governing, in carrying on an extensive 
 correspondence, in prayer and meditation, in the 
 study of the Scriptures, in the preparation of his 
 sermons. His life was the most simple of all ; and 
 
MONASTIC REFOEM. 
 
 149 
 
 he shrank from no occupation and from the per- 
 formance of no duty or service in the convent, 
 however menial, which he imposed upon others. 
 
 Burlamacchi gives a striking account of the 
 conventual life of this period at S. Mark's. " After 
 dinner," he says, " they took a moment's repose ; then 
 they gathered cheerfully around the father, who 
 explained to them some passage of the divine Scrip- 
 tures. Then they took a short walk, and reclined 
 for a time in the shade while the father brought 
 some passage from the sacred books before them, as 
 a subject of meditation. Then he made them sing 
 a hymn in honour of our Lord, or took from the lives 
 of the saints a theme for discourse. Sometimes he 
 would invite them to dance, and accompany them with 
 his voice. ... In the evening they often chanted 
 psalms and hymns with great fervour. They would 
 attire a young novice so as to represent the child 
 Jesus; and sitting around him, they would all give 
 him their hearts, and ask some favour of him for 
 themselves or others." He was a father in the 
 midst of a loving and trusting family, or perhaps 
 rather an elder brother whom all reverenced and 
 loved. He lived among them as one who expected 
 death to come to him suddenly and by violence ; but 
 this never disturbed his serenity or cheerfulness. 
 
 It was with something of increased dignity and 
 authority that Savonarola returned to his work of 
 preaching. He was no longer liable to be removed 
 from his post at the will of the Lombard Provincial. 
 He was now himself the head of the Tuscan congre- 
 
150 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 gation, with a reputation for truthfulness, courage, 
 and personal holiness which had been steadily 
 increasing. But his theme was still the same : the 
 ruin of the Church, the dissolute lives of the clergy, 
 the corruption of the rulers in Church and State, 
 the approaching scourge of God which was to chastise 
 the evils of the age. 
 
 It was soo^i after his conventual reforms, in the 
 Advent of 1493,* that he preached his sermons on 
 the psalm Quam tonus ('* Truly God is loving unto 
 Israel," Ps. Ixxiii.), which are considered to be theo- 
 logically the best of his discourses.f They are dis- 
 tinguished by a more careful diction — probably they 
 are better reported than some of his other courses, — 
 by considerable argumentative force, and by the 
 strongest assertion of the doctrine of divine grace. 
 *• Let all paradise come here," he exclaims, " let the 
 angels come, let the prophets and patriarchs come, 
 let the martyrs come, let the doctors and all the 
 saints come, one by one, that I may dispute with 
 them: come all the elect of God, that I may 
 dispute with you. Say the truth, ^Give glory to 
 God,' — confess the truth, if you have the glory, 
 if you are happy and blessed by your own merits 
 and by your own strength, or by divine goodness. 
 Come here, you especially who have been immersed 
 in sins : tell me, Peter, tell me, 0 Magdalene, why 
 are you in Paradise? You certainly sinned like 
 
 * Villari has 1494, evidently a misprint. 
 
 t They have been republished (Prato, 1846), together with his 
 sermons on the first Epistle of S. John, and can still be bonght. 
 
MONASTIC EEFORM. 
 
 151 
 
 us. Thou, Peter, who didst confess the Son of 
 God, who didst converse with Him, heardest Him 
 preach, sawest His miracles, and more, who alone 
 with two other disciples sawest Him transfigured 
 upon Mount Tabor, and heardest the Father's 
 voice ; and nevertheless, at the words of a mere 
 woman, didst deny Him three times, and yet wast 
 restored to grace and made head of the Church, 
 and now possessest heavenly blessedness; whence 
 hast thou obtained so great good ? Thou wilt say, 
 perhaps, because thou didst return in heart — because 
 thou didst begin to weep bitterly ? Yes, 0 Peter, 
 thanks to the divine goodness which looked upon thee, 
 as the Evangelist says : * the Lord turned and looked 
 upon Peter ; and Peter went out and wept bitterly.' 
 Thou didst not weep until the Lord looked upon 
 thee ; thou didst not return in heart until the Lord 
 touched thy heart. Confess then, Peter, that it is 
 not by thy merits, but by the goodness of God, that 
 thou hast obtained such blessings." 
 
 Such language seems to have been understood by 
 some of Savonarola's biographers, as indicating a 
 tendency to Protestantism ; but this passage alone, 
 with its reference to S. Peter, might show that he 
 was in no respect at variance with the doctrines of 
 the Church. There was, of course, a sense in which 
 he was a forerunner of the Keformation, inasmuch 
 as he strenuously opposed the tyranny and de- 
 nounced the corruptions of the Papacy ; but there 
 is no ground for supposing that he had any thought 
 of protesting against the accepted teaching of his 
 
152 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 age. Kerker's language is liardly too strong when 
 lie says : * " When Meier and others find in his 
 expressions relative to penitence and indulgence, 
 something which anticipates the Reformation of the 
 sixteenth century, they prove that they are not ac- 
 quainted with the Catholic doctrine on this subject." 
 So, the expressions on the subject of divine grace, 
 in the passage quoted, are simply the echoes of the 
 language of Augustine, the greatest father of the 
 Latin Church. 
 
 Savonarola's doctrine of grace did not prevent J^is 
 holding firmly the freedom of man, and the necessity 
 of good works. " If any one should ask," he says, 
 "why the will is free, we reply, because it is the 
 will." And he adds that justification, although it 
 be the act of God, needs the concurrence of man. 
 " Wilt thou, my brother, receive the love of Jesus 
 Christ ? See that thou consent to the divine voice 
 which calls thee. The Lord calls thee every day ; 
 do thou also something." Both in theory and in 
 practice, Savonarola was a worker, and held and 
 displayed a deep faith in the power of work. His 
 welliknown motto,t adopted in youth, recorded by 
 all his biographers, and repeatedly used in his 
 sermons, indicates the spirit of his life. " A man," 
 he says, "knows as much as he works" (Tanto sa 
 ciascuno quanta opera). This theory was not in his 
 mind at variance with his sense of entire depend- 
 ence upon the grace of God, any more than it was 
 
 * Wetzer and Welte's Kirchenlezicon, art. Savonarola. 
 t See p. 128. 
 
MONASTIC REFORM. 
 
 153 
 
 in the mind of S. Paul, or of Him who was Master 
 of both. 
 
 In closest connection with the assertion of the 
 doctrines of grace was his denunciation of the 
 state of the clergy — the paganism of their belief, 
 and the unchristian character of their lives. " They 
 speak against pride and ambition," he said, "but 
 they are immersed in it up to the eyes. They 
 preach chastity, but they keep concubines. They 
 recommend fasting, but they live luxuriously. It 
 is the Pharisaic spirit come to life in the rulers of 
 Christ's Church. They love greetings in the market- 
 place, and to be called masters and rabbis; they 
 make broad their phylacteries. They do all to be 
 seen of men. 
 
 It was about this time that he made the often 
 quoted comparison between the priests and the 
 chalices of the early and the later days of the 
 Church. Our Church, he says, has many beauti- 
 ful ceremonies and appointments, candlesticks of 
 gold and silver, and as many chalices as a potentate. 
 "You see great prelates, with mitres of gold and 
 precious stones on their heads, and a pastoral staff 
 of silver ; you see them at the altar with splendid 
 chasubles and embroidered copes, singing those vespers 
 and those fine masses, with so many ceremonies, with 
 so many organs and singers that you are stupefied. 
 . . . And people say that divine worship was never 
 properly celebrated before, and that the early 
 prelates were nothing when compared with these 
 modern ones. True, they had not then so many 
 
154 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 gold mitres, nor so many clialices ; and the few that 
 they had they parted with of necessity for the relief 
 of the poor. . . . But do you know what I have to 
 say to you on this ? In the primitive Church there 
 were chalices of wood and prelates of gold : in these 
 days the Church has golden chalices and wooden 
 prelates ! " He spares the princes no more than the 
 prelates. Naturally enough, they were still worse ; 
 and his hearers did not need to go beyond their own 
 city for illustrations of his words. The conflict 
 between himself and the tyranny of the age was 
 ever thickening. 
 
 In the Lent of 1494, he resumed the exposition 
 of the history of the flood, his sermons On the Arh 
 of Noah, which he had commenced in 1490, and then 
 discontinued. It is thought that the report of these 
 sermons, which we possess in Latin, is a very incom- 
 plete and imperfect representation of those which 
 were actually delivered. It is, at least, certain that 
 these sermons produced the greatest impression upon 
 those who heard them. They were intended to com- 
 plete the series commenced in Advent, which dealt 
 principally with the sins of Italy and the impending 
 chastisement. In the Lent series he proceeds to 
 speak of the ark of safety, in which the faithful may 
 escape from the coming deluge. He carried them 
 on to the end of Lent ; and on Easter Day he spoke 
 of the completion of the ark, of the readiness of all 
 things for the entrance of the people of God. The 
 interest manifested in these discourses was pro- 
 digious. The cathedral was crowded with eager 
 
MONASTIC REFORM. 
 
 155 
 
 listeners. Savonarola was becoming more and more 
 the mind, the conscience, the will of Florence. 
 
 The whole course of sermons had not completed 
 the exposition of this one chapter of Genesis ; and 
 Savonarola resumed the subject in the month of 
 September, when he prepared to preach thirteen 
 additional sermons by way of conclusion.* The 
 third of these sermons, on the 17th verse of the chapter 
 which speaks of the deluge, fell on the 21st of Sep- 
 tember. It was a day and a sermon never to be 
 forgotten by the preacher or his hearers. The 
 cathedral was crowded, and the multitudes assem- 
 bled had to wait for a long time before the preacher 
 appeared. He ascended the pulpit, labouring under 
 the strongest emotion, which was visible to the audi- 
 ence. Gazing across the sea of human faces, he 
 gave out the words of his text in a voice of awful 
 solemnity: Ecce ego adducam aquas suioer terram 
 (" And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters 
 upon the earth "J. The words and the tone struck 
 terror into every heart. Pico della Mirandola, who 
 was present, relates that a shudder ran through 
 his whole frame, and his hair seemed to stand on 
 end; and Savonarola declares that he was himself 
 not less moved than his hearers. The cause of 
 this unusual emotion was not inadequate. The 
 French had entered Italy, and the news had just 
 arrived that their armies were descending the Alps. 
 The event which Savonarola had expected and pre- 
 
 * These sermons are, in the Venetian edition already mentioned^ 
 referred erroneously to the Advent of 1493. 
 
156 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 dieted had now eome to pass ; and men turned to tlie 
 prophet for guidance in their perplexities. It was 
 a great crisis in his history. The friar of Bologna, 
 the Prior of S. Marco, the preacher of Florence, was 
 cow to become the statesman. 
 
( 1-57 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE FRENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 The liistorian Gibbon speaks of the " expedition of 
 Charles VIII. into Italy," as *''an event which 
 changed the face of Europe ; " * and it certainly 
 was an event which entailed upon Italy, imme- 
 diately and remotely, the most serious conse- 
 quences. The gravity of the circumstances was 
 felt by most of the rulers and public men of Italy ; 
 but few of those who were most deeply interested 
 in it could have dreamt of its far-reaching and 
 enduring effects. 
 
 It has been charged against Savonarola that he 
 showed a lack of patriotism in encouraging the 
 invasion of Italy by a foreign army ; but a judge- 
 ment of this kind implies a forgetfulness both of 
 the prevalent ideas of the period, and of the part 
 which the great Dominican actually took in the 
 
 * " Critical researches concerning the title of Charles VIII. to 
 the crown of Naples ; " in Misc. Worls, vol. iii. p. 206. See also 
 Philippe de Comines, L. vii. c. i., who treats the claims of hia 
 master with almost undisguised contempt. 
 
158 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 transactions of his times. The idea of intervention 
 was one which was perfectly familiar and natural 
 in that age. Independent States, as we understand 
 the word, were very few. The republics of Italy 
 were, in theory at least, dependent upon the Empire: 
 moreover, they hardly ever went to war without 
 allies. In the case of international disputes, leading 
 to war, there was generally a confederation of one 
 set of States against another: there was also fre- 
 quently an appeal to a Power external to the con- 
 tending parties. 
 
 The natural and, in theory, the rightful superior 
 of the Italian States, to whom all their disputes 
 ought to have been referred, was the Emperor. But 
 the Empire had long ceased to be more than a name 
 to Italy, and any appeal to the German Caesar 
 would have been valueless. Besides, France had 
 been the old ally of Florence, and was one with 
 the republic in its Guelfic policy. The imperial 
 interests were represented by the Ghibelline party. 
 To the contemporaries of Savonarola there was 
 nothing disloyal or unnatural in the desire for an 
 alliance with France. 
 
 It is true that Savonarola hailed with satisfaction 
 the French invasion of Italy, and saluted Charles 
 VIII. as the " New Cyrus ; " but it was because he 
 believed that Italy needed to be scourged before 
 it could be regenerated, and because he saw in the 
 French king the instrument of God for effecting 
 this purpose. It is true, also, that King Charles 
 referred to the prophecies of Savonarola as giving 
 
THE FEENCH ITALY. 
 
 159 
 
 a sanction to liis enterprise; but there were others 
 besides himself who thought they saw the hand of 
 God guiding the expedition, and it is quite certain 
 that Savonarola's words formed a very slight pro- 
 portion of the complex influences by which he was 
 induced to lead his army into Italy. 
 
 Charles himself was a man with little capacity 
 for such an undertaking. He must have been of 
 a kindly disposition and of pleasant manners, other- 
 wise he could hardly have been surnamed " The 
 Affable," or have been so deeply regretted by his 
 family when he died. He was, says De Comines, so 
 good, so kindly, "that it is not possible to see a 
 better creature." But he was most insignificant in 
 appearance, being short of stature, and very feeble 
 in body ; and his mental powers were of the most 
 slender character, while his education had been 
 almost entirely neglected. " But for the power and 
 dignity of his eyes," says Guicciardini,* " he would 
 have been terribly ugly." As regards attainments, 
 it is said that he scarcely knew the letters of the 
 alphabet. But he had, notwithstanding, inherited 
 the ambitious sentiments of his father, the crafty 
 and resolute Louis XI.; and, having consolidated the 
 French kingdom by the union of the great Province 
 of Brittany, through his marriage with the Duchess 
 Anne, he began to turn his eyes eastwards, and dreamt 
 of rivalling the fame of S. Louis by leading another 
 
 * D' aspetto (so tu lievi il vigore et la degnita, degli ccchi) 
 bruttissimo, e I'altre membro proportionate in mode, chc e' pareva 
 quasi piu simile al mostro, cbe a huomo."— Jsiona d' Italia, L. i. 
 
160 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 crusade against the Turks. As a first step, he 
 undertook to vindicate his supposed rights to the 
 crown of Naples. 
 
 Those rights hardly deserve investigation at our 
 hands. There are few questions more difficult ta 
 decide than the comparative claims of the houses of 
 Arragon and Anjou to the kingdom of Naples ; and it 
 would be impossible to decide the questions on prin- 
 ciples which are now generally recognized. The law 
 of succession was at that time very vague and uncer- 
 tain. In certain cases the right of a sovereign to 
 nominate his successor, or to decide between two 
 claimants, was acknowledged. The stain of illegiti- 
 macy was not in all cases regarded as a bar to 
 inheritance. All these questions come up in the 
 discussion of the subject. The French claim was 
 certainly very doubtful. If the rights of the house 
 of Arragon were not absolute, they had at least sixty 
 years of possession, and the consent of their subjects. 
 On the other hand, the tyranny of Ferdinand, the 
 ruling sovereign, and his son Alfonso, had stirred 
 up rebellion among his people, and many of them 
 joined in urging the French king to press his 
 claims. 
 
 The actual undertaking was brought about in a 
 strange manner. The daughter of Ferdinand was 
 married to Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the lawful Duke 
 of Milan, whose inheritance had been seized by his 
 uncle Ludovico, known, from his dark complexion, 
 as " The Moor " {II Moro). Ferdinand was incited 
 by his daughter to assert the rights of her husband 
 
THE FKEXCH IX ITALY. I6II 
 
 who was kept in confinement by his uncle. Ludo- 
 vico, seeing a league in process of formation against 
 him, urged Charles of France to assert his claims 
 to the crown of ^N^aples, promising him assistance 
 on his descent upon Italy. The scheme at first 
 appeared so utterly chimerical that there was 
 hardly a Frenchman who could be found to advise 
 the king to undertake it. Only two of the king's 
 counsellors, both of them men of no consideration, 
 were in favoiu- of the enterprise, and one of these 
 speedily changed his mind. So that we may con- 
 clude," says De Comines, " that this whole expedi- 
 tion, both going and coming, was conducted purely 
 by God ; for the wisdom of the contrivers of this 
 scheme contributed but little."* 
 
 The condition of Italy was at this time the most 
 tranquil and prosperous.! Guicciardini, in begin- 
 ning his history, pauses before proceeding to narrate 
 the calamities which befell his country, and looks 
 back upon the wealth and glory which excited the 
 admu'ation, and, alas ! also the cupidity of the 
 foreigner. He speaks with enthusiasm of those 
 great republics then at the summit of their power ; 
 of their numerous inhabitants, of their beauty, of 
 the splendour of their towns, of their proud inde- 
 pendence, of the magnificence of their princes, 
 rivalling that of the greatest sovereigns. Italy was 
 in truth the most civilized country in Europe, and 
 
 , * Memoires, L. vii. c. i. 
 
 t Guicciardini, Lib. i. c. i. Cliristophe: Paparite pendant lo 
 jgme. siede, Liv. xv. 
 
 I. M 
 
162 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 the most advanced in all that constitutes real pro- 
 gress : in liberty, in the development of industry, in 
 literature and arts, in wealth. The Italians were 
 not only the teachers of learning, of science, of art ; 
 they were the bankers of the kings of the earth. 
 These potentates were frequently unable to deter- 
 mine whether they were in a position to go to war, 
 until they had first ascertained whether they could 
 obtain a loan from the bankers of Venice, of Genoa, 
 or of Florence. If this prosperity was degenerating 
 into luxury, if the moral condition of the country 
 was becoming worse and worse, if faith and virtue 
 were dying out in the hearts of the people and their 
 teachers, these seeds of evil had not yet brought 
 forth all their corrupt fruits. In one respect they 
 were inferior to the other nations of Europe — they 
 had no soldiers. The military art was almost un- 
 known. Battles are reported to have been fought 
 by multitudes of men, in which hardly a combatant 
 perished.* The French army, on the contrary, if 
 partly composed of inferior materials, had a large 
 number of trained and experienced soldiers. Con- 
 sequently, when they entered Italy, they met with 
 no serious opposition. Moreover, if the governments 
 of Italy regarded the invasion of their country with 
 apprehension and aversion, the people at large were 
 for the most part on the side of the French, and 
 welcomed their arrival. 
 
 * Machiavelli says that frequently two armies were engaged for 
 hours without a man perishing, except those who fell and were 
 trodden to death by the horses ! 
 
THE FRENCH IN" ITALY. 
 
 163 
 
 There was indeed no effective opposition offered 
 to their progress. The Pope, after joining with 
 Ludovico il Moro in inviting the invasion, had 
 turned round and sided with the iNTeapolitans ; but 
 he was not prepared to take action. Piero de' Medici 
 was the devoted friend of the house of Arragon ; but 
 the city of Florence was equally devoted to the 
 French, and the most powerful voice among them 
 only expressed the sentiments of the populace when 
 it welcomed the coming of Charles. Venice was 
 neutral, Milan was with them, Naples was almost 
 in revolution. Ferdinand, troubled and anxious, 
 and consumed with remorse, had died in abject 
 misery at the beginning of this year (January 25, 
 1494). His son AKonso, who succeeded him, prepared 
 as best he could to meet the approaching invaders. 
 
 Even at the last moment the French king hesi- 
 tated and drew back from the perilous enterprise, 
 when he received new encouragement from an un- 
 expected quarter. At Lyons he was joined by the 
 resolute Giuliano della Kovere, Cardinal of San 
 Pietro in Vincola, well known in future history as 
 Julius II. He was one of the few cardinals who 
 could not be bribed to vote for the election of 
 Kodrigo Borgia to the Papacy ; and when this man 
 ascended the throne under the name of Alexander 
 VI., the cardinal never laid aside the bitter enmity 
 and contempt with which he regarded the powerful 
 but abandoned Pontiff, whom he pronounced to be a 
 
 miscreant and a heretic." * Eesolute in his deter- 
 
 * Marram ed eretico. 
 
164 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 mination to oppose in every possible way the man 
 whom he regarded as a disgrace to the Church, he 
 not only planned the assembling of a council, in 
 order to obtain his deposition, but he made his 
 escape into France, and used all his influence to 
 induce the king to undertake the invasion of Italy. 
 He told him that, by his procrastination, he was 
 imperilling not only his own honour, but that of his 
 whole people. At last the king put his army in 
 motion, August 12th, 1494, and, crossing the Monte 
 Ginevra, he arrived at Asti, where he was met by 
 Ludovico. 
 
 Here the king, abandoning himself to pleasure 
 and dissipation, brought on an illness by which 
 he was detained at Asti for a month. When he 
 recovered he proceeded to Pavia, where he visited 
 his relative, the dispossessed Gian Galeazzo, 
 kept here by his uncle, and now prostrated by 
 disease. Isabella of Arragon, his wife, made an 
 appeal to Charles, by which he was greatly moved ; 
 so that he promised to use his influence to obtain 
 their release. He was relieved from his embarrass- 
 ment by the news of the young man's death, which 
 shortly afterwards reached him. His uncle was 
 gravely suspected of having slowly poisoned him. 
 
 "While hesitating as to his future route, the king 
 heard of the success of the French arms in other 
 quarters. D'Aubigny, who had been sent with a small 
 army into Komagna, had met with no opposition. 
 The Duke of Orleans had repulsed the Neapolitan 
 fleet at Genoa, and had taken Eapallo, and put the 
 
THE FEENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 165 
 
 garrison to the sword, besides slaying the whole of 
 the inhabitants, including forty sick persons in their 
 beds. The Italians were unaccustomed to such 
 ferocity in war, and the whole country was terror- 
 stricken at the intelligence. The king was further 
 confirmed in his resolution by the arrival of Giovanni 
 and Lorenzo de' Medici, cousins of Piero, who came 
 to tell him that Florence and all Tuscany was on his 
 side. The order was now given to advance. The 
 campaign under the king was conducted with the 
 same savage cruelty which had distinguished the 
 Swiss under the Duke of Orleans. The castle of 
 Fivizzano was taken, and the inhabitants put to the 
 sword. The invaders received their first check 
 when they arrived before the fortress of Sarzana. 
 
 The French and the Florentines had been ancient 
 allies; and King Charles, before undertaking the 
 expedition, had ordered the ambassadors whom he 
 sent into Italy to solicit the friendship of the 
 Medici and their city. He desired them to urge 
 the old friendship existing between the two peoples; 
 to remind the Florentines that Charlemagne had 
 rebuilt their city, and that other French kings had 
 afforded them assistance in their wars. The audacity 
 of these assertions would seem more astonishing, if 
 the fable of the rebuilding of the city had not been 
 received as history at that period, and if we were 
 not somewhat familiar with the ludicrous notion 
 that Charles the Great, a German king, was a 
 Frenchman. The Florentines, however, did not 
 need arguments, good or bad, to make them favour- 
 
166 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 able to the French; and Piero de' Medici was so 
 infatuated with the Neapolitan alliance, and perhaps 
 so doubtful of the reality of the enterprise, that he 
 gave no heed to them. As he would not receive 
 the invaders as friends, they prepared to enter 
 Tuscany as enemies. 
 
 The feeble and irresolute Piero now began to 
 tremble for the result of his alliance with Naples. 
 The rapid advance of the French seemed to paralyse 
 what power of thought and action he possessed. If 
 he had even now taken measures to give effect to 
 his policy, he might have seriously embarrassed the 
 invaders, perhaps have finally checked their ad- 
 vance. While he hesitated, Florence was in con- 
 fusion. The popular feelings here, as elsewhere 
 throughout the cities of Italy, had always been on 
 the side of the French ; and the people were incensed 
 as well as alarmed to think that they must meet as 
 an enemy one whom they regarded as a friend. Piero 
 at first thought of resistance, and sent reinforcements 
 to the garrison of Sarzana ; but suddenly changing 
 his mind, he determined to try the effect of personal 
 negotiation with the king. 
 
 Some years before, when war was being waged 
 between Florence and Naples, his father Lorenzo 
 had conceived the bold project of venturing himself 
 alone into the hands of the King of Naples ; and he 
 had carried out his purpose with so much courage 
 and address, that he had secured honourable terms- 
 for his country. Piero determined to attempt the 
 same experiment with the King of France. Imita- 
 
THE FRENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 167 
 
 tions are not often successful, for the reason perhaps 
 that they ignore the circumstances in which the 
 original example was shown ; but the imitation of a 
 brave and capable man by one who is timid and 
 incapable is almost certainly doomed to failure. 
 
 Accompanied by ambassadors from the republic, 
 he set forth on his journey. On his way he found 
 that his reinforcements had been met and defeated 
 by the French ; but they had attempted in yain to 
 get possession of the fort of Sarzanello. In spite of 
 this failure, which might have been repeated, in 
 spite of the fact that other and still greater obstacles 
 stood in the way of the invaders, and probably fear- 
 ing lest any attempts at resistance on his part should 
 not be supported by his countrymen, he resolved to 
 make every concession which might be demanded 
 of him. Without communicating with the am- 
 bassadors, he at once consented to surrender to the 
 king the three fortresses of Sarzana, Sarzanello, and 
 Pietra Santa, which were immediately given up.' 
 He also promised to pay a subsidy, and to yield up, 
 the fortresses of Pisa and Livorno on condition of. 
 their being restored after the conquest of Naples ; 
 thus giving the French virtual possession of the 
 whole country. The French king might well con- 
 clude that "God was manifestly conducting their 
 enterprise." * 
 
 When the ambassadors returned to Florence and 
 
 * De Comines (Lib. vii. c. 9) says : " If Sarzana had been fur- 
 nished as it ought to have been, the king's army had certainly 
 been ruined in besieging it ; for the country is mountainous and 
 barren, full of snow, and not able to supply us with provisions." 
 
168 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 made known the terms conceded by the unworthy 
 Piero, the wrath of the citizens knew no bounds. It 
 was not only that the conditions were ignominious 
 beyond example, but they had been entered into 
 without authority from the rulers of the State, and 
 without the concurrence of the ambassadors. Even 
 those who had hitherto been supporters of the 
 Medici now openly fell away from them. It was 
 easier, however, to quarrel with the existing state of 
 things than to know how to inaugurate a better. 
 The Florentines had lost the sense of liberty and 
 the sense of power by which it is accompanied. 
 Accustomed to lean upon the family which had now 
 betrayed them, they knew not how to set to work so 
 as to act for themselves. There was only one man 
 in whom general confidence was reposed. They 
 turned to the cathedral, expecting and desiring 
 the guidance of Savonarola. 
 
 It would be well for those who think of the Frato 
 as a wild fanatic, eager for power, burning with 
 hatred against the Medici, and unscrupulous in his 
 denunciation of the enslavers of Florence, to study 
 his conduct at this crisis. One word from him, 
 and the city would have been given up to revolt 
 and confusion. One word from him, and the palace 
 of the Medici and all its treasures would have 
 perished for ever. No one who considers the state 
 of the popular mind, the readiness of the people to 
 follow the guidance of one in whom they confided, 
 and the influence possessed by Savonarola, will 
 doubt the truth of this assertion. 
 
THE FEENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 169 
 
 When the time came to address the anxious and 
 excited multitudes which thronged the Duomo, 
 Savonarola was evidently oppressed by a painful 
 sense of the gravity of the occasion. He felt that a 
 fearful responsibility now devolved upon him, and 
 that a word spoken rashly or imprudently might 
 have terrible consequences. Instead of denouncing 
 the authors of these calamities, he set forth the 
 mercy and patience of God as an example to His 
 people ; and with earnest voice and gesture counselled 
 union and brotherly love. Yet he could not avoid 
 referring to the fulfilment of the predictions which 
 he had so frequently uttered in their ears. " Now,'* 
 he exclaimed, "the sword is come, the prophecies 
 are fulfilled, the scourges have commenced. It is 
 the Lord who guides these armies, O Florence. 
 The time of songs and dances has passed away. It 
 is now time to bewail thy sins with rivers of tears. 
 Thy sins, 0 Florence ; thy sins, 0 Eome ; thy sins, O 
 Italy, are the cause of these stripes. And now 
 repent, give alms, offer prayers, become united. O 
 people, I have been a father to thee ; I have wearied 
 myself all the days of my life to make known to 
 thee the truths of the faith and of holy living, and 
 I have had nothing but tribulations, derision, and 
 reproach. May I have at least the reward of seeing 
 thee do good works ! My people, what else have I 
 desired than to see thee safe, than to see thee 
 united ? Kepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand. . . ." ; Again, turning his speech into prayer, 
 he cries out, " I turn to Thee, my Lord, Who didst 
 
170 
 
 SAVON'AEOLA. 
 
 die for loye of us, and for our sins. Pardon, 0 Lord, 
 pardon the people of Florence, who now desire to be 
 Thine." 
 
 He left the pulpit exhausted by the effort ; but 
 the words which he had uttered were not unavailing. 
 His earnest exhortations to peace and charity and 
 unity so moved the people that they remained 
 quiet ; their passions so kept in check by the hand 
 which was now controlling them that no excesses 
 were committed. 
 
 The helpless condition of dependence into which 
 this great city, once so free, so proud, and so turbu- 
 lent, had fallen became more than ever conspicuous 
 when the leading men of the State assembled to 
 take counsel as to their future action. Notwith- 
 standing the ever-increasing hatred with which the 
 mass of the people regarded the Medici, they shrank 
 from the measures which some of the bolder began 
 to advise. When Luca Corsini rose, without the 
 usual request from the Signoria, and declared that 
 everything had gone wrong with them, and steps 
 must be taken to prevent the ruin with which they 
 were threatened, he was met with astonishment and 
 alarm instead of applause and support. The senti- 
 ment of his hearers so reacted upon himself, that he 
 sat down in confusion, unable to proceed with his 
 address. 
 
 He was followed by a young man named Tanai di 
 Jacopo de' IST erli, who enforced the words that had 
 just been spoken. Yet he, too, began to hesitate as 
 though abashed at his own audacity ; and his father 
 
THE FEEXCH IX ITALY. 
 
 171 
 
 instantly arose and asked that the words of his son 
 might be excused in consideration of his youth. But 
 there was one voice which did not fear to utter the 
 thoughts that were hibouring in many breasts, nor 
 to point out the duty that was now incumbent upon 
 the rulers of the republic. It was the voice of a man 
 who bore a name illustrious in the annals of Florence, 
 Piero di Gino Capponi. 
 
 There was something in the commanding appear- 
 ance of the man, and there was in him a youthful 
 impetuosity which his grey hairs had not tamed, 
 which made the multitude listen with deep attention 
 and respect to the few brief but resolute words 
 which he uttered. "Piero de' Medici," he said, 
 " is no longer capable of guiding the State. The 
 republic must see to itself ; it is time to have done 
 with this government of children. Let ambassadors 
 be sent to King Charles. If they meet Piero, let 
 them not salute him. Let them explain to the 
 king that all the mischief has come from Piero, and 
 that the city is friendly to the French. Let them 
 be men of distinction, who will not fail to receive 
 the king with all courtesy ; but, at the same time, 
 let them call in from the country the commanders 
 with their soldiers, and let them conceal themselves 
 in the convents and other secret places, together 
 with the men-at-arms, and let them hold themselves 
 ready in case of need. So that, while we omit 
 nothing that is right and due towards this * most 
 Christian king,' nor fail to satisfy with money the 
 avaricious nature of the French, we may be able, if 
 
172 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 lie sliould have recourse to acts and proposals which, 
 we cannot endure, to show him our face and our arms. 
 And above all, let us not fail to send along with the 
 other ambassadors Father Girolamo Savonarola, who 
 now possesses the entire affection of the people." 
 
 It wanted only such clear and decided utterances, 
 which did but interpret the confused thoughts 
 now struggling in the minds of the multitude, to 
 decide their action. The ambassadors were elected 
 on the 5th of November, and among them were Cap- 
 poni himself, Nerli, and Savonarola. 
 
 It was the custom of the Frate to make his 
 journeys on foot; so that the other ambassadors 
 departed by themselves, and he followed, accom- 
 panied by two of the brethren of his convent. 
 Before setting out he preached again to the people, 
 and told them that it was God who had heard their 
 prayers and was interposing for their safety.* " He 
 alone has come to the help of this city, when all 
 have abandoned it. . . . Persevere then, 0 people 
 of Florence, persevere in good works, persevere in 
 peace. If thou desire that the Lord persevere in 
 compassion, be thou compassionate towards thy 
 brethren, towards thy friends, towards thine enemies. 
 Otherwise there will fall upon thee the blows which 
 are preparing for the rest of Italy. *I will have 
 mercy,' the Lord is calling to you. Woe to him 
 who does not obey His commands." 
 
 The ambassadors found the king at Lucca, pre- 
 
 * This sermon, like the last, is among the Prediclie sopra Aggeo. 
 .<Villari). 
 
THE FRENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 17S 
 
 paring to depart, and they had their first interview 
 with him in that city. Piero de' Medici remained 
 with him ; but the ambassadors, faithful to the 
 resolutions taken at the advice of Capponi, showed 
 him no respect, and brought him no message from 
 the republic. Apprehensive of danger to his interests 
 in Florence, he did his best to conciliate the king 
 by promising him a sum of 200,000 ducats. In- 
 structing Paolo Orsini, his mother's brother, to get 
 together his soldiers and retainers, and to follow him 
 to Florence, he hastened back to the city, which he 
 reached on the 8th of November. 
 
 The interview between King Charles and the 
 ambassadors at Lucca was short, in consequence of 
 the preparations he w^as making for his departure for 
 Pisa. He received them very graciously, however, and 
 seemed disposed to regard the wishes of the republic 
 with favour. When, however, they followed him to 
 Pisa and were permitted to have a second interview 
 with him, they found he had been so influenced by 
 the representations and promises made by Piero de' 
 Medici, before his departure, that he listened with 
 great coldness to the requests which they preferred 
 on behalf of the State. He would make no promises, 
 but simply said, " he would arrange everything when 
 he was within the great city." The ambassadors 
 were forced to depart with the conviction that the 
 king was anything but favourable to the city. 
 
 The arrival of Savonarola produced a greater im- 
 pression upon the king and his court. Passing 
 through the camp and the multitudes of armed men 
 
174 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Tinmoved, lie came into the presence of King Charles, 
 and proceeded to discharge his commission, which 
 he believed to be derived not so much from the 
 Signoria of Florence as from the King of kings. It 
 was with this feeling, and in a manner and tone 
 indicating this conviction, that he began his address. 
 "0 most Christian king," he said, "thou art an 
 instrument in the hand of the Lord, Who sendeth 
 thee to relieve the evils of Italy (as I have for 
 several years predicted), and chargeth thee to reform 
 the Church, which lies prostrate on the earth. But 
 if thou wilt not be just and merciful ; if thou dost 
 not respect the city of Florence, its women, its 
 citizens, its liberty ; if thou forgettest the work on 
 which the Lord sends thee; then He will choose 
 another to fulfil it, and He will in anger lay His 
 heavy hand upon thee, and will punish thee with 
 terrible scourges. These things I tell thee in the 
 name of the Lord." The king and his nobles 
 listened to Savonarola, as to a prophet sent from God, 
 knowing that he had predicted their invasion of 
 Italy ; and they were evidently far more favourably 
 disposed towards the interests of Florence than they 
 had been before the arrival of the Frate. 
 
 How little dependence, however, was to be placed 
 upon the promises of the French king ; how little 
 capable he was even of understanding the position 
 of affairs in Italy, and his own relation to them, was 
 shown by his conduct before he left Pisa. This 
 city had for long been subject to Florence. In 
 some respects the very greatness of Florence de- 
 
THE FEENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 175 
 
 pended upon its possession of Pisa, inasmuch as it 
 lay between it and the sea. The relationship 
 had never been a kindly one. The readiness to 
 revolt on the one side had led to oppression and 
 tyranny on the other. It was therefore inevitable 
 that Pisa should seek every opportunity of casting 
 off the grievous yoke under which it suffered. Here 
 was a chance which could not be neglected ; and the 
 citizens made the most touching appeals to King 
 Charles to restore their liberty. As De Comines 
 remarks, the king knew very little of the meaning 
 of this appeal ; but he could not help understanding 
 the afflictions of these people, and he replied, " he 
 was willing it should be so; though (to speak 
 truth) " adds his candid minister, " he had no 
 authority to grant it, for the town was not his own, 
 and he was received into it only in friendship, and 
 to relieve him in his great necessities." The Pisans 
 showed their gratitude by pulling down the lion of 
 Florence, and setting up a statue of the king in its 
 place, with the lion under his horse's feet. " When 
 the King of the Komans came to that town," says 
 the same writer, "they served the statue of the 
 King of France as they had served the lion ; for it is 
 the nature of the Italians to side always with the 
 strongest (rather, to use the strongest, as far as 
 they can, for their own ends). But these Pisans 
 were, and still are, so barbarously treated, that they 
 might be excused for what they did." 
 
 Piero de' Medici, as we have heard, arrived in 
 Florence on the 8th of November; and, although 
 
176 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 he was prepared to find a change in the bearing of 
 the authorities towards himself, he must have been 
 surprised at the coldness of the reception which was 
 accorded to him — a coldness which was speedily 
 converted into active opposition. The day after his 
 arrival he presented himself at the palace of the 
 Signoria, with the intention of calling a parliament 
 of the whole people, and having the government of 
 the republic entrusted to himself alone. But the 
 magistrates, warned of his design, received him in 
 the most chilling manner, admitted only a small 
 number of the multitude he had brought with him, 
 and told him to send his people away and not create 
 a tumult in the city. He was so confused by this 
 reception that he could only say he would consider 
 what he should do, and took his departure. 
 
 The next day he determined to assume a more 
 threatening aspect, and he presented himself at the 
 palace, accompanied by a number of armed men. 
 But he was informed that no person could be admitted 
 unless he was without arms ; and he was forced to 
 turn away. He had hardly done so when he was 
 recalled by the influence of Antonio Lorini, the one 
 member of the Signoria who still remained faithful 
 to the Medici. Presuming on this invitation, as a 
 sign that he was still in possession of his former 
 authority, he adopted his old tone of insolent dicta- 
 tion, when Nerli shut the door in his face. The 
 people, who became aware of what was passing, 
 needed no more to let loose their wrath and con- 
 tempt. He was saluted everywhere with hoots and 
 
THE FEEXCH IX ITALY. 
 
 177 
 
 hisses, and showers of stones. The bell of the 
 Signoria now began to ring, and the people rushed, 
 some armed, some unarmed, to the piazza. Hardly- 
 had they begun to assemble in front of the palace 
 when a fresh incident occurred which inflamed their 
 fury. Francesco Yalori, whom we have mentioned 
 as one of the five citizens sent by Lorenzo to Savo- 
 narola, with a view of inducing him to desist from 
 his manner of preaching, had been a devoted friend 
 of the Medici. It would appear, however, that the 
 Prior of S. Mark's had acquired by degrees no 
 slight influence over him, although he had still 
 remained faithful to the ruling family. He was a 
 man of an ardent and generous disposition, and the 
 recent conduct of Piero had utterly alienated him ; 
 so that he now became one of the leaders of the 
 popular party. It was this man who now appeared 
 in the piazza, covered with dust, having ridden all 
 the way from Pisa, where he had left the ambas- 
 sadors after their interview with the king. The 
 excited multitude heard from him, with ever in- 
 creasing rage, that at Lucca the king had shown 
 himself well disposed towards them, but that, in con- 
 sequence of the entreaties and the promises of Piero, 
 he had afterwards received them with great coldness 
 at Pisa. It needed no more to rouse the populace to 
 fury. Eaising the cry of Ahhasso le j^ciUe — " Down 
 with the Balls " * — the rallying word of the Medici, 
 they rushed forth to attack their palace. 
 
 * The cry of the partisans of the Medici was PaUe, PaJle, from 
 the balls in the armorial bearings of the family. 
 
 I. N 
 
178 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 While this was going on the Medici had not been, 
 idle. Believing in the power of their name and 
 their old-established authority, they gathered to- 
 gether their armed retainers and sought to arouse 
 their supporters in the city. But the cry of Falle 
 had lost its power. No one responded to it, and 
 many threatened them from the windows of the 
 houses. The Cardinal Giovanni, son of Lorenzo, 
 afterwards Pope Leo X., was the foremost in defence 
 of his family. But Piero had already consulted for 
 his own safety. Seeing the multitude approaching 
 with Yalori at their head, and learning that his family 
 had been declared rebels, he set out for Bologna, 
 where he received a very cold welcome from 
 Bentivoglio. "I would rather have been cut to 
 pieces," said the haughty aristocrat, "than give 
 up my State " — a boast which was but little verified 
 by his own subsequent conduct. Piero continued 
 his flight until at last he found rest at Venice, the 
 same city in which his great-grandfather Cosimo, 
 but with far greater dignity, had taken refuge, when 
 he was driven away by the conspiracy of the Albizzi. 
 He had hardly arrived at Venice when he received 
 a message from the French king desiring his return 
 to Florence ; but he lacked courage and resolution 
 to take a step which might have changed the whole 
 history of his family and of Florence. 
 
 The cardinal had shown a more resolute spirit; 
 but he too, at last, was forced to make his escape. 
 He did not depart until he had done his best to save 
 the most valuable parts of the splendid collection 
 
THE FPvEXCH IX ITALY. 
 
 179 
 
 of objects of art in the family mansion. It was 
 a remarkable proof of bis own confidence in the 
 brethren of S. Mark, and of the respect in which 
 they were held in Florence, that he committed 
 these treasures to their keeping. 
 
 Florence was thus expecting, in confusion and 
 terror, the approach of the French, when Savonarola 
 returned to announce that the king seemed again 
 better disposed to the people, and to urge them to 
 make preparations to receive him. His counsels 
 were seconded by the efforts of Capponi, who had 
 now become the foremost man in the practical 
 direction of the State. By his advice the houses 
 were stocked with all the munitions of war, and 
 armed men were disposed throughout the city and 
 kept ready in case of need. Six thousand were 
 prepared to come forth at the first stroke of the 
 beU. 
 
 When the advanced-guard of the French army 
 entered Florence, thev could not conceal their 
 astonishment at the splendour of the palaces and 
 the general magnificence of the city. By an acci- 
 dent they were made aware that the conquest of 
 the place was not so simple a matter as they had 
 anticipated. On the 15th of November a rumour 
 had spread abroad that Piero de' 3Iedici was ap- 
 proaching. The bell sounded, the people crowded 
 forth in multitudes clad in armour, and filled the 
 piazza, the palaces were closed, the towers were 
 armed, fortifications began to arise. The falseness 
 of the rumour was speedily discovered, and instantly 
 
180 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 the former calm prevailed. But the impression had 
 been made upon the French, that these people would 
 be difficult to subdue, and the Florentines had 
 shown that they were not unprepared for the last 
 extremity. 
 
 The palace of the Medici had been got ready for 
 the king ; and the magistrates and the leading men 
 of Florence prepared to receive him with a respect- 
 ful welcome. Charles rode at the head of his 
 splendid army ; but his magnificent attire only 
 rendered more conspicuous the ludicrous insignifi- 
 cance of his person. By his side rode the Cardinal 
 of San Pietro in Vincola. The sight of such an army, 
 amounting to about 12,000 men, marching in perfect 
 order, was as striking as it was new to the inhabitants 
 of Florence. They passed over the Ponte Vecchio 
 in the midst of floral decorations and to the sound of 
 music, through the piazza, and so on to the cathe- 
 dral, where they joined with the Signoria in public 
 prayer. The king was then lodged in the palace 
 of the Medici. The whole city was illuminated in 
 honour of their guests, and the next day was spent 
 in feasts. 
 
 At last the time for the negotiations arrived. 
 The representatives of Florence, elected by the 
 Signoria, were Guidantonio Vespucci, Domenico 
 Bonsi, Francesco Yalori, and Piero Capponi. Of 
 the two last names we have already heard. Ves- 
 pucci was considered the most learned of the citizens 
 in law, and Bonsi had distinguished himself as an 
 ambassador. Capponi, who took the lead in the 
 
THE FEENCH IN ITALY. 
 
 181 
 
 interview with the king, had been honoured and 
 trusted by Lorenzo de' Medici, whose senior he w^as 
 by one year ; and had displayed courage and ability 
 in the discharge of the duties entrusted to him by 
 "The Magnificent." Since the death of Lorenzo 
 he had been the man of the State most trusted in 
 every difficult enterprise. He had always had a 
 repugnance to the tyranny of the Medici and a love 
 of popular government, and since the accession of 
 Piero he had been looked upon as one of the leaders 
 of the party opposed to him. He knew the French 
 people well, having been sent as ambassador to 
 their court, and he did not hesitate to declare his 
 opinion that, " When the Italians came face to face 
 with the French, they would cease to have so much 
 fear of them." These convictions were not without 
 their effect in his future dealings with the king. 
 
 Here as elsewhere, Charles habitually acted with- 
 out any fixed principles, according to the impulse 
 of the moment and the influences which were nearest 
 and most powerful at the time. Although Piero had 
 fled, his mother and his wife did not fail to use 
 every argument to induce the king to favour their 
 side; so that he appeared inclined to espouse the 
 cause of the Medici. He assumed an aspect of 
 severity towards the commissioners of the republic ; 
 he put forth the most exorbitant demands as the 
 conditions of peace; he took the attitude of one 
 who was dealing with a conquered city. Finally, he 
 let fall some words in favour of the exiled Piero. 
 This was the signal for grave deliberations on the 
 
1182 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 part of the magistrates, who instantly called together 
 the leading citizens, and apprised them of the 
 threatening danger. Preparations were made for 
 summoning the people together by the sound of 
 the bell, and a spirit of enmity began to spring up 
 between the invaders and the populace. 
 
 At last the king began to moderate his tone. He 
 dropped all reference to the " conquest " of the city : 
 he said nothing more of Piero : he was to take the 
 title, one which had been held by foreign sovereigns 
 in earlier times, of protector of the liberties of the 
 city : he was to retain the fortresses for two years, or 
 for a shorter time, if the war should be concluded 
 sooner. All was arranged except the sum of money 
 he was to receive. On this point the promises of 
 the Medici made him exacting. It was impossible 
 for the Signoria to promise what the city could not 
 pay, and the situation became more and more anxious 
 and irritating. At last the king ordered his Ultima- 
 tum to be read, declaring that he would not recede 
 from it. The commissioners said they were unable 
 to comply with his demands. The king, enraged at 
 their resistance, exclaimed, "Then we will sound 
 our trumpets." Capponi had with difficulty re- 
 strained himself during the negotiations; but the 
 brave, proud spirit -of the Florentine now broke 
 forth. Snatching the Ultimatum from the hands of 
 the secretary, he tore it in pieces, and uttered, with 
 a gesture as impassioned as the king's own, the 
 memorable words — "And we will ring our bells." 
 They were words of which Florence was for ever 
 
THE FEEXCH IN ITALY. 
 
 183 
 
 proud, ivlacliiayelli refers to tliem when he says, in 
 one of his poems, "The noise of arms and horses 
 could not drown the voice of one Capon (Cappon) in 
 the midst of a hundred cocks (Galli)." This coura- 
 geous language had more effect than many entreaties. 
 It was agreed that the Florentines should pay the 
 king 120,000 florins in three instalments, and that 
 Pisa should be surrendered, with the other fortresses, 
 in two years, or sooner, if the war ended before. 
 The conditions of the treaty were sworn to in the 
 cathedral; and the city, if it had lost its first warmth 
 of feeling for the French, gave itself up to festivals 
 and illuminations as at their first entrance. 
 
 All seemed now satisfactorily arranged; but the 
 king showed no disposition to depart. Trade was 
 suspended : French soldiers filled the city : dis- 
 orders of all kinds prevailed ; and the king was in 
 vain entreated to take his leave. In this emergency 
 it was to Savonarola that the citizens again had 
 recourse. The Frate did not hesitate to approach 
 the king, and he effected his purpose in spite of the 
 opposition offered by the noblemen and officers around 
 him, who feared lest his influence with their master 
 should prevent their contemplated plunder of the 
 place. Charles received him with kindness and 
 listened attentively to the few earnest words which 
 he uttered. " Most Christian Prince," said the 
 friar, "thy delay inflicts serious injury upon the 
 city, and upon thine enterprise. Thou art wast- 
 ing time, forgetting the duty which Providence has 
 imposed upon thee, with great hurt to thy spiritual 
 
184 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 safety and thy worldly glory. Listen, therefore, to 
 the voice of the servant of God. Go forth upon thy 
 way without delay. Do not cause the ruin of this 
 city, and excite against thee the wrath of the Lord." 
 
 The part taken by Savonarola in bringing about 
 the departure of the French has been both exagge- 
 rated and denied. It would not be correct to say 
 that he procured the terms of agreement between 
 the republic and the French king. The merit of 
 that arrangement must be conceded to CapponL 
 But it would be equally unjust to overlook the 
 importance of Savonarola's influence in giving effect' 
 to the treaty. Charles was too unscrupulous to care 
 much whether he carried out the stipulations into 
 which he had entered, either in the letter or in the 
 spirit ; and it was undoubtedly owing to Savonarola 
 that he now resolved to go forth out of Florence. 
 He left the city on the 28th of November. Few 
 regrets could have been entertained at the departure 
 of the French. They had behaved with insolence 
 during the eleven days of their sojourn, and had in 
 no wise treated the citizens as friends, but as 
 enemies ; although the resolute enmity of that one 
 city might have ruined their whole enterprise. The 
 palace of the Medici, in which the king had been 
 royally entertained, was left a mere wreck. 
 
 Savonarola had now seen a considerable portion 
 of his predictions fulfilled; and everything was 
 concurring to raise him higher in the public 
 estimation. Not only were his most deadly enemies, 
 the Medici, driven from the city; but in this 
 
THE FEEXCH IN ITALY. 
 
 185. 
 
 very year two of the most attached friends of that 
 family gave, in their last moments, the most con- 
 vincing proof of their entire confidence in Savo- 
 narola. Angelo Poliziano died in September, at the 
 age of forty, and requested that he might be buried 
 in S. Mark's, in the Dominican habit ; and Pico della 
 Mirandola the elder died on November 17th, the 
 very day on which Charles entered Florence, and 
 made the same request. They sleep side by side in 
 the convent church. It may have comforted them, 
 passing away almost in their youth, to ^ think that 
 they would lie near the remains of him who had 
 moved them so powerfully for good. They did not 
 know, nor did Florence herself, what end she wa& 
 preparing for her greatest man. 
 
186 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 EEVOLUTION. 
 
 It is one of tlie miserable consequences of des- 
 potism that it disqualifies a people for the exercise 
 of liberty after they have thrown off the yoke of 
 bondage. It was comparatively easy for the Floren- 
 tines, under the circumstances, to make an end to 
 the tyranny of the Medici : it was a far more diffi- 
 cult matter to recover those habits and sentiments 
 of independence and self-reliance which they had 
 lost during the sixty years of subserviency to that 
 powerful family. When the French had taken their 
 departure, the real difficulties of the city were first 
 clearly apprehended. 
 
 The ordinary method with the Florentines of 
 effecting a change in the manner of government 
 had been the summoning of a Farlamento, or as- 
 sembly of the whole people. This assembly was 
 usually called by the Signoria. At the sound of the 
 bell the people came unarmed into the piazza, and 
 were addressed by the magistrates from the Rin- 
 g'hiera, a platform in front of the Palazzo Yecchio, as 
 
REVOLUTION". 
 
 187 
 
 it is now most commonly called. The first step was 
 the appointment of a Balia* or committee with 
 authority to decide on the government of the State, 
 or on any other weighty matter that might be en- 
 trusted to it. Nothing could seem better adapted 
 to elicit the true feelings of the people, and to give 
 expression to their wishes. Nothing could have 
 been further from the actual results of these assem- 
 blies. They were seldom called until the most 
 careful preparations had been made to secure the 
 ends of those by whom they were summoned. The 
 measures to be adopted had been concocted by the 
 party in possession of power, or desiring to become 
 possessed of it. The names of those who were to 
 be proposed on the dictatorship, for this was the 
 nature of the Balia, were all ready. It was by such 
 means that the Medici and other dominant families 
 had paved the way for the execution of their own 
 ambitious designs. 
 
 The Florentines had ample experience of the 
 unreality and mischievousness of these assemblies, 
 but they knew of no other course to be taken in 
 the reconstruction of their government. The bell 
 was sounded according to ancient usage, and the 
 people, headed by their Gonfalonieri, proceeded to 
 the piazza. The magistrates proposed to them the 
 election of commissioners, to remain in power for 
 one year, and during that time to have authority 
 to elect the Signoria and all the principal magis- 
 
 * The word means power or authority, and was applied to the 
 committee entrusted with authority. 
 
188 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 trates and to choose a Gonfaloniere di giustizia from 
 their number. The proposition was accepted by the 
 people with every demonstration of joy. 
 
 When the Medici came into power, they pre- 
 served all the ancient forms of republican liberty. 
 Finding that it was easier to reduce the authority 
 of the old institutions to a shadow, than to abolish 
 them, both Cosimo and Lorenzo had professed to 
 carry on the government by means of' the con- 
 stituted bodies — the Signoria, the College, the Ten 
 of War elected every six months, the Eight who had 
 jurisdiction in criminal causes and were elected 
 every four months, and the two councils represent- 
 ing the two classes of the people, by whom the 
 magistrates were elected and the laws voted. But 
 Lorenzo, without appearing to abolish the old insti- 
 tutions, without summoning a ParlamentOy by means 
 of a friendly Signoria, carried through the legisla- 
 tive councils an important measure which placed 
 the whole power of the State more completely in his 
 own hands.* This was the appointment of a council 
 or senate of seventy, whom he took care to have 
 elected from his own friends, and whom he made 
 permanent, with power to fill up all vacancies as 
 they occurred. To these seventy was committed the 
 election of the other officials of the State, so that 
 whoever had the real direction of the senate was 
 the practical ruler of Florence. 
 
 The authority of this senate now passed to the 
 twenty commissioners or electors, called Acco^^piatori, 
 
 * Cf. Von Reumont, bk. v. c. i. 
 
REVOLUTION. 
 
 189 
 
 who, inasmuch as they had the bi-monthly election 
 of the supreme Signoria in their hands, became the 
 great power in the State ; for the only real check 
 upon the power of the Signoria was the fact of its 
 being changed every two months. Offices of dif- 
 ferent kinds might be entrusted to other hands ; but 
 the Signoria, or magistrates, had the administration 
 in their hands, the legislation, the power of deciding- 
 cases in law, and the right of declaring war; so 
 that the electors of this body, when they were 
 permanent, while the Signoria was continually chang- 
 ing, had the most perfect control over all the affairs 
 of State. By vesting this power of election in 
 the twenty Aecoppiatoi'i, chosen by the people, the 
 Florentines believed that they were re-establishing 
 popular power. 
 
 But they forgot that there was an energy behind 
 the senate which was continually putting it in 
 motion and guiding its action ; and people, whether 
 individuals or communities, who have been accus- 
 tomed to lean on others do not readily learn to rely 
 upon themselves, to judge for themselves, and to 
 act upon the judgements which they have formed. 
 Among these electors, as among those who ap- 
 pointed them, there was an absence of what we 
 might call public opinion, or what others would call 
 party organization; and this was seen when they 
 proceeded to the election of a Galonfiere. They could 
 not get a majority of their number to agree on any 
 one name. Every two or three electors had their 
 own candidate, and they became aware of their help- 
 
190 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 lessness without knowing how it could be remedied. 
 Men who had been prompt and vigorous in action, 
 when they saw clearly the work that was to be done, 
 were incapable of guiding the deliberations of their 
 fellow-citizens. In this difficulty their minds turned 
 to the constitution of Venice as offering a model 
 which might, to some extent, become an example 
 for themselves. 
 
 When, however, they came to discuss the subject 
 of conforming their own constitution to the Vene- 
 tian, there arose a difference of opinion among them. 
 It was generally agreed that most of the magis- 
 trates and officials that had existed before the time 
 of Lorenzo should be preserved or restored: the 
 Signoria, the Eight for the decision of criminal and 
 political causes, the Ten as a war-ministry, and the 
 Gonfalonieri di compagnia. But when they came 
 to consider the constitution of the councils by which 
 these functionaries should be elected, they could no 
 longer agree. The two sections were led by two 
 doctors in law, Vespucci and Soderini. According 
 to the latter, the true method was to form a council 
 after the model of the great council of Venice, 
 which should consist of the popular element, and 
 have the election of the magistrates and the passing 
 of the laws; and besides this, to have, like the 
 Venetians, a smaller council, consisting of a 
 higher class of men, w^ho should decide matters 
 that could not be properly discussed in public. 
 Vespucci, on the other hand, represented that the 
 great council of Venice was an aristocratic body. 
 
EEYOLUTION. 
 
 191' 
 
 and that to form such a council of the people 
 indiscriminately would be to renew and perpetuate 
 the old excesses and disturbances which had dis- 
 graced the republic in past times.* 
 
 These opposing views were discussed at great 
 length without leading to any general agreement. 
 At last the thoughts of men turned instinctively 
 to Savonarola. He had guided them through their 
 difiSculties with the French king ; and they now 
 looked to him for direction in their present per- 
 plexity. It is most untrue to say that Savonarola 
 did, of his own accord, meddle with the politics of 
 the State. He could never be indifferent to the 
 manner in which his countrymen were governed, 
 because he saw the most intimate connection be- 
 tween the government and the morals of the people. 
 He knew that, when reasonable liberty was gone, 
 nearly all that was good and noble in men must 
 perish with it. But he cared for politics only as the 
 instrument of morality, and he constantly warned 
 the citizens that the first step to true liberty and 
 happiness was the reformation of manners. 
 
 We have seen how far he was from inflamino* the 
 passions of the populace, when their wrath first broke 
 out against Piero de' Medici. It is certain that he 
 took no part in the expulsion of the Medici from 
 Florence^t for he had not then returned from Pisa 
 
 * Guicciardini has preserved their arguments. 
 
 t It has been erroneously supposed that he did so, by Perrons 
 and others ; but Villari has shown that this error arose from tho 
 ^vrong arrangement of his sermons, and that he had not then 
 returned to Florence. 
 
192 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 .after his interview with King Charles. And now he 
 began to introduce distinct political allusions into 
 his sermons, because it was expected that he should 
 do so, because the people needed guidance and looked 
 to him for it, and because he believed that God had 
 appointed him to be their teacher. 
 
 In his first sermons on the subjects of the day he 
 exhorted the wealthy to abandon luxurious living, 
 that they might give to the poor, who were in great 
 distress in consequence of the cessation of business, 
 which had not been generally resumed since the occu- 
 pation of the city by the French. He said that, if ne- 
 cessary, he would sell the vessels of the Church and 
 the vestments of the clergy to alleviate the destitu- 
 tion which prevailed ; but they must see at once that 
 the shops were opened, and that work was provided 
 for the unemployed. Undoubtedly, he told them, it 
 was the will of God that bad government should 
 cease — that evil customs and unequal laws should be 
 abolished ; but it was still more necessary that they 
 should fulfil their obvious duties. " This is a time," 
 he said, "in which words must give way to deeds, 
 and vain ceremonies to true sentiments. The Lord 
 hath said : * I was an hungered, and ye gave me no 
 jneat : I was naked, and ye clothed me not.' He 
 never said: ^Ye built not a beautiful church or a 
 fine convent.' He speaks only of works of charity. 
 We must begin our work of renovation, then, with 
 charity." 
 
 But this did not satisfy the expectations of the 
 people ; and at last he began, on the third Sunday 
 
REVOLUTIOX. 
 
 193 
 
 in Advent, December 12th, of tlie same year (1494), 
 to speak more directly on the subject of politics. 
 The opinions which he expressed in his sermons he 
 afterwards published in his " Treatise on the Govern- 
 ment of Florence," * a tract which he composed at 
 the request of the Signori, and which he dedicated 
 to them. From his sermons preached at this time, 
 as well as from the treatise, it is evident that Savo- 
 narola was not in theory a republican. A monarchy 
 was the form of government which he would himself 
 have preferred ; but he acknowledged that, while it 
 was the best government when the monarch was a 
 good and wise man, it was the worst when he was 
 a bad man. Besides, he confessed that it was ill 
 adapted for Italy and for Florence. There, he 
 feared, it could only exist as a tyranny. The only 
 government that can suit us," he said, "is the govern- 
 ment of the citizens, and that which is universal.f 
 Wo to thee, 0 Florence, if thou makest to thyself a 
 head — a chief who can oppress and domineer over 
 the rest. From these heads arise all the evils that 
 can ruin a city. And therefore the first law which 
 thou shouldst make will be this : That no one must 
 ever, for the future, be made head over thy city: 
 otherwise, thou wilt be cast down into the dust. 
 Those men who wish to elevate themselves above all- 
 others, and who cannot endure civil equality, are the 
 worst of all : they seek the ruin of their own souls, 
 and that of the people. 
 
 * Trattato circa il regcjimento e tjove.rno delta Citta cli Firenze. 
 Eepublished at Florence, 1S47. 
 t Governo civile ed universale. 
 
 I. O 
 
194 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 " O my people," he exclaims, " you know that I 
 have never wished to enter into the affairs of the 
 State : think you that I should do so now, if I did 
 not see that it is necessary for the safety of men's 
 souls ? You would not believe, but now you see that 
 my words are all proved true : that they are not 
 mine, but that they come from the Lord. Give ear, 
 then, to one who seeks only your salvation. Purify 
 your hearts, give heed to the common good, forget 
 private interests, and if you reform your city in this 
 disposition, it will be more glorious than it has ever 
 been." And then breaking into prayer, he cries 
 out: "Open, O Lord, the heart of this people, that 
 they may understand those things which are in my 
 mind, and that Thou hast revealed and commanded 
 them." 
 
 The beginning of all reforms, he told them, must 
 be in the heart and life. Spiritual things are the 
 origin of all right principle and action; and all 
 temporal good ought to subserve the moral and 
 religious good upon which it depends. Then, re- 
 ferring to the well-known saying of Cosimo de' 
 Medici, he goes on — " If you have heard it declared 
 that * States are not governed with Pater Nosters,* 
 remember that this is the theory of tyrants, of men 
 who are the enemies of God and of the common 
 weal, a theory invented to oppress and not to elevate 
 and free the State. On the contrary, if you would 
 have a good government, you must return to God. 
 If it were not so, I should certainly not trouble 
 myself about the State. 
 
REVOLUTION. 
 
 195 
 
 " The form which is best adapted for this city," he 
 continues, "is that of a great council, after the 
 Venetian manner. And therefore I advise you to 
 assemble the whole city under the sixteen Gon- 
 falonieri, and let each one of the companies choose 
 a form: from the sixteen thus obtained let the Gon- 
 falonieri select four, and take them to the. Signoria, 
 who, after solemn prayer has been offered, shall 
 choose the best. And that which is thus chosen, 
 you may feel certain, will come from God. I believe 
 myself that the form chosen will be the Venetian ; 
 but you need not be ashamed to imitate that, be- 
 cause , they also have had it from the Lord, from 
 Whom Cometh everything that is good. You see 
 that from the time that this government has pre- 
 vailed in Venice no divisions or dissensions have 
 arisen in that city ; and therefore we must believe 
 that it is according to the will of God." 
 
 The influence of Savonarola was at this time felt 
 to be so salutary, that he was frequently requested 
 by the Signoria to preach on these subjects in S. 
 Mark's, and also in the palace. At last, in a sermon 
 in the cathedral, at which only men were present, 
 he put forth these four points, as embodying the 
 principles of true government : — 
 
 1. The fear of God and the restoration of good 
 
 manners and customs. 
 
 2. The love of popular government and of the 
 
 public good, setting aside all private interests. 
 
 3. A general amnesty, by which they should absolve 
 
 the friends of the past government from all 
 
196 
 
 SAVOXAEOLA. 
 
 faults, remitting all fines, and showing in- 
 dulgence towards those who were indebted to- 
 the State. 
 
 4. To constitute a form of universal government, 
 which should comprehend all the citizens, to 
 whom, according to the ancient ordinances 
 of the city, the government belonged. 
 He concluded by suggesting the formation of a 
 great council, after the Venetian model, but adapted 
 to the genius of the people of Florence. 
 
 The clear statement of these principles, enforced 
 by the air of authority with which they were set 
 forth, produced an irresistible effect on the people. 
 Even those who had only a very partial sympathy 
 with the character and action of Savonarola have 
 expressed their admiration of his conduct on this 
 occasion, and their astonishment at the results 
 which he produced. Men of the world, living near 
 his own time, admired his talent for administration, 
 and confessed that the government which he gave to 
 Florence was the best that it had ever enjoyed.* It 
 was reserved for scoffers of a later age to speak of 
 him as a mixture of cunning and fanaticism. Those 
 who study with impartiality his spoken utterances,, 
 his well-considered wa-itten testimony, his whole 
 conduct and deportment during these times of per- 
 plexity and doubt, will see that he was speaking the 
 truth when he said he would not have mixed in the 
 
 * Francesco Forti (in Villari, i. 288) says, " The reform of the 
 Frate was, perhaps, the only just government which Florence pos- 
 sessed in its republican state." 
 
REVOLUTION. 
 
 197 
 
 aflairs of the State but for tlie good of men's souls, 
 and for the glory of that Lord Who had sent him to 
 do His work. 
 
 The sermons preached by Savonarola on the 
 Prophet Haggai, in Advent, and those on the Psalms, 
 ■which were delivered immediately afterwards, are 
 not only of importance as showing the influence 
 which he then exercised in the State; they are 
 valuable historical documents. Every step in the 
 reconstruction of the edifice of Florentine govern- 
 ment was introduced by a sermon from the Frate, so 
 lhat the history of the period can be traced in his 
 successive discourses. The first step was to gain 
 the consent of the two councils of the people to the 
 formation of a great council, and this was done with 
 almost entire unanimity. The council was invested 
 with power to elect all the chief magistrates, and to 
 sanction all the laws, so that it was made the 
 supreme authority in the State. 
 
 The charge against Savonarola, that he was 
 founding a government utterly democratic and 
 plebeian, is entirely without foundation. Before a 
 man could be a member of the great council he 
 must be of the age of 29 years, and one of the 
 heneficiati of the citizens ; that is to say, either him- 
 self, his father, his grandfather, or his great-grand- 
 father must have held one of the three highest 
 offices in the State. This council, be it observed, 
 Avas the only body which really possessed the fran- 
 'chise under the reformation of Savonarola, and it 
 was so far from being merely plebeian that there 
 
198 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 were actually two classes of the citizens who had no 
 place in it — those called statuati, who were eligible 
 to offices which would qualify them for a place in 
 the council, and those called aggravezzati, who paid 
 taxes, had the right to carry arms, and certain other 
 civil privileges, while below these were the other 
 inhabitants of the city who had no part in the 
 government or special rights of citizenship. 
 
 It was arranged that when the number of the 
 henejiciati exceeded 1500, they should be divided 
 into three parts, which should, in succession, 
 form the great council for six months. It is 
 said that Florence at that time contained 90,000 
 inhabitants,* of whom only 3200 were qualified, so 
 that the council would consist of little more than 
 a thousand persons at a time. In order to give it 
 a more comprehensive character, it was decided to 
 elect sixty citizens not henejiciati, and twenty young 
 men of the age of twenty-four years, as members of 
 the council. 
 
 The lesser council, which formed the senate or 
 upper house of government, was to consist of eighty 
 citizens of not less than forty years of age, who were 
 to be renewed every six months. This body was to 
 assist the Signoria, who were required to consult it 
 at least once a week ; and these, together with the 
 colleges of Gonfalonieri and the other magistrates, 
 were to nominate ambassadors, and conduct other 
 matters of importance which could not be decided 
 in public. When it was intended to pass a new 
 
 * Cf. Yillari, lib. ii. c. 5. 
 
KEVOLUTIOK. 
 
 199 
 
 law, the Proposto (Provost or President) who was 
 one of the Signori, and changed every day, proposed 
 it to the Signoria ; if it was passed by them and the 
 colleges, they might then call together a committee 
 of experienced citizens and obtain their judgement, 
 if the matter seemed of sufficient importance, or 
 they might carry it to the Eighty at once; and 
 from them it went to the great council, by whose 
 consent it became law. It should be added that 
 these assemblies had the power of voting only, and 
 not of discussing. Not unless their members were 
 called upon to express their opinions could they 
 do so, and then only in favour of the proposed 
 law. This course, which at first may seem unreason- 
 able, was rendered necessary by the number of 
 persons constituting these bodies. Another pro- 
 vision was made at the same time, which was in- 
 tended to meet the existing necessities of the State. 
 This was the election of ten citizens who should have 
 the power of remitting, in whole or in part, any un- 
 paid taxes or fines imposed by the late government ; 
 and who should rearrange the public imposts 
 and taxes, laying them principally upon real pro- 
 perty. This last regulation, although it rendered 
 ecclesiastical property liable to taxation, had been 
 strongly recommended from the pulpit by Savo- 
 narola. Villari informs us that this measure was 
 carried out with so much prudence and justice, that 
 to this day the system introduced by the advice of 
 Savonarola is maintained in Florence. It was pro- 
 vided that each citizen, without distinction, should 
 
200 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 pay to the State one-tenth of the rent derived from 
 his real property (beni stabili). 
 
 Savonarola had never ceased to preach peace, and 
 mercy, and unity during the troubles of Florence, 
 and a measure came now to be decided which was 
 closely connected with the political changes which 
 had taken place. It has been mentioned that there 
 was a body of eight magistrates who decided upon 
 all political and criminal offences. This body had 
 the power, by a majority of six votes {seifave, "six 
 beans," as it was called*), to condemn an accused 
 person to imprisonment, banishment, a pecuniary 
 line, or even to death. In consequence of the strong- 
 party feeling which often prevailed, it became 
 necessary to have some appeal from the decision of 
 the Eight, or from that of the Signoria, by whom the 
 powers of the Eight were commonly appropriated. 
 
 On the general subject of appeal the voice of Savo- 
 narola was heard ; but a most important divergence 
 took place as to the body to whom the appeal should 
 be carried. The Frate knew well that the mob 
 was most easily made the tool of the despot — that a 
 larger body of men were more apt to be led away 
 by passion than a smaller and more select assembly ; 
 and he proposed that the appeal should be carried, 
 not to the Consiglio Maggiore, but to the Council of 
 Eighty. It was immediately complained that this 
 was to destroy the authority of the Signoria. " Surely 
 not, " said Savonarola ; " it will only strengthen their 
 
 * Hence the law giving an appeal from their decision was called 
 La legge dcUe seifave. 
 
EEVOLUTIOK 
 
 201 
 
 liands. If they are doing riglit, the council will 
 confirm it ; if they are doing wrong, they will be 
 glad to be set right." 
 
 It is easy now to see that Savonarola's proposal 
 was the right one, and it is equally easy to see how 
 it failed. The men in authority were opposed to 
 every appeal, as taking these judicial decisions out 
 of their hands ; the mob were jealous of such privi- 
 leges being entrusted to what they regarded as a 
 select and aristocratic chamber. Hence there was 
 a union of forces against the scheme of the Frate 
 which could appeal only to the reason and not to 
 the prejudices of the people. The multitude desired 
 that the power of revising these criminal sentences 
 should be possessed by the greater council; the 
 aristocrats saw clearly that they could more easily 
 turn the larger body to their own purposes, and they 
 too opposed the entrusting of these powers to the 
 Eighty. That very Vespucci who had opposed the 
 formation of the great council, on the ground that 
 it was intended to be democratic, and not aristocratic 
 as in Venice, to the astonishment of all, spoke 
 strongly in favour of these appeals being carried to 
 tlie larger assembly. He wanted, he said, the 
 equality of all the citizens, and this was the way to 
 attain it. What he, and others like him, really 
 wanted was a body with which they could do as they 
 pleased, and they used the ignorant prejudices 
 and unreasoning passions of the multitude to gain 
 their ends. All this was clearly perceived by Savo- 
 narola, but he was powerless to prevent the fatal 
 
202 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 decision. It may have been that his deep loyalty 
 to the freedom of the people hindered his using 
 the kind of argument which the other side em- 
 ployed. In this point, at least, his suggestion was 
 not followed ; and the most cruel part of the affair 
 is that he has been made responsible, by many 
 writers, for this mischievous law, although he did 
 his best to prevent its being passed. Here, as in 
 many other cases, a more minute examination of 
 the documents of the period and of his own sermons 
 has served to clear his memory from blame. 
 
 There was one other measure of change upon 
 which Savonarola had set his heart, the abolition 
 of the Parlamento. It has already been mentioned 
 that the Parlamento was an assembly of the whole 
 people, called into the piazza by the sound of the 
 bell, to decide on any considerable change in the 
 government, and to appoint a Balia for giving effect 
 to their resolutions. To an inexperienced mind, 
 nothing could seem more open, straightforward, 
 constitutional, democratic. Here were the whole 
 people assembled to give their consent to a change 
 which concerned every one of them. The trans- 
 action, as a rule, was as hollow as it was specious. 
 
 We who live in the nineteenth century have seen 
 something as pretentious and as unreal in our own 
 days. It is not long since a great nation was invited 
 to declare its mind by a Plebiscite. What could be 
 fairer ? Let all men say whether it is their will 
 to have an emperor! And simple-minded English 
 people looked on with puzzled admiration, and 
 
EEYOLUTIOX. 
 
 asked : " Is not this as good as a general election^ 
 and yery much the same thing ? " It was, indeed, a 
 very different thing. The people were simply asked 
 to sanction a foregone conclusion. And if they 
 refused, what was the alternatiye ? It was not a 
 change of policy, or a change of ministers ; it was 
 a revolution, and that was a serious thing to face. 
 
 There was just as much unreality in the Parla- 
 menfo. Like the Flebiscite, it was intended for the 
 mere sanctioning and registering of a decision 
 already arrived at, and it was the simplest and 
 most useful instrument that despotism could em- 
 ploy. " I have thought," said Savonarola, in one of 
 his sermons — I have thought of this Parlamento 
 of yours, and it seems to me to be nothing else but 
 a means of destruction, and therefore it is necessary 
 to put it away." And again, with still greater energy : 
 "People, when you hear the bell sounding to assemble 
 a Farlamento, rise up, draw your swords, and say, 
 * What do you want ? Have we not our council, 
 which is sufficient ? What law do you want to 
 make ? Cannot the council pass it ? ' Therefore 
 I want you to make a law that, when the Signoria 
 enter upon their office, they shall take an oath not 
 to call a Parlamento^ To these words he added 
 language still stronger, bidding the people be ready, 
 in case the Signoria should make such a proposal, 
 and the moment they set their feet on the Bing- 
 Mera* at once cut them in pieces. This language 
 
 * The platform in front of the palazzo, from which they addressed 
 the populace. 
 
204 
 
 SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 represented the Prate's deep conviction of the 
 mischievousness of these assemblies, and not his 
 habitual spirit and feeling towards political oppo- 
 nents. Already he saw signs of approaching 
 divisions, and of fresh attempts to restore the 
 party which had been driven from power ; and he 
 may be forgiven if he used violent language in 
 prospect of real and alarming dangers, threatening 
 to undo the whole of the work for which he had 
 laboured with such zeal and success. 
 
 The law was passed as he had desired. On the 28th 
 of July (1495) he preached the sermon containing 
 the words which we have quoted. On the 13th of 
 August, it was decreed by the authority of the 
 Signori and the Gonfaloniere of the republic, with 
 the consent of the councils, " that for the future it 
 should not be possible to make a Parlamento ; that 
 the Signoria should take an oath, on their entrance 
 into office, never to convoke one ; that whoever 
 should plot such a thing should be subject to the 
 penalty of death ; and whoever should reveal such 
 a design should have a reward of 300 florins." 
 
 It will be remembered that one of the first subjects 
 which Savonarola brought before the people, when 
 he began to introduce the affairs of the State into 
 his sermons, was the condition of the poor. And 
 now, no sooner was the constitution of the republic 
 finally settled, than he turned his attention to the 
 best means of relieving the wants of the needy and 
 destitute. For this purpose he recommended the 
 formation of a Monte cU Pietcl, or " Compassionate 
 
EEVOLUTIOX. 
 
 205 
 
 Bank," entreating that all, and especially women 
 who had more money than they needed, should 
 assist in its establishment. There was, indeed, a 
 great necessity for some such institution. In 
 Florence, as elsewhere, money-lending was chiefly 
 in the hands of the Jews, who charged the most 
 exorbitant interest, and this again led to serious 
 popular outbreaks against that people. Savonarola 
 had never joined in those persecutions. He would 
 rather convert the Jews to the Christian faith. 
 But he would also take away the occasion of their 
 exactions. This he proposed to accomplish by the 
 Monte di Pieta. At first he wished that money 
 should be lent without any interest being charged ; 
 but this plan was foand impracticable. He 
 succeeded, however, in passing a law * that the 
 bank should be established, that the expense of 
 its administration should not exceed 600 florins 
 a year, and that the interest charged should not 
 be more than six per cent. It was not all that he 
 desired ; but it was a measure which brought very 
 great relief to the class for whom he had intended it. 
 
 In the amnesty now passed, there is one case 
 which deserves a passing notice. On the 8th of 
 June, 1495, the magistrates decreed as follows: "Con- 
 sidering that Messer Dante Alighieri, great-grandson 
 of Dante the poet, is unable to enter the city, in 
 consequence of not having been able to pay the 
 
 * It was in 119G that this measure became law; but it is more 
 convenient to give in one view the reforms which were accomplished 
 under the influence of Savonarola. 
 
206 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 tax imposed by tlie magistrates of last November 
 and December ; and judging it- well to show some 
 gratitude to the descendant of that poet who was so 
 great an ornament to this city; they decree that 
 the said Messer Dante shall consider himself to be, 
 and shall be, free from every restriction or hin- 
 drance whatever." " It was," says Yillari, " a tardy 
 pardon to the memory of the great Ghibelline, an 
 act of justice too slender to the name of the Divine 
 Poet : yet it did no small honour to the republic, 
 that it should have thought of it in the first days 
 of its new birth." 
 
 Those who would rightly estimate the intellectual 
 capacity, the administrative ability, the moral in- 
 fluence of the great Dominican friar, who was now 
 the ruling heart and mind of Florence, need only 
 survey the work accomplished in the first year or 
 two that had elapsed since the expulsion of the 
 Medici. It was at this time that the statue of 
 Judith slaying Holofernes, the work of Donatello, 
 which had formerly been the property of the Medici, 
 was set up.* It was intended as a monument of the 
 triumph of the republic, and bore upon it an inscrip- 
 tion to the effect that the citizens had placed it 
 there as a memorial of the safety of the common- 
 wealth.t The monument, with its inscription, has 
 been permitted to stand through all the changes 
 
 * Originally in front of the palazzo. In 1504 it was removed 
 to the Loggia dei Lanzi, to make room for the David of Michael 
 Angelo. 
 
 t Exemjplum sal : pub : cives posuere. mccccxcv. 
 
REVOLUTION. 
 
 207 
 
 which Florence has undergone during the space of 
 nearly four centuries. 
 
 One other memorial, still existing, of the changes 
 introduced at this time should be mentioned here. 
 It is the Sola del Cinquecenio (Hall of the Five 
 Hundred), a chamber 170 feet in length and 75 in 
 breadth, which was built for the accommodation of 
 the greater council. There was no chamber in 
 Florence of sufficient dimensions to contain so large 
 a body, and, at the suggestion of Savonarola, a 
 portion of the Palazzo Vecchio, left unfinished by 
 the Duke of Athens, was adapted for the purpose. 
 It is an interesting fact that the first Parliament 
 of United Italy was held under King Victor Em- 
 manuel in this chamber, during the time that 
 Florence was the capital of the kingdom. 
 
208 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 EEFOEMATION OF MANNERS. 
 
 If Savonarola was urged by the force of circum- 
 stances to take part in the political struggles of 
 the day, he could always say with perfect truth 
 that he had not willingly chosen this course for 
 himself. His whole conduct proved the sincerity 
 of his answer to those who accused him of meddlino- 
 with politics, that he had done so for the safety, the 
 well-being, the salvation of the people. In his 
 sermons and in his public action he ever made it 
 clear that with him politics were subordinate to 
 religion. If he wished that Florence should be 
 free, it was that its people might be righteous and 
 God-fearing. 
 
 It is, indeed, one of the reproaches brought against 
 the Frate that, in his subsequent course of action, 
 he advocated theories and principles which were in- 
 applicable to the actual condition of human society. 
 If this be true, and we shall see that there is some 
 truth in the remark, it is the best proof that he was 
 not a mere demagogue, lusting for political power. 
 
EEFORMATIOX OF MANNERS. 
 
 20d 
 
 With liim the claims of God were paramount. He 
 was continually reminding the citizens that, what- 
 ever might be the form of their government, Christ 
 was their true King. In this way he gave effect to 
 his monarchical preferences. The rule of One was 
 the ideal rule. But One was their master, even 
 Christ : the only question that remained had 
 regard to the best manner of securing obedience 
 to His laws. 
 
 It was on the third Sunday in the Advent of 1494, 
 in his sermons on the prophet Haggai, that Savo- 
 narola first introduced political subjects into the 
 pulpit. It seems to have been on the following 
 Sunday that he first broached the notion of Christ 
 being the King of Florence. Addressing himself to 
 an imaginary auditory that might prefer a mon- 
 archical government, he exclaimed, " Well, Florence, 
 God is willing to satisfy thee, and to give thee a 
 Head, a King to govern thee. This King is Christ. 
 The Lord will govern thee Himself, if thou consent, 
 0 Florence. Suffer thyself to be guided by Him. 
 Do not act as did the Jews when they required a 
 king of Samuel. God said to Samuel, 'Hearken 
 unto the voice of the people in all that they say 
 unto thee : for they have not rejected thee, but 
 they have rejected Me, that I should not reign 
 over them.' * O Florence, do not imitate this 
 people. Take Christ for thy Master, and remain 
 subject to His law." It was a thought likely to 
 gain favour with the people at the moment ; and 
 
 * 1 Sam. viii. 7. 
 I. P 
 
210 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 when the Frate exclaimed, " Florence, Jesus Christ, 
 Who is King of the universe, hath willed to become 
 thy King in particular. Wilt thou have Him for thy 
 King ? " the multitude, as with one voice, acclaimed 
 Jesus Christ as King of Florence. So eagerly was 
 the cry taken up, that Savonarola had to restrain the 
 too abundant expression of their zeal. It remained 
 for long the rallying cry of his followers. 
 
 The Frate was not ignorant that his enemies 
 would charge him with proclaiming Christ as their 
 King in order that he might be king himself, or, 
 at least, prime minister in the new kingdom. 
 
 He tells them he knows what they are thinking — 
 that he is attempting to govern under this pretext. 
 " Well, then," he exclaims, " what have you given 
 me for trying to govern you? Where are the 
 presents that you have sent me? O Frate, you 
 say, you have thousands of ducats. If any one says 
 so, he does not speak the truth. I have nothing, 
 and I want nothing. It is you who want to be the 
 first " (referring to the aristocratic obstructors of the 
 proposed constitution), " and that is your reason for 
 disliking the council. He who wants to be first 
 seeks to overthrow the government of the whole 
 people; he will have no magistrates nominated 
 without his permission ; he must be consulted 
 about everything, even to the appointment of a 
 clergyman to Santa Eeparata. For my part, I 
 endeavour to - maintain the council. . . . Accuse 
 me no more, then, of wanting to be minister of 
 your city. Christ alone, I tell you, is your King ! 
 
EEFOEMATIOX OF MANNERS. 
 
 211' 
 
 We have already seen that Savonarola addressed 
 liimself to the reformation of the life and manners 
 of the people directly after the expulsion of the 
 3Iedici; but he never forgot the supreme import- 
 ance of this subject, and his sermons never became 
 mere political addresses. The state of morality in 
 Florence was, in truth, very degraded. Enough has 
 been said of the moral condition of Europe and of 
 Italy at this period ; and Florence, with its wealth 
 and luxury, with its literary scepticism and its poli- 
 tical subserviency and corruption, was to the full as 
 bad as its worst neighbours. The Frate told the 
 people that they spent their life in revelling and 
 drunkenness, and in all kinds of debauchery. " Your 
 life," he said, " is the life of swine." And the his- 
 torians of the period give no different account of 
 their condition. They were madly addicted to 
 gambling, and to the most degrading vices. They 
 were indecent in their, attire — a sure sign of the 
 degeneracy of their morals — and vices and crimes 
 prevailed widely which are not fit even to be named 
 among us. It is to be feared that these were not 
 discouraged — that they were even promoted — by the 
 friends of the classical Renaissance. 
 
 Savonarola was never weary of warning the citizens 
 — it was, indeed, the great work of his life to bear 
 witness — that they could have no blessing from God, 
 no abiding prosperity, unless they were converted 
 from their sins. Whatever fostered vice and un- 
 godliness, whatever hindered the acknowledgement 
 of truth and God among them — against this he 
 
212 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 warred, through his whole ministry, through his 
 whole life, a continuous, unending warfare. It has 
 been alleged that he carried his opposition to the 
 borders of fanaticism, when he endeavoured to sup- 
 press all gambling, when he sought to destroy the 
 writings* of the classics, and of his own country- 
 men, which he considered to be the fountains of 
 the evils which prevailed so widely in the city. 
 
 But he was not contented with urging upon the 
 people to abandon those habits which were ruining 
 the city : he entreated the magistrates to take the 
 work in hand. " Magistrates," he says, " it is to 
 you that I address myself. Put down these vices, 
 destroy these sins, punish this horrid passion which 
 is against nature. And not merely by a private 
 fine, but in public, that all Italy may know it. . . . 
 Expose all the courtesans in a public place, and 
 send them off to the sound of trumpets. But, you 
 say, 0 father, there are so many of them that this 
 would be to upset the whole city. Well, then, 
 begin with one, then go on to the rest ; and if you 
 cannot give them chastity, you can at least teach 
 them decency. Punish gamblers ; for, be well 
 assured, gambling still goes on. Give orders, 
 signers, that no one shall play in the streets at 
 great games or small. . . . Have the tongues of 
 blasphemers pierced. S. Louis, King of France, 
 had the lips of a blasphemer cauterized, and said : 
 * I should be happy to have as much done to myself, 
 if I could, at such a price, have my kingdom 
 * We shall have to speak of this again. 
 
REFORMATION OF MANNERS. 
 
 213 
 
 cleared of such offenders.' Put down dancing, too ; 
 for this is not a time to dance. Prohibit balls in 
 town and country." Then he went further, and 
 recommended the appointment of spies to discover 
 whether these orders were carried out. He found 
 that the places of public entertainment were not 
 closed at the appointed hour ; that the shops were 
 kept open on holy days ; and he insisted that they 
 should be closed, with the exception of those which 
 were open for the sale of medicines. 
 
 If the preacher had but small success with the 
 magistrates, it was different among the people at 
 large, and especially with those who crowded the 
 cathedral when he preached. These, if they became 
 increasingly a party only of the whole inhabitants 
 of the city, became also increasingly zealous for 
 the objects which the Frate was endeavouring to 
 promote. He seems at this time to have produced 
 astonishing effects by his preaching. His hearers 
 were influenced by the most powerful emotions as 
 they listened to his words. The shorthand writer 
 who reports these sermons sometimes had to cease 
 writing. He leaves out portions of them, and ex- 
 l^lains that he was unable to go on for weeping. 
 3ren and women, as they left the church, tore off 
 their ornaments, and gave them as an offering to 
 God, or took them to the magistrates for the use 
 of the State. 
 
 Savonarola was oftentimes as powerfully moved 
 as were his hearers. Sometimes after a sermon he 
 was utterly prostrate, and forced to remain quiet and 
 
214 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 in seclusion. At the end of the Advent of 1494, he 
 seemed inclined for a season to abstain from preach- 
 ing ; but the fire kept burning within him, as he 
 told the people, and he was constrained to speak. 
 In January he is again in the pulpit, preaching 
 sermons on the Psalms, which were continued on 
 holy days up to the beginning of Lent. 
 
 In one of these sermons, preached on the 13th of 
 January, he gives a summary of his teaching on 
 the reformation of the Church. It was evidently 
 prepared with peculiar care, and was regarded as 
 an important testimony as to the aims of the 
 preacher; and it was printed immediately after- 
 wards, and circulated widely in Florence and else- 
 where.* " Our intention this morning," he begins, 
 " is to repeat all that we have said and preached at 
 Florence these past years about the renovation of 
 the Church : all which will soon be accomplished." 
 This, he says, he will declare over again, for the 
 confirmation of those who have believed, and for 
 the confusion of those who will not believe or repent. 
 
 After some remarks on the creature, on time, and 
 eternity, he says that Cod alone, and not even angels, 
 can know the future ; and " He communicates this 
 knowledge to whom He pleases, and to what extent 
 and at what time He wills." Then he denounces 
 
 * I possess an original copy of this sermon. No reporter's name 
 is mentioned, as is the case with another sermon published in the 
 same manner ; so that it may have been published by Savonarola 
 himself. The title is: Predica di Frate Hieronimo da Ferrara 
 delta renovatione della cMesa facta in Saneta Maria del fiore in 
 Firenze, adi. xiii di Gennaio. mcccclxxxxiiii (1495, N. S.) 
 
EEFOEMATIOX OF MANNERS. 
 
 215 
 
 the falseness of astrology, which pretends to have 
 the knowledge of future events which are contingent. 
 " Such pretensions," he says, " are equally opposed to 
 philosophy and to faith. Prophets," he goes on, 
 " have light from God ; and He gives it to whom He 
 will. And now you will say, ' Frate, whence have 
 you learnt the things which you have predicted for 
 the last four years?'" At first, he says, they are not 
 ready to receive the explanation ; but at least they 
 know he is not a madman, and that he does not 
 excite himself without a reason. And he adds that 
 a great part of the things which he predicted have 
 already come to pass. " And I tell you* that the 
 rest will be verified, and not an iota of it will fail ; 
 and I am more certain of it than you are that two 
 and two make four, more than I am certain that I 
 touch this wood of this pulpit, because that light is 
 more certain than the sense of touch. But I want 
 you to know that this light does not justify men. 
 Balaam was a prophet, and yet he was a sinner and 
 a wicked man, although he had this light of pro- 
 phecy. But I tell you, 0 Florence, that this light 
 was given me for thee, and not for myself; for this 
 light does not make a man acceptable to God. And 
 I wish you to know that I began to see these things 
 more than fifteen years ago, perhaps twenty. But I 
 began to speak of them ten years ago. And first 
 at Brescia, when I preached there, I began to say 
 something. Then God permitted that I should come 
 
 * Villari, who gives a careful analysis of this sermon, has 
 followed the Latin translation. 
 
216 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 to Florence, which is the light of Italy, that you 
 might spread the knowledge to all the other cities 
 of Italy. But thou, Florence, hast heard with thine 
 ears not me, but God. The rest of Italy has heard 
 of this only from the report of others ; and therefore 
 thou, Florence, wdlt have no excuse if thou repent 
 not. Believe me, Florence, it is not I, it is God 
 Who says these things." 
 
 He then proceeds to repeat the reasons, such as he 
 had often insisted upon before, " which demonstrate 
 and prove the renovation of the Church." Some of 
 them were probable, and might be contradicted ; 
 some demonstrative, which could not be contradicted, 
 because they were founded on Holy Scripture. He 
 enumerates ten reasons, beginning with the " pollu- 
 tion of the prelates," saying that a good head gave 
 promise of a good body ; but when the head was 
 evil, the body was so also. The second was the 
 removal of the good and righteous, by which God 
 declared that He was bringing a scourge upon a 
 nation. The third w^as the exclusion of the right- 
 eous by those in power. The fourth was the desire 
 of the righteous. Then he mentions the obstinacy 
 of sinners, the multitude of sinners. " See," he says, 
 "if Kome is full of pride, of luxury, and avarice, 
 and simony." Then he speaks of the insolence of 
 the great, the want of faith, the neglect of public 
 worship ; and, finally, the universal opinion. Every 
 one was expecting scourging and tribulations ; and 
 every one thought it just that the punishment of so 
 great iniquities should come. " The Abbot Joachina 
 
EEFOEMATION OF MAXXERS. 217 
 
 and many others preach and announce that a great 
 scourge is to come in this time. These," he adds, 
 " are the reasons for which I have preached the 
 renovation of the Church." 
 
 After illustrating his theme by a figurative inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, he proceeds to speak of the 
 signs by which we may know of the approach of 
 these events. There are two, he says. First, exterior 
 signs ; and he confesses that he was mistaken in 
 thinking the death of Pope Innocent one of these 
 signs, evidently meaning that the accession of Alex- 
 ander YI. could hardly be the beginning of the 
 renovation of the Church. Then there is a second 
 class of signs — that given to the imagination, by 
 which he indicates visions and the like. 
 
 "I saw by imagination," he says, " a black cross 
 over Babylon, which is Eome, on which cross was 
 written the wrath of God ; " and then he refers to the 
 vision of swords and weapons of war falling to the 
 ground, of which we have heard. And there was 
 another cross of gold, on which was written the 
 mercy of God. And he saw a sword hanging over \ 
 Italy and descending upon it; and this sword, he 
 said, represented the King of France, who was now 
 showing himself to all Italy. And then he reminds 
 them of all the words of warning: which he had 
 spoken, and how many of them had been verified. 
 " Believe me, then, Florence," he exclaims ; " and 
 thou oughtest to believe me, because of that which 
 I have said. Thou hast not seen one iota fail until 
 now ; and for the future thou wilt see nothing fail. 
 
218 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 I predicted, several years before, the death of 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, the death of Pope Innocent; 
 also that which has now happened at Florence, the 
 change in the State. I have not said all these things 
 publicly; but I have said them to those who are 
 here at this sermon, and I have the witnesses here, 
 
 0 Florence. And this light was not given to me 
 for myself, or for my merit ; but for thee, 0 Florence, 
 it has been given to me. And I have said these 
 things to thee this morning thus openly ; this morn- 
 ing inspired by God that I should say them to thee, 
 so that thou mightest know the whole, and that 
 thou mightest have no excuse when the scourge 
 shall come, and shouldst not be able to say, 'I 
 did not know it.' I could not say it more clearly to 
 thee. Yet I know that this morning I shall be 
 thought a madman." 
 
 In conclusion he says : " I warn you that already 
 Italy is near the beginning of her tribulations. O 
 Italy, 0 princes of Italy, 0 prelates of the Church, 
 the wrath of God is upon you; and you have no 
 remedy unless you repent. O Italy, O Florence, for 
 thy sins these trials are coming upon thee. Kepent 
 while the sword is not yet unsheathed, while it is 
 not yet stained with blood. The conclusion is this : 
 
 1 have told thee all these things with reasons divine 
 and human, with moderation, restraining my lan- 
 guage. I have besought thee. I cannot command 
 thee, because I am not thy master, but thy father. 
 Do thou act, O Florence : I can only pray that God 
 may enlighten thee." 
 
EE FORMATION OF MANN EES. 
 
 219 
 
 Already the enemies of the Frate were becoming 
 alarmed at the influence of his words, and tried 
 to have him sent to preach elsewhere. At first Pope 
 Alexander gave an order to this effect; but after- 
 wards recalled it, so that Savonarola prepared to 
 preach the sermons in Lent. He chose as his subject 
 the Book of Job. Although these sermons have come 
 down to us in a very imperfect condition, we can see 
 that he abstained, as much as possible, from allusions 
 to politics, and devoted his attention to those matters 
 which he had most at heart, the reformation of the 
 people, holy living, the union and harmony of the 
 citizens. Even when he touches upon liberty, it is with 
 a moral rather than a political bearing. " The true, 
 the only liberty," he says, consists in willing that 
 which is good. The good religious may seem to you 
 not to be free, because he has subjected his will to 
 that of another ; but he has greater liberty than 
 those who are in the world, because it is his rule to 
 do that which others command. What liberty is 
 there where men are ruled by the passions ? And 
 now to our point. Florence, wilt thou have liberty ? 
 Citizens, will ye be free ? First love God, love your 
 neighbour, love one another, love the common good. 
 If you have this love and this union among your- 
 selves, you will have true liberty." 
 
 In commending to the people the practice of 
 piety, Savonarola made great use of the visions 
 which he had seen, as he did when warning them of 
 the coming scourge and predicting the renovation 
 of the Church. We do not propose to discuss either 
 
220 
 
 SAVOXAEOLA. 
 
 the visions or the gift of prophecy which Savonarohi 
 appeared sometimes to claim, sometimes to disown. 
 With regard to this apparent contradiction in his 
 professions and claims, the solution seems easier 
 than has generally been perceived. Savonarola 
 evidently employed the phrase that he was "no 
 prophet," nor "prophet's son," very much in the 
 sense used by the prophet Amos. Probably he 
 went further, and meant that he had no distinct 
 prophetic mission; that he was not especially 
 appointed to do the work of a prophet, like S. John 
 Baptist, for example. But it is quite clear that 
 he laid claim to prophetic light. He constantly 
 asserted that God had shown him the future ; and 
 it would be utterly absurd to question the sincerity 
 of his pretensions. It will hardly be denied, either, 
 that Savonarola did, in the most remarkable manner, 
 forecast the future — sometimes, it is true, by the 
 force of his genius, and by his penetrating insight 
 into the imaginations of man's heart, and into the 
 state of the world in his own days ; sometimes, also, 
 in a manner which cannot be explained on these prin- 
 ciples. It is useless to discuss the question, whether 
 these supposed revelations were happy guesses or 
 strange coincidences, or whether God did actually 
 make known to His servant some of those things 
 which were coming upon the earth. How far men 
 may be, in an exalted spiritual condition, made 
 aware of the secrets of the invisible world, we can- 
 not tell. Those who think most deeply on such 
 questions will probably be the most backward to 
 
nEFORMATIOX OF MAXXERS. 
 
 221 
 
 pronounce dogmatically on the subject. What the 
 boundary line may be which separates a state of 
 spiritual elevation from a state of ecstasy, which 
 divides our ordinary experience of heavenly things 
 from a direct intuition of the spiritual world, no 
 wise man will attempt to determine. Of one thing 
 we have no doubt, that is, of the absolute sincerity 
 of Savonarola; and, to use his own language, we 
 know he was not a madman. Beyond this we can- 
 not pronounce, because we do not know. 
 
 One of the most curious instances of his dealing 
 with the invisible was his offer to act, on behaK of 
 his hearers, as an ambassador to Jesus Christ and to 
 the blessed Virgin. In the sermons of Lent, 1495, 
 he relates conversations which he had with our Lord 
 when engaged in this embassy. These communica- 
 tions he employs to enforce his teachings on the 
 subject of unity. " Observe all nature," he represents 
 our Lord as saying, "and thou wilt observe that 
 every creature desires its own unity ; every being 
 seeks this, except the people of Florence, which 
 wishes only for separation and division." 
 
 Speaking on the subject of good living, he again 
 represents our Lord as saying, " Good is, of its own 
 nature, diffusive; and therefore I, Who am the 
 Supreme Good, diffuse Myself in creation, and I 
 have given being to all creatures, so that every 
 good which is in them is a participation of My 
 goodness. For this I came down among men, was 
 made man, and died upon the cross. This, then, 
 will be the sign by which it will be known who is 
 
222 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 good. When any one diffuses his goodness among 
 others, and makes them partakers of that good which 
 he has in himself, then he is truly good and parti- 
 cipates in My goodness. . . . Christian life," ho 
 goes on, "does not consist in ceremonies, but in 
 being good; and he who is good cannot refrain 
 from showing his goodness. . . . And in this con- 
 sists the Christian religion, which is founded in love 
 and charity." 
 
 Those who read such reports of these sermons as 
 have been preserved to us, will form but a slight 
 notion of the power which was contained in them, 
 or the effects which they produced. Savonarola 
 spoke with all the energy of his nature — soul and 
 heart going forth in the vehemence of his utter- 
 ances, and every power of body and mind tasked to 
 the uttermost. He felt that he was a witness for 
 God in the midst of a world which was lying in 
 wickedness. He knew that he was the chief guide 
 of the deliberations of the citizens in matters which 
 might affect the well-being of Florence for many 
 years to come. He was living in times of constant 
 change and perplexity, when each day was bringing 
 forth new problems which were clamouring for solu- 
 tion. He was aware that there were parties in the 
 State eager to seize every opportunity which might 
 offer itself in order to secure the success of their 
 own selfish designs, and frustrate his benevolent 
 efforts for the common good. Yet none of these 
 things moved him. Exhausted in body and mind, he 
 sought for momentary repose, only to return with 
 
EEFORMATION OF MANNERS. 
 
 223 
 
 fresh energy to the conflict. From the pulpit of 
 Santa Maria del Fiore, he hurled forth his thunder- 
 bolts against every form of iniquity ; secure in the 
 consciousness of his own integrity, which he saw 
 reflected in the convictions of his hearers. "When 
 he concluded his course of sermons on Easter Day, 
 the reporter could not go on to the end. He was 
 forced to add: "Such sorrow and weeping came j 
 upon me that I could go no further." We may I 
 judge what was felt by those whose whole attention 
 was fastened upon the preacher, his words, his tones, 
 his gestures. 
 
 But it was not only in the momentary impression 
 produced by his sermons that their effect was per- 
 ceived. The aspect of the whole city seemed to be 
 changed. The luxuries and indecent costumes 
 which he had so indignantly denounced disappeared 
 from the streets and the homes of Florence. Hymns 
 were heard everywhere in place of the Carnival 
 songs which had formerly been popular. Workmen 
 devoted their leisure hours to reading the Bible and 
 religious books. The neglect of public worship, 
 which he had mentioned as one of the signs of 
 the approaching scourge, no longer existed. The 
 churches were crowded. Prayer and almsgiving 
 seemed to be universal. Men of business were led 
 to restore sums of money which they had unjustly 
 acquired. Abstinence was practised to such an 
 extent that it was thought disgraceful to sell meat 
 on days of fasting. Schools and shops were closed 
 during the time of preaching. 
 
SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 The effects of this spreading religious enthusiasm 
 "were seen in the convent of which Savonarohi was 
 tlie head. S. Mark's coukl no lono-er contain the 
 candidates for admission into the fraternity. From 
 fifty the numbers had risen to more than two hundred. 
 It became necessary to add a neighbouring buikling 
 to the convent. Younsr men of the best families in 
 Florence fled from the world and took refuge in 
 S. Mark's, besides men of mature age, distinguished 
 in literature, in science, and in the administration of 
 public affairs. It was at this time that Savonarola 
 was joined by a young convert named Bettuccio, 
 afterwards known as Fra Benedetto, who was in after 
 years to become the biographer of his superior.* He 
 gives an account of his reception into the Dominican 
 order, which is interesting as illustrating Savonarola's 
 manner of dealing with such cases. The father of 
 Bettuccio was a goldsmith. He was himself a 
 miniature painter in the flower of his youth, and 
 addicted to all the prevailing pleasures and amuse- 
 ments of his age and time. When he heard of the 
 fame of the Frate, he at first refused to go with the 
 multitude that crowded around the cathedral pulpit. 
 On one occasion a noble lady spoke to him with 
 enthusiasm of the preaching of Savonarola, which at 
 first only excited his derision. At last he was 
 induced to go to the church ; but he was inclined 
 to leave at once when he marked the astonishment 
 caused by his unexpected presence in the congrega- 
 
 * We have heard of him as the author of the Cedrus Lihani^ 
 and the Volnera Diligentis, 
 
REFORMATION OF MANNERS. 
 
 225 
 
 tion. When the preacher began to speak, he was 
 unable to withdraw his eyes from his countenance. 
 The word of God spoken by the Frate took posses- 
 sion of him ; and then, he says, he knew that he 
 was " more dead than alive." 
 
 When the young painter left the church, he 
 went away by himself to think over what he had 
 heard. He returned to his home a changed man. 
 Old pleasures, and habits, and associates were at 
 once forsaken. It was no easy matter for such an 
 one to shake off his old friends. They jested at 
 him, treating his new feelings as a passing frenzy 
 which could not endure. But he persevered. At 
 first he did not venture into the awful presence 
 of the preacher who had so deeply moved him; 
 but he was constantly to be seen at the public 
 worship of S. Mark's. At last he went and cast 
 himself at the feet of Savonarola; but even then 
 he could hardly utter what was filling his heart 
 and mind. He told him, however, that he wished 
 to enter the convent. Savonarola did not fail to 
 speak to him of the danger of a hasty decision, 
 of the trials and difficulties of a religious life, 
 and advised him to think well of the matter, and 
 to know more perfectly his real mind before he 
 took such a step. He counsellecf him also to 
 live first a Christian life in the world before he 
 entered the convent. The counsel, he tells us, was 
 not unneeded. He had ample experience of the 
 conflict involved in passing from the bondage of 
 the world to the service of God during that period 
 
 I. Q 
 
22G 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of probation. He fell, he repented, he showed his 
 sincerity by his devotion, he conquered his beset- 
 ting sins; and then he returned and asked to be 
 received into the brotherhood. But still Savonarola 
 delayed to grant the boon. He was appointed to 
 assist the sick and to bury the dead, while he 
 received frequent instructions on the monastic life. 
 At last, on the 7th of November, 1495, he assumed 
 the habit, and on the 13 th of December he took 
 the vows under the name of Fra Benedetto. It was 
 an evident proof that the numbers of the brethren 
 of S. Mark's had not been swelled by the incon- 
 siderate admission of all applicants. They were not 
 all destined to prove faithful to their great superior ; 
 but it was through no fault of his that any of them 
 entered upon a profession which ihey had not suffi- 
 cient devotion to sustain. 
 
 It was not wonderful if Savonarola dreamt of a 
 return to those earlier and better days for which he 
 so often longed, and of which he so frequently 
 spoke. If he proposed to his disciples a standard 
 of life which it was, humanly speaking, impossible 
 to maintain, he had not only his own example to 
 show, but the lives of many whom he had drawn 
 from the service of sin. For the time, at least, it 
 seemed as though the success of the political revo- 
 lution which he had guided with such ability, was 
 to be equalled by the reformation of life and 
 manners which had been wrought by his preaching 
 and his example. 
 
( 227 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 DIVISIONS. 
 
 It has been remarked that the his-hest order of 
 mind has seklom been destitute of a sense of 
 humour; and the statement has been illustrated 
 by some of the greatest names recorded in history, 
 ranging from Socrates to Shakespeare, and appear- 
 ing in every age of the world. It is, however, 
 equally true that the deepest thinkers and the 
 most earnest workers have had some touch of that 
 melancholic temperament which leads men to take 
 desponding views of human life, and to regard the 
 most brilliant success with a feeling of distrust. 
 When men of a less powerful build have been in- 
 toxicated with the triumph of the moment, the man 
 of most profound and comprehensive thought has 
 already begun to discern the signs of incomplete- 
 ness and the approach of reverses and of failure. 
 
 Thus it was with Girolamo Savonarola in the 
 midst of successes which have seldom, perhaps 
 never, been attained in the civil reform of a State, 
 by one whose days had been spent in retirement 
 and in preaching. While Florence was rejoicing in 
 
228 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 her newly restored liberty, and in her well-ordered 
 constitution, and lauding to the skies the man by 
 whose exertions they had been secured, his mind, 
 wearied by the burden it had borne, and discerning 
 the presence of dangerous elements in the State, 
 was oppressed by a profound sadness mingled with 
 the most gloomy apprehensions. "I am weary, O 
 Florence," he exclaims at this time, "with four 
 years of continual preaching, in which I have done 
 nothing but labour for thee. Besides, I have been 
 afflicted by the continual remembrance of the 
 scourge which I have seen approaching, and the 
 fear lest it should endanger thy safety. For this 
 cause I have made continual prayers on thy behalf 
 to the Lord." He had never promised that the people 
 should continue to enjoy their new-found prosperity 
 and happiness, but on condition of their repentance ; 
 and he could not shut his -eyes to the existence of 
 evils of all kinds which abounded among the people. 
 More particularly he must have seen, in the discus- 
 sion of the " Law of the Six Beans," that there were 
 many of the upper class who were not disposed 
 frankly to accept the guarantees which he was 
 endeavouring to provide for the continuance of a 
 rational liberty; and who were ready to use the 
 ignorance and inexperience of the multitude as a 
 means of retaining the real power of government 
 in their own hands. 
 
 He did not conceal from himself that his own 
 position was one of imminent danger ; nor did he 
 hesitate to express these convictions in his public 
 
DIVISIONS. 
 
 229 
 
 preaching. One of the most touching references 
 to his position was given under the form of a 
 parable. "A young man," he said, in a sermon 
 belonging to the course which he preached on 
 the prophet Haggai,*' — "a young man, leaving his 
 home, launched forth into the sea to fish; and 
 the master of the ship took him out into the 
 high seas, where there was no harbour to be seen; 
 so that the youth began loudly to bewail him- 
 self. 0 Florence! that youth who thus laments 
 is in this pulpit. I was led from my home 
 to the harbour of the religious life, when I entered 
 the age of twenty-three years, solely to obtain 
 liberty and peace : two things which I loved above 
 everything else. But there I beheld the waters of 
 this world, and I began to preach in the hope of 
 winning souls ; and, while there I found pleasure, 
 the Lord brought me down into the sea, and sent 
 me forth into the high seas, where I am now, and 
 whence I no longer behold the harbour. In all 
 directions there are difSculties. Before my eyes 
 I see tribulation and tempests appearing; behind 
 me the harbour is lost, and the wind drives me forth 
 into the deep. On the right hand are the elect 
 who are asking for aid ; on the left, evil spirits and 
 evil men who molest and trouble us ; above I behold 
 Eternal Virtue, and hope urges me on ; beneath is 
 hell which, as a man, I must fear, because without 
 the help of God I should certainly fall. O Lord, 
 whither hast Thou led me? From my desire to 
 
 * Advent, 1494. 
 
230 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 save-- souls for Thee, I am come into a place from 
 which I can no longer return to my rest. Why hast 
 Thou made me ' a man of strife and a man of con- 
 tention to the whole earth ' ? I was free, and now 
 I am the servant of all. I see in all directions war 
 and discord coming upon me. You, at least, my 
 friends, the chosen of God, for whom I af&ict my- 
 self day and night, — do you have pity upon me ? 
 Give me flowers, as the canticle says, ' for I am sick 
 of love.' The flowers that I ask for are good works ; 
 and I desire nothing else of you but that you please 
 God and save your souls." 
 
 Throughout the whole time of which we have 
 spoken in the two previous chapters, he was sen- 
 sible of the danger to which he was exposed. Speak- 
 ing of the reward of heaven and that of earth, he 
 asks, "But what, 0 Lord, shall be the reward 
 granted in the other life to him who is victorious 
 in battle? A thing which the eye cannot see, 
 which the ear cannot hear; eternal blessedness. 
 And what the. reward granted in this life? *The 
 servant shall not be greater than his master,' answers 
 the Lord. * Thou knowest that after preaching I was 
 crucified: so mattyrdom will befall thee also.' O 
 Lord, Lord, grant me, I pray Thee, this martyrdom; 
 and make me ready to die for Thee, as Thou hast 
 died for me. Already the knife is sharpened for 
 me. But the Lord tells me, ' Wait yet for a little 
 while, so that the things may come which have 
 to follow ; and then thou wilt use that strength of 
 mind which shall be given thee.' " 
 
DIVISIONS. 
 
 231 
 
 It was certainly very remarkable that in these 
 days, in which he was the ruling mind of Florence, 
 when everything was being ordered in the State 
 according to his will, and the moral change already 
 described was being brought about, he should have 
 such presentiments with regard to his own future 
 history. These forebodings, however, can hardly be 
 reckoned among the evidences of his possession of 
 prophetic light. He knew too well what was in 
 man — he knew too well the state of men's minds in 
 Florence — to feel confidence in the abiding loyalty 
 of this seemingly enthusiastic and devoted people ; 
 and he knew that the seeds of their ancient civil 
 discords were not dead, but only waiting for the 
 occasion on which they might burst forth into fresh 
 life, and bear their evil fruits of division, enmity, 
 and persecution. 
 
 It will need no ordinary attention to understand 
 the strange combinations of the various parties in 
 Florence, which were brought about by the ever- 
 changing circumstances of the republic, as each saw 
 an opportunity of advancing its own views or in- 
 terests; but there is no great difficulty in dis- 
 tinguishing the parties themselves or the banners 
 under which they were ranged. Foremost among 
 these parties were those who were called the Arrab- 
 hiati (the madmen, the furious party), on account 
 of their furious antagonism to Savonarola and his 
 policy. The leaders of this party belonged princi- 
 pally to the upper and more wealthy classes, and 
 to the ancient nobility of Florence. They were in 
 
232 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 favour of an aristocratic or oligarchic government 
 such as Florence had, at different times, possessed 
 in its earlier days, and were utterly opposed to 
 every form of popular or democratic government. 
 From the very beginning of Savonarola's reforms, 
 they had offered a persistent opposition to his pro- 
 posals ; and in one case, already described, they had 
 prevented his views from being accepted. They had 
 no love for the Medici, since they regarded them 
 as the destroyers of the aristocracy; but common 
 adversity, and a common opposition to what we 
 should call constitutional princijDles, made them 
 frequent allies. If they were not a numerous body 
 in the State, their wealth and position gave them 
 influence; and they had no scruple in using for their 
 purposes the mob whom they abhorred and despised. 
 Additional strength was given to their party by 
 the support which they received from rulers like 
 the Duke of Milan, who saw, in the popular revolu- 
 tion of Florence, an event which might be used as 
 an example in their own States. 
 
 At the opposite extreme from the Arrdbhiati stood 
 the BiancJii (the Whites — what we should call " Ked 
 Eepublicans "), or extreme democratic party ; mere 
 levellers, who would have governed the city by the 
 simple force of numbers, and therefore were opposed 
 to the exclusive policy on which Savonarola had 
 proposed to form the greater council, and in ac- 
 cordance with which it was finally constituted. 
 They were not a numerous party, and they were in 
 a measure conciliated by the efforts of the Frate to 
 
DIVISIONS. 
 
 233 
 
 obtain for the republic the reality of liberty, even 
 when he would not adopt their method. But no 
 great reliance could be placed upon them. They 
 gave to the moderate democracy of Savonarola a 
 support the same in kind, but not so intelligent, 
 as that which the republican Garibaldi has given 
 to the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emmanuel. 
 They were always ready to listen to proposals for 
 sweeping changes ; and, still worse, they were only 
 too likely to be made the tools of the aristocratic 
 party, when these thought they could carry their 
 ends by a pretence of consideration for the multitude. 
 This actually happened in the "Law of the Six 
 Beans." 
 
 Sometimes apart from, sometimes in union with, 
 these two sections, stood a party far more dangerous, 
 both from its numbers and from the secrecy with 
 which its proceedings were conducted. This was the 
 party of the Medici, known as the Bigi, or Grays. 
 When the Medici were driven from Florence, some 
 of their friends were banished, some disappeared, 
 and their adherents seemed to have vanished from 
 the State. It was owing to Savonarola that the 
 partisans of the fallen family had been included 
 in the amnesty granted to political offenders; and 
 they repaid his generosity by continually plotting 
 against the peace of the city and the influence of 
 their benefactor. The Frate was aware of their 
 designs. He knew that they were constantly plan- 
 ning the recall of Piero de' Medici, and he warned 
 the people that there were those among them who 
 
234 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 were plotting to overthrow their liberty and to 
 restore a despotism ; but they were so well satisfied 
 with the changes which had been effected that they 
 put down these warnings to an excess of zeal. 
 
 The only pronounced and open enemies of Savo- 
 narola and the Fratesch^hj which name the adherents 
 of the Frate were known, were the ArrdbUati. By 
 them the followers of Savonarola were nicknamed 
 Fiagnoni (weepers, or mourners). It is a circumstance 
 not without significance that, in the days in which 
 Florence was preparing again to fall into the hands 
 of the Medici, these two parties became united as 
 the supporters of popular government against the 
 pretensions of their ancient tyrants. At the time 
 of their origin they adopted a policy somewhat 
 different. Pretending to accept the new popular 
 government, while they were ever waiting for an 
 opportunity of overthrowing it, they concentrated 
 the energy of their hatred and opposition against 
 Savonarola himself, thus hoping to gain the support 
 of the Bigi and the Bianchi. The scheme proved 
 only too successful, as subsequent events will show. 
 
 There were, naturally, subdivisions of these parties, 
 of which we shall hear in the course of our narra- 
 tive; and there was a large class, called by Savo- 
 narola I Tiepidi (the lukewarm), who stood aloof, 
 indifferent to the questions, religious or political, 
 which were moving the republic at large. 
 
 By a kind of accident, Filippo Corbizzi, a declared 
 enemy of Savonarola, and an opponent of popular 
 government, was elected Gonfaloniere. It was while 
 
 « 
 
DIVISIONS. 
 
 235 
 
 the Accoirijiatori were still in power and were unable 
 to agree upon a candidate. To put an end to the 
 strife they decided to elect that one who -should haye 
 most votes. Of the twenty electors only three had 
 voted for him; but it was the largest number, and he 
 was chosen. The new Gonfaloniere was a mere tool 
 in the hands of the aristocratic party, to whom he 
 owed his elevation. Soon after his accession to office 
 he convoked in the palazzo a council of theologians, 
 consisting of abbots, priors, and canons of San 
 Lorenzo and of the cathedral, xlmong. those present 
 was 3Iarsilio Ficino, an admirer of the preaching of 
 Savonarola, but a partisan of the 3Iedici. As soon 
 as they were assembled, the Gonfaloniere explained 
 to them that he had to complain of Savonarola for 
 interfering in the affairs of the State, and he counted 
 on the assistance of those who were present in his 
 endeavour to obtain from the Frate an explanation 
 of his conduct. 
 
 Savonarola, who had heard nothing of the meeting, 
 at this moment entered, and was assailed by a num- 
 ber of those present as a disturber of the public 
 peace. Foremost among his assailants was a certain 
 Fra Giovanni Carlo, belonging to his own order, a 
 member of the rival convent of Santa Maria Xovella. 
 This man had a great reputation for theological 
 learning, and from the smallness of his stature and 
 his subtlety in argument was surnamed i? Garofanino 
 (the little Pink). He selected as a text for his 
 remarks the words of S. Paul, Xemo militans Deo 
 impUcat se negotiis seculavibiis (the Yulgate rendering 
 
236 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 of 2 Tim. ii. 4, "No man tliat warreth entangleth 
 himself with the affairs of this life " ; and that 
 version was even more suited to his purpose than 
 either the original Greek or our own English transla- 
 tion). Starting from these words, he proceeded to 
 pour out a torrent of invectives against Savonarola 
 for meddling with matters which did not belong to 
 his sacred vocation. 
 
 The Frate waited patiently for the end of this 
 harangue, and then standing up he made a very 
 calm reply to his accuser. " In me," he said, " is 
 fulfilled that saying of the Lord, Filii matris mem 
 piignaverunt contra me My mother's children were 
 angry with me ' *) ; yet it grieves me to see that my 
 fiercest opponent wears the same habit of S. Dominic. 
 That habit should remind him that our founder 
 involved himself not a little in the things of this 
 world ; that from our order has gone forth a multi- 
 tude of religious and of saints who have concerned 
 themselves in the doings of the State. Will the 
 republic of Florence remember the Cardinal Latino, 
 S. Peter Martyr, S. Katharine of Siena, S. Antonino, 
 who all belonged to the order of S. Dominic ? It 
 is not concerning ourselves with the doings of this 
 world, in which God has placed us, which is to be 
 condemned in a religious; but it is doing so without 
 having regard to a higher end, without an eye to the 
 good of religion." He then challenged those present 
 to quote a single passage which condemned the sujo- 
 porting of a free government in order to secure a 
 * Cant. i. 6. 
 
DIVISIONS. 
 
 237 
 
 greater triumph for religion and morality. "You 
 will easily find," he added, " that religion should not 
 be treated of in profane places, or theology discussed 
 in a palace." 
 
 There was no reply ready to this defence; and 
 they do not seem to have attempted it. By way 
 of assailing him on a side which they thought more 
 vulnerable, they asked him : " Well, then, tell us 
 distinctly, do your words truly come from God or 
 not, that we may know whether we ought to believe 
 you." Savonarola was contented to give back the 
 answer of our Lord, and probably for the same 
 reason, " Egro palam lociitus sum mundo: . . . 
 et in occulto loeutus sum nihil (^I spake openly to 
 the world; . . . and in secret have I said 
 nothing' *) ; and now I have no more to add." And 
 so the assembly broke up, little contented with the 
 result, but unable to obtain more satisfaction. They 
 had only added to the influence of the man whom 
 they would willingly have crushed. 
 
 This singular gathering must have been held 
 about the same time that Savonarola preached the 
 remarkable sermon on the 13th January, of which 
 we have given a full account. One thing is quite 
 clear, that it produced little difference in his manner 
 of preaching. In the following season of Lent, as 
 we have seen, he restricted himself principally to 
 religious subjects, probably on account of the efforts 
 made by his enemies to induce the Pope to put a 
 stop to his preaching in Florence; but during the 
 
 * St. John XYiii. 20. 
 
238 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 interval between Advent and Lent he still recom- 
 mended the people to persist in the formation of the 
 new government, entreating them to cultivate charity, 
 union, and peace. 
 
 The time had not yet come for the Pope's inter- 
 ference. Savonarola had powerful friends at this 
 time in Italy. The French were still at Naples; 
 and the Pope, although he was induced at first to 
 send an order to the Frate to preach during Lent 
 at Lucca, was induced to withdraw his brief. He 
 had heard of the visions and prophecies of a 
 Dominican friar at Florence, and he knew that he 
 was an object of dislike to a section of the popula- 
 tion ; but Alexander also knew that his withdrawal 
 from Florence would produce the greatest indignation 
 in the city, and he was not prepared to excite the 
 enmity of King Charles. 
 
 It was inevitable that Savonarola's sentiment of 
 obedience should receive a shock from this conduct 
 of the supreme Pontiff. It would have been a 
 great trial to leave Florence at such a moment ; but 
 he was prepared to submit. It is probable that he 
 afterwards thought less of papal briefs, when he 
 found how lightly they were given and recalled by 
 the Pope himself. He could not help knowing that 
 the order was originally issued to gratify his enemies; 
 and he must have guessed that it was withdrawn 
 from no more worthy motive. 
 
( 239 ) 
 
 CHAPTEK XIIL 
 
 THE DEPAKTUKE OF THE FEEXCH. 
 
 The success which had attended the French on 
 their first invasion of Italy accompanied them 
 throughout their expedition. They reached Naples 
 without having encountered any serious obstacle on 
 the way. King xilfonso had fled, and the French 
 rule had been established to the apparent satisfaction 
 of the people at large. But it was not long before 
 the Neapolitans grew weary of their new masters. 
 They soon made it clear that they had not come to 
 reform the government, but to plunder the in- 
 habitants for their own benefit. At the same time, 
 the alarm produced by the facility with which the 
 invaders had traversed the whole country began to 
 spread among all the princes of Italy. Those who 
 had been the foremost to invite them, like Lodovico 
 il Moro, now shared in these feelings of alarm ; and 
 he who had welcomed them as friends now proceeded 
 to form a league of the Italian powers for the " ex- 
 pulsion of the barbarians " from the country. 
 
 The League was formed imder the pretext of 
 
240 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 defending the country against the Turks; and it 
 was signed at Venice on the 31st of March, 1495, 
 the Pope, the Emperor, the King of Spain, and the 
 republic of Venice entering into alliance with the 
 Duke of Ililan. Its true design, however, was imme- 
 diately discerned by the shrewdness of the French 
 ambassador, De Comines, who was still at Venice ; 
 and on the very day of the signing of the treaty, he 
 wrote to his master at Naples, informing him of 
 the confederacy that had been formed against him. 
 Burlamacchi relates that King Charles, on receiving 
 this intelligence, sent as messenger to Savonarola a 
 certain Messer Jacopo, to ask whether there would 
 be danger in his return to France. " Tell his 
 Majesty, the most Christian king," replied the Frate, 
 " that God has conferred upon him many benefits, 
 and has granted him to acquire so great a kingdom 
 without any difficulty ; and, although since then he 
 has committed many sins, God will not fail him, and 
 he need have no doubts as to his enemies, for he 
 will return with victory into his own kingdom of 
 France." 
 
 It has been suggested that this Messer Jacopo 
 was no other than Philij)pe de Comines, who, after 
 having written to warn the king of the league 
 formed against him, had at once set out for Naples. 
 On his way to join the king, he tells us that as he 
 passed through Florence he went to pay a visit to 
 Frere Hieronyme, who was reported to be a man of 
 very holy life ; and he did so because .the friar had 
 spoken in favour of the king, and had prevented the 
 
THE DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH. 241 
 
 Florentines from rising against the French ; " for 
 never any preacher had so much authority in a city." 
 
 " He always affirmed that our king would come 
 into Italy, saying that he was sent by God to 
 chastise the tyranny of the princes, and that none 
 would be able to oppose him. He foretold likewise 
 that he would come to Pisa and enter it, and that 
 the State of Florence should be dissolved on that 
 day. And so it fell out, for Piero de' Medici was 
 driven out that very day. Many other things he 
 presaged long before they came to pass ; as, for 
 instance, the death of Lorenzo de' Medici. And he 
 openly declared that he knew it by revelation ; as 
 likewise he predicted that the reformation of the 
 Chui'ch should be owing to the sword. This is not 
 yet accomplished ; but it very nearly occurred, and 
 he still maintains that it shall come to pass. 
 
 " Many persons blamed him for pretending to 
 receive divine revelations, but others believed him : 
 for my part, I think him a good man. I asked him 
 whether our king would return safe into France, 
 considering the great preparations of the Venetians 
 against him ; of which he gave a better account than 
 I could, though I had lately come from Venice. 
 He told me that he would meet with some difficulties 
 by the way, but he could overcome them all with 
 honour, though he had but a hundred men in his 
 company; for God, Who had conducted him thither, 
 would guard him back again. But, because he had 
 not applied himself as he ought to the reformation 
 of the Church, and because he had permitted his 
 
 I. R 
 
242 
 
 SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 soldiers to rob and plunder the poor people (as well 
 those who had freely oj)ened their gates to him as 
 the enemy which had oj)posed him), therefore God 
 had pronounced judgement against him, and in a 
 short time he would receive chastisement. 
 
 " However, he bade me tell him that, if he would 
 have compassion upon the people, and command his 
 army to do them no wrong, and punish them when 
 they did, as it was his office to do, God would then 
 mitigate, if not revoke, his sentence ; but that it 
 would not be sufficient for him to plead that he did 
 them no wrong himself. And he said that he would 
 meet the king when he came, and tell him- so from 
 his own mouth ; and so he did, and pressed hard for 
 the restitution of the Florentine towns. When he 
 mentioned the sentence of God against him, the 
 death of the Dauphin came very fresh into my mind, 
 for I knew nothing else that would touch the king 
 so sensibly. This I have thought it fit to record, to 
 make it the more manifest that this whole expedition 
 was a mystery conducted by God Himself."* 
 
 This testimony is valuable, not only as furnishing 
 us with the judgement of one who was a keen observer 
 of his fellow-men and an experienced man of the 
 world, but also from its entire agreement with all 
 that we learn of Savonarola, his words, and his tone, 
 from other trustworthy sources. The man who thus 
 addresses the ambassador of France, and who 
 assumes no different attitude towards his master, the 
 king himself, is the same man of whom we read in 
 
 * Book viii. c. 3. Bolin's translation, vol. ii., pp. 190, 191. 
 
THE DEPARTUKE OF THE FRENCH. 243 
 
 the pages of his contemporaneous biographers, and 
 who speaks to us from the pulpit of the cathedral 
 church of Florence. 
 
 The king did not wait for the arrival of Comines ; 
 he left Naples on the 20th of May (1495), leaving a 
 strong garrison in the forts, and taking the rest of 
 his army with him. On his way he visited Kome, 
 intending to have an interview with the Pope ; but 
 Alexander had left the city and ha'd fled to Orvieto. 
 Continuing his march, he reached Siena on the 13th 
 of June. The Florentines had lost all faith in King- 
 Charles and the French. They would not enter 
 into alliance with their enemies ; but they dreaded 
 equally their friendship and their enmity. They 
 were already discovering what Machiavelli was 
 shortly to write of the French, that they were quite 
 ready to make promises which they had not the power 
 to fulfil, but that they never fulfilled those which 
 they were able to ke^p. The king had promised 
 that he would restore the fortresses which Piero de' 
 Medici had delivered into his hands, as soon as he 
 should get possession of Naples ; but they were still 
 garrisoned by his soldiers. They had remonstrated 
 with him on this breach of faith, and they had 
 endeavoured to recover Pisa by force of arms ; but 
 the Pisans received reinforcements from different 
 parts of Italy, and even, it was said, from the 
 French king himself. The only answer he returned 
 to the remonstrances of the Florentines was this : 
 " But what can I do if your Signori make all their 
 subjects discontented with them ? " 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 When the news reached Florence that the French 
 had entered the territories of the republic, and that 
 Piero de' Medici was with them, the wrath and terror 
 of the citizens knew no bounds. It was generally be- 
 lieved that the king intended to restore the hated 
 tyranny from which they had escaped. All ages and 
 classes flew to arms,, and they hastened to put the city 
 in a state of defence. Piagnoni and Arralhiati ]omedL 
 in arms,, in counsel, and in prayers. The city was 
 given up to religious exercises ; and the Frate had 
 to complain that some were willing to join in their 
 prayers, but neglected to take up arms. Offer 
 prayer," he cried from the pulpit,. but do not neglect 
 human precautions. "We must help ourselves in 
 every way, by every means, and then the Lord will 
 be with us. Courage, my brethren, and above all 
 things union. If you remain united and agreed 
 in one will, even if the whole world were against 
 us, the victory will be ours." , 
 
 When the Florentines sent ambassadors to the 
 king, asking by what route he intended to march 
 that they might furnish provisions, he only replied : 
 Provide the whole country." It was impossible 
 that the meeting should be a friendly one, when 
 the French saw the Florentines flying to arms at 
 their approach, and the ambassadors of the State 
 found Piero de' Medici in the camp of the king. 
 
 It was then that the citizens, as in all their most 
 hopeless perplexities, turned to Savonarola. They 
 knew that Charles had listened respectfully to him 
 at Pisa, when he would hardly give an audience to 
 
THE DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH. 
 
 245 
 
 their ambassadors. Thev remembered that it was 
 by the persuasion of the Frate that he had led his 
 army out of Florence. By an accident a letter of 
 his, written to King Charles, fell into the hands 
 of his enemies, and disclosed the fact that he 
 was carrying on a correspondence with him. But, 
 although the letter was garbled in its publication, 
 and was actually published in order to incite the 
 Venetian league against Savonarola, it served only 
 to increase the esteem in which he was held by his 
 fellow-citizens. It was couched in the same bold 
 and imperious language which he had employed 
 at the interviews ; the same which, as a prophet of 
 righteousness proclaiming the will of God, he ever 
 felt that he had a right to use. 
 
 " Most Christian Sire," he said, the Lord wills 
 that the Florentines should remain in alliance with 
 your Majesty ; but He also wills that, under your 
 protection, their liberties should be confirmed, and 
 not the authority of any particular citizen, because 
 the Divine Goodness has determined everywhere 
 to put down despotism. The Lord will punish 
 terribly those private citizens who shall wish to 
 usurp dominion in this flourishing republic, as it 
 has been in the past ; because this new and popular 
 government and administration has been appointed 
 by God, and not by any man, and because He has 
 chosen this city, and will magnify it, and replenish 
 it with His own servants; and he who touches it, 
 touches the apple of His eye. Wherefore, 0 Sire, 
 if you will not obey, and will not maintain your 
 
246 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 promises to the Florentines, and will not restore 
 their fortresses, many will be the adversities which 
 will come upon you, and the people will rebel 
 against you." 
 
 The same language which he had used in his 
 letters he did not hesitate to employ when he again 
 met the king face to face at Poggibonsi. He re- 
 minded him that he was now returning home, almost 
 a fugitive; and that he had brought these mis- 
 fortunes upon himself, as he had predicted that he 
 would, if he refused to accomplish the work for 
 which God had brought him into Italy. " Most 
 Christian Prince," he said, " thou hast provoked the 
 anger of the Lord by not having maintained thy 
 faith to the Florentines ; by having abandoned that 
 reform of the Church which the Lord had so often 
 through me announced to thee, and to which He 
 had chosen thee by such manifest signs. For this 
 time thou wilt escape from these dangers ; but if 
 thou resume not the work which thou hast aban- 
 doned, if thou obey not the commands repeated 
 anew to thee by His unworthy servant, I announce 
 to thee that still greater will be the adversities 
 which the wrath of God will send upon thee, and 
 another will be chosen in thy place." 
 
 The king was deeply impressed by this bold 
 language, and by the tone in which it was uttered ; 
 and requested that Savonarola would accompany 
 him to Pisa, whither he now conducted his army. 
 Savonarola, however, after a second interview at 
 Castel Fiorentino, returned home; and from the 
 
THE DEPARTUEE OF THE FRENCH. 247 
 
 pulpit he announced, on the 21st of June, that for 
 this time the danger was over, and took occasion 
 again to entreat the people to be diligent in prayer 
 and holy living, to cherish union, and to preserve 
 the popular government. 
 
 The Pisans received the king with every demon- 
 stration of joy. After doing their best to conciliate 
 him and his followers by costly presents, a number 
 of the most beautiful women of the city came to 
 him oi^e day clothed in mourning, with their hair 
 dishevelled, their feet bare, and ropes round their 
 necks, representing the bondage and misery in which 
 they were held by Florence ; and implored him to 
 restore their liberty. Such a request, however reason- 
 able in itself, it was not in the power of the king to 
 grant. He had contracted to restore Pisa to the 
 Florentines. To this engagement he had added 
 most solemnly his own kingly word ; but we have 
 seen enough of his character to know how lightly 
 he would hold any such promises. It was a strange 
 way that he took of at once setting at nought the 
 sentiments of compassion which the entreaties of 
 the Pisan women had awakened, and of breaking his 
 engagements with Florence. He neither gave Pisa 
 liberty, nor restored the fortresses to Florence ; but, 
 leaving garrisons behind him, he took his way to 
 France. The whole expedition was productive only 
 of evil. The French had disgusted their allies : they 
 had disappointed their most moderate hopes, and 
 had simply left an ineradicable impression of their 
 own selfishness, rapacity, and faithlessness. The king 
 
248 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 pretended that he had given orders for the surren- 
 der of the fortresses to Florence ; and it is said that 
 in the month of September following he sent an 
 express command that they should be delivered up. 
 Whether he, at the same time, sent private orders 
 to the contrary, or whether his generals knew that 
 they might safely disregard the instructions they 
 had received, the result was the same. In J anuary, 
 1496, the generals sold the fortress of Pisa to the 
 citizens; those of Sarzana and Sarzanello to the 
 Genoese ; that of Pietra Santa to the Lucchese ; to 
 the Florentines only that of Leghorn was restored. 
 The French king had disappointed the expectations 
 of Savonarola, and had apparently shaken off the 
 fears engendered by his solemn warnings. When 
 both the king and the Frate were dead, Philippe 
 de Comines remembered these things and wrote: 
 " I am sure he foretold several things which after- 
 wards came to pass, and which all his friends in 
 Florence could never have suggested. And as to 
 our master, and the evils with which he threatened 
 him, they happened exactly as you have heard ; first 
 the death of the Dauphin, and then his own death — 
 predictions of which I have seen in letters under 
 his own hand to the king." * 
 
 Deeply as Florence had suffered from the invasion 
 of the French, it still had reason to fear the effects of 
 their departure. Partly from old attachment, partly 
 from fear, partly from the state of isolation into 
 which it had fallen, the city remained faithful to 
 
 * Book viii. c. 26, 
 
THE DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH. 
 
 240 
 
 its ancient allies. The Florentines now declared 
 Charles to be "a man without honour, or shame, 
 or prudence ; an assassin, a thief ; who paid no re- 
 gard to his promises, and was destitute of all 
 morality and of every trace of religion; and his 
 ministers the basest, the most greedy, and the most 
 perfidious men that could be imagined." But the 
 presence of the French had at least kept their 
 other enemies at bay ; and now that the League 
 had no longer any reason to fear the invaders, they 
 were able to turn their enmity against the Floren- 
 tines. It has already been mentioned that the 
 principal governments of Italy had resented the 
 expulsion of the Medici, and regarded the newly 
 formed constitution with great aversion. The Pope 
 and the Venetians were bent upon restoring Piero ; 
 but, happily for the Florentines, Ludovico of Milan 
 not only had a personal dislike to him, but cherished 
 some hope of forming the whole of Northern Italy 
 into a united kingdom. His support, therefore, 
 although it was promised to the enterprise, was of 
 a very uncertain and untrustworthy character. 
 
 The Florentines made energetic preparations to 
 resist this new invasion of their recovered liberties. 
 Savonarola, who had for a time abstained from 
 preaching, in consequence of reports from Eome 
 that he was becoming more and more distasteful to 
 the Pope, now returned to the pulpit ; and, on the 
 11th of October, his voice was again heard, exhort- 
 ing them to defend their constitution, and to neglect 
 
250 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 no means of repelling those who were now endeavour- 
 ing to overthrow it. 
 
 When it was in any way possible to extend pardon 
 and amnesty even to those whom he regarded as 
 traitors, Savonarola's voice was ever raised in favour 
 of clemency and mercy; but when the interests 
 of the commonwealth were at stake, when he saw 
 that those who had been treated with excessive for- 
 bearance were only the more bent upon overthrowing 
 the authority which had dealt so mercifully with 
 them, he did not hesitate to counsel the strongest 
 and severest measures that could be taken to avert 
 the threatened danger. Speaking of the friends of 
 the Medici, who were now plotting to restore the 
 fallen despotism, he declared that the punishment 
 which was their due was death. 
 
 " You must deal with them," he says, " as the 
 Komans did with those who wished to bring back 
 Tarquin. . . . Do justice, I tell you. . . . This 
 great council is the work of God and not of men ; 
 and whoever wishes to change it, whoever wishes to 
 set up a tyrant, whoever wishes to make a govern- 
 ment of private citizens, will be accursed of the Lord 
 for ever." There was to be no mercy for such : who- 
 ever they were, they were to lose their heads. 
 
 The danger soon passed away. Piero collected 
 money and troops, and advanced against the city, 
 with the intention of forcing an entrance ; but the 
 promised reinforcements did not arrive, and he was 
 not able to begin the attack. The government of 
 Florence, stirred up by the words of Savonarola, 
 
THE DEPAETURE OF THE FRENCH. 
 
 251 
 
 declared Piero de' Medici a rebel against tlie State, 
 so that lie might with impunity be put to death. 
 And they further offered a reward of 4000 gold 
 florins to whoever should kill Piero, and 2000 for 
 the head of Giuliano de' Medici ; and officers were 
 appointed to administer their property for the benefit 
 of the republic. 
 
 But they did not restrict themselves to mere 
 threats. They suspended the war against Pisa, and 
 sent an army into the field against Piero, who was 
 still remaining inactive, expecting the assistance 
 which the League had promised. At last, seeing 
 that his present enterprise had become hopeless, he 
 fled to Kome, where he strove to embitter the Pope 
 against Plorence and its teacher, and hatched new 
 schemes for the repair of his broken fortunes. 
 
252 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 
 
 It is difficult to write the simple truth respecting 
 the man who occupied the papal throne under the 
 name of Alexander VI., without appearing to repeat 
 the inventions of blinded prejudice and inveterate 
 and reckless enmity. Yet the proved facts of his 
 personal and official life are almost as bad as any 
 hostile fabrications could be made; and the very 
 fables and legends which have gathered around his 
 history are an evidence of the impression which he 
 produced upon his own contemporaries. 
 
 As an instance of these stories, a writer of the 
 period * gravely relates that the manner of his death 
 was uncertain, some believing that he had been 
 carried off by a demon, others that he was poisoned 
 by wine which he or his son had prepared for one 
 of his cardinals. The story of the poisoning is now 
 discredited ; but it shows us in what estimation his 
 Holiness was held. 
 
 As we have here to do with his actions in relation 
 
 * Pico della Mirandola the younger. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 253 
 
 to the subject of this memoir, rather than with his 
 general character or history, a very few words must 
 suffice on these points. Rodrigo Borgia belonged to 
 a noble Spanish family. He came to Eome during 
 the Pontificate of his uncle Calixtus III., and was 
 by him made Archbishop of Yalentia and cardinal, 
 before he was twenty-five years of age. Even those 
 who take the worst view of his character, do not 
 deny that he was a man of very great ability, and 
 that he attained to a certain kind of political 
 influence, and even of popularity among his own 
 subjects. He had four sons and one daughter — all 
 illegitimate, of course; but that was not thought 
 much of in those days. He obtained the papal 
 chair by bribing a majority of cardinals to vote for 
 him. It is said that his countryman. King Ferdinand 
 "the Catholic," wept when he heard that he was 
 made Pope, and predicted the evils which would 
 follow to the Church. Crimes of the most frio:htful 
 character have been laid to his charge; and his 
 vices have probably been exaggerated. But it is 
 agreed, on all sides, that there has hardly ever been 
 a Pope who did more to disgrace the papal chair. 
 He was impure, treacherous, and guilty of the most 
 open and unblushing simony. A Latin couplet of 
 the period is not too severe : 
 
 " Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum. 
 Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest." 
 " Alexander sells keys, altars, Christ. 
 
 He had first bought them : he has a right to sell them." 
 
 As the most monstrous characters in history have 
 
254 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 not been without their defenders, so it has been 
 attempted to deny nearly all the more serious 
 charges brought against Alexander; but it is evident 
 that it is with a sense of the arduousness of the task 
 that his cause has been pleaded. One of the latest 
 of those who have sought at least to mitigate the 
 sentence of history * confesses that he would have 
 liked to close the history of the Popes of the fifteenth 
 century "with a holy and a more glorious figure 
 than his ; " and adds, " Say, if you please, that Alex- 
 ander VI. dishonoured religion and humanity, we 
 will not contradict you ; " only his is an exceptional 
 character among the popes. It will be sufficient here 
 to deal with those of his actions which belong to 
 our history. 
 
 When the enemies of Savonarola first reported to 
 Pope Alexander the bold and censorious language 
 which the Frate was using with reference to the 
 rulers of Church and State, he was inclined to 
 regard his words as the utterances of a fanatic who 
 might safely be treated with contempt ; and probably 
 the reports of the visions and prophecies of the Frate 
 confirmed him in this judgement. When, moreover, 
 he considered that the Florentine mystic was held 
 in honour by the French king, he saw the inex- 
 pediency of using harsh measures against him while 
 so powerful a friend was still at Naples. 
 
 Shortly after the departure of the French, the 
 enmity against the Frate, kept in check by the 
 dangers of the republic and by the necessity for 
 
 * Abbe Christophe, La Paj)aute iKndant le 15^6. Siede, ii. 580. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAPtOLA. 255 
 
 union among its parties, broke out afresh. The 
 ArrdUbiati, backed up by Ludovico il Moro, sent to 
 Kome reports of his sermons, exaggerated and dis- 
 torted.- He was represented as a seditious citizen, 
 as a disloyal priest, as the enemy of all authority 
 and stable government. Kefugees of the Medicean 
 party who had taken up their residence at Eome 
 denounced him as the author of all their misfor- 
 tunes. His old opponent Fra Mariano da Gennaz- 
 zano did not hesitate to declare that he was a 
 heretic. 
 
 The Pope determined at length to put an end to 
 the work of the Florentine preacher, but he thought 
 it best first to try the eifect of flattery. " Beloved 
 son," wrote his Holiness, "health {salutem) and 
 apostolic benediction ! We have heard by the 
 testimony of many that, of all the labourers in the 
 vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, thou art the most 
 zealous. At which we greatly rejoice and give 
 praises to Almighty God, Who has bestowed such 
 grace on a human being. N"or do we doubt that 
 thou hast these things from the Divine Spirit, Who 
 distributes immortal graces, and that thou canst sow 
 the word of God in a Christian people, and bring 
 forth fruit an hundred-fold. ... It has recently 
 been related to us, also, that in thy public sermons 
 thou dost assert that those things which thou dost 
 announce concerning the future, thou speakest not 
 of thyself or of human wisdom, but by divine revela- 
 tion. Desiring therefore, as belongs to our pastoral 
 office, to speak with thee on these subjects, and to 
 
256 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 hear from thy mouth, that we may by thee attain 
 to a better knowledge and practice of that which is 
 pleasing to God, we exhort and command thee, in 
 virtue of holy obedience, to come to us as soon as 
 possible. We will see thee with paternal love and 
 charity.— Kome, 21st July, 1495." 
 
 It is useless to waste words in discussing the 
 sincerity of this document. The influences under 
 which it had been produced were too well known in 
 Florence for Savonarola to stand in doubt of it for a 
 moment. Already the attempts upon his life had 
 begun. Already his enemies had been heard to 
 boast that they had secured the ear of the Pope. It 
 was therefore clear to his friends that he could not 
 with safety accept this affectionate invitation; and 
 yet the Frate was far from being prepared to disobey 
 the commands of the Supreme Pontiff, whom he 
 regarded as the Vicar of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Happily for Savonarola, he was able to plead that 
 he was only recovering from a severe illness, caused 
 by the excitement of those terrible days in which 
 all his energies were needed for the guidance of his 
 anxious and perplexed fellow-citizens. He resolved 
 for a season to abstain from preaching, and to put 
 his friend Fra Domenico Buonvicini, commonly 
 known as Domenico da Pescia, in his place. On the 
 28th of July, therefore, he took his leave of the 
 people, telling them that, although for the moment 
 ne regained his strength when he ascended the 
 pulpit, he was unable at present to continue his 
 work. He repeated to them many of the lessons 
 
POPE ALEXANDER YI. AND SAVONAROLA. 257 
 
 which, he had so often inculcated, on the necessity 
 of moral and religious renovation, telling them of 
 the frightful vices which still prevailed in the city. 
 He exhorted them to a more serious life, reminding 
 them that a time of such dangers was not a time 
 for festivals and dances. Then he spoke of the 
 prophetic gift. Agam he besought them to retain 
 the form of government which they had established ; 
 and said that, when his health was restored, he 
 would preach to them again, although he believed 
 he had shortened his life by his past efforts. " And 
 now," he concludes, " you will ask, Frate, what re- 
 ward do you expect for this ? I expect martyrdom. 
 I am content to endure it. I ask it of Thee, 0 Lord, 
 every day, for love of this city." 
 
 Three days later, he sent his answer to the Pope, 
 beginning : " Most Blessed Father, after kissing thy 
 blessed feet," and proceeding to set forth the duty 
 of obedience and his own desire, long entertained, to 
 visit Eome. In spite of this, he says, he is forced 
 to offer excuses for not at once complying with the 
 Pope's command ; and he quotes the language of 
 Alexander lY., as showing the lawfulness of the 
 course he is taking. As a reason for his inability to 
 come to Eome, he urges the state of his health, 
 weakened by unremitting toil of body and mind in 
 behalf of the city, in consequence of which his 
 physicians had advised him to abstain from preach- 
 ing and study, otherwise his life might be in danger. 
 He then proceeds to inform the Pope that his 
 presence is still needed in Florence in consequence 
 
 T. s 
 
258 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of the change in the goyernment and the designs of 
 the enemies of the State, which were peculiarly- 
 dangerous while the institutions of the republic 
 were still in their infancy. So violent, indeed, were 
 those enemies that they had tried to cut him off by- 
 poison or the sword, so that it was hardly safe for 
 him to go into the city without guards. 
 
 He then goes on to express the hope that his Holi- 
 ness would not be offended by a short delay, and he 
 would endeavour, before long, to obey his command. 
 If his Holiness wished, in the mean time, to become 
 acquainted with what he had taught concerning 
 the future, of the scourging of Italy and the renova- 
 tion of the Church, he would find a full account of 
 it in a book which he had just caused to be printed 
 {Compendium Bevelationum) ; * which he had put 
 forth, that the world might know he was a false 
 prophet, if the things which he had predicted did 
 not take place. I beseech your Holiness," he con- 
 cludes, "to accept my most sincere and open excuses, 
 and to believe that there is nothing which I more 
 earnestly desire than to render entire obedience." 
 The Pope gave no answer to this letter ; but, as 
 Savonarola afterwards stated that he had accepted 
 his excuse, we may infer that this assurance was in 
 some manner conveyed to him. 
 
 To his astonishment, during the period of his 
 retirement, a new brief was issued by the Pope, and 
 this time directed to the Franciscans of Santa Croce, 
 
 * Published in Italian (Compendio di Bevelatione, etc.) soon 
 after— September 1, ]495. (Mine is the Italian edition.) 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 259 
 
 the enemies of Savonarola, speaking of him as " a 
 certain Fra Girolamo " — the same man, be it 
 observed, who had been addressed, not two months 
 before, as his " beloved son " — denouncing him as a 
 disseminator of false doctrine, and commanding him 
 at once to appear in Kome. It was evident that 
 this was intended as an expression of undisguised 
 anger and enmity ; but it was less easy to under- 
 stand the sudden change of tone. It may be that 
 the contents of the Compendium had inflamed the 
 Pope's mind, but it is more probable that the change 
 had been brought about by the machinations of the 
 Medici ; for it was at this time that Piero was 
 carrying forward his attempt to regain possession of 
 Florence. Instead of obeying the Pope's command, 
 Savonarola reappeared in the pulpit, and delivered 
 those sermons, already mentioned, in which he be- 
 sought his fellow-citizens to resist the restoration of 
 the Medicean despotism. The Pope issued another 
 brief, forbidding him to preach. The Frate again 
 withdrew from the pulpit, and the Advent sermons 
 at the cathedral were preached by Fra Domenico. 
 
 The charges now brought against Savonarola 
 were the more serious, as giving an authoritative 
 expression to the accusations of his enemies at home. 
 But he knew that the charges of heresy were only 
 a cloak to disguise the hatred excited by his 
 political action. If he would have refrained from 
 denouncing the vices of those who were in high 
 places ; if he would have allowed, without inter- 
 ference, Bigi or Arrahhiati to have their own way in 
 
260 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 Florence ; if he would have suffered the overthrow 
 of that civil liberty which, next to the moral and 
 spiritual good of the people, he most ardently loved, 
 he might have held and taught what opinions he 
 pleased. Although he consented, for the time, to 
 observe the silence imposed by the papal brief — 
 and at this time he was resolved not to preach until 
 he obtained permission from Eome — he did not for 
 a moment waver in his convictions, nor in his 
 determination to give effect to them in every way 
 that might seem possible and lawful. 
 
 It was about this time that an incident occurred 
 which has been recorded by several writers. Burla- 
 macchi relates that a terrible sermon preached 
 by Savonarola had inflamed the anger of a number 
 of private persons against the preacher. These 
 persons were chiefly " lukewarm ecclesiastics, vicious 
 men, usurers, gamblers, drunkards," and the like, 
 and they had made their complaints heard at Eome. 
 Whatever the immediate cause may have been, it 
 is said that the Pope sent some of Savonarola's 
 writings to a bishop of the Dominican order, with in- 
 structions to examine them, in order to find grounds 
 for condemning the author as guilty of heresy. 
 The bishop returned the compositions, giving his 
 judgement that the utterances of the Frate were 
 all good and wise, inasmuch as he spoke against 
 simony and the corruption of the priests, which 
 were undoubtedly very great. Such a man, he said, 
 was to be treated as a friend and not as an enemy, 
 and he advised the Pope to make him a cardinal. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVOXAEOLA. 261 
 
 If the story were not confirmed by a multitude 
 of contemporaneous testimonies, it might appear too 
 improbable to be easily believed. The evidence, 
 however, seems too strong to be resisted; and 
 additional confirmation is found in various indirect 
 references to the offer in the sermons of Savonarola. 
 The Pope was a statesman of consummate ability, 
 and, acting on the theory that every man has his 
 price, he probably saw in this measure a more easy 
 and ready escape from his difficulties than by the 
 more clumsy and violent method of persecution. 
 A Dominican was accordingly despatched from 
 Rome, empowered to offer Savonarola the red hat 
 on the condition that he would alter his style of 
 preaching. 
 
 It was, to Savonarola, a shocking confirmation 
 of all his worst impressions of the state of matters 
 at the papal court. Already mui'murs had been 
 heard of the Pope having obtained his chair by 
 simony. The Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincola, 
 the same who was in the way of denouncing his 
 Holiness as a " scoundrel and a heretic," was medi- 
 tating the calling of a council to try Alexander 
 for this crime; and in that intention he was sup- 
 ported by some of the princes of Europe. Savo- 
 narola was probably beginning to have his mind 
 familiarized with the same idea. And here he had 
 tangible proof of the manner in which the offices 
 of the Church were conferred so as to subserve 
 the corrupt designs of the Roman court. He was 
 so indignant at the offer that he only returned for 
 
262 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 answer : " Come to my next sermon, and you shall 
 hear my reply to Kome." 
 
 As the time of this offer is not quite certain, we 
 are unable to say what sermon of his was here 
 referred to, nor do we know whether it has been 
 preserved. In a sermon preached in the year 1496, 
 he makes an evident allusion to the proposal: "I 
 do not wish for hats, nor for mitres great or small. 
 I wish only for that which Thou hast given to Thy 
 saints, for death. A red hat — a hat red with blood 
 — that is what I desire." At different times he is 
 reported as saying, " If I had wished for dignities, 
 you know well that I should not now be wearing 
 this ragged cloak." 
 
 By the influence of " the Ten," formerly known 
 as the " Ten of War," but now called the " Ten 
 of Liberty and Peace," the Pope had been induced 
 to withdraw his inhibition from Savonarola, and to 
 restore to him the liberty of preaching. In spite, 
 therefore, of the machinations of his enemies, and 
 of the constant attempts against his life, he deter- 
 mined this year (1496) to preach the Lent sermons 
 in the cathedral. 
 
 The news of his reappearance in the pulpit after 
 his long silence (from October, 1495, to February, 
 1496) produced the greatest excitement in Florence, 
 and all possible precautions were taken by the 
 magistrates to prevent disorders arising in the city. 
 The crowds that assembled to hear the preacher 
 were enormous ; and a new element appeared in the 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VL AND SAVONAROLA. 263 
 
 audience. This was a congregation of children, for 
 whose accommodation a special gallery had been 
 erected. During the time of his retirement, Savo- 
 narola had turned his attention to the instruction 
 of those who, from their tender years, were more 
 open to the reception of religious impressions. He 
 was specially prompted to this undertaking by the 
 excesses in which the children had been accustomed 
 to indulge at the time of the Carnival. His efforts 
 had such success that he organized large numbers 
 of children, formed them into guilds, and in- 
 structed them to sing hymns, instead of the songs 
 which had formerly been heard at that season ; and 
 instead of indulging in mischievous and dangerous 
 amusements, they now employed themselves in 
 collecting alms for the relief of the poor.* 
 
 When the Frate appeared outside the convent on 
 his way to begin his Lent sermons (February 17, 
 1496), he was greeted with loud shouts of joy by the 
 populace ; and his enemies were held in check alike 
 by the enthusiasm of his friends and the watchful- 
 ness of the government. It was one of the significant 
 moments in his history. Within a period of seven 
 months, he had been addressed by Kome as one who 
 was little short of a saint, and denounced as a 
 seditious person and a disseminator of heresy ; he 
 had been inhibited from preaching by the Pope, and 
 the inhibition had been removed ; and all men were 
 wondering in what strain he would break the long 
 and unwonted silence to which he had submitted. 
 
 * It was known as the Riforma dei fanciulU. 
 
264 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 He began his sermon with a dialogue, in 
 which he replied to imaginary questions respect- 
 ing his absence from the pulpit. Had he been 
 afraid of death that he had not preached ? No, for 
 in that case he would not be here now, seeing that 
 he was in greater peril of death than before. Had 
 he, then, had scruples of conscience on the subject ? 
 Not he. But had not his doctrines been condemned ? 
 Let it be supposed that it were so ; he had taken 
 himself to task, as to his life, as to his words, 
 whether he had spoken unadvisedly or erroneously. 
 But he could not find that he had done so — 
 " because I have always believed, and do believe, 
 all that the Holy Roman Church believes. I have 
 written to Rome that, if I have preached or written 
 anything heretical, I am content to amend and 
 recant here in public. I am always prepared to 
 obey the Roman Church, and I say that he who 
 does not obey will be damned. ... I declare and 
 confess that the Church will never fail even to the 
 day of judgement ; and that it may be clear what 
 I mean, as there are various opinions as to what 
 is the Catholic Church, I refer myself to Christ, 
 and to the deeision of the Roman Church." 
 
 But, he goes on, it does not therefore follow 
 that we are bound to obey every command of our 
 superiors, or even of the Pope. A superior could 
 not require obedience contrary to the constitution 
 of his order. The Pope could have no right to 
 give a command contrary to charity or to the 
 Gospel. " I do not believe that the Pope will ever 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AXD SAVONAROLA. 265 
 
 do so ; but, if he did, I should say to him : * In this 
 case thou art not pastor, thou are not the Eoman 
 Church, thou errest.' " If a superior should require 
 anything contrary to the commandments of God, 
 it would be wrong to comply, because it is written : 
 "We ought to obey G-od rather than man." If 
 there were the least doubt on the subject, however, 
 it would be a duty to obey. 
 
 He then proceeds to consider his own case, and 
 argues that, if he should be commanded to depart 
 from Florence, he should not be bound to obey, 
 because it was well known that not only would 
 such a command be the result of political hatred, 
 but obedience would be injurious to liberty and 
 to religion ; and, if he saw that his departure would 
 be spiritual and temporal ruin to the people, he 
 would obey no living man who should command 
 him to depart. 
 
 He then declares that, having found nothing in 
 his own life or doctrine at variance with the 
 requirements of the Church, and having persuaded 
 himself that the briefs from Rome were null, 
 because they proceeded upon false and malicious 
 information, he had nevertheless decided to use 
 prudence, and had therefore obeyed by observing 
 silence. And so he would have continued but for 
 the evils which he had seen resulting from it. He 
 had loved peace and retirement, but he had been 
 forced to put forth upon a tempestuous sea, where the 
 winds were all contrary. " I should wish to go into 
 port, but I cannot find the way ; I wish to seek 
 
266 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 repose, but I find no place ; I should wish to remain 
 silent and not speak, but I cannot, because the Word 
 of God in my heart is like a fire, which, if I do not 
 send it forth, burns the very marrow of my bones. 
 Now, 0 Lord, since Thou wiliest that I should sail 
 in this deep sea. Thy will be done ! " 
 
 This sermon, the first of a series on the Books of 
 Amos and Zechariah, gave a sketch of the subjects 
 on which he intended to speak throughout the whole 
 season of Lent. It would appear that these were the 
 most powerful and impressive sermons of all that he 
 preached at Florence. Never had he spoken with 
 more perfect self-control, judgement, and care ; and 
 yet never had he lashed the vices of the age or the 
 corruptions of Kome with more unsparing severity. 
 Again and again he warned his hearers that their 
 liberties were in danger from those who had them- 
 selves no regard to the honour of God or the well- 
 being of His people. Their enemies were in 
 Florence : they were in Eome. Their daggers and 
 their anathemas were being prepared for him who 
 warned the people of their danger. But the judge- 
 ments of God were coming upon the wicked. There 
 would be such destruction of life that there would 
 not be people enough to bury the dead. The 
 pestilence would sweep them away in such numbers 
 that they would have to carry them away on carts 
 and horses, and pile them in heaps and burn them. 
 
 " Come forth," he cried, quoting the prophet 
 Zechariah, " and flee from the land of the north, that 
 is, from the vices of the world, and turn to Christ. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 267 
 
 A day of darkness is coming. It will rain fire and 
 flames and stones, and it will be a time of trouble." 
 The land of the north was Babylon, and the preacher 
 could not avoid a reference to the city which he 
 always spoke of as the existing representative of the 
 ancient city of confusion. Taking up the passage of 
 the prophet from which he had quoted, he proceeds 
 again: Deliver thyself, 0 Zion, that dwellest 
 with the daughter of Babylon.' Deliver yourselves 
 from it, that is, from Kome ; for Babylon means con- 
 fusion, and Kome has confused the whole Scripture, 
 has confused all vices together, has confused every- 
 thing. Flee then, deliver yourselves from Eome, 
 and turn to repentance." 
 
 There was one element, however, which was pain- 
 fully present in the sermons of this period — the 
 sense that he was in a manner placed upon his trial 
 and required to defend himself from the accusations 
 of heresy and sedition. He was not less bold, less 
 fierce, less confident in his denunciations of evil. 
 As has been said, he was not less powerful or less 
 impressive in his utterances. But he was not, as in 
 former days, the teacher, the guide, whose truth 
 and integrity none might dare to question, although 
 they might desire and endeavour to moderate the 
 tone of his warnings and rebukes. His enemies not 
 only waxed more wroth as they smarted under the 
 lash of his terrible words, unveiling vice with a 
 plainness which we can now hardly imagine ; they 
 were also able to arm themselves with the authority 
 of the Church, and to proceed against their enemy 
 
268 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 as against one who was seeking to destroy the very 
 fabric which he was professing to defend. They 
 forced him into a position in which, by vindicating 
 his conduct, he necessarily implied the presence of 
 a doubt; and by excusing his action, he seemed 
 to be accusing himself. 
 
 In the last sermon of this series he returns to the 
 subject of his dispute with the Pope : " Who does 
 not know that the brief was issued to support my 
 enemies, and those of the republic who disseminated 
 falsehoods and calumnies against me ? Who does 
 not know that my departure would not only 
 be most dangerous to my own life, but also injurious 
 to this people and ruinous to its liberty — that 
 good customs would be abandoned, and religion 
 come to the ground ? It is this, indeed, that my 
 enemies desire. I therefore believe that the Holy 
 Father has been deceived by the false accusations 
 of my detractors ; and I obey rather that which I 
 believe to have been his intention, and will not sup- 
 pose that he desires the ruin of a whole people." 
 
 But he never lost sight of the probable end of the 
 conflict — the end which to him, indeed, seemed ever 
 more certain. *'What will be the end of the war 
 which thou sustainest ? " he supposes his hearers to 
 ask. " If you ask me in general, I answer that it 
 will be victory ; if you ask me in particular, I say, 
 to die and to be cut in pieces. But that will only 
 serve to spread this doctrine more widely, which 
 does not come from me, but from God. I am but an 
 instrument in His hand ; wherefore I am resolved to 
 do battle to the last." 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 269 
 
 The effects of these Lent sermons were of the 
 most various description. The partisans of the 
 Frate were more enthusiastic in the expression of 
 their devotion than ever. On Palm Sunday a great 
 procession was formed in celebration of the blessings 
 received during Lent; and Savonarola himself 
 arranged all its details with the greatest care, and 
 gave direction as to its order. First came the 
 children, then the religious and the clergy ; next 
 came the magistrates, then the men ; then, a little 
 distance apart, the women, the aged women being 
 first. Those who were unable to join the procession 
 were requested to keep off the streets, so as not to 
 interrupt its progress. All who took part in it were 
 to carry a red cross or a branch in their hands, and 
 the children were to lead an ass in commemoration 
 of our Lord's entrance on that day into Jerusalem. 
 
 The procession started from the church of the 
 Annunziata, and proceeded to San Marco, where 
 each one received a small red cross ; and then they 
 took their way across the city. It is said that there 
 were at least 8000 children present. On the 
 Piazza della Signoria they sang a hymn composed 
 for the occasion ; then they passed on to the 
 cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and so returned 
 to San Marco ; and there the brethren, crowned with 
 garlands, danced and sang hymns in honour of the 
 Most High. 
 
 Savonarola justified these things by quoting the 
 example of King David, who danced before the ark ; 
 but it was hardly necessary, in those days and in 
 
270 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 that country, to justify practices wliich to us seem 
 extraordinary and misplaced. The Fiagnoni needed 
 no justification : the Arrahhiati were little inclined 
 to listen to it. The religious enthusiasm of the 
 former was so great that Savonarola himself had to 
 entreat them to moderate their zeal ; but the wratli 
 of his enemies reached its height. The Compagnacd, 
 in particular, the younger and more dissolute 
 of the Arrahhiati, were driven to frenzy by beholding 
 the influence which the Frate was still retaining 
 over the people. 
 
 But the fame of these sermons extended far 
 beyond the city in which they were preached. It 
 is said that the Sultan had them translated that he 
 might be able to read them. From all parts of Europe 
 there came testimonies of approval and adherence. 
 On the other hand, the princes of Italy began to 
 address remonstrances to the man who seemed to 
 include them all in one general sweeping condemna- 
 tion. Foremost among these was Lodovico of Milan, 
 who represented to Savonarola his inability to under- 
 stand how one whose life was so pure and Christian 
 should bring such continual accusations against 
 himself; since he might rather find fault with 
 Savonarola for teaching that the Pope ought not to 
 be obeyed. Savonarola did not hesitate to answer 
 this appeal with all deference, although he could 
 entertain no real respect for the man whom he 
 regarded as the author of so much mischief to Italy. 
 " It is not true," he replied, " that I have ever said 
 absolutely that the Pope ought not to be obeyed, 
 
EOPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 271 
 
 because this would be very reprehensible, and con- 
 trary to those sacred canons according to which I 
 have always governed myself. And so too it is a 
 false accusation to say that I have spoken against 
 your lordship. I am affectionate to all, and have 
 no right to speak against any one in particular. 
 But if your lordship be turned to God in that mind 
 which you declare to be yours, then you have only 
 to persevere; and in this matter you can have no 
 better judge than your own conscience." 
 
 It was comparatively easy to deal with II Moro ; 
 but there was a greater Italian potentate, whose 
 anger was more to be feared than that of Sforza. 
 The Pope, who was kept informed of the matter of 
 Savonarola's preaching, was loud in his accusations 
 to the Florentine ambassador, complaining not 
 merely of the Frate, but of the Signoria who allowed 
 him to preach. The Ten, after endeavouring in vain 
 to soothe his anger, determined to send, as ambas- 
 sador extraordinary, Pandolfini, the Archbishop of 
 Pistoia. On his arrival, the Pope poured out com- 
 plaints against the Florentines for refusing to join the 
 holy League which had been formed " to drive the 
 barbarians" out of Italy; and then he complained 
 bitterly of the support given to Savonarola in his 
 attacks upon the holy see. The archbishop said 
 that the Florentines could not possibly have violated 
 the treaties which they had made with the French ; 
 and, besides, they were aware of the enmity enter- 
 tained by the Venetians and the Duke of Milan 
 against the republic. With regard to Savonarola, 
 
272 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 they could hardly be to blame, seeing that his 
 Holiness had given him leave to resume his preach- 
 ing. "Well, well," broke in the Pope, "we need 
 not speak of Fra Girolamo at present. By and by, 
 perhaps, we will speak better of him. As for the 
 rest, you give me nothing but words. You want to 
 have two strings to your bow." * 
 
 In order to ascertain whether there were ostensible 
 reasons for proceeding against Savonarola, the Pope 
 appointed a consistory of fourteen theologians of the 
 Dominican order, to whom he gave instructions to 
 inquire into the conduct and teaching of the Frate, 
 as regarded the charges of heresy, schism, and 
 rebellion against the holy see. It is said that the 
 majority of the consistory pronounced him guilty ; 
 but the principal reason which they alleged was his 
 enmity to Piero de' Medici, of whose misfortunes he 
 had been the principal cause. There could hardly 
 have been a more convincing proof of the truth of 
 the statement made in the sermons of Savonarola, 
 that the true ground of the accusations made against 
 him was political and not religious. 
 
 It has been mentioned, as a proof of the Pope's 
 moderation, although there may have been other 
 reasons for the course which he took, that he acted 
 no further on the report of the theologians than to 
 request the Signoria, through their ambassador at 
 Kome, to take care that, in future, Savonarola should 
 be more guarded in his remarks on the holy see, 
 the cardinals, and the prelates ; and that he should 
 
 . * Tenere il pie in due staff e : "To have your foot in two stirrups." 
 
POPE ALEXANDER YI. AND SAVONAROLA. 273 
 
 imitate tlie manner of the best preachers, and not 
 intermeddle with the thinsrs of this workl and 
 political affairs. 
 
 After the close of Lent, Savonarola spent a short 
 time at Prato and Pistoia, where he met his brothers. 
 On his return to Florence he put forth a treatise 
 on the "Simplicity of the Christian Life" {Bella 
 Semjplicita della vita Cristiana), which was intended 
 as a reply to the charges brought against him at 
 Eome ; and in which he gave a popular account of 
 the Catholic faith, stripped of theological techni- 
 calities, and rebutted the charges of heresy and 
 schism. Along with the Latin original, an Italian 
 translation was published, with a preface in which 
 he repeated his willingness to submit to the authority 
 of the Koman Church, and declared that he preached 
 and wrote with the sole intention of combating the 
 unbelief of the times, which chilled the spirit of 
 love and darkened the light of good works. 
 
 About this time — we are still in the year l-±96 — 
 new troubles arose in Florence. The commerce of 
 the city had been greatly depressed by the unsettled 
 state of Italy and of the republic; great expenses 
 had been entailed by the exactions of the French 
 and the preparations for war ; and a grievous famine 
 deprived the peasants round about the city of their 
 means of subsistence. The Venetians and Lodovico 
 were assisting the Pisans, who, instead of yielding to 
 the assaults of the Florentines, striving to recover 
 their most prized possession, drove back the soldiers 
 of the republic into the hills. These misfortunes 
 
 I. T 
 
274 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 were followed by one still greater, the death of Piero 
 Capponi, which took place in the September of this 
 year. He was killed by a ball while conducting the 
 siege of the castle of Soiana. There was no citizen 
 of whom Florence was more proud than of him who 
 had cast back on the King of France, when he 
 threatened to blow his trumpets, the counter-threat 
 to ring the bells of the city. The grief was univer- 
 sal ; and all united to do honour to the obsequies of 
 so great a man. He was buried in the church of 
 Santo Spirito, in the tomb which had been made for 
 his renowned ancestor, Gino Capponi.* 
 
 Other misfortunes followed. The League took 
 advantage of the difficulties of the republic to press 
 upon its rulers to abandon the alliance with France 
 and to make common cause with themselves. In 
 this case they would assist them to recover Pisa ; 
 otherwise, they would give assistance to the revolted 
 city. The Arrabbiati were all in favour of these 
 proposals ; but the citizens discerned in them a plot 
 lor the overthrow of their liberty, and refused to 
 comply. Besides, the King of France had announced 
 his intention of returning to Italy, and this expecta- 
 tion confirmed them in their resolution. 
 
 The League then applied to the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian for assistance in opposing the threatened 
 invasion of the French ; but King Charles had his 
 hands full at home, and abandoned the enterprise. 
 
 * The last descendant of this great family was the Marchese 
 Gino Capponi, recently deceased, author of the "History of 
 Florence " more than once quoted in these pages. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 275 
 
 The Emperor, however, determined to visit Italy, 
 which was, in theory at least, still the centre of the 
 Empire. Crossing the Alps, he avoided Milan and 
 descended upon Genoa, when he passed on to Spezia, 
 and made his way to Pisa. The inhabitants received 
 him with the same joyful welcome which they had 
 accorded to the French. He had come among them 
 as the friend of the League, and therefore as the 
 enemy of their tyrannical mistress, Florence. 
 
 The Florentines, seeing the preparations which 
 were being made by the Pope, the Milanese, and the 
 Venetians, now headed by the Emperor himself, 
 instead of abandoning themselves to despair, pro- 
 ceeded to fortify Leghorn, which the French had 
 restored to them, and which now became the key of 
 Tuscany. As was usual in their time of difficulty, 
 the magistrates had recourse to Savonarola, who did 
 not hesitate to obey the call, and again appeared 
 before the people, urging them to unity and to 
 courage in the defence of their liberties. 
 
 The most dangerous and the most vindictive of 
 the enemies of Florence was the Pope. He hated 
 the city and its freedom, and resolved to restore the 
 Medici, whom he hoped to keep in subjection to his 
 own will. Above all, he hated the man who was 
 the soul of the republic and the bulwark of its 
 liberties. If the armies of the League could not 
 demolish the walls of Florence, he could strike at 
 the man who alone seemed able to inspire its de- 
 fenders with courage and resolution. He therefore 
 determined to use every means to prevent him from 
 
276 
 
 SAVONAROLA, 
 
 again appearing in the pulpit. On the 8th of 
 September * he despatched a new brief from Kome, 
 addressed to the convent of S. Mark, in which he 
 described Savonarola in the same terms as those 
 which he used in his letter to the friars of Santa 
 Croce, the year before. Again he was described as 
 " a certain Fra Girolamo, a friend of novelty, and a 
 disseminator of false doctrine." He told them that 
 this friar had advanced to such a pitch of madness 
 that he had made the people believe that he was 
 sent by God and had converse with Him ; and this 
 without any miraculous proof, or any special testi- 
 mony of the Holy Scriptures, such as the canon law 
 required. He then spoke of the patience which 
 he had exercised towards Savonarola, in the hope 
 that he would repent, and desist from continuing 
 that scandalous separation from the congregation of 
 Lombardy which he had been deceived into sanc- 
 tioning. He then required that the brethren of 
 S. Mark and their vicar should recognize the 
 authority of Fra Sebastiano de Madiis, Vicar-General 
 of Lombardy ; commanding Savonarola to prepare 
 to go where he should be ordered, and in the mean 
 time desist from all preaching whatever, either 
 public or private. The convent of S. Mark was 
 to be at once reunited to the congregation ot 
 Lombardy, and Fra Domenico, Fra Salvestro, and 
 Fra Tommaso Bussino were to present themselves 
 
 * See, in Villari, the reasons for assigning this date to the brief 
 here described (Lib. iii. cap. 5). 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 277 
 
 in nine days at Bologna. And all this under pain 
 of excommunication. 
 
 It was quite clear to Savonarola that these orders 
 could not be obeyed, but he determined to try what 
 could be done by submission. He addressed a 
 respectful letter to the Pope, dated the 29th of 
 September — about the time that Capponi was being 
 laid in the tomb of his ancestor. He reiterated his 
 willingness to submit to the Church, saying that his 
 enemies had deceived his Holiness. He denied that 
 he had claimed to be a prophet, as he had denied it 
 nearly two years before, as he was to deny it again 
 in some yet more solemn hours of his life. Even if 
 he had put forth this claim, he said, it would not be 
 heresy; but he had only predicted certain events, 
 some of which had taken place, and others would in 
 the future. He then reminded the Pope that the 
 bull of separation had been solicited by all the 
 brothers, and had been granted after a lengthened 
 discussion. To refer their cause to the Vicar of 
 Lombardy was to make their adversary their judge. 
 Besides, since the separation, their rules had been 
 made more strict and severe, and therefore to reunite 
 them would be to increase the enmity already exist- 
 ing, and to give rise to great dissensions and scandals. 
 There was no reason for this reunion, since he was 
 not guilty of the offences alleged as rendering it 
 necessary, seeing that he preached the doctrine of 
 the Chui'ch and of the holy doctors ; and he repeated 
 anew what he had always said, that he submitted 
 himself and all his doctrines to the correction of the 
 holy Koman Church. 
 
278 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The Holy Father saw that by going too far he 
 might fail in the main object of his brief, which was 
 to prevent Savonarola from preaching. He there- 
 fore appeared to lay aside his resentment, and on 
 the 16th of October he despatched another brief, 
 addressed to Savonarola. The Frate was again his 
 "beloved son." He begins by referring to the 
 mischief caused by his preaching and his pretensions 
 to prophecy. Still he was greatly rejoiced to learn 
 from brethren who were cardinals of the Church, and 
 from his own letters and messengers, that he was 
 prepared to submit himself to the judgement of the 
 holy Koman Church. " We have begun to persuade 
 ourselves that' thou hast not preached these things 
 from an evil mind, but rather from a kind of sim- 
 plicity, and a zeal for labouring in the vineyard of 
 the Lord, although experience may seem to teach 
 the contrary." But for all this, he adds, he must 
 not be so negligent as to dismiss the matter entirely, 
 and therefore he commands him, " in virtue of holy 
 obedience, further to abstain entirely from all preach- 
 ing, both in public and in secret." 
 
 Savonarola was not in the least deceived by this 
 fatherly forbearance, knowing very well that the 
 Pope was, by a different path, trying to reach the 
 same end, and prevent his preaching at a time when 
 his voice was most needed by the citizens. Besides, 
 he learnt from the ambassador that the Pope was 
 more enraged than ever against him; and he knew that 
 he was acting in concert with the Emperor and II 
 More. He was convinced that an attempt would be 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 279 
 
 made, as soon as there appeared any hope of success, 
 to effect the restoration of Piero de' Medici. Yet 
 the tone of the Pope's brief had placed him in a diffi- 
 culty. To defy a command addressed in a spirit so 
 benignant might bring worse evils upon himself and 
 the city ; and therefore he determined, for a season 
 at least, to refrain from preaching. 
 
 In the mean time fresh clouds seemed to be gather- 
 ing around the fortunes of the republic. Leghorn 
 was besieged by the imperial troops ; the Venetian 
 ships blockaded the port, so that provisions could 
 not be brought into the city ; and famine and 
 pestilence were making terrible ravages among the 
 inhabitants. The Florentines made the most heroic 
 efforts to relieve the suffering city, but the pesti- 
 lence began to ravage their own homes. The misery 
 of the city was extreme. The Arrabbiati were 
 triumphant. Now they were clear that the Frate 
 had deceived them. This was the happiness he had 
 promised to Florence ! Surely it was time to change 
 a government which had succeeded so badly. 
 
 The magistrates, in this extremity, had recourse 
 to the divine offices. They ordered that a miracu- 
 lous image of the Madonna, to which they had 
 frequent recourse in times of danger, should be 
 carried in solemn procession through the city. 
 Again they turned to the only man who had been 
 able to help them in former times of perplexity, and 
 entreated Savonarola to speak to the multitude. It 
 needs not to be told how his compassionate heart 
 had bled for the miseries of the people whom, with 
 
280 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 all their faults, he so dearly loved. Whatever 
 might be his fate, he could not resist the appeal 
 which was now addressed to him. 
 
 On the 28th of October he was again in the 
 pulpit. Friends and foes were gathered around 
 him. He knew what was passing in many minds, 
 and he at once addressed himself to the unuttered 
 thought. " I ought not to have spoken ? But I 
 come in obedience to the Signoria, and to call you 
 once more to repentance. You are clear? And I 
 tell you that I am clear, and that everything I have 
 said to you will be verified to the smallest iota. . . . 
 Be ye then clear that, unless you change your life, 
 you will have woes. Yices still prevail among you, 
 O Florence — gambling, bestiality — and in this way 
 you draw down the scourge upon you. Yet if you 
 return to the Lord, I am confident that some great 
 grace will be bestowed upon us, and we shall have 
 need to fear no one." 
 
 He then rebuked them for jDutting their trust in 
 man, and told them that, first of all, they must 
 return to God; then they must put away all 
 thoughts of human help ; all the money they could 
 spare they must lend to the city, and without 
 interest ; they must be united and have no dissen- 
 sions. If they would do this, "listen," he said, "to the 
 words that I say to you : I am willing to lose my head, 
 if we do not drive away our enemies. I say that, if 
 you do this, I T\ill be the first to go forth against 
 them, crucifix in hand, and we will make our 
 enemies flee as far as Pisa, and farther." Two days 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AXD SAVONAROLA. 281 
 
 later, the miraculous image was carried into Florence 
 in solemn procession. An enormous multitude 
 followed, showing every evidence of the deepest 
 devotion. Sadness was on every countenance. 
 Money was freely given, as the Frate had required. 
 The procession had reached For Santa Maria, when 
 a messeno^er arrived on horseback with an olive 
 branch in his hand, on his way to the palazzo. 
 Caught by the bridle, he was required by the 
 multitude to deliver his message. His news were 
 almost incredible. The promised succour had 
 arrived from Marseilles, and had been wafted by a 
 favourable wind into the harbour df Leghorn, before 
 the Venetian ships were able to come up. Joy sat 
 on every countenance which but now had been 
 clouded with sorrow. The intelligence flew from 
 mouth to mouth. The bells rang out peals of glad- 
 ness; the churches, which had but recently been 
 filled with multitudes humbling themselves in 
 penitence, were now crowded with the same multi- 
 tudes pouring forth their joy and gratitude. Even 
 the most embittered enemies of Savonarola were 
 silenced. They were almost ready to confess that, 
 for once at least, his predictions had been verified. 
 
 Two days later, on the festival of All Saints, 
 Savonarola preached again, exhorting the people to 
 gratitude. Surely the mercy of God must lead them 
 to repentance and amendment. Surely they would 
 now put their trust in God alone. At the same 
 time he warned them against the transports of joy 
 to which they were abandoning themselves. They 
 
282 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 ought not, he said, to be so easily overcome by joy 
 and by sorrow. The next day, All Souls' Day (" the 
 day of the dead "), he preached on the way to die 
 well, and produced a deep impression on his hearers. 
 He then desisted again from preaching. He had 
 obeyed the call of duty ; but he would not further 
 give his enemies occasion to censure him for dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 The Pope did not delay for a moment to take 
 further action against the man who was resolved 
 ever to cross his designs. On the 7th of November 
 a new brief was issued, addressed to all the Domini- 
 cans of Tuscany. Instead of reuniting them to the 
 congregation of Lombardy, the Pope now proposed 
 to form a new Tusco-Koman congregation, with a 
 vicar of its own, who should be elected every two 
 years by the various priors of the new congregation, 
 without, however, derogating from the authority of 
 the Vicar-General at Kome. For the first two years 
 the Pope would himself nominate the Cardinal of 
 Naples, who had always been friendly to S. Mark's 
 and its prior. The Pope had outdone himself in 
 the astuteness of his policy. He had heard Savo- 
 narola's remonstrances; he would not unite the 
 hostile congregations. He would give them a vicar 
 who was a known friend of their own. But there 
 was something beyond all this. Such a scheme 
 would annihilate the independence of S. Mark's, 
 and render Savonarola dependent upon the new 
 vicar, who might after two years be the creature of 
 his adversaries. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND SAVONAROLA. 283 
 
 In this emergency Savonarola again put forth 
 a protest, not this time addressed to the Pope, but 
 to the public at large. In this pamphlet, entitled 
 "An Apology for the Congregation of S. Mark," 
 he declared that the proposed union was "im- 
 possible, unreasonable, injurious." The brothers 
 of S. Mark should not be obliged to accept it. The 
 order had been obtained by false accusations, and 
 therefore it became a duty to resist a command 
 which was contrary to charity. "When the con- 
 science rejects a command received from one's 
 superiors, it is necessary first to resist and humbly 
 to correct the error ; but if that does not suffice, 
 it is then necessary to do as S. Paul did, who 
 * withstood Peter to the face before them all.'" 
 There could be no uncertainty as to the meaning 
 of those words. The immediate dangers which had 
 threatened Leghorn now passed away. The Emperor 
 abandoned his undertaking against Florence and 
 returned to Germany, complaining bitterly of the 
 imtrustworthiness of his allies. Savonarola, appa- 
 rently abandoning all hope of a reconciliation with 
 the Pope, again ascended the pulpit on the 26th of 
 November, reminding his hearers of the dangers 
 through which they had passed, and of the debt 
 of gratitude which they owed to their Divine 
 deliverer ; showing also the blessings of the govern- 
 ment which they enjoyed. 
 
 He now commenced his sermons on the prophet 
 Ezekiel, eight of which were preached in this 
 Advent, the remainder in the following Lent of 
 
284< 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 1497. In a prayer uttered in the course of his 
 first sermon, he declared his purpose in preaching. 
 " 0 Lord," he said, " I ask of Thee a life of adver- 
 sities. I begin again to preach this morning, only 
 to repeat that which I have already said, and to 
 confirm it anew; and I am willing here to lay 
 down my life." Turning to the people, he said, 
 " If I depart from this, say that this brother con- 
 tradicts Grod, and lies in his throat ; and stone me 
 and cast me out of this pulpit." 
 
 In this strain he continued throughout the season 
 of Advent, repeating the lessons of religion and 
 politics which he had so often inculcated before. 
 The year ended with increased power and popu- 
 larity to the Frate, but also with multiplied dangers. 
 Henceforth the struggle with the Pope was to be 
 looked upon as unending. Did the Frate hope that 
 the wished-for council might meet, and Alexander 
 be deposed, and a better take his place, and the 
 Church be renovated? It may be so. But it is 
 equally certain that he saw clearly enough the 
 other alternative; and the prospect of a violent 
 death was now seldom absent from his mind. 
 
( 285 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 THE BURNING OF THE "VANITIES." 
 
 In his recent conflict with the Pope, Savonarola had 
 received his chief support from the Ten, although it 
 is apparent that the Signoria had not been hostile to 
 him, and had not failed to use his influence with the 
 people when the necessities of the republic seemed 
 to require it. It was an evidence of the position 
 which he now held among the citizens, obtained 
 by his labours* and the effect produced by the 
 marvellous relief of Leghorn, that, in the beginning 
 of the year 1497, a Signoria devoted to his interest 
 was elected, and Francesco Valori was appointed 
 Gonfaloniere. 
 
 This is that Francesco Valori of whom we have 
 heard as at first a supporter of the Medici, and one 
 of the five citizens sent by Lorenzo to restrain the 
 Frate in his style of preaching — the same who 
 afterwards became one of the foremost opponents of 
 the dominant family when they were driven from 
 Florence, and one of the most faithful and attached 
 friends of Savonarola. He was a man of undoubted 
 
286 
 
 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 courage ; and, if his discretion had equalled his 
 bravery, he might have used this opportunity to 
 repress the dissensions which were rending the city. 
 
 Savonarola suggested that the constitution of the 
 greater council should be so modified as to exclude 
 those who plotted against the republic. Valori 
 thought the best manner of guarding against such 
 danger was to secure a larger representation of the 
 people, and for this purpose he reduced the age 
 at which those otherwise qualified for election might 
 be admitted into the council from thirty to twenty- 
 four. His object was, of course, to counteract the 
 influence of the aristocratic party, who were the 
 most dangerous enemies of the constitution ; but 
 the actual effect of the measure was to introduce the 
 younger members of the Arrahhiati, who have already 
 been mentioned as the most violently opposed to the 
 teaching and the policy of Savonarola. 
 
 There can be little doubt, in these days, that the 
 great mistake which was made by Savonarola was 
 the attempt to repress every kind of immorality, 
 and those amusements which he regarded as pro- 
 ductive of immorality, by physical force, and by 
 the arm of the law. It would be utterly false to 
 describe him as of a persecuting or intolerant spirit ; 
 but the horror inspired in his mind, from his earliest 
 years, by the frightful immorality which he saw 
 prevailing everywhere, led him to imagine that 
 only the strongest measures could be effective and 
 successful. 
 
 In his opinions on these subjects he was neither 
 
THE BURNING OF THE "VANITIES." 287 
 
 better nor worse than his best contemporaries. At 
 that time, and for long afterwards, it was thought 
 right and expedient to repress by law whatever was 
 regarded as hurtful to the community. On this 
 ground heresy was punished, and customs which 
 seemed in any way dangerous to the social, the 
 moral, or the religious interests of a country. 
 Those who suffered from what they regarded as 
 persecution were themselves ready to persecute 
 when their turn arrived to wield the power of 
 the sword. In the English Puritan revolution 
 these principles were the source of the unity and 
 strength of the party which then came into power. 
 They were resolved to set up the kingdom of God 
 upon earth, and they carried out their resolu- 
 tion with the Word in their mouths, and a two- 
 edged sword in their hands. Their enemies can 
 hardly deny that this was their original intention, 
 however they may accuse them of a growing 
 lust of power, of unreality and hypocrisy. In a 
 world like this, and with creatures like ourselves, 
 such efforts must fail. We have now discovered 
 that it must be so. We have learnt that to paralyse 
 personal liberty, beyond what is required for the pro- 
 tection of others, is to induce evils far greater than 
 any which we are able to repress. To put a stop 
 to all amusements is to drive those who will have 
 them to deception, and is very likely to engender 
 vices as base, because more morbid, than those which 
 are exterminated. We have learnt that, to a great 
 extent, we must leave it to the individual conscience 
 
288 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 to decide whether an amusement is innocent or 
 hurtful. That Savonarola did not grasp these 
 principles was nothing wonderful or discreditable. 
 They did not belong to his time. Holding that 
 vice should not be tolerated, and holding this 
 conviction in a most vicious age, he went to war 
 with the overwhelming majority of his countrymen. 
 It was clear to himself that they must be converted, 
 or he must perish. He would not — he could not 
 abandon his design, and he saw with ever-increasing 
 clearness, with ever- deepening sorrow, what the end 
 must be. 
 
 The prohibition of balls and festivals enraged the 
 younger members of the Arrahbiati beyond all power 
 of self-control. To them life without pleasure was 
 insupportable, and the Frate was resolved that they 
 should not have their pleasures in their own evil 
 way. In order to carry on the contest with greater 
 unity and vigour, they formed themselves into com- 
 panies, and placed at their head one of their own 
 number, named Dolfo Spini. These companies went 
 about armed, and committed assaults on the Pia- 
 gnoni, as they had opportunity. From their organi- 
 zation they were called Coynpagnacci. Many of 
 these young men, who had had only an indirect 
 influence on the government, now became members 
 of the greater council, and consequently more 
 dangerous than ever. 
 
 About the beginning of this year Savonarola was 
 anxiously occupied in preparing for publication that 
 which was perhaps his most famous composition, 
 
THE BURNING OF THE "VANITIES." 28^ 
 
 Tlie Triumph of the Cross." In this way he was 
 withdrawn from his more active labours among those 
 who were under his spiritual guidance. His deputy^ 
 at such times, whether in the pulpit or as an ad- 
 ministrator of the affairs of the convent, was ordi- 
 narily Era Domenico. This brother had preached 
 in his place when the strife with Eome had first 
 begun. It is said that he was but a feeble echo 
 of his great master ; but he was a true echo, and 
 a faithful and devoted friend. He had the most 
 unswerving faith in his superior. He knew him for 
 a man of God, a man who lived above this world, 
 its cares and its interests. He saw how deeply he 
 was himself penetrated by those convictions to which 
 he gave such eloquent and powerful utterance. He 
 went beyond his master in thinking that he was 
 endowed with miraculous powers, as well as with 
 prophetic gifts. If he was too credulous, this fault 
 may easily be forgiven when his sublime devotion 
 is remembered, a devotion which became touching 
 and heroic at the end. 
 
 As the time of the Carnival drew near, it became 
 clear that the Compagnaeei were determined that 
 it should be celebrated as in the days of the Medici. 
 The songs of Lorenzo should be sung, the indecent 
 dances should be danced, the games should be re- 
 sumed, and everything, down to the most ii-rational 
 of their old practices,* should be as it had been 
 
 * Such as the throwing of stones by the children of the city 
 — one of those absurd and dangerous practices which Savonarola 
 had stopped when he organized his bands of children. 
 
 JL U 
 
290 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 before tlie Fiagnoni had interrupted their pleasures. 
 To Fra Domenico had been given the training of 
 the children who had played a part so important 
 in the previous Carnival. When he knew of the 
 preparations of the ComjMgnacci, he determined to 
 meet them with preparations of his own. Day after 
 day he drilled his youthful bands, preached sermons 
 to them, and wrote them letters. By means of 
 new laws, passed by the friendly Signoria, he carried 
 out the reforms which Savonarola had commenced 
 in the preceding year. 
 
 It was determined to make an onslaught more 
 thorough and sweeping on the luxurious and las- 
 civious manners and customs of the people, and 
 especially of the women. The children scoured the 
 town, and, knocking at the doors of the rich, asked 
 to have given up to them the things which they 
 had been taught to designate as vanities (vanita) or 
 anathema. Everything which ministered to luxury, 
 everything which tended to immorality, was to be 
 given up — masks, dresses with immodest figures 
 upon them, musical instruments, books containing 
 indecent or immoral tales. It was determined, by 
 a solemn and public Auto da fe, to declare before 
 the world that Christ was King of Florence, and 
 these things should not be allowed to defile His 
 kingdom. 
 
 To whatever extent the will of Savonarola may 
 have been resisted during the Carnival, all were 
 prepared, when its last day arrived, February 7th, 
 to think of nothing but the religious festival which 
 
THE BURNING OF THE "VANITIES." 291 
 
 was being prepared. Burlamacclii gives a detailed 
 account of the proceedings of the day. In the 
 morning multitudes of men and women received 
 the communion from the hand of Savonarola. At 
 two o'clock they came together and formed a solemn 
 procession, which was to traverse the streets, finish- 
 ing at the Piazza della Signoria, where the great 
 event of the day was to take place. Here is 
 Burlamacchi's description of the scene: — "In the 
 procession the boys carried a bambino " (he says it 
 was devotissimo), " full of splendour, which gave the 
 benediction with the right hand, and with the left 
 held out the crown of thorns, the nails, and the 
 cross ; it was of stupendous beauty, being the work 
 of that most rare sculptor Donatello. This was 
 supported by four most beautiful angels upon a 
 portable altar, very rich and wonderfully adorned, 
 and over it a most beautiful baldachino was sup- 
 ported by twelve children. Around these were 
 other children, who sang psalms and hymns with 
 sweetest melody. Before went the other children, 
 walking two and two in order. Behind came the 
 guardians with their officials, men who bore silver 
 vessels to receive alms for the poor of S. Martin, 
 who received more in that day than they ordinarily 
 did in a whole year. Behind these came the men 
 with small red crosses in their hands. Last of all 
 came the girls and all the other women." 
 
 They took their way first to the Duomo, where 
 they sang " the most beautiful lauds," and all the 
 people made an offering of Florence to the Queen 
 
292 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 of Heaven. They then proceeded to the piazza, 
 where complete preparations had been made for the 
 work they had in hand. A huge bonfire had been 
 erected in the centre of the square, in the shape of 
 an eight-sided pyramid, which rose to the height 
 of thirty braccia,* and measured at its base 120 
 braccia. Each side had fifteen steps, upon which 
 were deposited all the vanitct collected during the 
 Carnival ; and a huge image surmounted the pyra- 
 mid, which was filled with inflammable materials. 
 Each of the eight sides had objects arranged with 
 some attempt at classification. On the first were 
 dresses with immodest figures ; on the second, pic- 
 tures of the beauties of Florence ; on another, chess- 
 boards and cards ; on another, music, harps, lutes, 
 guitars ; on another, the vanifd worn by women, false 
 hair, phials, looking-glasses, perfumes ; on another, 
 lascivious books written by Latin and Italian poets, 
 among them Boccaccio and others ; on another, masks, 
 beards, and other ornaments used in the Carnival ; 
 finally, pictures and sculptures in ivory and alabaster. 
 
 The piazza was crowded with people, and the 
 children were arranged on the Binghiera and under 
 the Loggia dei Lanzi, where they kept singing re- 
 ligious songs and denouncing the Carnival. At a 
 signal given, the four guardians set fire to four 
 corners of the pyramid ; the smoke and flames leapt 
 up into the air ; the trumpeters of the Signoria blew 
 a blast ; the bells of the palazzo rang out ; and the 
 multitude raised a shout of rejoicing. 
 
 * A hraccio was three spans. 
 
THE BURNING OF THE "VANITIES." 
 
 293 
 
 We can imagine that these transactions were 
 regarded with very different emotions by the on- 
 lookers. Doubtless there were many who heartily 
 participated in the religious enthusiasm which had 
 been evoked by Savonarola — many who now, as in 
 the former Carnival, freely gave up useless ornaments 
 to be disposed of for the benefit of the poor ; many, 
 too, who burnt "with sacred rage" those things which, 
 in their past life, had ministered to their lusts. But 
 there were others who regarded the scene with very 
 different feelings — some who had parted with their 
 vanities from fear of those terrible children who 
 went in bands to execute the will of the Frate ; 
 some, probably, who had utterly refused to give 
 them up. To very many these young tyrants must 
 have appeared in the light of a simple nuisance. 
 Burlamacchi relates, with a gravity bordering upon 
 the ludicrous, that "notwithstanding, these good 
 children endured a most cruel persecution from ill- 
 disposed and lukewarm men ; which they bore with 
 great serenity of mind, and with so much joy, that 
 they filled every one with astonishment, and seemed 
 nothing less than angels of Paradise." 
 
 It is impossible to form a judgement on an event 
 which happened in times so different from our own, 
 and in a season of such intense religious excitement. 
 Those who consider all the circumstances and the 
 customs of the people among whom it took place 
 will probably experience no great astonishment. If 
 we could enter more fully into the feelings of that 
 day, we might be led to understand that it was a 
 
294 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 spectacle in no small degree calculated to produce 
 a wholesome effect upon those by whom it was 
 witnessed. The greatest danger was, perhaps, that 
 it might be drawn into a precedent ; and we shall 
 see that a similar " burning " took place at the next 
 Carnival. It is a remarkable fact, however, that 
 none of the contemporaries of Savonarola should 
 have brought this forward among the offences 
 charo-ed a^-ainst him. 
 
 The demonstration has not fared so well at the 
 hands of more recent writers. Savonarola has been 
 denounced as a Vandal, a barbarian, who had 
 destroyed antiquities and curiosities of priceless 
 value ; he has been represented as an ignorant and 
 blinded fanatic, who looked upon literature and art 
 with contempt and detestation. 
 
 It is very possible — it is indeed probable — that 
 Burlamacchi, who looks back upon these days with 
 all the delight of an ascetic, with all the satisfaction 
 of a religious who knew that his own order had 
 made a holocaust of the vanities of the age, was 
 guilty of unconscious exaggeration. For instance, 
 he represents the number of children present as 
 being nearly equal to the whole population of 
 Florence. He speaks of a Venetian merchant as 
 offering an incredible sum of money for the vanita 
 which were consumed in the fire. But there is no 
 doubt that there was a considerable destruction of 
 costly dresses, ornaments, and books ; and in judging 
 Savonarola we must have regard to his motives and 
 to the state of the society to which he belonged. 
 
THE BUENING OF THE "VANITIES." 
 
 295 
 
 If the Auto da fe had been meant as a condemna- 
 tion of all poetry, the Frate might plead that he 
 had at least the favourite author of the new literary 
 school on his side ; for Plato could find no place for 
 poets in his ideal republic. But there is no founda- 
 tion for such a charge. From his youth he had 
 himself written hymns and poems, and had procured 
 hymns to be composed for the Carnival, to be sung 
 in place of the old lascivious songs. 
 
 If it be charged against him that he caused to be 
 burned the works of Boccaccio, one of the most 
 elegant of Italian prose writers, we need not urge 
 the somewhat unfavourable literary judgement pro- 
 nounced on Boccaccio by the late Gino Capponi. It 
 is certain that Savonarola, in this case, thought 
 little of the literary merits or demerits of the books 
 which he prepared for the flames. It may be more 
 to the point to ask whether his accusers would like 
 to have Boccaccio as the favourite author in the 
 libraries of their daughters, or whether they would 
 tolerate the reading of the Becamerone in their 
 families. It is said that it was one of the favourite 
 books of the nuns at this period ; and it is not to be 
 believed that it tended to improve the moral purity 
 of the convents. Savonarola was often well-nio^h 
 maddened by the thought of the foul and bestial 
 streams of sensuality which were flowing through 
 this fair city, almost under his eyes ; and the burn- 
 ing of every indecent volume in the world would 
 have seemed to him a small price to pay for the 
 salvation of one human soul, for the rescuing of 
 
296 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 some of those little ones Avhom lie was striving to 
 protect from the evil that was in the world, from the 
 moral contamination which was prevailing every- 
 where, and which it seemed almost impossible to 
 escape. Was Savonarola the only reformer who 
 ever burnt indecent books? History tells us of 
 some who burnt heretical men. To ourselves it may 
 seem unwise and impolitic to make this display of 
 our condemnation; but there are others, and those 
 men not destitute of learning and piety, who think 
 such an exhibition may be edifying. A generation 
 has not elapsed since a book directed against divine 
 revelation was burnt in the hall of a college in one 
 of our great universities, and this in the middle of 
 the nineteenth century ; but what danger has 
 existed in the Oxford of these days which could 
 for a moment be compared with the condition of 
 Florence at the end of the fifteenth century ? 
 
 An interesting proof was given this very year that 
 Savonarola was not to be classed with the fanatic 
 who burnt the Alexandrian library, on the principle 
 that it could be of no value because all that was good 
 in it must be contained in the Koran, and that 
 which was contrary to the Mahometan Bible must be 
 mischievous. In consequence of the financial straits 
 of the republic, it became necessary to dispose of 
 the library of the Medici, which had become the 
 property of the State when the family had been 
 declared rebels and their goods confiscated. There 
 was great danger that this magnificent collection of 
 books would now be dispersed. Such a loss would 
 
THE BURNING OF THE "VANITIES." 
 
 297 
 
 have been irreparable : there was no library in 
 Europe which at that time contained so complete 
 a collection of Greek and Latin classics. It hap- 
 pened that the convent of S. Mark's could then 
 command a considerable sum of money, in conse- 
 quence of the sale of all unnecessary property which 
 Savonarola had recommended. They agreed to pay 
 two thousand florins at once, and to be responsible 
 for an additional sum of one thousand ; and thus 
 they secured to Florence that Bihlioteca Laurenziana, 
 which is to this day one of its principal glories. 
 And this was the work of a man who has been 
 represented to be an ignorant fanatic, the enemy of 
 literature and art; and the transaction took place 
 in the very year which witnessed the hruciamento 
 delle vanita. 
 
 The defence of Savonarola from the charge of 
 despising the arts of painting and sculpture is 
 equally easy. If he set his face against the prosti- 
 tution of these arts, it is equally certain that he 
 desired to see them consecrated to the service of 
 morality and religion. To speak of Savonarola as 
 a mere ignorant iconoclast is to ignore the clearest 
 evidence to the contrary. The walls of S. Mark at 
 this very day are adorned with the same sacred 
 pictures upon which the eyes of its greatest prior 
 must have rested. Instead of being the enemy of 
 art, he was the friend, the patron, the guide of artists. 
 One of his dearest friends was the great painter 
 known as Fra Bartolommeo, a member of his own 
 convent. Lorenzo di Credi, according to Yasari, was 
 
298 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 a "partisan of the sect of Fra Girolamo." Michael 
 Angelo, who long afterwards took part in the same 
 struggle for freedom in which Savonarola was so 
 prominent, was one of his hearers in his youth, and 
 in his old age took pleasure in reading his sermons 
 and other writings. Vasari, who was not a contem- 
 porary, and who is not always to be depended upon 
 when he relates the events of his own age, records 
 that Fra Bartolommeo, or Baccio della Porta, as he 
 was commonly called, burnt some of his own 
 pictures among the vanitd. If this were so, we may 
 be assured that he acted on grounds which satisfied 
 his own conscience. One proof of his lasting attach- 
 ment to his master is the well-known fact, that 
 for four years after his death he entirely abstained 
 from painting. 
 
 So far was Savonarola from making an indiscri- 
 minate attack on literature and art that he actually 
 taught and wrote on the subject of poetry and of 
 painting. But, while he defended poetry and de- 
 monstrated its utility, he declared that there was 
 in his own time "a false kind of pretended poets, 
 who did nothing but follow in the footsteps of the 
 Greeks and Eomans, using the same forms, the same 
 metre, and invoking the same gods ; nay more, 
 finding it impossible to use any other names or 
 words than those which were sanctioned by the 
 ancients. But he did not, for this or any other 
 reason, include all the poets of Greece and Eome 
 under one sweeping condemnation. He says that 
 some of them condemned base actions and exalted 
 
THE BUKNING OF THE VANITIES." 299 
 
 those which were generous and brave. " These," he 
 says, "have made a good use of poetry, and I 
 neither can nor ought to condemn them." 
 
 So far was he from depreciating the beautiful 
 in nature and art that he took pains to explain 
 its true character, and declared that it was a 
 kind of reflection of the beauty of the Maker of all. 
 A holy soul, he said, actually participated in the 
 beauty of God, and diffused His celestial beauty 
 throughout the body. But he had little toleration 
 for the delight in mere material beauty, and in the 
 endeavour to increase it without regard to that 
 higher spiritual beauty which was the true glory of 
 man and of woman. He told them that women who 
 gloried in their ornaments, their hair, and their 
 hands, were simply void of reason (hrutte). If they 
 would see true beauty, they must look upon a face 
 that was purified by devotion and prayer. That 
 ^vould be a reflection of the beauty of God Himself^ 
 a countenance that would be almost angelic. 
 
 From these principles he took occasion to con- 
 demn many painters who made sacred subjects a 
 mere vehicle for the display of dresses and orna- 
 ments, and, still worse, took for their models those 
 who were distinguished for mere physical beauty, 
 and in some cases those who were notorious for their 
 evil life, instead of trying to represent countenances 
 of elevated and spiritual loveliness, such as might 
 raise the thoughts of the beholders to better things. 
 " Painters," he exclaimed, " in this you do wrong ; 
 and if you knew, as I do, the scandal that results 
 
500 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 from it, you certainly would not do it." Sucl? 
 things were a public injury. "You bring all the 
 ' vanities ' into the churches," he exclaims. " Do 
 you think that the Virgin Mary should be depicted 
 in the manner in which you paint her ? I tell you 
 that she went attired like a poor, humble woman." 
 
 In the Lent which followed the Carnival of 1497 
 and the Auto da fe on the piazza, Savonarola com- 
 pleted the course of sermons on Ezekiel which he 
 had begun in the previous Advent. In these ser- 
 mons his favourite topics were prominent — the need 
 of love and unity and holiness, the evils of luxury 
 and self-indulgence. But throughout the whole 
 course there was evidence of the expectation of a new 
 struggle with Kome. It came at first in a form for 
 which he was not quite prepared, except that he was 
 always expecting to hear of the plots of the Medici ; 
 and when this danger passed away, he found himself 
 confronted by another, the deadly enmity of the 
 Supreme Pontiff, which led to one last conflict — a 
 conflict that was to end only. when the man who 
 was its object had passed beyond the bounds of 
 earthly strife. 
 
( 301 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TREASON. 
 
 After the failure of his attempt upon Florence^ 
 in the autumn of 1496, Piero de' Medici had 
 returned to Rome, determined to wait his time, 
 and to watch for such changes in the affairs of the 
 republic as might seem favourable to his hopes. 
 His life at Rome was of the most scandalous descrip- 
 tion — too scandalous, in fact, to be described. Riot- 
 ing, drunkenness, gambling, sins of the flesh which 
 cannot be named, consumed his nights; and half 
 of the day was spent in sleeping off last night's de- 
 bauch. His wastefulness and extravagance plunged 
 him in debt, from which the generosity of his 
 brother, the cardinal, was insufficient to preserve 
 him. There was hardly a vice with which he was 
 not familiar: he was destitute even of the virtue 
 of tyrants — gratitude to the agents of their tyranny. 
 Men who devoted themselves to his interests were 
 used, and cast away when they seemed likely to 
 be troublesome. Some of them were despatched 
 with poison or the dagger. But, amid all his reck- 
 
302 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 lessness and self-indulgence, lie deeply cherished 
 the design of returning to Florence, and nursed 
 a most bitter enmity to its inhabitants. One of 
 his happiest meditations was the thought of the 
 vengeance he should wreak on the men whom he 
 considered the authors of his misfortunes. The 
 work of reprisals executed by his ancestors upon 
 their enemies in former days should be outdone 
 by himself. The exiles and confiscations which 
 followed the restoration of Cosimo after his expul- 
 sion by the Albizzi, the deaths which were inflicted 
 after the conspiracy of the Pazzi, were to be a mere 
 trifle to what he would do when his turn came. He 
 would take effectual means to prevent another 
 expulsion from Florence. He did not even pretend 
 to have the slightest regard for the interests of the 
 city. When he was told that he could govern very 
 well with a council of twenty or thirty citizens, he 
 replied that he wanted no council at all : he would 
 prefer to rule badly by his own counsel than well 
 by that of others. Trusting to the support which 
 would be afforded to him by the princes of Italy, 
 to the large party still attached to his family in 
 Florence, and to the chance of dissensions and 
 divisions among the citizens, he was resolved, when 
 the fit time should arrive, to force his entrance by 
 the power of arms. 
 
 Circumstances arose sooner than he could have 
 expected to give reality to his hopes. The two 
 months during which the Signoria elected in January, 
 1497, held office were coming to an end. Francesco 
 
TREASON. 
 
 303 
 
 Yalori and his fellow-magistrates had attempted too 
 much, and had chilled the ardour of some of their 
 supporters. The quarrels and contests between the 
 Arrdbhiati and the Fiagnoni had given the Bigi, 
 the Medicean party, an opportunity of carrying on 
 their secret plottings and maturing their plans. 
 Some of the Arrahhiati, despairing of being able 
 to carry out their own designs, began to make 
 common cause with the Bigi as the only means of 
 destroying the influence of the Fiagnoni. Fra 
 Mariano da Gennazzano, the ancient enemy of 
 Savonarola, again appears on the scene. While at 
 Kome, he lost no opportunity of keeping alive the 
 exasperated feelings of the Pope; and now he 
 suddenly presented himself in Florence. 
 
 At the beginning of March a new Signoria was 
 elected, by whom Bernardo del Nero, a citizen of 
 reputation and eminence, but a devoted adherent 
 of the Medici, was chosen Gonfaloniere. The Bigi 
 had for some time acted as a party in the great 
 council, standing aloof from the Fiagnoni^ with 
 whom they had professed to co-operate. By degrees 
 they became more bold and outspoken in their 
 opposition to the existing state of things ; but their 
 joy knew no bounds when they had secured the 
 election of one of their party to the post of chief 
 magistrate of the State. Still they forbore to 
 reveal their designs, and secretly despatched a 
 messenger to Eome, to bring word to Piero of the 
 happy turn which affairs had taken at Florence. 
 He knew that he could depend upon the Pope and 
 
 4 
 
304 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 the other members of the Italian league, and he 
 now received the assurance that a large number of 
 the citizens would declare themselves on his side 
 if he could force his way into the city. 
 
 Thus assured, Piero began to collect men and 
 money. Some of his more cautious friends at 
 Florence counselled delay, as they were by no 
 means sure that the state of the popular mind 
 was favourable to his attempt. But Piero could 
 bear no longer suspense, and set out for Siena, the 
 place appointed for meeting his fellow-conspirators. 
 There he found the magistrates on his side, and he 
 at once determined to make his way to Florence, 
 with 1300 men who had gathered to his standard. 
 To prevent the disclosure of his plan, he endea- 
 voured to stop all the travellers who were on the 
 same road ; but a fall of rain arrested his progress, 
 and gave time for some of the peasants to reach 
 Florence by a circuitous route, when they instantly 
 gave the alarm to the government. 
 
 It became at once apparent that the city was 
 not prepared to welcome back its old masters. The 
 citizens flew to arms; and the members of the 
 Signoria who were favourable to the attempt were 
 forced to conceal their sentiments. The gates were 
 closed, the walls were armed, and all preparations 
 were made to meet the enemy. In this moment 
 of suspense, one of the Signoria, named Filippo 
 Arrigucci, a friend of Savonarola, sent off Girolamo 
 Benivieni, the poet who had written the hymns 
 for the Carnival, to consult the Frate respecting 
 
TREASON. 
 
 305 
 
 the fortunes of the city. The story is told, not 
 only by the contemporaneous historian, Nardi, but 
 in a letter afterwards written by Benirieni himself 
 to Pope Clement VII. ; so that there can be no 
 reasonable doubt as to the facts. He relates that, 
 even before he had been able to deliver his 
 message, Savonarola turned to him with the words 
 of Christ to S. Peter: " Modicse fidei, quare duhi- 
 tasti ? (0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou 
 doubt?) Tell the Signoria that Piero de' Medici 
 will come to the gates and will turn back again, 
 without obtaining any result." The attempt failed 
 utterly and ridiculously. Piero, finding the gates 
 shut against him, and the whole city prepared 
 as one man to resist his entrance, retired without 
 drawing a sword. It was the end of May, and, to 
 give the last blow to his hopes, on the very day 
 that he appeared before the gates of Florence, a 
 new Signoria was elected, pledged to resist the 
 attempts of the Medici and to punish the con- 
 spirators within the city. 
 
 Although their attempt had failed, the con- 
 spirators did not abandon their design, as we shall 
 see hereafter, and the hatred of the enemies of 
 Savonarola waxed still more fierce. The govern- 
 ment now fell chiefly into the hands of the Arrab- 
 hiati, who as a party were opposed to the JBigi, 
 but were still more hostile to the Piagnoni. The 
 Compagnacci, under their leader, Dolfo Spini, 
 began to consider how they could best give effect 
 to their enmity against S. Mark's. Fra Mariano 
 
 I. X 
 
306 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 was about this time making one of his accustomed 
 attacks on his rival in a sermon which he preached 
 before the Pope. " Cut off," he cried out, " cut off, 
 most blessed Father, this monster from the Church 
 of God." To attacks like these Savonarola always 
 replied with the greatest gentleness and self-control. 
 His wrath, his denunciations, were reserved for the 
 enemies of God and of the liberties of Florence. 
 For his personal enemies he had always forbearance 
 and charity. This generosity only drove his adver- 
 saries to greater rage and violence. 
 
 Savonarola, who had for some time abstained 
 from preaching in public, had determined to speak 
 to the people from the pulpit of the Duomo on the 
 following Ascension Day (May 4, 1497). The new 
 Signori, whether in sincerity yielding to the known 
 wishes of the people, or hojDing that things might 
 fall out unfavourably for the Frate, gave the 
 assurance that the sermon might safely be delivered. 
 The Comioagnacci, who had been for some time 
 seeking an opportunity of attacking him, first of 
 all thought of making an attempt upon his life on 
 this Ascension Day. Among other schemes sug- 
 gested, there was a proposal to blow up the pulpit 
 while he was preaching ; but they feared to bring 
 down the public indignation upon themselves. De- 
 sisting from this scheme, they next considered in 
 what way they might best expose their adversary to 
 ridicule and contempt. First, they collected all 
 kinds of filth and placed it in the pulpit; then they 
 drove nails into the wood, at the places where the 
 
TREASON. 
 
 307 
 
 Frate was accustomed to strike his hands on the 
 pulpit when preaching. Finally, they set up in his 
 place the skin of an ass. Their method was as 
 childish as it was brutal ; but they hoped that, in the 
 confusion which would certainly ensue, they might 
 find an opportunity of carrying out their design 
 against the preacher's life. 
 
 These projects could not be kept secret ; the 
 whole city was full of confusion, and on the vigil of 
 the Ascension the Signori gave out a decree that no 
 one should interrupt the preaching on the following 
 day. The friends of Savonarola were far from being- 
 reassured by these precautions : they came and 
 entreated him to abstain from preaching; but he 
 received the advice with indignation. " I cannot," 
 he said, " from fear of man, leave the people without 
 a sermon on that day on which the Lord commanded 
 His disciples to go into all the world and preach the 
 Gospel." 
 
 On the morning of Ascension Day the Fiagnoni 
 went to the cathedi'al and removed all the filth 
 which had been heaped up in the pulpit. Just 
 before twelve o'clock Savonarola came out of the 
 convent, accompanied by his friends. All the bio- 
 graphers tell of the remarkable appearance presented 
 by the congregation assembled in the cathedral — 
 the Compagnacci, richly attii'ed and perfumed, with 
 a smile of scorn and derision on their faces, con- 
 trasting strikingly with the modest and devout 
 appearance of the Fiagnoni. The preacher began 
 by speaking of the power of faith. "Faith," he 
 
308 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 said, " is omnipotent, and despises the life of earth 
 because it is assured of the life of heaven. The 
 times predicted are now drawing near — the hour of 
 danger, when it will be seen who is truly on the 
 Lord's side. The wicked thought to hinder me 
 from preaching to-day; but they must know that 
 I have never shrunk from my duty through fear 
 of men. No man on earth, be he great or small 
 can boast of having hindered me in my office. 
 O Lord, deliver me from these adversaries, who call 
 me a seducer; deliver my soul, for I have no fear 
 for my body. I call as witnesses the Lord, the 
 Virgin, the angels, and the saints, that the things 
 revealed by me come from God, and that I have 
 received them by divine inspiration, in the vigils 
 which I have passed for the good of this people 
 which now plots against me." 
 
 He then warns the righteous of the trials which 
 are coming upon them, wars and excommunications, 
 the sword and martyrdom. " It is the will of God," 
 he goes on, "that I should be the first to endure 
 them. I have already told you that I shall meet 
 with great ingratitude, and the lukewarm " (i Tepidi, 
 who are often heard of during these two years) " will 
 treat me as did the brothers of Joseph, who sold him 
 to the Egyptian merchants. These say that I am 
 no prophet; but they are only bringing about the 
 fulfilment of my predictions. I repeat to you that 
 Italy will be devastated by barbarous nations, and 
 when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden 
 and repeated destruction shall come upon this per- 
 
TREASON. 
 
 309 
 
 verse Italy. But, ye righteous, make your prayers 
 unto the Lord, and ye shall have His help. 
 
 " And as for the wicked " — here a great murmur- 
 ing arose throughout the church — "Lord, be not 
 angry with them ; convert them, forgive them, for 
 they know not what they do. Ye believe, 0 sinful 
 men, that you are fighting against the Frate, and 
 ye are making war on the Lord ; because I do not 
 fight against you from hatred of you, but from love 
 of the Lord. You say that I sow discord ; but Christ 
 came not to bring peace on the earth, but a sword. 
 Why do you not turn to virtue, for then you would 
 have peace? But you say I have no right to 
 preach, for the Signoria has prohibited me ? That is 
 not true, nor ought I to abstain from preaching from 
 fear or at the command of men; I shall be silent 
 only when my preaching may do harm, when I shall 
 fear to cause scandal." 
 
 The enemies of the Frate seemed determined to 
 take him at his word, for at this moment a great 
 crash resounded through the church ; and instantly 
 noise, confusion, and disorder were everywhere, and 
 many rushed out of the building. The cause of 
 the uproar was a certain Francesco Cei, one of the 
 Comjpagnacci, who had laid hold of the alms-box 
 of the church and dashed it to the ground, while 
 another beat upon a drum, some knocked upon the 
 benches, and others slammed the doors. Savonarola's 
 friends rose up to defend him, some gathering round 
 the pulpit, others rushing off to procure arms which 
 they had placed ready in a neighbouring street. 
 
310 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 These, to the number of sixty, speedily returned 
 fully armed, and took their place around the pulpit. 
 This movement only increased the alarm of the 
 multitude who took the armed men for Compagnacci. 
 In the midst of the confusion, which now became 
 greater than ever, two of the Arrdbhiati, who were 
 also members of "the Eight," thinking that their 
 dignity would protect them, endeavoured to make 
 their way to the pulpit, with the intention of putting 
 Savonarola to death. But they found his adherents 
 ready to do battle in his defence ; and one of them, 
 named Giugni, received a heavy blow on the ear — an 
 insult, it is said, never previously inflicted on one of 
 " the Eight." 
 
 It was a terrible moment for the preacher. 
 " Wait," he cried aloud ; " have patience." Then 
 raising the crucifix aloft, he exclaimed : " Hope in 
 this, and fear nothing." But he soon saw that it 
 was impossible to gain a hearing, and therefore, 
 kneeling down in the pulpit, he prayed for a few 
 minutes in silence ; and when the tumult had a little 
 subsided, he came down and placed himself in the 
 midst of his defenders, who received him with loud 
 shouts of joy. Some held up their swords and 
 spears, others their crosses ; and all accompanied him 
 to the convent, with loud cries of Viva Cristo, 
 their favourite watchword. In the garden of the 
 convent he concluded the sermon which had been 
 so rudely interrupted. He told his hearers that 
 they need not fear — the wicked would fall into 
 the pit which they had digged for others. " Then," 
 
TREASON. 
 
 311 
 
 lie adds, " I will sing praises to the Lord, and peace- 
 fully depart from this life." In spite of the tumult, 
 the sermon was reported by Girolamo Cinozzi, who 
 published it, with an account of all that he had seen 
 in the Duomo during its delivery. 
 
 Savonarola was as good as his word. He would 
 not continue his preaching when it could be only 
 injurious and cause scandals. But he could not 
 refrain from publishing his testimony to the world 
 in another manner ; and therefore he addressed a 
 letter "to all the elect of God and faithful 
 Christians," saying that, in imitation of the Lord, 
 Who often gives place to wrath, he would for a season 
 abstain from preaching ; but, in order that the Word 
 of God might not cease to go through the world, he 
 would say by letter that which he could not utter 
 with his voice. They were not to be troubled, but 
 to rejoice at tribulations. His prophecies would 
 still be verified. His enemies had been trying to 
 procure his excommunication, and, because they had 
 failed, they were making attempts on his life. 
 They must prepare for still more grievous persecu- 
 tions, but their faith would be strengthened to 
 endure them ; and they must pray to God that He 
 would deign anew to open the mouths of His 
 preachers, because when He commands, there is no 
 power which can resist Him. 
 
 The failure of their last effort had not damped 
 the ardour of his persecutors. The real authors of 
 the disturbance were not punished, and many inno- 
 cent persons of the popular party suffered death 
 
312 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 in their place. This was the work of the Eight, 
 whose office it was to carry the law into effect, but 
 who, as we have seen, were themselves implicated 
 in its violation. The Signoria now ordered that 
 no % friar of any order should preach: they went so 
 far as- to consider whether they might not pronounce 
 a sentence of banishment against Savonarola; but 
 the fear of the people deterred them from this out- 
 rage. At the same time, every effort was made by 
 the Arrahhiati to induce the Pope to issue the 
 threatened excommunication, a step which his Holi- 
 ness was the more inclined to take, as he judged, from 
 the disturbance of Ascension Day, that the party of 
 the Frate was less powerful than he had imagined. 
 
 Savonarola resolved to make another attempt to 
 propitiate the man who so unworthily occupied the 
 apostolic chair. He complained respectfully that 
 he had never been heard by the Holy Father, who, 
 on the contrary, had given a too ready ear to the 
 false accusations of his enemies, and had not read 
 his sermons which were printed, and from which he 
 might learn what he had actually preached. He 
 denied the truth of the assertions made by Fra 
 Mariano, and protested his readiness to submit to 
 the judgement of the Church as to whether he had 
 not preached the doctrine of the holy Fathers. 
 " But if," he concludes, " all human help shall fail 
 me, I will put my trust in God, and will make clear 
 to the whole world the iniquity of those who will 
 perhaps be led to repent of the work which they 
 have begun." 
 
TREASON. 
 
 Savonarola wrote this appeal on the 22nd of May,, 
 and did not know that the Pope had issued the brief 
 of excommunication ten days before. The brief — 
 which was addressed, not, according to the ordinary 
 form, to all believers throughout the world, but 
 to the brethren of Santa Annunziata — had been 
 entrusted to a theologian named Giovanni da 
 Camerino; but when the bearer reached Siena,, 
 he stopped there a few days, and fearing that the 
 Frateschi would tear him to pieces when they knew 
 his errand, he went back again, leaving its delivery 
 to other hands, so that it did not reach Florence 
 until near the end of the month. When it did 
 arrive, many of the clergy refused to publish it on 
 account of the irregular manner of its presentation ;. 
 but it was at last posted on the doors of the prin- 
 cipal churches of the town. 
 
 It was a remarkable production. Savonarola was 
 again a " certain Fra Girolamo " who was, according 
 to his own representation, Yicar of S. Mark's in 
 Florence, who had sown pernicious doctrine, to the 
 great scandal and unsettlement and ruin of simple 
 souls who were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. 
 Then it was set forth that the Supreme Pontiff had 
 commanded him that he should entirely cease from 
 preaching, hoping that he would become convinced 
 of his errors, and retrace his dangerous way ; but to 
 this prohibition he had given no heed. Further, he 
 had been commanded, on pain of excommunication,, 
 to imite the convent of S. Mark to the new Tusco- 
 Eoman congregation, founded by a papal brief; but 
 
314 
 
 SIVONAEOLA. 
 
 he had still remained firm in his pertinacity; and 
 therefore the Supreme Pontiff commanded the 
 brethren of the Annnnziata, publicly before the 
 people, to declare him, Era Girolamo, excommuni- 
 cated because "he has not obeyed our apostolic 
 admonitions and commands." 
 
 Although the Pope showed the weakness of his 
 cause in accusing Savonarola of heresy — for there 
 was absolutely nothing in the brief to support such 
 a charge — he still exhibited his subtlety and ability 
 as a statesman by fastening upon the undeniable 
 and undoubted fact that the accused man had not 
 obeyed his commands. It was, of course, perfectly 
 true that those orders had been issued, not with the 
 intention of crushing a heretic, but with the design 
 of shutting the mouth of a political opponent. 
 Still, the charge of flagrant disobedience was a 
 serious one, and Savonarola could not deny that 
 he had evaded the command to proceed to Kome, 
 and that he had taken no steps to unite his convent 
 to the new congregation. As lie could not deny 
 these acts of disobedience, he proceeded to justify 
 or excuse them. On the 19th of June, he wrote 
 an " Epistle against the Surreptitious Excommunica- 
 tion, to all Christians and beloved of God." In this 
 letter he repeated the assertion of the soundness of 
 his doctrine, and declared that the excommunica- 
 tion was invalid, because it had been procured 
 through the false accusations of his enemies. In 
 a second letter, " Against the Sentence of Excom- 
 munication," he proved by quotations from Gerson 
 
TEEASON. 
 
 315 
 
 that there was no reason for fearing an unjust 
 condemnation, and that to yield obedience to 
 such a sentence were to show "the patience of an 
 ass and the silly timidity of a hare." * Following 
 the same authority, he discussed the lawfulness of an 
 appeal from the Pope to a council, although he 
 expressed some uncertainty on this point; but he 
 declared further that to resist the Pope, when 
 he used his authority for the destruction of the 
 Church, was not only a right but a duty. 
 
 From the causes already mentioned, the excom- 
 munication was not publicly pronounced until the 
 22nd of June. This was done with all possible 
 solemnity, in the presence of the clergy and the 
 brethren of the various monastic orders settled in 
 Florence. The sentence was read in the cathedral 
 to the sound of bells; and after the reading was 
 concluded, four lighted tapers were suddenly ex- 
 tinguished, leaving the place in gloom and in 
 silence. 
 
 It would have been difficult, by any other means, 
 to show how powerful for good had been the in- 
 fluence of Savonarola in Florence. The brief had 
 commanded that no intercourse should be held with 
 the excommunicated man, and the Augustinian and 
 Franciscan friars refused to take any part in cele- 
 brating the approaching Feast of S. John, if the 
 brethren of S. Mark were allowed to do so. There 
 Avas now no check put upon the vicious mob, which 
 had been so long kept in subjection by the terrible 
 
 * Est asinina patientia, timor leporinus et fatuus. 
 
316 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 voice which was now silent. It was as though the 
 days of the Magnificent had come again. The 
 Signoria, composed principally of Arrdbbiati, en- 
 couraged the multitude in their excesses. The 
 indecent attire which the Frate had shamed men 
 and women into destroying or concealing, reap- 
 peared in the streets ; the obscene Carnival songs 
 again resounded through the city. Shameless vice 
 and indecency were everywhere. Any other Pontiff 
 but the detestable Borgia would have blushed to 
 hear what work his anathema had wrought in the 
 fair city of Florence. 
 
 If the stern Puritanism of Francesco Valori had 
 produced a reaction in favour of a party opposed 
 to the Frateschi, it could hardly fail but that these 
 excesses should open men's eyes to the true interests 
 of their city. Within a week of S. John's Day a 
 new Signoria was chosen, and this was found favour- 
 able to Savonarola. No sooner were they elected 
 than they began to use their influence with the 
 Pope to obtain the recall of the excommunication ; 
 and the Pope expressed his willingness to submit 
 the consideration of his doctrines to the judgement 
 of six cardinals. While this negotiation was pro- 
 ceeding, Savonarola received an intimation, through 
 the Cardinal of Siena — afterwards the successor of 
 Alexander in the Papacy, under the name of Pius III. 
 — that if he would pay the sum of 5000 scudi, the 
 excommunication would be withdrawn. If this offer 
 showed the Frate that the wrath of the Holy Father 
 was not unappeasable, it filled him with indignation 
 
TREASON. 
 
 317 
 
 as a fresh proof of the venality which prevailed at 
 Kome. 
 
 But the Pope had at this time trials of his owu 
 which must have made his war with the rehellious 
 Vicar of S. Mark's a very insignificant matter. The 
 history of the Borgias is involved in great diffi- 
 culties ; and it is now affirmed with confidence that 
 the renowned Lucrezia was not the vicious creature 
 that she has been represented. Whether she was 
 in any way the occasion of the tragedy which was 
 now enacted, there is no doubt that her brother, 
 the eldest son of the Pope, who was Duke of Candia, 
 was at this time most foully murdered, and there 
 is little doubt that the instigator and author of 
 the crime was no other than his own brother, the 
 infamous Caesar Borgia. 
 
 It was a strange thing to see an excommunicated 
 man writing to the Pope who had pronounced the 
 anathema, and exhorting him to penitence; but 
 Savonarola probably judged that now, if ever, the 
 Pontiff was open to better and more sacred impres- 
 sions. And, in fact, there was probably no moment 
 in the life of Alexander VI. in which he did more 
 seriously reflect on the errors of his ways. Savo- 
 narola wrote to the " most blessed Father," and 
 reminded him that it was the faith of Christ, proved 
 by miracles and confirmed by the blood of martyrs, 
 which could alone give peace and consolation to the 
 heart of man. It was this which could support men 
 in adversities and make them joyful in tribulation. 
 " Kespond, then," he goes on, " to the blessed call. 
 
318 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 SO that soon your sadness may be turned into joy. 
 Blessed Father," he concludes, " I write under the 
 guidance of love, and in the hope that you may be 
 truly consoled by God. Already *IIis wrath is 
 kindled ' a little ; and ' blessed are all they that put 
 their trust in Him.' May the Lord of all mercy 
 console your Holiness in your tribulations." 
 
 Whether the Pope was really touched by this 
 appeal coming to him in the hour of his bitter 
 sorrow, or whether it was that his mind was too 
 much preoccupied with his own sorrowful thoughts 
 to give heed to it, it would at least appear that he 
 showed no resentment at the time against the writer. 
 But the season of mourning and of transient penitence 
 soon passed away, and then he remembered that the 
 insolent Frate had dared to intrude upon his sorrow. 
 
 Petitions and counter-petitions now went up to 
 the Holy Father from Florence, on the subject of 
 the excommunication. The Arrabhiati entreated 
 him to confirm his sentence. The whole of the 
 brethren of S. Mark, to the number of 250, sent up 
 a petition for its removal, representing the purity of 
 the doctrine preached by their Vicar, and the holiness 
 of his life. Another petition, on the same side, was 
 circulated in the city, and had in a short time 
 received 363 signatures, when the outbreak of the 
 plague put a stop to the proceedings of both parties. 
 
 Savonarola has been blamed because he did not 
 go forth from his convent and minister to the sufferers 
 who were stricken by the pestilence; but it has been 
 overlooked that he was at this time under the sen- 
 
TREASON. 
 
 319 
 
 tence of excommunication, so that liis ministrations 
 would not have been allowed or accepted. It would 
 be absurd to accuse sucli a man of cowardice ; for, 
 apart from the proofs which he had already given of 
 his fearless spirit, when the people were now rushing 
 in crowds from the plague-stricken city, he remained 
 steadfast at his post, ministering to the sick brethren 
 of his convent. For the pestilence did not spare 
 S. Mark's. He resisted the entreaties of his friends 
 that he would provide for his own safety, and re- 
 mained reading to the sick such passages of Scrip- 
 ture as were calculated to afford them strength and 
 consolation, and even writing counsels for the guidance 
 of those whom the scourge might smite. 
 
 The pestilence soon passed away, but it was 
 followed by a discovery which filled the minds of 
 the people with alarm. The conspiracy of the Bigi 
 in the spring of this year had ended in ridiculous 
 failure, but during the supremacy of the Arrahbiatl 
 no success had attended the efforts to discover its 
 promoters in Florence. Soon after the appointment 
 of the new Signoria a letter was discovered on the 
 person of a certain Lamberto dell' Antella, a par- 
 tisan of the Medici, by means of which the names 
 of the principal conspirators were discovered. 
 
 The inquiry was committed to the Eight, who 
 speedily found that some of the chief men of the 
 State had been concerned in the plot, and especially 
 the majority of the late Bigi government, together 
 with their Gonfahniere, Bernardo del Nero. These 
 disclosures were so embarrassing that the Eight 
 
320 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 hardly knew how to deal with them, and they 
 applied to the Signoria for advice. By these a 
 number of additional jndges were aj)pointed to 
 assist them in their examination of the facts. Lam- 
 berto deir Antella, who had indeed little reason 
 for attachment to a vicious and ungrateful master, 
 on being promised a free pardon, disclosed the 
 names of the friends of Piero in Florence. He 
 further disclosed the intention of the conspirators to 
 make a new attempt to bring the Medici back in 
 this very month of August. 
 
 It was an anxious moment for the Eight and the 
 other twelve who had been appointed to assist them ; 
 but they determined not to flinch from their duty, 
 and they took an oath that tliey would do justice 
 without respect of persons. They then ordered that 
 the piazza should be held by armed men, and that 
 care should be taken that no one was allowed to 
 leave the city. In the name of the Signoria they 
 required the presence of the men who were most 
 compromised by the revelations of Lamberto dell' 
 Antella. Some of them instantly sought safety in 
 flight ; others presented themselves before the 
 magistrates, when it was found that five of these 
 had been implicated in the conspiracy. Of these five, 
 two were relatives of Piero de' Medici, Mccolb 
 Kidolfi and Lorenzo Tornabuoni. It will be 
 remembered that the wife of the elder Piero, the 
 mother of Lorenzo, was one of the Tornabuoni 
 family. Besides these were Giovanni Cambi and 
 Oianozzo Pucci ; the latter, like Tornabuoni, belong- 
 
TREASON. 
 
 321 
 
 ing to one of the most distinguished of the old 
 Florentine houses. Finally, there was the aged 
 Nero, who had been the Gonfaloniere of the Bigi 
 government. He was a man of high character and 
 reputation, and was now seventy-five years of age. 
 It will be remembered that, although a partisan of 
 the Medici, he had not committed himself to any 
 overt acts in their favour; and it was now urged 
 on his behalf that his only offence was that he had 
 known of the conspiracy and had not disclosed it. 
 But such an offence in the chief magistrate of a 
 State was one of no ordinary magnitude. 
 
 The twelve citizens who assisted the Eight had 
 acted as a kind of jury, and they now left those 
 whose duty it was to pronounce the sentence. But 
 these experienced the same difficulty which had 
 embarrassed them when they were first made ac- 
 quainted with the names of the accused. It was 
 their simple duty now to pronounce the sentence 
 of death against the five men who had been proved 
 guilty of treason against the republic; but they 
 were afraid to incur the enmity of the powerful 
 families to which the guilty men belonged. They 
 turned again to the Signoria, who again reminded 
 them that it was their own duty, and not the duty 
 of the supreme magistracy, to take the responsi- 
 bility of the sentence. At last, however, Domenico 
 Bartoli, the Gonfaloniere, proposed that they should 
 bring the matter before the Consiglio Maggiore, to 
 whom, according to the recent law, the final appeal 
 might be carried. This was objected to by the friends 
 
 I. Y 
 
822 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 of the accused. Seeino^ the indecision of the magjis- 
 trates, and knowing that the time was approaching 
 when a new Signoria had to be chosen, they hoped 
 that by a short delay they might see their party in 
 power, and so put a stop to the proceedings. But 
 the accusers were equally resolved to bring the trial 
 to an end. 
 
 The Signoria gathered together an assembly con- 
 sisting of the various magistracies and representatives 
 of Florence, the Ten, the Eight, the Gonfalonieri of 
 the companies, the senate or lesser council, besides 
 themselves. There were 136 persons in all, and 
 the rule was suspended which forbade those present 
 to express an opinion contrary to that of the 
 Signoria. It was not long before the decision 
 was given. The five men were found guilty and 
 condemned to death, and their goods were con- 
 fiscated. It was found, however, that there were 
 four votes among the Signoria favourable to the 
 accused; and their friends, hoping to take advan- 
 tage of this circumstance, required that the votes 
 should be given individually. This device was 
 frustrated by Yalori, who immediately presented 
 himself at the table, and gave his vote that these 
 citizens were worthy of death, and that their goods 
 should be confiscated, an example which was followed 
 by all. The Eight were now compelled to give 
 their sentence, which they did by a majority of six 
 over two. 
 
 This decision was the signal for new discussions. 
 The defenders of the condemned men now declared 
 
TREASON. 
 
 323 
 
 for an appeal to the greater council, according to 
 the "Law of the Six Beans." Their prosecutors 
 well knew that this appeal was made only for the 
 purpose of gaining time; and they replied that it 
 could not be granted, because the accused had 
 already refused to be judged in this way, and 
 because they had not been condemned by the tri- 
 bunal from which this appeal was allowed. The 
 public excitement and indignation against the 
 traitors was greatly increased by letters which 
 arrived at this time, showing that the old enemies 
 of the republic, the Pope and the Duke of Milan, 
 were preparing to act against their liberties. 
 
 The popular feeling was expressed by some of 
 the leading citizens. While the people were threat- 
 ening to attack the houses of those who were seeking 
 to delay the execution of the sentence, Francesco 
 degli Albizzi stood up in the meeting at which the 
 appeal was being discussed, and called out in a 
 voice of thunder, " Let justice be done ! " while 
 the Bigi party were doing their best by noise and 
 disturbance to confuse the proceedings and prevent 
 a decision being arrived at. 
 
 The people were almost unanimous in favour of 
 refusing the appeal ; but the final decision of the 
 question remained for the Signoria, and they still 
 hesitated to commit themselves to either course. 
 The sitting was protracted and tumultuous. They 
 had passed the night in debate and noise, when 
 Valori, who now became the leading actor in the 
 government, rose up in great wrath, and seizing 
 
324 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 the ballot-box advanced to the table, demanding 
 that the votes should be taken and justice done. 
 Luca Martini, who was the Proposto, was con- 
 strained to put the question to the vote. The four 
 who had stood by the accused at the beginning 
 were still firm, and voted for the appeal. But 
 Valori was not to be baffled. What was the use, 
 he asked, of calling all these citizens together, if 
 their decision was thus to be disregarded ? Was 
 it not clear that these men had been condemned 
 for conspiring against the liberties of the republic ? 
 Had not the citizens declared that they would de- 
 fend those liberties, and that the traitors must die ? 
 It would be well if we could believe that Valori was 
 influenced solely by the love of liberty. There can 
 be little doubt that he was also moved by hatred 
 of Nero, who had succeeded him in the office of 
 Gonfaloniere, His impetuosity, however, carried 
 the day, backed as it was by the indignation of 
 the people. Again the Proposto put the question 
 to the Signoria : Was it their will that the sentence 
 of condemnation should be carried out; that instruc- 
 tions should be given to the Eight this very night, 
 to carry out the sentence of death against these five 
 citizens ? The four dissentients, seeing no hope of 
 escape, and probably fearing the violence of the 
 people, voted for instant execution, and the order 
 was given. 
 
 A last attempt was made to excite compassion, by 
 bringing the five men chained and barefooted into 
 the meeting. It was in vain: the sight of them only 
 
TREASON. 
 
 325 
 
 inflamed the wrath of their judges. The condemned 
 bore their punishment with firmness and dignity. 
 At seven o'clock in the evening their heads fell in 
 the court of the Palazzo del Capitano ; and the 
 same night the Signoria wrote to Eome, giving an 
 account of the execution, concluding with these 
 words : " The city has been quite united against 
 these perfidious and parricidal citizens: even their 
 own relations have desired that justice should be 
 done. And now it is to be hoped that the State 
 may be in safety; for the whole body is resolved 
 to root out every evil plant. May God have mercy 
 upon the souls which, by betraying their country, 
 have need of such punishment ! " 
 
 It has been brought as a charge against Savo- 
 narola that he did not interpose to save the lives 
 of the five men, and especially that of the aged 
 Bernardo del Nero. Such an accusation will be 
 supported only by those who wish to blacken his 
 memory without regard to truth or justice. There 
 is no doubt that he tried to save the young Torna- 
 buoni, although he had played a double part and 
 deceived him. He afterwards declared himself that 
 he was opposed to the death of Nero; but it was 
 impossible for him to interpose openly, and Yalori 
 had made up his mind that the guilty men should 
 die. This accusation is of the same kind with the 
 charge brought against him that he was concerned 
 in the expulsion of the Medici at a time when he 
 was not even present in the city. Let it be re- 
 membered, too, that Savonarola, while he strove 
 
326 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 with all his might to obtain the best possible 
 government for the republic, never interfered in 
 the administration of its affairs. 
 
 Savonarola, still under excommunication, was at 
 this time retired from public life and preparing for 
 publication his great work, the Trionfo delta Croce. 
 Our limits do not allow us to give a complete account 
 of this work,"*" which is perhaps the best adapted to 
 convey to the mind of the present day an accurate 
 impression of the power and comprehensiveness of 
 its writer's intellect. Its primary object was to 
 show the entire accord between the teachings of the 
 Gospel and the reason of man.-f" In its form, at 
 least, the argument was new to the age in which 
 it was produced. The writer first discourses on the 
 existence and attributes of God. In the second 
 book he discusses the truth and excellence of the 
 Christian religion, showing that, while it is above 
 reason, it is not contrary to it. In the third, he 
 treats of particular Christian doctrines : the Incarna- 
 tion, Original Sin, the Passion of Christ, the Moralit)^ 
 of the Church, the Sacraments. In the fourth and 
 last, he shows that the Christian is the only true 
 religion. 
 
 In this workjt the author was careful to give 
 
 * It was written in Latin and Italian. There is a good English 
 translation by Mr. O'Dell T. Hill (Hodder and Stoughton, 1868). 
 
 t Villari remarks that in this work Savonarola was " tho 
 glorious initiator of that noble school which was afterwards 
 honoured by the names of Bossuet and Leibnitz." 
 
 J Lib. iv. cap. 6. 
 
TREASON. 
 
 327 
 
 to the Pope his true place * according to the 
 theory of the age. After pointing out that Jesus 
 Christ had established Peter as His vicar upon 
 earth, and promised that His Church should con- 
 tinue for ever, he goes on — " But it cannot be said 
 that this power was given to Peter alone, and that 
 he had no others to succeed him, Christ having 
 promised that His Church should remain to the end 
 of the world. . . . Whence it follows that in the 
 vicariate of Peter He is succeeded by those whom 
 He has called into His place, so that there shall 
 always be one head in the Church, who holds the 
 place of Christ, and who has the same power which 
 Peter had. Whence, that the Eoman bishops are 
 the successors of Peter, is a thing manifest, and that 
 the Eoman Church is the guide and mistress of all 
 others, and that all faithful Christians should be 
 united to the Eoman Pontiffs." When we remember 
 that these are the words of a man then suffering 
 under a papal excommunication, we may easily 
 perceive how far he was removed from that which 
 we mean by the name of Protestant. 
 
 * It is a pity that the English translator has thought good to 
 omit this passage. 
 
828 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 
 
 If the death of his son had for a moment drawn 
 the attention of the Pope away from the man 
 towards whom he entertained a mingled feeling of 
 hatred and contempt, it was evident that he had 
 never really laid aside his animosity and resent- 
 ment. Equally clear was it that it was from no 
 donbt, much less from any conviction, of the un- 
 soundness of his faith, that he had determined to 
 paralyse the influence of Savonarola in Florence. 
 As the Frate frequently declared, he was hated not 
 as a heretic, but as an advocate of the political 
 liberties of the people; and this aversion had be-^ 
 come strengthened by the boldness of the preacher 
 in denouncing the evils of the Church and the 
 immorality of the priests. 
 
 It is not, therefore, wonderful that the publication 
 of the " Triumph of the Cross " produced no change 
 in the feelings or in the intentions of Pope Alex- 
 ander. Still the Erate waited in silence, hoping 
 
EENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 829 
 
 tliat time would work a change in the policy of 
 Kome. Since the disturbance on Ascension Day 
 his voice had not been heard in the Duomo; and 
 Florence, deprived of her conscience, and left to 
 her own evil heart, had gone from bad to worse. 
 What was the Frate to do? He had vindicated 
 his soundness in the faith. He was no heretic; 
 he was no schismatic ; for he had plainly declared 
 that the chair of Peter was the centre of the 
 Catholic Church. His only offence was his refusal 
 to obey the command which summoned him to 
 Eome ; and he knew Kome too well to hope for 
 justice there. To venture into the den of the 
 lion was to court sudden death or endless imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 It only remained for him, therefore, to treat the 
 excommunication as null ; and on Christmas Day 
 he proceeded to celebrate the three masses ap- 
 pointed for that festival, and to communicate the 
 brethren and the multitudes who came together 
 to receive the Sacrament at his hands. That his 
 new course of action might be clear to the world, 
 he and the members of the convent, at the close 
 of these services, went in solemn procession around 
 the piazza of San Marco. 
 
 And now preparations were made by his sup- 
 porters for his resuming his place in the cathedral. 
 The galleries were erected, the seats put in order, 
 and the consent of the Signoria obtained to his 
 preaching. This step was not to be allowed without 
 opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities. The 
 
330 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Arclibisllop of Florence, Lionardo de' Medici,* not 
 unwilling to enforce the papal commands, which 
 in any case he could hardly have overlooked, forbid 
 him the pulpit of the Duomo, and strictly pro- 
 hibited the clergy of his diocese from taking any 
 part, or being present at the service ; and threatened 
 any who might be among his hearers that they 
 would be refused absolution, and that they would 
 not be admitted to the Communion or receive 
 Christian burial. To these threats the Signoria 
 replied by announcing to the archbishop that, if 
 within two hours he did not quit his office, he 
 should be declared a rebel. This is certainly a 
 fact which may well be considered by those who 
 profess to look back to those happier days in which 
 ecclesiastical authority was supreme, and mourn 
 over the interference of the civil power in the evil 
 days upon which we have fallen. All obstacles 
 being now removed, on Septuagesima Sunday, 
 February 11th, 1498, he stood in the cathedral 
 pulpit, surrounded by an immense congregation. 
 
 It was impossible for Savonarola, after so long 
 a silence, and appearing as he did in defiance of the 
 papal censure, to avoid the subject of the excom- 
 munication. He accordingly declared, as he had 
 done before, the lawfulness and necessity of dis- 
 obedience under certain circumstances. At the close 
 of the sermon he referred to the expectation of 
 
 * Here I follow Villari : Perrens says he was vicar-general of 
 tlie archbisliop. I find also the name of Rinaldo Orsini given as 
 that of the archbishop. 
 
RENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 
 
 831 
 
 miracles in support of his teaching; and, unfor- 
 tunately for himself, he seemed in a measure to 
 sanction this expectation. " In His own time," he 
 said, "the Lord will stretch out His hand. But 
 iilready you have seen so many signs that there is 
 no more need of miracles. What miracle greater 
 than the increase of this doctrine in the midst of 
 so many contradictions? Citizens, women, it may 
 be needful to lay down our life for this doctrine! 
 I turn to Thee, 0 Lord, Thou didst die for the 
 truth. I pray Thee that Thou may est require me 
 alone to die in its defence, for the salvation of 
 Thine elect and of this people." 
 
 Four days later, in S. Mark's, he returned to his 
 favourite theme, the corruption of the clergy. 
 
 When I think of the lives of the priests, I must 
 weep. O brethren, 0 my children, weep for these 
 evils of the Church, that the Lord may call the 
 priests to penitence ; for it is clear that there is 
 a great scourge upon them. It is the clergy who 
 support every wickedness. Begin with Eome : they 
 make sport of Christ and of the saints ; they are 
 worse than Turks, worse than Huns. Not only are 
 they unwilling to suffer for God ; they go so far as 
 to sell the Sacraments. . . . Can you believe that 
 Jesus Christ will longer endure it? Woe, woe, to 
 Italy and to Kome ! Come, come, ye priests ; come, 
 my brethren, let us see if we can awaken a little 
 the love of God. 0 Father, you reply, we shall 
 be put in prison ; we shall be persecuted and killed. 
 Be it so. Let them kill as much as they will, so 
 
832 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 long as they cannot take Christ from my heart. 
 I am willing to die for my God. 
 
 "You have been at Kome and know the life of 
 these priests. Tell me what you think of these 
 supporters of the Church, of these temporal lords ? 
 They have courtesans, and squires, and horses, and 
 dogs ; their houses are full of carpets, of silk, of per- 
 fumes, of servants. Does this look like the Church 
 of God ? Their pride fills the world, and their avarice 
 is no less. They do everything for money: their 
 bells ring only to gratify their avarice, and call only 
 for bread and money and candles. They are present 
 in the choir at vespers, because then they are paid. 
 You will not find them at matins, when no money 
 is distributed. They sell benefices, they sell the 
 sacraments, they sell marriage masses, they sell 
 everything. And yet they are afraid of an excom- 
 munication ! . . . Lord, send now Thy sword." 
 
 On Sexagesima Sunday, he again spoke of the 
 papal authority and of the excommunication. " But 
 why do they set themselves against me at Eome ? 
 Perhaps you think it is for religion? Not at all. 
 They want to change the government: they want 
 to introduce a despotism ; and they do not care 
 for the holy living of the people, which rises with 
 our teaching, and falls with it." And again on 
 Quinquagesima Sunday (February 25) he returns 
 to the same subject : " But, O Father, what will 
 you do, if all the world come against you? I shall 
 stand firm, because my doctrine is the teaching of 
 good living, and therefore it comes from God." The 
 
RENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 
 
 333 
 
 Carnival was drawing to an end, and lie announced 
 to the people that he should give a solemn bene- 
 diction, on Shrove Tuesday, in the piazza of the 
 convent; and he added: "When I shall have the 
 Sacrament in my hand, I beseech every one of you 
 to make fervent prayer to the Lord, that, if this 
 work does not come from Him, He may send a fire 
 which shall draw me down to hell. Make such a 
 prayer throughout these days. Write it and pro- 
 claim it to all." 
 
 On the last day of the Carnival, after giving the 
 Sacrament to a great number of the people, there 
 was a procession; and then the Frate ascended a 
 temporary pulpit which had been placed near the 
 principal door of the church. There he knelt in 
 prayer, while the brethren sang psalms ; and then, 
 standing up, he requested the people to offer the 
 prayer he had taught them. Then, holding the 
 Sacrament in his hand and blessing the kneeling 
 multitude, he prayed, " 0 Lord, if I do not act with 
 sincerity of mind, if my words come not from Thee, 
 strike me with Thy thunder this moment." The 
 people saw written on his face, while he spoke, the 
 expression of a confident faith in his words. 
 
 And then came, for a second time, as on last 
 Shrove Tuesday, the " burning of the vanities." 
 On the piazza stood a pyramid larger than that of 
 the former year, and on the top of it a representa- 
 tion of Lucifer surrounded by the seven deadly sins. 
 Again the torches were applied amid the triumphant 
 singing of the Te Beum, and the exulting shouts 
 
334 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of the beholders. For the moment Savonarola had 
 resumed his full sway over the people of Florence. 
 
 The Pope was more furious than ever. Nothing- 
 was talked of at Eome but the audacity of this 
 presumptuous friar, who treated with utter contempt 
 the excommunication of the Pope, and held up the 
 lives of the clergy to the detestation of mankind. 
 His enemies gave Alexander no peace ; and Fra 
 Mariano was foremost among those who called for 
 vengeance. In the church of the Augustinians he 
 upheld the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, " who 
 spoke by the Holy Ghost." " This is the true light, 
 and not he of Ferrara, who preaches in the light 
 of the devil, and dares to say that the Pope is a 
 broken weapon (/erro)." And here he could not 
 contain his rage, but broke out: "The great 
 drunkard, the scoundrel, the thief, the robber, who 
 has treasures hidden away in secret ! 0 Pope, O 
 cardinals, how can you endure this monster, this 
 hydra? Has the authority of the Church come 
 to such a pass that a drunkard like this can thus 
 ignominiously cast it under his feet ? " 
 
 The Pope was desirous of using his last weapon : 
 he prepared to smite Florence with an interdict; 
 but first he addressed a brief to the Signoria (issued 
 the very day before the new Auto da fe), in which 
 he recounted the offences of the Frate against the 
 holy see, and urged them " at least to separate this 
 corrupt member from the rest of the people, and 
 keep him in custody, that he might not sow new 
 scandals;" but if they would not consent to this, 
 
RENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 
 
 835 
 
 he "must have recourse to an interdict, and to 
 otiier remedies still more efficacious." At the same 
 time he gave strict orders to the canons of the 
 cathedral to prevent him from preaching in their 
 church. 
 
 It was now the time for a change of Signoria. 
 Those elected in January had cared no more for the 
 papal briefs than Savonarola himseK ; but the March 
 election gave a decided majority to the Arrdbhiati ; 
 and one of these, named Piero Popoleschi, and 
 known as a most determined adversary of Savo- 
 narola, was chosen Gonfaloniere of justice. He was 
 a cousin of Piero de' Medici, and had formerly borne 
 that name, but had chosen that of Popoleschi after 
 the expulsion of his relatives, and had joined the 
 aristocratic party. 
 
 It was a terrible change which had taken place 
 in one short week, and Savonarola knew that the 
 papal commands would now obtain a different re- 
 ception at the hand of the authorities. On the day 
 on which the new Signoria was installed, he preached 
 in the cathedral on the briefs that had just arrived 
 from Eome. " They call me," he says, " the son of 
 perdition. Let this be sent back for answer : ' The 
 man whom you thus designate has neither harlots 
 nor concubines, but gives himself up to preaching 
 the faith of Christ. His spiritual children, those 
 who listen to his doctrine, do not pass their time 
 in the commission of crimes : they go to confession, 
 to communion ; they live virtuously. This friar 
 labours to exalt the Church of Christ, and you to 
 
836 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 destroy it.' " He would not lower his tone even in 
 that moment of danger ; but he judged it best 
 to retire from the cathedral and continue his ser- 
 mons durim? Lent at S. Mark's. 
 
 The Signoria ^yere in a difficulty. Some of them 
 would gladly have carried out the Pope's instruc- 
 tions, but they feared the people. The minority, 
 who stood by the Frate, urged the mischief that his 
 removal would cause to the State. The Signoria 
 yielded to these considerations, and wrote to the 
 Pope to say that Savonarola had retired to his con- 
 vent, that they could not further interfere with 
 a man whose doctrine was so pure, whose life was 
 so holy. " It would be unworthy of the republic ; 
 it would be unjust to a man who had deserved so 
 well of his country ; it would be a cause of popular 
 discord, and of great danger to many." 
 
 And so the Frate was permitted to go on with 
 his sermons at S. Mark's. The congregations were 
 so large that they were forced to exclude women 
 from the sermons. These had to go to San Lorenzo, 
 where Fra Domenico was preaching; afterwards, 
 when that was shut against him, to San ISFiccolb. 
 But they would not be satisfied until Savonarola 
 consented to preach to them alone, on Saturdays, at 
 S. Mark's. 
 
 In the sermons preached during this Lent, Savo- 
 narola discussed the fallibility of the Pope, and 
 declared that a man who said the Pope could not 
 err because he was the Pope, might as well say that 
 a Christian could not err because he was a Christian. 
 
RENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 
 
 337 
 
 When the Pope receiyed the answer of the 
 Signoria to his demands, he sent for the ambas- 
 sadors of the republic in great wrath, and declared 
 that he would place the city under an interdict 
 unless Savonarola were delivered into his hands, 
 or at least prevented altogether from preaching. 
 In addition to this verbal communication, he wrote 
 to the Signoria, rebuking their audacity in defend- 
 ing this rebel against his authority. "Your con- 
 duct," said his Holiness, "has gravely displeased 
 us. . . . Take mature counsel on your affairs. . . . 
 In any case, answer us no more with letters, but 
 only with acts, because we are most firmly decided 
 no longer to tolerate your disobedience; and wo 
 will place an interdict upon your whole city, which 
 shall remain so long as you continue to show favour 
 to this your monstrous idol." 
 
 On the 17th of March (1498) a meeting of the Sig- 
 noria was held. By the influence of the Proposto of 
 the day, Giovanni Berlinghieri, and the Gonfaloniere, 
 both of them determined enemies of Savonarola, it 
 was decided that he should be inhibited from preach- 
 ing. It was no more than was to be expected. It is 
 honourable to the Signoria that some of its members 
 should still have protested against the sentence. 
 Savonarola was not surprised. On the following day, 
 the third Sunday in Lent, he announced to the 
 congregation his resolution to obey, and bade them 
 farewell. It was his last sermon. 
 
 He told the people how often he had resolved to 
 abstain from preaching on the things which had 
 
 I. z 
 
888 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 been revealed to him; but be said be bad been 
 unable to contain bimself. " The word of the Lord 
 bas been within me as a consuming fire, shut up 
 within my bones and my heart, and I have not been 
 able to restrain it, because I have felt myself all on 
 fire with the Spirit of the Lord." He then told 
 them of the order he had received, the day before, 
 from the Signoria. He did not regret it for himself. 
 He could return to his studies, which were his 
 delight; but he was not equally satisfied that his 
 retirement was right. " But,'^ he said, " we will do 
 with prayers what we cannot do by preaching. Lord, 
 I commend to Thee the good ; Thou wilt forgive their 
 shortcomings, for human frailty is great. Benefac, 
 Domine, lonis et redis corde (Do well, 0 Lord, unto 
 those that are good and true of heart). 0 Lord, I 
 pray Thee, delay no longer to fulfil Thy promises." 
 And then, reciting the Lord's Prayer, he added, 
 " 0 Lord, deliver us from all evil. I commend unto 
 Thee the souls of our adversaries : enlighten them, 
 O Lord, that they go not down into hell. I com- 
 mend to Thee this whole people. Give them, 0 
 Lord, Thy benediction." 
 
 The grief of his supporters was profound and 
 intense; the joy of his enemies was unbounded. 
 The Pope was at last satisfied that his faithful 
 children at Florence had done their duty. 
 
 There was only one resource left for the per- 
 secuted man. He would still make an effort to give 
 effect to the thought which had long dwelt in his 
 mind ; be would see whether a council might not be 
 
RENEWED CONFLICT WITH ROME. 339 
 
 convoked for the reformation of the Church. In 
 this desire he had been encouraged by the Cardinal 
 of S. Pietro in Yincola, and he knew that it was 
 favoured by the King of France. He determined 
 to appeal to him and to the other princes of Europe. 
 The life of this man who disgraced the chair of Peter 
 should be condemned by the Church ; if possible, his 
 election should be declared simoniacal and void. 
 He now penned his famous " Letter to the Princes 
 of Eui'ope," telling them that the Church was full of 
 abominations, and they made no attempt to remedy 
 them, so that the Lord was grievously displeased, 
 and had left the Church without a pastor ; for, he 
 says, " I testify now to you, in verho Domini, that 
 this Alexander is not Pope, nor can he be retained 
 as such ; for, leaving alone his most wicked sin of 
 simony, by which he obtained the papal chair, and 
 the fact that every day he sells the ecclesiastical 
 benefices to whosoever will buy them, and apart 
 from his other manifest vices, I affirm that he is not 
 a Christian, and that he does not believe there is a 
 God." 
 
 Before sending forth this letter to the Emperor, 
 the King of Spain, and the other princes, Savonarola 
 thought it advisable to address himself to Charles 
 VIII. of France, in whom he placed his chief reliance 
 for the assembling of the council. His letter was 
 entrusted to a courier, who fell into the hands of the 
 soldiers of the Duke of Milan. Lodovico, rejoiced 
 at this opportunity of wreaking his vengeance upon 
 an old adversary, immediately sent on the letter to 
 
340 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 the Pope. Before his Holiness could give expres- 
 sion to his indignation, fresh events occurred which 
 hastened on the approaching crisis ; but this crown- 
 ing audacity of the Dominican vicar was not for- 
 gotten when the time of vengeance arrived. 
 
( 341 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 It lias been asked how it was that Socrates, after 
 thirty years of "public, notorious, and efficacious 
 discoursing," * lost his hold at last upon the people 
 of Athens; and the reason has been found in the 
 character and circumstances of the Athenians. In 
 the case of Savonarola the change was far greater 
 and more remarkable, and the causes perhaps more 
 various. He exercised a power and a sway over 
 the mind and history of Florence which was never 
 possessed by Socrates ; and the people turned against 
 him with a completeness and bitterness of revul- 
 sion which exceeded the madness of the people of 
 Athens. 
 
 We have already referred to the severe and un- 
 compromising Puritanism of Savonarola, as having 
 within itself the sure prophecy of failure ; but the 
 causes at work were too multifarious and diverse to be 
 easily identified and distinguished. It was a serious 
 
 * Grote's Hist, of Greece, viii. 634. Stanley's tfeicMi Church 
 iii. 211. 
 
342 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 thing for a man to set himself as an accuser before 
 the vices of a vicious age. It was a still more serious 
 thing to proclaim war upon those vices incarnate, as 
 they were, in the rulers of Church and State. Those 
 who have position, power, and wealth, however feeble 
 in themselves, however incapable of accomplishing 
 any great object even for their own advantage, are 
 often terrible enemies, because they become a focus 
 for discontent, and can sustain a warfare which they 
 could not originate or conduct. It must be added 
 that the position and pretensions of Savonarola were 
 peculiarly difficult and dangerous. That he was 
 sincere and honest we cannot doubt. He believed 
 with all his heart in the claims which he advanced. 
 But there was a point at which he became uncertain 
 of himself. His biographers have collected accounts 
 of miracles supposed to have been wrought by him. 
 We cannot find that he ever laid claim to such 
 powers himself; but he certainly did not discourage 
 the supposition that such evidence might be granted 
 in confirmation of his doctrine. 
 
 It is, in truth, one of the most convincing proofs 
 of his entire sincerity. An impostor might have 
 known that, as his revelations were inventions, so he 
 could have no pretensions to work miracles except 
 as the mere deceptions of jugglery. Savonarola 
 believed that the fire which burnt in his heart was 
 kindled by God, and therefore he might well ask 
 himself why the same Spirit should not appear by 
 signs and wonders, and confirm the words which He 
 had taught His servant to speak. " God could 
 
THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 343 
 
 stretch forth the hand in His own time," he said. 
 He did not promise that it should be so ; but he 
 did not feel that he had a right to repress the 
 expectation. 
 
 The changing humours of the upper and middle 
 classes of the people had been faithfully reflected 
 in the changes of the government. At the begin- 
 ning of Lent (1498) the public opinion of these 
 classes was decidedly hostile to Savonarola; yet 
 they were not prepared to proceed to extremities. 
 Many of them sincerely respected him; and they 
 knew that the masses of the people still believed in 
 him, and were prepared to defend him. If they 
 went beyond what the absolute necessities of their 
 circumstances might require, if they proceeded to 
 lay hands upon the excommunicated Frate, they 
 might provoke a war in which the popular element 
 would be their adversary and destroyer. 
 
 While these conflicting forces were pausing for 
 some change which should set them in motion, an 
 event occurred which was destined to have the most 
 powerful influence upon the course of this history. 
 In the previous year Fra Domenico Buonvicini had 
 been preaching at Prato, when a Franciscan, named 
 Fra Francesco di Puglia, who was preaching in the 
 same town, made a violent attack upon the teaching 
 of Savonarola. He went so far as to say that he was 
 ready to enter the fire with Fra Domenico, that it 
 might thus be made manifest which of them was 
 a witness for the truth. This olBfer was eagerly 
 accepted by Fra Domenico, and a day was fixed ; 
 
844. 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 but before that time Fra Francesco pleaded that he 
 was ordered by his superiors to depart elsewhere on 
 important business. It has been thought that this 
 course was taken because there was no prospect of 
 striking at Savonarola himself by means of such a 
 trial. 
 
 Be this as it may, in the Lent of 1498, the same 
 Francesco was preaching at the Franciscan church 
 of Santa Croce, when he again attacked Savonarola 
 in the most violent manner, as a heretic, a 
 schismatic, and a false prophet, and challenged him 
 to enter the fire with him, to prove whether his 
 doctrine was true. 
 
 When Fra Domenico heard of this new attack, he 
 claimed to take the brunt of the battle upon himself, 
 because it had arisen out of the quarrel of the 
 previous year at Prato. He declared himself 
 ready to defend the doctrines of his master, who was 
 at this time prohibited from preaching, and willing 
 to submit to any ordeal in defence of their truth. 
 Savonarola discouraged this rashness in every 
 possible way. He had already proved the truth of 
 his doctrine, and none had ventured to point out the 
 slightest heresy in his teaching. He could not 
 undertake such a mode of defending himself without 
 a clear divine sanction. 
 
 Fra Domenico was not to be restrained. He 
 published a set of propositions which he was pre- 
 pared to maintain — in defence of which he was ready 
 to enter the fire: — 1. The Church of God needs 
 renovation. 2. It will be scourged. 3. It will be 
 
THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 345 
 
 renovated. 4. Elorence, too, after the scourge, will 
 be renovated and prosper. 5. The infidels will be 
 converted to Christ. 6. All these things will take 
 place in our times. 7. The excommunication lately- 
 issued against our father. Brother Hieronymus, is 
 null. 8. Those who do not observe it do not sin. 
 
 To this Fra Francesco replied that he had no 
 quarrel with Fra Domenico da Pescia, but with Fra 
 Girolamo, whose doctrines he called in question ; 
 and it was he whom he challenged to the ordeal. 
 The matter might have died out as a passing folly 
 which deserved no serious notice ; but the enemies 
 of Savonarola saw their opportunity, and determined 
 that it should not be lost. If Fra Francesco could 
 only be made to persevere with his challenge, they 
 might now for ever ruin the man whom they hated. 
 If Savonarola should venture to enter the fire, he 
 would be burnt. If he refused, his credit with the 
 populace would be gone for ever. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the Compagnacci 
 were at the bottom of the movement. Dolfo Spini 
 and his friends induced the Signoria, who were only 
 too ready, to take the same view of the position. 
 Privately they assured Fra Francesco that there 
 would be no real necessity for him to enter the fire ; 
 and the assurance emboldened him to persist. He 
 had no pretensions, he said, to compare with Fra 
 Girolamo, but it was with him that the trial must 
 be made : he had nothing to do with Fra Domenico ; 
 and he added that his challenge was made " at the 
 instance and request of the magnificent Signori." 
 
I 
 
 346 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The Signoria were not entirely of one accord in 
 this matter ; but the thing had gone too far, and it 
 only remained to see it carried out. Burlamacchi 
 asserts that Savonarola, although he never approved 
 of the ordeal, offered to submit to it on condition 
 that the ambassadors of all the Christian princes 
 and the Pope's legate were present. This require- 
 ment was probably advanced, not only from the 
 just suspicion that unfairness might be used in con- 
 ducting the trial, but also to remove all doubt as to 
 its lawfulness. His adversaries replied that these 
 excuses were vain, and that they were advanced only 
 for the purpose of wasting time. 
 
 It was at last agreed that the ordeal should take 
 place. Savonarola was forced to withdraw his op- 
 position. It is said that he was encouraged by a 
 vision of Era Salvestro, who declared that he had 
 seen the angels of Fra Girolamo and Fra Domenico, 
 who had assured him that these brethren would come 
 out of the fire unhurt. This Fra Salvestro, or 
 Salvestro Maruffi, was a man who had an influence 
 over Savonarola out of all proportion to his real power. 
 He was one of those weak, nervous, emotional people 
 who are unable to distinguish between facts and 
 fancies, between reality and imagination ; and his 
 power of converting his wishes and the impressions 
 made upon him by the teaching and preaching of 
 Savonarola into visions and revelations was a gift 
 most dangerous to himself and others. But in 
 this matter the whole brotherhood were of one 
 mind. They came forward in a body to offer them- 
 
THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 347 
 
 selves for the Sperimento. For every Franciscan 
 that would enter the fire, there was a Dominican 
 ready to go along with him. After several had 
 announced their willingness to undergo the ordeal, 
 on the second of April, Fra Malatesta Sacramoro 
 da Rimini and Fra Roberto di Bernardo Salviati da 
 Firenze subscribed the challenge. The Ten " sent 
 an account of the proceedings to Rome, together 
 with the reasons assigned by the brethren of 
 S. Mark for accepting the trial. It was finally 
 agreed that Fra Domenico alone, on the side of 
 S. Mark's, should undergo the ordeal, and that 
 the Franciscans should be represented by Giuliano 
 Rondinelli, Francesco professing his readiness to go 
 into the fire provided Savonarola would do the same. 
 
 The sixth of April was originally fixed as the 
 day by the Signoria, but they put off the trial to 
 the seventh.* It is believed that they had some 
 hope that a brief might arrive from Rome, forbidding 
 the " experiment " to take place. In this, however, 
 they were disappointed. The place appointed for 
 the ordeal was a platform, forty hraccia in length, 
 five in breadth, and two in height, which extended 
 from the Tetto de' Pisani, on the western side of 
 the piazza, to the Marzocco, the marble lion, which 
 stands in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The plat- 
 form was covered with earth and bricks, and was 
 
 * There is a difference as to the period of Lent to which this 
 day is to be referred. Villari says the sixth was Palm Sunday ; 
 Burlamacchi says the seventh was the Friday before Pabn 
 Sunday ; Perrehs says the seventh was Saturday. Perrens seems 
 to be right. 
 
348 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 piled up with wood and other more combustible 
 materials, leaving a passage in the middle, two 
 hraccia in width, for the two men to walk in. It 
 was arranged that it should be lighted at one end, 
 that they should enter at the other, and then that 
 the pile should be lighted behind them. 
 
 On the morning of April 7th, the monks of 
 S. Mark's, who had spent several days in constant 
 prayer, assembled for the celebration of a solemn 
 mass, "their hearts full of such joy," says Burla- 
 macchi, " that it showed itself on their countenances, 
 through the certainty of victory." Still it was an 
 awful moment, and Savonarola addressed them with 
 unusual solemnity and diffidence. He had no faith 
 in the intentions of his adversaries; he probably 
 knew that the Signoria were embarrassed as to 
 the lawfulness of the trial which they had sanctioned, 
 and he showed in his words the hesitation inspired 
 by these considerations. " I cannot be certain," he 
 said, " that the ordeal will take place, because this 
 matter does not depend upon us; but I am able to 
 tell you that, if we come to the event, the victory 
 will certainly be ours. 0 Lord, we have no need of 
 these miraculous proofs, in order to believe in the 
 truth ; but we have been challenged, and we could 
 not refuse to defend Thine honour. We are sure 
 that the devil will not be able to turn this thing to 
 the injury of Thine honour, or against Thy will ; so 
 that we go to do battle for Thee. But these adver- 
 saries of ours adore another god, for their works are 
 different from ours. O Lord, this people wishes only 
 
THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 349 
 
 to serve Thee." Then, turning to the people, he 
 asked, " My people, are you willing to serve God ? '* 
 Every voice answered, " Yes ; " and then he bade the 
 men offer up prayer while he was preparing the 
 brethren to go forth, and the women to continue in 
 prayer until they returned. By the time the pre- 
 parations were finished, a message arrived from the 
 Signoria to signify that all was now in readiness for 
 the trial. 
 
 A strong guard of soldiers had been placed on the 
 piazza by the Signoria to prevent outrage and dis- 
 turbances, but each party had taken the precaution 
 to arm their own adherents and station them near 
 the scene. The Arrahhiati had 500 men under 
 Dolfo Spini, and the FratescM 300 under Marcuccio 
 Salviati. 
 
 The adherents of the Frate formed their line of 
 j)rocession in the piazza of S. Marco. First came 
 the acolytes, and after them the friars ; last of 
 these Fra Domenico, attired in a red vestment,* 
 with a crucifix in his hand, a deacon and a sub-deacon 
 walking on either side of him. Last of all came 
 Savonarola, in a white cope, bearing in his hand a 
 silver reliquary which contained the blessed Sacra- 
 ment; on one side of him Frii Francesco Salviati, 
 on the other Fra Malatesta Sacramoro, also wearing 
 copes. The face of Fra Domenico was calm and 
 joyous, as of one going to certain victory. Behind 
 them came a great multitude of men and women, 
 
 * Burlamacchi seems to say a cliasuble, others a cope. I follow 
 Biirlamacchi chiefly in this account. 
 
350 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 carrying lighted tapeis in their hands. The singers 
 led off, in a loud voice, the 68th Psalm : Exurgat 
 Deus, et dissipentur inimici Ejus (Let God arise 
 and let His enemies he scattered). As they entered 
 the piazza the people took up the psalm, and the 
 earth seemed to tremble under the tramp of multi- 
 tudinous feet. 
 
 The Loggia de' Lanzi had been set apart for the 
 two bodies of friars, the Dominicans occupying the 
 western division, and the Franciscans the eastern. 
 The latter were already stationed in the place allotted 
 to them, and standing silent, when the Frateschi 
 marched into the square to the thunder of their 
 psalm, and took their places. But now it was found 
 that Fra Giuliano Eondinelli, the champion of the 
 adversaries, was not there. 
 
 Up to this time Savonarola appears to have been 
 tortured with doubt as to the Tightness of the trial 
 which he had been forced to sanction. But now all 
 misgivings seemed to vanish. He felt assured that 
 his cause was the cause of righteousness and of God, 
 that he had not chosen this mode of vindicating 
 himself, and that God would be with him. He saw 
 depicted on the face of Fra Domenico a joyful 
 eagerness to undergo the trial ; and he was anxious 
 that it should begin at once. But the challengers 
 did not appear. They were still in the palazzo, 
 in consultation with the Signoria. The Einghiera, 
 from which the Signoria were to watch the process, 
 was empty. Instead of coming forth and bringing 
 the Franciscans to the appointed spot, they sent 
 
THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 351 
 
 a message to Savonarola, asking why he did not 
 begin. 
 
 The acconnts of this scene are tolerably con- 
 sistent, and they show that the party opposed to 
 Savonarola had no real intention of undergoing the 
 ordeal. All their efforts were directed to inducing 
 him to enter the fire alone, or take the respon- 
 sibility of retreating from the trial. In either case 
 they were victorious. Nay more, they knew that, 
 if anything should happen to prevent the ordeal 
 being gone through, the popular fury would turn 
 against Savonarola, because he was the man whose 
 claims and whose doctrines were in question. 
 
 Hence they began to invent every possible pretext 
 for delay. First of all, they declared that the red 
 vestment worn by Fra Domenico had been enchanted 
 by Savonarola, and insisted on his taking it off be- 
 fore he entered the fire. To this the Dominicans 
 consented, although, at the same time, they declared 
 that the demand was absurd, as they did not believe 
 in incantations. The Franciscans next said that his 
 habit might also be enchanted, and he consented 
 to retire and exchange dresses with another of the 
 brethren of S. Mark. But still they feared to let 
 him stand beside Fra Girolamo, lest he should 
 enchant this habit as well; and so he consented 
 to be placed between two Franciscans. And now 
 he insisted that the trial should begin; he had 
 complied with their wishes, and there could be 
 no reason for further delay. 
 
 But still his opponent did not appear. People 
 
852 
 
 SAVOXAROLA. 
 
 were going to and fro among the Franciscans, show- 
 ing their sympathy with that side, and sneering at 
 the Dominicans because they would not ascend the 
 platform alone. Savonarola became impatient and 
 demanded that the Franciscans should appear ; but 
 it was becoming more and more apparent that they 
 had no intention of doing so. The people now began 
 to give signs of restlessness and indignation. They 
 had come there to see the Frati enter the fire, and 
 no one would gratify them. The enemies of Savo- 
 narola took advantage of their impatience, and 
 stimulated them to cry for the beginning of the 
 Sperimento. It had been the hope of the Arrahbiati 
 that, in case of a tumult arising, they might be able 
 to lay hold on the Frate and despatch him without 
 further trouble. They now believed they saw their 
 opportunity. Stationed under the Tetto de' Pisani, 
 they occupied the side of the piazza nearest to the 
 Dominicans. They began to advance towards the 
 place where Savonarola was standing; but their 
 attempt was observed by Salviati, who, keeping 
 his men in their place in front of the Loggia, made 
 a line on the ground with his sword, and shouted, 
 " Whoever passes this line will know the strength 
 of the arms of Marcuccio Salviati," which stopped 
 the movement. 
 
 The Signoria were perplexed, and knew not how 
 to act, when suddenly a thunderstorm broke over 
 the city and heavy rain began to descend. But the 
 people would not be driven from their purpose, and 
 remained standing in the piazza, until the rain 
 
THE ORDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 353 
 
 ceased. Still the Franciscan did not appear; and 
 his party began to invent new reasons for delay, 
 and to make new complaints of the conduct of their 
 opponents. Fra Domenico had walked forth from 
 S. Mark's bearing the crucifix in his hands, and 
 now they demanded that this should be given up. 
 Savonarola advised him to do so, and bid him enter 
 the fire with the Sacrament in his hand. Burla- 
 macchi says that Fra Salvestro had seen a vision, 
 in which it was revealed that Domenico should 
 not undergo the ordeal without bearing the Sacra- 
 ment with him. The Franciscans then objected 
 that such a course involved a fearful sacrilege, as 
 the host would be burnt. It was of no avail that 
 it was answered that the accidents only could perish, 
 a proposition which was supported by the authority 
 of many doctors of the Church. For the first time 
 the party of Savonarola resisted the demands of 
 their adversaries. They now had the pretext they 
 had been seeking for refusing to go on with the 
 trial. Both sides stood firm ; and in the midst of 
 the dispute, the Signoria sent their command that 
 the ordeal should not take place. 
 
 The spectators were furious. They had waited 
 for hours to see the doctrines of the Frate put to 
 the proof, and now they were to be baulked. They 
 forgot that it was the Franciscans who had refused 
 the test, and thought only of the fact that it had 
 not been undergone by the man who, they were 
 made to believe, had occasioned the challenge. 
 Even the Piagnoni began to exclaim that the Frate 
 
 I. 2 a 
 
354 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 ought himself to have entered the fire and thus 
 finally have vindicated the truth of his doctrine. 
 His enemies went about among the people declaring 
 that now the falsehood of his pretensions was de- 
 monstrated. The Franciscans began to depart in 
 triumph, having accomplished their purpose. They 
 had disgraced their enemy, and turned the fury of 
 the populace upon him. Keturning to Santa Croce, 
 they sang a solemn Te Deum in celebration of their 
 victory. 
 
 Savonarola, seeing the danger to which his 
 brethren were exposed from the rage of the mob, 
 requested a guard from the Signoria to protect 
 them on their way back to San Marco. Upon this, 
 Marcuccio Salviati brought forward a band of his 
 most trusted and courageous soldiers, and forming 
 them into a crescent (luna), said, "Father, follow 
 me, for I will defend you as long as my life shall 
 last ; " and so receiving Savonarola and the brethren 
 into the midst of his men, conducted them back 
 to the convent. 
 
 Savonarola, returning to the church, found the 
 women still kneeling in prayer, and gave them an 
 account of all that had happened. He then returned 
 weary and sad to his cell. The howls of the dis- 
 appointed mob that filled the piazza of San Marco 
 came into his ears as he knelt in sorrowful prayer, 
 and told him with no doubtful meaning of the days 
 that were approaching. 
 
{ 855 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IMARTYEDOM. 
 
 The ordeal by Hve was tlie beginning of the end. 
 Savonarola had lost his hold on the people of 
 Florence, and he was not destined to recover it. 
 Whether there was still a possibility of his regain- 
 ing his former sway, if different measures had been 
 taken, is open to discussion; but those measures 
 were not taken. To many of the Frateschi it 
 became at once apparent that active preparations 
 must be made to defend themselves, perhaps even 
 to assume the offensive. This was the view of Luca 
 degli Albizzi and others ; but Valori, strong in the 
 righteousness of their cause, would not hear of it. 
 Albizzi and many others declared that this inaction 
 was throwing away their lives, and instantly left 
 Florence, to provide for their own safety. 
 
 A speedy collision seemed inevitable; and the 
 Piagnoni were certainly imprudent, in so far as they 
 neither prepared for it nor avoided it. They ap- 
 peared to catch the spirit of the sorrowful words 
 which their leader addressed to them on the moruin.sj 
 
356 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of Palm Sunday, the day after the ordeal. He 
 seemed to be aware that he was speaking to them for 
 the last time, and he expressed himself ready for the 
 sacrifice, prepared to give his life for his flock. After 
 vespers at S. Mark's, the Fiagno7ii proceeded to the 
 cathedral to hear the sermon, which, during Savo- 
 narola's retirement, had been preached in Lent by 
 Mariano degli Ughi, one of the brethren who had 
 offered to undergo the ordeal on behalf of Fra 
 Girolamo. The ArrabUati were determined to 
 prevent the sermon. The Fiagnoni were assaulted 
 on their way to the Duomo. In the church itself, 
 noisy discussions took place. The Signoria were 
 that day deciding that Savonarola should be 
 banished from Florence and the brothers inhibited 
 from preaching. Whatever opposition to extreme 
 measures had previously existed seemed to have 
 been removed by the events of the previous day. 
 The Compagnacci had probably become aware of 
 this decision. From words they proceeded to 
 blows; and at last the cry was raised — "To San 
 Marco!" and "With fire!" 
 
 The signal once given, they lost no time in 
 carrying out their purpose. Kushing furiously 
 along the streets, they killed on their way two 
 known adherents of the Frate. A number of the 
 congregation had remained at S. Mark's after 
 vespers, and were engaged in prayer in the church. 
 A shower of stones was poured into the building by 
 the assailants. The women and the principal part 
 of the worshippers hastily dispersed in terror. The 
 
MAETYRDOM. 
 
 857 
 
 doors were closed and locked ; and only a few of 
 the citizens remained to defend the convent. It is 
 said there were about thirty of them, some of the 
 most loyal and devoted of Savonarola's adherents. 
 
 Although they had not been able to agree as to 
 concerted measures for self-defence, yet some of the 
 brethren, foremost among them Fra Benedetto,* 
 had collected a quantity of arms and ammunition, 
 without the knowledge of Savonarola, for use in 
 case violence should be attempted against them. 
 When the assault commenced, they prepared for 
 the defence. Fra Benedetto, with a helmet on his 
 head and a breastplate over his Dominican habit, 
 was rallying his forces, and shouts of Viva Crista ! 
 were heard mingling with the noise of armour, 
 disturbing the quiet of those cloisters so long the 
 abode of silence, prayer, and meditation. 
 
 Savonarola and Fra Domenico endeavoured in 
 vain to appease the tumult, and entreated the 
 brethren to lay aside their armour. When words 
 could avail nothing, Savonarola, attiring himself 
 in a cope, and taking a crucifix in his hand, pro- 
 posed to go forth and offer himself a sacrifice to 
 the mob, " as it was on his account that the storm 
 had arisen." Held back by the lamentations of his 
 friends, he then took the Sacrament in his hands, 
 
 * Fra Benedetto was one of the most loyal and devoted of the 
 adherents of Savonarola. After his master's death, he was first 
 exiled and then long imprisoned for his attachment to him. He 
 was at this time about twenty-four years of age. Cf. Padre 
 Marchese in the Archivio Istorico. 
 
858 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 and calling upon the brethren to follow him, he went 
 in procession around the cloisters, and afterwards 
 proceeding to the choir, told them that prayer was 
 their only lawful weapon. Nearly the whole of the 
 community joined him in prayer, singing before 
 the sacrament : " Salvum fac foimlum Tuum, Bomine 
 (Save Thy people, O Lord)." 
 
 It was probably about this time that a messenger 
 arrived from the Signoria, bearing the news that 
 Savonarola had been sentenced to exile, and order- 
 ing him to leave the territory of the State within 
 twelve hours. The tumult without was waxing 
 louder, the assailants probably being emboldened 
 by the absence of resistance from within. Savo- 
 narola seems to have remained in the choir, in 
 prayer, there awaiting the issue of events. Fran- 
 cesco Valori, at last convinced of the wisdom of the 
 advice which he had rejected, got over the walls 
 at the back of the convent, hoping to raise the 
 Piagnoni in defence of their master. If Marcuccio 
 Salviati could have been there at once with his 
 Ironsides, all might have been different ; but it was 
 not so ordered. Valori hastened home to make his 
 preparations, but was instantly summoned to appear 
 before the Signoria. Confident in the righteousness 
 of his cause, he at once obeyed. But the days 
 of his supremacy had not been forgotten, nor the 
 death of the Medicean conspirators, which had 
 been, in great measure, his work. Members of 
 the Tornabuoni and Eidolfi families set upon him 
 and killed him under the eyes of his wife, who,. 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 359 
 
 hearing the tumult as he left the house, had rushed 
 to the window. They perished together: she was 
 shot from the street as she looked upon the murder 
 of her husband, and their house was immediately- 
 sacked and burned. 
 
 The assault on the convent waxed fiercer, and fir© 
 was now applied to burn down the doors. The 
 brethren flew again to arms. The enemy had 
 penetrated into the cloisters and into the church. 
 Fra Benedetto, again marshalling his forces, poured 
 down, upon them a shower of stones and missiles of 
 every description. The friars met their assailants 
 with determined courage, striking with whatever 
 weapons they could lay hold of. Those who had 
 nothing better used their crucifixes; some, it is 
 said, had attached pikes and knives to the burning 
 tapers they had been carrying, and struck home 
 with such vigour that they seemed to their adver- 
 saries under supernatural guidance. The grotesque 
 and the pathetic were curiously mingled in this 
 strange conflict. Burlamacchi tells us of a certain 
 German Frate, named Herico (Heinrich, no doubt), 
 who, in defending the choir, " got up into the 
 pulpit with an arquebuse, and shot a good many 
 of the enemy in the church, exclaiming as he fired, 
 Salvumfac popidum Tuum, Domine, et henedic hasredi- 
 tati Tuas,'' taking up the refrain of the psalm which 
 Savonarola had made them sing before the Sacra- 
 ment. The vicar and some of the brethren were 
 still before the altar in prayer ; sometimes minister- 
 ing to the wounded and dying. While Herico is 
 
860 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 discharging his arquebuse from the pulpit, and 
 stones and sticks are flying in all directions, there 
 is a youth wounded to death borne into the choir, 
 who receives the Sacrament at the hands of Era 
 Domenico, murmuring, as he dies, happy in dying 
 near his beloved teacher : " Quanta e dolce ai fratelli 
 ritrovarsi insieme (Behold, how good and pleasant 
 it is for brethren to dwell together)." 
 
 It has been the opinion of many that the brethren 
 were quite holding their own against the mob, and 
 might, with the assistance of their friends, have 
 driven them off ; but the Signoria now began to 
 take more active part in the quarrel. There is 
 no doubt that they had become the declared enemies 
 of Savonarola. To keep up appearances they seem 
 to have issued simultaneously a decree declaring 
 the assailants of S. Mark's rebels, and another 
 giving the same name to all those of the brethren 
 who did not leave S. Mark's within an hour; de- 
 manding at the same time the surrender of Fra 
 Girolamo, Fra Domenico, and Fra Salvestro. 
 
 By these means assistance was rendered to the 
 besiegers, who pushed forward and burnt down 
 the door of the choir, forcing an entrance there. 
 The defenders retreated behind the high altar, our 
 German, and another brother also armed with an 
 arquebuse, pouring their shots from both sides of 
 the great crucifix. How far Savonarola had taken 
 part in this conflict is doubtful. He had success- 
 fully interposed at the beginning of the assault, and 
 had induced the brethren to lay down their arms. 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 861 
 
 A fresh attack had been begun, and hostilities had 
 been resumed, while he was at prayer in the choir. 
 Some of the assailants having broken into the 
 convent, they and the besieged had got mingled 
 together, so that any effort to put an end to the 
 conflict was hopeless, and his friends would not 
 allow Savonarola to expose his own person. When 
 the choir was broken into, he took again the Sacra- 
 ment in his hands, and beseeching the brethren to 
 follow him, he proceeded to the Libreria Greea (the 
 Convent Library), and there prepared himself for the 
 end. Gathering around him such of the members of 
 the fraternity as could be collected, he addressed to 
 them the last words he was to speak within those 
 walls. " My children," he said, " before God, before 
 the consecrated Host, with the enemy already in the 
 convent, I confirm to you my doctrine. That which 
 I have spoken I have received from God ; and He is 
 my witness in heaven that I do not lie. I did not 
 know that the whole city was to turn against me; but 
 the will of the Lord be done. My last counsel is 
 this : let faith, patience, and prayers be your arms. 
 I leave you with anguish and grief, to put myself 
 into the hands of my enemies. I know not whether 
 they will take away my life ; but I am certain that, 
 if I must die, I shall be able to aid you in heaven, 
 more than I have been able to do on earth. Be 
 comforted, embrace the Cross, and with that you 
 will find the harbour of safety." 
 
 The commander of the guard of the palace now 
 appeared with a written order from the Signoria, 
 
862 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 requiring that the three friars should be imme- 
 diately given up, and enforcing the demand with a 
 threat to destroy the convent by artillery.* Several 
 of the brethren entreated their prior to save himself 
 by flight ; and for a moment he seemed to hesitate. 
 His course was finally decided by the counsel of Fra 
 Malatesta Sacramoro. This man had been an ardent 
 believer in the teachings of his master: he had 
 gone so far as to offer himself for the ordeal. The 
 failure of that project and the subsequent conduct 
 of the people had changed the faithful disciple into 
 a Judas. It is the name given to him by Savo- 
 narola's friends, especially by Fra Benedetto, who 
 was a witness of all that took place. He now turned 
 against the Frate, through fear or some revulsion 
 of feeling. While others were urging Savonarola 
 to flee, he interposed with the plausible question, 
 " Ought not the shepherd to lay down his life for 
 the sheep?" Savonarola was deeply touched by 
 these words. Turning to the brethren, he gave 
 them, and first among them Malatesta himself, a 
 last embrace. Salvestro had hidden himself.-]- 
 With the faithful and ever resolute Domenico by 
 his side, he went forth and gave himself into the 
 hands of his enemies. He would not leave the 
 convent without speaking one last word of comfort 
 
 * Villari says that this had been suggested by Fra Malatesta 
 Sacramoro : I cannot find the authority for this statement. 
 Burlamacchi says it had been required by Savonarola himself. 
 
 t Vasari says that Fra Bartolommeo also concealed himself. 
 It is possible and not discreditable ; but there is no contemporary 
 evidence, and Vasari is a very untrustworthy authority. 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 363 
 
 to the afflicted bretliren. " My dear brothers 
 (Fratelli miei),'" he said, " remember you have no 
 need to doubt. The work of the Lord will ever 
 go forwards, and my death will only hasten it." 
 
 If the change of fortune had made friends to fall 
 away, it had strengthened the attachment of others. 
 An impressive scene took place shortly before he 
 left the library. A young man named Girolamo 
 Gini had been long desirous of taking the habit at 
 S. Mark's, and was in the church when the siege 
 of the convent began. He had laid down his arms 
 at the command of the Frate, but he had resolved 
 to show his devotion to his cause. When the enemy 
 broke into the cloisters, he had run into the midst 
 of them, armed only with his crucifix, as if to seek 
 death. Seriously wounded, he hastened back to the 
 library, and kneeling down before the Frate he 
 requested now to be received into the brotherhood. 
 It was Savonarola's last act of authority to grant 
 his request.* 
 
 If the enemies of Savonarola had resolved and 
 planned that his persecutions, his sufferings, and 
 the circumstances of his death should resemble those 
 of his Divine Master as nearly as possible, they 
 could hardly have acted differently towards him 
 from this moment to the hour of his death. No 
 sooner was he in the hands of the soldiers than the 
 mob crowded round him and heaped upon him 
 
 * Other proofs of devotion were given. Fra Benedetto cast 
 himself into the crowd, and asked that he should be taken along 
 with his master. 
 
364 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 eyery imaginable insult. They raised cries of joy, 
 of execration, of blasphemous reproach. It was now 
 about eight o'clock, and many bore torches and 
 lanterns. Turning these upon his face, they cried 
 out, "There goes the true light." They rushed 
 against him and struck him, exclaiming, " Prophesy, 
 who is it that smote thee?" They kicked him 
 behind, and howled in derision, "It is there he 
 has the gift of prophecy." It was with difficulty 
 the officers were able to conduct him to the palazzo. 
 He was at once brought before the Gonfaloniere, who 
 asked him if he persisted in his assertion that he 
 had spoken by divine revelation. When he and 
 Era Domenico answered in the affirmative, they 
 were immediately committed to custody. The cell 
 in which he was confined is still shown ; it was the 
 same in which Cosimo de' Medici had been im- 
 prisoned by the Albizzi. The Signoria had promised, 
 when he gave himself up, that he should be set at 
 liberty after he had been interrogated. This promise 
 was not kept. The next day Era Salvestro, coming 
 out of his hiding-place, was in his turn betrayed by 
 the Judas of the convent. The three Frati were 
 now kept for their more formal trial. 
 
 The joy of Savonarola's enemies knew no bounds 
 when they heard of the success of the trick played 
 by the Compagnacci and the Franciscans, of the 
 failure of the ordeal, of the consequent revulsion 
 in the popular mind, and the arrest of the three 
 Dominicans. Briefs arrived from Kome, telling 
 the brethren of Santa Croce, and Fra Francesco in 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 365 
 
 particular, how deeply the Holy Father had felt, and 
 how earnestly he would hold in eternal remem- 
 brance their "holy zeal and evangelical charity." 
 As regarded the Signoria, they were declared to 
 be true sons of Holy Church, and every blessing 
 and absolution was pronounced upon them. But 
 a greater joy awaited the Pope and his firm ally, 
 the Duke of Milan. Savonarola had still one friend, 
 somewhat of a broken reed it is true, yet dangerous 
 to his enemies, if not entirely to be trusted by his 
 friends. It was to the King of France that the 
 Frate had turned as a means of assembling a 
 council; he could not help thinking of him as a 
 protector in his hour of adversity. Alas ! this hope, 
 too, must now fail him : on the very day of the 
 ordeal Charles YIII. had died at Amboise. 
 
 The enemies of Savonarola had determined that, 
 however his trial might be conducted, his con- 
 demnation should be obtained. The Compagnacci 
 exhibited in public the arms which had been col- 
 lected for the defence of the convent, and told the 
 people that these were the proofs of the miraculous 
 powers of the Frate, and of the love which he bore 
 to Florence. The Signoria, knowing that the Ten 
 and the Eight were still favourable to Savonarola, 
 determined to bring him before a special and hostile 
 tribunal. For this purpose, they appointed a com- 
 mission consisting of seventeen examiners, T\ith two 
 canons. They took care to place on the com- 
 mission some of his bitterest enemies ; among them, 
 Piero degli Alberti, one of the chief promoters of 
 
366 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 the ordeal, and tlie first who had objected to the 
 vestment worn by Fra Domenico as being enchanted, 
 and Dolfo Spini, the leader of the Compagnacci. 
 The constitution of the tribunal was so manifestly- 
 unjust that one of the commissioners left it in 
 indignation, declaring that he " would have no share 
 in this homicide." * 
 
 When Savonarola was brought before the com- 
 mission, he gave the same answer as he had already- 
 given to the Signoria: His doctrine was of God. 
 To those who demanded a different reply, he said, 
 "Ye tempt the Lord." We have here the whole 
 substance of his defence. Throughout the entire 
 period which intervened between his arrest on Palm 
 Sunday to the day of his death, on the eve of the 
 Ascension, he never wavered, except under torture, 
 in the profession of his faith. It is now impossible 
 to recover the true answers which he returned to the 
 particular questions of his judges. At first he was 
 allowed to write his replies ; but these were found 
 so unsatisfactory for the purpose of his condemna- 
 tion that they were destroyed, and his oral answers 
 were so garbled that it is impossible to place any 
 reliance upon the reports. 
 
 The first examination took place on the Monday 
 in Holy Week, before the commission was made up. 
 On the Tuesday he was taken to the upper hall of 
 the BargellOjt interrogated afresh, and, when he re- 
 
 * Burlamacchi gives the name as that of Francesco degli 
 Albizzi. Villari shows that it was Bartolo dei Zati. 
 
 t Opposite to the church of the Badia, formerly the Palazzo del 
 Fodesta, now a museum. 
 
 / 
 
Z^IARTYRDOM. 
 
 8G7 
 
 fused to give the desired replies, put to the 
 torture. 
 
 Pico della Mirandola gives a minute account * of 
 this horrible punishment, as applied to Savonarola. 
 His hands were bound behind his back with the 
 strongest chains. They were then tied to a rope 
 attached to the roof of the building, by which he 
 was first drawn up to a great height, and then let 
 fall with great violence, so that his feet did not 
 quite touch the ground; and his body, remaining 
 suspended in the air, sprang upwards again, so 
 that his shoulders were put out of joint and his 
 muscles strained and torn. Instruments of torture 
 were set before his eyes. Insults were heaped upon 
 him: he was struck and spit upon; his torturers 
 demanding, all tlie time, that he should recant his 
 prophecies, and disavow his pretensions to be a 
 messenger of God. Burning coals were then applied 
 to his feet, so that the flesh and nerves were half 
 burnt, in order that he might be induced to retract. 
 He refused to do so. Again and again they re- 
 peated the torture, and he repeated his innocence, 
 crying out with the prophet Elijah : " Tolle, tolle, 
 Domine^ animam meam (0 Lord, take away my 
 life)." When the torture was over, and he was led 
 back to his cell, he immediately knelt down and 
 prayed, in the words of Christ : " Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do." 
 
 It is difficult to say how often the torture was 
 applied to him, during his two examinations before 
 
 * Cap. xvii. 
 
368 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 the commissioners, each of which lasted several 
 days ; but it is certain that the pain which he 
 endured was extreme and almost maddening. He 
 was of a most delicate and sensitive organization, 
 and, while ready and willing to die, he was unable 
 to endure the agony which was thus inflicted upon 
 him. In the delirium produced by his torments it 
 is said that he gave utterance to many equivocal 
 expressions, and even that he confessed to being 
 influenced by the desire of glory and power. His 
 biographers relate that he used the same method 
 before his judges that Christ employed before Pilate. 
 
 However this may have been, his enemies found 
 it impossible to convict him out of his own mouth. 
 Their questions had reference to three points — his 
 religious teaching, his political conduct, and his 
 prophecies. They could obtain nothing from him 
 on the first point which they could torture into a 
 charge of heresy. On the second, he is said to have 
 been equally clear and distinct. On the third, his 
 utterances were more uncertain and wavering. 
 
 When they found that even the torture could 
 extract from him nothing that was sufficient for 
 their purpose, they employed a notary named 
 Francesco Ceccone, who promised that he would so 
 misrepresent his words as to make him confess him- 
 self guilty. This man had been concerned in the 
 conspiracy of the Bigi, and is said to have been 
 saved by the interposition of Savonarola, whom he 
 thus repaid. Preserving some of his words, he dis- 
 torted their meaning by omissions and additions 
 
MAKTYRDOM. 
 
 369 
 
 which changed the whole impression they were 
 calculated to produce. For instance, says Burla- 
 macchi, he was asked why he had done such great 
 things for Florence ; and when he replied, " I have 
 done everything for glory " — meaning for the true 
 glory of the State — Ceccone wrote down " for human 
 glory." 
 
 It is almost certain that something of this kind 
 took place, and Signer Villari, in printing the false 
 reports which were published by the Signoria, has 
 indicated passages which are evident interpolations ; 
 but it is impossible to arrive at the truth. The 
 stories told by his own biographers represent rather 
 the view taken by Savonarola's own friends than any 
 ascertained facts. Burlamacchi relates that Ceccone 
 had bargained with the Signoria for four hundred 
 seudi for the work which he had to do; but the 
 magistrates were so little satisfied with the result 
 that they paid him no more than thirty. Com- 
 plaining of this injustice to one of the citizens who 
 happened to be an adherent of the Frate, he thus 
 revealed the treachery of which he had been guilty. 
 
 Pico relates a very probable example of this 
 falsification, which is said to have taken place on 
 the 19th of April. The Frate, he says, had tHe 
 examination read over to him, and was asked by 
 Ceccone, in the presence of eight witnesses, of whom 
 six were friars of S. Mark's, whether that which 
 was read was true or false. " To which the man of 
 God replied, * What I have written is true.' * Alto- 
 gether ? ' he asked. * Altogether,' he replied. * To 
 
 I. 2 b 
 
370 
 
 SAVONAEOLA. 
 
 the letter {ad verhmne) ? ' he was asked again. ' To 
 the letter/ he answered. And then, turning to his 
 friends who were present, he told them that no one 
 was ignorant of his doctrine and manner of life, and 
 asked to be commended to the novices, and sent 
 them an exhortation to live in the fear of God, as 
 they had been taught ; and entreated that they would 
 offer earnest prayers to God on his behalf, because 
 the Spirit had almost left him." In reference to 
 this, Pico says his enemies declared that he had 
 said, not " What I have written is true," but " What 
 is written," meaning the report of Ceccone.* 
 
 If Ceccone failed to satisfy the Signoria, the 
 remembrance of his treachery is said to have been a 
 heavy burden on his own conscience, which became 
 insupportable as the hour of death drew near. He 
 was taken ill at his villa, and had only one maid- 
 servant with him at the time. Two Dominicans 
 came to the door, asking alms, while he lay dying, 
 and the maid entreated them to come and try to 
 bring her master to confession. But all was vain : 
 " he said his sins were unpardonable, crying out that 
 Judas had betrayed only one, but he had betrayed 
 three ; and so he died without confession and absolu- 
 tion." 
 
 * Among the brethren of S. Mark's -who were thus present was 
 the Judas, Fra Malatesta, who, apparently desirous of knowing 
 the truth, now asked Savonarola, " But are the things you have 
 subscribed " (meaning the report of Ceccone) " true or false ? " To 
 this question Savonarola gave no reply, but turned away from the 
 traitor in indignation. Sacramoro then said, " Out of thy mouth 
 I believed thee; and now, out of thine own mouth I disbelieve 
 thee." 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 871 
 
 The words which. Savonarola had spoken to his 
 friends on the loss of the spirit of prophecy repre- 
 sented with truth his habitual feelings during this 
 period of his imprisonment ; and these feelings are 
 probably represented in many of the expressions 
 contained in the falsified report. That he said he 
 was no prophet is very probable : he had said the 
 same in the days of his prosperity and power ; and 
 such a profession was in no way incompatible with 
 the declaration that he had received from God the 
 message which he had delivered to Florence, to 
 Italy, and to the Church at large. But these simple 
 statements were not sufficient for his cruel judges. 
 They plied him with questions so artfully contrived 
 that he could hardly answer them without giving 
 the appearance of equivocation and evasion. Whether 
 his revelations were from God or were the imagina- 
 tions of his own heart, it would be impossible to 
 answer questions respecting them that would satisfy 
 men blinded by passion and hatred. Many of his 
 answers, therefore, were probably ambiguous; but 
 we may safely put down a great deal of the report 
 of the examination as an entire fabrication. For 
 instance, when he is represented as saying, " This 
 was my hypocrisy, it was my pride," and the like, 
 we see in these words not the utterances even of the 
 tortured and delirious victim, but the invention or 
 the distortions of the notary ; and it is certain that, 
 when he was before the commissioners, he repeatedly 
 asserted the truth of his visions, at the same time 
 that he protested against these being made a ground 
 
372 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of accusation against him, inasmuch as they did not 
 concern the State and were not matters which they 
 could either examine or condemn. If it should be 
 believed, as some have believed, that Savonarola did, 
 under the torture, employ language which bore one 
 meaning in his own mind and another to his hearers, 
 this will not seem surprising if it is remembered 
 how the last few days had been passed before his 
 trial. On the Saturday he had stood for hours in 
 the Piazza della Signoria, tormented by the tricks 
 of the Franciscans, insulted and reviled by the 
 people ; the next day was the terrible Palm Sunday, 
 on the evening of which he surrendered to the 
 magistrates. On the Monday he had been ques- 
 tioned with every expression of insolent hatred and 
 amid the tumult of the populace in the Palazzo 
 della Signoria, and on Tuesday he was put to the 
 torture in the Bargello — a process which seems to 
 have been repeated day after day during his 
 examination. 
 
 When the report of this trial was published — and 
 this was not done until it had been altered again 
 and again — it proved so unsatisfactory that the 
 Signoria withdrew all the copies and destroyed as 
 many as they could lay hold of, and published 
 another version; but even then it was found to 
 contain nothing which could be regarded as consti- 
 tuting a capital offence. Having thus failed, the 
 Signoria determined to have a second trial, which 
 was conducted in the same manner as the first, and 
 with very nearly the same results. To crown the 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 373 
 
 injustice of the proceedings, instead of reading 
 the conclusion of the trial before the people, 
 and in the presence of the accused, in accordance 
 with the law, it was read simply by one of the 
 Eight, who announced that Savonarola had declined 
 to be present, for fear of being stoned by the people, 
 a statement which no one believed. 
 
 The examination of the two companions of Savo- 
 narola was conducted in a manner equally illegal, 
 and, if possible, more cruel and deceitful. They 
 were tortured, of coui'se ; but they were put to the 
 still more cruel torture of being compelled to hear 
 the falsehood that the master whom they loved had 
 confessed himself a deceiver. But one at least 
 stood firm. They could extract no word from Fra 
 Domenico which could by any device be perverted 
 into a recantation, or a disowning of the truth which 
 he believed he had received. Finding that they 
 could not entrap him in his words they permitted 
 him to write his defence. To this they made great 
 additions. Happily the two versions are preserved, 
 so that we can ascertain the kind of changes which 
 the falsifier of these documents introduced.* 
 
 In this document Fra Domenico, after declaring 
 that he spoke the truth, proceeds to state that he 
 and Fra Hieronymo had been opposed to resistance 
 by arms. He says that he went to the ordeal by 
 fire willingly, and did not take the Sacrament with 
 
 * Villari prints copies of both among the Bocumenti at the end 
 of his second volume. 
 
874 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 him to prevent its taking place. When he was told 
 that Savonarola had recanted, he said that he had 
 always believed, and, until he was shown better, 
 always should believe, in the prophecies of his 
 master ; and, after enumerating them, he said they 
 could be no injury to himself or to the city, "and in 
 these things every one is free to believe what he will.'* 
 He said that Savonarola had never told him what to 
 preach, but had let him be led by divine inspiration. 
 When he was pressed to say more, he declared that 
 he knew no more, and that he had simply occupied 
 himself with holy living and with Jesus Christ, 
 King of Florence. If they tortured him again, 
 they could make him say nothing different. When, 
 after being again tortured, he was asked to write 
 what he had further to say, he declared that he had 
 always believed in the goodness and sincerity of 
 the Frate, and had rendered him obedience as his 
 superior with all simplicity and care. "I have 
 said," he goes on — and these are his last statements — 
 " in the pulpit, to the brethren and also to laymen, 
 that, if I had known in Fra leronimo the least error 
 or deception, I should have discovered and published 
 it. To himself, too, I have testified several times 
 that I should have done it ; and I should do it now, 
 if I knew of any duplicity in him." 
 
 It was very different with Fra Salvestro. His 
 character has been already described, and we have 
 heard how he showed his timidity on the evening of 
 Palm Sunday. When he was examined he had only 
 one thought, how to avoid the torture. Even his 
 
MARTYRDOil. 
 
 375 
 
 answers, however, Villari thinks, have undergone 
 alteration at the hands of Ser Ceccone ; but a care- 
 ful perusal of his whole testimony leaves upon the 
 mind the impression that no real accusation could 
 be brought against Savonarola. 
 
 When the brethren of San Marco were told of the 
 recantation of their vicar, their faith failed them. 
 They were perplexed and dismayed by the rapid 
 succession of changes and misfortunes which had 
 fallen upon them. Even Fra Benedetto wavered for 
 a season, only however to return in penitence and 
 increased conviction to his former faith. On the 21st 
 of April the fraternity made their abject submis- 
 sion to Borgia, and his Holiness gladly gave them 
 absolution, especially as they disowned and aban- 
 doned " the head of the whole error, Fra Girolamo 
 Savonarola ! " 
 
 But the time was coming near for the election of 
 a new Signoria, and in spite of the reverses which 
 the fortunes of the Frate had experienced, his 
 •enemies had some dread of his party returning to 
 power. If this happened, their cruel injustice 
 would instantly be discovered. They took effectual 
 precautions to prevent such an event. On the day 
 of the assembling of the great council for the 
 election of the Signoria, they took care to exclude 
 no fewer than 200 of its members who belonged to 
 the popular party. By this means a new Signoria, 
 of the same kind as their predecessors, were elected, 
 headed by a Gonfaloniere named Vieri de' Medici, 
 ^' who was worthy of the name which he bore." 
 
876 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The Pope had for some time been insisting that 
 Savonarola should be sent to Eome, to be tried for 
 his offences. The old Signoria had temporized, 
 evaded the request, put off giving a final answer, 
 until they had secured the election of their suc- 
 cessors ; and then the Pope was informed that they 
 were unable to grant his request. Amidst the 
 masses of falsehood it is impossible to discern their 
 whole reason for this refusal. Certain pretexts were 
 addressed to the Pope himself; other more private 
 reasons were assigned in a letter to their own 
 ambassadors: It may have been that they were 
 unwilling to part with their authority. They 
 may have wished that the death of the Frate 
 should take place at Florence, to strike terror into 
 the hearts of his adherents; so at least they said, 
 Burlamacchi suggests that they were afraid of 
 the falsifications committed at their request by 
 Ceccone being found out. They requested his 
 Holiness to send two commissioners to try the 
 accused in his name. The Pope at last agreed, 
 and the commissioners arrived at Florence on the 
 19th of May. They were Giovacchino Turriano, 
 General of the Dominicans, and Francesco Komolino,. 
 Auditore of the Governor of Eome, a Spanish 
 doctor. They were commissioned by Alexander 
 "to examine the errors and crimes of those three 
 sons of perdition," a strange description of men 
 who were to be tried and examined ! 
 
 Nearly a month had elapsed from the last ex- 
 amination of the three prisoners, and Savonarola 
 
MARTYRDOM 
 
 377 
 
 had employed this interval in writing short com- 
 mentaries on the 31st and the 51st Psalms. In 
 this work he seems to have recovered all his old 
 energy, and writes as he preached. Still he dwells 
 upon his favourite thought of the renovation of the 
 Church, and finds consolation in the conviction of 
 its accomplishment. He is a penitent sinner, but 
 an undoubting believer. I will hope, then, in the 
 Lord," he writes in his commentary on the Miserere, 
 "and soon I shall be delivered from all tribulation. 
 And by whose merits? Not by my own; but 
 through Thine, 0 Lord. I do not offer my own 
 righteousness, but I seek Thy mercy. The Pharisees 
 gloried in their righteousness ; so that they have 
 not that of God, which is by grace alone ; and no 
 one will ever be righteous before God by having 
 done the works of the law alone." One other work 
 he composed in prison ; it was his " Kule for a Good 
 Christian Life," written at the request of his gaoler, 
 who had been so deeply impressed by the sanctity 
 ' of his deportment that he asked him to provide him 
 with such a rule. 
 
 When the papal commissioners entered Florence, 
 they were greeted on all sides with shouts of 
 " Death, death to the Frate ! " There was no doubt 
 of that from the beginning. Komolino told some 
 of the Signori that he had brought a sketch of the 
 sentence with him. The trial was a mere farce. It 
 had been determined by the Pope, as by the Signoria, 
 to perpetrate a judicial murder. There was no at- 
 tempt made to discover the truth, but only to get hold 
 
S78 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of something which might criminate the accused. 
 As threats and abuse had no effect upon him, he 
 was put to the torture. When this was being ap- 
 plied, he turned to the magistrates and said aloud, 
 ^'Now hear me, magistrates of Florence, and be 
 my witnesses. I have denied my light through 
 fear of torture. If I have to suffer, I am willing 
 to suffer for the truth. That which I have spoken, 
 I have received from God." These words were 
 remembered and placed on record. Under the 
 torture he became delirious, and seems again to 
 have had recourse, consciously or unconsciously, 
 to his former ambiguity of language. This was 
 when speaking of his prophecies. There was no 
 ambiguity in his utterances concerning the faith 
 or the Church. The next day (May 21st) they 
 put him to the torture again, but still his answers 
 were inconclusive. Seeing that no more could be 
 extracted from him, Eomolino told him he must 
 return to-morrow to hear his sentence. "I am a 
 prisoner," he replied ; I shall come if they bring 
 me." The result of this examination was so un- 
 satisfactory that it was not even published. Ceccone 
 seems again to have done his best; but even his 
 garbled report could only demonstrate the innocence 
 of the accused. 
 
 On the 22nd of May, they met to decide the 
 question of the guilt of Savonarola and his com- 
 panions. By way of making a show of fairness, 
 Eomolino suggested that the life of Fra Domenico 
 should be spared; but he was told that, in that 
 
MARTYEDOM. 
 
 379 
 
 case, the whole doctrine of Savonarola would remain 
 alive. To which Eomolino instantly made answer : 
 "A wretched friar (frataccio) more or less makes 
 little difference ; put him to death then ! " When 
 the Signoria met, there was still one man who 
 refused to consent to the condemnation. His name, 
 which deserves to be remembered, was xignolo Pan- 
 dolfini. To him "it seemed a very serious fault 
 to put to death a man of qualities so excellent that 
 such an one was hardly to be seen in a century. 
 Such a man," he said, " would not only bring back 
 faith to the world, but also the sciences with which 
 he was most highly endowed. I therefore counsel 
 you to keep him in prison, if you so wish, but 
 preserve his life and allow him to write, that the 
 world may not lose the fruits of his genius." The 
 answer was worthy of the whole transaction. " 
 one," it was said, "could trust the new Signoria 
 that might be elected within two months. The 
 Frate would certainly be set at liberty, and would 
 again bring confusion and destruction upon the 
 city. A dead enemy makes no more war." It was 
 decided that they should be first hanged, and then 
 burnt. 
 
 The sentence of death was communicated the 
 same night to the three condemned men. Savo- 
 narola received the announcement with perfect calm. 
 He was engaged in prayer when the messenger 
 arrived. He returned no answer, but only continued 
 more earnest and fervent in his prayers. A member 
 of a society which attended on the condemned in 
 
380 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 their last hours, named Jacopo Niccolini, came to 
 pass the night with him. " I do not come," he said 
 to Savonarola, "to recommend resignation to one 
 who has brought back a whole people to the paths 
 of virtue." "Do your duty," was the only reply. 
 He refused to sup lest it should interrupt his medi- 
 tations. After confessing to a Benedictine monk, 
 he asked Niccolini to let him lay his head upon 
 his knees. In this attitude he fell asleep; and as 
 he slept he talked and smiled. It was a presage 
 of the coming peace and joy. 
 
 Era Domenico received his sentence with the 
 same composure which he had shown throughout. 
 He rejoiced to suffer with his master, and for his 
 cause. To the friars of Fiesole, of which convent 
 he was prior, he wrote a letter bidding them fare- 
 well and giving them his last instructions. After 
 asking for their prayers, and bidding them salute 
 the brethren of S. Mark's, and especially those of 
 Fiesole, he gave a touching evidence of his faith- 
 fulness unto death. "Collect from my cell," he 
 writes, "all the works of our Father Girolamo: 
 have them bound, and place one copy in the library 
 and another in the refectory, to be read at table." 
 Fra Salvestro was completely overwhelmed by the 
 intelligence of the sentence. 
 
 Before they went to rest for the night, Savonarola 
 had prayed Niccolini to obtain for him the last favour 
 of an interview with his two brethren. After some 
 hesitation on the part of the Signoria, the request 
 was granted. They met in the hall of the great 
 
MAETYRDOM. 
 
 381 
 
 council, the very chamber which had been erected 
 by the patriotic efforts of Savonarola himself. It was 
 the first time that they had seen each other since 
 the night when they left S. Mark's for the last time. 
 It was to be a short interview, and Savonarola 
 turned at once to Domenico, and said he knew that 
 he wished to be burnt alive; "but," he said, "it 
 is not given to you to choose the manner of your 
 death. Keceive with cheerfulness that which God 
 has prepared for you. Who knows if you will be able 
 to bear that which He has appointed ; since that 
 depends not upon your own virtue, but on the grace 
 of God? It is not, therefore, expedient to tempt 
 God." Domenico received this counsel in silence. 
 
 Turning then to Fra Salvestro, he said, " I know 
 that you wish to declare your innocence before the 
 people. I require you to abandon such a thought, 
 and rather to follow the example of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, Who not even upon the cross would speak 
 of His innocence." Without answering a word, they 
 both knelt down before their superior, and received 
 his benediction in silence. They were then recon- 
 ducted to their cells, to snatch a brief repose and 
 then to prepare themselves for death. 
 
 The place of execution was the same as that 
 appointed for the ordeal, and on the same ground 
 which had been occupied by the scaffold on that 
 occasion was now raised another about the height 
 of a man, on which were piled all kinds of inflam- 
 mable materials, and at the western end a gallows 
 with two arms, in the form of a cross. The re- 
 
382 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 semblance, indeed, was so striking tliat they cut 
 off pieces from the ends of the cross-beam. From 
 the arms of the cross hung three nooses and chains, 
 the chains intended to support the bodies in the 
 fire, after they were strangled. The crowds on the 
 piazza were enormous, as on the day of the ordeal ; 
 but a feeling of deeper solemnity seemed to pervade 
 them. On that occasion they had been swayed by 
 doubt, suspense, eager curiosity ; now they knew 
 what Florence, what Eome had decided to do with 
 the man who had built up for them their new 
 system of. government. Many there were who 
 looked on with savage exultation, knowing that 
 the voice which had rebuked and condemned them 
 could now no longer disturb them in their evil 
 courses. Others, and among them some of his 
 political adversaries, were agitated and terrified at 
 the success which had attended their own endea- 
 vours. The horror of the scene was increased by 
 the presence of a number of criminals let loose 
 from prison by the Signoria. These wretches had 
 come, as was evident from their words and gestures, 
 to enjoy a festival ; and by the insults which they 
 heaped upon the condemned men, they showed that 
 they understood the reason of their liberation. 
 
 The platform was united to the Binghiera by a 
 kind of wooden bridge, over which the condemned 
 men were to proceed to the place of execution. On 
 the Ringliiera itself were erected three tribunals. 
 The first, which was nearest to the gate of the 
 palace, was for the Bishop of Yasona. He had been 
 
MARTYRDOM 
 
 383 
 
 appointed, with a refinement of cruelty, to super- 
 intend the degradation of the Frate, as' a Dominican 
 who had himself received the habit at the hands 
 of Savonarola, although he had afterwards become 
 a member of the congregation of Santa Maria 
 Novella. The second was for the apostolic com- 
 missaries; the third, nearest to the Marzocco, was 
 for the Gon/aloniere and the Eight. 
 
 In the mornino' the three Frati met asrain to 
 receive the Holy Communion. Savonarola, before 
 communicating himself, took the host in his hand 
 and offered an earnest prayer — " with wonderful joy- 
 fulness of mind," says Pico. " I know, 0 Lord " — 
 thus he prayed — " that Thou art the Supreme God, 
 Who didst make heaven and earth and the whole 
 imiverse. I know also that Thou art perfect and 
 indivisible Trinity, comprehending three distinct 
 Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
 I acknowledo^e the Son as the Word of the Eternal 
 Father, Who came down from heaven to earth, into 
 the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thou, O Lord, 
 didst ascend to the wood of the cross, and didst shed 
 Thy most precious Blood to deliver us wretched 
 men from sin. I pray and beseech Thee that Thy 
 Blood may not have been shed in vain, but for 
 the remission of my sins. For all of these which 
 I may have committed from the day in which -I 
 was washed in the sacred waves to this hour, I pray 
 that I may obtain pardon of Thee, as well as for 
 every offence and injury which I may have done 
 to this city, and for every error of which I may be 
 
384 SAVONAKOLA. 
 
 ignorant." * He then took the Communion, and 
 gave it to his two companions. Shortly afterwards 
 they were told that they must proceed to the 
 piazza. 
 
 As they descended the stairs of the palace they 
 were met by a Dominican of Santa Maria Novella, 
 who had orders to despoil them of their habits, so 
 that they came before their judges wearing only their 
 woollen tunics, with their feet bare, and their hands 
 bound behind them. Savonarola received this un- 
 expected insult with calmness, but with deep grief. 
 " 0 sacred habit," he said, as it was removed, " how 
 much I desired thee ! By the grace of God thou 
 wast granted to me; and I have preserved thee 
 unstained to this moment. Now I do not abandon 
 thee, but thou art taken from me." 
 
 He then took his place before the first tribunal, 
 that which was presided over by his old disciple, 
 the Bishop of Vasona. It was no agreeable task 
 that was assigned to him, to degrade an innocent 
 man, and one whom he had formerly venerated as 
 his master. He could hardly look up, and seemed 
 more like the condemned criminal than the judge. 
 The three friars were placed before him, vested 
 again in the religious habit. The confusion of the 
 bishop showed itseK in his words. It was his office 
 to separate the prisoners from the Church on earth ; 
 
 * Before he left his cell he had told Niccolini of the calamities 
 ■which were to come upon Florence, and that they 'would happen 
 Tmder a Pope named Clement; all of which took place. "Cf. 
 Villari, ii. 204. 
 
jrAHTYRDO:^!. 
 
 385 
 
 but as lie stammered forth the w ords, ^' Scparo te ah 
 ecclesia militante (I separate thee from the Church 
 militant)," he added in his confusion, ^' atqiie triiim- 
 2)haiite (and triumphant)." Militante replied 
 Savonarola at once ; but triiimplw.nte, no ! for this 
 does not belong to you." * They were words which 
 were heard by many, and could never be forgotten. 
 
 They were then led in their tunicles before the 
 two papal commissioners. They had just been ex- 
 communicated, and now they were to be restored! 
 Romolino declared that he was empowered to grant 
 them plenary indulgence. His Holiness, our Lord 
 Alexander YI., is pleased to deliver you from the 
 pains of jmrgatory, giving you plenary indulgence 
 of your sins, and restoring you to your first in- 
 nocence. Do you accept it?" They assented by 
 inclining their heads. 
 
 They were then taken before the tribunal of the 
 Eight, who, as a matter of custom, went through the 
 form of voting, and declared that they were unani- 
 mous in their condemnation. They expressed their 
 decision in these words : " The Gonfaloniere and the 
 Eight, having well considered the trials of the three 
 friars, and the enormous crimes which they reveal, 
 and especially having considered the sentence of the 
 Pope, which consigns them to the secular tribunal 
 for punishment, decree that each one of the three 
 friars shall be hanged on the gallows, and then 
 
 * Pico: Militante^ non triumphante : hoc enim tuura non est. 
 Burlamacchi: Bella militante si, ma della irionfante no, qnesto 
 a vol non ajppartiene. 
 
38G 
 
 SAYOXAROLA. 
 
 burnt, in order that tlieir souls may be entirely 
 separated from tlieir bodies." 
 
 They were then led to the place of execution. 
 The platform had been so roughly constructed that 
 gaps were left between the planks. Through these 
 some of the mob thrust sharp stakes to wound the 
 naked feet of the condemned as they passed along. 
 Then Fra Salvestro, who up to that time had shown 
 the greatest timidity and terror at the near prospect 
 of death, seemed to become inspired, and his face 
 shone as he told >Savonarola that they must now 
 endure death with a ready and courageous mind. 
 Savonarola exhorted him and Domenico to remain 
 steadfast, to dismiss all fear and anxiety, saying that 
 they should thus the sooner come to heaven, where 
 they would sing that psalm of David, " Ecce quam 
 honum (Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for 
 brethren to dwell together in unity ! ) " 
 
 Amid the insults which were poured upon them 
 as they passed, there were not wanting expressions of 
 grief and sympathy. Some exhorted them to die 
 with a willing mind ; some are said to have offered 
 them food. "Why," asked Savonarola, ''should 
 you offer such things to me, who am about to leave 
 this life ? " and again, " In the last hour only God 
 is needed to comfort mortals." A priest named 
 Nerotto asked him, "With what mind do you 
 endure this martyrdom?" He simply replied, 
 " Should I not die willingly for Him Who suffered 
 as much for me ? " and raising up his eyes to his 
 crucifix, he kissed it. 
 
MARTYRDOM. 
 
 387 
 
 Fra Domenico was worthy of himself to the last. 
 He was so serene and cheerful that he seemed like 
 "one going to a dance and not to death." He wished 
 to sing the Te JDeum aloud as he went along ; but at 
 the request of Savonarola he desisted, saying, " Ac- 
 company me then in an undertone ; " and so they 
 recited it throughout ; after which he added to those 
 nearest, "Kemember that the prophecies of Fra 
 Girolamo must all be fulfilled, and that we all die 
 in innocence." 
 
 Fra Salvestro was the first to die. He mounted 
 to his place with a firm step, in silence, but " with 
 some tears in his eyes;" and murmuring, "Lord, into 
 Thy hands I commend my spirit," he gave his neck 
 to the executioner, and speedily was dead. He was 
 followed immediately by Fra Domenico, whose face 
 shone with joyful hope, as though he were already 
 in the antechamber of heaven. 
 
 Last of all came Savonarola, softly reciting the 
 Apostles' Creed. He was so absorbed in devotion 
 that he seemed scarcely aware of what was passing 
 around him ; but as he took his place under the 
 gallows, he cast one look of sorrowful reproach upon 
 the multitudes whom he had so often taught, guided, 
 and comforted. How different were those upturned 
 looks from the faces w hich had hung upon his words 
 a few short months before ! An awful silence fell 
 upon the people as they stood to witness the death 
 of their prophet. It was broken by a harsh voice, 
 Avhich shouted in derision, "Now, prophet, is the 
 moment to work a miracle." Others he saw with 
 
388 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 torches in their hands, ready to set fire to the pile 
 which was to consume the bodies. It is said that his 
 last words were — " 0 Florence, what hast thou done 
 to-day?" "He died," says Guicciardini, "convinced 
 of his innocence and penetrated by the most lively 
 feelings of charity. Sustained by hope, he suffered 
 no loss of firmness and composure. No word escaped 
 from him, either of confession or protestation." It 
 was the 23rd of May, the vigil of the Ascension, 
 1498, about ten o'clock in the forenoon ; and he was 
 now forty-five years of age. 
 
 The executioner, thinking to please the mob, 
 began to act the buffoon over the dead body, as 
 it swung from the beam ; and, in doing so, very 
 nearly fell off the scaffold. Exclamations of horror 
 broke from the bystanders, and the magistrates sent 
 him a severe reproof. Some tried to kindle the pile 
 so that the flames might reach the body before life 
 was extinct ; but he had died. One man shouted, 
 as he applied his torch, " I am at last able to burn 
 the man who would have liked to burn me." As the 
 flames arose, the wind blew them aside; and the 
 excited people, ready for any prodigy, exclaimed, 
 " A miracle ! a miracle ! " and many fled across the 
 piazza. But the wind ceased, and the flames soon 
 consumed the cords which bound his arms. His 
 right hand and arm, raised by the action of the 
 fire, seemed to the eyes of his adherents as though 
 lifted up to bless the people that had murdered 
 him. Some of them knelt down on the ground, 
 regardless of the place and the beholders. His 
 
MAKTYRDOM. 
 
 389 
 
 enemies took no less part in tlie scene. Showers 
 of stones were thrown at the burning bodies, and 
 pieces were struck off and scattered over the piazza. 
 A child picked up one of Savonarola's fingers and 
 carried it home to its mother. The bodies were 
 conveyed in carts, and cast into the Arno ; but frag- 
 inents which fell out by the way were gathered up 
 and preserved as relics. Pico della Mirandola tells 
 us that he secured a portion of the heart of the 
 Frate, which had been recovered from the river. 
 It was believed that miracles were wrought by 
 means of these relics. 
 
 History tells us of the miseries which were in 
 store for Florence in the future. The bitterest 
 enemies of the Frate knew their error too late, 
 when they were forced to make common cause 
 with the Piagnoni against the tyrants who sought 
 to bring them under their former bondage. The 
 excellence of Savonarola's policy has been acknow^ 
 lodged, not by mere partisans, but by historians who 
 had little sympathy with his prophecies or with his 
 religious reform. The ruin of Florence was the result 
 of the restoration of the Medici, and from that time 
 it has never recovered its ancient position in Italy 
 and in Europe. Some of the causes which led to 
 the failure of the work of Savonarola we have 
 endeavoured to indicate. Of the man himself, of 
 his intellectual and moral greatness, of his sim- 
 plicity and godly sincerity, of the nobility of his^ 
 aims and the sanctity of his life, none will doubt 
 who carefully and candidly consider the testimony 
 
S90 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 of his words and deeds. If there are any who will 
 still bring against him the mere vulgar charges of 
 fanaticism, or even of imposture, we can only say, 
 *^ Wisdom is justified of her own children." 
 
 " From his early youth to the day in which he 
 was led forth to die on the gallows," says the Padre 
 Marchese, " he was always equal to himself, in the 
 innocence of his life, in the love of truth, in his 
 charity towards the human race. It must be con- 
 fessed that, if perchance he erred in the selection 
 of the means whicli he adopted in order to attain 
 his ends, he had not for his object,- as some assert, 
 an ambition for worldly power, or any less noble 
 end ; but only the elevation of that most degraded 
 generation of the fourteenth * century to the sub- 
 lime perfection of Christianity." t 
 
 * As we should say, fifteenth. 
 
 t Avvertimento to the Lettere Inedite of Savonarola in Arcldvio 
 Idorico. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 AxALOGY OF ReligioXj Xatural axd Revealed, 
 
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