PRINCETON, N. J. 1 Shelf. DG 737.97 .M32 1853 v. 2 Madden, Richard Robert, 1796 -1886. The life and martyrdom of Savonarola Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/lifemartyrdomofs02madd or SAVONAROLA, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE K. ft. MADDEN, M.K.I. A., AUTHOR, OF "TRAVELS IN TURKEY, SYRIA AND PALESTINE," "THE MUSSULMAN," THE SHRINES AND SEPULCHRES," &C. &C. " Igne me examinasti et non est inventa in me iniquitas." — Psalm vi. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. J I LONDON: Iff 8 eB«IJL£b) tf£'iil»j, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. MDCCCLTII. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER I. PAOB LETTER OF SAVONAROLA TO ALEXANDER THE SIXTH. — ODITJM UN- JUSTLY INCURRED BY THE FRIAR ON ACCOUNT OF THE EXECU- TION OF FIYE CITIZENS FOR A POLITICAL OFFENCE. — ORIGIN OF ORDEAL. PRACTICE OF THE EXPERIMENT BY FIRE AT DIF- FERENT PERIODS IN FLORENCE. — COMPACT ENTERED INTO BY THE DOMINICAN FRIARS WITH THE FRANCISCANS, AND PRO- CEEDINGS RELATIYE TO THE ORDEAL. — RESULT OF THOSE PRO- CEEDINGS. — 1497, 1498 . . . - . . ' . . * . . 1 CHAPTER II. THE CONVENT OF SAN MARCO ASSAILED BY THE POPULACE. — AC- COUNT OF THE ASSAULT AND DEFENCE. — .ARREST AND IMPRI- SONMENT OF FRA GIROLAMO. — 9TH APRIL, 1498 .... 45 CHAPTER III. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SAVONAROLA AND HIS TWO COMPANIONS. PART TAKEN IN THEM BY THE POPE. — TORTURES INFLICTED ON SAVONAROLA. — FALSIFICATION OF THE PROCESS VERBAL. THE CONDEMNATION AND ALLEGED CONFESSION OF GUILT AS DE- TAILED BY BURCHARD, THE MASTER OF THE CEREMONIES OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH, FROM THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS FUR- NISHED TO THE HOLY SEE BY THE ENEMIES OF FRA GIROLAMO . 58 CHAPTER IV. PREPARATIONS FOR DEATH. — THE EXECUTION OF SAVONAROLA AND HIS COMPANIONS. 1498 88 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE CHABACTEE OF SAVONABOLA. EEGABDED AS A MAETYE BY MANY PEESONS EMINENTLY HOLY, BY SOME WHO HAVE BEEN CANON- IZED. — ST. CATHEEINE OE EICCI, ST. PHILIP NEEI. — SAVONA- BOLA'S PEESONAL APPEAEANCE H4 CHAPTER VI. EEEOEM OE ECCLESIASTICAL ABUSES (EOE DEMANDING WHICH SAVONAEOLA WAS PUT TO DEATH), PEAYED FOB BY ST. BEB- NABD IN THE TWELFTH CENTUEY ; AND DECLAEED TO BE IN- DISPENSABLY EEQUIBED, FOETY YEAES AFTEE SAVONAEOLA'S DEATH, BY A CONGEE CATION OF CAEDINALS APPOINTED BY THE POPE TO EEPOET ON THE ABUSES THEN EXISTING IN THE GO- VEENMENT OF THE CHUECH 153 CHAPTER VII. EELATIONS OF CHUECH AND STATE, AND THEIE INFLUENCES IN THE PONTIFICATE OF ALEXANDEE THE SIXTH. — CABEEB OF C^SAB BOEGIA AFTEE THE TEANSFOEMATION OF THE CAEDINAL INTO THE CAPTAIN GENEEAL. — HIS EXPLOITS. — DEATH OF ALEX- ANDEE THE SIXTH 165 CHAPTER VIE THE QUESTION OF THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A CONNEXION BETWEEN CHUECH AND STATE, AND OF THE UNION IN ONE GOVEENMENT OF THE SPIEITUAL AND TEMPOEAL POWEE 192 APPENDIX. No. I. EELATIONS OF CHUECH AND STATE, AND THEIE INFLUENCES IN THE PONTIFICATE OF ALEXANDEE THE SIXTH. — THE DIAEY OF BUECHAED, THE MASTEE OF THE CEEEMONIES OF ALEXANDEE THE SIXTH o .... 2-47 CONTENTS. V No. II. PAGE REPORT OT THE CONGREGATION OF CARDINALS ON THE ABUSES IN CHURCH DISCIPLINE AND IN THE COURT OF ROME, REQUIRING TO BE REFORMED, AND ADDRESSED TO POPE PAUL THE THIRD, IN 1537, NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME RE-PUBLISHED IN EXTENSO since 1538 . . 269 No. III. Savonarola's compositions. — of the rule and government of the city of florence, for the first time translated into english 282 No. IV. SAVONABOLA'S MEDITATIONS ON PSALM L 320 No. V. Savonarola's exposition of the lord's prayeb, for the first time translated into english 350 No. VI. HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS IN THE ORIGINAL ITALIAN, FROM THE " POESIE DE SAVONAROLA," EDITA PAR AUDIN DE RIANS, INCLUDING ALL THE PIECES TRANSLATED IN THESE VOLUMES . 390 No. VII. OF THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELINES, FROM TIRABOSCHI .... 406 No. VIII. ALPHONZO BORGIA, OF VALENTIA, POPE CALIXTUS THE THIRD . .407 No. IX. OF THE MEANS USED TO SECURE THE ELECTION OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH. GUICCIARDINI 408 No. X. OF THE DUKE VALENTINO' S RAVAGES AND ATROCITIES IN ITALY. MURATORI 409 vi CONTENTS. No. XI. STEPS TAKEN BY SOME CAEDTNAL3 FOB THE DEPOSITION OF ALEX- ANDEB THE SIXTH . .410 No. XII. OF THE PEOCEEDTNGS OF ALEXANDEB THE SIXTH AGAINST THE CO- LONNAS. MUBATOBI 410 No. XIII. OF THE DEATH OF ALEXANDEB THE SIXTH. GUICCIAED1NI . . .411 No. XIV. APPBOPBIATION OF CHUBCH EEYENUES BY ALEXANDEB THE SIXTH TO THE USES OF CJBSAE BOEGIA. GUICCIABDINI 412 No. XV. THE CABDINAL BOYEBO, AFTEBWABDS POPE JULIUS THE SECOND. MUBATOBI 413 No. XVI. EXTBACTS FBOM A SEBMON OF SAYONABOLA, " PENITENTIAM AGITE ; FATE PENITENTIA" 413 No. XVII. NOTICE OF SAYONABOLA' S CABEEB. MUBATOBI 414 No. XVIII. SUMMARY NOTICES OF THE CABEEBS OF THE BOBQTAS AND THE MEDICI 416 No. XIX. A LIST OF THE PONTIFFS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTUBY . . . .421 No. XX. NOTICE OF YABIOUS BEFEBENCES TO LUCBETIA BOBGIA . . . , 421 No. XXI. CLOISTEB OF S. MAE CO 435 INDEX 436 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF SAVONAKOLA. CHAPTER I. LETTER OF SAVONAROLA TO ALEXANDER THE SIXTH. ODIUM UNJUSTLY INCURRED BY THE FRIAR, ON ACCOUNT OF THE EXE- CUTION OF FIVE CITIZENS FOR A POLITICAL OFFENCE. ORIGIN OF ORDEAL. PRACTICE OF THE EXPERIMENT BY FIRE AT DIFFERENT PERIODS IN FLORENCE. COMPACT ENTERED INTO BY THE DOMINICAN FRIARS WITH THE FRANCISCANS, AND PROCEEDINGS RELATIVE TO THE ORDEAL. RESULT OF THOSE PROCEEDINGS. 1497, 1498. " Non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula possit." — Vibg. j£Jn. 6. The times demand not exhibitions such as these. The first censures of Alexander the Sixth on Savonarola, and prohibitions to preach, were followed immediately, as we have seen, by open warfare on the friar in Florence on the part of all his opponents, secular and spiritual. The state of affairs is very plainly pointed out in a letter of Savonarola to Alexander, referred to in the preceding volume, couched in the following terms : " Very holy Father, — "Why does my lord put himself in anger against his servant ? What evil has he found in me ? If the children of iniquity have been pleased to calumniate me, why, before giving credence to them, has not my lord taken VOL. II. b THK LIFE AND MARTYRDOM the trouble of interrogating and hearing me ? One does not get rid of prejudice easily, once a person allows himself to think un- favourably of another. A great many dogs have encompassed me ; a host of persons, filled with malice, have assailed me. They have said, courage, courage ! our eyes have seen at last what they desired. There is no safety for him. Your holiness holds the place of God on earth, and my enemies, by a sacrile- gious temerity, gave a false interpretation to my words, in order to render me culpable of treason, in persuading you that I do not cease to attack you and to revile you. It is not to-day for the first time they charge me with this crime. The former year they endea- voured to destroy me by a like calumny ; but I have many thou- sands of witnesses of my innocency ; my discourses have been written, as I believe, very exactly at the time I pronounced them. They have been in part printed and dispersed far and wide. Let them be produced, and read and examined carefully, and let that be shown to me which I have preached against your holiness. To convict me of being in contradiction with myself, they say that I wrote in one fashion and that I preach in another. But for what purpose ? And what advantage do I propose to myself from such unreasonable conduct ? I am surprised that your ho- liness does not perceive the malice of my enemies ; but I ought to be still more surprised at the boldness of this famous preacher, who does not fear to accuse me of a crime of which he alone is culpable. The necessity obliges me to say it, and I am in a state to prove it, by a great number of illustrious witnesses, who have often seen him in the pulpit inveighing indecorously against your holiness. The proofs of this fact are now in writing by the hand of a notary ; I will produce them when it is necessary. " This preacher ought not to have forgotten that I myself blamed his temerity, and reprehended him for it ; for I am not ignorant that it is prohibited to attack in the pulpit even a sim- ple private person, and much less to inveigh openly against the prince and the chief of pastors. Let not this crime then be im- puted to me ; I am not culpable of it. I submit myself, how- ever, as I have always submitted myself, to the correction of my OF SAVONAROLA. 3 superiors. I hope, through the mercy of God, for the pardon of my sins : it is that which I do not cease to supplicate by the merits of Jesus Christ ; at the same time, that I use all efforts to awaken in the hearts of men the sentiments of faith which are now nearly extinguished. The book of the Triumph of the Cross that I am about to publish immediately, may serve to promote this object, and there will be found new proofs, not of my pre- tended errors, but of the purity of my faith. " I again supplicate your holiness not to give credit to the words of informers until on due examination it has been found their statements now are not to be suspected ; they have been already convicted of several falsehoods. " But if God permits iniquity to triumph , and that all human helps are refused to me, I will not put less confidence in His di- vine goodness without neglecting however to make known to all the universe the iniquity of my accusers, in order that a salutary confusion may lead them to repentance of their crime. " I recommend myself humbly to your holiness, of whom I am the very humble son and servant, Fra Girolamo of Ferrara, of the order of Friar Preachers. In the convent of San Marco, the 20th of May, 1497."* About three months after the date of this letter, an occurrence took place which contributed very largely to Savonarola's ruin. Guicciardini tells us, that in August, 1497, many noble citi- zens were put in prison, and several others fled, on the plans of a conspiracy being discovered for the restoration of the Me- dici. " They condemned to death," he says, " Xicolo Ridolfl, Lorenzo Tornabuoni, Giannozze Puzzi, and Giovanni Cambi, as culpable of having invited Lorenzo de Medici to attack Flo- rence, and it was even proved that Lorenzo had advanced money for that purpose. And although Bernardo del Nero was ac- cused only of having had a knowledge of the conspiracy, with- out having disclosed it to the authorities, which crimes were punishable with death in the republic of Florence, and also by the law of nature (according to the interpretation which jurists give * Bzovii Annales. Eccles. p. 479, vol. ap. Touron, torn. iii. p. 629. B 2 4 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM to the common law of justice), he was condemned for that which was still more grave against him, inasmuch as that he happened to be Gonfaloniere of Justice at the time of the arrival of Pietro de Medici in Florence (on the occasion of his former designs against the republic), when it was his duty to have considered more his public duty than his private friendship. But the rela- tions of the condemned persons having appealed from the sen- tence to the great council of the people, in virtue of the law which was made when ' the popular form of government ' was es- tablished, the magistrates who condemned them restricted the power of appeal to that council, from a suspicion that feelings of compassion for the age and rank of the prisoners, and the influence of the vast number of their relations, would cause the people composing that great council to mitigate the severity of justice. They obtained, therefore, permission that a small num- her of persons should consider the appeal and decide upon it. Hence the influence of those prevailed who thought it danger- ous, and likely to excite sedition, to grant the appeal to the full council, and in accordance even with the legitimate right of pro- viding for the safety of the state, and, in order to prevent tu- mults, that, they should in similar cases dispense with the laws — potessere essere le leggi in caso simile dispensate. And thus, almost by force and with menaces, some of those were compelled in the supreme magistracy to consent, that, notwithstanding the appeal, the execution of the condemned should be carried into effect the same night. " The partizans of Savonarola, much more than all others, zealously urged this decision, not without bringing infamy on him, non senza infamia sua, that he should not have dissuaded those, especially who were his followers, from violating a law proposed a few years previously by himself, and one very salu- tary, and almost essential to the preservation of liberty."* Nardi says, that by the discovery of this conspiracy, " the whole city was universally perturbed and agitated and the dread of Piero's return, and the vengeance of his party, were * Guicciardiui, Hist. D'ltal. lib. iii. p. 97. OF SAVONAROLA. s felt not only by those who loved liberty, but the results of this conspiracy were dreaded by those who were not favourable to popular government. " In this panic/' says Nardi, " the following citizens were seized on and committed to prison : Bernardo del Nero, an old man of seventy-five years of age ; Nicolo Ridolfi, the head of his house, a connexion of Piero de Medici ; Lorenzo de Torna- buoni, a near relation of Piero's, a young man universally be- loved for his many amiable qualities ; Giovanni Cambi, a pro- tege of the Medici, and formerly employed in their affairs at Pisa ; and lastly, Gianozzo Pucci, a young man also greatly loved, and above all other citizens esteemed by the Medici, as his ancestors had likewise been by them."* " Had the conspiracy succeeded," observes Nardi, " the re- storation of the Medici must have led to the most certain and inevitable ruin of their adversaries." No mention is made, however, by Nardi, of any intervention of Savonarola, in the proceedings against the conspirators, or of his mediation having been sought for them. In reference to this occurrence, Burlamacchi merely observes, that Piero had appeared under the walls of Florence four times with armed men, expecting that his friends in the city would make an attempt for his restoration, which he would have se- conded with his people. But on each occasion his hopes were disappointed, and on the last, his plans had been discovered, and ruin was brought on his unfortunate adherents. Burlamacchi does not say one word of Savonarola taking any part in the proceedings against the latter, or of his influence in their favour being even solicited by their friends ; but in refer- ence to the conspiracy, previously to its attempt and failure, he states, that Fra Girolamo had said, on some occasion when the exiled Medici were spoken of (as if he was addressing their adherents), " You are seeking to scale a wall, but the attempt will bring ruin on your shoulders." And so it turned out. * J^ardi, Hist, Fior. p. 66. 6 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM The anonymous author of the Life of Savonarola, prefixed to a re-publication of Savonarola's Treatise on Government, which appeared in Pisa in 1818, refers to Graziani Vescovo d' Amelia, as having stated in his work, De Casibus Virorum Illust., that the friends of the five condemned citizens engaged in the con- spiracy for the restoration of the Medici, had presented them- selves to Fra Girolamo, and had in vain on their knees besought his interference in behalf of their unhappy relatives. And the same anonymous author refers to another writer, named Cerretani (Istoria MS.), who says, " It was reported that Fra Girolamo had sent to the magistracy to say, that " it was the will of God they should do justice." If Savonarola's followers acted in the manner Guicciardini has described, and if Savonarola had the power and influence that Graziani seems to think he possessed, and did not exercise them, in favour of one of the fundamental provisions of his own law, and in defence of the lives of five human beings con- demned on questionable grounds for a political offence, it would be in vain, and even criminal, to attempt to justify his conduct. It may be said, however, with truth and boldness, by all tho- roughly acquainted with the history of this man, that all the antecedents of Savonarola would lead them to disbelieve that if he could prevent the spilling of blood on any occasion whatso- ever, he would allow it to be shed. It will be found that Savonarola did not possess the influence at that time, which has been attributed to him. In public com- motions and discords — in a state when the times are out of joint — the policy well known to hostile factions in all countries, of bewildering and bewraying the principles and the opinions of men's opponents, of causing exaggerated views to be taken of wrongs, perils, and obstacles ; the policy of exasperating feelings of animosity and offended pride, and disappointed expectations of pre-eminence, favour, or reward, and thus sowing the seeds of jealousy and disunion, had been successfully tried in Florence long previously to 1497. On the particular occasion above re- ferred to, that policy was evidently extensively practised by the 01 SAVONAROLA. 7 adherents of the Medici. The liberal party who were favour- able to Fra Girolamo, or at least adverse to the Medici, were set at variance by those who, while affecting to sympathize with their Republican ideas, industriously aggravated all differences of opinion amongst them, spread alarming reports, created panics, and in the fanaticism of the fear thus occasioned, urged on their opponents to extreme measures of severity, from motives of ter- ror, which were calculated to bring indelible disgrace upon those concerned in them, and their supposed patron, the reforming Friar. Savonarola is not accused by Graziani of taking any part in the proceedings against the conspirators ; but he is charged with not taking a part in them, by exercising his supposed influence over a powerful party, who were in favour of the execution. But the question is not, solely, had he sufficient influence on the magistracy then, but was there sufficient time and opportunity given, for exercising any influence he might have possessed, after that decision had been come to against the appeal, and the summary order had been given for execution ? It is very difficult to form any opinion of Savonarola's influ- ence in Florence, in civil affairs, about the middle of 1497, with- out understanding the nature of the various interests and opinions represented by the different factions. The two principal parties were, the adherents of the Medici, who were aristocrats, and the partizans of the Republic, restored to its former state of a popular government, who were democrats. But then these two parties were subdivided into several factions, though still ranged under two new denominations — which caused those of the Bigi and the Bianchi to be forgotten — the Palleschi and the Piagnone. The Palleschi were, properly speaking, the Medicean adhe- rents, and were so called from the war-cry of the Medici: Palle, Palle! The Piagnone, or Frateschi, were the adherents of Fra Giro- lamo, and were thus called, on account of their supposed ten- dency to bewail their transgressions. Their accustomed shout , in times of tumult, or strife, or exultation, was, Vive Christo ! 8 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM The Palleschi faction comprised several parties : the Compag- nacce and the Tepidi, who were more Epicureans than Christians in their philosophy and modes of life, but were nevertheless partizans of the Franciscans, the rivals of the Dominicans ; the Arrabbiati represented an oligarchy inimical to the Medici, but making use of the scum of the populace, the debauched, incor- rigible old people, and the dissolute youth of Florence, for their selfish purposes. Then in the opposite ranks of the Piagnone were the true Republicans of the class of Nicolo de Lappi — the artists of " the reform " in painting and sculpture ; and the scholars, like the two Pico de Mirandolas, who looked upon learning as the natu- ral ally of religion, and Savonarola as the great reformer, who had laboured to promote, not only the interests of religion, but those of liberty, learning, and the arts. A glance at the proceedings of these factions will shew, when reaction had violently set in against Fra Girolamo in 1497, how completely destroyed this political influence then was, and how likely it was that several parties in the state, from their hostility to Savonarola, and not from any real attachment to the republic, might have united their strength with that of the party faithful to the republic, to procure the condemnation of the five parti- zans of the Medici, with the express view of bringing Savonarola into disgrace and discredit. It will be observed, finally, that Savonarola is not represented by any historian as having been present at the discussion of the Signoria, on the appeal of the condemned persons. But it is stated, though I know not on what ground, or whether on the authority of Cerretani or Graziani, by the author of the " Palleschi and Piagnone," that some of the families of those unfortunate young men who had been condemned to die, supplicated Fra Girolamo to interfere for them with the mem- bers of the council, and that he had refused to do so. There may be no truth in the account. But if it be true, his conduct could not be defended, on the ground of the expediency of violating a law for the purpose of punishing a political crime, OF SAVONAROLA. 9 or of obviating future danger to his own life and the lives of his adherents, by taking away the lives of others under colour of providing for the safety of the state. Such pleas might serve for statesmen and politicians, but not for ministers of religion. All that could be said in behalf of Savonarola by the former, if that statement were true, would be — Savonarola might have be- lieved conscientiously that it was a duty he owed the State to refuse to interfere on that occasion. But on such grounds Savonarola cannot, and ought not to be defended. The great and holy Saint Dominic, it is said, when he was kneeling in prayer, on an eminence in the vicinity of a scene of carnage during the battle of Muret, and when twenty thou- sand human beings branded with the crime of heresy were being put to death by the troops of Simon de Montford, " sparing neither the women nor the children," in thus remaining passive — did that which we are told, and in all probability are truly told, a perfect conviction of the righteousness of his cause, and of the interposition of the divine protection in its favour led him to do ; but our conviction of the immanity of the carnage cannot possibly suffer us to palliate or defend the atrocity of Simon de Montford and his sanguinary force. But a few words from a contemporary historian I think will set the question at rest, as far as Savonarola is concerned. " In the month of March, 1497," says Nardi, " the Palleschi were entirely in the ascendant in the state, and the Piognone so powerless as to be unable to procure for Fra Girolamo the smallest protection from the government, though his life was placed in jeopardy at this time whenever he appeared in the streets."* Savonarola's influence in the government had declined long before the conspiracy was disclosed, as we plainly find from Xardi's account of the events of those times. But there is one circumstance which he mentions, unnoticed, I think, by any other writer — some of the leading people of this * Nardi, Hist. Fior. lib. ii. p. 64. to THE LIFE AND MAUTYRDOM conspiracy of the Medici secretly influenced the violent pro- ceedings of their opponents. " They feigned and affected," says Nardi, " to have a great friendship for the adherents of the friar, and the advocates of the council, and thus it was concerted by them with the other asso- ciates of theirs, privy to their intentions and wishes. So that without suspicion of any intrigues for the Medici, they could get conversing and communicating with other people, thus mani- festing the malignity of the different humours which then kept the body of our republic in a sickly state."* Further the historian says, that after the condemnation of the conspirators, when their appeal to the council was under consi- deration, there was such a tumult in the city, such terror of the people of the Medici coming back, and furious rage against the conspirators, that had their appeal been granted and their lives spared, that the people were prepared to make resistance with force and arms and to have an insurrection. In fact, the people were in a state of panic, having nothing to expect from the Me- dici but inevitable ruin — inevitabile rovina . ... in tanto timore e spavento wano ridotti. It is perfectly evident from this account, that had Savonarola made his appearance at the Signoria, or taken any part in favour of the condemned persons, he would have been torn to pieces by the mob, and it is equally certain, from Nardi's relations of the previous outrages committed by the populace, with entire impunity, that his interference on behalf of the conspirators, in the month of August, 1497, would have been quite fruitless, and if attempted, it might have been reasonably feared would have proved fatal to such members of the council as were friendly to him and his views. The Palleschi populace and their turbulent leaders, in fact, overawed the government at that period, and left the Piagnone members of it who were favourably disposed to Savonarola wholly powerless. In a short time, the latter were driven from office and autho- rity altogether. * ^ardi, p. (55. OF SAVONAROLA. 11 The most important change in the government, which oc- curred since the downfall of the Medici, took place on the 1st of March, 1498. The Compagnacci and Palleschi faction pre- vailed over the Palleschi. All of the latter who were in office were got rid of, and the new officials, without any exception, were persons inimical to Savonarola. Fra Girolamo mounted the pulpit, and preached in public for the last time on the 18th of March, 1498, a little better than a month before his death. Menaces of interdicts had been ad- dressed by the Pontiff to the government of Florence day after day, and with augmented violence and importunity, as if he was driven on by some evil influence, and felt there could be no peace for him in this world, while the purity and holiness of that friar of spotless life were suffered to exist in reproval of his courses. The discourse of Fra Girolamo, on the occasion referred to, was worthy of it, solemn, dignified, nay, in some parts, sublime. Eight years had he poured forth torrents of Christian eloquence and admonition, such as had never before been heard by the Florentine people. Eight years had he laboured, and preached, and prayed for that people, and now he had to abandon the pulpit, the scene of all his toil and all his triumphs. The lords of the council had issued their command that he should preach no more. And God's commission to his holy servant to labour for the renovation of the church and the conversion of sinners, had nearly reached the period of duration appointed for it. One can trace the conflicting feelings that were excited in the breast of the faithful pastor of San Marco in various pas- sages of that sermon at the sight of the sorrow-stricken audience, as he announced to them, in plaintive tones and faltering words, that his mission in his beloved Florence was at an end. We can almost fancy we behold him, after he had paused for some minutes, assuming a more calm and a sterner aspect, raising himself, and standing erect before his hearers in that long white habit, the folds of which are stirring, and the form of the preacher too, as if in unison with some great emotion of the inner man, THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM as with elevated voice and clouded brow, the preacher declares : " From Alexander, in Rome, we must then turn to the Heavenly Pontiff— that is, to Christ." He tells his hearers — " As one flies to fire out of tainted air, and drives away one evil with another, and retires from the burning house into the cool shelter, so must we now fly to the last place of security, out of the great confusion of spiritual af- fairs which now prevails, to the kingdom of Christ." He then inveighed against the disorders of the court of Rome and dignitaries of the church, with an amount of zeal that in its expression and its invectives bordered on bitterness — but twice, when he seemed to perceive he was giving way to passion, he checked himself, and declared " he had never set himself against the true power of the church, rightly used." . . . And again he said : " I not only submit myself to the ecclesiastical power, but I defend it, and the Roman church and the Christian doctrine, against all the power of the infernal spirit. "Let the Lord do his work ; He is the master of the forge who handles the hammer, and when he has made use of it, lays it not on what He has wrought, but casts it from him. Thus he did with Jeremiah, whom he permitted to be stoned to death when his preaching mission was accomplished, and thus also will he do with this hammer when he has used it after his own manner." This was the end of the preaching mission of Savonarola. Like Jeremiah, he had accomplished his task. The truths of Sacred Scripture had been hammered by him over and over, the labourer had done his work, and now it only remained for the Master, in his exceeding great mercy, to give repose and recompense to his servant. But one great trial and temptation more is to be encountered. " The experiment of fire " is about to be proposed to him. The trial by ordeal is of extreme antiquity. Blackstone refers to its use among the ancient Greeks and Germans — the ordeal by fire, and that by water* The latter seems to have originated in Germany, or been de- rived from Eastern countries at a very early period. The fire- * Com. Laws of Eng. vol. iv. eh. xxvii. OF SAVONAROLA. 13 ordeal was esteemed a privileged sort of trial for persons of con- dition : it was practised by the accused or suspected party carry- ing a piece of red-hot iron, or in walking bare-footed upon red- hot iron bars. The water ordeal was passed through by the lower order of criminals, or complainants, or defendants, in judicial proceedings, plunging their hands in boiling water, or suffering themselves to be thrown into ponds or rivers. The principle asserted by those who passed through the or- deal, or directed it to be attempted, was, that God ever watched over innocence for its protection, and looked down on guilt for its punishment. It is only necessary to observe, that by asserting this principle men constituted themselves the judges of the justice of God, determining the precise period when innocence should cease to be oppressed, and when guilt should be visited by the wrath of Heaven. The ordeal was one of the many impious usages of feudalism, and one of the last of its barbarities, which in the modified form of single combat having gained a footing in modern civilisation, has subsisted in it, even to the present day. Nevertheless, even in the dark ages, there was not wanting Christian testimony against this impious practice. But, unfortunately, the error had been fallen into so frequently, in the dealings of men with what is wrong in practice and false in principle, and opposed to what is right and true in morals and in virtue, of compromising with evil, that custom had given a sanction to it in the eyes of worldly men. Well-meaning, but weak-minded ecclesiastics, undertook to regulate the proceeding by ordeal ; the superintendence of it was assumed by them from mistaken notions of benevolence, and of duty to religion. The same compromising spirit was manifested in this course of conduct, which in our own times has led statesmen to attempt to regulate the slave trade, by taking on government the super- vision of the freighting of the ships with slaves, the stowage of the human cargo, the conduct of the brutal captain and mariners of the slave ship on the middle passage, and even the sale of the 14 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM human beings, who, though reduced to slavery, were still men, in the words of Gregory the Great, " whom Christ hath redeemed at a rich price." Great evils, which outrage religion and humanity, cannot be restrained by partial measures of reform, in the administrative machinery of the institution out of which they emanate. No legislative measures of a mere remedial character can reach the heart of such great evils. Neither temporal nor spi- ritual governments can say to them, — " I will sanction the great original crime against justice that custom has established, and that you find in accordance with your tastes or interests, but I will superintend the commission of that crime, and the perpe- tration of it shall be so regulated by me, that more iniquity than is absolutely necessary for the advantage of your interests, or the gratification of your tastes, shall not be put into execution." The ordeal underwent various modifications at different pe- riods ; we have traces of it in the annals of these countries as well as of Italy- The corsned, or " morsel of execration," ac- companied with solemn prayers for the establishment of inno- cence, and imprecations on those discovered to be guilty — the approach to the holy sacrament of the eucharist by men of blood and rapine, as a part of oaths, of amity, or alliance entered into for political purposes — seldom or ever entered into with honest intentions between man and man, or for objects that con- cerned religion, or which its ministers could approve. It cannot be too often observed, that the barbarous manners and customs of people in feudal times, and the engrafting of their usages even on religious observances, are to be considered separately, and apart from the spirit, character, and doctrines of religion itself. The proposed settlement of theological differ- ences by the ordeal experiment in Christian times, was of a date long anterior to the age of Savonarola. Indeed, at that period it was exploded in almost all European countries. In the sixth century we read of the ordeal being appealed to for the settle- ment of a theological dispute. During the middle ages, the trial by ordeal had become more a test of innocence in civil or OF SAVONAROLA. 15 criminal jurisprudence, than of orthodoxy and belief. In Eng- land it began to fall into disuse in the thirteenth century. And in fact, when it was revived in Florence for a polemical purpose, it had ceased to be a part of the judicial proceedings in most other countries. In the year 1063, great tumults and dissensions broke out in Florence, occasioned by the monks, (of what order it is not stated), zealous for the honour of religion, taking an active part against the secular clergy and prelates, and especially a Floren- tine bishop of great eminence, who were charged, to all appear- ance justly, with outrageous acts of simony. The Florentine prelate complained to the Pope of sedition against his authority on the part of some of the friars. Peter Damien was sent from Pome to inquire into the dispute to which the people of Florence had become a party against the bishop. Damien decided no- thing, but rather favoured the bishop and his party, whereupon the monks appealed against the proceedings of Damien ; and finally went to Pome, reiterated their accusations, and, in con- firmation of them, made a solemn supplication to the Pope to be permitted to undergo the ordeal of fire. The matter was discussed in a council held in Pome, specially called, for the consideration of the controversy between the monks and the prelate. Simony generally was condemned ; and it was strictly forbidden for ecclesiastics to receive any benefice from laymen, either gra- tuitously, or for recompense. But the proposal for the trial by ordeal was neither expressly approved nor prohibited. Not so, however, was the subject treated in Florence by the people. They called on the monks to make good their accusa- tions, by the proof of fire ; and the monks consenting, a time was fixed for the ordeal. On the appointed day, two piles were erected near the neighbourhood of the convent of S. Salvador, and a vast number of people, lay and clerical, were assembled to witness the ordeal. The principal author of the movement against the prelate charged with simony, was a Benedictine monk of the name of Theuzan. The council was unfavourably disposed towards him and his brethren ; but of the guilt of the THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM prelate, and the pious zeal of the monk in this matter, it is a sufficient proof that Hildebrand espoused the cause of the friars, and that of upwards of one hundred prelates who at- tended the council, which had been convoked to investigate the charges 'against the bishop of Florence, nearly all were parti- zans of this prelate, and adversaries of the principle of reform, which those poor, though virtuous monks represented in those worst of times. In the adjoining church, hymns were sung, and fervent prayers were offered up to heaven, to be led to make a fitting choice of the monk, who, by the appointment of the abbe, should traverse the flames. The choice fell on Peter, a monk of Yal- lombrosa, a man of irreproachable conduct.* Peter, at the appointed time, proceeded to the altar erected near the pile, and celebrated the mass. All hearts thrilled at the sight of the celebrant. Four monks then proceeded to the piles. The first of them bore a crucifix ; the second, a vase with holy water ; the third, twelve blessed candles ; and the fourth, a censer with ignited charcoal, to set fire to the pile. The people of Florence, on this occasion, as in a succeeding one, in the days of Savonarola, 435 years later, left nothing un- done to secure the exciting spectacle of Trial by Fire ; they forced the monks to the accomplishment of their proposal, and the demonstration of the truth of their accusation. This people of Florence were composed of very strange elements. " They took on themselves," says Voight, " the erection of two piles for the fiery ordeal, having a length of ten feet by five in breadth, and four in height ; they were sepa- rated by a narrow passage, strewn with dry wood of a very in- flammable quality, — { ils etaient separes, par un sentier seme de bois sec et tres inflammable.' " The multitude lifted up their hearts to God for the success of the perilous enterprize of the heroic monk. As soon as brother * It was in this convent of Vallambrosa the charge against the prelate of Florence originated. The chronicles of the time speak of the monk Peter as * Vir egregius ct excdlentissimu.?, alter quasi Gamaliel." OF SAVONAROLA. 17 Peter had finished the mass, he took the crucifix from the altar, and made a solemn procession round the piles (to which the fire had ^been applied), accompanied by the abbe and the monks. "When he approached the flames, an explanation was made to the people of the object of the ceremony. The fire was now bursting forth. The inflamed wood cracked with the ardour of the fire. The priest knelt down and prayed aloud to the Lord Jesus Christ, to enable him to traverse the flames un- hurt, if the bishop Peter was culpable. The people, as if with one voice, cried out, Amen ! " Then the heroic monk made on this burning furnace the sign of the cross, took the crucifix in his hands, and walked into the fire with a serene countenance, and traversed the flames un- hurt. God and his faith protected him. When he appeared at the other extremity, the people rushed before him, fell on their knees, and kissed his feet, thinking themselves fortunate to obtain a shred of his robe. It was with great difficulty that his brethren could extricate him from the crowd. As soon as the holy father heard of this occurrence, he deposed the accused bishop, as being convicted of the crime imputed to him. The monk Peter arrived at great honours. He was elevated to the office of a bishop, and subsequently to the dignity of a car- dinal."* The practice of burning human beings in the name of reli- gion, and on the pretext of advancing its interests, appears to have been looked on as a solemn spectacle, exciting and edifying, by the good people of Florence, and to have been enjoyed by them at all times with peculiar satisfaction. " In 1327, Cecco D'Ascoli (Francesco Stabili), the author of ' The Acerba,' who had been a professor of astrology in Bo- logna, was burned in Florence for heresy, contained in a treatise of his on the sphere" f Cecco or Francesco Stabili, an intimate friend at one period of Dante, a scholar, and a mathematician, and an astrologer of * Yoiskt. Hist. Greg. VII. torn. i. p. 138. t Storia Florentine (Ckronologica) da Sig. Ecnmont, 4to. Fircn. 1841. vol.. ii. c 18 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM some eminence, also filled the office, it is said, of first physician to Pope J ohn the Twenty-second, at Avignon. For three years, from 1322 to 1325, he taught astrology and philosophy in the University of Bologna. While he filled a professor's chair there, he published his commentaries on the sphere of John of Sacro- bosco, the Irish scholar ; Aledosi calls him " Sottillissimi Dot- tore de filosofia e de medicina." Being accused of holding heretical opinions at Bologna, some proceedings were taken against him by the Inquisition. Cecco betook himself to Flo- rence as a place of safety, but it was out of the frying pan of Bologna fanaticism with him, into the real fire of persecution at Florence. He indiscreetly formed a horoscope for Maria of Valois, the consort of Charles, duke of Calabria, by no means complimentary to the continence of the lady or her lord. The chancellor of the duke, the bishop of Aversa, had discovered flat heresy in the opinions of the wretched astrologer, who had cast a disagreeable horoscope for the liege lord and lady of Ca- labria. Cecco was delivered over to the Inquisition by the chancellor, and then handed back by the Inquisition to the secular arm of the State, and was burned at the stake in his seventieth year, in 1321 * The poor astrologer left an indifferent poem in sestarima, en- titled "L'Acerba," the principal cause of his condemnation, that treats of moral and natural philosophy and of metaphysics, and several other subjects, interlarded well with judicial astrology. " This poem," says Tiraboschi," is not worth much, either for soli- dity of matter, or for elegance of style. But, nevertheless, nineteen editions of it had been called for up to the year 1546, since which year, there has been no re- publication of it." So much in favour of that much-abused institution the Inquisition. The publishers of the worthless poem of an old astrologer, would doubtlessly have lost the sale of sixteen or seventeen of those editions, had it not been for the notoriety obtained for the author by the Inqui- sition. It is surprising, that the gentlemen of Paternoster Row, when works hang heavy on their hands, and the public atten- * Tirabosclii. tomo v. part i. p. 205. OF SAVONAROLA. 19 tion cannot be secured for their merits, have never thought of getting some member of parliament to bring in a short bill for enabling magistrates to deal summarily with suspicious books that won't sell, and burning them in Smithfield, without the authors, on account of the squeamishness and morbid sentimentality that a proposal to include the latter in the sentence, might possibly have to encounter. Modern publishers of books, only reflect on the great fact, I be- seech you, nineteen editions of a bad poem to go off wholly and solely because the author was reduced to ashes by a sentence of the Inquisition ; this was no ordinary stroke of trade and of Inquisition wisdom and forethought, it must be admitted. It remained, unfortunately, for two religious orders to attempt the revival of this barbarous practice in the latter part of the fifteenth century. If we were to receive the account given by Bayle of this mat- ter, we should be led to form very erroneous opinions of the part played by the Franciscans in this business, and very unjust ones, in respect to the conduct of the Dominicans, and especially of Savonarola on this occasion. Bayle, with his usual animosity towards the monk who sin- cerely believed in Christ and in Christianity, thus speaks of the close of the career of Fra Girolamo, and of the ordeal proposed by the Franciscans : " AVhat completed the destruction of Savona- rola was, that having agreed that his doctrines should be verified by the trial of fire, he visibly shuffled when the time came for executing his engagement." * The reader who would know the truth must refer to the ori- ginal sources, from which all useful information can be obtained on this subject — the works of Burlamacchi, Mirandola, Guicci- ardini, Xardi, and the diary of Burchard. Burlamacchi states, that although some persons disapproved of the proposed ordeal, as contrary to the canons of the church, many were of a contrary opinion, affirming, in the way of exam- ple, that Heleno, bishop of Heliopolis, in order to put down a * Bayle's Critical Dictionary, vol. v. Art. Say. p. 62. c 2 20 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM heresy, entered the fire, and came out unhurt ; that a most holy monk, named Campers, an adversary of the Manichees, for a similar reason entered the fire, and remained in it half an hour, and came out unhurt ; that San Giovanni Gualberto, in order to convince a certain Florentine bishop of an error, caused one of his monks to enter the fire at Badia, outside of Florence, in tes- timony of the faith. The Signoria of Florence seemed to be in doubt about the law- fulness of the proposed ordeal in 1498 ; for before they gave their final consent, they despatched letters to Rome, praying his holiness, the Pope, to advise them in this matter, and if the trial by Ordeal was licit, to give his consent to the proposed ex- periment. A consistory was immediately called on the arrival of the messenger of the Signoria, and the cardinals concluded that it was not licit, and should not be carried into effect, " The Pope," says Burlamacchi, "was doubtful, if the thing suc- ceeded according to Fra Girolamo's expectations, whether he might not lose the tiara, and therefore he refused permission for it."* It was one of the calamities of the conduct of Alexander the Sixth, that it was almost unreasonable to attribute any good mo- tive to him for any of his acts. The consistory certainly took the view that might be expected from that council, one in conformity with the dictates of religion and the interests of humanity. The proposal to undergo the ordeal by fire, Burlamacchi distinctly states, incorrectly, originated with Savonarola previous to 1497 : " Seeing every day fiercer hostility springing up against him with injury to religion, besides the other challenges as tests of truth already referred to, he (Fra Girolamo) declared that he would enter the fire with any adversary of his, in order to mani- fest in this way on whose side the truth was, which proposal for a long time remained altogether unnoticed. " But in 1497, Fra Domenico da Pescia, preaching in San Do- menico de Prato, there was present a Franciscan friar, named * Burlamacclii, p. 560. OF SAVONAROLA. 2) Francesco Zoccolante, who had always been a most determined adversary of his. At the end of Lent, however, preaching at Pieve, Fra F. Zoccolante said that he was ready to go into the fire, and uttered many injurious words against Fra Girolamo. " On which account, the father, G. Bartoli, companion of Fra Domenico, w r ent to him to have an understanding of his inten- tions, but nothing came of this interview. But in the meantime many men of letters and of worth interposing in the business, it was agreed they should meet to settle the matter on the third day after Easter Sunday ; and pressing again the Franciscans to un- dergo the ordeal by fire, he accepted the proposal for an ap- pointed day. " But on the second day after Easter the Franciscan made his apology, saying that his superiors, on business of great import- ance, had called him away from Prata.* . . . " But some time after, in 1498, this Franciscan returned to Florence, and preached in Santa Croce, while Fra Domenico preached in San Lorenzo, and Fra Girolamo in the Duomo. The Franciscan in the pulpit then began de novo to proclaim his readiness to enter the fire with Fra Domingo da Pescia. Father Girolamo," continues Burlamacchi, " no sooner was ap- prised of this declaration, than he put himself in communication with certain laymen of his most intimate friends. But their de- liberation led to no specific resolution — e essendo senza frutta* In the meantime the Franciscan ceased not to inveigh against Fra Girolamo in the pulpits, and at length he brought the matter before the Signoria, where Fra Domenico appeared, and like- wise the Franciscan. " The Dominican signified his readiness to enter the fire with the Franciscan. " The latter replied in a dubious manner, shifting from one thing to another, and ultimately declaring he had nothing to do with Fra Domenico, but with Fra Girolamo, and with him alone, who was the principal in this business. * Burlamacchi, p. 559. THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM " Fra Domenlco reminded him that the first origin of this pro- posal was in Prata, between them both, and them cdone." * This observation of Fra Domcnico plainly shews that Burla- macchi was mistaken in stating that the proposal originated with Savonarola. And the diary of Burchard, the most authentic document of all, in reference to this matter, inasmuch as the ac- count he gives of it is the official report of the whole transaction made to the Pope by his envoy at Florence, gives it to be un- derstood that the proposal originated with the Franciscans, and not with Savonarola. The fact of Savonarola's displeasure at the engagement en- tered into with the Franciscans by Fra Domenico, may be per- ceived in the evident vexation manifested in the question brusquely put by Fra Girolamo to Fra Domenico, in the midst of the controversy about the mode of making the trial by ordeal — " What have you promised to these Franciscan friars V After a long discussion before the Signoria, it was finally agreed, that the Franciscan then present should enter the fire with Fra Girolamo, and that with Fra Domenico da Pescia, the Franciscan friar, Zoccolante, should enter. A public document, embodying this agreement, was drawn up, in presence of the Signoria, by their notary. It is to be observed that Fra Girolamo was not present when this agreement was drawn up. Fra Domenico must have taken it for granted that the proposal would be accepted by him, and therefore had undertaken to answer for him. "Fra Girolamo," says Burlamacchi, "hearing of these things, declared his readiness to go into the fire, but on this condition, that all the ambassadors of the Christian powers in Florence were present, and also the Pope's legate, they promising and declaring solemnly, that, should he come forth from the fire un- injured, the work should be set about at once, with the aid of God, of making a reform of the universal church." " The adversaries of Fra Girolamo refused to agree to this, saying, that this was a mere excuse — e a pretence had recourse to, * Burlamacchi, p. 359. OF SAVONAROLA. 23 only to gain time, and to avoid coming to any conclusion.' A long discussion, therefore, took place, and a new convention was en- tered into, the 6th of March, 1498."* On the Tth of April, 1498, the Signoria, though not yet hav- ing received the Pope's answer to their coinniunication on the subject of the ordeal, having determined on its taking place, made all the necessary preparations for carrying it into execu- tion " before the people." On the morning of that day, Fra Girolamo celebrated a so- lemn mass in San Marco, in the presence of a large congrega- tion, and took the sacrament, along with many of those present. For three days previously, he and the community had prayed almost constantly, and fasted on bread and water. After cele- brating mass, on the Tth of April, he ascended the pulpit, and preached a short sermon, calling on his hearers to remain sted- fast in the faith. So far as it had been revealed to him, in the event of the ordeal taking place, he was assured the victory would be with them, and Fra Domenico would come out un- hurt. But whether it was to take place at all or not, it was not revealed to him. If he was asked what he thought, he would say, reasoning as a man might reason in such a matter, it was more probable that it would take j^lace than not. He desired the community, when Fra Domenico entered the fire, they should pray incessantly till such time as he should come forth. Having given his benediction to the congregation, he was on the point of leaving the pulpit, when a messenger arrived from the Signoria, and informed him he was commanded by them to appear at the trial by ordeal, as all things were ready for it. Fra Girolamo proceeded to the square, where the ordeal was to be gone through, accompanied by all his community in a pro- cession, they being ready to enter the fire, if necessary, or to be present at the trial. Last in that procession were Fra Domenico da Pescia, in the vesture of a priest, with a red cope, with a crucifix in his hand, walking solemnly between a deacon and a # Burlamacchi, p. 561. 24 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM sub-dcacon of the order : and Fra Girolamo, also with a cope, and a silver reliquary in his hand, with the most holy sacrament inclosed, walking between Fra Francisco Salviati and Fra Ma- latesta, followed by a vast concourse of people, men and women, having lighted tapers in their hands. As they advanced, the chaunters of the community sung in a loud voice, " Exurgat Deus et dissepentur inimici ejus and all the people responded in the same tone, repeating the first verse of the same Psalm. They advanced to the square of the Signoria, singing in a loud voice. At the extremities of all the principal streets there were a great number of guards, and all necessary precautions were taken to prevent any tumult taking place, or attempt on the life of Fra Girolamo. There were also great numbers of the friends of the father, to provide against danger, "not without his wishes and consent placed there, that he might not tempt God, despising human means of defence."* " For it was well known," says Burlamacchi, " that the real intention was not to make any trial by ordeal, but to take the life of Fra Girolamo." In the middle of the square there was a platform constructed, about four braccia from the ground, on which was placed a quan- tity of earth, in order that the platform might not be set on fire. On this there was a very long pile of wood, of a sort easily ignited. In this pile there was much pitch, there were many greasy substances and also gunpowder, polvere de bom- barde, in order that it might burn all the better. In the middle of the pile there was a passage, through which those could pass who made the experiment of the ordeal, when the wood was set on fire. Fra Girolamo, and his community and followers, on their arrival in the Piazza, were assigned a part of the gallery pre- pared for the Signoria, with a partition in that portion of it se- parating the accommodations for the Franciscans from that allotted to the Dominicans. Each party had a small altar in the place prepared for them. \Vhen Savonarola entered that set apart for * Burlamacchi, p. 563. OF SAVONAROLA. 25 the Dominicans, he deposited the reliquary, with the sacrament, immediately on the altar, and kneeling down, remained for a length of time in earnest prayer. Fra Domenico remained kneel- ing before the blessed sacrament. The Franciscans, on the other hand, kept walking about here and there in their lodge, passan- dosi tempo. " The Franciscan, Fra Giulano Rondinelli, the friar who was to have entered the fire , never made his appearance, from which we may imagine what hind of desire he had to make the trial. Neither did Fra Francisco de Pulia even show himself, although some said he was in the palace at the time."* On the appearance of Fra Girolamo in the Piazza, the people were much affected, tears were abundantly shed, and sighs and groans poured forth, and it is said that even some of his adver- saries were seen to weep. During the preparations it began to rain very heavily, and this circumstance was looked on as a presage that it was not the will of God the trial should take place. The rain, however, did not last long. The Franciscans during this time were not idle. They began to cavil with the mode of making the experiment. They ob- jected to Fra Domenico entering the fire with his clothes, alleging that his garments might be enchanted, and thus secure the wearer against the fire. When the unreasonableness of this objection was pointed out, they waived it in part, and consented that Fra Domenico should enter with a Franciscan friar, but without his habit. This he refused to do, saying he was a Dominican, and would not aoandon the habit of his order. This discussion went on for a considerable time. At length Fra Girolamo said that this trifling was only to consume time and to weary out the people, and that the Franciscans knew well there was not time then to prepare other habit>. He then proposed that Fra Domenico should change his habits with any other member of the order present. And the com- * Burl ama ooki. 26 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM missarics of the Signoria thought the offer a very fair one, and eventually the Franciscans agreed to it. When Fra Domenico was brought into the palace to change his habit, the Franciscans, who accompanied him, insisted that before putting on the other habit he should remove the whole of his apparel, in order that they might be assured he had no amu- lets or objects to procure enchantment on his person, which scandalous proposal was indignantly rejected. On the return of the parties to the lodges, the commissaries stated the Franciscans had raised a new objection : they would not consent that Fra Domenico should enter the fire with the crucifix. To which objection, he answered: "This is not just, for we being soldiers of Christ, and combating for Christ, we wish to enter the fire with the symbol of Christianity." But his faith was so great, that he would have entered the fire without any symbol, or even the blessed sacrament, were it not that Fra Silvestro Maruffi had declared it had been revealed to him that the trial should not be made by the Dominicans without the sacrament. The commissaries returned to the Signoria, and reported everything that had passed. Some Franciscans, who were present, began to exclaim : " It was impossible to allow the sacrament to be borne by those who entered the fire." In fact, it had been previously concerted, says Burlamacchi, between the Franciscans and the leaders of the lay adversaries of Fra Girolamo, at an entertainment given only three days previ- ously at the Pitti palace, that the Franciscans should not make the trial at all, and all that was necessary was, that Fra Giro- lamo and his community should be brought to the Piazza, and that Fra Domenico should be induced to enter the fire alone, he being deemed by the faction the Fattoraccio, the author of the proposed trial. It now became manifest that there was no serious intention on the part of the Franciscans to venture on the trial, but solely a OF SAVONAROLA. 27 purpose to protract discussions about arrangements, and to tire the patience of trie people. The commissaries returned to the lodges, and one of them said to Fra Girolamo, " The Franciscans are raising so many objec- tions, that it is impossible to satisfy them. It may be truly said, that, on your part, there has been nothing wanting for carrying the experiment into execution. The failure has been on theirs." It was now near the hour of vespers, and the Dominicans were still at their post, waiting for the Franciscans to enter on the trial, when the Signoria sent word to Fra Girolamo that they were about to depart. To which he replied, that " he hoped the Signoria would not fly in the face of God." Another message of a similar kind was then brought to him, to which he replied, that it would not be possible for them to restrain the people. The Signoria then sent a strong guard to protect them, and in the midst of this force the Dominicans were conducted to their convent through an enraged populace, disappointed at not en- joying a great spectacle. On their arrival at San Marco, Fra Girolamo directed the vast concourse of people to enter the church, and there, after praying for some time, he ascended once more the pulpit, the fitting arena in which God had destined him to triumph, and had en- dowed him with his most precious gifts for the true ordeal of his sacred cause, and from which, in an evil hour, the Athlete of Christ had allowed himself to be seduced and forced on another stage unworthy of his cause and the holy interests he had at heart. He preached a short sermon to the people, exhorting them, with great energy, to prayer and to holiness of life, and making the scenes that had been witnessed that day so many arguments for preparation for another and a better life. So far, I have followed the narrative of Burlamacchi as to the termination of this extraordinary scene ; and when I have given likewise the account of the adversaries of the Dominicans from the report in Burchard's Diary, the reader will be able to form his own opinions on the subject of the means proposed for the set- 28 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM tlement of a theological dispute, and the conduct of the actors in it. Notwithstanding the official account of this proposed ordeal, transmitted to the Pope by his agent in Florence, is drawn up with every desire to blacken the conduct of Savonarola, and to uphold that of the Franciscans, there is a certain air of authen- ticity about the main details which recommends it, and, therefore, as Burlamacchi's statement of the negociations between the parties rests on his authority alone, I cite all the particulars of the subsequent formal agreements entered into between the Dominicans and Franciscans, on this extraordinary occasion. At the conclusion of the Diary of Burchard, the master of the ceremonies of Alexander the Sixth, three documents relating to Savonarola are inserted, commencing at page 91 of Leibnitz' edition of the Diary, as " pieces justicatives," one of which I refer to here as indicating the names of two of the brethren of Fra Girolamo, most obnoxious to Alexander, whom the Fran- ciscans contrived to involve in the affair of the ordeal. This document, an epistle, in forma brevis, is entitled : — " Alexander, Papa VI., dilectis filiis priori, et conventui mo- nasterii Sancti Marci, ordinis Predicatorum in Civitate Flo- rentia?." In this Epistle, the Pope begins by lamenting that ee new dogmas had sprung up under cover of a feigned simplicity, leading frequently, with the people and schismatic clergy, to heresies and subversion of morals, which have been combated by the church for the sake of the preservation of its members, and the prevention of the growth of the evil that had arisen. " That Jerome Savonarola of Ferrara, of the order of preachers, had yielded to the delectation of this perversity of novel dogmas, and had given way to the insane idea of changing the affairs of Italy, declaring himself sent by God, and one whom God had spoken to, and, without any canonical authorization, had set him- self publicly against canonical sanctions. It is not sufficient for any person to assert such things point blank, as that he had been sent by God as an heretical person would assert : but it is essen- OF SAVONAROLA. 29 tial that the person should exhibit the proofs of a manifest mis- sion by the operation of miracles, or the special testimony of scripture." . . His holiness goes on to say, he had hoped that Sa- vonarola would have seen the sinfulness of the course he had taken, and abandoned it of his own accord, but he had been mistaken. " That he had sent letters to him, calling on him, in virtue of holy obedience, to come to Rome, and give an account of the matters laid to his charge, but that he had refused to come. He had been again summoned under the penalty of excommu- nication, and had refused obedience, with many equivocations and excuses. That, finally, after consulting with the vicar- general of the Dominican order, Fra Sebastian de Madiis de Brixia, of the Lombard Congregation, he, Fra Girolamo Savon- arola, had been suspended from all his functions ; and that Fra Donienico de Pescia, Fra Toomas Bussino, and Fra Sylvester of Florence, would be included in the same sentence of suspension, if within nine days from that date they did not yield holy obe- dience to the orders given them, and proceed to Bologna to a convent of their order, &c. Given at Rome, &c, &c, &c." There is no date to this epistle. I now proceed to give an account of the circumstances leading to the proposed ordeal by fire, for the settlement of the contro- versy between Savonarola and the Franciscan monks, from this Diary of Burchard, a cotcmporary of Savonarola, the master of the ceremonies of Alexander the Sixth. The reader, however, will bear in mind, that Burchard adopts the views of Alexander, respecting Savonarola and the monstrous calumnies against him, without possessing either means or leisure to investigate the sub- ject of the truth or falsehood of those unfavourable reports, and unfounded calumnies, against the much-dreaded reforming friar of Florence. a The 10th of April, 1498," says Burchard, "news came to Rome, that on Saturday, the 7th of the same month, there was a fire prepared at Florence, in the principal square of the city, to verify, by the ordeal judgment, certain propositions of Fra Giro- lamo Savonarola of Ferrara, vicar-general of the congregation of San Marco. But the intended ordeal did not take place. The so THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM brother Girolamo, who, from the time of the coming of Charles the Eighth of France into Italy, had preached many lying and feigned things publicly, had one portion of the inhabitants of Flo- rence in his favour, expecting great things of him, as he had said in his public discourses that our Saviour had often spoken to him and revealed to him many things. He had a certain way of knowing the sins of men by means of six of his brethren of the same order, reputed learned and holy men, who resided in dif- ferent towns, and some also in Florence, and who, when any grave matters were confessed to them, revealed the same, with the names and condition of the persons confessing them, to Girolamo. By this means, he preached things as if revelations from God, the knowledge of which was obtained in the con- fessional, and by these means, and others, he so drew the people after him, that many thought him a prophet and a good man. His counsel was sought in all important matters, and by his in- fluence the city was ruled, and all things were done there. Our most holy father, the Pope, seeing the power and malice of this man carried so far, caused it to be notified to him by the general of his order, that he should refrain from preaching in this manner. " He was unwilling, however, to obey this notification, when his Holiness commanded him, on pain of excommunication, to desist from preaching, which mandate he refused to obey, as- serting that it was necessary rather to obey God than men ; and other things he adduced in his defence, which made the people believe the more in him ; and in the mean time he composed certain heretical propositions, and published them, which he said he was willing to sustain. " A certain brother, of the order of Franciscans, Zoculis, who preached publicly in the church of that order in the convent of Santa Croce, asserted those conclusions of Savonarola to be he- retical. s< On the other hand, Girolamo and others of his order main- tained the truth of these propositions. Hence arose the con- tention between both orders, as it is written of them — the Do- OF SAVONAROLA. 31 minicans anxious to sustain Savonarola's doctrine with their lives in the ordeal of fire, before an impartial tribunal, and the minors willing to accept the challenge. " The tenor of these propositions was as follows : " 1st. The Church of God needs a reform. " 2nd. The Church of God will be afflicted — -flagellabitur . " 3rd. The Church of God will be renewed — renovabitur. " 4th. Florence also, after the affliction, will be renewed. " 5th. And afterwards it was to be hoped that the infidels would be converted to Christ. 4f 6th. All those things would happen in our days. w 7th. The excommunication lately fulminated against Savon- arola was null and of no effect, and those who disregarded it did not sin."* Terms of the compact, written in Italian, entered into between the Dominicans and Franciscans, relative to the ordeal by fire ; on the part of the Dominicans : a I, Fra Dominick da Pescia, of the Dominican order, with my signature hereunto bind myself to sustain the present propo- sitions, not only by arguments, but, confiding in the help of the divine grace, I undertake and bind myself to enter into the public fire with the preacher of the Franciscan order, who is at present }3reaching in the church of the Santa Croce, hoping, through the power of God, to come forth unscathed and unhurt, to the glory of His holy name, and in confirmation of the truth, and for the help of souls, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever." On the part of the Franciscans : " I, brother Francis, of the order of Minors — though un- worthy — am ready, at the instance and request of superiors D. D. Florentinorum — for the benefit and salvation of the people, to dispute, and by the experiment touching the doctrines of the brother Hieronymo, to determine the propositions before-men- tioned, which require some supernatural probation. "With brother * Piarium, p. 47. 32 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM Domingo, therefore, or any other brother of his order, it is indif- ferent to me which, I am ready to undergo the trial of ordeal by fire, before a judge duly appointed, and unsuspected of par- tiality by the religious of either orders." On the part of another friar of the Dominican order : " I, Brother Mariano, of Florence, of the Dominican order, have also obliged myself, confiding in the help of God, to con- firm the truth of the propositions to be defended by the reverend brother, Domingo da Pescia, concerning the Reformation of the Church, and the excommunication launched against Fra Hiero- nymo of Ferrara, according to the terms subscribed by him, to make the experiment of trial by fire, and to come forth without injury, provided a brother of the order of Franciscans should come (to the ordeal), as has been promised by the reverend father of Santa Croce." On the part of a Franciscan friar, Fra Nicolo : " Most magnificent lords of the Florentine people, the peace of God be with you : Understanding that the Father Francisco de Puglia, now preaching in the church of Santa Croce, has been asked by the friars of the order of Saint Dominick, to make some supernatural experiment by the fiery ordeal or otherwise, according to your pleasure ; I, an unworthy Franciscan friar, Francis Nicolo, of S. Cassiano, declare myself willing to confirm what I have said ; and I wish, in the place of the above-mentioned friar, Francisco de Puglia, and in order to free this people from so much error, to enter into the fire, not only with the Dominican preacher, but with any other person, and to undergo any other martyrdom, provided that person be a professed friar of St. Mark. Wherefore, in testimony of the same, I have set my hand and name to this document, this 3rd of May, 1498." On the part of a Dominican friar of San Marco : — " I, Fra Juliano de Rondinelli, bind myself to enter the fire with the above-named friar, and in testimony of the same, I have subscribed these lines with my own hand, although I believe that I shall be burned, but for the salvation of my soul I am very content to burn.* This third of May, 1498." * Diarium Bureliardi, pp. 45, et seq. OF SAVONAROLA. On the part of Fra Malatesta, a Dominican : " I, Fra Malatesta, Sacristan major of Rimini, of the Do- minican order of S. Marco of Florence, in confirmation of the truth of the propositions, already for a long period preached by the Rev. Pad. Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, the present Vicar-general of the said congregation, and in vindication of his innocence, offer myself, and undertake to enter into the fire with any brother whatsoever of the Franciscan order, or any other person who has offered, or will offer himself to undergo the ordeal, in corroboration of his opposition to those conclusions and propositions, confiding, without any doubt whatsoever, in the certainty of entering and of coming out of the fire unhurt, not from any merits of my own, but solely through the power and grace of God ; in faith of which I sign this paper, &c. &c. &c. this second of April, 1498." On the part of Fra Roberto de Bernardo Salviati, a Do- minican : " I, Fra Roberto de Bernardo Salviati, of the Dominican order, offer myself for the ordeal, and undertake," & ut supra. . . On the part of Fra Girolamo Savonarola : " I, Fra Girolamo, unworthy vicar of the congregation of S. Marco of the Dominican order, accept all the pro- posals of those brethren, on the part of the communities of S. Marco and of S. Domingo of Fiesole, and promise to give two, or four, or ten, or as many (of the brethren) as shall be wanting for this work, to go into the fire, in testimony of the truth of that which I preach, and I put my trust in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in his Gospel, that each and every one of them shall come out unhurt, that is to say without any bodily injury; and in the event of there being any doubt of this result, I will not accuse my opponents of homicide, non lo direi per esser homicida ; and in testimony of the same, I have signed this document with my hand." There is no date to this compact. Reply of Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, of the Do- minican order, to certain objections raised, to the experiment of the ordeal by fire, in confirmation of the truths preached by hiin : VOL. II. D 34 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM " I will answer, briefly, on account of the want of time which there now is, to some objections addressed to us, concerning the experiment proposed to us, to prove the truth of things taught by us. And first as to not having accepted the proposal of going myself into the fire with a preacher of Santa Croce, of the Franciscan order : I answer, that I have only acted as I have done, that I may have no contention with him ; for if he has pro- posed in public to go into the fire, notwithstanding that he says he expects to be burned, to prove that the excommunication launched against me is valid, I have no necessity of proving by the fire that such an excommunication is null, conscious as I am of having already proved this to be the case, with such arguments as remain unrefuted, either here or at Rome. " And thus it was, therefore, he did not originally propose to try the experiment with me, but generally with any one who was opposed to him in the matter in dispute. " It is true that subsequently he offered an excuse for not wishing to have to do with any one in this matter, except with me, and chiefly because going into the fire with another brother* would not be of that utility to the church that he thought such a work required, especially when the hand of God was in it. M Nevertheless I offered myself, and offer myself again to make this trial in my own person, whenever the adversaries of this our doctrine, and principally those of Rome and their ad- herents here, desire to commit their cause to this Friar, or to any other ; and I confide in our Saviour Jesus Christ, having no doubt whatever that I shall pass through the fire, as Isdrac, Mesach, and Abdenego passed through the fiery furnace, not by my merits or power, but by the power of God, who is pleased to confirm his truth, and to manifest his glory even in this world. " But truly I am astonished at those objections that are raised, while all my brethren collectively, who are about three hundred, and many other devout persons, have voluntarily proposed to make this trial, many in writing, whose signatures to similar undertakings are in my possession. f - Many citizens, likewise some religious persons of other OF SAVONAROLA. 35 orders, and several secular persons, including even women and children, have made similar proposals. " This morning, even of the 1st of April, thousands of persons who were present at our sermon in S. Marco did so with the greatest fervour, each crying out, ' Ecco mi ! Ecco mi !' Behold me ready to go into the fire for thy glory, Oh Lord ! " If one of these under my direction, and in obedience to me, as there are many most willing to offer themselves, should perish in the fire, who would not perceive that all this work of God's doing (in this mission) would go to ruin with me, and that I could no longer show my face anywhere ?" . . . (Here follow some sentences exceedingly confused, and some quite unintelligible.) He justifies the opinion on which Fra Domingo had acted in selecting a particular brother for the trial. " He was equally impressed with us," continues Fra Girolamo, " as to the idea that none should go into the fire, but those who are chosen by God, though many might offer themselves. " Hence the charge of cruelty cannot reasonably be brought against us, nor can we justly be called homicidal, notwithstand- ing our adversaries, who have publicly subscribed the agreement, proclaim their belief that they have to perish in this fire : con- scious as we are that we have not proposed this experiment and ordeal, but they themselves, who have done so. Loro sono quelli che ce Vhanno messo inanzi. " Still we are constant in our purpose to accept it, in order that His holy truth shall not fail in the world : che la sua santa verita non vade per terra. And therefore we are not cruel and homicidal, but they are so (who have made the proposal). " But much do I yet marvel, and all people wonder, that those, who if they have truth on their side, as they say they have, yet in so large an order as theirs cannot find any one in reality who will confide in God, to be enabled to enter the fire, and to come out of it unhurt : while we can find not one, but hundreds thus disposed. And when others say that although our adversary do not consent to enter into the fire, we alone ought to make D 2 36 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM the experiment in confirmation of the truth, or choose some other mode of ordeal. " I say to this we have already replied, that it is manifest we do not require to establish truths by a miracle which we have proved by argument — namely, that the excommunication is null, for this would be to tempt God, but if our adversaries say my arguments are sophistical, we know not what to reply to them ; they require a miracle against us, and leave all argument with us. " And if they say that the things announced by us in the way of prophecy, le cose da noi per modo de Profetie annunciate, re- quire, in order to their being credited, that I prove them with miracles ; I answer, that I do not force men to believe them more than may seem good to them to believe. But, on the other hand, if I exhort them to live well, and as Christians ought to do, (and worldly men hearken to my exhortation,) this alone would be a sufficient evidence of a miraculous influence to be- lieve the things we assert, and all other truths which proceed from God. And although we have proposed already to prove the great things that are yet to be manifested, and that we assert to be imminent, sotto la chiavetti, with supernatural manifesta- tions, it is only our intention by this proposal to prove the great things that remain to be manifested, and that we assert will be manifested as signs of the nullity of this excommuni- cation : it will not be in a time appointed by us, when this will take place. But God will not be wanting to his promises, be- cause God is faithful in all his words, who is blessed and glorious in all ages. Amen." * Burchard continues his account of the proposed ordeal : — " The standard-bearer of justice, and the citizens of Florence, coming to a knowledge of the writings and proposals of the Franciscans, and seeing the people much excited by this affair, brought the matter before the council, and with their consent it was decreed to have the ordeal carried into effect, and a place assigned for it. They appointed for that purpose, that part of the great square in front of the palace of the Signory, and fixed * Diarium Burcliardi, ab. p. 45, ad p. 52. OF SAVONAROLA. 37 on the following Saturday, the 7th of the present month of April, 1498. Two great pulpits, one for the lords and mag- nates of the city, Dominis et Principalibus, the others for the parties at issue, for arranging matters and settling disputes as to the method of conducting the ordeal, and mode of preparing the great fire, which, with the consent of the friars of both orders, had to be determined on. The ordeal was to be undergone after these arrangements had been carried into effect at the above- mentioned place on the appointed day, at the hour of terces — hora tertiarum. " On the appointed day, the 7th of April, before the hour fixed on, Fra Francis Suocus, of the Franciscan order, with one brother, came to the square. He ascended the rostrum that had been erected near the pile for his order. He sat down there, equally (with his companion) prepared to submit to the will of providence — expectans Dominum. " Then, at the appointed hour, came in procession to the square, with the crucifix and the blessed sacrament, Fra Domenico de Pescia, of the Dominican order, and Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, accompanied by a great multitude of people. The Dominicans ascended the place prepared for them. u Then the lords of the council, D. D. Florentini, came down from the palace and ascended their rostrum. When they were seated, the Franciscan friar Francis, to the above-mentioned lords, made a short discourse, in which he said he was there to make the experiment of the ordeal, and in the event of his perishing in the fire, Fra Domenico de Pescia should be consi- dered free from blame, and as triumphant in this cause, unless he likewise should perish in the fire ; on the other hand, if it did not hurt him (Fra Francisco), he then should be considered the victor, otherwise not. The lords of the council having consulted, pro- mised the friars what they desired should be done. And be- cause amongst some there was a suspicion that the said friars would make the experiment, or either of them, by the aid of some conjuration or incantation concealed about their habits, or other parts of their attire, which would preserve them from the fire, 38 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM the said lords caused to be prepared two new habiliments , which it was expected the two friars would willingly enter the fire with, and consent to take off their own. " Fra Francisco, the Franciscan, not only consented to the pro- posal of the lords, but offered to go through the ordeal without any habit, to remove all cause for suspicion, and thus enter the fire in a state of nudity — et nudum ignem intraturum. "Fra Dominic, the Dominican, by words and subterfuges, re- fused either to relinquish his habit or to exchange it for another, which refusal Fra Francisco, the Franciscan, hearing of, said to all present that he would not contend with Fra Domingo on this point, but would allow him to wear his own habit, though made of cloth, as it would inevitably be burned, and he (the owner) with it. It was therefore admitted, with the consent of the Franciscans, that Fra Domingo should wear his own habit. The Dominican friar, Domingo, now said he would never enter the fire without the crucifix he held ; on which point, there being a consultation with the lords, Fra Francisco rejoined, and be- sought the lords that even this should be allowed to Fra Do- mingo, for even this would not preserve him from the flames, but he would only be the sooner consumed with it. " This point was also conceded by the lords of the council to the Dominican. " But this even was not enough for Fra Domingo, for he con- tinued to evince great dread of the fire. He now required per- mission to carry with him into the fire the blessed sacrament ; otherwise in no wise a danger of this kind would be encountered by him — alioquin nequaquam esset hujusmodi periculum de se facturus. * "Which proposal, when submitted to the lords of the council, they would by no means admit. The spectacle was put an end to — dissolution est spectaculum — and everybody returned home. This rumour getting among the people, created a strong feeling of indignation, and suspicion likewise, against Fra Girolamo ; so that on Monday, the 9th of April, in the evening, the populace, * Diarium Burckardi, p. 54. OF SAVONAROLA. 39 with great clamour and vehemence, rushed to the convent of S. Marco, in which the said Fra Girolamo resided, which convent his brethren shut fast against the assailants, and in it, with machines for projectiles, bombardos, and other offensive weapons which they were furnished with, they defended their convent against the people. But at length the latter entered by force, five or six being killed, three of whom were monks, one of the slain being a professed monk of the Dominican order, a brother of Fra Gi- rolamo, and the two others brethren also of the order. " They took prisoners Fra Girolamo and two other monks, namely, Fra Sylvester de Florentia, and * * . *. They led them to the palace of the Florentine lords, and then shut them up in prison. " The people then ran to the houses of Francis de Valore and Paul Anthony Soderini, the brother of the bishop of Volteranni, who principally favoured Fra Girolamo. First they went to the house of Francis de Valore, whom, not finding there, they re- turned to the palace of the lords of the council, and in the square meeting with him, they killed and barbarously dragged him through the city. His wife, who endeavoured to defend her house, was also killed by them, and everything in the house was destroyed ; all his goods were carried away, each taking all that he could carry. Then they rushed again to the house of Soderini, and proceeded to make an attack, as they had done on the other habitations. But one of the Signori opportunely provided for its safety, and by his people succoured Soderini and his house. Populo autem fecit sub bonis modis et pcenis inhiberi ut recederet quod et fecit."* But if the evidence of the agent of Alexander the Sixth should appear better deserving of credit in all particulars than the details given by Burlamacchi and Mirandola, let us turn to the pages of the Florentine historian for his statement of the facts of this case. Guicciardini's account of the proposed ordeal is to the fol- lowing effect : — * Burchard's Diary, p. 55. 40 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM " Savonarola, having been long before accused to the Pope of " the following crimes, that he preached scandalously against " the manners of the clergy, and of the court of Rome, that he " nourished divisions in Florence, that his doctrines were not " entirely Catholic, and having for these reasons been summoned u to appear at Rome by several Apostolical briefs, refused to go " there, alleging divers excuses, and on this account, he had, at " last, in the preceding year, been excommunicated by the " Pope. By reason of this sentence, he abstained some months " from preaching, and if he had abstained longer, he might have " obtained his- absolution easily ; because the Pope, who made " no great account of Savonarola, had proceeded against him, " rather by the instigation and persuasion of his adversaries, " than for any other cause. But he, concluding that it was " owing to his silence that his reputation declined so fast, or " that the end which he had in view was thereby interrupted, " as he had chiefly raised himself by his vehemence in preach- " ing, despised the Pope's orders, and returned afresh to the " public discharge of that office ; affirming, that the censures " published against him were unjust and void, as being contrary " to the will of God, and prejudicial to the interest of society. " He railed most severely at the Pope and the whole court : " which occasioned a violent uproar. His adversaries (whose " authority with the people decreased daily) detested this dis- " obedience, and laid to his charge, that by his rash conduct " the Pope's mind was altered, and that too, at a time when he " was treating with other confederates about the restitution of u Pisa, and when it was proper to do every thing that might con- firm him in that inclination. On the other hand, his followers " defended him, saying, that people ought not, for the sake of " worldly consideration, to disturb the work of God ; nor con- " sent that under such pretexts, the Pope should begin to " meddle with the affairs of their Republic. This dispute having " lasted several days, and the Pope being strangely provoked, " and thundering out new briefs and threatenings of excom- " munication against the whole city, he was at length com- OF SAVONAROLA. 41 manded by the magistrates to desist from preaching. He obeyed their orders, but several of his brethren did in divers churches the same thing that he had done. As the clergy were no less divided than the laity, the monks of other orders did not cease to preach against him with great vehemence, and they were inflamed at length to such a degree, that one of the friars who adhered to Savonarola, and one of the friars minors, agreed to enter into the fire in the presence of the whole people, to the end, that according as Savonarola's friar should escape or be burned, every one might plainly see whether he was a prophet or an impostor : because formerly he had several times affirmed in his sermons, that, as a sign of the truth of his prediction, he would obtain of God, when it should be necessary, the favour to pass unhurt through the middle of the fire. Being nevertheless vexed, that the proposal of coming to an immediate proof of it should have been made without his knowledge, he dexterously tried to divert it. But as the thing had already gone too far, and was pressed by some citizens, who desired to see their country rid of so much vexation, it was at last necessary to proceed. Wherefore, the ' two friars, accompanied by all their brethren, being come on i the day appointed to the place which is before the public ' palace, where were assembled, not only all the people in Flo- f rence, but likewise several others from the neighbouring towns, ' the friars minors were informed, that Savonarola had ordered f his monk to carry the sacrament in his hand when he entered s into the fire. As they began to protest against this, and to 1 allege, that by such means an attempt was made to endanger ' the authority of the Christian faith, which would decline very ' much in the minds of the ignorant if the Host should burn, ' and as Savonarola, who was present, still persisted in his reso- ' lution, there arose such a discord between them, that they did f not proceed to make the experiment. He lost so much credit f by this, that the next day his adversaries, encouraged by some e accidental tumult, took arms, and joining to these the authority ' of the supreme magistrates, they entered by force into the 42 THE LITE AND MARTYRDOM " convent of S. Marco, where he resided, and carried him, to- " gether with two of his brethren, to the public gaol."* Having now laid before my readers the most ample details to be met with on this subject in different works, of several authors cotemporary with Savonarola, I will merely trouble them with one or two observations on these matters. The conduct of Fra Domenico de Pescia throughout the whole transaction, appears to be that of a pious, enthusiastic, faithful, straight-forward man, having an entire confidence in the truth and sanctity, of the life and doctrines, preaching and teaching, of Fra Girolamo, and a perfect assurance in the divine protection for his safety, in the trial he was prepared to make. With respect to Fra Girolamo, it seems evident from the first, that he was not favourable to the proposed ordeal ; that he had been no party to the treaty entered into incautiously by Fra Domenico with the Franciscans ; but that, in several discourses, having made appeals to heaven in defence of the truth of his doctrine — such as calling on God to deprive him of life if the words he spake were not true — and inviting his adversaries to disprove them by any means whatsoever if they could do so — an impression had been made on the mind of Fra Domenico da Pescia, that the ordeal proposed by the Franciscans to him, came within the category of those means of testing the truth to which Fra Giro- lamo had generally referred in his discourses. But when the engagement had been entered into by Fra Do- menico, Fra Girolamo appears to have dreaded the effects on the popular mind, of withdrawing from it. We must bear in mind, at that moment, that his adversaries — with whom it is unfortu- nate to have to say, that many eminent persons of the Franciscan order were leagued — were waging a fierce war, not only against his doctrines, but against his life. There was manifest peril, then, to be apprehended in giving an advantage to the Franciscans, which would have been ac- counted a signal triumph by them and their adherents. But there was a greater peril, which it is to be lamented Fra * Guicciarclini, Hist, d'ltal. lib. iii. OF SAVONAROLA. 43 Girolamo did not at once perceive in all its magnitude — the peril of countenancing a practice that had grown up in bar- barous times, and had become one of those corruptions of Chris- flan principles which it was his mission in every guise to set his face against. Fra Girolamo here fell into an inconsistency. But, did this fall prove him to be an impostor ? a false monk ? an enemy of Christ ? — No, it proved him only to be an erring man. But the tenor of his life proved him to be a holy and a good man. Did the fall of Peter, on more than one occasion — the failure of his courage, not once nor twice, but thrice, prove him to be a child of Satan ? If there was any thing in the temperament of Fra Girolamo, in his physical conformation, more than another, that indicated a tendency to any particular want of power of volition and con- centrated energy of character, it was in that part of his organ- ization which has most to do with the nervous system, and which in him seemed to be of a delicacy that rendered perfect mental composure, in the face of physical danger, a state of mind that was not at his command. Were it not so, we might have expected a man of the clear, quickly-discerning, intellectual powers of Fra Girolamo, to have dealt with the difficulty in which he was placed by the Francis- cans in this way : — " You propose that the truth or falsehood of my doctrines should be tested by the ordeal of fire. If they be true, you say, they are entitled to the Divine protection ; if they be false, they are not. God, you say, will manifest the truth or falsehood of them by the result of the proposed trial by fire. I deny that the truth or falsehood of any Christian doc- trine should be determined by the result of an experiment which must terminate, on your supposition, in the certain death of one or more human beings. I admit that God holds innocence and truth entitled to the Divine protection, and never fails eventually to crown both with His glory. But I reject, as impious and unchristian, and false as it is presumptuous, the proposition that man shall appoint the times and the seasons of God's judgments ; 44 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM that he shall say to God, on the 7th of March, 1498, you shall display your might and majesty in protecting a particular person or party of persons, who have decided on a particular mode of testing truths which they hold to be yours, notwithstanding it is at variance with one of the fundamental principles of the Gos- pel, and the true spirit and the teaching of the Christian church. My ordeal shall be in the arena of the pulpit. My controversy with the enemies of truth and righteousness was commenced there, was carried on there, and it shall end, with God's help, in a triumphant manner." We who reason in our closets about this matter, far away from the turmoil of the struggle in which Savonarola was engaged, far removed from the remnants of the barbarities of the feudal times, still existing at the close of the fifteenth century, may thus argue, and come, no doubt, with our lights, proceeding from the influences of 400 years more of civilization, to a right con- clusion. But let us judge the men, and the acts of men, of the fifteenth century, by the standards of the opinions of their own times, as far as we possibly can do, with all due respect to the one unfailing and unalterable standard of all faith — namely, that of Christianity itself. OF SAVONAROLA. 45 CHAPTER II. THE CONVENT OF SAN MARCO ASSAILED BY THE POPULACE. ACCOUNT OF THE ASSAULT AND DEFENCE. ARREST AND IM- PRISONMENT OF FRA GIROLAMO. 9tH APRIL, 1498. " ' Yes, Lord !' he exclaimed.. ' I turn to Thee ; let me he thy sacrifice. Give me strength that I may willingly bear all insults, all disgraces, and all calamities, that on thy account I may be blamed by all as a fool. We stand on the battle-field, but doubt not that we shall conquer at last, and in every way, even dying ; and in death shall fight more successfully than in life.' " — Sermon of Savonarola. " O 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear, To make an earthquake !" Shakespeare, Tempest. " How happy he whose cowl and cincture can Hold out this tempest." Shakespeare, K. John. On the evening of Friday, the 7th of April, 1498, Savonarola retired from the Piazza, the scene of the proposed ordeal, to his convent, a doomed man. His enemies had effectually worked upon the evil passions of a giddy multitude, ignorant and super- stitious, fickle and prone to fanaticism, passionately fond of spectacles and pageants, and fierce and brutal in their anger, when their gratifications were interfered with. The Franciscans and their adherents industriously circulated a statement among the populace, calculated to excite them to some desperate act of outrage on the Dominicans — namely, that Fra Girolamo and his associates wished to burn the blessed Eucharist, and were only prevented doing so by the Franciscans. This rumour, exten- sively circulated, produced feelings of great exasperation against the Dominicans. 46 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM On the following Sunday evening, the 9th of April, a number of the faction, hostile to Fra Girolamo, called Compagnacci, congre- gated about the Duomo, and about the hour of vespers began to cry, " To San Marco ! to San Marco !" The crowd was augmented by a great many of the idle, dissolute youths of the city, who com- menced arming themselves with stones. There were evidences of a preconcerted plan of attack on the Dominican convent and the friars. All the principal streets leading to the convent, by which the friends of Fra Girolamo were likely to proceed to his succour, were occupied by bands of the compagnacci, regularly organised. Some of these armed ruffians met a young man of noble family going to the church of the Annunziate, and repeat- ing to himself some devotional verses, when they attacked him with their lances, exclaiming, w Villain ! still we have psalm- singing," and slew him on the steps of the church of the Inno- cents. Arrived at San Marco, they immediately commenced an attack on the chapel with a shower of stones, while the monks were singing vespers. They waited for night before they made any attempt to break into the convent. A layman coming out of the convent, who endeavoured to appease the fury of the populace, was cut down with a blow of a sabre. The doors of the convent and the church were made as secure as possible by the monks, and the friends of the father who had been able to gain admission, for his protection. While they were barricading the doors, and preparing ener- getically for defence, Fra Girolamo came from his cell to the cloisters, with the cope on, and the crucifix in his hand, with the intention of going forth to encounter his enemies at the gates of the convent. He was prevented, however, by his friends and the community from doing so. The father observing some of the monks with weapons in their hands, said to them, " The arms of monks should be spiritual, and not carnal." He desired those friars to throw down their weapons immediately. He called on the whole community to join him in making a solemn procession OF SAVONAROLA. 47 through the cloisters and the church, singing spiritual songs. Wken that solemnity was over, and he had reposed a little, he entered the sacristy, and again put on his vestments, and took the tabernacle with the blessed sacrament, and placed it on the high altar in the church, and then he and the whole community placed themselves in prayer before it, while the tumult was raging outside, and the clamour of the ferocious multitude mo- mentarily augmented. The author of the admirable work, entitled, I Palleschi e Piagnoni, says, " The assault of the Palleschi on the Do- minicans in their convent of San Marco, the 9th of April, 1498, was resisted not only by the monks, but by a vast num- ber of the Piagnoni, who were of the flock of Savonarola ; and foremost amongst these, was Messer Nicolo de Lapi, his intimate friend, associated with Francesco Valori, Battista Ridolfi, Tom- maso Davanzale, and several of his neighbours and acquaint- ances, who had come to the convent at the first news of the assault made on it. The assailants in great numbers were armed with arquebusses, partizans, swords, staves, and stones. . . . " Notwithstanding Fra Girolamo dissuaded his brethren from using arms in their defence, Fra Domenicho da Pescia and some others of the community assisted the brave citizens who had come to their assistance."* One of those friars who sided with Fra Domenico, and took the most active part in the defence of the convent, was Fra Benedetto, a young man of twenty-eight years of age — a por- trait painter and a poet, who has left a poetical biography of Savonarola.f * I. Palleschi e Piagnoni, p. 124. t Fra Benedetto thus commences his description of the assault on S. Marco. "In Domenica santa dello olivo Fiorenza se levo a gran rumore, Per prender el Profeta, o morto, o vivo E con arme, con grida e con furore Al suo convento e tempio e sua nimici Vennen dicendo : more el traditore." Cedrus Libani, da Fra Benedetto. 48 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM The majority of the community remained with Fra Girolamo in prayer before the Blessed Eucharist, momentarily expecting death. Amidst the horrid tumult, whenever there was a pause, they were heard singing all in unison, as if with one voice and mind — " Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedicite hereditati tune." While still in prayer, some persons in great alarm came to enquire, should they ring the convent bell? Fra Girolamo desired them to " ask the opinion of Francis Vallori." Others came then to ask, should they make an attack on their assailants ? and Fra Girolamo said, " They should not." But Fra Do- menico da Pescia replied differently : he said to the inquirers — " Defend yourselves." It being now about the first hour of the night (after sun-set), there was a great tumult outside the con- vent, and an order came from the Signoria, that all the laymen, who were not of the community, should quit the convent. Therefore many persons, greatly alarmed, accepted the safe con- duct offered them, and retired from the convent. Nevertheless it remained besieged and surrounded on all sides by people. In the meantime, Francis Vallori and some other noble citizens who still remained in San Marco, held a consultation amongst themselves, when it was proposed by him that he should quit the convent by a secret passage, and proceed to his palace, to take immediate steps to call the people to the aid of Fra Giro- lamo and his associates. This he succeeded in doing; but the watchful enemies of Fra Girolamo, being apprized of his exertions, laid in wait for him at the corner of a street near San Proculo, and slew him. This was about the third hour of the night. His palace was then attacked, and his wife was killed at a window by the assailants, his nephew was strangled in his bed, and the palace was plundered and ransacked from top to bottom. The precious guardians of law and order, the Signoria, in all these disorders took no step to preserve the peace, or to protect those assailed by an infuriated rabble. OF SAVONAROLA. 49 The rabble were reinforced after the second hour of the night by a second band of marauders, evidently under the orders of some leaders in a conspiracy against the father. This band held a parley -with the inmates, and called on the laymen who still remained in the convent to leave it on pain of instant death, and with threats of ruin on their families. Some more of the alarmed secular friends of the monks then abandoned San Marco, and very few of the laity were left within its walls. Fire was now applied to the doors of the convent, and the church, and after some time, in spite of all resistance on the part of the inmates, an entrance was effected by this furious rabble, and much blood was shed as they rushed on through the cloisters, shouting and shrieking, and fiercely assailing every person they met, layman or religious, and sack- ing every place through which they passed, where any thing was to be plundered or destroyed, even the infirmary of the convent. A portion of them now reached the choir of the church, where Fra Girolamo and some of the monks were in prayer. Xo sooner did the father hear them at the door than he bade them enter, and on their rushing forward he calmly asked them what they wanted, and even reproached them for the great tumult they were the cause of. Some of the assailants were so much struck with the sight of these religious men, in the midst of such tumults and terrors, quietly engaged in prayer, that they became paralysed, and incapable of offering any violence to them. Some of the young monks observing the impression made on their assailants, managed to get between them and the door, and by a well-executed movement, rushing on them, seized their arms, and made prisoners of them. They then conducted them to the belfry and locked them up there, giving to each a small cross, and making him cry out as he received it, Viva Gesu Christo* One of the novices named Marco Gondi (afterwards a father of some distinction in his order), standing above the door of the choir, as the adversaries were about enter- VOL. II. * Burlamaechi, p. 564. 50 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM ing the choir, kept back a party with drawn swords, armed with a wooden crucifix, which he ultimately broke, inflicting a blow on the face of one of his assailants. Another novice, named G. Maria Petrucci, a young man of great courage, very robust frame, and a remarkably comely appearance — essendo vestito da Angelo — maintained a prolonged struggle with the rabble, who occupied that part of the convent between the choir and the sacristy of the church. He broke the lance of one of them with a blow of a torch, and passed more than once through the thickest of them without receiving a single wound, bravely fight- ing — gagliardamente si' combatteva. And finally the enemy was put to flight from the choir and its precincts by the monks, with the few arms they could lay their hands on. Fra Nicolo Bileotti with a small crucifix knocked an eye out of Jacopo de Nerli. His companions of San Marco laid about them with lighted torches, and several of the assailants were knocked down and disarmed, but at the same time were treated with great clemency, and even kindness, and solicited to abstain from leaguing themselves any more with the enemies of God and of religion. Those of the community who were mortally wounded were carried to the church, and there giving praise to the Almighty, breathed out their souls, while those of the assailants likewise mortally wounded, died with blasphemies on their lips.* One young man, a friend of Fra Girolamo, having received a deadly hurt, was carried to the choir, and was borne to the high altar, where he was laid on the steps. The dying young man begged of the surrounding friars that he might be afforded the consolations of religion. He was left alone for a little time with one of the brethren, received the blessed sacrament, and died blessing God for the great con- tentment he experienced in the happy death he met with in de- fence of religion and its ministers. The assailants finding they could not effect an entrance at the choir, betook themselves to the principal entrance of the church, and there set fire to the doors. On gaining admission into the church, they commenced spoiling, destroying, and laying all # Burlamacchi, p. 564. OF SAVONAROLA. 51 around them in ruins. From the church they now attempted to get possession of the choir, but a German, named Herico, who guarded the entrance, rushed forth, mounted the pulpit, armed with an arquebuss , and opened afire on the multitude of marauders in the church, killing many of them, crying out each time hefired f " Salvum fac populum tuum Dominum et benedicite hereditati tuce." Amongst those he killed, was one of the bravos of the assailants, named Bottaino. This Herico was a man of such courage that he rushed through the enemy to provide himself with the arquebuss, and returned with it, through the same mul- titude, without receiving any injury. The church was now so filled with smoke, that the friars could hardly bear to remain in the choir, where they were still stationed before the holy sacra- ment. Some relief was obtained by making an aperture in the wall, but all were exhausted, and worn out with fatigue and watching, and anxiety, and want of food ; for they had taken no refreshments for nearly a whole day, yet they never lost courage or a sure hope of a blessed immortality awaiting them, expecting every moment, as they did, to receive the crown of martyrdom. " The novices (continues Burlamacchi) seemed even exhilarated at the aspect of that martyrdom ; they spake in accents of exul- tation of being about to see the heavenly kingdom, and their blessed mother, in its glory. " It appeared miraculous, that although there were congregated about two hundred of the community around the great altar in the choir, none were wounded there, though stones were almost incessantly flying in from the windows, and shots fired at them. "The multitude outside the convent was continually increasing, and at length artillery was brought and planted in various places round the walls, with the intention of utterly demolishing the whole structure. Fra Girolamo, on hearing this, directed the whole community to proceed with the blessed sacrament, from the choir to the dormitory, in solemn procession. " It was now six hours of the night," continues Burlamacchi, " (about two hours after midnight), after this frightful tumult had alreadv lasted nearly seven hours, when another intimation was e 2 SSI THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM made by the assailants, that if all the laity still remaining in arms in San Marco did not take their departure, they would be de- clared rebels, and their goods would be confiscated. Then, many, justly alarmed, determined to abandon the struggle, and made their exit in safety." " The Prophets without arms," says Machiavelli, " have al- ways been worsted." After the departure of the citizens there began to be a parley, and some talk of terms being made. About the ninth hour of the night, the commissaries of the Sig- noria made their way to the dormitory, having first asked and obtained a safe conduct from the defenders of the convent. "When they were brought before Fra Girolamo, they began to exhort him to consent to present himself before the Signoria, along with Fra Domenico da Pescia, and Fra Silvestro Maruffi, as otherwise the convent would be totally destroyed. Having listened calmly to the proposal, he walked into the library, per- haps to reflect on the proposal, and determine on what course he would pursue. But scarcely had he entered, when new com- missaries arrived, and those persons were the mortal enemies of Fra Girolamo. They informed him, e by the commands of the Signoria, he must accompany them to the palace of the Signoria.' " Fra Domenico da Pescia and some others, asked the com- missaries ' if they had those orders in writing from the Signoria?* They answered, e They had not.' Whereupon, they were sent back to their masters without further discussion. " The same commissaries speedily returned with the commands in writing, and with a distinct promise that Fra Girolamo and his companions would be restored to their convent safe and sound — ( Sano e Salvo.'' The father and the two friars immedi- ately declared they would accept these terms, and they would obey the commands of the Signoria. " But before carrying this determination into effect, the father assembled the community for the last time to hear him discourse, and the place where they assembled on this melancholy occasion, was the Greek library, attached to the convent. There he de- livered an admirable exhortation to them in the Latin tongue, OF SAVONAROLA. 53 entreating of them to stand fast in the faith, keeping their souls in patience, and acquiring fortitude by prayer. u The road to heaven, he told them, was by tribulations, and they were not to allow themselves on any account to be cast down. He referred to numerous benefits which had been con- ferred on Florence by the Dominican order. He reminded his hearers how S. Pietro Martire had done wonderful things for Florence, and had been put to death there, the Florentines, how- ever, dearly paying the price of his blood. He spoke of San Caterina da Sienna, whose life had been attempted by many persons, even after she had borne much toil, and undergone so many labours for them, going in person even to Avignon to in- tercede for them with the Pope. So likewise had San Antonio, their archbishop and excellent pastor, been their intercessor in times of danger, and they had threatened to throw him out of a window. " And it would be nothing marvellous if yet, after all the troubles he had encountered for them, all the labours he had gone through, if he was paid in the same coin. But he was ready to suffer all things with alacrity and contentment, for the love of his Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that a Christian life con- sisted in doing good and enduring evil."* And thus he finished his last discourse, leaving all around him bathed in tears. And truly the concluding words of that last sermon of one of the most efficacious preachers the Christian world ever produced, were worthy of him and his doctrine : " A Christian life consisted in doing good and enduring evil" On quitting the library, he said to some of the laity who were waiting for him in the passages, in reply to something that was spoken to him : " I might say as Jeremiah said on a like occasion : " Those things I expected, but not so soon, and not so sud- denly." He exhorted these persons " to live well and to pray fervently." He then made his confession to Fra Domenico da Pescia in the * Burlamaccbi, p. 565. 54 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM library, and received the blessed sacraments at his hands. Fra Domenico then confessed to him, and likewise received the sa- crament. He took a little food — his spirits seemed somewhat to revive — aliquanto se recreo — and he spoke to those about him with his usual sweetness and serenity, and then preparing to leave the scene of his labours for many years, he addressed a few parting words to his dear brethren, whom he loved so well, and by whom he was so much beloved and venerated. His latest words to the brethren were words of comfort and of good counsel ; bidding them to persevere in the faith, he ten- derly embraced every one of them, and thus took his last fare- well of the community. But one of his little children in Christ exclaimed, as he was departing, u Father, why do you abandon us ? why do you leave us so desolate ?" And, turning back, Fra Girolamo said — " My son, have patience : God will be your help and your support. If we do not see one another again in this world, we shall surely meet after death." He delivered up some keys he had in his possession to the brethren, who were thronging about him all in tears, many beg- ging to be allowed to accompany him. He then proceeded to the door of the library, where the com- missaries, with arms in their hands, were waiting for him and his two companions. With all his accustomed meekness of demeanour, he surren- dered himself to those officers, saying, — " I commend to your care this flock of mine, and all these other persons, citizens of Florence." And once more he turned to the community, as if he could hardly bear to separate himself from them, and said : — ' Doubt not, my brethren. God will not fail to perfect his work. Whether I live or die, he will aid and console you." As they were going out of the choir, Fra Domenico said, " I go willingly to those nuptials." When Fra Girolamo was already in the cloisters, in charge of the commissaries, with his hands bound with cords behind OF SAVONAROLA. 55 his back, the sounds of voices in loud contention were heard ; and speedily one of the friars, Fra Benedetto (the subsequent author of the Poetical Biography of Fra Girolamo), was seen endeavouring to make his way through the guards and the rab- ble of the Compagnacce to Fra Girolamo, crying out that he would accompany the father wherever he was taken. The commissaries in vain endeavoured to persuade him to relinquish his intention. Fra Girolamo at length said to him, " I charge you on obedience not to come ; for I and Fra Do- menico it is, who are to die for the love of Christ." As he passed the threshold of the convent of San Marco for the last time, it was the ninth hour of the night.* No sooner did the prisoner issue forth from the convent, in charge of the commissaries and the guards, who had been in waiting to receive him, than a savage shout of exultation was raised, and the brutal populace rushed on the fettered prisoner, with the design of killing him on the spot ; and were only pre- vented with the greatest difficulty from so doing by the guard, who made a sort of shield over his head of their crossed arms, to protect him from the innumerable blows that were aimed at him. But as he was led along the streets, bound like a male- factor, the populace — ever true to their vile instincts, cowardly and cruel, fickle as the wind, and ferocious as wild beasts, when the restraints of law, religion, and order cease to control their fierce passions and wicked propensities — showered maledictions, filthy names, and ribald abuse on him, beat him with their fists, kicked him, and flung stones at him. One miscreant walked alongside of him, twisting the fingers of his fettered hands with all his force, as he was dragged along, till one of' the commissaries, named Andrea da Medici, observed the cruel act, and liberated the hands of the prisoner from the gripe of this free citizen of the renowned republic. Can we enter into all the touching circumstances of this part- ing scene of Savonarola with his dear children in Christ, as we would do if the incidents of that moving spectacle were related in a novel ? * Burlamacchi, p. 564. THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM If the chief actor in it, — conscious of his fate, and moved at the sad thought of leaving those he most loved in this world fatherless and friendless, was bidding them a last farewell, abandoning the place for ever that was endeared to him by many recollections of kindness shewn to him, of manifold mer- cies vouchsafed to him, and through him to others, — were not a monk, " a true monk," too, most firm in his faith, and devoted to his monastic institute, perhaps we should read this account of the final parting of Fra Girolamo with his brethren, young and old, with feelings, if not of pain, at least akin to pity. Another wretch, as he was ascending the steps, behaved with gross indecency, and practising a personal indignity on him, turned him into ridicule, and made a scoff of his claim to sanc- tity, and a revolting gibe of the prophecies ascribed to him. Fra Silvestro Maruffi and Fra Domenico da Pescia were also taken to the Signoria ; and we are informed by Burlamacchi, that a brother of Fra Girolamo, Maestro Alberto, of Ferrara, who was on a visit to his brother at this time, was likewise taken prisoner, and led to the Signoria. Some other Italian writers, including Guicciardini, state, that a brother of Fra Girolamo was killed in the convent, in the midst of the tumult. There is mention made of the brother of Savonarola, Fra Maurelio, by Fra Federigo Vincenzo de Poggio, Prior of the Dominican convent of San Romano, in Lucca, in 1761, in a let- ter published in the first volume of the Miscellanea of Baluzius, which, if correct, would invalidate the accounts of his death in San Marco. Poggio writes : — " After the tragical death of Fra G. Savon- arola, the 23rd May, 1498, a great many of the religious of San Marco's convent, amongst whom was the brother of Savonarola, transferred themselves to our convent of San Romano." The church of San Marco, after the departure of Fra Girolamo and his companions, was plundered, the ornaments of the altars were destroyed; a crown of some value, that was placed on the head of a statue of the Virgin, was carried away, and placed on OF SAVONAROLA. 57 the head of an unfortunate woman of the town. Some pious persons, however, succeeded subsequently in securing it, and it was returned to the convent. On the following day, Monday, the 9th of April, a guard was set over the convent, and a tho- rough search was instituted for arms, and for supposed evidences of the guilt of the imprisoned friars. The great bell of San Marco was not the only property of San Marco laid violent hands on ; the noble library of Greek and Italian books, and manuscripts of the greatest rarity, die erano costi due mila ducento ducati, was seized by the Signoria.* " The night that the father was taken, the news came that the King of France (Charles the Eighth) was dead."f And that intelligence, we are told by Nardi, had a fatal in- fluence on the proceedings against Savonarola. * The foundation of the public library of San Marco dates from 1437, with a donation of the collection of MSS. left by Niccolo Niccoli from Cosmo de Medici, into whose possession they had come ; and also of many worts collected by himself, the whole number being about 400. Thomas de Sarzana, afterwards Pope Nicholas the Fifth, was the first curator of this valuable collection. The ruin of the library, in 1453, was followed by its re-construction, in 1457, by Cosmo. Keumon. Hist. Chron. Flor. a.d. 1538. f Burlamacchi, 58 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM CHAPTER III. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SAVONAROLA AND HIS TWO COMPANIONS. PART TAKEN IN THEM BY THE POPE. TORTURES INFLICTED ON SAVONAROLA. FALSIFICATION OF THE PROCESS VERBAL. THE CONDEMNATION AND ALLEGED CONFESSION OF GUILT, AS DETAILED BY BURCHARD, THE MASTER OF THE CEREMONIES OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH, FROM THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS FURNISHED TO THE HOLY SEE BY THE ENEMIES OF FRA GIRO- LAMO. " I would have had my Florence great and free : Oh, Florence ! Florence ! unto me thou wast Like that Jerusalem which the Almighty He Wept over, ' but thou wouldst not ;' as the bird Gathers its young, I would have gather'd thee Beneath a parent pinion, hadst thou heard My voice ; but as the adder, deaf and fierce Against the breast that cherished thee was stirr'd Thy venom, and my state thou didst amerce, And doom this body forfeit to the fire. Alas ! how bitter is his country's curse To him who for that country would expire, But did not merit to expire by her, And loves her, loves her even in her ire." Byron. The prisoners, on being conducted before the Signoria, we are told by Burlamacchi, were immediately examined. Fra Giro- lamo was asked, " if the doctrines he preached were true or false ? — if his revelations were from God ?" He answered with his accustomed frankness, that (( those things which had been predicted by him were from God," This answer enraged the Lords of Florence — they seemed to require no further proof of guilt ; and forgetting the solemn OF SAVONAROLA. 59 pledge they had given of restoring the three friars to liberty, they gave directions on the spot to have them shut up in three separate places of confinement. And for the especial charge of the prisoners, and the conduct of the proceedings against them, they appointed a magistracy of sixteen persons, all notoriously hostile to Fra Girolamo and his ministry. On the first occasion of their assembling after their appoint- ment, one of them, named Francisco degli Albizi, though opposed to the friars, seeing the great malignity of the measures that were about to be taken against them, said, " he would not stain his hands with the blood of the innocent." He went away from the assembly, and never returned to it. They began the proceedings against the three friars without waiting for any authority from Rome for instituting them, though the charges against them were for offences cognizable only to ecclesiastical authority. From the 10th to the 19th of April, Fra Girolamo was examined repeatedly by this magisterial com- mission. On the first occasion, in the ordinary manner by in- terrogations ; on the second occasion with torture and menaces and invective ; and on the third occasion, and succeeding ones, also with torture, con tormente. " On the second day after Palm Sunday," says Burlamacchi, " the friars were tied to the instrument of torture, and with great laceration they were tormented. Fra Girolamo that day was tor- tured with two turns of the cord. On the next occasion they in- flicted the same torture with one and a half turns. Nor did they abstain from tormenting them with fire and other tortures, which they first exhibited with the view of frightening them into confession."* In the account of the trial, professed to be taken from the processo autentico, evidently written by one very hostile to Savonarola, we read, " that on the first occasion of torturing Fra Girolamo on the 10th of April, they gave him the Estra- pade torment, with three turns and a half of cord." Afterwards, every day, from the 11th of the same month to the 19th, they examined him on the facts alleged against him, without any * Burlamacchi, torn- i. p. 566. 60 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM torture or lesion of the body, but with humane, soothing, and consoling words."* And yet, further on, it is stated, on the first occasion he had the Estrapade with three and a half turns of the cord, and afterwards with an additional number, and the subsequent ex- aminations are set down at seven.f Burchard, moreover, dis- tinctly states that he was tortured seven times. Notwithstanding'(these tortures), we are told by Burlamacchi, the father continued firm, protesting that he had preached nothing but the truth, and that if overcome by the tortures, he should say any thing of a contrary kind, it should be considered as false. The torments being renewed, he cried out, in the great agony of his sufferings, " Tolle Domine, tolle animam meam !" We may imagine the extremity of the anguish which extorted these words : and we may likewise imagine what sort of inspiration it was which moved his heart and lips in prayer, when we read of his dropping on his knees the instant the torture was sus- pended on that day, and praying for his enemies, and those even at whose hands he had endured those sufferings.^ In this course of proceeding his persecutors persevered several days, extorting nothing from him, except some ambiguous words which were taken down by those who superintended the tortures, i ministri, but which were altered, added to, and accommodated to their views, in order to deceive the people. All that Nardi says of the torture and its results is, that on the first day's examination they were threatened with torments, " minaccie di tormenti." And on the second day, the examiners having deliberated on the application of torture, " some turns of the cord" were given, " datoli algunipocchi trati di corda" and the prisoners showing that they suffered greatly from this tor- ment, being very weak and sensitive, they asked to be allowed to write, and thus it was those statements were made.§ The enemies of Savonarola were not satisfied with the results * Baluzii Miscellanea, torn. v. p. 529. X Burlamacchi, torn. i. d. 566. t Idem, p. 551 . & Nardi lib. ii. 78. OF SAVONAROLA. (51 of their first proceedings against him and his companions. They determined on packing the Great Council, with the same wise views, no doubt, for securing a result in accordance with their notions of the interests of justice, as those for which juries have been so often packed in modern times, with the best success for the cause of law and order in other countries. Savo- narola was to be condemned, and the new Signoria, which was to come into office on the 1st of May, 1498, was to be packed for that purpose. Shortly before the day of election, by some back-stair influence in the palace of the Council, " about two hundred citizens were expelled from the Great Council." "When the elections took place, none but men of "the right sort " were returned. In fact, before they were installed in office, the doom of Savonarola was determined on. Murder was planned as secretly and securely as if the surest measures had been adopted for taking off a victim by the poisoned bowl or the sharp blade of a stiletto. It has been said truly by Lord John Russell, you may cause the death of a man by close confinement in an unwholesome prison, as effectually as by burning him at a stake. And it has been likewise observed by a writer of some celebrity, that the guilt of blood is incurred as much by tampering with justice on the bench or in the jury box, and taking improper methods of acting on the tribunals of justice, and procuring convictions of men tried for their lives, " by any indirection," as by employ- ing men to make away with them by violence. The magisterial commission finding, after all the tortures in- flicted on their prisoners, no evidence of guilt, we are told by Burlamacchi, were greatly perplexed. One of them at length communicated on the subject with a public notary of the name of Francesco de Arone, known also by the soubriquet of Ceccone. The notary undertook the management of the case, and guaranteed the condemnation and death of Fra Girolamo. The heads of the faction hostile to Savonarola, i Compagnicci, bound themselves to pay the notary four hundred scudi, if he succeeded in his undertaking. THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM This notary had been engaged in the conspiracy that had been discovered in 1497 for the restoration of Pietro de Medici. On its discovery he sought an asylum in San Marco, and through the efforts of Savonarola in his favour with the authorities, his life had been preserved. For this great kindness he now sold his services to procure the death of his benefactor. And even previously he had entered into a clandestine correspondence with Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, reporting to him, in cipher characters, the substance of what Fra Girolamo preached from day to day. The cause of justice was not summary enough for the craving appetite for blood, of the sanguinary populace of Florence. They began to murmur against the law's delay. Parties were suspected of endeavouring to save the lives of the Dominicans. They began to assemble in the streets in the night, and to utter savage cries of vengeance against Savonarola, and menaces against the magistrates they suspected of being favourable to him. In this state of affairs the services of the notary Ceccone were still more urgently solicited. He desired to be admitted secretly to the Sala della Palazzo de Giustizia the next time Fra Girolamo was examined. He was accordingly secretly introduced, and concealed in a place where he could hear every thing that was said without being observed himself. Fra Girolamo was under examination, and another notary was present, making the regular process verbal in writing. Ceccone, unperceived all the time, was taking down the answers of the prisoner, and falsifying them according to his views. " In general," says Burlamacchi, ({ Fra Girolamo gave ambiguous answers to the questions put to him, which admitted of different interpretations, as was done even by the Redeemer before Pilate." But the notary Ceccone twisted every reply to the sense that served his purpose. For instance, when the father was asked for what cause he had done certain things in Florence, and he replied, that "every thing he did was — per gloria " but OF SAVONAROLA. 63 either leave was not given him to finish the sentence, or he meant to have said, " for God's glory," but Ceccone wrote down per gloria umana. (t When Fra Girolamo," continues Burla- macchi, " was asked in what manner he acted when he confessed his sins ? his reply was, ( People who have lost the faith, give themselves no trouble about their souls.' "* And in this ambiguous manner, he answered all their ques- tions. We have positive proof that the reply concerning persons who had lost the faith, giving themselves no trouble about their souls, was not intended to apply to his own case, for all the time he remained in prison, his whole mind was given to prayer and meditation, and spiritual compositions ; of the latter, an entire piece, written in his dungeon, will be found in the Appendix ; an exposition of the psalm, miserere mei Domino, breathing the true spirit of Christianity. Savonarola's ambiguous allusion to the loss of faith, was evi- dently intended for the state of the godless ministers of injustice around him, who were violating all laws, human and divine, in their proceedings against him. These were the kind of answers, tortured and twisted from their natural sense, which constituted the trumped-up " confes- sion of guilt," which, to Bayle's comprehension, was perfectly conclusive as to the guilt of Savonarola of the heinous crimes of imposture, impiety, and sedition. When the examination was over, on the occasion referred to, in the palace of justice, Ceccone took care to get away unperceived from his lurking-place, and to proceed to the palace of the Signoria, to be present when the other notary's report of the proceedings was presented to the eight Signori. One of the otto, with whom he was apparently in confidence, approached him, and put the process verbal of the other notary into his hand, saying, " Be- hold the report of the process in the case of this wretch." " Ceccone, while he entered into conversation," says Burla- macchi, " on the subject with the Signoria, dexterously slipped Burlamaccki, p. 567. 64 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM the original report of the process into his pocket, and (subse- quently) substituted for it his own falsified document, and handed that counterfeit document to the magistrate from whom he had received the true report."* On that false document the sentence of condemnation was pronounced. But when the judges came to examine carefully the document on which their sentence was founded, they were of opinion it was not explicit enough, and the crimes set forth in it were not of sufficient magnitude to allow them to publish it, though the report sufficed for them to condemn a man to death on its re- corded testimony. They caused another process verbal to be concocted, that had some appearance of validity about it. " But it pleased God," says Burlamacchi, " that this foul deed should be detected ; for Ceccone entrusted a copy of his falsified report to a friend of his, who had pledged himself to secrecy in regard to it. That friend, however, betrayed his confidence, and eventually even had it printed, in order to make it public. " After the death of Savonarola, Ceccone went to the parties who had promised him the 400 scudi for his services, but he could not obtain the tenth part of that amount. " Remorse and vexation at the ingratitude of those who had made him the agent of their wickedness, and withheld the wages of his iniquity, eventually destroyed the peace of this man. He narrated all the particulars of the falsification of the process to Fra Cipriano de Cancelli, and Fra Bernardo del Nero, and also to Madonna Lucrezia de Medici, sister of Leo the Tenth, and wife of Jacopo Salviati. He told that lady, he believed that Fra Girolamo was a saint of God, and that he found no guilt in him, and failing of finding evil in him, he had attri- buted to him certain crimes, with the view of preventing the lives of a great many persons from being taken away (at that time) in Florence, "f These words- were related by Madame Lucrezia to the Countess * Burlamacchi, 567. t Ibid. OF SAVONAROLA. 65 of Guiliano Salviati, and by her they were told to Fra Angeli Vettori. It was said that Madame Lucrezia had the genuine process given her by Ceccone. A sort of judicial tribunal, eventually, with some elements of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was formed, with the view of giving a religious as well as a civil sanction to the condemnation of the three Dominicans. On the 19th of April, there were associated with the magis- terial commission, the vicar of the Archbishop of Florence, the vicar of the Bishop of Fiesole, some canons of the Cathedral of Florence, and citizens of high rank, and also six friars of San Marco. Fra Girolamo was brought before them. The notary read the process, repeating the ambiguous answers, to which he had added what he had thought necessary. Fra Girolamo was asked by the notary, " were those things true or false?" To which he answered, " That which I have written is true." Then he was asked — " Is it all true ?" His reply was — " All." The notary added — ""Word for word ?" and his answer was — V Word for word." Then all present, including the six friars of San Marco, sub- scribed the process. The vicar of Fiesole subscribed it, but added these words, " He confessed all that he had written was true." Then Fra Girolamo, as if the perfidy of his brethren of San Marco touched him more than any concern for his condemna- tion, yet not addressing one word of reproof or complaint, turn- ing towards the six Dominican friars, said to them, " With what mode of life and doctrine my conversation has been amongst you, is hidden from no one. But, placed in these tribulations, two things only remain for me to ask of you. The first is, to recommend to you the novices, desiring that by all the means in your power you will endeavour to keep them in the fear of God, in which fear they have been nurtured up to this time, and that you prepare them in that Christian life, wherein they have been trained." v OL. II. f 66 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM " In the next place, I beseech you to pray for me to the Lord, the inspirations of whose spirit have altogether departed from me. Here one of the brethren of San Marco, Fra Matatesta, asked : — " If those things which he subscribed were true ?" To which question, he made no reply : but, like one wearied and ex- hausted, seemed unwilling to be questioned any more. Then Fra Matatesta with much vehemence uttered these words, " Ex ore tuo credidi, et ex ore tuo discredo." And on his return to San Marco, he related to the community all that had happened, which report caused very great divisions in opinion, and created doubts of the father's truth which were never before harboured there. At the next meeting of the members of the tribunal of jus- tice, in the great sala of the palace of justice, the doors were thrown open to the public, every one who chose w T as allowed to be present at the close of the mock trial of the Dominicans. In an assembly of some thousands of persons, by the order of the magistrates, the notary Ceccone publicly read the false pro- cess. At the end, he said he had omitted all the unimportant matter, and read only that which was indispensably requisite, being " unwilling to divulge secrets of state." Previously it had been the subject of angry discussion, whe- ther Fra Girolamo should be retained in Florence, or sent in safe custody to Rome. The enemies of Fra Girolamo opposed the latter course, because it w r ould not be safe, they said, to allow a man to go into a strange country with such a knowledge of affairs of the State, and a facility for turning it to a bad use. The effects of the falsified process on the minds of the assembly and the city at large, were very prejudicial to the father, and had an evil influence on the council. When, finally, it came to the question of condemning the prisoners to death, or sending them to Rome to be dealt with by the Pope, the majority of votes appeared in favour of condem- nation. Of the members of the council, Agnolo Xiccolini, a per- son of great experience in public affairs, spoke in the following terms to the council. OF SAVONAROLA. 67 " Magnificent Signori, honourable magistrates, and most noble citizens : If we consider the history of the present time, and of past ages, we shall find that it would be difficult to meet, in any part of the world, a man of such excellent qualities, and of so high and noble an order of intellect as this friar, of whose death we are now debating. Then to lay at our doors the blood of so great and rarely gifted a man, whose like may not be born for many centuries, would seem to me to be an act too impious and execrable to be thought of by grave and prudent men. It ap- pears to me then, that it is not for us to quench a light like that, which is capable of giving lustre to the faith, even when it had grown dim in every other part of the world ; and not of shedding lustre on the faith alone, but on all the sciences, with the knowledge of which he is so fully endowed. I say, it ap- pears to me, that if it were necessary for the punishment of some fault to imprison him, it should be in some safe place of cus- tody, within some fortress if you choose, affording him com- modious apartments, with pens, ink, and paper, and such abun- dance of books as he might desire to have. For in this manner, I have no doubt that he would write most valuable books, in honour of God, leading to the exaltation of our holy faith, and of a great utility to posterity. While consigning him to death, without utility of any kind, would bring on our Republic, so honoured and illustrious, perpetual dishonour and discredit in the minds of all men throughout the world." Agnolo Niccolini's sentiments, so noble, generous, enlightened, and humane, entitle his memory to the highest honour, and the gratitude at least of every lover of letters and of science. That idea of the inutility to society, of putting a man to death, whose talents, strength, or skill, might be turned to some profitable account, does honour to the man who gave expression to it. And that other suggestion, in the event of imprisonment being indispensable, of providing the captive scholar with books for study, and writing materials for work to be devoted to the ser- vice of God, and the interests of humanity, reflects no less credit On the head and heart of Agnolo Niccolini. F 2 68 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM It is impossible to read that passage, where he refers to the kind of captivity that he would have for such a scholar as Sa- vonarola, without being reminded of the aspirations of a bookish English sovereign, on visiting the Bodleian Library : — u On the departure of King James from that famous library," says Burton, " King James broke out into the noble speech, wherein he said, — ' If it were so, that I was doomed to be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I would desire no other prison than this library, and to be chained together with so many good authors, with no other bonds than the clasps which bind these volumes, and to be imprisoned with no other captives but these books.' "* But Niccolini's enlightenment availed nothing with the Flo- rentine lords ; they condemned Savonarola and his two brethren to death. The secular people, friends of the father, who had been found in arms in the convent, on the night of the 9th, had a narrow escape of their lives. The counsel of Niccolini and some others prevailed with the Signori. The council in their regard were merciful ; they declared that they would not stain their hands with the blood of their fellow-citizens. They were right : they were about to steep their hands in more innocent blood than all the waters of the Arno ever could wash away. Pico observes, that the question will for ever return, and force itself upon us, whether that sentence was just or unjust? "When the friars had been first arrested," says Nardi, "cou- riers were immediately despatched to Rome with the intelligence, and the Pope manifested the greatest delight at the information. Having in vain sought to have the prisoners delivered up to him, to be dealt with according to their deserts in Pome, he sent two functionaries to assist at their condemnation and execution. "f * " Si unquam mihi in fatis sit, ut captivus ducar, si mihi daretur optio, hoc cuperem carcere concludi, his catenis illigari, cum hisce captivis conca- tenates aetatem agere." — Ap. Burton's Anat. of Melan. vol. ii. part 2, sec. 2. t Nardi, lib. ii. p. 78. OF SAVON A KOLA. 69 Was Alexander afraid the Florentine government would not put the friars to death? Or was he desirous to deal justly and mercifully by them ? It would be a consolation to allow his holiness to have the benefit of that doubt, if the conduct of his commissaries had not put it out of one's power to imagine that any thing short of their death would have satisfied him. The two commissaries of the Pope did not arrive in Florence till after the condemnation of the friars, and one of the singu- larities of this trial (if the proceedings in the case could be so termed) was, the re-examination of the prisoners in the presence of the Pope's commissaries, subsequently to their condemnation. Fra Girolamo was asked what he had to say, with respect to his former examination up to that day. He answered, that "all he had said and predicted in past times was the truth, and that what he had said and denied on that day (on some occasion when he gave answers on being tortured) was all false, and was ex- torted by great pain, and terror he had of the torments : and that de novo he vjouM unsay and retract (things he had said) as often as he might be again tortured, because he acknowledged that he was very weak and inconstant in enduring those torments." At which reply the examiners, being very much perplexed, and chiefly the commissary, Romalino, with threats and abusive language, caused him to be bound to the instrument of tor- ture, of which, when they had given him some turns, he con- fessed that what he said before on his former examinations was true : and it was the same with the other two friars ; they re- tracted what they had before confessed, but each justifying and excusing himself, affirming he had simply believed in the truth of Fra Girolamo. But the processes of those two friars, although they were seen by several reduced to writing, were not read publicly in the hall of the council, as the process had been of Fra Girolamo. " There were certain matters," continues Xardi, " on which, when Fra Girolamo was examined by the commissaries of the Pope, that friar was very inconstant and variable, now denying 70 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM things, now affirming them."* In other particulars, Nardi's account does not vary in anything important from Burlamacchi's relation, except that he mentions expressly, when the process and judgment of Fra Girolamo were read in the palace of justice to the public, the prisoner, who ought to have been present, was not there. " Neither were The Eight, nor the other magistrates present, who represented justice formally and legitimately, as every man of reason must think they should have been, on an occasion of so much importance." Nardi terminates his account of the j udgment and the execu- tion of Fra Girolamo with these words : — " We have narrated those events in the order of their occurrence, leaving to the consciences of those who were actors in them to form a judg- ment on them."t But with the view of aiding the judgment of those in after- ages, who were to form an opinion of those actors in the judicial murders which the cautious historian refers to, we are told that the state of religion in those times, and the lives both of secular and ecclesiastical persons, were great scandals to the church — the disorders, in fact, of all conditions of people in Florence were then — una cosa molto scandalosa in chiesa di Dio. Muratori, in his " Annali D'ltalia," in his record of events of the year 1498, speaks of Savonarola as — " a man of holy life, " who, inspired by God, predicted future events, which in the " course of a few years came to pass." Speaking of the end of his career, he says : — " The magistracy, fearful of the Pope's " menaces, caused him to be arrested. Then it was that those " interposed who bore him ill will. Then hastened soon to " Florence the commissary of the Pope, to increase more the " excitement against him, and to accelerate the death of this " unhappy man. They had recourse to torments, to make him " confess things which were not true, and they published after - " wards a process, that every one at once recognized as fabri- w cated and falsified. "+ * Nardi. p. 81. f Ibid. { Muratori, Ann. torn. xiii. p. 404. OF SAVONAROLA. 71 After the last solemn mockery of a re-examination of the pri- soners had been gone through, and the new sanction of the highest ecclesiastical authority had been given to the iniquitous proceedings, it only remained to make adequate preparations for a grand spectacle, that would indemnify public curiosity for its recent disappointment in the affair of the ordeal. In the meantime the Franciscans, the adversaries of Fra Giro- lamo, exulted greatly in the success of those machinations of the authorities both of Rome and Florence. They ran from house to house, we are told by Burlamacchi, blackening the character of Fra Girolamo, and slandering him in every possible "way. The document, purporting to be a true copy of the process against the three Dominicans, with all its manifest malignity and evident falsifications, contains some particulars in the reported answers of Savonarola, which are valuable, as being confirmatory of many statements which would otherwise exist only on the authority of Fra Girolamo's admirers and advocates. In this process it is stated that the examinations lasted from the 10th of April to the 22nd of May, when the sentence was finally delivered, " declaring that all three should be given up to the flames as heretics and schismatics, and rebels of the holy church ; and suspected of heresy, as being revealers of con- fessions, and disseminators of feigned things — Zinzanie — in the holy church of God." * The two commissaries of the Pope, w r ho had come from Rome to see the interests of religion and justice, as they were under- stood by Alexander the Sixth, promoted and secured w r hen the work was done, returned with the falsified process, and reported the happy termination of the judicial proceedings, and the de- gradation and the ignominious death of the obnoxious friar of San Marco and his two companions. No cardinal's hat w r ould henceforth be needed to offer to the bold preacher of the gospel, when he had received that distinc- tion from Alexander which he ambitioned, "the martyr's blood- stained crown." The words of the process published by the Florentine autho- * Appendix, Bal. Miscell. torn. v. p. 546. 12 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM ties, and the words of the sentence, read at the place of execu- tion in the presence of the Pope's commissaries, shew plainly and indisputably that Savonarola was condemned on the charge of heresy, and on that alone. An anonymous writer, whose observations on the sentence of Savonarola are inserted in the Miscellanea Baluzii (t. iv. p. 523), says the sentence of condemnation of Savonarola was signed by both commissaries of the Pope, one of whom was the general of his order, Fra G. Turiano. " Homo dolcissimo e umanissimo che governo l'ordine con somma benignita e carita," if the Chroniche Domenicane speaks the truth. For a man, " most mild and humane," and with such exalted "benignity and charity," to have assented to the death of an innocent man of his own order, there must have been a very lamentable deficiency of moral courage, firmness, and high sense of religious duty in his character. But Father Echard, in his work (De Scrip. Ord. Presdic. torn, i. p. 370), writing of the above-mentioned general, says : " Not a little did he stain his glory by assenting to the death of Fra Girolamo and his two companions, unless he can be excused on the ground that the sentence was not his work, but was pro- nounced by Alexander the Sixth, and carried to Borne by Ro- malino and the other delegate ; and that he was coerced into hearing it, and persuaded to give his sanction to it." This is one way of excusing a general, who was one of the mildest and most humane of men ; but could be coerced into the sanction of shedding innocent blood in obedience to superiors. The general had a good knowledge of Greek and Latin, Echard tells us ; but of God's justice it only remains for us to hope that he had a stronger sense in his later years than he seemed to possess on one lamentable occasion. Of the proceedings against Fra Girolamo, Guicciardini gives the following account : — " Savonarola was examined with tortures, although they were not very severe — benche non molto grave — and after the examinations a process was published, which (laying aside all the injurious reproaches that had been thrown out OF SAVONAROLA. 73 against him, of avarice or bad morals, or of his having carried on secret intrigues with princes) set forth that his predictions had not proceeded from divine revelation, , but from his own opinions, grounded upon the doctrine and observation of the Holy Scripture, and that he had not been induced thereto from any ill design, nor from a desire of acquiring high preferments in the church by that means ; but that he had earnestly wished to be the instrument of calling a general council, in which the corrupt manners of the clergy might be reformed, and the state of the church of God which had deviated so far from old paths, might be reduced to as great a resemblance as possible to those days that were nearest to the times of the apostles ; and that he would have thought it a much greater honour to finish that great and useful work, than to obtain the papal dignity, because the former could only proceed from a most excellent life and doc- trine, and a singular respect for all men, whereas the latter was very often obtained by ill means, or by the favour of fortune. In consequence of this process, confirmed by him in the presence of several friars, likewise of his order, but (if what his adhe- rents published afterwards be true) in few words, and in such as were capable of divers interpretations, by sentence of the gene- ral of the Dominicans, and of Bishop Romolino, who was after- wards cardinal of Surrente, the commissaries deputed by the Pope, he and the other two friars were, with the usual ceremo- nies in the church of Rome, degraded from their holy orders ; and being delivered over to the secular arm, they were hanged and burned."* Respecting the foul play used in the fabrication and falsifica- tion of documents purporting to be reports of the trial of Sa- vonarola, Spizelius remarks, that the celebrated scholar, Magli- abechi, informed him of many curious facts concerning this falsification. u What shall Ave say," says Spizelius, " as to this, that there was a double account of the trial or examination drawn up ; the one genuine, the other falsified, and put in the room of the true * Guicciardini, Hist. D'ltalia, lib. iii. p. 100. 74 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM one, by a certain notary, whose name was Cecco (alias Ceccone),as we learn from the narrative of Timothy Perusinus. But the person who, not long ago, fully informed me, by his letters, of the most un- just and scandalous manner in which Savonarola's trial had been falsified, and gave me the clearest proofs of the fraud and im- posture committed by the enemies of that Dominican, was the famous Florentine library-keeper, Mr. Antony Magliabechi."* The Perusinus referred to by Spizelius, in his narrative, de- clares " that the true and genuine trial of Savonarola was after- wards communicated by the said villain Cecco to Lucretia de Medicis, sister to Pope Leo the Tenth, and wife to James Sal- viati, and that the reading of it made such an impression upon her, as to give her a more favourable opinion of Savonarola from that time."f There is one testimony more important than all the other evi- dence given at second hand of the falsification of the process, namely, that of Fra Benedetto, one of the brethren of San Marco, the zealous friend of Savonarola, and author of the poet- ical biography of Fra Girolamo, which has been elsewhere no- ticed. In another treatise, in manuscript, of his, concerning Savonarola, entitled, Vulnera diligentis, Sfc. (lib. ii. p. 58), we find the following important statement : — " I have read in the actual original, that is to say, the first draught which Senor Ceccone made of it, when he took the heads of the answers given by Fra Girolamo, and those of his companions, whilst they were separately tortured." "I had it from Senor Jacopo Manelli, canon of the Duomo of Florence, an exemplary man, and one adorned with virtues," . . . " and he had it from the wife even of Signor Ceccone. "J " It must be allowed," says Dr. Hafe, " that it was not pos- sible for Savonarola, placed as he was, to refute any falsehoods, and, only the judge was conscious of this, he would not have ventured to give him the indulgence of speaking to his monks, before unprejudiced and even friendly witnesses, who might * Spizelius in Literat. Infelicitate ap. Bayle, art. Savon, torn. v. p. 70. f Ibid. J P. Marchese Avvertimiento in Lettere Inedite de Sav. p 91. OF SAVONAROLA. 75 then, by a single word, tear to pieces the tissue of frauds and artifices which is to be found throughout those proceedings. But all is cleared up, when it is remembered that this confession was made with the fear of the rack before his eyes, and with an executioner holding excruciating instruments of torture standing behind him, in case he dared to retract an admission that had been extorted from him. One will perceive the truth of this report of the falsification of the confession, on learning that afterwards, as is admitted by every one, a notary (according to Burlamacchi, Ceccone himself) acknowledged, in the assembly of the people, not, however, in the presence of the defendant or of any of the officials, that there were falsehoods blended with Sa- vonarola's confession, as will appear from his concluding words ; t I have just now read to you all, the greater part of this confes- sion ; I have omitted the rest, in order not to divulge the secrets of state to every one.' But there is a reason for this specified, which can be found at the end of the printed notes relating to this trial, why Savonarola would not himself make a similar de- claration to the people, namely, that he was in dread of being stoned to death by them. The reading in public of this alleged confession completely turned the people from him, unless, in- deed, a few who saw the delusion, or conjectured it. The so-called acts of Savonarola's confession were printed in Flo- rence, to all appearance just after the execution. As this edition was certainly got up in a hostile spirit, and is anonymous, and the original has not been found, at least, hitherto in the Floren- tine archives, it may be justly doubted, if they are actually the same acts that were read on the 19th of April, which were signed by Savonarola himself, by the bishop's vicar, and by the six monks of St. Mark's. Nevertheless, this doubt is not aug- mented by the contents and form of the confession, for it con- tains many things to the justification of the (so-called) culprit, which an inimical hand, to whom truth was indifferent, would have concealed. For instance, a remark made by Pico, on the subject of one allegation, of Savonarola's having sometimes ter- rified men by publishing their sins, which they imagined were 76 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM known to none but God, when it was proved that all such impu- tations were refuted by a passage in the compendium of the Revelations (see p. 328), we know from Bur chard, that the accusations on this subject had been taken hold of, in order to ground thereon an imputation of having abused the secrecy of the confessional. Against this there is the plainest and most self-proving declaration in the acts. " £ I have appointed many confessors in St. Mark's, and exhorted them to be zealous in their office, but not to allow the secrets of the Confessional to be betrayed to me, which indeed they would not have done in any case, on account of the severe penalty at- tached to it, and if I had required such a thing from them, I should have lost their respect ; all I expected by having so many confessors, was to make the church of St Mark's be more sought for, and by that means to increase the number of our friends, and keep them bound to us.' He assures his judges further, and proves it by many facts, that he did not interfere in the details of the management of the State, but had trusted those things to his friends, who understood them better ; he had only spoken in general terms from the pulpit, and had given advice to those who came to him for it. ( My mind was always occupied with great and general affairs, such as the (spiritual) government of Florence, and the Reformation of the Church, and I troubled myself very little about details and unimportant matters.' Such a declaration bears on it the stamp of authen- ticity, it is also calculated to confirm the unfavourable parts of the confession, and to explain the known consequences of its publication, such as Malatesta's doubts about his prophet, the division among the monks of St. Mark's ; it would appear that the party who renounced Savonarola must have been at least in the beginning much more numerous than that which still be- lieved in his sanctity, for on the 24th of April, an embassy set out from St. Mark's to the Pope, to entreat his pardon, acknow- ledging that they had been completely deceived by Savonarola.* * Meier has cited the greater part of the memorial he addressed to the Pope, taken from a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Biecardi ; indepen- OF SAVONAROLA. 77 It was not till after his death, in the midst of persecutions, that confidence in him was again established. e< These acts were very near annihilating him, in a moral point of view. If they are falsified, the falsehoods are regarded as facts by many persons of intellect, as we know from the Com- pendium of the Revelations. He professes to have preached on the subject of the scourges that were to fall on Italy, and of the Reformation of the Church, only according as he was shown the necessity for so doing on scriptural and natural grounds ; but he allowed himself to be intoxicated by the desire that his ideas on this subject might produce a deep and lasting im- pression, and yielding to what was suggested to him by brother Silvestre's vision, (which, although he describes it as being only the result of sleep walking or somnambulism, he must have secretly thought had a higher origin), he had afterwards at- tributed those impressions to a divine revelation. Thus the vision of his visit to Paradise, was nothing but a parable that he had imagined one day, when he was in the Greek library of St. Mark's. Any one who thinks at all on the subject, will deem it strange, on reading such confessions as those made by him in his Compendium of Revelations, that this friar should allow the mask to be torn from him which was essential to his position and pretensions, having reached, as others before might have wished to have done by such pretensions to Divine Revelation, dent of being a testimony in his favour, it is also a proof of what was the true basis of Savonarola's power. " Quantum post Omnipotentem Deum Beatitudini Vestrse debeamus, quae nos a profundi erroris Caligni fratris Hieronymi callidissimo astu deceptos sedula sollicitudine liberaverit, nec calamus nec lingua describere possunt. Sub specie pietatis seducti fuimus. Acutissima enim ipsius doctrina, recte vivendi institutio et sanctitatis spe- cies, simulata devotio, multorum a vitiis revocatio, foenorum ganeorum, scortorum flagitiorum abolitio, unusque animorum omnium in Deo con- sensus variique rerum eventus supra vires hominis prospecti et vaticinia multa ex illius ore praedicta ejusmodi fuerunt, ut, nisi ipse frater Hierony- mus que se a Deo accepisse etplura, quae veracissime attestatus fuerat^ro- prio ore retractasset, nunquam aliquis aliter nobis persuadere potuisset qui ad ejus jussum singuli propria corpora igni exponere parati eramus." — Meier ap. Hafe, p. 342. 78 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM the great object of ruling the state, and of firmly establishing there his democratic ideas of republican government. " But an important consideration prevents this charge of im- posture for the prosecution of ambitious designs, from being deemed entitled to credit. All the facts which Savonarola con- fessed, and which were quite notorious, were in themselves laudable, or he could not have prided himself on them before his contemporaries and countrymen. He had established the democratic form of government in Florence ; he had been the means of getting it managed by worthy men, the true friends of the state ; he had prevailed on the French king, at the time of his power, to treat Florence with generosity ; he had introduced strict laws such as a republic required, and had promoted the practice of pious catholic usage ; he had sought to rescue the church from her notorious corruption, and to this end had de- manded the lawful ancient form of a general council. " Whatever is censurable in this, therefore, can only be in the motives by which he was actuated. He is, therefore, represented by his enemies, as confessing that he had done all this only to acquire fame before the world, and the power of dominion, that what he wished to be regarded as pious practices was only hypocrisy, not for the sake of reformation of the church ; that he undertook the office of reformer, but from exasperation at the attacks and letters that the Pope directed against him, and to get rid of all such obstacles by diverting the attention of the Pope and prelates to a general council ; but it is evident to them still, that he regarded the Pope's excommunication as valid, but as he saw that it would put an end to his cause, he determined not to attend to it. There is something extraordinarily proud in the ambition ascribed to him : he would not have thought any thing of being made a Pope or a Cardinal, and he could have been either had he wished ; but if, without being Pope, he could, by means of the Christian princes, have assembled a general council, and thereby reformed the church, and afterwards subjected the unbelievers to the Christian yoke, he would have been the greatest man in the world, and he would have been OF SAVONAROLA. 79 esteemed greater, for being at the head of such a work, than if he had been Pope ; for a man without any superiority of intellect might be Pope, but such a work as that just alluded to, would require a man of high understanding. But, supposing he was influenced by the natural ambition of a man born to govern minds, what could have induced him, even if there was nothing in his heart but a desire of dominion and fame, which none can know but the searcher of hearts, thus willingly to acknowledge it, and thereby deliver himself into the power of his enemies ? It is evident, therefore, that nothing but tortures and the rack could have extorted this self-accusation, or else we must believe that the acts were falsified. His admissions, his silence during the reading of the confession, as also the fact of the rack having been repeated, when, having recovered his manly spirit, he re- tracted his confession before the papal commission, speak in favour of the first alternative. Thus it follows as the most probable conclusion, what we have already seen Pico considered, that the fear of the rack forced from him ambiguous answers and half concessions, which, taken in a hostile sense, were looked on as a full confession, and written down according as they wished to have it understood. From Pico down to the latest biography, the opinion that has beeen expressed by every one is, that in spite of all the falsehoods in the acts, " there cannot be found in them the slightest justification for his condemnation to death:" one must look for the cause either in the blindness occasioned by passion, or else in a peculiar ordinance of God. Certainly the Court of Justice could scarcely ground thereon, even with a semblance of justice, a judgment of death ; for even what the defendant had done, he did for the establishment of a constitution, (which is even subsisting still), by the laws of which, the very judge who condemned him was empowered to sit on his judg- ment seat. " But, according to this confession, he was a false prophet, and in this abuse of divine words, these false revelations, this turn- ing of the pulpit to the service of self-interest, this deceiving of the people for years, the competent authorities of the church 80 THE LI FE AND MARTYRDOM found a crime worthy of expulsion from trie church and con- demnation to death, in their manner of decreeing it, that is to say, by surrendering up the criminal to secular power, and thus in fact was the thing managed. Soon after the sentence of the papal commissioners, and in consequence of it, the Signoria pronounced a formal judgment of death against him, but the prejudiced feelings that influenced the papal commission of en- quiry, and the Pope's condemnation, were quite palpable in the whole proceedings, and the fact was quite obvious, the Signoria were not able to name a definite crime to justify their sentence. " With respect to his having condemned persons to death with- out permitting them to appeal to the people, he was not charged with that, because he was not judicially answerable for it; morally speaking, his exculpation, though not perhaps his complete jus- tification, consisted in the situation which a leader of the people will often find himself in, of being obliged to allow things he may not approve of. " The acts do not give much information about the two persons who were put to death along with him ; their crime was, having believed in Savonarola, and having decidedly and openly worked for him. Of brother Silvestre, it is said, in Savonarola's con- fession, that it was well known to many persons that he was so con- stituted from his youth that he often performed actions when asleep that others only do when they are awake, such as, stand, walk, speak, eat, write, read, preach, read mass, and that he could only be awakened by some one giving him a blow on the heart, then he would oq)pear as if he had been suddenly freed from, a great weight, and he would cry' out as if he had come from the other world, Jesus, Jesus ; in this state he often had visions and often per- formed extraordinary feats. This was attributed to some inward indisposition or malady, which several doctors had sought in vain to cure, and at last agreed that it would only leave him with time. Of brother Domenico da Pescia, Burlamacchi relates that it was generally thought in Florence, that, on account of his extreme simplicity, he had been deceived by Savonarola's cunning, and that consequently he ought to have been spared. OF SAVONAROLA. 81 This opinion lasts even to the present day ; but the papal com- mission represented him to have been an ill-intentioned man, who if he were left alive would, in his position, be able to ex- cite, to such a degree, by his preaching, all the world, that it would be in vain for any one to strive against him. The preceding accounts are from works whose authors be- lieved either that Savonarola was judicially murdered, or un- fairly dealt with. We will now turn to the pages of some cotemporary, and also more recent writers, for evidence which they think conclu- sive as to Savonarola's guilt. ** The Pope," says Burchard, the master of the ceremonies of Alexander the Sixth, in his Diary, " was supplicated by the Florentine ambassador, on the day of Holy Thursday, that he would be pleased to give the people «f Florence a bull of abso- lution, to do away with that, by which it was already excommu- nicated for laying violent hands on the convent of San Marco and its brethren, and others, some of whom had been killed, even priests, and others grievously wounded. Our most holy father, the Pope, sent for his secretary, and ordered this bull to be expedited without delay ; and on the same day, which was the 12th of the month (April), it was expedited and delivered to the Florentine orator about the hours of vespers that day. He was then sent to Florence, where he arrived the next day, the 13th, about the eighteenth hour." " I have stated above," continues Burchard, u that in the month of April, Fra Girolamo, with two of his brethren, were taken prisoners in Florence ; and as I was not personally pre- sent at the proceedings against them, I subjoin what subsequently came to my knowledge. Fra Girolamo having been taken from prison — carceribus mancipatus — after being seven times exposed to torments and tortures, supplicated mercy, offering, both orally and by writing, to reveal all things to them. The tortures were stopped, he was brought back to prison, and pens, ink, and * Professor Hafe's Neue Propheten, pp. 340, et seq. VOL. II. G 82 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM paper were accorded to him : and he wrote down the black record of his crimes and delinquencies in seventy-eight sheets and upwards, as they say, ut asserehant, to this effect : that he had never any divine revelation, but that he had intelligence with many of his brethren in Florence, and beyond the city for many miles, who revealed to him the confessions of the faithful, with the names and surnames of those who confessed, from whom, through his brethren, many things were learned by him ; and that thus private confessions of sins and crimes thus disclosed, sometimes were turned to an account in a public manner, he as- serting that he had come to a knowledge of those things by their being revealed to him by Jesus Christ. " He admitted that he had not confessed for twenty years and upwards any mortal sin : that he had committed sins of the flesh of various kinds very frequently ; that he still celebrated mass daily ; that in celebrating all this time of twenty years, he never could proceed beyond the words of consecration ; that he had given the communion most frequently with the elements uncon- secrated ; that he had communicated, as he said, his opinion to some of his brethren, that they should act in a similar manner, in order to prevent being poisoned — e debere precavere ne veneno necarentur ;' that he had ordered, on this account, the cook, the keeper of the cellar and the larder of the convent, that all fish on a certain day of June, which the citizens on a par- ticular occasion were wont to send as a present to the con- vent, and more than was necessary, should be kept untouched, he in the meantime having arranged with a particular friend of his that he should send a certain dish of lampreys very well cooked — optime paratum — but, nevertheless, with poison mixed in it. " The hour of dinner being come, and all the friars assembled, Fra Girolamo declared a divine revelation had been made to him, and in confirmation of it, he caused all the fish that had been presented to the convent to be brought to the refectory, both crude and cooked, and at the same time he and all the OF SAVONAROLA. 83 other friars on their bended knees supplicated God that, with his accustomed mercy, he would deign to protect and defend his servants ; and in order to acquire greater credit with the brethren, he caused a cat to be brought to the refectory, and before all present, having produced the fish that had been presented, he gave some of that particular dish of lampreys that had been prepared by his friend to the cat, and the animal no sooner took some of it, than it dropped down and died, at the sight of which the friars gave praise to God, and magnified his mercy." Here ends Bur chard's account of " the confession " of crimes and impostures made by Savonarola — ut asserebant — " after he had been tortured seven times" And there is nothing further in the Diary relating to Savona- rola, except at the end of the journal, where three important do- cuments are to be found. One, an epistle to Savonarola, as prior of San Marco, and his brethren, from Alexander the Sixth. Another epistle to Savonarola from Alexander, dated the 16th October, 1497. And a third, an answer to the former communication from Savonarola, dated the 29th September, 1497. Another account of the proceedings against Savonarola, his pretended confession and execution, by Nauclerus, one of the most unscrupulous and inveterate of his adversaries, is given in the following terms : " On the 9th day of April, the said Savonarola was, before many witnesses, interrogated and examined in the hall Baron- celli : first, with words, afterwards with threatenings, and last of all with the torture. At length, on the 19th day of the same month, he freely owned, without being racked, that all his pre- dictions had been feigned, and that he had preached such things for the sake of human glory, and because the city of Flo- rence seemed to him a proper instrument for procuring it. He confessed that, in order to promote his ends, he had preached things by which Christians might know the abominations which g 2 84 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM were practised at Rome, and kings and princes might jointly procure a council to be called : in consequence of which, he had expected that many prelates, and the Pope himself, would have been deposed; that after he had been once respected in the council, his reputation should have been firmly established throughout the whole world ; and that if he had not been chosen Pope, he would at least have held the first rank. As to the re-^ formation of the church, and the conversion of the infidels, he said he had the knowledge of those things from scripture ; but as to their happening soon, he neither knew it from scripture nor revelation. "With respect to his saying that he had been in Paradise, he confessed that he did it for the sake of acquiring glory and re- putation to himself, and as to his disobeying the Pope in not going to Pome, he attributed it to his fear of being killed by the way. Concerning the fact of excommunication, he answered, that though many were of a different opinion, he himself had believed it true and proper to be complied with, and that there- fore he had submitted to it for some time. " But when he saw his designs go to ruin, he took a resolu- tion not to mind it, and that he had opposed it obstinately for the honour, reputation, and support of his undertaking. These and many other things did he confess, as they are contained in the process that was printed."* Lastly, I will refer to the evidence of one who knew Savona- rola, but states that he did not know whether the Florentines did well or ill in putting him to death. Philip de Commines gives the following account of the end of the career of Savonarola : — " In my relation of the affairs of Italy, I have mentioned a Dominican friar, who lived in Florence for the space of fifteen years, was very remarkable for the sanctity of his life, and whom I saw and conversed with in the year 1495. His name was Girolamo, and he had foretold many things which came to pass. He affirmed that the King (of France) would pass the Alps, and * Naucler, part 2, Gener. L. p. m. 990. OF SAVONAROLA. 85 lie preached it publicly, saying that God had revealed to him as well that as other things which he spoke of. He said that the king was chosen by God to reform the Church by force, and to punish the tyrants ; and because he gave out that he knew things by revelation, several people murmured against him, and he drew upon himself the hatred of the Pope, and of several in the city of Florence. His life was exceedingly virtuous, as it plainly appeared, and his sermons were levelled against vice, by which means he brought many of his fellow- citizens to live well, as I have said. In this time, 1498, the King Charles departed this life, so did also Fra Girolamo, and with- in four or five days of one another, and I will tell you why I allude to this circumstance. He had all along affirmed pub- licly in his sermons, that the king would return once more into Italy, — ' retournerait derechef en Italie? — to fulfil that commission which God had given him, to reform the Church by the sword, and to drive the tyrants out of Italy, and that in case he did not do it, God would punish him severely. He printed all his first sermons, with those which he preached lately, and they are now to be sold. As for that severe pu- nishment with which, as he said, God threatened the king, if he did not come back, Savonarola frequently wrote to him con- cerning it, not long before his death ; and to the same purpose were the words which he said to me, when I talked with him at the time of our return from Italy ; telling me that sentence was given out in heaven against the king, in case he did not execute the will of God, and if he did not keep his men from plundering. " About the time of the king's death, there were great divi- sions among the Florentines. Some expected the king's return, and very earnestly desired it, having confidence in Friar Giro- lamo's assurance, and in that confidence they exhausted and ruined themselves in their expenses for the recovery of Pisa, and the rest of the towns which they had delivered to the king ; but Pisa was in the possession of the Venetians. Some were for siding with the league and deserting our king, and they 86 THE LIFE AND M A 1 1 T YRDOM alleged that all was but folly and delusion, and that Friar Giro- lamo was a heretic and a hypocrite, and that he ought to be put into a sack, and thrown into the river ; but he had friends in the town, who protected him against that. The Pope and the Duke of Milan wrote often against him, assuring the Florentines that Pisa and the rest of the towns should be restored, if they would abandon our king, and punish Friar Girolamo. It acci- dentally happened, that at the time of the king's death, the senate consisted of several of Friar Girolamo's enemies (for the senate in that country is changed every two months), who sub- orned a Franciscan monk to quarrel with him, and to proclaim him a heretic, and an abuser of the people, in pretending to reve- lation, and to declare publicly that there was no such thing ; and to prove what he said, he challenged him to the fire before the senate. Friar Girolamo had more wit, but one of his brethren offered to do it for him, and another of the Cor- deliers would do as much for the other ; so that a day was appointed when they were to come to their trial, and both of them presented themselves, with all the friars of their orders. The Dominican brought the Host in his hand, which the Senate and Cordeliers insisted he should lay by ; but the Dominican being obstinate to the contrary, and resolved not to part with it, they returned all to their convents. The people, encouraged by Friar Girolamo's enemies, and authorized by the senate, went to his convent, and fetched him and two more of his brethren out, and tortured him most cruelly, killing the chief man in the city (called Fransico Vallori), only for being his friend. The Pope sent them power and commission to make out a process against him, and at last he and his two brethren were burned. . . . . 568. THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM whose names are engraven in my heart, I bring with me before God. Collect in my cell all the works of Fra Girolamo, and have them bound, and put one copy in the library and another in the refectory, to have read at table, fastened there with chains, so that even the lay brethren may sometimes be enabled to read them." After taking some repose, he enquired what manner of death he was to die. He was told, by the preparations that were making in the Piazza, it appeared that they were to be hanged and then burned. His reply was, I would wish to be burned alive — Arso vivo vivo ! It merits particular attention, that from first to last, the en- tire confidence of Fra Domenico in the truth and sanctity of Fra Girolamo was never shaken ; and of all men living, he was the person who had the best opportunity of thoroughly knowing not only his acts, but even his secret thoughts. Fra Domenico was a man of great powers of eloquence in the pulpit, it is said only inferior to those of Savonarola. His piety, sincerity, and straight-forward integrity had never been called in question, except by those of the Franciscan order, who be- lieved, that to be an intimate friend of Fra Girolamo, was a mis- prision of heresy, and an evidence of demoniacal possession. Mirandola speaks of him as a man far advanced in years, of staid character, grave deportment, and of great virtue.* The manifest readiness of San Domenico to go through the trial by ordeal, in defence of the doctrines preached and taught by Savonarola, can leave no doubt of the sincerity of his faith in the divine inspiration of them. We have seen at the moment of their being compelled to quit San Marco, to be delivered up to the Signoria, when they had reason to expect to be torn to pieces by the infuriated populace congregated round the convent, that Fra Girolamo made his confession to Fra Domenico, and received the Sacrament, and the latter confessed to Fra Girolamo, and likewise communicated, before their final deposition from San Marco. That was not the * MiranJ. Vita Savon, c. i. torn. i. OF SAVONAROLA. 93 time, after the terrors of such a night as they had passed, and with such trials to encounter as they had to look forward to, to practise hypocrisy or delusion, if imposture had been previously practised by either of them, or by both, for any length of time whatever. And lastly, we may observe, that the conduct of Fra Domen- ico towards Savonarola, from the time of their imprisonment and condemnation to the last moment of life, clearly shews that his great trust in Savonarola, as a minister of Christ, charged, as he believed, with a divine mission, never wavered for an instant, in the convent, at the ordeal through which he was to have passed, in the frightful tumult of which San Marco had been the scene, nor on the scaffold on which he met his fate with all the courage of a martyr. Whenever the day conies for the enrolment of the name of Savonarola in the Calendar of Saints, the next name to him on that list, probably, may be that of Fra Domenico da Pescia.* Burlamacchi states, that while Savonarola was in prison, he was observed once, while in prayer, raised from the ground, and was seen distinctly suspended in the air for some short period, still apparently absorbed in prayer. But it is not stated by whom this marvellous spectacle was seen, or by whom it was first reported and made public. To any one conversant with the lives of the saints, it will be well known that similar phenomena are recorded in numerous ^stances, and that the evidence on which some of them rest, is as reliable as any human testimony can be, in confirmation of any occurrence whatsoever that passes under the observation of persons deserving of credit. The fact is authentically attested of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Dominiek, St. Dunstan, St. Francis of Assissium, St. Teresa, St. Cajetan, St. Bernard Ptoloemsei, St. Catharine of Ricci, and several others. * I have been informed, on authority on which I have reason to place every reliance, that one of the earliest objects that the present Pontiff, Pio Nono, had at heart, on his elevation to the Papal throne, was the canoniza- tion of Fra Girolamo. 94 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM Calmet, a critic by no means given to credulity, in his " Dis- conrs snr les Apparitions" (chap, xxi), states, that he knew a religious man, who in deep prayer was sometimes elevated above the ground, and remained for some time so suspended, uncon- scious of being raised in this manner. He says, likewise, that he was acquainted with a nun to whom the same circumstance had often happened. Butler, on this subject, observes, that a Platonic philosopher, Eunapius, who in the year of our Lord 380, wrote the life of Jamblicus, related, that the latter was often raised ten cubits in the air. Now, in the accounts of Christian writers, of the elevation of eminently holy persons in the air while absorbed in prayer, we never read, as well as I can remember, of such elevation being above two or three feet above the ground. St. Ignatius was seen thus raised on several occasions about two feet ; generally speaking, the reported elevation is under two feet. Often the person rapt in contemplative prayer, is raised upward with the knees bent, and the toes just touching the ground. The object of Eunapius in relating the account of Jamblicus being so raised up supernaturally, Butler supposes, was to take away from the Miracle of our Lord's Transfiguration, and to discredit the incontestable prodigies which confirmed the belief in Christianity. With the same view, it is asserted, Pilostratus wrote the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, and narrated his alleged miracles in the year of our Lord 206, about 100 years after the death of Apol- lonius. Butler, however, agrees with Fleury and Tillemont, " that it is no way unreasonable to allow, that Apollonius of Tyana, and some others, might, by the divine permission, effect certain wonderful things ; . . . . notwithstanding, the authority of the vouchers is by no means cogent. The empire of the devil, though much restrained from the time of the death of Christ to the coming of Antichrist, which is implied by its being said he is bound, Rev. xx. 2, 3, is not so far abridged, that he is not OF SAVONAROLA. 9fl suffered, by special permission of God, to use his natural power to tempt men to sin, 'and also, sometimes, though very rarely, to endeavour to seduce them by lying signs, in which he would fain mimic the finger of God."* In the course of the night, Fra Girolamo expressed a wish to the priest, Jacopo Nicolini, to be permitted to see his fellow- prisoners, Fra Domenico and Fra Sylvestre, before they were ordered for execution. Father Nicolini immediately proceeded to the residences of some of the Signori, and obtained the per- mission sought for, on expressing his own opinion that no danger of escape could be apprehended on the part of men under such restraint as they were placed in, e( with their feet in the stocks" — con i piedi ne' ceppi — and quite incapable of night.f The interview was granted in the Sala della Palazza, the three prisoners were released from their several restraints, and led properly guarded to the palace, where they were allowed to re- main together for about an hour. { After such greetings as might be expected on the part of friends and brothers in religion, fellow-sufferers in the same cause, and about to seal their fidelity to it with their blood, Fra Girolamo turned to Fra Domenico, and said to him : " It has been revealed to me that you wish to die by fire ; do you not know that it is not licit for any one to elect the mode of death, but that it is for us to receive with gladness whatever doom God has destined for us ? Therefore, it is not expedient to tempt God to anger." From that time Fra Domenico refrained from expressing any wish for one kind of death more than another. Then Fra Gi- rolamo turned to Fra Silvestro, and said to him — " It has been also revealed to me, that you purpose addressing the people when we are about to be executed, saying, that we die innocent, and have been condemned to death, in defiance of all justice." Then he commanded him that by no means should he say any * Butler, in Life of St. Philip Neri, note, May 26. f Burlamaechi, p. 560. J Ibid. 0(> THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM thing of the kind, adducing the example of Christ, who being most innocent, did not choose to manifest his innocence on the cross. These facts were reported to Carlo Pitti, who is believed by Burlamacchi to have had the account from the confessors of the prisoners. When the time came for them to separate, Fra Do- menico and Fra Sylvestro knelt down, and begged the father's blessing ; and his benediction being bestowed on them, they were separated, and led to different compartments in that hall.* Fra Girolamo requested to have a little water to drink, and some being brought to him in a filthy vessel, he declined taking ( it ; whereupon another person present humanely cleansed the vessel, and brought him some fresh water. Wearied out with the hardships of his confinement, the tor- tures he had endured, the mental anguish he had suffered, his long vigils and contemplations, and want of all comforts, nay, of most of the necessaries of life, he begged of Father Nicolini to be allowed to lay his head upon his knees, that he might take a little repose, of which he stood in so much need — era gli molto stracco. Nicolini readily allowed him to do so. The poor friar, jaded almost to death, no sooner laid his wearied head on the knees of the kind priest, than he fell into a deep sleep. While Nicolini was regarding the sweet calm that seemed to have overspread his features, he was startled at observing his countenance becoming suddenly animated. Words were breathed that denoted satisfaction, that feeling was even expressed by laughter, which surprised Nicolini not a little — " molto si ma- rivigliava il Nicolini." In a little time Fra Girolamo woke up, and thanked his kind visitor for the short repose that had been afforded to him. " I wish," said he, " to make some return for the contentment I have received while you suffered me to communicate with my companions in these few moments of repose. You know what tribulations I have predicted for this city : to you will I commu- * Burlamacchi, p. 569. OF SAVONAROLA. 97 nicate the time of those terrible calamities. Know then, and bear it in your mind, that they will come when there will be in the chair of Peter a Pope named Clement."* Those words Nicolini placed little reliance on — he neither credited nor discredited the prediction, we are told ; he simply treated it as one of the many things worthy of note that were related of Fra Girolamo, and accordingly he wrote it down in a pocket-book, and gave it, sealed, to a relation of his, a nun in the convent of Murate, for safe keeping ; and after many years, Pietro Soderini, duke of Florence, hearing of this pocket-book, expressed a wish to see it. He sent for it, and read the note of Nicolini respecting Savonarola's prediction, of which the said Nicolini had, previously, frequently spoken to the brethren of San Marco. f The reader will bear in mind that the date of the alleged pre- diction was the 21st of May, 1498, and that Rome was besieged by the forces of Pope Clement the Seventh, and those of his allies, in the year 1529. Thirty-one years only had elapsed since Savonarola had been put to death, ridiculed and persecuted for predicting calamities and afflictions of no ordinary kind for Florence. And those which fell on the doomed city during the siege and its capture in August, 1530, were certainly such as Florence never had seen before that time. " Florence opened her gates at last," after having lost 8,000 citizens, and 14,000 men, foreigners, enlisted in her service. The city was utterly impoverished ; for the citizens had expended all they possessed for the maintenance of the troops ; it was full of lamentation and of misery ; of suspicions, strife, and suffering ; it was scourged by the plague, which manifested itself still more violently after the capitulation, the imperial troops having been long previously infected by it."+ But those who would know all the horrors of this siege of Florence, must read the description of it by Azedio, in his work of the " Palleschi e Piagnone." # Burlamacclii, p. 569. f Ibid. X Storia Fiorentina de Eeumont, anno 1529, 1530, Fir. 4to. 1851. VOL. II. H 98 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM Tlie last night of tlie existence of Savonarola and his two brethren came to an end. One day more the sun dawned for the three Dominicans, and its first beams shone on them in prayer, preparing to receive the blessed Eucharist. For this purpose they were allowed to meet once more, and to approach the sa- crament together. Savonarola, as a special indulgence, was per- mitted to administer the sacrament to himself with his own hands. While he yet held the consecrated host, and his features were lit up with a brightness of spiritual joy, and an exalted enthu- siasm of devotion, he broke out into this expression of feelings of irrepressible piety : " My Lord, — I know you are that Trinity — perfect, invisible, distinct in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ! I know that you are that eternal Word who de- scended from heaven to this earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and ascended the wood of the cross to shed thy precious blood for its miserable sinners ! I beseech you, my Lord, I beseech you ; save me, I beseech you, my comforter, that so much precious blood may not be shed for me in vain, but that it may be for the remission of all my sins, for which I ask your pardon, from the day I received the water of baptism to this hoar, when I lay before you my trans- gressions. " And thus I implore pardon for aught in which I may have offended against this city and all its people, whether in things spiritual or temporal ; and thus also for anything in which I may have erred unknowingly If these words proceeded from the lips of a dying man who had been an impostor all his life, about to perish on a scaffold, persisting in his imposture, then is Bayle justified, in the sight of God, in dealing as he has done with the career of Savon- arola. But if they were spoken in good faith by a great ser- vant of God, a soldier of the cross, brave in the Lord's battle with the enemies of his church, whether in it, or without its pale, faithful through life, and true to the death, to the mission he believed entrusted to him — then might the infidel, Bayle, wish rather that a mill-stone had been tied about his neck, and * Burlamacelii, p. 569. OF SAVONAROLA. 99 he had been cast into the sea, than that he had lent the powers of his acute mind, to beat down the fame and to aspersa the sanctity of a soul which derived its lustre from the Holy Spirit. Treason against friendship, against humanity, against human government, is a heinous crime ; treason against truth and righte- ousness exceeds all crimes in its enormity. But the pastor of the reformed church of Geneva, if he have incurred this guilt, stands not alone in this controversy with truth and holiness. Members of religious orders of the church of Savonarola, and laymen addicted to polemics, of his creed, have not scrupled to engage in it. Having received the holy communion, the officers of justice came to announce to the friars that the hour was come for their execution. The place of execution was the principal square of the city, the scene of the late preparations for the ordeal, not far distant from the entrance to the palace of the Signoria. Three platforms were erected in the square, resembling tribunals, for the grand spectacle of an execution of three friars of the Dominican order. The first was near the palace, where the Bishop of Vasona, with his attendants, were placed — to perforin the ceremony of degradation on the culprits. The bishop was furnished with stringent instructions from the Pope for the performance of this office. The breve comminator'io given to him left no excuse for non-performance of this duty. The second tribunal was more central, and in it were stationed the commissaries of the Pope — commessarii Apostolici. The third tribunal was near the golden lion, where the civil authorities were located.* " In the square," says Nardi, " there was made a mound of earth, elevated above the ground to the height of about the stature of a man, which proceeded from the rostrum in front of the palace, where, in a place equally elevated, the magistracy of ' The Eight ' sat in their magisterial capacity ; and this * Burlamacchi, p. 509. h 2 100 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM elevated platform extended almost to about the fourth part of the square, in the direction of the Tetto di Pisani. There, in the earth, was fixed a great pole, un grande stile, about ten brac- chia in height (twenty feet), and around it was a pile of faggots, and wood, and other inflammable materials. . . . On the top — nella sommita — of the post a beam was fastened transversely, after the manner of a cross — cht faceva forma di croce. " This beam served to fix the ropes to, and the iron chains, that were provided in order that if the ropes were burned by which the bodies were suspended, they might be supported by the chains. But because that transverse beam gave the appear- ance of a cross, they now (after the bodies had been suspended) caused a portion of the transverse beam to be sawed off at each end, but they still left it not so short but that it completely re- tained the appearance of a cross."* Before the condemned friars were led forth to execution, we are told by Burlamacchi, the Prior of Santa Maria Novella, Maestro Sebastiano, " a conventual friar," who had been sent there by the General of the order, snatched away the cowl which was worn by Fra Girolamo, with great violence and rudeness, and accompanying virulence of srjeech.f Fra Girolamo by that time was pretty well used to all sorts of indignity and contumely, and bore them without a murmur. But this act of uncharitable- ness and cruelty, on the part of a brother ecclesiastic, stung him to the quick. Yet no expression of anger or irritation escaped his lips. He turned to that unworthy ecclesiastic, and besought him to let him once more, even for a moment, hold in his hand that vesture which he had worn for so many years. The Prior's heart apparently reproved him for the ungenerous, unchristian, and unmanly act he had committed. He handed back what he had so rudely snatched away : when Fra Girolamo, clasping it to his breast, exclaimed, — " Oh, holy habit, how ardently did I long for you ? By the goodness of God, you were conceded to * Nardi, Historie Florentine, p. 82. t That part of the Dominican attire called scapulare, in the time of Savonarola was attached to the cowl, and formed one piece. OF SAVONAROLA. 101 me, and I have preserved you immaculate to this hour ! And up to the present time I never abandoned you, but now you are taken from me."* Previously to his appearance on the scaffold, Fra Silvestro appeared greatly cast down and overcome with the terror of death — but all of a sudden a change came over his spirit. His countenance brightened up, and manifested an ardent piety kindled in his bosom, that dissipated all fear, and dread of suf- fering or of death. Turning to Fra Girolamo, he said with vivacity, — " Now is the time to be firm, and to meet death with a joyful countenance." And Fra Girolamo, evidently rejoiced to hear him speak thus, said a few words to him encouragingly, and told him to persevere in that purpose to the last. The officers of justice having received orders from the General in command, and from the Pope's commissaries, to remove the habits of the prisoners, they proceeded to undress them, and left them no covering whatsoever, except a loose tunic, which allowed their persons to be scandalously exposed. Even their sandals were taken off their feet. But this, we are told, was done by mistake on the part of the ignorant subordinate of- ficials. The orders given to them were to remove the cowls, which go under the name of abiti as well as scapulare, and they ima- gined the whole of their habiliments were to be taken away, except the inside tunics, or serge shirts. In this manner they were led half naked and bare-footed to the first tribunal in the square, where the bishop was stationed, with his attendants. There the culprits were once more clothed with their sacer- dotal garments, and then they were despoiled of them with the customary ceremonies. Then the bishop took the hand of Fra Girolamo, saying to him, " / deprive you of the church triumph- ant and militant." Fra Girolamo immediately answered — u Of the church mili- * Burlamacchi. 102 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM tant, yes ; but of the church which is triumphant, no ; that does not belong to you."* The bishop is not reported to have objected to that distinction of the friar, who was about to be put to death for heresy. He suffered his divinity to be corrected by a man who was going to be hanged and burned in his presence, with the view of im- proving his theology, or punishing him for thinking and teach- ing that religion needed renovation. As the condemned friars were conducted to the next tribunal, a person named Nerotto inquired of Fra Girolamo, if his mind was calm and resigned to death ? He replied : " My Lord died innocent of all crime — for my sins, and shall not I willingly give my soul for the love of Him ! " And turning his eyes to- wards the crucifix which was offered to him, he pressed his lips to the image of the Saviour. The same Nerotto, a little later, asked Fra Girolamo if with his last breath he had any communication to leave for secular people ? To which Fra Girolamo answered : — " You will soon see great and stupendous events — which it is for your spiritual good that you be most fully assured of : and soon must your soul be timely prepared for them." Fra Domenico, who was acquainted with this person, said to him, — " Know, Nerotto, that we go to death innocent, and be assured that everything predicted by Fra Gi- rolamo will come to pass."f The next part of the programme for the entertainment of the savage populace was the reading of the sentence : the substance of which was, that the three friars were condemned as heretics — pro heretici.% At this part of the proceedings the Conforta- tori presented themselves, pressing on the prisoners refreshments, alcune cose da mangiare e da bere. When they urged Fra Giro- lamo to take some, he replied, " What need have I of those things, who am about to depart from this world ?" * " Egli subito respose, della militanfce si, ma della trionfante non : questo a Toi non appartiene." — Hurlamacchi, p. 569. f Ibid. p. 570. J Ibid. p. 560. OF SAVONAROLA. 10-1 The members of this confraternity of the Confortatori, who attend on condemned criminals at their execution, to afford con- solation to those doomed to die, in their last moments, were im- portunate in their well-intended acts of kindness. They addressed some w^ords of comfort to Girolamo, bade him not despair of God's mercy, but to trust his many good works would be rewarded, and gave him much praise for many of his acts. Fra Girolamo re- plied to them, " A sinful man stands not in need of human praise or glorification, nor is this life a time for praise." After the degradation ceremony was performed and the sen- tence read, they were given over to the secular power : but not before Romolino, one of the Pope's commissaries, addressed these words to the culprits from his tribunal : " It has pleased his holiness the Pope Alexander the Sixth to liberate you from the pains of purgatory, and to give you a plenary indulgence for your sins, and to restore you to your former innocence : Do you accept it ?" They, inclining their heads, accepted of this boon. They were then conducted to the third tribunal, of the civil autho- rities, from whence they were led to the place of execution. Having ascended some steps of a scaffold, at the foot of the cross, while the three fathers were left standing for a short time, some young persons, of minds utterly perverted by vice and wickedness, amused themselves by thrusting up through the chinks of the planks which formed the flooring of the scaffold, sharpened sticks into the bare feet and legs of the three friars. Other outrages and indignities were practised, which may be best related in a language no longer in common use. " Fuere qui barbam vellere, vultum sputis foedare, calcibus impetere, pudibandos corporis partes nudare, &c. J. Manettus, qui ejus pudibunda patefecerat, paucis post diebus ad mortem segrotans, propriam dexteram dentibus moriens dilamavit, ipsam- que *etiam manum qua sacrilegium patraverat moribundus in- tuens, dixit o manus ! &c. quo dicto exhalavit animam."* " While the culprits stood ranged at the foot of the cross that was erected in the centre of the pile, Fra Domenico said to his * J. Fran. Pic. de Mirand. de vita? Savonarola?, p. 138. 104 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM companions, ' Why do you not call on me, and remind me (as of old), that I should sing the Te BeumV " But some of the persons around them said to Fra Domenico, * Do not sing it, father, for many lives will be lost (in the tumult it will occasion).' Then Fra Domenico replied, ( Let us at least repeat it in a low tone — help me, least I forget it.' And so he commenced repeating the words of the spiritual song of triumph. The executioners, i carnefici, now coming forward to do their office, the three fathers knelt down and prayed, each before his crucifix. " The confessor of Fra Girolamo asked him if he had any com- mission he wished executed. He said he had no favour to ask but his prayers, and that their friends and followers might not be scandalized at their deaths. " He prayed the executioners that the tunic might be fastened about his legs, in order that his person might not be exposed in ascending the cross, and while hanging from it. But this request was refused* " Fra Sylvestro was the first to ascend the ladder. He did not speak, but tears were seen in his eyes. When he had mounted sufficiently high, the executioner having tied the rope that he had put round his neck, to one of the arms of the cross, he pushed him off the ladder. ' ' And after he was suspended, an iron collar, that was fastened by a chain to the same arm of the cross, was put round his neck. The same course was pursued with Fra Domenico ; he was sus- pended from the other arm of the cross. " Lastly, Fra Girolamo ascended the ladder with closed eyes, repeating the creed. When he reached the summit, however, he gazed all round on the ungrateful people who thronged the square. In a few seconds he was pushed from the ladder, being suspended in the middle between his two brethren. " As he was cast off, some in the crowd cried out, ' O, Savo- narola, now is the time to do miracles.' " While the father was hanging from the cross, the executioner * Burlamacchi, p. 570. OF SAVONAROLA. 105 was making jokes and antics on the ladder, and in the midst of his frolics nearly tumbled down. One of the magistrates of 'The Eight' was obliged to reprimand him. The executioner wanted to apply the collar, in Fra Girolamo's case, immediately after he had been suspended, and to set fire to the pile, in order that while yet alive, the burning should be commenced. However, life was extinct before they could manage to set the pile on fire. A strong gust of wind at first dispersed the flame, and the bodies remained for a few minutes untouched by the fire. The populace began to shout, 6 A miracle I — a miracle V and a sudden panic without any cause seized on a vast number of people, who fled precipitately. When the wind abated a little, the pile soon blazed forth in all directions, and the bodies were at length con- sumed ; the last portion of the body of Fra Girolamo that was seen was the right hand and arm, which some friends of the father imagined were extended as in the act of blessing the people. " But while any part of his body was visible, a multitude of children and grown-up lads kept throwing stones at the remains hanging over the fire, and dropping away piece by piece, as the fury of the flames destroyed each part. The cinders and un- consumed remains of the executed friars were carefully separated from the charred wood and other scoriae of the combustible materials, put in carts, and thrown into the Arno. Some sup- posed fragments of the hand and arms of Savonarola were secreted either on the scaffold, or when the remains and their ashes were being conveyed to the Arno ; and some portions even were said to have been taken from the river, and were eagerly sought after by the faithful friends and followers of the renowned and martyred friar of San Marco. " " A vast multitude of people," says Guicciardini, " came to witness the degradation and the execution, not less than flocked to see the intended ordeal by fire, and some came to the place of execution also with the expectation of the miracle promised by him. " He suffered death courageously, without saying one word that might shew either his guilt or his innocence ; but this 106 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM did not put an end to the difference in the opinions and passions of men ; because, several persons considered him as an impostor ; and, on the other hand, several believed that the confession which had been published, had been falsely invented ; or, that the torture had more power than truth, upon a man of his con- stitution, which was very delicate. They excused his frailty by the example of the Prince of the Apostles, who, without being imprisoned, or constrained by any torture or extraordinary vio- lence, did, at the bare words of a maid-servant and others, deny that he was the disciple of that master, from whom he had seen so many holy precepts and miracles proceed."* Padre Marchese, concluding his account of the last solemnity in 1498, at which Savonarola presided in celebration of his tri- umph over paganism in art and literature, observes : — u And here it sickens the soul to think that this solemn tri- umph, which he had achieved over the licentiousness of his age, should soon be followed by error and immorality. The parti- sans of the Medici, who were working for their restoration ; a ruler far more potent than the Medici ; the libertine artists who battened on corruption, and who had fallen in popular esteem ; the literary men, too, who could not tolerate the severe maxims of the Friar, all conspired, and swore to effect Savonarola's over- throw. Then arose the sect of the Arrabbiati, who were the partisans of everything infamous, and who thirsted for vengeance. Foiled in their first attempts, they retired for a while, to knit themselves more closely together, and seizing the occasion of the disputation on May 23rd, 1498, they inaugurated their tri- umph. In that very square, and on that very pyre, whereon, a few months before, Savonarola had attempted to consume re- vived paganism, he himself was burned. Illustrious and hap- less victim ! in thee was realised that aphorism of Machiavelli — e 111 fares it with prophets who expose their unarmed breasts to the fury of factions.' But though his enemies destroyed his body, they could not destroy his memory, which has been ho- nourably recorded by every writer who does not shrink from * Guicciardini, Hist, d'ltalia, libro terro, pp. 100, 101. OF SAVONAROLA. 107 stating truth. For more than two centuries, on the anniversary of his death, the ground that drank his blood has been covered with garlands, and this will attest the veneration in which the friar is held, and prove that his grand precepts have not perished in the memory of the Florentines. " Ten years after Savonarola's death on an ignominious gib- bet, RafTaello painted him amongst the doctors of the Catholic Church, in the halls of the Vatican, and this is his most splen- did religious rehabilitation — the most luminous proof of his in- nocence, and the most convincing evidence of the perfidy of his persecutors. Julius the Second charged RafTaello to execute these grand works, and surely he would not have allowed an impious man, or one who outraged the honour of the Pontificate, to figure amongst the champions of the Church, in the c Dispu- tation on the Sacrament.' Mark how Julius proclaimed Savon- arola's innocence : — " ' The death of the friar preceded, by a few years, the death of the Republic !"'* It is stated, that when Lodovico, the Pope's agent, who was sent to Florence to make terms with Savonarola, returned to Rome, and informed xllexander of the failure of his mission, the Pope said, " That man must be a true monk, for nothing of good or evil that man may do, can affect his mind or move him from his course ; let him be." Mark the sequel : in the brief or- daining the degradation, that was read at the place of Savonarola's execution, the same man whom Alexander is reported to have called a " true monk," was designated " the son of blasphemy, the nursling of perdition, and the seducer of the people" Thus perished Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, vicar- general of the Order of St. Dominick in Florence, on Wednes- day, at the fourteenth hour of the day, the 23rd May, 1498, in his forty-seventh year. " Thus perished, on the scaffold, one of those rare instruments of Divine Providence, raised up, as it would appear, to men * Marrhese's Lives of the Dominican Artists, &c, translated by the Kev. C. Meehan, vol. i. p. 329. 103 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM who search after truth for truth's sake, for the accomplishment, or the effort to accomplish, grand objects of reform and correc- tion of abuses : a man most holy, most highly gifted, most- heroic in the mission to which he seemed to have been specially called by God ; a man whose whole life was devoted to the in- terests of religion, of morality, of letters, and of arts : a mem- ber of a renowned religious order, and one of its brightest or- naments : an honour to his country and to humanity, whose heart was set on the purification of religion, and the renovation of his Church — the most illustrious of all true monks, Girolamo Savonarola." The power of truth was very signally manifested soon after the death of the friar, in the failure of all efforts on the part of the Franciscans, and certain dignitaries of the church of Flo- rence, to get the Pope, Alexander the Sixth, to issue a condem- nation of the works of the deceased friar. We are told by Xardi, that all the works of Savonarola were prohibited by the spiritual authorities of Florence, and people were commanded to bring them to the archbishopric, on pain of excommunication and pe- cuniary fine. But the matter being referred to the Pope, " his holiness (says Xardi) had not the courage to decree and deter- mine anything against those works, and the doctrines of the man whom he had even condemned to death."* So the writings of Savonarola were given back to their owners. The 23rd of May, 1498, Alexander the Sixth sent Savonarola before the judgment seat of God, to answer for his efforts to re- novate religion. The 7th of August, 1518, Leo the Tenth cited Luther to appear at Rome, to answer for a revolution commenced against the church. Twenty years had only elapsed since the attempted renova- tion was quenched in blood, and before the revolution broke out that was to shake the pillars of Catholicity, and even Christianity itself. The sentence of death was ratified by the Pope's commissaries. They must have acted on Alexander's authority, or their act * JSardi, Hist, di Firen. p. 82. OF SAVONAROLA. 109 must have been repudiated by him. It was competent alone for the highest ecclesiastical authority to ratify that sentence, and it was ratified by it. With respect to the date of the execution of Savonarola, Bayle says : " I am of opinion that it was the 23rd of May, as several authors affirm. Perhaps it will be objected to me, that Porcac- chi tells us, that Peter Delphino, general of the Camaldules, takes notice in his letters, that Savonarola was executed on the very day of Ascension ; and that since he makes this remark, in a letter purposely written the 26th of July, 1498, on the death of that friar, we have reason to believe that he is not mistaken. Xow, Ascension day that year was the twenty-fourth of May. They may say what they will : I rather choose to believe John Francis Picus and Bzovius, who tell us that Savonarola was ex- ecuted on Ascension-eve. Porcacchi quotes this letter of Peter Delphino for no other reason but to start an objection against Guicciardini, whom he supposes to have affirmed that Savonarola was put to death on Palm Sunday, the 9th of April. But it is not true that Guicciardini says so : he only says that the autho- rity of that friar came to an end on the day after that on which Charles the Eighth died, being Palm Sunday. " Fine il di sequente a quello, termino la vita di Carlo, (giorno celebrato da Christiani per la solemnita delle palme) in Firenze l'autorita del Savonarola." One cannot tell to what his paren- thesis relates : whether it be to the day on which Charles the Eighth died or to the day following ; but we may be very well assured that he intended to say that the 8th of April was the last day of Savonarola's authority ; for he had just before ob- served, that Charles the Eighth ended his life on the day before the 8th of April. There is also reason to believe that he places on the day after that monarch's death, not the death of Savona- rola, but his imprisonment ; and that the criticism of Porcacchi is not well grounded. I think there are some little failures in Guicciardini's words, and am therefore more inclined to follow the dates of John Burchard, according to which, Savonarola was imprisoned the 9th of April, two days after the great shew 110 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM for making the proof by fire ; and as besides, it is certain that Saturday , the 7th of April, being the eve of Palm Sunday, was the day on which Charles the Eighth died, one does not see how Guicciardini could say that Palm Sunday was either the day of that prince's death, or of the ruin of Savonarola's power."* Both Burlamacchi and Mirandola narrate many signal exam- ples of the divine retribution falling on the persecutors and most violent of the adversaries of Savonarola. The notary Ceccone, we are told by the former, who falsified the process, falling sick at his villa in Mugello, a very lonely and desert place, two Dominican monks, who were questing in that neighbourhood, called at the house for assistance, not know- whose it was. The servant informed them her master was grievously ill, and implored them to visit the sick man. The friars, on approaching his bedside, began to administer spiritual consolation to him, seeing him evidently in the last agony. But the word mercy seemed to recall some terrible re- miniscences to his mind. There was no mercy, he said, for his guilt. " Judas," he exclaimed, " had betrayed only one just man, but he had betrayed three." No words of comfort or ex- hortation had any effect on him ; he died in the presence of the two Dominicans, despairing of salvation. The chief executioner of Girolamo and his companions, Maes- tro Francesco, perished on the scaffold in the performance of his duty of headsman, being stoned to death by the populace, after beheading, in a bungling manner, a young brigand, for whom much sympathy was felt by the spectators. One of the examiners, who, on the trial, upbraided Fra Giro- lamo with his false predictions, Piero Corsini, lived only long enough to see the predictions accomplished, which he called in question, and died in a state of frenzy. Tanai de Nerlo, who, with his son, took a leading part in the sacking of San Marco on the night of the tumult, and was the principal instigator of the Signoria in the affair of the removal of the great bell of San Marco to the Franciscan convent, was * Bayle's Crit- Diet. art. Sav. torn. v. OF SAVONAROLA. Ill found dead in his bed, with his head hanging downwards ; and the first toll of the great bell of San Marco, in the convent of San Francesco, was for the burial of old Xerlo, in the church of that convent. Another of the persecutors, Giovanni Maretti, one of the ex- aminers of Fra Girolamo, and who was present at his torture, on one occasion, when he had the indecency as well as the cruelty to aggravate the sufferings of the prisoners by a scandalous in- dignity, perished miserably, without hope or sacraments, crying out, in terrible anguish of mind, " Oh, this hand ! this hand ! The friar is torturing me." * Of Romolino's subsequent career, we learn from Burlamacchi that " a chaplain of Monsignor Pandolfo della Luna, who lodged with Komolino, one of the commissaries of the Pope in San Pietro Chiraggio, in Florence, related that the night before the death of Fra Girolamo, several citizens carried large sums of money to the said commissary, and, among the rest, one person carried to him 1,000 ducats, with which money he returned to Home, as it was reported, and bought a cardinal's hat. It was re- ported moreover," says Burlamacchi, " that he became ultimately repentant, and that he used to read the works of Fra Girolamo, and to bewail his death."* But we learn from others, that he died in Xaples a very miserable death. Hafe states that Komolino, doctor of laws, and councillor to the government and court of Rome, who had acted the part of commissary so efficiently at Florence in 1498 for Alexander the Sixth, was rewarded for his services by a cardinal's hat in 1508, and that he died of the same dreadful sickness as Ulric de Huttin, in 1518. The Franciscans received their reward from the Signoria, for all their opposition to the Father, and their successful efforts to effect his ruin: the monthly pittance of sixty livres from the state, given to San Marco for the table of the community, was trans- ferred to them in testimony of their triumph over the Dominicans. And when the first payment was made to them, it is reported * Burlamacclii, p. 577. f Ibid. TIIF. LIFE AND MARTYRDOM that the chamberlain said, as he was handing over the money, " Take the price of the blood of the just." Many of the friends of the father were exiled. The brethren of San Marco were confined to their convent, and not allowed to go abroad. The laity were not suffered to enter San Marco. The great bell of the convent was taken down, and transported, by the orders of the Signoria, to the Franciscan convent. In subsequent times the Franciscans were deprived of the ill- gotten property of the Dominicans. The great bell, after remaining forty years in their possession, was ordered to be given back to the friars of San Marco, and the monthly allowance of the jnetanza was restored to them also. " When all these events," says Burlamacchi, " came to the Pope's knowledge, he rejoiced at their occurrence, as if of things ar- dently desired by him." Savonarola had no sooner been condemned, than the advocates and panderers to the vices of the reigning Pontiff set to work to murder his reputation by all kinds of slander. Numbers, even of his own brethren, joined in the base attempts to destroy his re- putation. We are told that nearly one half of the community of St. Mark turned traitors to his memory. Touron, on the authority of Bzovius, states erroneously, that of the whole community of San Marco, consisting of three hun- dred friars and eighty novices at the time of Savonarola's death, there was not one who did not remain faithful to his memory, and the spirit of his rule and teaching. That statement is certainly not conformable with the accounts of other writers. Bzovius confines his statement of the fidelity of the community to the eighty novices. He states likewise that after the death of Savonarola, full license was given to all writers to slander Fra Girolamo and the deceased friars in the most scandalous manner, till Hercules D'Este, the reigning duke of Ferrara, caused one of those lite- rary assassins — a poet who had shamefully calumniated Fra Gi- rolamo — to be put to death — donee Hercules Aestinus, Dux Fer- OF SAVONAROLA. 113 rarice Poetam ad Supplicant vocasset* — and further caused his ambassador at Florence to protest against the license given to such writers. The Prelate Catarino (one of Bayle's impartial witnesses), whom Touron not inaptly designates " The Ishmael of his age/' was one of " those literary assassins" who lent his services most un- scrupulously to the persecutors of Savonarola, and who under- took most zealously the task of slandering the memory of the victim of abused power. Horace Walpole, in his " Doubts concerning Richard the Third," has truly observed : " When a fortunate prince brings accusations agaist his enemies, all the historical writers press forward to serve him with their testimony." Of the words of such historians, we may truly say : — " Quanto sono fallaci le Istorie." * Bzovius, Ann. Eccles. p. 521. VOL. II. I 114 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM CHAPTER V. character of savonarola. regarded as a martyr by many persons eminently holy, by some who have been canonized. st. catherine of ricci, st. philip neri. Savonarola's personal appearance. " Quse cum magna modis multis tniranda videtur Gentibus humanis Regie-, visendaque fertur, Rebus opima bonis, multa munita virum vi, Nil tamen hoc habuisse Viro praeclarius in se, Nee sanctum magis, et mirum carumque videtur." Lucret. 1. i. v. 728. In the early career of Fra Savonarola, it is curious to trace the progress of his mind, and to notice the conflicting opinions of his monastic brethren with respect to the nature of his abilities and acquirements. Some accorded him great aptness for learning, others original genius of the highest order, a few thought the faculty of memory was the most remarkable power he possessed^ and a talent for preaching was accompanied with it. Talent and genius are separated by very distinguishable boundaries. Talent denotes qualities of mind susceptible of great improvement by study and experience, quickness of memory, acuteness and self-possession, power of combination and concentration, and the application of mental energies to the accomplishment of great objects devised by others. Genius is born with its possessor, it is not an acquisition but a gift, no conquest of study, no late development of abilities accidentally exercised and called into operation. It is sometimes a heritage, and when inherited it is generally transmitted by the mother to her offspring. But when not thus derived, it seems to be the result of physical organization and temperament, pe- culiarly adapted, by greater delicacy of fibre or subtlety of the OF SAVONAROLA. 115 vital fluids, for exalted intellectual achievements. Genius is in- tuitive and instinctive. It was regarded, and probably not in- correctly, of old, as a divine aura or afflatus, that served as an atmosphere to the intellectual powers, and was to them not only as a medium to give brilliancy and vividity to the coruscations of exalted intelligence, but as an animating influence that fitted them with a creative energy and controlling power, which no art or industry could attain or imitate. In oratory, poetry, painting, sculpture, music, in every branch of science and of learning, in all ennobling pursuits, in the labours of philanthropy, in the struggles of patriotism, in all efforts for the reformation of mankind, for the redress of wrongs, in all warfare with interests at deadly issue with the rights of the poor, or any good and glorious cause — great pro- jects have been seldom created and put in action except by genius or spirituality, moved and stirred to a high pitch of enthusiasm, which state of mental exaltation was not inaptly designated in former ages by the term, "a divine fury." Lascasas, Francis Xavier, Peter Claver, glorious apostles of the poor and the oppressed in distant climes, and in our own times Howard, Clarkson, and Macaulay, generous champions of justice, and of mercy, like Savonarola in his age, wrote and acted, not as if moved by mere earthly influences, but as if impelled by the instincts of a spiritual teaching of a divine origin. It is the fortune of all great men who have aimed at moral reform, to be regarded during their lives with envy and ad- miration, in relative proportions to the evil they had resisted, and the good they had endeavoured to accomplish. Savonarola is no exception to the rule. With the impious, he was an im- postor — with unbelievers, he was a fanatic — with wickedness in high places that should be spiritual, he was " a son of perdition " — with people who loved and feared God, he was a faithful minister of Christ, and with many of that class he was a saint. Genius, that illuminates and magnifies the beauty of all that comes in contact with it, by its surpassing brightness, renders even its own defects more obvious, and exaggerates the outlines i % THE LIFE A XT) MARTYRDOM of them by such an atmosphere of surrounding light ; while mediocrity in its ignoble obscurity owes to its opacity the pre- servation of its faults from observation. We, at a distance of three centuries and a half from the ani- mosities excited by Savonarola's struggle with abuses, and the en- thusiasm created by the wonderful powers of his eloquence, and actual contact with the heroism and holiness of life displayed in his career — can look at it from a position elevated above passion, prejudice, local interest, and class influences, commanding its circumference and its history in every point of view. We find him in youth, full of promise, studious, thoughtful, averse from amusements and pleasures, free from vice, deeply impressed with a conviction of the miseries of this life, and the im- portance of the preparation for another, before he had yet reached his twenty-second year. We follow him from his father's house which he abandons for ever, without communicating his design to any human being, for a monastic life in a Dominican order. We perceive in the young monk, mental capacity of the highest order. All the bold originality of genius in his intel- lectual faculties, and that rare combination of great powers which belongs only to minds of the most exalted intelligence — an imagination full of poetry, instincts of art, with spiritualizing ten- dencies, all compact, united with excellent judgment — surprising- quickness of perception— insight into character, and clearness of mental vision — all resolving themselves into that quality of prac- tical sagacity which passes for something even more rare in the world than its highest wisdom, under the name of common sense. Savonarola, like all men destined to attempt or achieve great objects, was full of enthusiasm in the cause he had taken up. We perceive from his first entrance into religious life, that one dominant idea had taken possession of his mind — that great abuses had crept into the government of the Church and the court of Rome, and that they ought to be removed. This idea occupied his mind night and day. He talked of it in the cloisters, he meditated on the subject in his cell — it was his theme in prayer, his topic in the discharge of his duties of master of studies in the convent — his text in the pulpit. OF SAVONAROLA. 117 In the abundance of the divine mercy, a mission was given to him from on high, to labour for the renovation of the Church of God, as he most firmly and piously believed. And in the discharge of the duties of that mission, the conviction was never absent from his mind, that he was to encounter great trials, grievous sufferings, and, eventually, death. He had three weapons for the fearful struggle he had engaged in. 1. Ardent love for the honour and glory of God. 2. A spirit of prayer, that exalted his mind above all worldly influences, fears, and affections. 3. A power of preaching, in which the highest order of eloquence was united with a spiritualized piety, and a pervading stream of gospel light, that gave an unction to his sermons, such as at once touched the hearts of all classes of his hearers, and was alike appreciated by the learned and the illiterate, the young and the old, by men and women — and alike also by laity and clergy. All his cotemporaries are agreed on this point. And many of those in subsequent times, who have taken unfavourable views of his character in general, seem to leave the question of the power of his preaching undisputed. There was a marvellous energy, life, and animation in the eloquence of Savonarola. Frequent apostrophes, exclamations of a plaintive and affecting nature, impetuous sallies, unexpected interrogatories — sudden appeak to heaven — striking observations addressed to the hearts of men, and the understanding too, abounded in his sermons, and seemed to enliven his disquisitions on the dryest topics. The spirit of sacred writ, its truth, its poetry, its divine morality pervaded his pulpit eloquence, and this sacred influence gave an air of inspiration to it, and pre- vailed over many obvious minor defects of style, superabundance of imagery, occasional scholastic absurdities and inaccuracies of expression. M Machiavelli," says Dr. Hafe, " has commemorated Savona- rola both in prose and verse, for he was impressed from his youth with a favourable opinion of his personal character and his public conduct. He has not ventured to acknowledge 118 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM that he did not believe his prophecies proceeded from a super- natural source ; he mentions him in the middle of his ' Reflec- tions on the ancient Roman Republic/ as one through whose influence the Florentine state should be renovated, and whose writings testify to his erudition, cleverness, and strength of mind (la virtu dell' animo suo) ; but he speaks of him also as a warning example against the violation of a law on the impulse of the moment, especially by a person who had previously proposed that law ; for nothing more in effect than the execution of five of the followers of the Medici, without permitting them to appeal to the people, had shaken Savonarola's reputation ; nevertheless his downfall proceeded from the envy which is sure to arise in a republic against every prominent citizen, and which the monk either did not understand how, or was unable, to master. In his book, entitled tf the Prince,' Machiavelli attributes the downfall of Savonarola to the fact universally admitted, that none but armed prophets can carry out successfully a new mode of governing a state, for it is the nature of the populace to be inconstant. A thing that it is easy to persuade them to in talking, it is nevertheless diffi- cult to keep them to in action ; thence one must be prepared to enliven by physical force the faith of those who no longer believe.* Gervinus perceives, with his acute glance, how it is that Machiavelli extols Savonarola on the one side, and Caesar Borgia on the other, because he discovers in both the talents which he was seeking for Italy, united in one man, and which he has depicted to us in ' the Prince,' and drawn not less exactly in ( the Discourses.' A reference to Savonarola is to be recognized in this book, although he does not name him, in the celebrated chapter of the discourses, where he speaks of evils that the Roman church had brought on Italy, and ascribes the decline of piety, the dissensions in Italy, and the treachery * Passage referred to from Machiavelli's work, "The Prince." — Libro del Principe. — " I speak of the great Savonarola, who, inflamed with divine ardour, keeps you entranced by his words. But why is it, that many, fear- ing to see their country ruined by degrees under his prophetic teachings, did not unite themselves in time against him, if it is not that his divine light was increased and dispensed with too much rapidity for them P" OF SAVONAROLA. 119 practised towards strangers, to the bad example of the Romish court."* Muratori, in his Annals (a.d. 1498), speaks of Savonarola in the following terms : — " He was a man of holy life, who, inspired by God, predicted future events, which in the course of a few years came to pass " His fame remains involved in controversies and many dif- ferences of opinion, a great number of people regarding him as a saint — that is to say, all the good — and, on the contrary, all the bad considering him as an ambitious man, and a deceiver of the people. God is the best judge. Certain it is, he failed in his duty to the Pope, setting his commands at defiance, in whom the authority of the keys was not extinguished by his scandalous morals. And equally unworthy of praise was Savonarola's con- duct in mixing himself up with the secular affairs of the Floren- tine republic, a course which was inconsistent with his sacred office and ministry. " On the other hand, his morals were most pure. He was of singular piety and zeal, altogether devoted to the spiritual good of the people, and he possessed other great qualities, that indi- cated a true servant of God. His published works manifest a wonderful unction and odour of sanctity, it cannot be denied. "f The commendations of Savonarola, in the works of his own countrymen, would fill volumes. In half-a-dozen words, Muratori has summed up the career, and the results to the church, of the Pontificate of Alexander the Sixth : — " a great calamity." Paulus Jovius, who had not much sympathy with reformers, * The passage referred to in Machiavelli's work is as follows : — " That religion, if it were maintained, as the author of it ordained, by the princes of the Christian States, these countries would be more united and more con- sidered than they are. !> or need one look for any other reason for its decline, when one sees that those people who are nearest to Rome, the seat of our religion, have the least religion. And whoever considers its fundamental doctrines, and sees how different its practice is from what is taught by them, will certainly judge that either ruin or some heavy scourge is at hand." — Machiavelli's " Princijji." t Muratori, Annali D'ltalia, a.d. 1498, torn. xiii. p. 404. 120 THE LIFE AND MAKTYRDOM lay or clerical, or monks in general of any order, admits that " Savonarola had distinguished himself in a remarkable manner by the austerity of his life, his learning, his subtle genius, and his admirable eloquence in preaching," &c* And in another book he observes : — " There followed such a change of affairs and sentiments then at Florence, that Savonarola, who, a little before, had obtained a great power over the citizens by his singular sanctity, and the reputation of his virtue, and had, in the opinion of all, deserved to be canonized alive, was now qpndemned by a decree of the senate, and with the approbation of the people, and was igno- miniously put to death Thus he who for some time had been universally admired, on account of his excellent doctrine, temperate life, and incredible eloquence, was forced to undergo all manner of indignities and torments, and afforded a miserable spectacle, and perhaps unworthy of so much virtue, to a fickle and inconstant populace. "f Thus Jovius again eulogizes his talents and acquirements : — " He was a man of admirable attainments, and especially gifted with eloquence — which he displayed both in his sermons and in his private conversation ; thus he acquired so great an influence over the opinions of vast numbers of people, that in all import- ant matters he was consulted as an inspired person, and was looked upon as a divmely-apjDointed censor of vice : and by common consent such authority did he obtain, that people of all ages and both sexes sought his counsel and advice, both in pri- vate and in public affairs, and without it nothing was supposed to be rightly determined." + "The death of Savonarola," says Touron, "was only a new proof that he had spoken by the spirit of God, to whom every thing is present, and who makes known to whom he chooses future events, at the times even when they seem to be impos- sible. The grandeur of soul and intrepidity of spirit which Sa- vonarola had shown throughout his life did not abandon him in * Jovius in Elogiis, cap. xlii. p. 99. t Ibid, in vita Leonis, x. p. 52. } Ibid. p. 47. OF SAVONAROLA. 121 death. He sealed with his blood the truth of all he had fore- told, and which we have seen accomplished in our days."* " The name of Girolamo Savonarola," says Padre Marchese, " comes forth from the scaffold's infamy uninjured, and it will ever shine in the writings of Nardi, Segni, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini ; and it will be remembered with reverence and affection by Italians, while religion and liberty is held dear by them." f Audin, in his History of Luther, gives great praise to Leo the Tenth for preventing the role of Savonarola being played over again in the pulpit at Florence, by a friar who seemed desirous to emulate Savonarola (then some fifteen years in his grave), in preaching revelations of things to come : " He forbade super- natural revelations with all his authority ; confirmed, moreover, by the accordance of the sacred council, all persons to teach in the pulpit, in the cloisters, or in a book, or predict events of which God only knew the secret. "J If such a decree had been promulgated by the Sanhedrim, in the times of Isaiah, or Daniel, or Ezekiel, laymen may enquire, at least, what would have been the result ? But Audin ought to have remembered, this pontifical decree, which was intended, or at least calculated, to stigmatize the revelations of Savonarola, though nominally applicable to those of the existing times, was issued by a son of Lorenzo de Medici, and a brother of that Piero, whose downfall, whether rightfully or wrongfully, was attributed by the Medici to Savonarola. Two of Bayle's impartial witnesses against Savonarola, are Pierius Valerianus and Justus Lipsius. The testimony which Bayle thinks so valuable of the former, is to the following effect : — " Savonarola, the Dominican, was not only learned himself, but likewise a man of great authority among the learned, and an excellent preacher of Christian discipline. His authority * Touron, Vies clcs Hommes Illust. de S. Domin. torn. iii. p. 371. t Avvertimento Alia Poema, "Cedrus Libani." — Archiveo Storico Ita- liano, Appen. No. 23, Dispensa 34, 1819. X Audin, Hist de Luth. torn. i. p. 186. 122 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM was thoroughly admirable, if he had not corrupted it by an evil disposition. By his eloquence, he induced the people of Flo- rence to dissent from Pope Alexander, and, consequently, from the institutions of the Romish Church. He took upon him a greater authority than the Pope of Rome, as St. Peter's succes- sor had received, handed down to him from God himself. He persisted with an unreasonable obstinacy in defending his doc- trines, and boasting of his familiarity with God, which he pub- licly declared had gone so far as to be admitted to converse with him. At last, being convicted as a liar and an impostor, and condemned for his impiety, he was burnt, with some of his under agents, in the middle of that city which he had deceived."* Gratianus (in his work de Casibus Virorum. Illuss. page 140), another of the impartial witnesses of Bayle against Savon- arola, thus evinces his impartiality, — " His (Savonarola's) great- est crime seemed to be, that falsely pretending to be warned of things to come by God, and to be commissioned from Heaven to declare them to the people, he had gained upon the spirits and inclinations of the mob by a counterfeit show of religion ; or, that feigning himself to be a divinely inspired prophet, he had imposed upon men by an extravagant lie."f I trust it is unnecessary for me to make any further observation on Bayle's witnesses, or on his own opinion of Savonarola's piety. There is nothing in the whole career of Savonarola, in the progress of my researches, that seemed to me so open to cen- sure, as his conduct in relation to the predicted coming into Italy of Charles the Eighth of France, invariably setting forth as he did, both in his sermons and epistles, the necessity of a foreign invasion, with an abundant supply of troops and ammu- nition and provisions, for procuring the assembly of a general council, with a view to the deposition of Alexander the Sixth. This recourse to physical force for the execution of a great moral reform and renovation of religion in the court of Pome, and in the Church, and the internal evidence of a strong feeling * Pierius Valerianus de Liter. Infelicit lib. ii. pp. 78, 79. Ap. Bayle, Art. Sav. p. 70. t Bayle, vol. v. p. 70. OF SAVONAROLA. 128 of reliance on the guns and sabres of an invading army for the desired result, have produced an unpleasant impression on some minds, with respect to the sincerity of the messenger of peace and his holy mission. But in the fifteenth century, St. Bernard's sincerity and sanctity have never been called in question, and yet we find Bernard, in the twelfth century, writing a letter to the Emperor Lothaire, urging him to advance with a powerful army upon Italy. " The two-fold necessity," he says, " which calls for your exertions, must needs animate your spirit in the great cause,, for well it becometh the advocate of the Church to stand forward as her defender against the fury of schismatics, and no less doth it become the emperor to assert the right of his crown against the Sicilian usurper, for any one who makes himself king in Sicily rebels against the emperor."* On various other occasions, we find St. Bernard invoking the sword for the defence of religion. I refer to these matters, because an attempt has been made to run down the character of Savonarola for sanctity, on account of his looking to the sword and to invasions of his country by foreign troops, for the advantages of religion. But I do not refer to these passages in the life of St. Bernard, because I be- lieve it was consistent with the profession or the religious prin- ciples of St. Bernard, to seek to bring the swords of semi-bar- barous hordes on the people of Italy to uphold the territorial power of the Pope, and to consign the people of Sicily to slaughter for exercising their rights as a nation, in the choice of their own sovereign. In the case of St. Bernard, the successful appeal to the em- peror was of no permanent advantage to the Pontiff. King Roger of Sicily was only rendered more troublesome than ever to Home, he renewed his pretensions to Xaples in a short time, and menaced the territories of the Church. The Pope, Inno- cent the Second, raised a large army, and marched in person against the enemy. A battle was fought, the Pope was out- generalled by King Roger, " by a skilful manoeuvre," and his * Neander'B Life of St. Bernard, lib. p. 109. 124 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM body guard were surrounded and made prisoners, on the 22nd of July, 1138* A treaty was made, Roger consented to receive the investiture from the Pope, and it was thus that Sicily was definitely erected into a kingdom. What do we learn from these events, besides the old lesson of calamity to the Church from connexion with temporal affairs, and the cares of territorial possessions ? We learn that the most holy men, when they are mixed up with them, show abun- dantly by their acts that they are subject to human frailties, liable to be misled in their judgments, and to be inconsistent in their conduct, without ceasing, however, to be eminently good men, sincere and holy in their lives, and well intentioned. Of the Treatises of Savonarola, or rather portions of them censured by the Church, his book De Veritate Prophetica is that most particularly found fault with. But Nerius, who had a full knowledge of all things relating to the Holy Office and its officers, and the commissaries who had the trial of those matters, we are told by Mirandola, thus ex- pressed himself in regard to those censures : — " No one is to take umbrage at the decision in the case (of Fra Girolamo), some of his sermons, and certain of his works being recently prohibited, because this has not been done on account of errors to be found in them, as the most illustrious Signoria and fathers of the Holy Inquisition already pub- licly declared, but it was done solely on account of the errors of the Lutherans which have sprung up in these most unhappy times of ours ; and least the people should fail in that reverence which is due to the prelates of the Church, it was thought ex- pedient to take away the occasion (of such danger) not given by him (Fra Girolamo), but in order that advantage might not be taken of those writings, and they might be turned to bad ac- count by the malice of others. And therefore it is, that his works have never been condemned under the designation of errors of heresy. And on the most rigorous examination, never has there * Meander's Life of St. Bernard, ib. p. 114. OF SAVONAROLA. 125 been found in them any iota on which that stain could be affixed."* " The Triumph of the Cross/' and " The Following of Christ," might have been written by the same author. We find in both, the same power of gospel influences, simplicity of Christian life and morals, the same courage and enthusiasm in the cause of Christ ; profound conviction of the evil tendencies of human nature, of the miseries of this life, and the nothingness of all worldly honours and advantages ; the same strong feelings of sympathy with the poor, of repugnance for the idolatry of wealth, and an all-pervading spirituality, in the piety which breathes throughout the whole performance. The writings of the author familiar to us as Thomas a Kempis, and, above all, his " Following of Christ," have gone through in- numerable editions in England ; how does it happen that Sa- vonarola's admirable treatise " The Triumph of the Cross," perhaps, of all existing works, with that single exception of Thomas a Kcmpis's most celebrated treatise, the work, in spiritual power and truly Christian piety, that approaches nearest to the style and spirit of the Sacred Scriptures, should never have been translated into the English language ? Bzovius states, that some passages in the sermons of Savon- arola, which were censured by the authorities in Rome, had been interpolated by some copyist, who had written those dis- courses the same time they had been pronounced. f And on the same authority, when some person sought to make an unfavourable impression on the mind of Pope Paul the Third, against Savonarola, that Pontiff observed, " That he would re- gard any one who accused Savonarola of heresy, of being of suspicious faith." — Quin potius suspectam de heraesi ilium ha- bituri sumus quicumque Hieronymum impugnare audebit.J Burlamacchi's Life of Savonarola terminates with a detailed account of miracles alleged to have been wrought by Fra Giro- lamo, or by means of prayer, of those firmly established in the * Mirandola, t. i. Praef. t Bzovius, p. 484. col. i. + lb. p. 520. col. i. 186 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM belief of his sanctity, or the efficacy of his relics, of visions of holy persons who believed they had communication with his departed spirit long after his decease. Forty-three of those relations are to be found in the work I have just referred to. I do not think it necessary for my pur- pose, in more than one instance to appeal to their testimony. But I do not call in question either the possibility or the probabi- lity of their occurrence. In a work merely literary, such de- tails, beyond those I have mentioned, would be misplaced. The Apostolic labours of Fra Girolamo were duly appreciated by St. Catherine of Ricci.* His piety and virtue were held by that holy woman in the highest honour. His picture was placed in her cell, among the representations of persons renowned for sanctity. In fact, she looked upon him as a martyr. The following is in substance the account of Burlamacchi to which I have referred : — (e Sister Catharinade Ricci, being grievously ill of a complica- tion of disorders, idropica, mat cli pietra con un poco de asima e da altre pene, was miraculously cured of all her maladies, on the 21st of May, 1540. She made a vow to Fra Girolamo (then forty- two years dead) and his companions, that if she was cured of this malady within a stated time of three days, she would cause the sacred mysteries to be offered up in their honour, and would keep their festival for the term of three years. Her maladies^ however, went on rather augmenting than diminishing. At length, in an extreme agony of suffering and despondency, and after a long deprivation of sleep, kneeling at her little altar in the infirmary, she fell into a state of utter prostration of strength, and sunk into a deep sleep, on the night of the 2ord of May, the feast day of the Blessed Trinity* and the festival also of the three Dominican fathers who were put to death in 1498. " In that deep sleep she had a vision. The three fathers ap- peared to her (manifesting their order by their habits), with * Sister Catherine de Hicci was born in Florence, in 1522. She entered the Third Order of St. Dominic, in the convent of Prato, in 1 535 ; she died in 1590, and was beatified in 1632. OF SAVONAROLA. 127 great brightness around them. The one who stood in the midst, as it were resting on a cloud, she gazed on with astonish- ment, and said to him — ' AVho are you V The reply was — ' Do you not know me ?' She said — i Father, I do not know you and the answer was, ' Of whom did you seek intercession ? ' She rejoined, ' Of Father Girolamo I sought it.' " Then replied the interrogator — ' I am he : but before you are healed, I wish that you promise three things : that you prac- tise the virtue of obedience, all that is in your power — that to- morrow you confess and communicate.' Then, after signing with the cross the parts of her body which were the principal seats of her disorders, and appearing to salute her on the right cheek, he said to her, ( Xow arise, go and give thanks to God, and know that your afflictions will soon pass away, — e presto sara la gloria nostra in terra,' (query, manifestato ?). TThen these words were spoken, she suddenly awoke, in great joyfulness of spirit, wonderfully freed from her chief ailments, and imme- diately after waking relieved from a grave malady, with which she had been afflicted for so many years, and for which lithotomy alone would seem to have afforded any reasonable hope of cure. The doctor, named Francesco di Castiglione Aretino, on having the evidences of that wonderful cure laid before him,* said f that it was miraculous beyond the power of nature, and out of the order of natural things.' " These things," says Burlamacchi, "are narrated with the sim- plicity with which they were related by her. The prioress of the convent besought the physician that he would not speak of these things outside the monastery ; but he was not willing to make any promise of the kind, and the matter was divulged by him."f Nerli, moreover, in his commentary, makes particular mention of the veneration of the suore Caterina del Ricci for the memory of Fra Girolamo. "Trenta due pietri durissime e nere come paragone tra le quali erano alcune rosse come fave." t Burlamacchi, p. 582. 128 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM In this work I have frequently had to endeavour to call the reader's particular attention to some specified facts, statements, or opinions, which seemed to me to be peculiarly deserving of notice. I have now to call the reader's attention to a matter which seems to me deserving of more than ordinary considera- tion. There has been a work published by the Fathers of the Oratory in London, in the latter part of 1852, entitled, " The Lives of St. Catharine of Ricci, of the third order of St. Domi- nick; St. Agnes of Montipulciano, B. Benevuta of Bojan, and B. Catherine of Raconigi, of the order of St. Doniinick (Richard- son, 12mo. 1852)." The editor and translator is the Rev. F. W. Faber, one of the most eminently gifted men and greatest pulpit orators of our times. The life of St. Catharine of Ricci is from the anony- mous Italian biography of the Saint — professedly Cavata de Sommari de Processi — published in Rome in 1746, with the usual permission. The beatification of this holy person was founded on the well-established fame of her great sanctity, and duly authenti- cated account of numerous visions, raptures, and revelations, ascribed to her while living, and miracles accorded to her inter- cession after death. These are duly recorded in the recent life, with a single verv important exception, namely, the authenticated account of the extraordinary veneration of this holy woman for the memory of one whom she revered as a martyr, and to whose supernatural agency she attributed her most wonderful cure from a grievous bodily ailment, when all human help had proved of no avail ; and that martyr, as the venerated person above referred to, was deemed by her, was Fra Girolamo Savonarola. The account of her miraculous cure, of her belief that Savo- narola's spirit had visited her, that he was a martyr, and a mem- ber of the church* triumphant in heaven, rests on evidence that cannot be contravened, without depriving the other testimony as to her visions and miraculous manifestations of much value. It rests on her own statements, authenticated by the cotemporary OF SAVONAROLA. 129 superiors of her convent, and of her order, of her brother, a man of great sanctity, Father Timothy de Ricci of the Dominican order, and of several eminent ecclesiastics and prelates of her times. And on such testimony, it is recorded in the works of Burlamacchi. But why should this account be shut out of the history of her life, while all other relations of her visions and revelations are detailed at full length ? Is it because Fra Girolamo was perse- cuted to death by Alexander the Sixth, and the testimony of a beatified person to the holiness and innocence of the persecuted man, judicially murdered, was thought to be a reproach to the memory of an unworthy Pontiff ? I am quite sure Father Faber is incapable of mutilating bio- graphy and suppressing truth for any purpose. All the sympa- thies of a man of his exalted genius and spirituality, must be enlisted on the side of one of the most gifted and efficacious preachers who ever poured forth the words of Divine Truth from an Italian pulpit. All his sympathies must be with a man of kindred genius : with one, too, whose noble faculties, like his own, had often found a solace in his leisure hours, in singing the praises of his God, in strains no less worthy of his theme than those of his marvellous eloquence in the pulpit. I must, then, either accuse the author of the Italian life of St. Catherine of wilfully suppressing this account, or conclude that it has been excluded from the " Sommario dV Processe" from which that biography is taken — cavata. But whether excluded from that official report or not, the biographer of the saint was not justified in leaving unnoticed an important fact, intimately connected with the history of the saint, and of her order, at a very remarkable period of its ca- reer. There is a reason however alleged for the superiors of St. Caterina, of Ricci, finding fault with her particular veneration for the memory of Savonarola. They assured St. Catherine that, as he was condemned and put to death for heresy, he must be a VOL. II. k 130 THE LTFE AND MARTYRDOM heretic, and therefore they could not approve of her visions in relation to him. But St. Catherine might have said, if obedience permitted an humble, holy woman to speak to a high, and perhaps at times an unreasoning or unreasonable, superior : — " though this friar was accused of heresy, and condemned of it, he never admitted that he had committed any such crime ; and yet the Pope's com- missary absolved him plenarily, and he confessed and received the sacrament immediately before he died. And even had he fallen into heresy, having been thus absolved, and apparently worthily frequenting the sacraments, why may not the repent- ant father be a saint in heaven ?" A fabricated official document, purporting to be a faithful transcript of the evidence of prisoners against themselves, given on a trial in a tribunal illegally constituted — and that forged processo, having the arms of the Republic of Florence at the head of it, and the names of certain Florentine magistrates, and of two commissaries of the Pope, Alexander the Sixth, and a coerced General of the Dominican order at the foot of it, and the seals of the signing parties affixed to that spurious document, is paraded in the pages of the adversaries of Savonarola, and thrust in the face of poor Saint Catherine of Picci, and St. Philip of Neri, as an incontestable evidence of Savonarola's guilt, and a clear proof of their mistaken convictions of his sanctity. St. Philip of Neri held the memory of Savonarola in singular veneration.* This eminently holy man considered the sanctity of the unfortunate Dominican so deserving of honour, that he kept his picture in his cell, and never spoke of him but in terms of admiration and of eulogy. But it is in vain we seek, in the account of St. Philip Neri, in Butler's Lives of the Saints, for any mention of a fact so material in the biography of a person, of whom the most trivial circumstance connected with his history is deemed of importance. * This holy person was born in Florence, in 1515. He was ordained in 1551, and founded the order of the Oratorians in 1564. He died, in the odour of sanctity, 1595. OF SAVONAROLA. 131 Touron states that " in the process of canonization of Saint Philip Xeri, it is observed that this saint had a singular vene- ration for Jerome Savonarola, whose image he preserved with great respect, and whose works he read with profit." * Raynaldus, in his Annals (1558), says that St. Philip Neri had recommended to Pope Paul the Fourth the canonization of Savonarola. Burlamacchi relates one fact of his own knowledge, well de- serving of attention in Rome, and of consideration on the part of its present illustrious sovereign. That trustworthy author states : — " I was present when Pope Julius the Second said in the convent delta cerq — that willingly he would have canonized him, (Fra Girolamo) — Io fu presente quando Papa Guilio II. disse nel convento della cerq che volontieri Vavrebe canrtonezato."i It was also stated, we are told, that Alexander the Sixth " re- pented of his execution, and said in consistory, that willingly would he have placed him in the catalogue of saints." The beatified Colombia, of Perugia, we are also informed, on the morning of Fra Girolamo's execution, being at mass in the church of St. Domenico (far distant from Florence), began to weep bitterly, and after a little time to seem consoled and made happy, and when asked the cause of his deep grief and subse- quent content, replied, that he had seen three brothers of his order put to death in Florence, and their spirits ascending to heaven, accompanied by angels. The Pope's legate, then at Perugia, hearing of this occurrence, immediately despatched a courier to make inquiries in Florence, and the truth of that wonderful vision was made manifest to him. Benedict the Nineteenth, that enlightened Pontiff, in his great work on the canonization of saints, in an eighth volume, intro- duces three catalogues. In the first, there is a list of notable events ; in the second, of proper names, in which list he places heretics ; in the third, of saints, beatified persons, servants of God, of venerable and illustrious men, and others remarkable for sanctity — Elenchus sanctorum, beatorum servorum Dei, vi- * Touron, tome hi. p. 647. f Burlamacchi. p. 578. K 2 132 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM rorumque aliarum sanctitatae venerabilium et illustrium; and in this category he places Savonarola. And, moreover, in the course of his work, he avails himself of the writings of Savona- rola, referring to his doctrines and opinions in confirmation of his views. Girolamo Benivieni, one of the most intimate friends of Sa- vonarola, a virtuous ecclesiastic, wrote to Clement the Seventh, in 1530, in his extreme old age, " that he held it for certain that Savonarola was a most holy man, and a true prophet."* St. Francis of Paul, the founder of the Minim Order of Friars, a cotemporary of Savonarola, the fame of whose great sanctity had reached the latter, we are told by Fra Poggio, was addressed by Fra Girolamo about four years after he had entered into religion, humbly supplicating the assistance of the saint's prayers and counsel for guidance in the new career he had com- menced. The letter was written in the Latin tongue by Fra Giro- lamo, and the good saint of Calabria, we are informed had not much familiarity with classic learning. He accordingly sent the letter to his friend Simon de la Limena, and directed Limena to reply to it. The original letter of Francis of Paul, we are told by Carle, in his " Histoire de Savonarole," was for a long time in the possession of the monastery of St. Cecilia, in the Roman territory, and subsequently passed into the family of Chigi of Sienna. Carle says, "it is with great joy that he translates this letter," but whether the original or a copy of it he does not state. A few extracts from it will suffice to shew the estimation in which Fra Girolamo was held by the holy Francis, if the letter be genuine, as Mons. Carle, a judicious and conscientious writer believes it to be, but which I cannot help thinking is of dubious authenticity. " This letter has been written to me by a friar of the Domenican order, which, from the manner in which it is written, manifests a very fervent love, and ardent charity to- wards God and our neighbour ; and as the letter is in Latin, and I have never studied that language, I pray you to be good enough to write to him in reply to this holy letter, something of # Varolii, Storia Fiorentina. OF SAVONAROLA. sound doctrine, drawn from the Sacred Writings, you being versed in many sciences. As for me, being as one devoid of wisdom, I will reply to him according to what I shall know, and the Spirit will deign to inspire me. This father, is named as you will see in the letter, Fra Girolamo of Ferrara. On receiving this holy letter, I cast myself immediately at the foot of the cross, praying his Divine Majesty to accord me the grace of knowing the life and death of this man who wrote to me with such unction without knowing me. It was accorded to me by the Divine Wisdom* though not on account of my merits, to know the life and death of this holy man. (Then follows a f thus.) This father is endowed with much holiness, and a great zeal for the Catholic faith and holy religion. He deserves greatly to live in a Christian manner, and to observe the divine precepts. He will reform some convents of his order, and begin to build new ones. He will write books of great learning, and sermons, and predications of great perfection and excellence. The odour of his sanctity will convert many sinners. He will give the habit of his order to a great number of persons, and establish many pious preachers, all men of holy life. He will preach in the city of Florence, for a time, when he will be attended by a vast concourse, and followed by all the people. He will become the butt of envy and hatred, and will be accused wrongfully by the sovereign Pontiff, and condemned to death by false wit- nesses, and a falsification of the proceedings of the process. He will be hung between two of his brethren, as our blessed Lord was put to death between two thieves. They will burn his bodv, in order that his relics may not be venerated. His ashes will be cast into the Arno, in order that they may not be collected from feelings of devotion. Some of his disciples will preserve a little of them. Before his death, he w T ill say, f AVoe to you, O Florence ! You will lose your liberty, and w T ill become a slave and a captive.' Everything he said will be accomplished."* St. Francis of Paul died at Tours, in 1507, aged 91 years. * Histoire de Savonarola, par Piget Carle, Docteur eii Theologie, p. 206. 8vo. Par. 131 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM 1 He survived Savonarola nearly nine years. Burlamacchi, who was indefatigable in his researches on the subject he had engaged in, makes no allusion to this letter, nor any other of the cotemporary biographers of Fra Girolamo, or the Italian his- torians who treat of him, as far as I know. The details are too circumstantial, too obviously in accordance to the very letter with the events predicted, to inspire confi- dence in their authenticity. They have all the finish of a fabri- cation on the face of them. Mons. Carle ought to have stated where the important document existed which he translated with so much joy ; whether it was the original letter or not, whether the original was in existence, and if so, whether there was any proof of its being in the hand-writing of St. Francis of Paul. In the anonymous Italian life of Savonarola, prefixed to the Treatise on Government by Fra Girolamo, published at Pisa in 181 8> we find poor Saint Francis of Paul, who died in 1507, about nine years after Savonarola, cited as having written a letter " twenty years after the death of Fra Girolamo, highly eulogistic of Savonarola, stating it had been revealed to him by God, that the holy man referred to (Fra Girolamo), had been persecuted by a cabal envious of him, and that miracles were wrought by his ashes." Feyjoo, in the twelfth letter of his " Cartas Eruditas" (vol. iii. p. 157), referring to the alleged letter of St. Francis of Paul, says, " It is in vain to bring forward the testimony of an enthu- siastic Franciscan friar, Vicente Maria Perrimecio, who certi- fied that the original letter existed with the seal of his order affixed to it, from which the authenticity of it might be inferred. But the collection of letters of St. Francis of Paul (continues Feyjoo), or attributed to him, and published by the father Fran- cesco de Longobardes in 1655, in which the letter in question is included which is cited in favour of Savonarola, was condemned by the holy congregation of the order in 1659 " It was condemned for containing many things which were apocryphal, false, and feigned." — Apocryfas, falsas y fingidas. But the estimation in which Fra Girolamo was held by per- sons of his times, most eminent for sanctity, needs not any doubt- OF SAVONAROLA. 135 ful testimony for its confirmation. So much then for the fame of his sanctity in his own times. The stature of Savonarola, says Burlamacchi, was of the middle size, neither tall nor diminutive, but he was upright and easy in his carriage. " He was of a fair complexion, inclin- ing to ruddy. His forehead was high and expanded, but re- markably furrowed and wrinkled. His eyes were bright, and of a blue colour, of that azure tint which scientific men deno- minate ( glauco,' and were fringed with eyelashes long and red. The nose, which was rather curved and large, gave a noble aspect to his features. His face was rather full than ema- ciated, his cheeks somewhat prominent, and the lower lip full and large, giving a pleasing expression — grazia — to his coun- tenance. His memory seemed active and disengaged — ( Suelta e spiccata dietro alia testa.'* " All the members of his body were well formed and propor- tioned, his gestures and movements showing an air of gentle- ness, and a graceful appearance. His hands were bony, and so meagre, that when placed before a light they seemed transpa- rent. The fingers were long and strait, even to the nails. His gait was steady, grave, a firm, undaunted tread, but still with a certain manifestation in it of urbanity and humility ; while every act and gesture of his was elegant and graceful." Pico Mirandola's description of his features does not differ in any matter of importance from that of Burlamacchi ; but some- what more fully details the general expression of his countenance, and gives some additional particulars of the upper part of his face : he says, " his forehead was lofty, but had a worn appear- ance — occuli pene caprini — his eyebrows were arched and heavy — pilis conspersa crassioribus." Fra Benedetto, in his biographical poem, Cedrus Libanus, thus speaks of the person of Savonarola : * Burlamacchi seems to mean to convey, that the head was elongated, and that the hinder part projected. In the original, this passage is so ob- scure, that it is impossible to render it literally. " La memoria sua appa- riva suelta e spiccata dietro alia testa." — Vita dc Sav. torn. i. p. 531. 136 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM Era parvo di corpo, ma ben sano Era di membra a modo delicato, Chi quasi relucea sua santa Mano. Hilare sempre e non gia mai turbato Di squardo deste e penetrante e bello Dell' occliio sufformaot oscuro e grato Denso di barba e d'obscuro capello La bocca suelta e la faccia distesa ; Arcato al naso al quanto areva quello Era su' alma di tal grazia accesa Delia qual resultava tal bellezza Che sua faccia di ciel parea discesa* The latest descendants of the family of Savonarola we find mention made of in the Biographie Universelle (Art. Sav. vol. xx.), are, Padre Michel Savonarola, of Padua, born 1646, who died in 1730, and the nephew of the preceding, Innocent Ra- phael Savonarola, who died in 1746. Thirty years after the death of Savonarola, the most devoted of the admirers and faithful of the followers of Savonarola, Mes- ser Nicolo de Lapi, was living in Florence, a hale old man, verging on ninety years of age, a master artizan well to do in the world, wealthy and universally respected, ardent in his love of republican government, of his country, and of his religion, of which he looked on Savonarola as a martyr. f This venerable man, after the death of Fra Girolamo, made it the business of his life to do honour to his memory, to study his writings, and to apply the most rigorous of his doctrines and revelations, and most difficult of application, to passing events, whether of a public or a private nature. But the zeal of the old man for the martyr's honour carried him sometimes, we are told, into excesses. It is said — " he converted the mild yoke of the Gospel into an impracticable tyranny." The greatest treasures possessed by Messer Nicolo de Lapi, # Era Benedetto. Cedrus Libanus, in Arch. Istor. I tal. Appen. No. 23. f The character and career of this single-minded, upright man, of unal- terable opinions and attachments, are admirably depicted in the work of Signior Azeglio, " I Palleschi. E. I. Piagnoni," vol. i. p. 16. 12mo. Firenze, 1845. OF SAVONAROLA. 137 were certain relics of the martyred Dominican, which he kept in his abode with the utmost care and reverence : a tunic which had belonged to Fra Girolamo, a silver urn, with some small portion of the ashes of that part of the scaffold on which the venerated friar had terminated his existence. The accounts given of old Nicolo's researches for all objects that could be ascertained to have belonged to Savonarola, after his ashes had been scattered to the winds, and in the waters of the Arno, remind us of the careful search of Isis for the mangled remains of Osiris. " Truth," says Milton, " came once into the world with her divine master, and was a perfect shape — most glorious to look on ; but when he ascended, and his apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon, with his conspirators, concerning the manner they dealt with the god Osiris — took the virgin truth, hewed her lovely form, and scattered the mem- bers to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down, gathering up limb by limb still as they could find them."* The fervour of old Nicolo's affectionate regard for the memory of Fra Girolamo, was only equalled in degree by the ferocity of his hatred for the name, and all that was left in his latter days of the ruined family and fortunes of the Medici and their adhe- rents, the Palleschi — the deadly antagonists of the Piagnoni — the partizans of Savonarola. The famous prediction of Fra Girolamo — " Florentia flagella- bitur et post flagella renovabitur " — old Nieolo made more fa- miliar to the people of Florence than it had been during the life of its author. In 1495, when Savonarola was all influential in Florence, Jesu Christo was proclaimed sovereign of the State of Tuscany. In 1527, we are told by Segni, by a decree of the great council, the same was ordained in these words, "Jesus Chn*- * Milton's " Areopagitiea." 138 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM tus Rex Florentini Populi S. P. Decreto Electus" But in three years more, we find the irreconcileable factions of the Palleschi and Piagnoni still at variance in Florence, when the troops of Charles the Fifth of Germany, and of Clement the Ninth, were besieging the city, as these parties were in 1494, when the army of Charles the Eighth, of France, was at its gates. During the siege of Florence, in [1529-1530, in the extreme necessity of the government, the citizens were appealed to for contributions. The goods were confiscated of the Palleschi, the old Medicean faction, by whom Savonarola was brought to the stake. The women of Florence voluntarily came to the aid of the government, with their jewels and ornaments of gold and silver. With the precious metals thus contributed, new money was coined, with the letters on one side, S. P. Q. F., and on the re- verse the words — " Jesus Rex noster et Deus noster."* Savona- rola's ideas had not perished with him at the stake. Those phoenix bird beings of the brain of genius have surely some in- destructible element in their composition. It is not in the power of persecution to burn the life out of them. But among the contributors of precious objects to the state in its dire distress, there was one whose offering was of an object that had been held in singular veneration, and which must have cost him no small pain and grief to part with. The virtuous old republican, Nicolo de Lapi, came to the Signory with the silver urn which had contained some of the ashes of his idolized friend and master, Savonarola, having previously carefully re- moved the treasured reliques, and placed them in a silken bag.f 66 As the recollection of Savonarola," says Professor Hafe, " on the part of his friends and admirers, became extinct by degrees at Florence, so the place of his execution was no longer strewn with flowers every year, on the eve of Ascension day, as it used to be. His memory began to be honoured in the French churches by the Dominican order, under the title of prophet and martyr, as can be seen by reference to the great works on * I. Palleschi, E. I. Piagnoni tome ii. p. 447. t Ibid. p. 448. OF SAVONAROLA. 139 Ecclesiastical history by Bzovius, Raynaldus, and Notalis Alex- ander. It is singular that the Catholic Church, which, after the Protestants had separated from her under Paul the Fourth, strove anxiously to collect together all the literature that had emanated from her sons in byegone times, should have directed a prohi- bition against Savonarola's writings. Great efforts were made by the Dominicans to preserve to them the reputation of sanctity, or at least to vindicate the orthodoxy, of Savonarola, with which object, the Apology of Thomas Neri, written by desire of the general of the order, was of especial service. But the most use- ful work for Savonarola's history, is the little collection of refer- ences by Padre Jacobo Quetif. * Even the J esuits declared themselves willing to admit Savonarola into the Category of Saints, as one of the blessed, after having found his life by Burlamacchi, in the library of S. Marco at Venice, and to have his acts inserted in the supplemental volumes of the ' Acta Sanctorum,' if the General of the Dominicans could only on his part obtain the sanction of the Apostolic See."f While Savonarola has been thus honoured by a portion of the Catholics, his memory has been glorified on the other side, in the Protestant church ; since Luther, in the preface to the Psalm on Repentance, has written of him thus : " The Antichrist of that time dared to make the memory of this great man perish ; but see, he lives, and the remembrance of him is blessed." " He wishes to have him regarded as one of the witnesses of truth, a precursor of Protestantism, one belonging to us, though in the camp of the enemy." But Professor Hafe, in regard to this claim on Savonarola for his church acknowledges that " Luther appears to have known very little of his history." ..." Anything he says," continues Hafe, "on this subject is historically unimportant." + Our celebrated Bishop Fisher, whom Henry the Eighth put * In three volumes, one of which, written in an apologistic strain, is a very careful and discreet performance. t Professor Hafe's Neue Propheten, pp. 340, ct seq. I Ibid. pp. 330, et seq. 140 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM to death, in his treatise Confutatio Lutheranae (Libro Assertionis, art. 38, p. SSI), referring to Luther's allusion to Savonarola^ says, "It is sufficiently evident from the works which he pub- lished, that no one would have more condemned your assertions than Jerome himself;" that is to say, Savonarola. The famous Jesuit, father Parsons, said of him : " He never held any heretical opinion, but always was in agreement with the Roman Catholic Church in every article of faith." Savonarola's opinions, according to Mirandola, of the abuses prevailing in his time, differed little from those of the celebrated Bishop Fisher. " Optime Roffensis ille Christi martyr egregius et ecclesiae cardinalis eruditus contra Lutherum agens Hieronymim sibi blandientem et vindicantem." * The opponents of Fra Girolamo, with the exception of his rabid adversary — Monsignor Polito Catarina — and a few others, sui generis, confine their charges against the renowned Do- minican, to spiritual pride, want of prudence, excessive zeal and rigour, an undue austerity in regard to public morals, an ex- cessive boldness and severity in reprehending the disorders of ecclesiastics, and of his superiors in particular. In proof of these charges, they bring forward many statements of facts : his claims to a knowledge of future events and im- pending judgments, and his habit of speaking, in the pulpit, of revelations and visions and communications made by him of a spiritual or supernatural kind : his interference in political affairs by recommending any particular form of civil government, propounding especially a theocratic theory, aiding in carrying it into effect, and leading people to expect its practicability and permanence : his non-interference in behalf of the five condemned citizens of Florence in 1497 : the undue lengths to which, in the fervour of an indiscreet devotion, he allowed innocent amuse- ments, and the use of ordinary objects of adornment, and of art, and of apparel, even of a superior quality, to be interfered with in the auto-da-fe of vanities of 1497 and 1498 : lastly, # Mirandola, t. i. pref. OF SAVONAROLA. 141 his practice of inveighing constantly and strenuously, in the pulpit, against the abuses that prevailed in the ecclesiastical affairs of his time, the disorders of the clergy and especially the spiritual princes of the court of Rome. In the course of this work, sufficient information has been laid before the reader on all the topics, with one exception, that are touched on in the several charges I have just noticed, to enable him to form a just opinion of their merits, and as it may be hoped, a favourable one of the subject of this biography. On one topic only I feel something more is required to be said in justice to Savonarola, namely, on the evils that prevailed in the government of the Church, in the constitution of the court of Rome, and in the ecclesiastical establishments generally in the times of Savonarola. Machiavelli has left an excellent record of his opinion of that divine influence of the spirit which animated " the great Savonarola," in some admirable stanzas : " Io dico di quel gran Savonarola II qual afflato da virtu divina Vi tenne involti con la sua parola,* &c. &c. &c." From a work entitled " Peplus Italise," published in Paris, 15T8, J. M. Toscani opus, the following lines are cited : HIERONYMUS SAVONAROLA. " Cui Deus ipse pio stimulos sub pectore vertit, Dotaque reclusit spiritus ora sacer, Ille tuus praico Pietas, Hieronymus ille Sincere summus relligionis bonos, Intrepide sic est suprema voce loquitus, Cum daret indigno membra cremanda rogo : Pectora nostra adjectum crepitantes urite flammsB Urite quae Christi jam pius ussit amor." Flaminio, a celebrated poet of his time, has left a remarkable * Operette de N. Machiavelli, Poema " Decennale," p. 59. Ed. 4to. 1550. (sine luogho.) 142 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM epigram, expressive of his admiration for the renowned Do- minican : " Dum fera flamma tuos Hieronymus pascitur artus Religio sanctas dilaniata comas Flevit et O dixit crudeles parcite flanimse Parcite, sunt iste viscaera nostra rogo." We cannot more fitly terminate this account of the Life and Labours of Savonarola, than with a specimen of that style of preaching which Alexander the Sixth denounced as novel, rash, and impious, and for which he deemed the preacher de- serving of an ignominious death. In many portions of this work brief extracts have been given from the sermons, and the several treatises of Savonarola, illus- trative of his powers of oratory, as exhibited in the pulpit, and of his exalted intellect, as manifested in his various compo- sitions. But there is one of his sermons, the twenty-second of his discourses on the second Psalm, " Quam Bonus Israel Deus," " Of the Mode of Understanding the Sacred Scriptures," preached in the church of Santa Maria Del Fiore, in Florence, in the advent of 1493, more than all his other discourses or disquisitions, which manifests the most exalted knowledge of sacred science, and the purest spirit of unsophisticated Chris- tianity. On the extract I give from this discourse, the mere exordium of the sermon, literally rendered from the Italian version, (re- cently republished, " Prediche de F. Girolamo Savonarola, Firenze, 1845"), I might safely rest the character of Savo- narola as a man eminently holy and enlightened, imbued with the spirit of Christ, and qualified to instruct men in the present age " in the ways of the Lord," and the knowledge essential to salvation, by his writings, as he was competent in the pulpit and the cloisters to teach and guide those of his own times.* * In the preface to the Italian version of the " Prediche Sopra, 2do Salmo Quam Bonus," ^and Volgarizatte du Fra Giannotti da Pistoia — OF SAVONAROLA. 143 Twenty-second Sermon of the Course in Exposition of the Psalm, " Quam Bonus Israel Deus," and " Of the mode of understanding the Holy Scriptures. " Because the Scriptures, most beloved in Christ, are the work of the Holy Ghost, accomplished with wonderful skill, they require very deep consideration ; on which account, for understanding them with more facility, doctors of the church have laid down many rules which serve as keys to unlock the secrets which are concealed in them, and which bring things to accord that seem to be contradictory. Among other rules of this kind are those of Ticonius, who had been a Donatist, which rules had been framed by him after he became a convert to the Catholic faith, abandoning the heresy of Donatus. And these rules were corrected afterwards by St. Augustin ; and St. Isidore also cites them. Those keys to the Holy Scriptures are very necessary for penetrating the secrets of them ; for the Divine Writings, as St. John says in the fifth chapter of the Apocalypse, ' are a book written within and without, with seven seals, beneath which are hidden seven principal evangelical mysteries of the New Testament, namely, the mystery of the Trinity, that of the Incarnation and mission of Christ Jesus, that of his Passion and Death, that of his Resurrection, that of the Last Judgment, and that of Regeneration. These mysteries were sealed up in the Old Testament. In it, written within and without, under signs, figures, and vaticinations of holy pro- phets, and chiefly in the book of Psalms, were concealed those mysteries. " St. John, to whom this closed book was shewn, says, no one was found who could open it and unfasten those seven seals, except the Lamb Christ Jesus. Qui habet clavem Davidi, qui Edizione de Yinezea, del 1528, it is stated that the whole of those twenty- three sermons " not having been taken down as the other sermons were, by persons who were present at their delivery, the venerable father was re- quested to write them by many of the community of San Marco, and he had done so at their request." We thus have, in the sermons referred to, not only the thoughts of the preacher and the substance of his discourses, but the very words of the actual sermons which were preached by him. THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM aperit et nemo claudit, claudit et nemo aperit. And by him was communicated this key to the apostles and to the other disciples, when, as it is written, Aperuit sensum ut intelligerent Scripturas; but much more excellently did he enlighten them on the day of Pentecost, when he poured out on them the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the same which he afterwards communicated to the holy doctors (of the church). But observe, that although there is only one key, that is to say, one power, and one faculty, given to the saints by the Holy Ghost to open this book, never- theless, the doctors make use of many keys, or rather many rules and methods, to be enabled, and to know how to use this one key, and to act with it. Let us say that which is even better (to be understood), that this key is Christ, which opens every thing, and is of universal application. There are certain other particular keys, and doctors of the church have described several, but we will refer to seven only. And although it is not necessary here to enter at large on all of them, I will refer briefly, for the instruction of the faithful who study the sacred Scriptures, to some of them." [Here follows a long explanation of the seven particular keys to the Holy Scriptures, which it may be sufficient here to give only the designations of compendiously. The first is a know- ledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the just, and his mystic body, which is the Church. The second is a knowledge of the power of the devil, the head of the wicked, and of his mystic body, who are the children of evil. The third is a know- ledge of the true mystic body of our Saviour, that is to say, of true Christians, united to Him by faith and charity, and a knowledge likewise of his simulated mystic body, which is composed of the wicked, pretending to be good. The fourth is a knowledge of the mode of describing things, speaking of the whole or of a part of a genus, or a class or species of a member, or an infinite amount or a multitude of a city, or the universal world. The fifth is a knowledge capable of discriminating be- tween the letter and the spirit, the literal sense, and the spiritual and mystic. The sixth is a knowledge of times as they are OF SAVONAROLA. 145 treated in the Inspired Writings. The seventh is a knowledge of the modes used in the Holy Scriptures of anticipating and recapitulating events, of narrating things by anticipation, some- times, and at others, of recapitulating the occurrences of the time with those long past. " Mark well," continues Fra Girolamo, w that if men seek to gain this knowledge easily and promptly, in order that all things may not appear too extraordinary to them, it will be necessary for them to acquire some degree of familiarity with the style and modes of speech in the Holy Writings. " If you go into some distant country, where there is a language unknown to you, and you wish to dwell there, and transact your business in such place, it is necessary you should become acquainted with the sound of that language, if you desire to acquire and understand it perfectly ; for in the beginning, though all foreign languages seem strange to us, if we accustom ourselves to them by little and little, at the end they appear most easy to comprehend. And therefore we should consider how many things are required to have a due understanding of the Scriptures. " But first of all, purity of heart is necessary, which is acquired by conquering our passions and taking off our affections from earthly things. Secondly, a long exercise of virtue in living well is requisite ; for it is not enough to restrain vices, it is yet essential to exercise one's self in virtue, and to become habit- uated to it, not only for a year, or five years, or ten, but for a prolonged period, so that a man shall have acquired a habit of doing well. In the third place, it is requisite to read frequently the Sacred Scriptures, and to make one's self familiar with the mode of speech therein, as I have already said. In the fourth place, it is essential to observe the rules which the doctors of the Church prescribe, for expounding the Holy Scriptures, and not to depart from them. Lastly, it is necessary to give one' s self up to meditation and contemplation, as it is also necessary frequently to seek retirement, and to fly from intercourse with VOL. II. L 146 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM others, and have recourse often to prayer ; and in this manner, an understanding of the Holy Scriptures is acquired. " But if the Christians of our times would only consider how much time is required to gain a knowledge of those things, they would not say, as every day it is said now, ' I must first study logic and philosophy, and give myself up to the subtleties (of rhetoric), and afterwards I will apply myself with more advan- tage to the Holy Scriptures.' " Oh, it is requisite (we are told) sometimes to study those things ; yes, sometimes, but it is not necessary to consume your entire lives in them. It is requisite to bid adieu early to those human sciences, and give yourselves up to the study of a good life, by little and little to get accustomed to meditation on the Holy Scriptures, and make yourself familiar with them. But modern Christians do quite the reverse, they expend much time in learning disputation and dialectics, and they do not study the Holy Scriptures, nor attend to the duty of living well ; and yet, in the twinkling of an eye, they expect to become mas- ters of Sacred science. Is it then to be wondered at, that the Scriptures are disdained by them, that they put the sacred books far from them, as things which are strange to them, and un- known by them ? " Oh, vast ignorance of the people of our times ! They see that the secular sciences are acquired with difficulty, after long study, and yet they imagine they have the power of acquiring the science of God in a year. cf Oh, foolish men, and slow of understanding ! Is it not good (you say) to study human sciences ? I have replied to you al- ready how you are to do. ' But, oh father (they rejoin), will you not further say (how we are to act) ? ' I know not what reply to make. I can only say, as St. Francis said to his monks, who inquired of him, if he wished they should study human sciences, when he answered — Yes ; but first and chiefly it is necessary to pray as the Apostle did.' " This do I say to you. It is noticrong to study the secular sci- ences, but more essential is it for us to attend to prayer, to the OF SAVONAROLA. 147 mortification of our appetites, and afterwards to the reading of the Sacred Scripture, for thus we will attain an understanding of them without much logic or philosophy. " But let me rest, for I have yet to show you, still more plainly, how negligent in these respects are Christians in our times. ee Three great follies are found to prevail among Christians in these days. They resemble in their conduct young men of foolish understandings, who are sent by their fathers to study law. Some of them devote their attention to every thing else except the law : one portion give themselves up to the art of oratory, another to poetry, another to music, another to astro- logy, and only at long intervals, and slightly, they glance over books on legal science. Some there are, who study much, but employ their time on comments only, and never look on the text of legal lore. These persons never can become learned, because they abandon the foundation of all doctrine. Others, however, apply themselves closely to the literal texts of legal science, but pay no attention to the views or ^the intentions of those who framed those laws, but consider only the advan- tages of style, if the words sound well, if the sentences seem to be imposing ; and they learn them by heart to be able to quote them, while, in point of fact, they only understand the titles and headings of the books they cite superficially. " Thus is it with Christians now : their principal study ought to be that of prayer and meditation, for all Christian perfection consists in charity, and charity is acquired only by prayer. But some Christians have arrived at such a degree of stupidity, that they forsake that which should be the chief study of Christians, and devote themselves to every other pursuit and avocation, as they are drawn to them by their several inclinations for plea- sure. But whence comes it, that such persons forsake thus the proper study of Christians, and give themselves to pursuits which are sinful ? The reason is obvious. " Come near me (with your understandings). I desire to lead you to the knowledge of the matter, by a simile derived from natural things and influences. We see the magnet has the property of l 2 148 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM attracting iron to it. ' In a similar way/ says St. Augustin, ' is it with flocks of sheep, and with children — they have their magnets :' hence he says, Ramum ostendis ovi et trains ipsum, nuces ostendis puero et trahis ipsum. " Bnt the man who has come to the age of maturity, what mag- net draws him ? Oh, I will tell you ! You are aware the iron always moves towards the most powerful magnet. But place the iron between two magnets of unequal power, one of which pos- sesses a greater force of attraction than the other, you will see the iron move towards the magnet of most power. " But what is meant by this comparison ? I wish to shew, that the heart of a Christian, who is come to the exercise of free will, is placed between two magnets, one of God, the other of things in nature, and simply and absolutely that God is a magnet of greater virtue than that which is of things in nature. " The hearts of men, if judgment prevailed, would always seek to unite themselves with God, who is the great principle of attraction ; but it so happens frequently that men deliberately attach themselves more to sensible things, because they often think of the latter, having them continually before their eyes, which is not the case with God. And for such persons, there- fore, sensible things are the great magnet. But when the Christian, by means of prayer, is drawn towards God and desires to be near unto him, then is God the strongest magnet, because he draws to himself the hearts of men in such a way that they separate themselves wholly from sensible pleasures : and if they continued always in the spirit, they would sin no more. But when they have fixed their imagination on terrestrial things, this magnet strongly attracts their hearts towards the pleasures of the world. Concluding then that the principal study of Christians is to incline towards God by means of meditation, prayer, and contemplation ; nevertheless, being between two magnets, the one of God, the other of sensible things, often men's hearts tend more readily to the latter than to the former, and for this reason are they drawn more readily to pleasures and to sin. OF SAVONAROLA. 141) " But for the pursuits which Christians should follow, they take no heed of them : but they act like those students I have fii st referred to, who attend to all other things except the study of those laws which they were sent to study. Thus they abandon themselves to all sorts of sinful pursuits, and are drawn by different attracting influences : some by the magnet of gluttony , wherefore they frequent taverns, they being of that class. Quorum JDeus est venter, as the apostle says : others by the magnet of sensuality, because they are encompassed by carnal vices ; others, again, by the magnet of irascibility, wherefore night and day they desire to be revenged of their enemies. And thus I might proceed to all similar transgressions — blasphemies against God and his saints, detraction, murmuring, pride, envy, gaming, failing in faith ; and in brief, the crimes of those who abandon themselves to all the vices and sins, without any restraint or respect for morals whatsoever. And thus do persons of this class become very eager and desirous to have all their wishes gratified ; and in fine, all their study and solicitude is about temporal things, spiritual things are not appreciated by them, they do not know even what meditation and divine contemplation mean ; they seldom pray, nay, worse, with many of them, when they go to their beds, they do not even make the sign of the cross. " Some are like the second class of students I referred to, who neglected the text of the law, and gave all their time to comments on it. Such are the persons who sometimes pray assiduously, but abandon the prayersof the Holy Scriptures, that is to say, the Lord's prayer, which was composed by our Saviour, the Ave Maria, and the psalms, and the other devout prayers of the Church, such as the Salve Rcgina, and the various devotional hymns which are sung by her : while they seek after and make use of certain new, unusual, and insipid, and sometimes superstitious prayers — certe nuovc, inusitati, c insipidi orazioni e qualche volte superstitioze. ' O Padre (they say), these prayers are of great authority, they are made by dignitaries of the Church with certain rubrics, which state that such and such graces will 150 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM be obtained by them, (and such privileges) as preservation from death by the dagger, or by pestilence, or without repentance, or so many years of indulgence.' I tell you these things are fables, they have no authority.* " But because simple people see those fine rubrics with those red (crosses affixed to them), they imagine that such prayers are of greater efficacy than those which are in the canons of the Church, and it is to be observed they say such prayers, not from motives of divine love, but from those of mercenary love, and in order to attain some worldly object. " And moreover, they take no trouble by other means to pre- serve themselves from sin, and to attain to a good mode of living, and therefore they do not acquire by such prayers any virtue or spiritual advantage. Others there are who do not say those prayers, but they carry them tied round their necks, and they believe by such means to save themselves ; and very often they do not know what is written in those brevi, which for the most part are some superstitious formulas and inventions of the enemy of souls. And thus you see how Christianity goes in these our days. I tell you that the life of a Christian does not consist in carrying these brevi on your backs, and in repeating similar prayers. " If you desire to save your soul, it is necessary that you should take other means of effecting this object, because in those (just mentioned) a true divine worship does not consist. Many, moreover, take the cord of Saint Francis, and the habit of the third order of Saint Dominick, and then it appears licit for them to commit every sin under that habit, and sometimes those in religion, encourage such persons, and say to them, f Take such or such a habit, make such or such prayers, and have no appre- hensions that aught can hurt you.' Oh, insensate Christians ! how do you suffer yourselves to be deceived ! " There are others, who resemble the third class of students I have referred to, who study and read often the texts of law, but do not comprehend the true meaning of the intentions * The Editor in a note adds, " Essendo Apoerife." OF SAVONAROLA. 151 of the legislator, but attend to the ornament of style, and the sound of the language, and are content to be able to cite passages. And we said this was the third kind of folly of such students. And so we say there are some Christians in this third kind of folly ; for although it be allowed, they say the prayers prescribed by the Church, and granted, that they sing those beautiful psalms and Antifone it sanctions, nevertheless they feel no spritual exultation in those exercises, they derive from them no fruits whatsoever productive of a good life, because they delight only in the ornament of words, and are moved only by melody and sweet-sounding poetical imagery. They do not penetrate into the depths of those texts and sentences of Scrip- ture, they do not understand those admirable inner intelligences — quelli belli sensi — which the Holy Ghost has infused into them, because if they penetrated them, you would see them more col- lected, more composed, more pure of heart ; they would not go sauntering about the church, and they would not practise the garrulity they do in the choir. " And therefore, my brethren, behold how the Christian people this day are in a state of ruin, because they do not honour God with a true worship ,but only with ceremonies (accompanied) with such prayers and ornate chaunts (as have been spoken of). Hence is it written of this people, Populus hie labiis me honor ant, cor autem eorum lonsre est a me. Then do you who desire to live well, hearken to David and Asaph, and observe how they prayed to God, and learn from them to pray in spirit and in truth." * Savonarola had to war with all kinds of treason against God, covert heathenism in the name of Platonic philosophy simulating Christian principles ; open disbelief in the government of a supreme power ; speculative infidelity of schoolmen, secular and clerical, of rhetoricians and wrangling theologians ; practical infidelity of churchmen who had become simonists and sensualists, enemies to truth and purity, and persecutors of just men be- hoving in God and fearing his judgments. * Prcdiche de Savonarola. Vol. unico, pp. 331 338. Fir 8vo. 18A5. 152 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM He died in the struggle, and the enemies of truth and justice thought they had a signal triumph. But his death only served to send his opinions, apostle-like, throughout the civilized world. Those enemies of " the True Monk," slandered him in vain. In vain they slew him, and in vain was it they said to one an- other : " Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and his patience." " Let us condemn him to a most shameful death, for there shall be no respect had to his words." " These things they thought and were deceived, for their own malice blinded them." * * Wisdom iii. 19—21. OF SAVONAROLA. 153 CHAPTER VI. REFORM OF ECCLESIASTICAL ABUSES (FOR DEMANDING WHICH SAVONAROLA WAS PUT TO DEATH), PRAYED FOR BY ST. BER- NARD IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY j AND DECLARED TO BE INDISPENSABLY REQUIRED, FORTY YEARS AFTER SAVONAROLA'S DEATH, BY A CONGREGATION OF CARDINALS APPOINTED BY THE POPE TO REPORT ON THE ABUSES THEN EXISTING IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. " Aggiungasi a questo, la scorretta vita dell' uno e dell' altro clero, infe- zione giunta sino agli stessi Pastori, ed anclie a' primi della cliiesa di Dio. e disawentura, clie non si puo nascondere, ne' abbastanza deplorare per gli scandali iiifiniti, che ne derivarono." — ~Mrn±Tom,AnnaL a.d. MD. conclus. The reform of ecclesiastical abuses was prayed for by St. Ber- nard, upwards of three centuries and a half before Savonarola preached against the scandals and disorders of the Church, and the simony, mammon-worship, and worldliness of spirit that pre- vailed in it. The same scandals and disorders were denounced by a con- gregation of cardinals, specially appointed by Pope Paul the Third to report on them, forty years after the friar of Ferrara had been put to death for bewailing their existence, and pro- claiming from the pulpit woe to the church, the priesthood, and the people, if the spirit of religion were not speedily renovated. The very rare and remarkable report above referred to, printed at Cologne, in small 4to. in 1538, consisting of thirteen pages of matter in the Latin tongue, is entitled " Concilium delectorum. Cardinalium et aliorum Prelatorum, de emenda Ecclesiae S. D. N. D. Paulo ipso juvente, conscriptum et exhibitum, anno 1538." THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM It purports to be a representation of the abuses in matters of religion which, required reform, the result of an inquiry instituted by Pope Paul the Third. It bears the signatures of Gaspar Card. Contarenus, Johannis Petrus Card. Theatinus, Jacobus Card. Sadeletus Reginaldus Card. Anglicus,* Freder. Archiepis Salernitanus, Hier. Arch. Brundusinus, J. Matthseus, Epis. Ve- ronensis, Gregor. Abbas S. Georgii Venet., Frater Thomas Mag. Sac. Palatii.f Their report, or representation, treats of the various abuses requiring reformation, and the remedies proposed for them, which are specified in twenty-eight articles, preceded by a pre- amble of three pages. Sarpi gives the names of the subscribers in full. The deplorable state of religion previously to the Council of Trent, is set forth more clearly in this representation of abuses of the time, and the disorders which had been introduced, not only into religious houses, but into the Court of Rome, than in any other document illustrative of the condition of the Church at that period. The substance of the several articles of this re- port is given in the following pages. The origin of the Report is described, but the matter of it is not given, in a work valuable for much of its historical data concerning the Council of Trent, though a very disingenuous production, written by an enemy of his religion, in the habit of a monk : — The History of the Council of Trent, by the Friar Paoli Sarpi. The following are his words : — " To give an effectual contradiction of those rumours, (of the Pope's disinclination to call a council for the purpose of reform), and to remove the evil opinion formed of his intentions, the Pope Paul the Third resolved to begin the reform with him- self, and with the cardinals and his court. :{: For tins object he chose four cardinals, and five other prelates (whom he so much esteemed that he made cardinals of four of them) ; and com- manded them to make a collection of the abuses which ought to be reformed, and to indicate the remedies which ought to be applied. In obedience to his commands, they made a written * Cardinal Fole. f Hist, du Concile de Trente, liv. i. p. 78. % OF SAVONAROLA. 1 55 report, setting forth that all abuses were occasioned by the too great facility with which the Popes lent their ears to flattery, and departed from the laws and commandments which Jesus Christ had given, to draw no profits from spiritual functions. After which, coming to detail, they set down twenty-seven abuses (Query, twenty-eight ?) in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs, and in the particular government of Rome." It is to be observed, that this dishonest writer, in stating that the report of the cardinals and prelates attributed all the abuses to the faults of the Popes, falsified the terms of the document he referred to. Its authors certainly reprehended the Court of Rome with a high hand, but they did not attribute all the evils which had fallen on the Church to the acts or conduct of the Pontiffs. They attributed the chiefest of those evils to the dignitaries of the Church who composed the Court of Rome, and to the crime of simony with which they especially charged them. " Ex hoc fonte, Sancti Pater, tanquam ex equo Trojano irrupere in eccle- siam Dei tot abusus et tarn gravissimi morbi," &c. Sarpi falsified history, in treating of the Pope's commission given to the Cardinals to draw up this representation, as a mea- sure dictated solely by a desire of saving appearances, and of silencing the enemies of his holiness. Sarpi must have well known that the commission in question was given by Pope Paul, with a bona fide desire for reform. I doubt if, in ecclesiastical annals, any instance of a similar kind is to be met with, of a number of the chief dignitaries of a church, engaged in a business of this kind, examining the evils that had fallen on religion, without regard to the worldly inte- rests of their order ; tracing those evils to the fountain head, and fearlessly and frankly, when reprehension was due, repre- hending the highest authority of the Church, even that under which they acted ; laying bare the most grievous faults of their own body, and lastly lifting the veil from every irregularity and disorder in life, or discipline in the subordinate ministers of that religion, whose fame was evidently dearer to them than any earthly consideration. THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM The following is in substance the representation made to Paul the Third of the abuses requiring the most prompt reform. " Art. 1. — The first abuse is the total want of care and circum- spection ' in the ordination of ecclesiastics, and especially of presbyters/ persons being every where ordained, disqualified by their condition, age, and education. Hence arose innumerable scandals, contempt of ecclesiastics, not only diminished venera- tion for divine worship, but even almost the extinction of it. " Art. 2. — The collation to ecclesiastical benefices, and in par- ticular curacies, but above all, the nomination to bishoprics, constituted another grievous abuse, from which it arose that benefices had been conferred on persons not even of the flock of Christ, nor of the church. M Art. 3. — The custom of entailing pensions on benefices in favour of those who collated to them, an abuse which would cease to be so if f the Pontiff, who was the universal dispenser of all the goods of the Church, burdened benefices with reservations of their enrolments, only for pious and charitable uses ; but other entails interfered with the decent maintenance of pastors.' " Art. 4. — The abuse of exchanging benefices by simoniacal compacts, in which lucre was the only object of the parties to them. " Art. 5. — The abuse of bequeathing benefices, of renouncing bishoprics and benefices, in consideration of a reservation to some of their revenues. " Art. 6. — The infraction of the ancient law of Clement, that the sons of presbyters shall not possess the benefices of their fathers. The custom of converting spiritual things to private uses having occasioned scandals ; and no cause had more con- tributed to the enmity to the clergy, from which so many sedi- tions had arisen, and others were arising. " Art. 7. — The abuse of disposing of benefices before the deaths of the incumbents. " Art. 8. — The evil of uniting two or more benefices, and what is worse, bishoprics : — ' Non tantum duobus, sed pluribus, et quod rejus est, in episcopatibus.' OF SAVONAROLA. 157 " Art. 9. — An abuse in the Church, of great moment, ' is the custom of conferring on Cardinals, not only one but many bishoprics ; and chiefly so, because the office of Cardinal, and the office of prelate, are incompatible.' " Art. 10. — The abuse which first, and before all others, should be corrected, is that of the non-residence of the prelates and beneficed clergy in their sees and parishes. " Art. 11. — The non-residence of the Cardinals at the court of Rome was also an evil that needed to be removed. " Art. 12. — It was a great abuse, and by no means to be tole rated, that the universal Christian world should be scandalised by the impediments which bishops, in the government of their flocks, put in the way of punishing and correcting criminals. For in the first place, by many modes, evil doers escaped, and especially clergy, from the jurisdiction of their ordinaries. Then, if they be not exempt from it, they fly immediately to confession, or by means of corruption, they obtain impunity. . . These abuses, most holy father, we conjure you, by the blood of Christ, who redeemed his Church, and washed it with the same blood, these abuses which have perturbed Christianity, let them be taken away. " Art. 13. — Another abuse to be corrected is in the religious orders, many of which have become so defiled, that their exam- ple has become a scandal to the laity and noxious to the latter. We think all conventual orders should be abolished (convent- ualis ordines abolenclos esse putamus omnes), not, however, to inflict injury on any, but to prohibit the reception of any no- vices. (Xon tamen ut alicui fiat injuria sed prohibendo ne novos possint admitteri.) So that without injury (to the exist- ing orders) they shall be suppressed, and good religious may be substituted for them. Xow we think it would be best, if all youths who are not professed, should be sent away from their monasteries. " Art. 14. — The abuse of the indiscriminate liberty given to friars to exercise the functions of preachers and confessors, with- out episcopal examination of their fitness for such offices, and sanction for the performance of their duties. 158 THE LIEE AND MARTYRDOM " Art. 15. — We have stated, most holy father, that it is not lawful by any compact to derive lucre from any use of the keys whatsoever ; in this matter the words of the Saviour are ex- pressed, ' Freely you have received, freely give.'' This matter not only concerns your Holiness, but all who are partakers of this power. The same applies to legates and to nunneries. "Art. 16. — Another abuse troubles Christendom, that of nunneries, which are under the care of convents of monks, when in many monasteries public sacrilege is committed, to the very great scandal of the citizens. " Art. 17. — It is a great and pernicious abuse in the public schools, especially of Italy, that in them many philosophers teach impiety. Even in the temples of religion, they hold most im- pious disputations, and if some of them are of a pious nature, they are treated before the people in a most irreverent manner. " Art. 18. — The abuse of permitting monks, for the sake of lucre, to retain the monastic habit, who have apostatized from their vows. " Art. 19. — Another abuse is the existence of questing crafts, called of the Holy Spirit and of St. Anthony, by which the country people and the simple are deluded, and involved in many superstitions ; these, we think, ought to be put an end to. " Art. 20. — Another abuse is, the facility with which dispen- sations have been given to many persons who have been or- dained. "Art. 21. — The abuse of dispensations, in cases of affinity or consanguinity. Marriages within the second degree should not be tolerated, except on very grave public grounds. In other degrees to be withheld also, except for justifiable reasons ; and never for money, except by the imposition of a fine after abso- lution for pious uses. " Art. 22. — The abuse of absolving persons guilty of simony, and still profiting by it. Alas ! how widely spread is this pes- tilential vice in the Church of Christ ! so much so, that persons are not ashamed to commit the crime of simony, and forthwith OK SAVONAROLA. 159 to ask absolution for it. They even buy it, and thus retain the benefice they have purchased. " Art. 28. — The abuse of granting the clergy permission to bequeath the things of the Church, or to convert the patrimony of the poor into private uses, or the enlargement of houses. " Art. 24. — The abuse of the confessional, with the use of portable altars, which tends to bring sacred things into disre- spect. Indulgences should be granted only at stated times of the year, and in some important place. Commutation of vows should be less frequently sanctioned. " Art. 26. — The impiety of changing the last wishes of a tes- tator, with a view of diverting property from the heir-at-law, on any pretences of charitable purposes, should be put a stop to. (( Art. 26. — The scandal given by priests officiating in the temple of St. Peter, unfit for the sacred functions, and robed in vestments utterly unfit for divine service, and that too ' in the city of Rome, which is the Mother Church, and the mistress of other churches.' " Art. 21. — In this city (of Rome) some courtesans go about on mules as matrons, who are sought at noon day by high per- sonages, and of the court. In no other city have we seen such corruption of manners as in this city, which is accounted an ex- ample for all cities. They inhabit also fine houses. This vile abuse ought to be corrected. ee Art. 28. — The abuse in this city, of feuds between citizens, fomented by some cardinals, instead of being appeased by them. And lastly, the state of the hospitals in Rome, asylums of orphans and widows, calls for the care of his Holiness and his cardinals." The statement of the evils which afflicted the Church, ter- minates with a moving appeal to his Holiness, " that as he had taken the name of Paul, he would imitate the charity of the apostle who was chosen to be the bearer of the name of Jesus to the Gentiles. He, it was to be hoped, was chosen to pre- vent the name of Christ being forgotten by them, to have it re- stored by the clergy, renewed in the hearts and works of the laity, so that the sick might be healed, the sheep of Christ 160 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM gathered into one fold, the impending wrath of God, and the revenge, justly merited, turned away from the nations of Chris- tendom." The preceding extracts, it may be repeated, are taken from the original published report. " The Pope," says Sarpi, " caused this report to be examined by several cardinals, and proposed the matter in full consistory. Nicholas Schomberg, commonly called Cardinal of Capua, contended in a long discourse that the reform was not seasonable. He said that such was the malice of men, that if one attempted to prevent them doing evil, they would take a delight in doing still greater evil, and that there was less inconvenience from suffering a known disorder, which being in existence, gives less scandal than the introduction of another, which being new, becomes more apparent, and conse- quently more subject to censure. That it would give the Lutherans reason to boast of having forced the Pope to make this reform, in which the abuses would not only be taken away, but also other good customs, and thus the affairs of religion would be put on a worse footing. That the Lutherans would proclaim they had reason to make their complaints, which would increase their obstinacy- On the other hand, Cardinal Caraffa, a Theatine, contended that the reform was necessary, and could not be deferred without offence to God. That it was a general rule of Christianity, that evil could not be done that good might come of it ; one ought not, moreover, to refrain from a good work that was obligatory 5 on account of the evil that might arise from it." Pallavicino, in his History of the Council of Trent,* makes mention of the appointment by the Pope Paul, of this com- mission of enquiry of the four cardinals and five prelates, in the year 153T, and in general terms of their recommended re- forms. He speaks of the Cardinal Schomberg as a man " reli- gionis studiosissimus et Germanicorum ingeniorum peritissimus.' With reference to the scandals given in Rome, referred to in * Hist. Con. Trent, vol. i. p. 137. OF SAVONAROLA. 161 the 27th Art. he observes, " Nunc amplius hoc enorme specta- culum Romam deturbat." * Savonarola found ecclesiastical affairs in a far worse state than Bernard left them m } and of that fact we have the clearest evidence in the preceding official report of the state of religion in the beginning of the sixteenth century, which must have been as Alexander left it. Savonarola's zeal in all probability was not more ardent for the cause of religion than that of Ber- n ird. He denounced the abuses that prevailed in the court and in the government of the Church of Rome, as Bernard had done. And though the calamities of the Church were greater which Savonarola had to bewail, and to contend with, his invectives against those who occasioned them were not more vehement than those of Bernard. Mirandola, in his biography of Savonarola, has made mention of the calamitous state of religion, in his account of the different classes of persons who were opponents or persecutors of Savo- narola : (( But amongst all the persecutors of Fra Girolamo, the most inveterate were those persons of the worst morals, and especially the highest dignitaries of the Church, whose scan- dalous lives filled the whole world with an evil odour : and amongst the Florentine laity, those citizens who were devoted to usurious practices, and depraved by vices, and other classes in- fected with the pestilence of avarice and luxury, such as those who had given themselves up to simony." f So bad was this state of things, continues Nardi, at the time of the death of Savonarola, " it was publicly said, that under the rule of Mahomet, there was not greater scandal, than then disgraced the Christian religion. And certainly the corruption of morals was so great in all classes, it might be affirmed truly that such was the case, by those who lived in those evil times. In that period it appeared that no vice was deemed more scandalous or reprehensible, than the crime of having had * Vide Appendix, Original .Report. t J.Fran. Pico de Mirandola, Vita de Savonarola. Vol. ii. cap- ix. p. 33. VOL. II. m 162 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM faith in the truth of that friar (Fra Girolamo), or to have desired a reform in morals in the court of Rome." * If it were possible by scandals to overwhelm the church, Alexander the Sixth and his vices must have ruined it. If it were in the power of a corrupt court, to pervert its doctrines and to undermine religion, the faith could hardly have survived the crimes against it, committed by its highest dignitaries, and the most corrupt of all Italian courtiers. If it were possible, moreover, to abolish the Church of Rome by invective, it must have long since sunk under the vast amount of vituperation which has been expended on it. It seems, however, to thrive well in the worst tempests, and to suffer only from the influences of a court, and its secular con- cerns and corruptions. But the court of Rome is one thing, and the church of Rome is another. One is a mere human establishment, the other is an institution that claims to be of a divine origin. " We often hear it said," observes Macaulay, " that the world is constantly becoming more and more enlightened, and that this enlightening must be favourable to Protestantism, and unfavour- able to Catholicism. We wish that we could think so. But we see great reason to doubt whether this be a well-founded ex- pectation. We see that during the last two hundred and fifty years the human mind has been in the highest degree active — that it has made great advances in every branch of natural philosophy — that it has produced innumerable inventions tending to promote the convenience of life — that medicine, surgery, chemistry, engineering, have been very greatly improved — that government, police, and law have been improved, though not to so great an extent as the physical sciences. Yet we see that, during these two hundred and fifty years, Protestantism has made no conquests worth speaking of. Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, been in favour of the Church of Rome. We cannot, therefore, feel confident that the progress of knowledge will necessarily be * Nardi, p. 83. OF SAVONAROLA. 163 fatal to a system which has, to say the least, stood its ground, in spite of the immense progress made by the human race in know- ledge since the days of Queen Elizabeth." * But let us observe how this church, scandalized by the worst of men, in the worst of all ages of its history, emerged from its degradation at the close of the career of Leo the Tenth. An account has been given of that renovation by an eminent Pro- testant historian. We find the great work promoted by a pon- tiff, namely, Paul the Fourth, who was one of the subscribing cardinals to that singular report which has been previously referred to. That cardinal was John Peter Caraffa, a monk of the Theatine order. " It is not, therefore," says Macaulay, " strange that the effect of the great outbreak of Protestantism in one part of Christendom should have been to produce an equally violent out- break of Catholic zeal in another. Two reformations were pushed on at once with equal energy and effect — a reformation of doctrine in the North, a reformation of manners and discipline in the South. In the course of a single generation, the whole spirit of the Church of Rome underwent a change. From the halls of the Vatican to the most secluded hermitage of the Apennines, the great revival was everywhere felt and seen. All the insti- tutions anciently devised for the propagation and defence of the faith were furbished up and made efficient. Fresh engines of still more formidable power were constructed. Every where old religious communities were remodelled, and new religious communities called into existence. Within a year after the death of Leo, the order of Camaldoli was purified. The Capu- chins restored the old Franciscan discipline, the midnight prayer and the life of silence. The Barnabites and the society of So- masca devoted themselves to the relief and education of the poor. To the Theatine order a still higher interest belongs. Its great object was the same with that of our early Methodists, namely to supply the deficiences of the parochial clergy. The Church of Rome, wiser than the Church of England, gave * Macaulay, Ranke's Lives. Ed. Rev. 164 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM every countenance to the good work. The members of the new brotherhood preached to great multitudes in the streets and in the fields, prayed by the beds of the sick, administered the last sacraments to the dying. Foremost among them in zeal and devotion was Gian. Pietro CarafTa, afterwards Pope Paul the Fourth."* * Macaulay on Kanke's Hist, of the Popes. Repub. by Longman, p. 19. OF SAVONAROLA. 165 CHAPTER VII. RELATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE, AND THEIR INFLUENCES IN THE PONTIFICATE OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH. CAREER OF . CESAR BORGIA AFTER THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CARDI- NAL INTO THE CAPTAIN GENERAL. HIS EXPLOITS. DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH. " So ferocious and infuriate was the soul of Cacus. He left not a species of crime, wickedness, treachery, or fraud, unattempted or untried." — Vie. JEn. lib. vii. Lo ! Alexander sits in Peter's chair, And ev'ry vice enthroned now triumphs there ; While " The True IMonk " of Florence meets with death, In all its direst terrors, for the faith. It was not till after the death of Savonarola that Caesar Borgia began to aspire to an Italian sovereignty, and to make himself lord of Komagna, with the army of the church and the treasures of the pontiff. The Cardinal Valentino did not imbrue his hands in his brother's blood without a motive for the murder. He abandoned the church, and exchanged the red hat for a ducal coronet. The cardinal was transformed into the Duke Valentino, the churchman into a rapacious soldier, sanguinary, ruthless, per- fidious, and ferocious. Caesar Borgia, from the hour of his brother's death, let all his passions loose, but, above all, gave a free course to his measure- less ambition, cupidity, and vindictiveness ; and from that time it seemed as if the destiny of his father was bound up with his 166 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM own. The worst qualities of Alexander's nature now burst forth, and the unworthy pontiff seemed to live for no other purpose than to promote the wicked objects of his son, and to profit by them. Caesar suddenly became a great military chief, a terror of the pope's enemies in all the ecclesiastical states, and of the noble families of those adverse cardinals who had excited Alexander's jealousy, or of those whose possessions bordered on the papal states. The Italian princes had good reason to look with apprehen- sion and dismay on the new power that was springing up behind the chair of St. Peter. From the pontiff there was neither truth, justice, nor fidelity to any engagement to expect ; and from Caesar there was only perfidy and simulation to count on. " El proverbio allora correa, che il Papa non facea mai, quello che diceva ; ed il Valentino non dicea mai quella che facea."* The power of Caesar was the more formidable, from his having all the temporal resources and spiritual powers of the see of Pome at his command. " In this year," (1500), says Guicciardini, " Alexander, shewing the correspondence of all his acts, and the one aim by which they were directed, having made a most scandalous creation of twelve cardinals, not of such persons as possessed most merit, but of those who made the largest offers of money for that dignity, — not to leave any means of getting money untried throughout all Italy and in foreign countries, he had the jubilee published, which had been already celebrated at Rome, and with the presence of a vast number of strangers, conceding even privileges of it to those who had not been able on that occasion to visit Rome, for certain pecuniary considera- tions. The sums of money thus amassed, together with all other means which could be obtained in any manner from the * Muratori, Ann. 1503, torn. xir. p. 19. OF SAVONAROLA. 167 spiritual treasury, and from the resources of the temporal domi- nions of the church, he remitted to his son, the Duke of Valen- tino, who had taken up his winter quarters, and was preparing all tilings necessary for the siege of Faenza, as soon as the season of the year permitted."* It is not denied, I believe, by any historian of the affairs of Italy in the fifteenth century, that the Duke of Valentino derived the means chiefly from his father, which enabled him to ravage Italy, to carry fire and sword into many of its provinces, to overrun the whole of Romagna, to seize on towns and cities, to put to death members of the most illustrious houses in Italy, to make a trade of war, and derive a princely revenue from the sacking of towns and castles, to make a system of rapine, and a speculation of murder and robbery on a grand scale. The pontiff had vast resources at his command to supply his son with money to meet all the exigencies of war, wherever that man-monster, in his mad lust and the headlong fury of his rage for blood, was pleased to carry it. The sinews of war came from Alexander. The unholy practice of hoarding wealth derived from a traffic in sacred things, and from revenues of temporal possessions nominally held for spiritual purposes, enabled Alexander to subsidize a son who had gone to war with humanity, and in whose track there was a realization of the horrors of which we read in Josephus. " The war-cry of the Roman legions rushing to conquest, and the shouts of the factions surrounded with fire and sword, were heard aloud. There was no mercy for age ; nor could dignity- find any respect. "Wasted and gaunt with famine, they bellowed forth their groans and lamentations. All the Per sea and the neighbouring hills resounded, and made the tone deeper and deeper. The calamities and sufferings occasioned by this war were more formidable than the strife itself. "f " In 1501," says Muratori, " the Duke Valentino attacked the * Guicciardini, Historia de Italia, lib. v. p. 132. t Joseph. Hist,, Lib. vi. sect. 5, p. 1282.— Ed. Hudson. Oxon. 168 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM only place in Romagna that held out against him, Facnza. After two assaults, the town was taken the 26th of April, not- withstanding the brave defence made by the inhabitants on account of the great love they bore their young lord Astorgio de Manfredi, a youth of great promise, of about seventeen years of age. Terms were granted by the conqueror before he entered the town, guaranteeing to the young lord his liberty and the possession of his revenues. But Valentino was no sooner master of the place than he violated those terms. Astorgio was brought a prisoner to Rome, and his natural brother also, and both were murdered. Contra la fede condusse poi a Roma Pinnocente garzone Astorgio e tanto a lui che ad un altro fratello bastardo levo de poi barbaricamente la vita."* In the Annals of the year 1501, Muratori narrates the siege and capture of Capua by the French troops, the Duke of Valentino, the pope's son, being present at this achievement, and its car- nage of eight thousand people, as some say, and only three thousand, as others state. " It is impossible to read without horror," says Muratori, " the cruelty used by the victorious party, who, not content in such circumstances with spoiling the citizens and the sacred things of the churches, gratified their lust on women of every condition, without sparing even those dedicated to religion, while some, to escape from such violence, threw themselves into the river and into wells. Not a few of them were carried as captives into Rome subsequently, and were sold there. The Duke Valentino, who was present with the French at this impresa, made a selection of forty of the most handsome, kept them for himself, not to be inferior (in any respecct) to the Turks."* As to individual acts of barbarity and murderous atrocity, the document to which our readers have to be referred, the Diary of Burchard, leaves few other records of his crimes ne- cessary to turn to, though many of his greatest enormities are not noticed there. * Muratori, Annali, a.d. 1521.. torn. xiv. p. 6. t Ibid. p. 10. OF SAVONAROLA . When Caesar Borgia was roaming from one part of Italy to another, rather with the ravenous eagerness for carnage and prey of a savage beast, than with any thirst of military glory, or the natural dispositions or instincts of a human being, directed to any ordinary object of ambition, — slaying and pillaging wherever he went, strangling the young heads of noble families, cutting off the most virtuous and valiant defenders of the cities that fell into his hands in cold blood, reserving the most beau- tiful and respectable women among those who were taken pri- soners, for the gratification of his brutal passions ; in one cap- tured city, as we read in Guicciardini, examining and selecting no less than forty wives and daughters of the brave defenders of their native place for that object ; the means for these razees throughout Italy were furnished by Alexander from the eccle- siastical revenues. The connexion of Church and State enabled the Pope to sustain the wars of Caesar Borgia. Xardi, the Florentine historian, tells us, when the Duke's ravages were not far from Florence, he ordered the proceeds of the jubilee in that city, by the supreme authority of the Pontiff, to be delivered up "And those who governed the city," says Xardi, " either by respect of the Church, or fear of its censures, suffered that the messengers of the Duke (Valentino) should come to Florence, to take away the money from the funds produced by the jubilee, which had been celebrated in the church of Saint Salvador by the commissaries of the Pope, of the Franciscan order, and consented that he should carry these funds away to the- said Duke, in order that he might be enabled to pay his soldiers : which amount thus carried off was cer- tainly not a small sum of money."* Thomaso Thomasi, in " The Life of Caesar Borgia," (p. 367,) narrates one of those revolting murders which disgraced the Pontificate of Alexander, and were of such frequent occurrence in it. " The Pope and the Duke of Valentino, being informed that a brother of one John Lorenzo, of Venice, then in Rome, a man famous for his learning, had translated into Latin, and even * Nardi, Dellc Historic Florentine, p. 122, lto. Fer. 1583. 170 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM sent to Venice, to be printed there, some libels which had been originally written in Greek against the Borgias, by the said John Lorenzo, who was since dead — they gave orders to seize him, taking all the precautions to keep the thing secret ; and with all possible diligence they ordered all his effects and papers to be taken from Jiim, whether they belonged to him or his brother : of which the republic was soon apprized, being very particularly interested in the persons and goods of these brothers : for which reasons orders were sent to the Venetian ambassador, to intercede as powerfully as possible with the Pope in her name for the release of this prisoner, in a long audience which he had of him, and presenting to him the senate's letters, to grant him the enlargement of the person he demanded ; to whom the Pope answered, that he could not have thought the republic would have interested itself so much in behalf of the prisoner, and that he was extremely sorry he could not comply with her demands, since the process and the life of the person for whom she inter- ceded were already at an end, he having been strangled and thrown into the Tiber some nights before."* Guicciardini, in the third book of his History of Italy, in the events of the year 1501, observes — "All this time the affairs of the Pontiff proceeded in the same prosperous manner as usual. He acquired, with all the care he could desire, the whole estates of the Colonna and Savelli families, in the Campagna, part of which he bestowed on the Orsini, and his son, the Duke of Va- lentino, carried on the enterprise against Piombino, in which he employed Vitellozzo and Pagolo Baglioni, with new levies " The Pope also married his daughter, Lucretia, who had already been destined for three other husbands, (and was now a widow, by the death of Gismondo, Prince of Biselli, illegitimate son of Alphonzo, late king of Naples, who was assassinated by Valentino), to Alphonzo, eldest son of Ercole d'Este, with a dowry of one hundred thousand ducats in ready money, besides a vast amount of rich presents to a very great value. "f * Ap. Bayle, Crit. Diet. art. Manciuellus. t Guicciardini, Historia d'ltalia, lib. v. p. 339. OF SAVONAROLA. 171 Audin, the French historian, informs us, with remarkable coolness, how the enemies of Alexander, who were supposed to have been favourable to the French, while Charles the Eighth was in Italy, (the families of the hostile cardinals) were disposed of by his son, as soon as he had power to deal with them accord- ing to his views of justice. " The Colonnas (says Audin), who were the first who had betrayed the interests of the Holy See, were the first chas- tised. " In vain, to escape the vengeance of the Pope, had they placed their fiefs under the protection of the sacred college : Alexander had read Tacitus, and knew the secret of never trembling. " The Colonnas were also compelled to come as suppliants, to deposit in the golden basin of St. Peter the keys of their for- tresses. " Whilst the cardinal, their relation, purchased his safety at the expense of the rich abbey of Sabiaco, the Savelli allies of the Colonnas obtained their pardon on similar conditions, by despoiling themselves of these riches in favour of the Pope. " Then came the turn of the Orsini, those feudatories of the church, serpents with fangs full of venom, as the poet speaks of them. They, their relatives and confidants, the Duke of Gravina, Vitellozzo Vitelli, Balioni, Oliveretto de Fermo, re-united at Perugia, dreamt of shaking off the yoke of the old Pontiff, declaring themselves independent, and betaking themselves to their old marauding existence, which suited them so well. " Caesar Borgia, abandoned by his soldiers, betrayed by his lieutenants, for the first time in his life felt alarm, when a bad angel, the poet of whom above we have made mention, — Machiavelli, — came to seek him at Imola. What passed at that interview the historian says not one word of ; we only know, beyond a doubt, that the Duke Valentino (Caesar Borgia) took courage, and conceived the idea on the spot, and perhaps under 17:2 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM the inspiration of the Florentine, the drama of Sinagaylia, where the greatest part of the conspirators of Pesaro came without arms, like children, even to deliver themselves up into the hands of the executioner, whom Caesar had with him in all his expe- ditions."* Machiavelli has devoted to this sanguinary execution of Sinigaglia a chapter, to which he has given the title of " Private persons whom fortune or force has elevated to great power." In the whole range of history, with the exception of the per- fidious conduct of Mohammed Ali, of Egypt, in the massacre of the Mamelukes, in the citadel of Cairo, there is no act of cold- blooded treachery more diabolical than that of Caesar Borgia at Sinigaglia. Guicciardini, in his fifth book, narrates the tragedy of Sini- gaglia ; how Caesar met his confiding enemies in the gate, re- ceived them with wonderful caresses, especially the Orsini, the Duke of Gravina, Vitellozzo, and Oliveretto Da Ferino; how he courteously begged them to excuse his absence for a few minutes, and how the guardmen rushed in, made them all prisoners, and the next day had Vitellozzo and Oliverotto strangled in one chamber, reserving for a similar fate the other chiefs in prison, stripping their soldiers, and putting no bounds to their excesses. Then we are told how Caesar ac- quainted the pope with the happy success of the ensnaring plot in Sinigaglia, how the news was kept secret till the Cardinal Orsini was invited to the Vatican, and on his arrival was made prisoner, and died in captivity about twenty days after his arrest. And at the same time we are told how Rinaldo Orsini, arch- bishop of Florence, the prothonotary Orsini, the abbot Alviano, and Jacopo Santo Croce, all heads of houses, were seized in their dwellings by the pope's orders, and cast into prison. This is only a trivial episode, perhaps, in the history of the relations of church and state, but it will serve to remind the * Audin, torn. i. pp. 293, et seq. OF SAVONAROLA. 17;] reader there is blood upon those relations, and they cannot be maintained, defended, or improved, without it. Machiavelli, in a chapter entitled " Description of the mode of proceeding of the Duke Valentino, in the Killing of Vitel- lozzo, Vitelli, Oliveretto da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke of Gravina, composed by Nicholas Machiavelli," termi- nates the calm narrative of this politic atrocity with these words : — ff The soldiers of the Duke Valentino, not content with the spoliation of the people of Oliveretto, began to plunder Sini- gaglia, and had not the duke repressed their rapacity by the death of several of them, Sinigaglia would have been ruined. Night coming on, and the tumult being appeased, the duke began to think of his prisoners : it seemed good to the duke to kill Vitellozzo and Oliveretto — Al duca parue ammazzare Vil- lazzo e Oliveretto." And having had them conducted together to one place, he had them strangled ; at which execution none of their words were answerable to their former lives. For Vitellozzi prayed that the pope might be supplicated to give him a plenary indulgence for his past sins ; and Oliveretto left all the blame of the injuries he had done the duke on Vitellozzo. Pagola and the duke of Gravina Orsini were left alive till the news reached him from Rome that the pope had seized on the Cardinal Orsini, Archbishop of Florence, and Master Jacopo, of Santa Croce, upon which news, on the 18th of January, they were also strangled in the castle of Pieve, after the same manner."* So ends the narration of the stratagem, approved and planned with the knowledge and assent of Machiavelli, for the extermi- nation of the Orsini and their allies, and the annexation of their territories to the states ruled over by Alexander the Sixth. With respect to Machiavelli's share in this act, we find Roscoe, in the second volume of his Life of Leo X., directly charging him with a share in the contrivance of the atrocious * Opere de Nicolo Macliiavelli citadiDO et Secretario Florentine), 4to., (Roma), 1550, p. 97. 174 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM stratagem of Caesar Borgia at Sinigaglia, in 1502 ; but in a note at the end of that volume, he somewhat modifies the statement, shewing, from a letter of Machiavelli's, his admission that Borgia had communicated his intention to him the day before the per- petration of the deed, and from which it appears that he, Machiavelli, had not taken any measures to prevent it, either by expostulating with Borgia, or apprizing the parties devoted to destruction. " It is true," says Roscoe, " he gives us to understand that he was not apprised of the whole of the intentions of Borgia ; but the manner in which he speaks of the transaction after- wards, sufficiently proves that he would not have shrunk from a fuller participation of the crimes. In the same letter he proceeds, according to the desire of Borgia, to congratulate the Republic on this event, and to represent the advantages that would arise from their union."* Mons. L'Abbe Jorry, in his Life of Alexander the Sixth, published with the approbation of the Cardinal de la Tour D'Auvergne, by the Society of St. Victor, " for the propagation of good books," speaks of the murder of Vitellozo Vitelli, Paulo Orsini, and the Duke of Gravina, at Sinigaglia, as "an act in- dicative of the manners and usages of the time" and he appears rather surprised that Mons. Audin should " seem to take pity on the four brigands, and forget that their death was regulated hy the justice of the epoch ."f Caesar Borgia, like Cacus, was unparalleled in wickedness, but the son of a bad "pontiff could not be regarded except with deference by the historian of Alexander the Sixth. The exchequer of the Pontiff, not sufficing at length for the expenses of the wars his son carried on for him, nor the heavy charges of the army maintained by Caesar Borgia, nor for the regal state which he kept up, we are told by Panvinio, in the Lives of the Popes, that Alexander, " following the example of * Roscoe's Life of Leo X., notes, vol. ii. p. 487. t Hist, du Pape Alexandre, par Mons. L'Abbe Jorry, Plaucy, 1851. p. 169. OF SAVONAROLA. 175 other popes, instituted a new college, consisting of eighty writers of briefs, of which institution each appointment was sold at the price of seven hundred and fifty crowns of gold." " From the other colleges much profit was derived at the be- ginning, for the offices were purchased with avidity at a large price, a but in the course of time they became of little pecuniary advantage. Much profit was also derived from the Moors, who had been banished from the Spanish dominions, and had been received by Alexander to the great umbrage of the Spanish sovereign. " He created also, for money, many cardinals, ' Creo ancora per danari molti Cardinali.' And still not sufficing, all these means, for such great expenses as he incurred, fearing to be left destitute of resources, he deliberated by taking away by poison the lives of the richest prelates of the court, and amongst these, of some cardinals of yet greater riches, in order to be enabled, by their confiscated property, to meet his own most lavish expenditure, and to minister to the insatiable cupidity of his son. With the intention then of putting the latter on a foot- ing with the other princes, and the richest prelates of the court, he thus deliberated ; but the marvellous providence of God frustrated this design. For while he, who was bent on the ruin of Italy, had disposed of all things for promoting the designs of his son, and when a long career of prosperity seemed destined for him, by a mistake of a cup-bearer was taken from the world, and his son left in a most calamitous condition."* In the midst of the triumphant ravages of the Duke Valen- tino, when his rapacity was crowned with the most signal suc- cesses, when all of Italy, and, moreover, the heads of the great houses of Rome were crushed, and when the pontiff beheld that favourite son of his at the highest pinnacle of his great and sudden fortune, Guicciardini tells us the unhappy pontiff was struck down ; and the account of that catastrophe is given in the following terms : — * Panvinio in Vit. Aless. VI. p. 478. 176 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM cs Alas ! how vain and fallacious are the hopes of man at the height of their elevation ! The pontiff is suddenly carried home in a moribund state from a vineyard in the neighbourhood of the Vatican, where he had gone for recreation in the time of the summer heats, and immediately after him, ( incontinente dietro,' is carried the son, apparently in a moribund state, ' per morto,' and the day following, which was the 18th of August (1503), the corpse of the pontiff was carried, according to pon- tifical custom, to St. Peter's, black, swollen, and most frightful to look on, — ( nero enfiato e brutissimo,' — appearances most evident of poison. But Valentino, aided by youthful vigour and the employment of powerful antidotes, preserved his life, though he continued for a long time gravely indisposed. " It was generally believed these accidents were caused by poison, and by common reports they happened in this manner : Valentino, who was to have assisted at the supper, had deter- mined on the death, by poison, of the Cardinal Adriano, of Corneto, in whose vineyard the supper had been prepared. " It is a thing well known, that it had become a common prac- tice, frequently had recourse to, for father and son not only to employ poison against their enemies, and to be thus ridded of those they suspected, but any persons of great wealth, whether cardinals or other courtiers indiscriminately, whose wealth ex- cited their cupidity, regardless even if they had received any affront from them, as in the case of the rich Cardinal Agnolo. Nor did persons escape better who were their most intimate friends and close acquaintances, as the Cardinal of Capua and the Cardinal Modena, who were most faithful ministers. The story of the poisoning is thus related. Before the supper, Valentino sent away some flasks of wine which had been poisoned, and were given in charge to a servant not cognizant of their being poisoned, with orders not to serve that wine to any person. The pontiff, happening to arrive before supper, heated and thirsty, asked to drink ; but as the provisions for the supper had not yet been brought from the palace, the servant intrusted with the flasks by Valentino, imagined the wine con- OF SAVONAROLA. 177 tained in them was some of the choicest description, presented some of it to the pope ; and while the latter was drinking the wine of those particular flasks, Valentino arrived, and likewise drank of it. " The whole city of Rome flocked to St. Peter's with incre- dible gratification, and were not able to satisfy their curiosity sufficiently in looking on the dead man, shorn of his strength and serpent cunning, who by his immoderate ambition, vile perfidy, and so many examples left by him of horrible cruelty, monstrous lust, and unheard-of avarice, having no more respect for sacred than for profane things, had astounded the whole world. " Nevertheless, his exaltation had been marked by a most rare and unchanging course of prosperity, from his earliest to his latest days, always ravening after great advantages, and generally attaining more even than he panted for."* Such is the account given by Guicciardini of Alexander the Sixth : if the tenth part of that account be true, the distich has not greatly erred which thus speaks of one portion of his wickedness — " Vendit Alexander Claves, Altaria, Christum Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest." This statement of the death of the pope from the effects of poison prepared for his cardinals, rests chiefly on the authority of Guicciardini ; and it must be observed, no sufficient evidence of the fact stated by him has ever been adduced. Voltaire, in his " Dissertation sur la Mort de Henri IV.," thus endeavours to vindicate the memory of Alexander the Sixth from the charge of contemplating, in conjunction with his son, Csesar Borgia, the death of one of the cardinals by poison, (as if the charge of complicity with the son had been made by Guicci- ardini), and denies the statement of Alexander dying from the effects of the poison which had been prepared for another, and given to him by mistake. * Historia d' Italia, par Guircardini, lib. vi. p. 161. VOL. IT. N 178 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM " J'ose dire a Guiccardin, L'Europe est trompee par vous, et vous l'avez etc par notre passion ; vous etiez Pennemi du Pape, vous en avez trop cru votre haine jugeant les actions de sa vie ; il n'y a pas le moindre vestige de preuve de cette accusation in- tentee contre sa memoire. Son fils Borgia tomba malade dans le terns de la mort de son pere, voila la seule fondement de l'histoire du poison." Noticing the rumoured death by poison of Alexander, Rochr- bacher, notwithstanding his previous efforts to discredit Bur chard, has recourse to his testimony, and deals with it in these terms : " Mais il existe un journal de Bur chard, son maitre de cere- monies, ou Ton trouve, soit quelles viennent du journaliste, toutes ses suppositions, et les insinuations les plus malveillantes or dans ce journal il n'est pas dit un mot, du vin empoissonee."* Burchard's account, indeed, of the death of his master, Alex- ander the Sixth, alone would tend to discredit the rumours of the Pope's death by poison. He states, " That the Pope was at- tacked by a fever on the 12th of August, 1503 ; that on the 16th he was bled, and the disorder seemed to become tertian ; on the 17th he took medicines, but on the 18th he became so ill, that his life was despaired of. He then received the viaticum during mass, which was celebrated in his chamber, and at which five cardinals assisted. In the evening, extreme unction was administered to him, and in a few minutes afterwards he died."f Thus terminated the career of Alexander the Sixth, in the seventy-second year of his age, and in the eleventh year of his pontificate, and five years after the judicial murder of Savona- rola. The ruling passions of Alexander the Sixth all centred in the gratification of his appetites, and the aggrandizement of his sons. To procure money for these objects, and to foster influence for their promotion, political alliances were formed ; states were peculiarly favoured, or prejudiced, by means of relations with others ; the events of the world were more or less affected ; * Bochrbacher, torn. xxii. p. 335. t Burchard, Diar. ap. Notices de la Bibliotheque du Boi, vol. i. p. 118. OF SAVONAROLA. 179 ecclesiastical tribunals were created or abolished ; ecclesiastical dignities, privileges, and immunities, were sold without reserve or shame ; an extension, hitherto unknown, to the sale of indul- gences was officially given ;* the nobles of Italy were plundered and ultimately annihilated by his son, and numbers of them were assassinated by him, as the report of CarafTa to Clement, cited by Bromato, in the life of Paul the Fourth, states : — " Si viene ad homicidi non solo con veleno, ma apertamente col coltello e con la spada per non dire con schiopetti." Pasquin may not have been much in error in his estimate of Alexander, and the results of his regime : — " Sextus Tarquinia8, Sextus ~Nevo, Sextus et este, Semper sub Sextis, perdita Eoma fuit." And yet, perhaps, worse men than even the worst Pope who ever wore the tiara, filled some of the thrones of Europe in his time, and died without the infamy that loads his memory. It is said that Alexander, with all his vices, committed no act against the faith, and promulgated no decree in contraven- tion of dogmas or doctrines that had been duly sanctioned by the Church in its councils. Such is the fact, but the whole tenor of Alexander's ponti- fical career was in direct opposition to the spirit of Christianity. His pontificate was not a government of the Church, but the laying waste of the Lord's vineyard ; a bringing down of every thing sacred in Catholicity, to the lowest depths to which it was in the power of human wickedness to degrade it. One of the official acts of Alexander the Sixth, that outraged the laws of justice and religion most scandalously, was the re- sult of the connexion between State and Church interests, and the necessity it occasioned for promoting the former, at any sa- crifice of moral or religious principles. I allude to Alexander's concurrence in the scheme of France and Spain, for the dismemberment of the kingdom of Naples. Federigo, the Xeapolitan sovereign, had succeeded to a * Kanke's Hist, of the Popes, book i. p. 45. N 2 180 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM throne, which he adorned by his virtues, his protection of let- ters and of arts, and the moderation and wisdom of his rule, when a plan was concerted for the partition of his states by two other powers. The scheme has served for a model to imperial ambition and perfidy in more modern times. It was agreed on, that France was to menace the kingdom of Naples, and to assail a portion of its territory ; then Spain, being sure to be called by Naples to its aid, was to pour an army into the kingdom ostensibly to protect Naples, but really at the fitting time to form a junction with the French troops, and then the combined forces were to seize on the kingdom, and to make a partition of it. Unfortunate Naples was dismembered by the two predatory powers — Polandized, not only with the knowledge and approval, but with the co-operation of the Pope, Alexander the Sixth. We are told by Roscoe, in his Life of Leo the Tenth, that " on the 25th day of June, 1501, a pontifical bull deprived Federigo of his dominions, and divided them between the two sovereigns, in the shares above mentioned."* If Alexander the Sixth never promulgated any doctrine as an article of faith that was not orthodox, it cannot be said that he never issued any bull, ordinance, or rescript, whose decisions and instructions were at variance with the eternal principles of jus- tice, truth, and morality, which are the foundations of religion. The whole pontifical career of Alexander the Sixth was one un- broken succession of outrages against all those principles. It was, in practice, a downright disregard of Christianity, a mad, reckless, unreasoning infidelity — an atheism, manifested not in theories, but in acts, supervening on unbridled lust, rapacity, and ambition. Audin, in his History of Leo, ascribes many excellent actions to Alexander the Sixth during his pontificate, and absolves him of many of the atrocities attributed to him. " Sous Alexandre VL, le pauvre comme le riche pouvait * This bull is published by Eousset in bis supplement to Du Mont, vol. iii. p. 1. Vide Roscoe's Leo the Tenth, vol. i. p. 183. OF SAVONAROLA. 181 trouver de juges a Rome, peuple, soldats, citoyens, se montroient, attaches au Pontif, meme apres so mort, parcequ'il avoit des qualites vraiment royale. " La nuit, Alexandre dormait a peine deux lieures ; il passait a table comme une ombre, sans s'y arreter ; jamais il ne refusait d'ouir la priere du pauvre ; il payait les dettes du debiteur mal- heureux, et se moutrait sans pitie pour la prevarication."* Audin's eulogies might pass for something more in point of value, if his palliations of great acts of injustice and inhumanity were within any bounds of decency or moderation. The history of this pontificate is a record of the crimes of the Pontiff and his children — of tumults and intrigues, murders and massacres, acts of perfidy and inhumanity on a grand scale — of assassinations by the knife and by poison, incarcerations and exiles. Machiavelli, the counsellor, according to Roscoe, of one of the worst deeds of the worst member of the bad race of the Borgias, admits that Alexander the Sixth was chargeable with lust, simony, and cruelty. Much as the memory of Alexander is loathed and dishonoured, it cannot be denied that he was a man of considerable talents, and that the energies of his character were worthy of one of better principles. He was of undaunted courage and constancy in all difficulties, dangers, and emergencies ; eloquent and persuasive, indefatig- able in business, and punctual in his affairs. f * Audin, Hist, de Leo. X., tome i. p. 299. t Fabricius, in the " Bibliotheca Latina Mediae Infimse ./Etatis," (ed. 12mo. Hamburghi, vol. i. art. Alex. VI.), enumerates several of Alexander's epistles, constitutions, and other writings ; amongst them a treatise entitled Clypeus defensionis fidei Romanse Ecclesise Argentorai, 1497. Epistolse ad Cardinalem Ximenium in vita Ximenes. Epistolse in causa H. Savonarolse. Epistolse Duse ad Episcopos Hispanos et bulla fundationis Academies Valentianae, 1500. Epistolae ad Franciscum Philelphum. Decretum de libris sine censura non imprimenda. Bulla super canonizatione Anselmi Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis. 182 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM Let those who accuse Savonarola of excessive zeal in the cause of religion, of an immoderate ardour in the devotion of his energies to that one grand object of his life, and aim and end of all his missionary labours — the renovation of the Church, the reform of ecclesiastical abuses — bear in mind the time in which his lot was cast, the calamities of religion, the terrible calamity of the existence of such a man as Alexander the Sixth in the chair of St. Peter's. And let those who are disposed to believe that the crimes of Alexander the Sixth have been exaggerated, and that the com- plaints made of the calamities of the church in his pontificate have been magnified too much, call to mind, that the evils of relaxed discipline, and of corruption, to an extreme extent, in the court of Rome, had been lamented by the most holy men who flourished in the Church long even before the time of Savonarola. Without intending or desiring to palliate the vices of Alex- ander the Sixth, we may safely conclude that the political enmity of his many adversaries, has caused his crimes against one virtue in particular, from the time of his elevation to the apostolic throne, to be exaggerated. There is no conclusive evidence to be found, in the history of his times, of his having flagrantly violated his vows of chastity during the period of his pontificate. Beyond that admission, my researches do not enable me to say aught in vindication of his memory, except that he took efficient measures to provide for the maintenance of the people of Rome in a time of great dearth, by preventing the expor- tation of corn from all the Roman territories, so long as the scarcity endured, and that he restrained the rapacity of maraud- ers of a high station, who were not members of his family. Constitutio de baptismo Kuthenorum non iterando, 1501. Constitutiones XII, in bullario magno, torn. i. pp. 460 — 476. Laertio Cherubim inter quas. De novi orbis insulis terrisque versus Occidentem et meridiem a linea per Azores dueta, Ferdinando Hispanise Kegi conce- dendis, ut populos in illis degentes ad Christianam religionem suscipiendam inducere velit et debeat. a.d. 1493. &c. OF SAVONAROLA. 183 But the question which concerns Christianity at large, is not that of the continence or incontinence, the private conduct, the rigour or misrule of Alexander as a temporal sovereign in the chair of St. Peter ; the grave question is, how came it to pass, that a man of his well-known immorality, living in Rome in open concubinage previously to the cardinals going into conclave, and a candidate in it for the vacant office of pontiff — taking unlawful measures for securing that election, which must have been known to the majority of the cardinal electors composing it — could have been chosen, and declared a fit and worthy person to rule the Church of God, and to represent the apostle Peter in the office of vicar of Jesus Christ? Caesar Borgia heard of the death of his father without mani- festing any surprise or sorrow. Sick as he was himself at the time, and confined to his bed in the sacred palace, when the news of the Pope's death was brought to him, he had sufficient energy to issue his commands the instant the intelligence was given to him, to Dom Michelette, to shut the doors immediately that led to the Pope's apartments. This brutal man, Miche- lette, says the author of the " Histoire des Conclaves," " finding the Cardinal of Casanuova at his heels, threatened to strangle him, or to throw him out of the window, if he did not give up to him the keys of the treasures of the Pope. The good cardinal, in his terror, immediately gave up the keys."* The faithful agent of Caesar Borgia, Dom Michelette, then ransacked all the secret drawers and presses of the late pontiff: found gold and silver to the value of about 100,000 ducats, and having deposited them in security for his master, caused all the doors to be thrown open, and the public to be informed that Alexander the Sixth was dead. While Caesar Borgia's agent was pillaging the property of the deceased Pope, the servants of his Holiness were plundering his wardrobe. The body of the deceased pontiff was soon after borne to St. Peter's by four poor persons, preceded by three hundred others with flambeaux in their hands. "While the funeral procession * Hist, des Concl. Anon. 12mo. 1703. Ed. 3me. Col. Tom. i. p. 64. 184 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM was slowly advancing towards St. Peter's, a fight took place be- tween the soldiers of the guard, who had been stationed there, and the torch bearers, for the perquisites of the wax lights that might be left on the occasion ; and the bearers of the dead pon- tiff set down their burden, and wrangled over the dead body of the pope for the butt ends of a few wax candles. Dom Michelette had the great regret of seeing a bag of precious stones removed, which had escaped his rigid search. The value of the precious stones contained in it was estimated at 22,000 ducats. The bearers and the soldiers not having finished fighting for their spoils in a reasonable time, the officers had to take the dead body in their arms, and to deposit it on the grand altar. " Le corps du pape devient si noir et si horrible que personne ne l'osait regarder, son nez infectait l'air par sa puanteur, ses levres avoissent grosse extraordinairement et son langue sortoit tout entiere de sa bouche. Sur le soir il fut porte dans la chapelle par six portefaix qui lui faisoient mille indignites. Aprez lui avoir ote sa mitre et ses habits ils lui couvrirent d'un mediant tapis, et le foulerent aux pieds pour le faire entrer dans sa bierre qui etoit trop courte." * Caesar Borgia recovered from the effects of the poison which was fatal to his father. After various vicissitudes and fruitless attempts to regain his lost power and influence, he found a shelter in the family of hi s wife, and was generously treated by Jean D'Albret, the King of Navarre. The former Cardinal, when he could no longer ravage Italy under the sacred banner which the deceased pontiff had com- mitted to his care, sold his services to the King of Navarre, and after a few years he was slain at the siege of Viane in a skirmish, and died sword in hand, a terrible example of the calamitous results of the connexion of Church and State. In the midst of strife and bloodshed, while falling impetuously on some soldiers of the Count Alvarino, at the village of Men- * Hist, des Conclaves. Tom. i. p. 65, OF SAVONAROLA. 185 dania, Caesar Borgia was shot dead, and instead of returning in triumph, his rifled corpse was brought to the king, slung across a horse, with his legs and arms dangling on each side — strange to say, precisely in the same manner that the corpse of his mur- dered brother was seen conveyed to the Tiber, closely watched by a muffled cavalier, and who, by Burchard's account, there can be little doubt, was the unnatural brother of the murdered Duke of Gandia. Caesar Borgia, Duke of Valentino, was buried in Pampaluno, and his memory, says Paulo Jovio, was honoured with some clever verses of a Spanish poet, which were faithfully translated into Latin and Italian by Antonio Vacca : — " Colui che dianzi a l'universo diede Terror qua gia sepolto e Valentino E'n cosi poco spatio hora resiede Che lutto l'mundo en guerra fe meschino." The last lineal descendant of Caesar Borgia is to be sought for and discovered in the British Peerage. Llorente, in his Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain, states, that " In 1507, the Inquisition, at the instance of Fer- dinand the Fifth, undertook to proceed against, and to arrest, the Duke of Valentino, brother-in-law of Jean D'Albret, King of Xavarre, whose sister he had married — Charlotte D'Albret. The Duke would probably have been consigned to the secret dungeons of the Inquisitions of Logrogno, had he not perished on the 12th of March of that year, before the town of Viane, not far from Logrogno, having been slain by a gentleman named Jean Garces de los Fayos, in command of the castle of Agreda, when it was besieged by Caesar, Captain-General, commanding the troops of his brother-in-law, against Louis de Beaumont, Count of Lerne, Constable of Navarre, son-in-law of Ferdinand the Fifth, who refused to surrender " Caesar left only one child by this union (with Charlotte D'Albret, Louisa of Borgia, styled Duchess of Valentino), who was married in 1517 to Louis of Tremouille, Peer of France, 186 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM and (secondly) in 1539, to Philip of Bourbon Bousset, of the royal house of France, and grandson of Louis of Bourbon, Bishop of Liege." Llorente observes, he does not believe it was simply zeal for religion which prompted the Court of Rome to proceed against the Duke, " as one charged with having given utterance to blas- phemous heresies, and suspected of being an atheist and mate- rialist, but that it was for reasons of state, and intrigues of the Duke with the constable of Navarre."* In Playfair's English Peerage, vol. i. page 241, we read that William, the sixth Earl of Derby, died in 1642, and was suc- ceeded by his son, James, seventh Earl of Derby, a warrior of great distinction in the latter days of Charles the First, and in the; times of the Commonwealth. In one action against the troops of Col. Lilburne, we are told, he received seven shots on his breastplate, thirteen cuts on his beaver, five or six wounds on his arms and shoulders, and had two horses killed under him, and that, unfortunately for him, he was still able to make his way to Worcester, and that he fought bravely in the battle at that place in September, 1651, was taken prisoner, tried, and beheaded at Bolton. This seventh Earl of Derby, says Play fair, married Charlotte, daughter of Claude de Tremouille, Duke of Thouars, Prince of Palmont, by his marriage with Charlotte, daughter of William, first Prince of Orange, and Charlotte of Bourbon, (query, Char- lotte Louisa ?) his wife. Caesar Borgia married Charlotte D'Albret, and lefl an only child, a daughter, Louisa. Louisa married — first, Louis of Tremouille — secondly, Philip of Bourbon, and left a daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte married William, the first Prince of Orange, and left a daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte married Claude de Tremouille, Duke of Thouars, and left a daughter, Charlotte. * Llorenti, Hist. Inquis. translated by A. Pellier, tome iii. ch. iii. p. 5. Fr. Edit. 8vo. Paris, 1818. OF SAVONAROLA. 187 Charlotte, the great-great-granddaughter of Caesar Borgia, married James, the seventh Earl of Derby. This lady {the daughter of Claude de Tremouille) was a person of extraordinary courage in the face of the fiercest dangers, and of great capacity for public affairs. " She was remarkably famous (says Playfellow) for her gallant defence of Lathem House in 1644, when it was besieged with 2000 of the parliamentary forces, and (her defence) of the Isle of Man, which was the last place in the British dominions that submitted to the usurping powers, and of which Lord Fairfax enjoyed the profits ; whilst this heroine was detained in prison, with her younger children, in extreme indigence, till the restoration of the king in 1660. She died March 21st, 1663, and was buried in Ormskirk." The few noble qualities that belonged to Caesar Borgia, — valour, indomitable energy, capacity for affairs of importance, — were faithfully transmitted to his great-great-granddaughter in the maternal line, to Charlotte of Tremouille, wife of the fiery soldier, James, seventh Earl of Derby. A man of wonderful sagacity and vigour of intellect, Sir Wil- liam Scott, after reading Guicciardini's History of Italy, from beginning to end, wrote these words to Lord Teignmouth : — " We have finished the twentieth and last book of Guicciardini's History, the most authentic one, I believe, (may I add, I fear ?) that ever was composed. I believe it, because the historian was an actor in this terrible drama, and I fear, because it exhibits the woful picture of society in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies."* Xow the history of Guicciardini commences with the Pontifi- cate of Alexander the Sixth, 1492, and terminates with the transactions of the year 1532, twenty-nine years after the death of Alexander, and twenty-five years after the death of his son, Caesar Borgia, which took place in 1507. Certainly more than half the history is taken up with details connected with the crimes of Alexander and his son, and the disastrous consequences * Life of Lord Teignmouth, 4to. p. 325. Ap. Koscoe's Life of Leo the Tenth, vol. ii. p. 488. 188 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM of them throughout the whole of Italy. In these results, first in importance, in temporal matters, is the invasion of Italy by Charles the Eighth, the intrigues, jealousies, and dissensions in all the petty Italian states, occasioned by the conduct of Alex- ander and his son ; the tumults, wars, carnage, and spoliation caused by the measureless ambition, lusts, and turbulence of Caesar Borgia. When, in the long narration of their excesses and atrocities, we come to the close of the career of each, we feel as if there was an oppressive weight removed from the atmosphere we breathe, and that it is a relief to have done with the history of the calamities occasioned by their crimes. But of what avail to humanity, in this nineteenth century, is it to rake up the ashes of the Borgias, and to ransack the history of the crimes of the fifteenth century, for evidences of the de- pravity of our common nature ? Do these not abound in our own times ? depravity and base- ness, externally modified indeed, but not essentially altered, less revolting in their aspect, but not less humiliating to contemplate, when we look closely into the nature of them. Of what avail then to track the unworthy Pontiff in his long career of wickedness, to follow the scrutinizing master of the ceremonies, the lynx-eyed Burchard, into the private chambers and the Capella, and council rooms, and the saloons of the Qui- rinal, and drag our feet through the dirt of the bye-ways and purlieus of the city, in which the midnight orgies of Caesar and his companions are celebrated, or to trail our steps along the gloomy passages and the court yards of the castle of St. Angelo, where the revels of Alexander the Sixth, his equestrian enter- tainment, his mimic chases of the field, his private theatricals, his revivals of Plautus, his banquettings, and his masqueradings on grand occasions, as on that of the espousals of his daughter for the fourth time ? Of what avail to follow that archbishop of Valentia, that Lord Cardinal of the creation of Alexander, the infamous Caesar Borgia, in every bloody stage of his career, from the day he renounced OF SAVONAROLA. 189 the mitre and the purple, and became transformed into a ma- rauding captain, stained at the very outset of that new career with a brother's blood, till he perished by the sword on the field of battle, at the siege of Viane, in 1507 ? Is it that we are so forgetful of the claims upon us of our common nature, that we have such reason to pride ourselves on qualities which never could be reduced under any circumstances of change, of time, of destiny, of manners, of society at large, to a level with those of the persons we look on rather as demi- devils than as human beings ? Oh, no ! the self-complacency of any thinking man, who reads history with a strong sense of the obligations that all knowledge imposes on him to promote the interests of humanity, and of truth, and of charity, will not be carried to that extent. " I grandi s'bagli passati servono molto in ogni genere, stanno sempre dinnauzi agli occhi i delitti e le sciagure and if the Italian writer had added — la debollezza del uomo, la miseria del mondo, la vilta e bassezze e hippocrisia di troppi genti di lettere — he would have left little unsaid on this grave subject. What lesson, then, are we to be taught by the crimes of the Pontiff, Alexander the Sixth, and Caesar Borgia, once archbishop of Valentia, and cardinal of the court of Rome, the subsequent Duke Valentino of infamous memory ? AVe are to be taught by it, as I humbly conceive, that God had a great controversy in the fifteenth century with those to whom He had committed the government of his church. That the court of Rome in that age, to an extent unparalleled at any former period of its history, had become corrupted by wealth, and ambition, and turned away from the interests of religion by the cares of temporal possessions and political influences, con- siderations, and impediments arising from connexion with the state, and dependence on foreign powers for the security of its possessions. The lesson of the terrible story of the lives of Alexander the Sixth, and of his son, Caesar Borgia, would be indeed of little value to mankind, if we only learned by it to sound the depths of the depravity of the human heart, and had discovered in their 190 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM acts more evidence than we previously possessed — that there were no bounds to its wickedness, and that human nature was corruptible to an extent that might almost reconcile our experi- ence to the black heathenism of the morality of Rochefoucault. But there is another and a better lesson to be taught by this sad story — that there was a state of things existing in the go- vernment of the church, and in the constitution of the court of Rome, in the ecclesiastical body in all its members, and in the monastic institutions of the time in all its orders, that could not be otherwise than displeasing to the Almighty : that the sin of simony prevailed in the palace of the Popes, in the councils of the Cardinals, in the sacred congregations of the Prelates, in the conferences of the clergy, in the chapters of the deans, and was manifested in the sale of dispensations, in the purchase of bene- fices, in the venality of the priesthood in the exercise of all the sacred functions. If it be permissible for a weak, sinful, short-sighted man to presume to speak of the councils of the Almighty, might it not be said, such a state of things as I have glanced at, could not fail to come within the scope of the scrutiny of the divine justice — could not fail to bring down the retribution of God on the pro- fanity of the ministers of religion, who had made an idol of Mam- mon, who had abandoned piety for property, the science of the saints for the politics of statesmen, and for rent rolls, titles to estates, deeds of sale, legal conveyances and testamentary deeds of donation, writings connected with law-suits, books relating to revenues from land, foedal tenures and imposts on crusades, had put aside the gospel, and neither preached its doctrines in the pulpit, nor taught its precepts in their lives by their example ? And if the cry of this sin of simony went up to heaven from the universal church of Christendom, and the vengeance of God was to come on the government of religion with a signal judgment, calculated, not only to punish the crimes that had been committed by his ministers, but to make an example that never would be forgotten in the Church, and that would ultimately tend to its greater purification, what greater punish- OF SAVONAROLA. 191 ment could God inflict on it, than the scandals of the lives of Alexander the Sixth and of Caesar Borgia? What greater mercy than to afford a lesson that should suffice in all future times — if happily received as such — to make simony appear in all its hideousness of aspect, an appalling crime against heaven, that never should he fallen into again ; and would render evident as the sun in the heavens at noon-day, that all connexion of the spiritual power with the temporal dominion, was an evil of such magnitude, that it was to be feared for the church far more than persecution ? 192 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM CHAPTER VIII. f THE QUESTION OF THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A CONNEXION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE, AND OF THE I UNION IN ONE GOVERNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL AND TEM- PORAL POWER. " The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds." — 2 Cor. x. 4. It is a question of vast importance to the interests of humanity, and to the highest interests of all in this world : Whether the maintenance and propagation of religion should depend on the state for a provision adequate to those objects, or whether the duty of providing for them fitly should not be left to the piety and liberality of those in communion with the church, whose wants are to be supplied in accordance with the one great spiritual aim and end for which it was established. " Wherever we have a certain legal provision for the minis- trations of Christianity," says Dr. Chalmers, " there we have an establishment of Christianity in the land but the latter part of this definition might be thus amended slightly, with ad- vantage to truth : there we have a state church established for purposes more secular than spiritual. Wherever it has been my fortune to have seen religion con- nected with the state, (and my experience extends over many regions of this globe), wherever I have seen the ministrations of religion provided for by a state endowment, regulated by the civil power, enforced by legal measures, and the church thus sustained placed under the especial patronage of the civil government, and made dependent on the bounty of the state, OF SAVONAROLA. 193 there the true spirit of Christianity was seldom to be found. — I have seen ecclesiastical forms and formulas set up and supported by the state, for purposes of state, in many lands ; but I have not seen Christianity established on Christian principles, and its ministrations served, or spiritualized, by contact with pe- cuniary or political concerns connected with them in any country. The greatest evil that is to be apprehended from the connexion between church and state, is the secularization of the clergy, and the abandonment by the laity of every thing connected with religion except its outward forms. Evils of this kind, however, are apprehended by Mr. Gladstone, and set forth by him in his work on church and state connexion, not as the result of re- lations existing between church and state, but as effects to be dreaded from attempts to dissever the connexion. But Mr. Gladstone's fears are for the interests of religion, and these, in his view, are identical with church establishments, as they are spoken of by him synonymously. " We may therefore," says Mr. Gladstone, " more probably anticipate, that the next attempt to constitute society, without a God, and to erase his name from the world which His might and His beneficence have framed, will be more crafty and con- siderate, requiring time for its development, and a preparation, consisting, not merely, like that of France, of sufferings to ex- acerbate the heart, but embracing a thorough education of the understanding, and expansion of its powers, and a circuitous perhaps, but real application of them to the suppression of the best human sympathies, and the exhaustion of all the noble fountains of thought, emotion, and, above all, affection, within us. Whenever, upon this or any other basis, a complete struc- ture of hardened selfishness shall have been erected, to be the universal type of human character, it may be that the day will have arrived for a tempest of woe and awful desolating crime, more fierce and more lasting than that under which but one generation groaned : — yet all this devilish machinery may wear a very smooth appearance, drawing upon the ' deccivableness of unrighteousness ' for all its resources of illusion, and soothing VOL. II. o 194 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM us with the belief that we are but ridding the world of bigotry and persecution, establishing human freedom, and therein ren- dering to God the most acceptable service, while we are, in fact, immolating the faith and the truth, and with them all our own hopes and destinies of good." * All the evils referred to by Mr. Gladstone, may reasonably be apprehended from any ecclesiastical system of government, the tendencies of which are to secularize the ministers of re- ligion, and to render the laity selfish and indifferent to all but material interests. Pascal's fine thought expresses happily the great influence of religion over the prevailing selfishness of mankind : — " La piete chretienne aneantit le moi humaine, et la civilite humaine le cache et le supprime." Pascal does not attribute that happy influence over selfishness to a state church ; from the latter it is clear he would rather ex- pect " la civilite humaine," which covers and conceals the mon- ster passion of " le moi humaine." The idea runs through Pascal's writings, in a variety of forms of expression, that the immediate effect of original sin was to render man selfish, covetous, sensual, and that the whole scope of Christ's teaching here on earth, was to regenerate humanity, to make its spirit triumphant over selfishness, cupidity, and mere animal instincts and tendencies. In the wreck of man's primeval intelligence, the divine prin- ciple of love that had emanated from God, was borne down, and driven from its abode in the breast of man. It was the glorious aim of the Gospel to restore the reign of benevolence in the heart of the Church in all its members, for the dissemination of the blessings of its truths throughout all its borders. In this revelation of God's will, by his own son, the greatest of the divine attributes, that of mercy, was especially manifested to a fallen world. The mission of the Apostles was one of love and benevolence. The Church was instituted to establish a new dominion of mercy ; its ministers were entrusted with the pro- * The Church in its Relations with the State. OF SAVONAROLA. 195 clamation of a new law of love ; and the voice of the great teacher of its truth was to be heard in every land, crying out, — " Glory be to God on high, and peace on earth to men of good will." Strife and selfishness disappeared before the* face of that new Church at the onset of its career, and of its niinistry, in their early triumphs ; and so long as selfishness was kept aloof from that mission and its Apostles, the young Church of Christ went on triumphing over the malice of its enemies, and that great adversary of Christ, the direst foe of all spirituality, — Mammon, the angel of this world. But selfishness, in course of time, crept into the Church, and with its progress, religion went on losing its spirituality. Still, with that element of evil in the administration of its government, there was a renovating principle in it also, suffi- ciently powerful to make its influences felt and feared by the worldly spirit that had stolen into its rule, so as to enable the Church, in the fulfilment of its destiny, to maintain a ceasek'-s struggle with its old adversary, mammon, and make its own contested existence a true " militia super terrain," a perpetual warfare upon earth. In the darkest periods of the history of that Church, there was ever a voice to be heard in some part of its precincts, within its sanctuary, or in its cloisters, or at its porch ; the ac- cent of some sanctified minister of religion, true to its interests in the midst of corruptions and degrading influences — a Hilde- brand at one time ; a Bernard at another ; and a little later, a Savonarola. The truth is never without some illustrious witness. At one period, a recluse of whom there remains only the shadow of a name and a treatise instinct with the spirit of Christ, and the teaching of his following, and of the triumph of his Cross ; at another time, a Bartholomew des Martyres, or some one else of his order, a " true monk," like Fra Girolamo Savonarola, cry- ing out to the Church and its children, to be constant and of a good heart in their faith, to uphold the dignity of their religion, that there still remained sure grounds for hope in the unanimity o 2 196 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM of all the good who belonged to its Republic : and although good men had much cause to grieve, that virtue was not utterly destroyed, nor the Church deserted by it : — (< Erigite*" animos ; retinete vestram dignitatem. Manet ilia in Republica bonorum consensio ; dolor accessit bonis viris, vir- tus non est imminuta."* A very remarkable passage in the beginning of Mr. Gladstone's work is to be found, wherein there is as much truth in a small space as it is well possible to condense in the same limits : — " The union (of religion and the State) is, to the Church, a matter of secondary importance. Her foundations are on the holy hills. Her charter is legibly divine. She, if she should be excluded from the precincts of government, may still fulfil all her functions, and carry them out to perfection. Her con- dition would be anything rather than pitiable, should she once more occupy the position which she held before the reign of Constantine." Whatever mischief then, the civil government may have to suf- fer in its politics, it is clear the Church Institution, in its divine truths, has no danger to fear from the severance of the bonds which have tied down its energies in connection with the State, and from the loss of its governmental protection. The power of the sword, by which the authority of civil go- vernment is defended and enforced, is not required for the pro- tection and support of a Christian Church. The good will of a state is to be desired for it, but its wealth, its worldly wisdom, its councils or commands, its means of co- ercion and corruption, are not wanted for it. Warburton's opinion, that the State and the Church are dis- tinct institutions, was more in accordance with truth than his other proposition, that the connexion between them was " A politic league and alliance for mutual support and defence." That connexion is rather the league and alliance of physical force with moral influence, for the sake of additional support and defence for one of the high contracting powers, and the * Cicero, Fragment. Orationis in Clodium, ap. Epist. ad Attic. 1. i. e. OF SAVONAROLA. 197 semblance only of a strong sanction from that secular power for the other. Mr. Gladstone says, " The Church allies herself with the State, in consideration of advantages accorded to her, which are accorded in respect of her peculiar constitution as a Church, and which would cease to be due if she violated that constitu- tion. Therefore, the State must have the means of observing all her movements, judging what change is in violation of it and interposing the veto, which means simply, { If you do so, you must no longer enjoy civil advantages.' "* Like all statements of Mr. Gladstone, this particular decla- ration of opinion is expressed in plain, intelligible, articulate words. The state, for its protection to the church, demands the right of judging for herself in matters of religion ; and for the Church, also what views of her constitution should be considered in conformity with its divine truth or violations of it. The Church must accord the right, and afford the means of having all her movements observed. She must submit the commission which Christ gave her to teach and preach the gospel, to the scrutiny of ten or twelve men who are the members of a government, who possibly may have no sympathies with religion, or even a strong settled con- viction of its truth. The spouse of Christ must bow down before a minister of state, and say to him, " Judge me, ascertain for me, I beseech you, what is truth, and in what interpretation of mine, of my blessed Lord and Master's will, is there a violation of his sacred words." But Mr. Gladstone contemplates the controlling power of the state being lodged in the hands of men truly christian, and the control entrusted to them being exercised for truly christian purposes. He approves of this control, because he thinks the interests of religion will be promoted by it. It is not for the object of police, or the worldly policy of ministers of state he advocated * The State in its Relations with the Church, p. 120. 198 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM it. But looking at the constitution of civil governments, how are we to expect it to furnish means of control that are calcu- lated to produce results such as are glanced at in the following pages from Mr. Gladstone's work : — " Why, then, we now come to" ask, should the governing body in a state profess a religion ? First, because it is com- posed of individual men ; and they, being appointed to act in a definite moral capacity, must sanctify their acts done in that capacity by the offices of religion ; inasmuch as the acts cannot otherwise be acceptable to God, or any thing but sinful and punishable in themselves. And whenever we turn our face away from God in our conduct, we are living atheistically In fulfilment, then, of his obligations as an indi- vidual, the statesman must be a worshipping man. But his acts are public — the powers and instruments with which he works are public — acting under and by the authority of the law, he moves at his word ten thousand subject arms ; and because such energies are thus essentially public, and wholly out of the range of mere individual agency, they must be sanctified not only by the private personal prayers and piety of those who fill public situations, but also by public acts of the men composing the public body. They must offer prayer and praise in their public and collective character — in that character wherein they constitute the organ of the nation, and wield its collective force. Wherever there is a reasoning agency, there is a moral duty and responsibility involved in it. The governors are reasoning agents for the nation, in their conjoint acts as such. And there- fore there must be attached to this agency, as that without which none of our responsibilities can be met, a religion. And this religion must be that of the conscience of the governor, or none. * Again — " National will and agency are indisputably one, binding either a dissentient minority or the subject body, in a manner that nothing but the recognition of the doctrine of national per- sonality can justify. National honour and good faith are words OF SAVONAROLA. 199 in every one's mouth. How do they less imply a personality in nations than the duty towards God, for which we now contend ? They are strictly and essentially distinct from the honour and good faith of the individuals composing the nation. France is a person to us, and we to her. A wilful injury done to her is a moral act, and a moral act quite distinct from the acts of all the individuals composing the nation. Upon broad facts like these we may rest, without resorting to the more technical proof which the laws afford in their manner of dealing with corpora- tions. If, then, a nation have unity of will, have pervading sympathies, have capability of reward and suffering contingent upon its acts, shall we deny its responsibility ; its need of a reli- gion to meet that responsibility ? A nation, then, having a personality, lies under the obligation, like the individuals composing its governing body, of sanctifying the acts of that personality by the offices of religion, and thus we have a new and imperative ground for the existence of a state religion."* An imperative ground for a state religion would then be, in- creased facility given by its establishment for extending spiritual- izing influences. The question is, will that increased facility be secured by connecting the Church with the State, by giving a power of super- vision and control over things appertaining to religion, or a right of interference in ecclesiastical affairs to secular men, ex- ercising authority in civil government, which is altogether dis- tinct in character, and separate in its position from the mission and establishment of the Church ? Dr. Chalmers, in his Lectures (p. 108), with all his anxiety to find precedents or sanctions in Scripture for Church and State connexion, is obliged to admit " the absence of any distinct and definite authority for an established Church in the New Testa- ment." * Neither is there any recognition there of any right in princes^ or civil governments, to meddle in the administration of eccle- siastical affairs. * The State in its Kelations with the Church. 200 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM On the contrary, in the New Testament we have direct proof in the gospel that the interests of religion were plainly, un- equivocably, and expressly committed to the charge of the Church itself; that Christ selected the apostles exclusively for its duties ; that those selected by him were called on to abandon their worldly pursuits, and to devote themselves exclusively to the ministrations of religion. In the Old Testament, we find the power of the civil ruler exercised in religious matters not only recognized, but frequently enjoined. But in Israel we find a state of things to which there never was, and probably never will be, a parallel in any other nation. There was a theocracy in Israel. There was a national Church established in the civil government ; and both were under the supreme dominion and direction of Jehovah, with a code of laws divinely enacted, admitting of no change, addition, or amend- ment. The people of Israel were under a Divine government, and under the immediate protection of God ; a state religion was suited to their highly-favoured condition. But in countries which, instead of a theocracy, have a mere civil government, with human legislation, a constitution not Mosaic, but the work of ordinary men, who derive their inspi- rations chiefly from political economists, and that philosophy of pre-eminent importance, from science and knowledge, which is exclusively applied to the advancement of material interests ; with legislators, expected only to be skilled in mysteries of state, making, amending, abridging, or abrogating laws every day, to meet the ever-shifting exigencies of an artificial state of society, — a Church connected with the state, representing a theocratic institution, would be an anomaly. What was suited for a nation chosen by God to be a peculiar people, and thus separated from surrounding nations for a par- ticular purpose, would be unfitted for the nations of the earth under a new dispensation, when, as it was foretold by the pro- phets, a new church and a new priesthood were to arise, and a OF SAVONAROLA. 201 new kingdom was to be established in men's hearts ; and when it was declared by the Founder of the new Church, and evi- dently said with an especial view to the government of it : — " My kingdom is not of this world." Mr. Macaulay has forcibly stated his opinions on the subject of the Church, in its relations with the State : — " The question is not whether spiritual interests be or be not superior in importance to temporal interests ; but whether the machinery which happens at any moment to be employed for the purpose of protecting certain temporal interests of a society, be necessarily such a machinery as is fitted to promote the spi- ritual interests of that society. Without a division of labour the world could not go on. It is of very much more importance that men should have food, than that they should have piano- fortes. Yet it by no means follows that every pianoforte-maker ought to add the business of a baker to his own ; for, if he did so, we should have both much worse music and much worse bread. It is of much more importance that the knowledge of religious truth should be wisely diffused, than that the art of sculpture should flourish among us. Yet it by no means fol- lows, that the Royal Academy ought to unite with its present functions those of the Society for Promoting C hristian Know- ledge, to distribute theological tracts, to send forth missionaries, to turn out Xollekens for being a Catholic, Bacon for being a Methodist, and Flaxman for being a Swedenborgian. For the effect of such folly would be, that we should have the worst possible Academy of Arts, and the worst possible Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. The community, it is plain, would be thrown into universal confusion, if it were sup- posed to be the duty of every association which is formed for one good object, to promote every other good object. " As to some of the ends of civil government, all people are agreed. That it is designed to protect our persons and our property, that it is designed to compel us to satisfy our wants, not by rapine^but by industry ; that it is designed to compel us to decide our differences, not by the strong hand, but by 202 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM arbitration ; that it is designed to direct our whole force, as that of one man, against any other society which may offer us injury ; these are propositions which will hardly be disputed. " Xow these are matters in which man, without any reference to any higher being, or to any future state, is very deeply in- terested. Every human being, be he idolater, Mahometan, Jew, Papist, Socinian, Deist, or Atheist, naturally loves life, shrinks from pain, desires comforts which can be enjoyed only in com- munities where property is secure. To be murdered, to be tor- tured, to be robbed, to be sold into slavery, these are evidently evils from which men of every religion, and men of no religion, wish to be protected ; and therefore it will hardly be disputed that men of every religion, and of no religion, have thus far a common interest in being well governed. " But the hopes and fears of man are not limited to this short life and to this visible world. He finds himself surrounded by the signs of a power and wisdom higher than his own ; and, in all ages and nations, men of all orders of intellect, from Bacon and Newton down to the rudest tribes of cannibals, have be- lieved in the existence of some superior mind. Thus far the voice of mankind is almost unanimous. But whether there be one God, or many, what may be God's natural and what His moral attributes, in what relation His creatures stand to Him, whether He have ever disclosed Himself to us by any other revelation than that which is written in all the parts of the glo- rious and well-ordered world which He has made, whether His revelation be contained in any permanent record, how that re- cord should be interpreted, and whether it have pleased Him to appoint any unerring interpreter on earth — these are questions respecting which there exists the widest diversity of opinion, and respecting some of which a large part of our race has, ever since the dawn of regular history ,been deplorably in error " " We do not, however, admit that, if a government were, for all its temporal ends, as perfect as human frailty allows, such a government would, therefore, be necessarily qualified to propa- gate true religion. For we see that the fitness of governments OF SAVONAROLA. 203 to propagate true religion is by no means proportioned to their fitness for the temporal end of their institution. Looking at individuals, we see that the princes under whose rule nations have been most ably protected from foreign and domestic dis- turbance, and have made the most rapid advances in civilisation, have been by no means good teachers of divinity. Take, for example, the best French sovereign, Henry the Fourth, a king who restored order, terminated a terrible civil war, brought the finances into an excellent condition, made his country respected throughout Europe, and endeared himself to the great body of the people whom he ruled. Yet this man was twice a Huguenot, and twice a Papist. He was, as Davila hints, strongly sus- pected of having no religion at all in theory, and was certainly not much under religious restraints in his practice. Take the Czar Peter, the Empress Catharine, Frederick the Great. It will surely not be disputed that these sovereigns, with all their faults, were, if we consider them with reference merely to the temporal ends of government, above the average of merit. Con- sidered as theological guides, Mr. Gladstone would probably put them below the most abject drivellers of the Spanish branch of the house of Bourbon. Again, when we pass from individuals to systems, we by no means find that the aptitude of govern- ments for propagating religious truth is proportioned to their aptitude for secular functions. Without being blind admirers either of the French or of the American institutions, we think it clear that the persons and property of citizens are better pro- tected in France and in New England than in almost any society that now exists, or that has ever existed ; very much better, certainly, than in the Roman empire, under the orthodox rule of Constantine and Theodosius. But neither the government of France, nor that of New England, is so organized as to be fit for the propagation of theological doctrines. Nor do we think it improbable that the most serious religious errors might pre- vail in a state which, considered merely with reference to tem- poral objects, might approach far nearer than any that has ever been known to the idea of what a state should be. 204 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM " But we shall leave this abstract question, and look at the world as we find it. Does, then, the way in which governments generally obtain their power, make it at all probable that they will be more favourable to orthodoxy than to heterodoxy ? A nation of barbarians pours down on a rich and unwarlike empire, en- slaves the people, portions out the land, and blends the institu- tions which it finds in the cities with those which it has brought from the woods. A handful of daring adventurers from a civilised nation wander to some savage country, and reduce the aboriginal race to bondage. A successful general turns his arms against the state which he serves. A society, made brutal by oppression, rises madly on its masters, sweeps away all old laws and usages, and, when its first paroxysm of rage is over, sinks down passively under any form of polity which may spring out of the chaos. A chief of a party, as at Florence, becomes imperceptibly a sovereign, and the founder of a dynasty. A captain of mercenaries, as at Milan, seizes on a city, and by the sword makes himself its ruler. An elective senate, as at Venice, usurps permanent and hereditary power. It is in events such as these that governments have generally originated ; and we can see nothing in such events to warrant us in believing that the governments thus called into existence will be peculiarly well fitted to distinguish between religious truth and heresy."* Whatever may be our opinions of the best way of providing for the maintenance of religion and its ministers, ecclesiastical history forces one fact over and over again on our attention, namely, that the endowment of churches with great wealth in all ages, and from the earliest date of their aggrandizement, has been accompanied by great evils, and that where religion has flourished most, the possessions of the church in real property have been of the smallest limits and extent. Severus Sulpicius speaks of an anchoret who was wont to say — (e Ecclesiam auro non strui sed potius destrui."t * Essay of Thomas B. Macaulay, republished from Ed. Review, April 1839, Low. 1851, pp. 9, 10, 23, 24. t Apud Chrys. Homil. 86. in Matt. OF SAVONAROLA. 205 With, the civil establishment of Christianity and its increasing wealth, the monastic institution, with its countervailing vows of poverty, long kept pace, and served to counteract the evils of that secularizing influence. In the early ages of Christianity, monasteries were supported by the labour of their inmates, and the means which individuals entering an order brought into the convent, and invested in a common fund for the community at large. All the employment of the inmates of monasteries consisted in prayer and study of the Holy Scriptures, in transcribing manuscripts, in teaching, and in manual labour. Sometimes the bishops drew monks from their monasteries, as from an institute which served for a no- viciate to arrive at the priesthood, to perform the offices of priests ; but then they ceased to be monks, and they were placed in the category of ecclesiastics. " Alia monachorum est causa, alia clericorum," says St. Jerome.* St. Chrysostom caused many monasteries to be transferred from solitudes to towns and cities, for ecclesiastical purposes. Increased facilities for entering into orders led to the establish- ment of oratories and churches as places of public worship, in the convents, and eventually occasioned competition with the parish churches, a claim of monks to exercise ecclesiastical functions, notwithstanding the prohibition of the bishops in many countries, which forbade monks to administer sacraments to the public, and declared against the acquisition of wealth and property in land, from that exercise. This was the origin of the mis-intelligence and jealousies between monks and bishops, and the secular priest- hood, that fourteen hundred years have not seen an end of. The churches of monasteries not only became largely endowed, but the separate altars of each. The chartularies of convents furnish abundance of contracts, deeds, forms of bequest and donations, from the time when St. Gregory wrote to some suffragan bishops in favour of the monks to permit the celebration of mass in their convents, shewing that a large revenue was derived from pri- vate masses. * Epist. ad Heliod. 208 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM In the formulas of Marculphe, we find the intention of bene- factors in ordinary terms of dotation and endowment of parti- cular altars. " Pro remedio animse mese : — Pro mercede animse meae vel genitoris et genitricis meae." The multiplication of altars in the churches of monasteries led to many inconveniences, and even- tually to the accumulation of wealth in those foundations for pious purposes, brought the monasteries and the monks, in course of time, in several countries, into disrepute with the people, and made their possessions objects to excite the cupidity of needy courtiers, lawless chiefs, and grasping princes. Whoever has read the history of the monastic institution, and traced its progress, its phases of sanctity and tepidity, of sub- jection to spiritual influence, and devotion to material interests, can doubt that there was a time when piety and learning had no other asylum in this world than the monastery ; when a heavenly mission appears to have been assigned to each order, when some want in the Church seemed to require to be supplied by it, and then when the services required at its hands had been obtained, that the zeal of its founders had relaxed, and the original holiness of its members had decayed, and that the ancient glories of many orders had faded away with the brightness of the days of their departed founders. The cities and the courts of Europe became at length, espe- cially from the tenth to the twelfth century, renowned for pre- lates and ecclesiastical dignities of princely retinues and reve- nues ; but the deserts were no longer peopled by anchorets and hermits professing' poverty, and practising mortification. The Cenobite Institute took possession of the fairest spots in Europe, the faubourgs of towns and cities, and acquired the confidence of people, and while it remained poor and pious, it did not cease to flourish. On the other hand, the civil establishment of the Church, as it became . more secularized in spirit by connexion with the State, corrupted by its wealth, or trammelled by its protection, fell deeper into the guilt of simony, till at last, at the close of the fifteenth century, it was as Savonarola found it, in the hands of venal men, sordid and sacrilegious. OF SAVONAROLA. 207 It is said too, that . 397. f Eosooc, Life of Leo X. 850 APPENDIX. tire of the affairs, not only of " a court, than which, perhaps, Rome nor the universe ever saw anything more flagitious, and amongst the enormities prevailing in it, the three capital vices — lust, perfidy, and cruelty" — but of political affairs and diplomatic matters of great moment. " The transactions," says Leibnitz, " in which Alexander the Sixth and Caesar Borgia were concerned, have been eloquently treated of by many distinguished writers, but it is profitable and desirable also to read of them in journals written in a simple style, and as far as we can judge of them, by an author equally removed from the influence of feelings of hate and love, an eye- witness of the things he relates, in a respectable position, enlarg- ing on many things, from which a more correct judgment may be formed." * The Diary begins with the election of Alexander the Sixth, the 12th August, 1492. At the commencement, the entries in the journal are made in different languages, the Latin, however, prevailing throughout the whole Diary. The Latin sometimes is strangely jumbled with French and Italian, without any appa- rent design, the French sometimes running into Italian, and the Italian into Latin ; but the sense of the passages where this oc- curs, is never confused or obscured. But this very circumstance tends to establish the authenticity of this portion of the Diary. It would appear as if occurrences were noted down by this author, an officer having numerous avo- cations, on the spur of the moment, and probably the introduction of those passages in foreign languages was owing to interruptions in his journal, and communication at the time with natives of the countries in which those languages were spoken. This Diary likewise exists in the " Corpus Historiae Me- diavae," A Johanne Georgio Eccardo, under the title of" Diarium Curiae Romanae Sub Alessandro Sexto." Among the remarkable events recorded in the Diary for the year 1493, is the news, being received in Rome, of the sudden and unprovided death of Ferdinand, king of Sicily and Naples — * Prefatio Leibnisii ad Diarium Burchardi, p. 1. APPENDIX. 251 " qui obiit sine lume sine cruce et sine Deo." . . . . u The son of Ferdinand Alphonzo, of Arragon the Second, had the right of succession to the throne of Naples by the ordinance of Pope In- nocent the Sixth, nevertheless the king of France, who pre- tended a right to that throne, pressed his suit on the Pope to hare the ( investiture * of that kingdom — e pour traverser le droit du dit Royasime au diet Alphonse a quoi le Pape n'eut aucun regard.' " The Pope, on the contrary, created the cardinal of Montreal to invest Alphonzo with the kingdom of Naples, to consecrate and crown him, which was accordingly done with great pomp at Naples by the legate.* " At the same time," (1493) says Burchard, " as this ceremony, the new king, Alphonzo, created John Borgia, son of the Pope, the Duke of Gandia — Prince de Clarmont, Count of Laura, and of * * * and also Jeoffrey Borgia, another son of the Pope, he created Prince of Squillace, and of Cariatta, Prothonotary and Lieutenant of the king of Sicily — extra Pharum — and also made him a knight of St. George. " The 17th of November, 1494, the King of France entered Florence (Charles the Eighth) with great pomp, with inscrip- tions, some having these words — i Rex et Restaurator Liber- tatis.' " The 31st of December, 1494, the King of the French having arrived in Rome, the master of the ceremonies (Burchard) was sent by the Pope to confer with his Majesty. Also some depu- ties from the Roman citizens, but the king was not communica- tive — ( parvum respondit et nihil ad propositum.' " There were evident signs of rejoicings in the streets. The keys of the city were given up to the king. i Fires were lighted, torches were kept burning, and houses were illuminated, all crying out Francia, Francia, Colonna, Colonna, Vine ula, Tin- cula.' " It was observed that there were great robberies committed in Rome by the French ; the Colonnas at their head entering the houses and palaces, pillaged and carried away everything they * D'Tium. p. 6. 252 APPENDIX. could. They entered even the house of the master of the cere- monies (Burchard himself), and put up their horses in the stables, and took away his own, and carried away every thing they wished. On the 6th of January, 1495, some French spoiled and plundered the house of Paul de Branda, a Roman citizen. His two sons were killed, and many others of the Jews were killed, and their houses spoiled, and in like manner the house of lady Rosa, the mother of the most reverend Cardinal Valentinus — ' simmiler domus Dominae Rosas Matris, R. D. Cardinalis Va- lentini.'"* (It is well to bear in mind that this outrage was offered to the mother of Caesar Borgia, the man of a long hand and a long- memory for injuries and insults). se In January, 1495, when the treaty was made with the king of France, Charles the Eighth, then in possession of the city, Alexander was shut up in the castle of "St. Angelo with four cardinals, one of whom was Valentinus. f " On the 18th of the same month, the king obtained an inter- view with his holiness. The Pope met his Majesty in the garden of the castle. "When the king saw his holiness, at some short distance, he made two genuflexions, which his holiness feigned not to see ; then the king made a third genuflexion, and the Pon- tiff approached his majesty, still kneeling, and kissed him. Both were uncovered, but the king kissed neither the hand nor the foot of his holiness — e sicque Rex nec pedem, nec manum Papas osculatus est.'* " The Pope, with the left hand, taking the king's right hand, led him to the apartment prepared for the interview, f The Camera Papagalli.' When they entered that apartment, the Pope feigned one of his fainting fits, and was conducted to a low seat near a window, while the king was placed in a high chair beside his holiness. " On the 19th, a consistory was held to receive the king's c obedience.' The master of the ceremonies, Burchard, was sent to the king the day previously, to tell his majesty what he was * Diarium, p. 15. f Idem, p. 26. J Idem. APPENDIX. to do, and, amongst other things, how he was to kiss the Pope's foot. The king held a council on these weighty matters, and was rather intractable ; however, next day he came to the con- sistory, and made the three prescribed reverences before his holiness, and the third, while kneeling, kissed the hand and then the foot of his holiness. He was then raised by his holiness, and received the ' Osculum oris' from him. The king was then placed on the left hand of his majesty, and said these words : ' Je suis venu pour faire obedience et reverence, a votre sainctete comme out coutume de faire mes predecesseurs Roys de France.' " The Pope responded fitly and briefly, calling his majesty in his reply, ' his eldest son'* — f Primo genitum filium suum.' M The 22nd of January, 1495, the Cardinal Gurci was recon- ciled with his holiness, and received the apostolical benediction, acknowledging his fault to the Pontiff. But in the presence of the Cardinals Orsino and St. George, he laid many crimes to the Pope's charge — simony, lust, treachery in sending private infor- mation to the great Turk, and maintaining a mutual intelligence with him, declaring his holiness to be a great dissembler and complete deceiver, if his words were rightly reported." The Diary of the year 1496 begins thus : — " 1496, Lucretia Borgia, daughter of the Pope, came to Rome. " The 2nd of January of that year, the Duchess of Milan, wife of the most illustrious Hercules, duke of Ferrara, was delivered of a child — quoddam monstrum — of which accouchement the duchess died the same night, and the following day the corpse was carried to the church of the convent Donna Maria de Gra- tiis in Porta, Vercellina Mediolanensis, and there was buried. " The 5th of June (same year), Lucretia Borgia, the wife of the magnificent Lord John Sfozza, count of Colignola, daughter of the Pope, with her attendants, rode to the monastery of the nuns of St. Sixtus, without the city, and there remained, on ac- count of which many rumours were spread by many people." f The Diary of 1496 ends with an account of the proceedings in a secret consistory, in which, with the consent of all the car- * Diarium, p. 32. t Idem, p. 36. 254 APPENDIX. dinals, the Pope's eldest son, John, Duke of Gandia, was ap- pointed Captain-General — " Nullo se opponente seu minimum verbum contradicen te." " The 14th June, 1497, Cardinal Yalentinus and his brother, the Duke of Gandia, supped with their mother, the Donna Va- nozzi, at her abode near the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula. " Supper being over, and night falling, the most Reverend Lord Cardinal Valentinus, and his brother, the duke, departed mounted on mules, but the Duke of Gandia took leave of his brother, not far from the palace of the vice-chancellor, Cardinal Ascanius, to make some other visit, accompanied solely by his groom, and a person who wore a mask, and had been in the habit of visiting the duke for about a month previously. Where the duke went is unknown, further, than that he passed by the Jewish quarter, and there parted with the groom. That night the young duke was waylaid, murdered, and thrown into the Tiber. " The groom was found in the morning grievously mutilated, wounded mortally, and incapable of giving any account of his master. " In the morning, when the Pope heard that the duke, his most dear son, was missing, he was greatly disturbed, ( exinde perturbatus.' He thought, however, the Duke might have gone to the house of a certain female, and there he sent messengers, and elsewhere, but enquiries were in vain. " At length, some circumstances led to the discovery of the body in the Tiber. A man having charge of a boat with tim- ber, on the banks of the river, near the spot where the murder had taken place, having been heard speaking of some suspicious circumstances he had witnessed, was examined, and he deposed that he had seen two men at some distance at the end of a street close by the river, about the fifth hour, lurking there ; that they passed on, and he lost sight of them. Shortly afterwards, the two men again appeared, and a third person, mounted on a white horse, bearing a dead body, with the head and arms trailing over one side of the horse, and the legs and feet hang- APPEND I X . 255 ing down on the other side. This horseman, however, did not approach before signal was made to him by the other men. The men on foot took the dead body from the horseman, by the hands and feet, and cast it into the Tiber. " The man on horseback asked if the body had sunk ; they re- plied, c Si, Signor.' But the horseman observing the mantle that had been about the dead body floating on the surface, asked, f what dark object that was on the water V and the men on foot said, ( it was the mantle.' At this time, two more men had joined the others. They all five then cast stones on the mantle, till it sunk, and then they departed. The boatman being asked why he had not communicated these facts to the governor of the city, said, e That in his time he had seen a hun- dred bodies of killed people thrown into the river at the same place, and never heard of any account being taken of such oc- currences, and therefore he thought it would be the same in the present instance.' " The body being sought for and found in the river, it was con- veyed to the Castle of St. Angelo. Nine wounds were found on the person of the Duke, one in the neck, the other eight in the head, trunk, and thighs. > The body was washed, dressed and laid out by a subordinate officer (of the diarist), Socio meo Bernardino Gutterii clerico ceremoniarum omnia ordinante. The body was then borne on a bier to Santa Maria de Populo by torch-light, accompanied by all the prelates of the palace, — ( Cum magno fletu et ululatu.' " The body, attired in military costume, as it lay exposed on the bier, had the appearance of a person not dead, but sleeping. " The Pope when he was made acquainted with the facts, how the Duke was found in the river murdered — cast into the Tiber as so much dirt — ut stercus projectum — was moved ex- ceedingly, and in his profound grief and affliction of spirit he shut himself up in his chamber and wept bitterly : — " Commota sibi fuerunt omnia viscera et pro? dolor e et cordis amaritudine reclusit se in quadam camera et flevit amarissime* * Biarium, p. 39. 256 APPENDIX. " The Pope neither ate nor drank from the night of Wed- nesday the 14th, till the following Saturday, the 17th of June, when he began to restrain his grief, considering the greater mischief and danger that might happen to his own person.f " In those days (last previous date in the Diary, 17th August, 1497), the most illustrious Alphonzo of Arragon, Duke of the Bisilii, Prince of Salerno, filius naturalis of Alphonzo the Second of Arragon, of blessed memory, King of Naples, about seventeen years of age or there about, septem decim annos natus vel circa, the future husband of Lucretia Borgia, the most dear daughter of his Holiness our Lord, who was not received with public pomp, but only accompanied by some private persons sent by the Pope to meet him. He rode to the palace of the most Re- verend Lord Cardinal S. Maria, in Portico, which the above- mentioned Lucretia inhabited, where he was received as a guest. After some days, he contracted matrimony, per verba presenti, with the said Lucretia, and consummated the said mar- riage. The nuptials were celebrated in the said palace, pri- vately at first, without solemn pomp, and under secrecy that was enjoined to all persons knowing of the marriage. " Our most holy lord, in the chapel, caused D. Alphonzo to remain on his left hand, and standing, till the time of vespers, and the same was observed at mass, not permitting him to sit down, by the desire of the Pope. " The 1st of October, in the morning, secretly, and without any public pomp, Caesar, the Cardinal Valentinus, left the city to go by sea to France, and with him the Lord Louis of Villan- ova, who had been sent for him by the King of France, and Jordano of Ursino, and he brought with him many young Ro- mans, and, as I learned, a great treasure he bore with him : it was said, that several of the horses were shod with silver. " The 14th of September, 1497,about the fifth hour of the night, the most reverend father in Christ, B. Floridus Archbishop of Consentino, the secretary of his Holiness, was called before the * This murder took place on the 8th of June, and it would appear the body was not found till the 14th of that month. A.FFEK Dl X. 207 Pope, and amongst other falsifications of briefs laid to his charge, was the fabrication of a dispensation, purporting to be accorded to a Portuguese nun, of an illustrious origin, an heiress of royal lineage, permitting her to marry the illegitimate son of the deceased king of Portugal. u The 6th of September, 1497, the cardinals rode forth to the monastery of Santa Maria Xova, to meet the most reverend Lord Cardinal Valentinus, lately returned from the Court of Naples, where he had been as legate de latere, assisting at the coronation of the King Frederic. fi In the month of November, 1497, Charles the Eighth, King of the French, died of apoplexy, caused by washing his head after returning at a late hour- from hunting. " Sentence was at length given in full consistory against Bartholomew Floridus, the lord archbishop of Consentinus (Cusenti), the secretary of his holiness, who was accused of expediting many false briefs and bulls, of which his Holiness had no knowledge, and which crime had been acknowledged by him. " The sentence was, that he should be deprived of all his preferments, dignities, and functions, and delivered over to the power of the secular tribunal." [The archbishop, in the meantime, was detained in custody in the apartments he had in the apostolic palace.] u The 17th of October, 1497, the archbishop's goods having been all seized, and deposited in the treasury of his Holiness, he was taken from the apostolic palace, to be consigned to a narrow, squalid dungeon in the Castle of St. Angelo, there to undergo perpetual captivity, and to eat the bread of grief and sadness. When he was led forth from the palace, he had been despoiled of his episcopal garments, and clothed with an outer garment of the coarsest cloth, extending beyond the knees, with a pair of hose of the rudest material, a gabano of cloth reaching the ground, a cap of a peculiar form, ' duplo albo et grosso,' and a large wooden crucifix placed in his hand. w Thus was the degraded archbishop led to his dungeon, in the VOL. II. S 258 APPENDIX. place that had been the sepulchre of the Emperor Adrian. In that dungeon, low and dismal, was prepared for him a bed of rude material, a palliasse and mattrass, with two Sclavinas, and for a library, his breviary, a bible, and the Epistles of St. Paul. There was left with him also, a barrel of water, three cachuti of bread, a vase boccale of oil, and a lamp, ' ibidem inclusus quo ad vixerit permansurus.' (This provision was, in short, to serve him while he remained alive.) It was ordered," continues Burchard, " by our most holy Lord, ( per sanctissimum Domi- num nostram,' as I heard, that every day, or every third day, while he was shut up there, that the keeper of the castle should visit him, or some one appointed by him, and the bread and water for his sustenance, and the oil for his lamp, should be served out to him." [One of the latest records in the Diary for the year 1497, is in relation to a matter of police truly Alexandrian.] " There was imprisoned a certain courtezan, hoc est meritrix honesta, who lived on familiar terms with a Moor, attired in a woman's dress, and bore the name of Barbara Hispana. Both were led through the city to the public scandal, she dressed in a black garment flowing to the ground without any ligature, but the Moor in the woman's dress, with his arms tied behind his back, and his clothes gathered up in front and tied about his waist, 6 usque ad umbilicam ut ab omnibus genitalia viderentur.' Having made the circuit of the city with them in this manner, the woman was dismissed ; but the Moor, with two other robbers, were led out of the prison on the 7th of April, a certain ( sbirro ' preceding them, seated on an ass, and in the Campus Flora? the Moor was emasculated by a Jew, and there the two robbers were hanged. (The Moor was then placed on a pile to be burned.) The Moor, however, being placed on the top of the pile of wood, clung to a post, baculo bene et fortiter torto accenso cumulo, as he was burned, which (burning) was impeded by the rain that fell.* "The 1st of January, 1498, the most reverend Cardinals, * Diarium, p. 44. APPENDIX. 259 Valentinus and Borgia (the son and the nephew of the Pontiff ), rode out of the city to Ostia for recreation, in the dress of Gallic laymen, and in the same attire returned on the 24th of the same month to the city. u The 14th of February, 1498, Petrus Perottus Caldes, in the Camera of our most holy Lord, serving in the night, fell into the Tiber, non libentur, and was found in the river, of which matter many things were said in the city.* "/The 5th of June, 1498, the Pope with uncovered head bore the sacrament from a small chapel in the Aula of the palace, to the Basilica of St. Peter's, where, when he was before the great altar, he feigned a fainting fit, e finxit syncopem,' which being perceived, his face was sprinkled with water and wine. Then he came to himself, who had not been absent in spirit or uncon- scious, visus est redire ad se que de se non decesserat, surrexit et fecit alia, more solito. " On the following feast day of SS. Peter and Paul, at the cele- bration of Pontifical vespers in the great chapel, Cardinal Praxedes performed the functions, the Pope being absent, feign- ing to be sick, ' se infirmu/n fngente.' f The 18th of June 1498, on the great festival of the Procession of Corpus Christi, when the pope was with the sacrament before the great altar, he feigned a fainting fit, " finxit syncopare." Xevertheless he made the confession, and ordered the mass to be speedily terminated. " The singers," says the master of the ceremonies, " being advised by me, only went through half what * Diarium, p. 46. Ranke, in his Lives of the Popes, (vol. i. chap. ii. p. 39), alludes evidently to the death of the same Perottus, whom Bur- chard speaks of in such cautious terms, as having fallen into the Tiber, non libenter. Ranke's words are : — " He (Caesar Borgia) slew Peroto, Alex- ander's favourite, while the unhappy man clung to his patron for protec- tion, and was wrapped within the pontifical mantle. The blood of the favourite flowed over the face of the Pope." The authenticity of Burchard's Diary, and the fact of his understating, rather than exaggerating the atrocities that disgraced the pontificate of Alexander, may be judged of by Burchard's mode of recording the murder of Alexander's favourite servant. t Burchard, p. 56. 200 APPENDIX . was to be done, so the mass scarcely lasted half an hour. Va- lentinus, seeing the pope still feigning syncope, stood up, and so remained standing to the end of the service." * " Feria Secunda the 23rd July, 1498, died Bartholomew Flo- ridus, formerly Archbishop of Cusensis and private secretary of our most holy father the Pope, in the castle of San Angelo, and in the place in which he was imprisoned, as 1 heard, ut in- intellexi, with great devotion to our Saviour, beseeching his mercy, and saying, f To thee only have I sinned,' — ac se negaret in papam deliquisse." f " The 17th of August, 1498, in a secret consistory, the most reverend Cardinal Valentinus set forth how much against his wishes he had been obliged by his holiness to adopt the ecclesi- astical state and profession, which from his youth had been dis- tasteful to him, and therefore he prayed the consistory that he might be granted a dispensation from his vows and dignities, which supplication was unanimously consented to : c cardinales omnes communi et concorde voto dispensationem hujusmodi voluntati et arbitrio summi Ponteficis remiserunt. 5 " § " 22nd February, 1499, entered Rome the Bishop of Treco- rensis, and the most noble Lord John of Ccetina, Knight, am- bassadors of the most serene lady the Duchess Ann, Queen of Britain. Impediments were put in the way of giving them an audience for several days, by the Cardinals of St. Denis and Gurcensis, saying it was not fitting the queen should make an act of submission without the king, ' obedientiam prestare sine Re.' But the said duchess having subsequently married Louis, king of the Franks, the consent of the said king was shown, and the ambassadors were received and honoured. " The 17th of May, 1499, or about that day (I being then absent), there was a secret consistory, and with the advice and consent of the cardinals, Ccesar Borgia of Arragon, Duke of Valentino formerly Cardinal Valentinus, the most dear son of the * Diarium, p. 68. f Ibid. p. 56. By this entry we find the unfortunate archbishop lived in confinement a period of nine months. % Diarium, p. 75. APPENDIX., 261 Pope was sent to France, with the red hat and many gifts, to the Archbishop Rhotomagensis, " The 20th of December, 1499, the presents, including the pall, were duly presented : the archbishop was invested with the pall, and in the presence of the French King. " Letters came from France, announcing the marriage of the former Cardinal Valentino with the daughter of the Lord of Albretto, with a contract, amongst other documents, stipulating that his holiness should give a dowry of 20,000 ducats, and that the marriage should not be consummated until his holiness had created the brother of the spouse a cardinal, and had duly pub- lished the same. " The 23rd of May, 1499, a courier arrived from France, bear- ing dispatches from the Duke of Valentino to his holiness, announcing that he had contracted a marriage with the lady Albretto, and had consummated the same on the 22nd of the same month " The Pope ordered illuminations in the city, in token of joy at the event, hut in token also of the great shame and scandal of our most holy Lord and of the Holy See, ( sed in magnum dedecus et in verecundiam sanctissimi Domini nostri et ejus santae sedis.' " In the month of June, 1499, on account of the concord estab- lished between France and Spain, the Colonnas of Rome judged it prudent to place all their estates under the care and safety of the Sacred College of Cardinals, and to commit the keys of the town and villages belonging to them to his holiness. On the 28th of the same month, about twenty of the principal vassals of the Colonnas, from their different territories, came to the palace of the Pope, and there did homage to his holiness each for his lands. M On the 24th of the September following, a decree against the Colonnas, signed by all the cardinals, ' consistorialiter emanata per omnes cardinales tunc presentes subscripta contra Colum- nenses,' was posted up on the gates of St. Peter's, to the effect, f That no one should dare to keep, even in his own house, any one of the Colonnas, on pain of death ; and any one who had any 262 APPENDIX. property of theirs in deposit or custody, should reveal the same, under penalty of loss of all their own goods, besides several other provisions against the dispersed Colonnas." * " The 31st of October, 1499, the Lady Lucretia was brought to bed of a male child,t which event, by the Pope's order, was announced that evening to all the cardinals and ambassadors, and the friends of the Pontiff, at their houses. " The 18th of November, 1499, the Duke Valentino, son of the Pope, came post secretly to seek the Pope, and remained in Rome with his holiness till the 21st of the month, and then de- parted secretly, and took the route towards Imola,where, a short time after, he practised such violence in that place, and by stra- tagem surprised the sons of the Count Riario, the nephews of Cardinal Saint George, and plundered the lords of that city. + During the absence of Valentinus in France, " There was an embassy received by the Pope with great reluctance from the Spanish sovereigns. After long and angry discussion, the Spanish agents formally protested against the mission of Valen- tino, the Pope's son, to France, and called on his holiness to recall him, and to cause him to resume his former station. But the Pope denied their right to make any such protest. "The 14th of January, 1500, it was announced in the city that the fortress of Forli had been fraudulently and violently seized, and that the widow of Jerome, Count of Riario, had been taken by the Duke Valentino, all the rest being killed. " It was, moreover, announced that Cardinal Borgia had been seized, on his way from Bologna, with a fever — ' Valdt suspec- tam ' — from which, when he recovered, and having heard of the capture of Forli, he went with great haste to congratulate the Duke Valentino, and was suddenly again attacked with fever, and died the 17th of January, 1500. te January, 1501 — superioribus diebus — the Lord Bishop of Ca- lagurita Petrus de Aranda magister domus Palatii Apostolici de fede, was taken and sent to prison in the castle of San Angelo, * Diarium, p. 76. t By her marriage with Alphonzo of Arragon. — R. R. M. J Diarium, p. 62. APPENDIX. 263 suspected of heresy, and his process was committed to the arch- bishop, Petro Regino, governor of the city, Peter, Bishop of Cesina, and two others. Albertus charged him with maintain- ing :— " 1st. That the Mosaic dispensation had one origin, but the Christian law had three authors, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. " 2nd. That Christ could not suffer if he was God. " 3rd. That in praying he was wont to say — In the name of the Father, but omitted the words, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. " 4th. That he was wont to take food before celebrating mass. " 5th. That on Fridays and Saturdays he was wont to eat flesh meat. " 6th. That indulgences were of no avail, and were only in- ventions of the fathers for the sake of gain. " 7th. That there was neither a hell nor a purgatory, but a Paradise only, and many other such things. " The 12th of February, 1500, the Lady Lucretia bought, of the Apostolic chamber, the town of Sermoneta, with the castle and all its appurtenances, for the sum of 80,000 ducats, for the payment of which sum a receipt was given. " The 26th of February, 1500, all the cardinals were noticed by the Pope ; also all the servants of the State, and agents of foreign powers, of the proximate arrival in Rome of the Duke Valentino, in order that the duke should be met in a becoming- manner, and duly honoured ; and on the appointed day several of the cardinals rode forth by the Porte Milvia, and with unco- vered heads accosted him on his arrival. " The duke, rendering them thanks, with uncovered head also, rode between the cardinals to the palace I could not give orders that would be obeyed by his attendants, because the foot soldiers of the duke, about a thousand, in fifties by compa- nies of Swiss and Gascon soldiers, were under the command of fivfc standard bearers, who did not care for my orders. The duke had about his person nearly a hundred footmen — Staffiere Singula 264 APPENDIX. Sirigulos defer entes Roncones. He was dressed in a garment of black velvet, reaching to his knees, having the collenam quite plain. He had many tibicines in his suite, each with arms, and also two heralds of his own, and one of the King of France. " The 29th of March, 1500, on the return of the Duke of Va- lentino from France, he was created Captain-general and Gon- faloniere of the Church, and the ceremonial of publicly presenting him with the rose was performed. It was presented to the lllustrissimo Ccesar Borgio de Francia. " The same day, his holiness the Pope blessed the pontifical standard and another flag, and with all usual solemnities they were delivered to the duke, he having taken the oath of submis- sion and fidelity to the church. " The same dag, after vespers, about the twenty-first hour, a furious tempest arose, with all the sudden violence of a tornado. In the palace of the Pope it caused great damage and injury to life. A chimney was blown down, and brought with it a portion of the roof and the ceiling of the room, in which his holiness was seated at the time of the occurrence. Two of the beams falling transversely, the ends at one extremity rested against the wall, the opposite ends on the floor, and thus slanting over the chair on which his holiness sat, they formed a covering which protected him from the mass of masonry and the timber that fell in where he was sitting. When the debris were removed, the Pope was found senseless in the high chair in which he sat. Two cardinals were in the room with the Pope when this acci- dent occurred — ( poto cubicularius secretus.' The cardinals had escaped by the windows. Three persons were killed in the palace, and several wounded. When his holiness was found be- neath the beams insensible, it was thought he was dead. The attendants cried aloud — 6 II papa e morto V He came to himself, however, though severely wounded ; he had two wounds on the head, one on the right hand, and another on the right arm. " The loth of June, 1500, the most illustrious Signor Alphonzo of Arragon, consort of the Lady Lucretia, was attacked by* as- sassins in the streets of Rome, and was dangerously wounded in APPENDIX. 265 the head, leg, and arm ; the assassins fled out of the city, and were joined in their flight by about forty horsemen, who were in waiting for them. Alphonzo was carried home, and on the 18th of August, 1500, he was strangled in his bed — -fuit stran- galalus in lecto suo — about nine o'clock in the evening. "The last day of August, 1500, the n Lady Lucretia left the city for Xepesina, accompanied by about 600 horsemen. She went to Xepesina to seek consolation. " The 23rd of June, 1500, about twelve o'clock, there entered the city, by the gate Viridarii, Lewis of Villanova, Baron of France, chaplain of the French sovereign, and his envoy. AVhen near the hospital of St. Lazaro, another cavalier arrived, with one on foot. This cavalier was masked. He descended from his horse and entered a tavern, still masked. People said the masked man was the Duke Valentino. Lewis of Villanova embraced the masked man, and after having conferred together, they went away, the cavalier still masked. (t The 27th July, our most holy father the Pope having left the city, committed the care of his camera, and all the palace and the current business, to the Lady Lucretia Borgia, his daughter : who (as appointed) in the absence of the pontiff in- habited his apartments, and he gave a commission to her to open all letters addressed to his holiness, and if any thing of great difficulty occurred, directed her to have the counsel of the most reverend Cardinal Olisponensis and other cardinals, and to summon them when necessary to her assistance." * " The 4th of September, (1501,) news arrived in the evening of the marriage contract concluded for the espousal of the Donna Lucretia, daughter of the Pope, to Alphonzo, the eldest son of the Duke of Ferrara, on account of which, from that hour (of the arrival of the intelligence) all night there were continual discharges of artillery in the camp and castle of San Angelo. And the following Sunday, the 5th instant, after dinner, the aforesaid Lady Lucretia rode from the palace in which she re- sided to the church of the Beata Maria de Popolo, attired in a brocade dress of golden tissue, escorted by about three hundred * Diarium. p. 7o. 266 APPENDIX. horsemen, and before her rode four bishops, 1 et ante earn equita- bant quatuor Episcopi,' whom the^Donna Lucretia, being alone, followed — et suae pedisse quae et curiales — and in the same order and thus attended, she returned to the palace. s;> help the other ; some applying themselves to one art, and some to another, and forming, together, a perfect body of all the sciences and arts. For which reason, it is well said, that he who lives alone, is either a God or a beast ; that is, either he is so perfect a man, that he is, as it were, a God on earth ; because, like a God, he has no need of any thing, so he has no need of the help of any man, as was Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Paul, the first hermit, and many others ; or, that he is like a beast, that is, that he is totally deprived of reason, and therefore cares not for clothes, nor for houses, nor for cooked and prepared foods, nor for the conversation of men, but goes on following the instinct of the sensitive part, having removed from himself all reason. Because, there being few men found of such perfection except such as those I have referred to, all the others are obliged to live in company, either in cities, or towns, or country houses, or in other places. Now, the human race being much inclined to evil, and par- ticularly when it is without law, and without fear, it has been necessary to find out law, to restrain the audacity of wicked men, in order that those who do live well may be secure ; par- ticularly, because there is no animal wickeder than the man who is without law. TTherefore we see the gluttonous man to be more greedy, and incomparably more insatiable than all the other animals — all foods, and all the known modes of preparing them, not sufficing ; he seeking not to satisfy nature, but his unbridled desire. In cruelty, also, he exceeds them, because the beasts do not make such cruel wars amongst each other, particularly those which are of the same species, as men do, who even find out different arms to attack each other, and dif- ferent modes of torturing and killing each other. In addition to these things, in men there is pride, ambition, and envy ; from which follow amongst them dissensions and unendurable wars. Men being, therefore, necessitated to live in the society of others, and wishing to live in peace, it has been needful to find out 286 APPENDIX. laws, by which the wicked may be punished and the good re- warded. But, because the making of laws appertain only to him who is superior, and their observance cannot be enforced except by him who has power over others, it has been necessary to con- stitute one, who has care of the commonwealth, and has power over others. Because, each particular man seeking his own welfare, if some one had not care of the common weal, human society could not stand, and all the world would fall into con- fusion. Some men, then, agree together to constitute one per- son, who shall take care of the common weal, and whom every one shall obey ; and such a mode of governing was called a kingdom, and a king the person who governed it. Some others, either from not being able to agree on one person, or, from it appearing to them better, agreed on the principal, and best, and most prudent of the community, wishing that such should govern by distributing amongst themselves the magistracies at different times ; and this government was called that of chiefs, or an aris- tocracy. Others would have the governing power to remain in the hands of the entire people, who should have to distribute the magistracies as they pleased at different times ; and this was called the citizen or civil government, because it belongs to the citizens. The government, then, of the community being formed, in order to take care of the common weal, that men may live peace- fully together, and devote themselves to the virtues, and pursue more easily eternal felicity, that government is good which, with all diligence, seeks to maintain and increase the common weal, and lead men to virtue and living well, and particularly to the Divine worship ; and that government is bad, which, neglecting the common good, attends to its own particular welfare ; and such a government is called tyrannical. We have thus seen the necessity of government amongst men, and what sort is good, and what sort is bad in general. APPENDIX. 287 Chap. II. — Although the government of a single person, when it is good, is of its nature the best, it is not, therefore, good for every Community . That government, then, being good, which takes care of the common welfare, both spiritual and temporal, whether it be ad- ministered by a single person, or the chief persons of the people, or by the entire people ; it is to be known that, speaking abso- lutely, the citizen government is good, and that of the chief persons (an aristocracy) is better, and that of a king is best. Because, the union and peace of the people being the end of government, this union and peace is much better effected and preserved by one than by many, and better by few than by the multitude ; because, when all the men of a community have to look to one only, and obey him, they are not distracted in par- ties, but all are compelled to love and fear him. But when there are several, one person looks to one, another to another ; and one pleases one, another pleases or displeases another, and the people do not remain so well united as when a single person reigns ; and so much the less do they remain united as there are many who govern. Thus virtue united is stronger than scat- tered ; because fire has greater strength when its parts are united and drawn together, than when they are scattered and spread about. Since, then, the virtue of government is more united and brought together in one person than in several, it follows, natu- rally, that the government of one person, when it is good, is better and more efficacious than the others. Also, the govern- ment of the world and of nature, being the best government, and, following the art of nature, the more the government of human things resembles the government of the world and of nature, the more perfect it is. Since, then, the world is governed by one, who is God ; and all natural things in which we see any government are governed by one, (as the bees by a king, and the powers of the soul by reason, and the members of the body 288 APPENDIX. by the heart, and the like is it in the other things which have a government), it follows that that government of human things which is administered by one ruler is, of its nature, the best of all. Wherefore our Saviour, wishing to place the best govern- ment in his Church, made Peter the Head of all the faithful, and in every diocese, even in every parish and monastery, wished that the government should be of one person ; and, finally, that all the heads should be under one head, his Vicar. So that, absolutely speaking, the government of one, when it is good, excels all other good governments ; and such a govern- ment should be instituted in every community, if it could be done, that is, if the people could agree, and make a good, just, and prudent prince, whom all would obey. But it is to be re- marked, that this is not good, nor can, nor ought to be attempted in every community, because it many times happens that what is absolutely best is not good ; on the contrary, is bad in some place, or some person, as the state of perfection of spiritual life, that is, the religious state, which in itself is the best state, and yet it is not to be imposed on all Christians ; nor is such a thing to be attempted, nor would it be good, because many could not bear it, and it would make a rent in the Church, as our Saviour says in the Gospel : — " No one mends an old garment with new cloth." Whence we also see that some food, which in itself is good and excellent, would be poison to some if they eat it ; and as an air, in itself perfect, is bad for some constitutions, so, also, the government of one person is in itself excellent, yet to some people, inclined to dissensions, it would be the worst, because the persecution and death of the prince would often happen, from which would result endless evils to the community ; be- cause, the prince being dead, the people would divide into par- ties, and civil w T ar would follow under different chiefs, amongst whom he who would overcome the others would become a tyrant, and finally destroy all the good of the state, as we shall show hereafter. And if amongst such a people, the prince should wish to secure and establish himself, it would be necessary that APPENDIX. 289 he should become a tyrant, and drive out the powerful, and take the wealth from the rich, and sink th^ people by oppressions ; otherwise, he could never be secure. There are, then, some people whose nature is such, that they could not endure the government of one, without great and in- tolerable inconvenience ; as the constitution and habits of some men, used to be in the open air and in the fields, are such, that to make them stay in good and warm rooms, with good clothes and delicate food, would soon make them sick and die. And, therefore, the wise and prudent men, who have to establish any government, first consider the nature of the people ; and if their nature or habit is such that they can easily take with the govern- ment of one, they establish this in preference to the others ; but if this government would not suit them, they endeavour to give them the second, of the chief persons, or an aristocracy. And if this could not be endured, they give them the civil govern- ment, or government of citizens, with those laws which suit the nature of that people. Now let us see which of those three governments best suits the Florentine people. Chap. III. — That the Citizen Government is the best for the City of Florence. It cannot be doubted, if what we have said be diligently con- sidered, that if the Florentine people should suffer the govern- ment of one person, he should be a prince, not a tyrant, who would be prudent, just, and good. But, if we examine well the opinions and reasons of the wise philosophers, as well as theolo- gians, we shall clearly know, that, considering the nature of this people, such a government does not suit them. Because they say such a government suits people who are servile by na- ture, as are those who are deficient in blood or genius, or in one or the other : because, since those who abound in blood, and are strong in their bodies, are bold in war, nevertheless being de- ficient in talent, it is an easy thing to make them remain obedient VOL. II. v 290 APPENDIX. to a prince ; because, through the weakness of their mind, they cannot easily plot against him ; but, on the contrary, follow him as the bees do their sovereign, as is seen in the northern peoples ; and those who have talent, and are deficient in blood, being pu- sillanimous, easily submit themselves to a single ruler, and live quietly under him, like the Orientals, and much more so when they are deficient in both talent and blood. But the people who have genius and abound in blood, are bold, and cannot easily be ruled by one, if he does not tyrannize over them : because from their genius they are continually plotting against the prince, and by their boldness they easily carry their plots into execution, as has always been seen in Italy ; which we know by experience of the past, and even to the present time, has never been able to continue under the rule of one prince : we see, on the contrary, that being a small province, it is divided almost amongst as many princes as there are cities, which are hardly ever at peace. The Florentine people being, then, the most ingenious of all the people of Italy, and the wisest in their undertakings, are also courageous and bold, as has been seen by experience many times ; because, although they are devoted to commerce, and appear a quiet people, yet when they commence any enterprise, either of civil or foreign war, they are spirited and terrible, as we read in the chronicles of the wars they made against different princes and tyrants, to whom they have never yielded, but de- fended themselves against them, and gained the victory. The nature, then, of this people is, not to suffer the government of one prince, even though he were good and perfect ; because, the wicked being always more numerous than the good, through the sagacity and courage of the bad citizens, he would be either betrayed and killed, (they being greatly inclined to ambition), or it would be necessary he should become a tyrant. And if we more diligently consider, we shall understand that not only the government of one does not suit this people, but also that the rule of chiefs, an aristocracy, does not suit them, because habit is another nature ; because, as nature is inclined to one mode, and cannot be drawn from it, as the stone is inclined to descend, and APPENDIX. 291 cannot be made to rise without force, so habit is converted into nature, and it is very difficult and almost impossible to draw people, and men most of all, from their habits, even bad ones, for such are become natural to them. Now, the Florentine people having anciently assumed the citizen government, have so made it a habit, that, besides this being more natural and suited to them than any other govern- ment, it is so impressed by habit on the minds of the citizens, that it would be difficult, and almost impossible, to turn them from such a mode of governing. And although they have been many years since governed by tyrants, yet those citizens who usurped the state at that time, did not so tyrannize as to assume the entire authority to themselves, but with great cunning they governed the people, not disturbing them in their natural habits. Wherefore, they left them the form of free government in the state, and the ordinary magistracies; taking care, however, that no person should fill any of them who was not their friend. And therefore, the form of the civil government having remained with the people, it is so natural to them, that to alter it, or give another form of government, is nothing less than to act against their natural and ancient habit, which would generate such dis- turbance and discussion in this community, that it would put it in danger of losing its entire liberty : and this is shewn much better by experience, which is the mistress of the arts. Because, every time that in the city of Florence the government has been occupied by leading men, there has been great division, which has never been allayed until one party has driven out the other, and one citizen has made himself a tyrant, who, after he has done so, has by such means usurped the liberty and the common weal, that the minds of the people have been always discontented and uneasy : and if it was divided and full of discord in past times, through the ambition and the animosities of the principal citizens, it would be particularly so at present, if God had not by his grace and mercy provided for it, and restored the citizens who were driven out in different times by him who governed, particularly from the year thirty-four downwards (1434) ; and D 2 APPENDIX. there existing in those times many animosities, on account of the wrongs done to divers houses and kindred, for which, if God had not interposed, much blood would have been spilt, and many families been undone, and discord and civil war have fol- lowed at home and abroad, and matters being in the state they were, by the coming of the king of France, there is no doubt in the mind of any one who was in that city in those times, and who has any judgment, that this were its last destruction; but the counsel and civil government which was founded in it, not by men but by God, have been an instrument of the Divine vir- tue, by means of the prayers of the good men and women who were found there, to maintain it in its freedom. And certainly, he who has not for his sins totally lost his natural judgment, considering in what great dangers it has been for three years past, cannot deny that it has been governed and preserved by God. We then conclude that, as well by the Divine authority from which the present citizen government has proceeded, as by the preceding reasons, for the city of Florence the government of citizens is best, although it is not the best in itself ; and the government of one, although it may be best in itself, is not, however good, not to say best for the Florentine people ; as the state of perfection of the spiritual life is best in itself, although it may not be best, nor good for many faithful Christians, for whom some other state of life is best, which is not best in itself. We have, then, declared the first point, namely, what sort of government is best for the city of Florence ; it is now time to state the second, that is, what is the worst government for it. TREATISE SECOND. Chap. I. — That the Government of one Person, when it is bad, is the worst, particularly of him who, from a Citizen, has made himself a Tyrant. As the reign of one, when it is good, is the best of all govern- APPENDIX. 29$ mente, so also is it likewise more stable, and is not so easily con- verted into a tyranny as the reign of several, because the more a government is extended, the more it becomes easy to produce discord. Nevertheless, as it is perfect and more stable when it is good, so, when it is unjust and bad, it is of its nature the worst of all bad governments. In the first place, because, as evil is the contrary of good, so the worst is the contrary to the best, the government of one being the best when it is good, it follows that it is the worst when it is bad. Secondly, as we have said, virtue united becomes stronger than when it is diffused : when, then, a tyrant reigns, the virtue of such government is united in one ; and because the wicked are always more nume- rous than the good, and every one likes persons similar to him- self, all the bad men join him, particularly those who desire to be rewarded and honoured; and many also join him through fear ; and those men who are not entirely abandoned, but, how- ever, love earthly things, either from fear or love of what they desire, follow r in his train ; and those who are good, but not altogether perfect, follow him from fear, or have not the courage to resist ; and there being few men perfect, indeed, hardly any one, all the virtue of the government is united in one. And this one being bad and unjust, carries every evil to its worst, and easily depraves all that is good. But when there are several wicked persons governing, one impedes the other; and the virtue of the kingdom being diffused amongst several, they have not so much power to do the evil they wish as a single tyrant. Thirdly, the more a government is bad, the more it departs from the common good ; because the common good being the end of every good government, the more it approaches it, the nearer it is to perfection ; and the more it is departed from, the more imperfect the government ; because every thing acquires its perfection by approaching to its end ; and departing from it, it becomes imperfect. But it is a certain fact, that the bad government of many departs less from the common good than that of one, because although many usurp and divide among themselves the common weal, that is, the revenues and digni- 294 APPENDIX. ties, nevertheless, remaining amongst several, they are, in some measure, common. But when all the common weal is in the hands of one, no portion remains common ; on the contrary, all becomes private, and therefore the bad government of one person, of all governments it is the worst, because it departs from the common weal, and is most destructive of it. Fourthly, length of time aids these reasons, because the government of one is by its nature more stable than that of several, and cannot (although bad) be so easily embarrassed and put down as that of several ; because the members follow the head, and with great difficulty rise against it. And in the government of the tyrant, it is very difficult to make head against him, because he is always watching to crush the men who could do so, and is careful that his subjects shall not have meetings, and is ever vigilant in these things. But when several persons govern, it is more easy to remove the bad government, because the good men can more easily assemble, and put dissension among the bad that they may not unite, which is easy, because each of them seeks his own advantage, from which discord soon arises amongst them. And therefore the bad government of one, in this respect, is still worse than the others, because it is more difficult to embarrass and crush it. It must, however, be re- marked, that although from its nature the bad government of one is the worst, yet sometimes greater inconveniences happen in the bad government of many than in that of one, particularly at its end, because when the government of many is bad, it is immediately divided into several parties, so they begin to destroy the common weal ; and finally, if this is not remedied, it is necessary that one party must succeed and expel the other. From this follow numberless evils, temporal, corporal, and spiritual, of which the greatest is, that the government of seve- ral resolves itself into that of one, because he who has most favour with the people becomes a tyrant. And although the government of one, when it is bad (as we have said), is the worst, yet there is great difference in the government of him who has become tyrant from being the natural and true prince. APPENDIX. 295 and the government of him who from citizen has become tyrant ; because from the latter there follow many more inconveniences than from the former, because if he wishes to reign, he must crush by death or by exile, or by some other means, not only the citizens who are hostile to him, but those who are his equals in rank, riches, or fame, and remove from his sight all those who can give him any trouble, from which circumstance infinite evils follow. But this does not happen with him who has been the natural prince, because no one is his equal, and the citizens being used to be subject to him, do not plot against his state, wherefore he does not live in those same suspicions as he who from a citizen becomes a tyrant. And because, amongst the peoples who have the government of chiefs, an aristocracy or the government of citizens, it is easy, on account of the discords which occur every day, and from the multitude of the wicked, of whisperers, and slanderers to make divisions, and fall into tyrannical government, such people should with every effort and diligence provide, by the strongest and severest laws, that no person shall become tyrant ; punishing, with extremity, not only him who would speak of it, but even him who would hint at such a thing ; and in every other sin to have compassion on the man, but in this to have no compassion on him, except in always helping his soul : wherefore, we should not mitigate any penalty, but rather increase it, to give example to others, in order that every one may take care, I do not say not to hint such a thing, but even not think it. And he who in this matter is compassionate, or negligent in punishing, sins grievously against God, because he gives a beginning to the tyranny, from which follow infinite evils, as we shall show here- after ; because, when the bad men see that the punishments are light, they take courage, and the tyranny proceeds by degrees, as the drop of water gradually hollows the stone. He, then, who has not punished severely such a sin, is the cause of all the evils that follow from the tyranny of such citizens, and therefore every people, governed by citizens, should rather bear every other evil and inconvenience that might follow from the civil £96 APPENDIX. government when it is imperfect, than allow a tyrant to arise. And, in order that every one may the better understand which great evil follows from the government of a tyrant, although we have at another time preached on it, nevertheless, to be better un- derstood, we shall describe it in the following chapter, in respect of the principal things ; because, to tell all its deficiences, abuses and grievous sins, and those evils which follow from it, would be impossible, they being infinite. Chap. II. — On the Malice and Wicked Conditions of the Tyrant. Tyrant is the name of a man of wicked life, and the worst amongst all other men, who wishes to reign by force over all, par- ticularly he who from citizen has made himself a tyrant. Be- cause, in the first place, he must be proud in wishing to exalt himself above his equals, even above persons better than he, and those to whom he ought rather to be subject ; and, therefore, he is envious, and is always troubled at the glory of other men, and particularly of his fellow citizens ; and cannot endure to hear others praised, although many times he dissembles and with anguish of heart, and so rejoices at the degradation of his neighbours, and would wish that every one was calumniated in order that he alone should be glorified. And thus, through the great caprices, troubles, and fears which are ever gnaw- ing his heart, he seeks pleasures as medicine for his afflic- tions ; and therefore, we rarely or never find a tyrant who is not luxurious, and given to the pleasures of the senses. And, be- cause he cannot maintain himself in such a state, nor give him- self the pleasures he desires without a quantity of money, it follows that he has an inordinate appetite for wealth ; whence, every tyrant, in this respect, is avaricious and a robber, because he not only gets by robbery the state, which belongs to all the people, but also usurps that which is common, besides the things which he covets and takes from the citizens by cautious, hidden, and sometimes open ways. And from this it follows that the ^APPENDIX. 297 tyrant has, virtually, all the sins in the world. In the first place, because he has pride, luxury, and avarice, which are the roots of all evil. Secondly, because, having made his object the possessing the State which he holds, there is nothing which he will not do to keep it ; and, therefore, there is no evil which he is not prepared to do for this purpose, as experience shows, for the tyrant pardons nothing in order to maintain himself in the state, and therefore he has, in purpose or practice, all sins. Thirdly, because, from his perverse government, there follow all sins in the people, and therefore he is the debtor of all, as if he had committed them himself ; wherefore, it follows that every part of his soul is depraved. His memory is always full of his injuries, and seeks to avenge itself ; and he forgets, quickly, the benefits of his friends ; his mind he always employs in plan- ning fraud and deceit, and other evils ; his will is full of hatred and perverse desires ; his imagination of false and wicked re- presentations ; and all his exterior senses he employs badly, in his own desires, or to the injury of his neighbour, because he is full of anger and hatred. And this happens to him because he has placed his object in obtaining the state, which is difficult, even impossible to keep for a long time, because no violence is perpetual. Wherefore, seeking to maintain, by force, that which is destroying itself, it is necessary that he must be very vigilant. And, the end being wicked, everything ordered to this end must be bad, and therefore the tyrant can never think, nor remember, nor imagine, nor do any thing not wicked ; and if he does any thing good, he does not do it to do good, but to gain favour and make himself friends, the better to maintain himself in that per- verse state. Wherefore, he is like the devil, the king of the proud, who never thinks of anything but evil ; and if he ever speaks any truth, and does anything having the appearance of good, all is designed for a bad end, particularly to his great pride. So the tyrant orders all the good he does towards his pride, in which, by every manner and means, he seeks to main- tain himself ; and therefore, the more the tyrant shows himself extremely well conducted, the more cunning and wicked he is, 298 APPENDIX. and the more instructed by a greater and wiser devil, who transforms himself into an angel of light, to strike a greater blow. The tyrant is also very bad in respect of the government, concerning which he attends to three things. Firstly, that the subjects may know nothing of the government, or very few things, and of little importance, that they may not know his cunning. Secondly, he seeks to make discord amongst the citizens, not only in the cities, but even in the towns, villages, and houses, amongst his ministers, and even amongst his own counsellors and intimates ; because, as the reign of a true and just king is pre- served by the friendship of his subjects, so tyranny is preserved by the discord of men, because the tyrant favours one of the parties, which keeps the other down and makes him the stronger. Thirdly, he seeks always to humble the powerful, in order to secure himself, and therefore he kills, or brings to mis- fortune the men who excel in nobility, genius, or other virtues ; and he keeps the wise men without reputation, and causes them to be scorned, in order to take away their fame, that they may not be followed : he wishes not to have the citizens for compa- nions, but for slaves ; he prohibits meetings, that men may not form friendships, for fear they should make a conspiracy against him ; and he endeavours to make the citizens as savage as he can, disturbing their friendships, and dissolving marriages and relationships, wishing to form them according to his pleasure, and, when they are effected, seeking to make discord amongst relations ; and he has his discoverers and spies, male and female, priests and religious, as well as seculars, in every place, who re- port to him everything said or done. Wherefore he makes his wife and daughters, or sisters and relations, form friendships and converse with the other women, in order that they may learn the secrets of the citizens from them, and all that is said or done by them at home. He studies that the people shall be occupied with the things necessary to life, and therefore he keeps them poor with bur- dens and taxes. And many times, particularly in time of abun- dance and tranquillity, he occupies them with shows and feasts, APPENDIX. 299 that they may think of themselves and not of him ; and that likewise the citizens may think of the government of their own house, and not occupy themselves with the secrets of the state, that they may be inexperienced and imprudent in the govern- ment of the city, that he alone may remain governor, and may appear more prudent than all. He honours flatterers, that each one may try to flatter him, and be like him ; and he hates the persons who tell the truth, because he does not wish that he may be opposed, and therefore he dislikes the man who speaks freely, and does not wish such men to be about him. He does not often entertain his citizens, but rather strangers ; and he keeps the friendship of the foreign lords and great masters, be- cause he counts his own citizens as adversaries, and is always afraid of them, and therefore he seeks to strengthen himself against them with strangers. In his government he wishes to be secret, with exterior show of not governing, and say- ing and making his accomplices say, that he does not wish to alter the government of the state, but to preserve it ; wherefore he seeks to be called " Conservator of the common weal and he shows himself mild in the smallest things, sometimes giving audience to boys and girls, or to poor persons, and often de- fending them, even from the smallest injuries ; and of all the honours and dignities which are distributed amongst the citi- zens, he shows himself to be the author, and seeks that each one should acknowledge them from him : but the punishments of those who err, or are accused by his accomplices in order to depress them or cause them misfortune, he attributes to the magistrates, and excuses himself for not being able to help them, in order to acquire fame and the good-will of the people, and to make the magistrates hated by those who do not understand his deceit. Likewise, he seeks to appear religious and devoted to divine worship, but he only performs certain external duties, such as going to the churches, giving certain alms, building temples, or making rich vestments, and such other things, through os- tentation. He converses also with religious, and dissem- 300 APPENDIX. blingly confesses to one who is truly religious, in order to appear to be absolved ; but, on the other hand, he destroys re- ligion, usurping the benefices, and giving them to his satellites and accomplices, and seeking them for his children, and so he usurps the temporal and spiritual authority. He wishes that no citizen shall do any thing remarkable, as build great palaces or churches, give banquets, or do any great deeds in the govern- ment, or more than he, in order that he alone may appear sin- gular. And many times he secretly lowers the great men, and after he has lowered them, he publicly raises them more than before/that they may be considered under obligations to him, and that the people may esteem him clement and magnanimous., in order to acquire power. He does not leave justice in the hands of the ordinary magis- trates, in order that he may favour, kill, or degrade as he pleases. He usurps the money of the commonwealth, and he finds new modes for taxes and oppression, in order to gather money with which he may feed his satellites, and hire princes and other cap- tains many times without the community needing it, in order to give them something, and make friends of them, and to be able the more reasonably to oppress the people, saying that he must pay soldiers. And for this reason he also makes and causes to be made useless wars ; that is, those in which he neither seeks nor wishes for victory, nor to take the things of others, but only makes them to keep the people poor, and the better to establish himself in the state. Also with the money of the public he often builds grand palaces and temples, and hangs his arms up every where, and supports male and female singers, because he wishes himself alone to be glorious. To those he has brought up he gives the daughters of the citizens for wives, to lower and take away the reputation from the nobles, and to ex- alt such vile persons who he knows will be faithful to him, because they have no generosity of mind, but have need of him ; such persons being commonly proud, and esteeming such friend- ship a great blessing. He willingly receives presents to collect wealth, and there- APPENDIX. 501 fore rarely makes presents to the citizens, but rather to princes and foreigners, in order to gain their friendship. And when he sees anything belonging to a citizen which pleases him, he praises it and looks at it, and makes such gestures as show that he wishes it, in order that the owner, through shame or fear, may give it him ; and he has near him flatterers, who urge and advise the person to make him a present of it ; and he often borrows the things that please him, and never returns them. He despoils the widow and orphan, under pretext of defending them ; and he takes the possessions, fields, and houses of the poor to make parks, palaces, and other things which give him pleasure, promising to pay the full price, and then he pays only the half. He never gives wages to those who serve him in his house as they deserve, wishing that every one may serve him for nothing. His satellites he seeks to pay with the goods of others, giving them offices and perquisites they do not deserve^ and taking from others offices of the city and giving them to them ; and if a certain merchant has great credit, he endea- vours to make him fail, in order that no one may have credit like him. He exalts the bad men, who but for his protection would be punished by justice, in order that they may defend him, defend- ing in this manner himself ; and if he raises any wise and good men, he does it to show to the people that he is a lover of virtue ; yet he always keeps his eye on such wise and good men, and he does not trust them, therefore he holds them by such means that they cannot injure him. He who does not pay court to him, and he who does not pre- sent himself at his house, or when he is in public, is marked as an enemy, and his satellites go about leading the young men astray and provoking them to evil, even against their own fathers, and lead them to him, seeking to implicate all the youths of the land in their wicked counsels, and make them enemies to all those he reputes his adversaries, even their own fathers ; and he endeavours to make them waste their property in feasts, and in other pleasures, in order that they may become poor, and he alone remain rich. 302 APPENDIX. No official can be appointed that he must not know, or rather, that he must not appoint ; and even the cooks of the palace and servants of the magistrates he will not have named without his consent. He raises often to office the youngest brother or the youngest of the family, or him who has least virtue and good- ness, to create hatred and envy in the elder and best, and sow discord between them. No sentence or opinion can be given, nor any peace made without him, because he always seeks to favour one party, in order to lower the other, which is not so much according to his pleasure. He craftily seeks to corrupt all the good laws, because they are contrary to his unjust government, and he is continually making new laws for his own purpose. In all offices and ma- gistracies, as well within as without the city, he has persons who watch and report to him all that is said and done, and who give the law on his part to those officials, as to how they are to act ; wherefore, he is the refuge of all the wicked men, and the destruction of the just. And he is exceedingly vindictive, insomuch, that even the smallest injuries he seeks to revenge with great cruelty to terrify others, because he is afraid of every one. He who speaks ill of him must hide himself, because he pur- sues him to the farthest part of the world ; and by treachery or poison, or some other means, has revenge ; and he is a great murderer, because he desires always to remove obstacles to his government, although he always makes show that it is not for this, and that he is sorry for the death of others. And he pre- tends oftentimes that he wishes to punish the person guilty of such a murder, but he makes him flee privately ; and he pre- tending, after a certain time, to ask for mercy, is taken back, and kept near him. The tyrant also wishes to be the superior in everything, even in the smallest matters, as in playing, speaking, horse-racing, and learning ; and in all other things, in which there is any competition, he seeks to be first ; and when he cannot by his virtue, he seeks to be superior by fraud and deceit. APPENDIX. SOS And, to keep himself in great repute, he makes a difficulty in giving audience, and many times attends to his pleasures, and makes the citizens wait outside, and then gives them a short audience, and ambiguous answers, and wishes to be un- derstood by significant gestures, because he appears to be ashamed to wish and ask what is in itself evil, or refuse what is good ; therefore, he uses broken words which have the appear- ance of good, but he wishes to be understood. And he often shows scorn for the good men, with words or acts, ridiculing them with his accomplices. He has secret understanding with the other princes, and then, not telling what he knows, he takes counsel on what is to be done, in order that each one may answer at random, and that he alone may appear prudent and wise, and a searcher into the secrets of princes ; and therefore he, alone, wishes to give laws to all men ; and the smallest note or word of his footman avails more with each judge and magistrate, than every justice. In fine, under the tyrant nothing is stable, because every- thing is governed according to his pleasure, which is never go- verned by reason, but by passion ; wherefore, every citizen under him stands in danger from his pride ; all riches are in- secure through his avarice ; all chastity and modesty stand in danger through his lust.f * ****** ****** It would be a tedious matter to speak on all the sins and evils the tyrant commits ; but these will be sufficient for the present, and we shall come to the particular case of the city of Florence. Chap. III. — Of the Welfare of a State prejudiced by a Tyrant , and the especial Injury of Tyranny to a State like that of Flo- rence. If the government of a tyrant is the worst for every city and province, it appears to me to be particularly so for the city of f A sentence is here omitted without injury to the sense, as the reader vrho refers to the original will perceive. — E. R. M. 304 APPENDIX. Florence, speaking for us as Christians. Because all the go- vernments of Christian men should be ordained with a view to the true felicity promised us by Christ, and because we cannot get to it unless by means of Christian life, than which (as we have proved in other places) nothing can be better, the Chris- tians ought to order all their modes of governing private and public, so that this Christian way of ruling may above all things result from them ; and because this system of good government is nourished and increased by the true divine worship, they should always endeavour to preserve and increase this worship not so much with ceremonies as with truths and good hopes and learned ministers of the Church, and to remove as far as can be done bad priests and religious from the city, because, as the saints say, there cannot be found worse men than those, nor any who injure more the divine worship, Christian life, and all good government, and ratheHto have few and good ministers, than many and bad ones ; because, the wicked provoke the anger of God against the city, and all good government pro- ceeding from Him, they cause God to withdraw his hand, and not let flow the grace of good government, on account of the greatness and multiplication of their sins, by which they draw after them a great part of the people, and always persecute the good and just men ; wherefore, read and read again, in the Old and New Testaments, and you will find, that all the persecu- tions of the just have principally proceeded from such men, and that on account of their sins, the scourges of God have come upon the people, and that they have spoiled every good govern- ment, by corrupting the minds of kings, princes, and other governors. It is necessary then to take great care that people live well in the State, and that it be full of good men, particularly ministers of the altar ; because, by increasing the divine worship, and living well, it is necessary the government become perfect. Be- cause God and his angels have a special care of it, as we often read in the Old Testament, that when the divine worship stood still or advanced, the kingdom of the Jews proceeded from good to APPENDIX. 305 Detter, and this same tiling we read in the New Testament of Constantine the Great, of Theodosius, and of other religious princes. Secondly, on account of the prayers which are con- tinually said by those set apart for the divine worship, and by the good who are in the city, and even by the common prayers of all the people at the solemn feasts ; whence we read in the Old and New Testaments that cities have been delivered by God from the greatest danger by prayers, and endowed with num- berless spiritual and temporal blessings. Thirdly, on account of the good counsels by which kingdoms are preserved and in- creased : because, the citizens being good, they are specially enlightened by God, as it is written : Exortum est in tenebris lumen rectis corde — that is, in the darkness of the difficulties of this world, the upright of heart are enlightened by God. Fourthly, by their union ; because when people live as Christians, there cannot be discord, because the roots of discord being removed, that is pride and ambition, avarice and luxury ; and where there is union there must be strength ; whence it has been shewn in past times, that small kingdoms through union have become great, and great ones through discord have become wasted* Fifthly, by justice and the good laws which the good Christians love, whence Solomon says : " Justice establishes the throne." By this mode of living the kingdom would also increase in riches, because, not spending superfluously, they would gather into the public treasury vast wealth, wherewith to pay the soldiers and officials, and feed the poor, and keep their enemies in fear ; and above all, the merchants and the rich men, hearing of their good government, would willingly flock to the city ; and their neighbours who are badly governed would also wish for their go- vernment to be ruled by them, and from their union and the good will of friends, they would have need of few soldiers, and all the arts and sciences and virtues would come into the city, and end- less wealth would be gathered into it, and its rule would extend to many parts, which would be a good thing, not only for the state, but for other people, because they would be well governed, and the divine worship would be extended, and faith and Chris- VOL. II. x 306 APPENDIX. tian mode of living would be increased, which would be for the greater glory of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Now, all this good the government of the tyrannical prevents and spoils, because there is nothing the tyrant hates more than the worship of Christ and Christian mode of living, because it is contrary" to his, and contraries seek to destroy each other. And therefore the tyrant endeavours, as far as he can, to re- move the worship of Christ from the State, although he does it secretly. And if there be any good bishop, priest, or religious, particularly who is free in speaking the truth, he cautiously seeks to remove him from the city, or to corrupt his mind with flattery and presents. And he causes benefices to be given to the bad priests, to his ministers, and those who are his accom- plices, and favours the bad religious and those who flatter him. And he always seeks to corrupt the youth, and the morals of the citizens, as being highly opposed to him ; and if this is a great evil, nay, the greatest evil in every state and kingdom, it is most grievous in communities of Christians, amongst which it appears to me to be still greatest of all in the city of Florence. First, because this people is much inclined to the divine worship, as he knows who is acquainted with them ; whence it would be a most easy thing to institute amongst them a most perfect religious worship, and an excellent mode of Christian life if it had a good government ; and certainly, as we experience every day, if there were not bad priests and religious, Florence would return to the manner of living of the first Christians, and would be like a mirror of religion for all the world. Wherefore, we see at present that amidst so many per- secutions against the morals of the good, and so many impedi- ments within and without, and amongst excommunications and evil persuasions, the good live in such a manner in the state (be it said without meaning offence) that there cannot be named, nor is there any other city where there is more perfection of life than in the city of Florence. If then, amidst so many perse- cutions and impediments, it increases, and bears fruit through the word of God, what would it do could people live quietly APPENDIX. 307 within, and were the contradiction of the tepid and bad priests, religious and citizens removed I This also confirms still more the excellence of the intelligence that is found in it ; because all the world knows that the Flo- rentines have superior minds : and we know that it is a most dangerous thing that such spirits should turn to evil, and par- ticularly that they should be accustomed to it from childhood, because they are afterwards more difficult to be cured, and more apt to cause sins to be multiplied on earth ; and on the other hand, if they turn to good, it will be more difficult to pervert them, and they will be apt to multiply the good in different ways. And it is necessary in the city of Florence to have great care that there the government be good, and that in no way there be a tyrant, knowing how much evil the tyrant's govern- ment has done in Florence and in the other cities ; because such has been their craft, that they have many times deceived the princes of Italy, and have kept in division not only the neigh- bouring cities, but even the remote ; and this the more easily can be done, as it is a rich and industrious city, whence it has many times placed all Italy in confusion. And our assertion is the more confirmed, because the govern- ment of a tyrant cannot last a long time, for nothing violent can (as we have said) be perpetual ; and because, speaking as a Christian, the government of a tyrant is permitted by God, to punish and purge the sins of the people, which, after they are purged away, such government must cease, because the cause being removed, the effect must also be removed. If, then, such a government cannot last in other cities, par- ticularly at Florence, it cannot endure for a long while, because men's minds there cannot rest ; wherefore we have seen by ex- perience, that often in Florence there has been some civil com- motion against the person governing, and from these differences commotions and civil wars have sometimes followed, causing the disturbance of all Italy, and much evil has occurred. For these reasons, then, and others which for shortness I omit, it plainly appears, that if in everv citv the government of x2 308 APPENDIX. a tyrant should be removed, and every other, however imperfect, be sooner endured rather than that of a tyrant, from which flows so many and such great evils, that more or greater cannot be found, how much more should this be done in the city of Florence ? And he who will relish the preceding things, will without any difficulty understand that there is no punishment nor scourge so grievous in this world, that can be equalled to the grievous- ness of the sin of him who would seek, or attempt, or even de- sire to be, or to make a tyrant in the city of Florence, because every punishment which can be thought of in this life, is small in comparison of such a sin ; but the Almighty God, the Just Judge, will know how to punish as it deserves, both in this life and in the next. THIRD TREATISE. Chap. L — On the institution and manner of Government in the hands of Citizens. We having decided that in the city of Florence the best is the citizen government, and that of all states that of a tyrant is worst for it, it remains that we should see how it can be provided that no tyrant shall be made in Florence, and how this government of citizens be introduced : and because sometimes a tyrant is made by force of arms, and force cannot be resisted with reason, concerning this point we cannot give any other instruction ; but we mean to show how it can be provided that a citizen, not by force of arms, but by cunning and by fraud, shall not make himself by degrees the tyrant of the city, assuming the dominion of it, as has been done in times past. But because some persons might think that it would be necessary to provide that no one should be excessively rich, considering that money draws to it the people, and the citizen who is excessively rich easily makes himself a tyrant ; and because in wishing so to ordain, many APPENDIX. 309 inconveniences would follow, it being too perilous to attempt to take away the wealth of the rich, and too difficult to set a limit to the riches of citizens, we therefore say, that riches are not the principal cause of a citizen making himself a tyrant, because if a rich citizen had nothing else but riches, he would not draw to himself the multitude of the other citizens, on which depend the government of the city, they having very little to hope from such a rich man, because the citizens for a little money would not consent that any one should become tyrant ; and let a citizen be as rich as he may, he could not in so large a city purchase so many citizens as necessary, each requiring a great quantity of money, and the greater part being rich, and naturally scorning to make themselves slaves to those whom they consider their equals. Because, then, the citizens seek rather dignities and reputation in the city than money, they knowing that fame helps a man to become rich, it is necessary to provide that no citizen shall have authority in any way to be able to bestow the benefices, offices, and dignities of the city, because this is properly the root which the tyrant takes in cities, the citizens loving honour, and wishing to be esteemed ; and therefore when they see they cannot other- wise have the profits and honours of the city, they place them- selves under him who they believe can give them, and by de- grees thus increasing the number of the citizens who place themselves under him, who has greater authority, he becomes a tyrant ; and when there are several who usurp such authority, the people of necessity is divided, and finally one fights against the other, and he who has most followers, or remains victorious, becomes tyrant. It is necessary, then, to ordain that the authority of distributing the offices and honours shall be in the entire people, that one citizen may not have to look up to another, and each one may esteem himself equal to the other, and cannot resist. But because it would be too difficult to assemble every day all the people, it is necessary to establish a certain number of citizens, who may have this authority from all the people ; but 310 APPENDIX. because a small number might be corrupted by friendships, and kindreds, and money, it is necessary to select a great number of citizens ; and because it might happen that every one would wish to be of this number, and this might generate confusion, because that the commonalty might wish to meddle in the go- vernment, which would soon produce some disorders, it is neces- sary to limit by some means this number of citizens, that no one shall enter it who is in danger of causing disorder, and also that no citizen can complain. This number of citizens being then determined, it is called the great council, and having to distribute all the honours, there is no doubt that they are lords of the city, and therefore it is necessary after it is created to do three things : — Firstly. To establish it by due means, and very strong laws, that power may not be taken from it, and because the citizens ill- affected to their city are more solicitous for their own interest than for the commonweal, and therefore do not care to attend the council (through which negligence, the council might lose its authority and be undone), it should be provided, that he who would not attend at the proper time, not being lawfully prevented, should pay so much for the first time, and the penalty should be heavy, and the second time heavier, and the third time to deprive him totally of his place, in order that what he will not do for love, being bound to it, he may do by force, because every one ought to love the public good more than his own ; and for this he is bound to expose his property and life, particularly considering that from the good government pro- ceed so many good things, and from the bad so many evils, as we have said. Other like laws, and penalties, and provisions, must be made according as experience shows, from day to day, to strengthen the council, and to establish the authority of the lord of the city, because this being taken away, every thing would go to ruin. Secondly. It should be provided, that this lord cannot be- come tyrant ; because, sometimes as one man who is natural lord, allows himself to be corrupted by the wicked, and becomes APPENDIX. 311 a tyrant, so a good council, by the malice of the wicked, be- comes bad and tyrannical, and because wicked and foolish men, when they multiply, are the cause of many evils in go- vernments, it is necessary to make provision to exclude, as much as possible, such men from the council. Also, to provide by the heaviest penalties, that they should not canvass nor ask votes or suffrages, and whoever should be found in fault, should be punished without any remission, because he who is not severe in punishing, cannot preserve kingdoms. It is ne- cessary to provide carefully for the removal of all imperfections and bad roots, by which the council might be corrupted, and might, particularly the greater part, come into the hands of bad men, because it would be immediately destroyed, and would make itself the tyrant of the city. Thirdly. It is necessary to provide, that it may not be too much oppressed, that is, that for every most trifling thing, it may not have to assemble so many citizens, whence the lords attend to the important matters, and to the subordinate, they may commit the lesser affairs, always retaining, however, the authority of distributing the offices and benefices, in order that each one may be sifted, to remove the principle of tyranny as we have said, and therefore it is necessary to make a provision that they should assemble at certain times, less inconvenient to the citizens, and talk together on many things, and what they may have to do on such a day when they meet, and to find a mode by which the elections may be short, and may be despatched as soon as possible. We shall be able to say many things on this point, and come more to particulars ; but if the Florentine citizens will observe what we have said, and what we shall say in the following chapter, they will not have need of my instruction, because they themselves, if they wish, with the assistance of God, will know how, by degrees, to provide for everything, learning more daily by experience. I should not wish to exceed the limits of up- state, in order not to give matter to my adversaries to murmur. 312 APPENDIX. Chap. II. — On what the Citizens should do, in order to give perfection to the Citizen Government. Every Florentine citizen, who wishes to be a good member of his state, and help it as every one should wish to do, must, first of all, believe that this council and citizen government has been sent by God, as in truth it has, not only because all good government proceeds from him, but on account of the special providence which God has at present over the city of Florence, which fact is plain to every one who has been in this city during the last three years ; for it is clear that if it had not been the hand of God, such a government could never have been effected amidst so many and such powerful contradictions, nor would it have been maintained to this day amongst traitors, and so few to help it; but because God wishes that we should exercise the intellect and free will which he has given, he makes the things that belong to human government at first imperfect, in order that we, by his assistance, may make them perfect. This go- vernment then, being still imperfect and deficient in many parts, nay, having almost nothing but the foundation, each citi- zen should desire and labour as far as he can to give it its full perfection, which, wishing to do, it will be necessary that all or the greater part should hold these four things. First, the fear of God, because it is a certain fact that every kingdom and government proceeds from God, as every thing proceeds from him, He being the first cause, who governs all, and we see that ths government of natural things is perfect and lasting, because the things belonging to nature are subject to him and do not oppose his government, so if the citizens feared God and subjected themselves to his commands, he would guide them without doubt to the perfection of this government, and would enlighten them in all they might have to do. Secondly, it would be necessary they should love the com- mon good of the city, and that when they are in the magistracies and other dignities they should lay aside their selfishness and APPENDIX. 313 peculiar claims of relations and friends, and should have their eye only to the common good, because this affection would at first enlighten the eye of their intellect, and being freed from selfish affections, they would not have fallacious mediums of vision ; wherefore, looking to the end of government, they could not easily err in the things ordained for it. On the other hand, they would merit that the common-weal should be increased by God, for amongst other reasons why the Romans so extended their empire, this one is assigned, because they loved exceed- ingly the common good of their city ; and therefore, God wish- ing to reward this good motive, (he does not wish that any good should be unrewarded, and such a work as this not merit- ing eternal life, because without grace), recompensed it with temporal good things, corresponding to the work, that is, by augmenting the common-weal of the city, and extending their empire throughout the world. Thirdly, it would be necessary that the citizens should love each other, and lay aside all hatred, and forget all the injuries of the past times, because enmities, and ill affections, and envy blind the eye of the understanding, and do not let the truth be seen ; and therefore they who are in the councils and magis- tracies are not well ordered in this respect, commit many errors, and God allows them to fall into the punishment of their own and others' sins, whereas he would enlighten them were they well freed from such affections. Moreover, being in concord and loving each other, God would reward this benevolence of theirs by giving them a perfect government and by increasing it ; and this is also one of the reasons why God gave such great empire to the Romans, because they loved each other, and in the beginning remained in concord ; and although this was not supernatural charity, it was, however, good and natural, and therefore God rewarded it with temporal good things. If, then, the citizens of Florence should love each other with natural and supernatural charity, God would multiply their spiritual and temporal blessings. Fourthly, it would be necessary they should do justice, be- 314 APPENDIX. cause justice purges the city of the wicked men, or makes them stand in fear, and the good and just remain superior, because they are willingly elected to high dignities, by those who love justice, who are themselves illuminated by God, and have un- derstanding of all good laws, and are the cause of every good to the city, which by this means is filled with virtue, and virtue is always rewarded by justice, and the good men are multiplied, who willingly congregate where justice dwells ; and God for this also extends the empire, as he did with the Romans, to whom for this cause also, because they were strict in rendering justice, he gave the empire of the world, wishing that his people should be ruled with justice. If the Florentine citizens would then consider diligently, and with the judgment of reason, that no other government suits them than that which we have said, and would believe with faith that it has been given them by God, and would observe the four foregoing things, there is no doubt that in a short time such a government would become perfect, as well by the good counsel they would take together, in which God would enlighten them on what they should seek to do, as because he would have spe- cially enlightened them by his servants on many particulars which they could not know how to find out of themselves, and they would already have made a government of Paradise, and obtained many graces spiritual and temporal, but if they will not believe this government to be given them by God, nor to be necessary, nor fear God nor love the common good, but attend to their own desires, nor love each other, but be always in dis- cord, nor do justice, the government made by God will stand, but they will be consumed and be gradually wasted by God, and to their children will be given the grace of this perfect government. And already God has shewn signs of his anger, but they will not open their ears, whom God will punish in this world and the other, for in this life they will be uneasy in their mind, and full of passions and sadness, and in the other they will be in eternal fire, since they have not been willing either to follow the natural light which shews this to be their true APPENDIX. 315 government, or the supernatural, of which they have seen signs. And already a part of those who have not gone on uprightly towards this government, and have been always uneasy in it, suffer at present the pains of hell, so that your Florentines, having seen by many signs that God wishes this government should stand, it not being charged with the many contradictions that have been raised up against it within and without, and its opponents being threatened by him with so many punishments, I pray you, by the bowels of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that now you may be satisfied to be at peace, because if you will not, he will send a much greater scourge upon you than he has formerly, and you shall lose this world and the next, but if you will do it, you shall obtain the happiness we shall describe in the following chapter. Chap. III. — On the Happiness of those who govern well, and the Misery of Tyrants and their Followers. The present government being then more the work of God than of men, those citizens who with great zeal for the honour of God and the common weal, observing the foregoing things, shall en- deavour, as far as far as they are able, to bring it to perfection, will acquire earthly, spiritual, and eternal felicity. Firstly, they will deliver themselves from the slavery of tyranny, and how great this is we have already declared, and they will live in true liberty, which is more precious than gold and silver, and they will be secure in their city, attending with gladness and tranquillity of mind to the government of their houses, to their honest gains, and to their farms, and when God shall multiply their wealth or honours, they will have no fear they may be taken from them. They will be able to go to the country or wherever they wish without asking leave of the tyrant, and marry their daughters and sons as it pleases them ; to have weddings, to make merry, and have what companions they like, and devote themselves to the virtues, the studies of 316 APPENDIX. the sciences or the arts, as they may wish, and do like things, which will be a certain earthly happiness. Secondly, the spiritual felicity will next follow, because each one will be able to devote himself to a Christian life, and will be prevented by no one. Nor shall any one be constrained by threats not to do justice when he shall be in the magistracy, be- cause every one will be free, nor through poverty to make wicked contracts, because the government being good in the city, it will abound in money, and labour will be everywhere, and the poor will gain, and they will be able to rear their sons and daughters holily, because good laws will be made concerning the virtue of women and children, and particularly as they will by this in- crease the divine worship, because God, seeing their good minds, will send them good pastors, the Scriptures saying that " God gives pastors according to the people ;" and such pastors will be able without hindrance to govern their flocks, and will multiply the good priests and good religious, particularly as the wicked will not be able to live, because one opposite principle banishes another, and thus in a short time the city will be brought to such religion, that it will be like an earthly paradise, and will live in joy, singing songs and psalms, and the boys and girls will be like angels, and they will be reared together in Christian and citizen life, by which means afterwards, in proper time, the government in the city will be made rather the celes- tial than earthly, and the joy of the good will be such, that they will have a sure spiritual felicity in this world. Thirdly, by these means they will not only merit eternal hap- piness, but will greatly increase their own merits, and add to their crown in heaven, because God gives the greatest reward to those who govern well their cities ; because, beatitude being the recompense of virtue, the greater is the virtue of man, and the greater are the things he does, the greater reward does he merit. Seeing, then, that it is a greater virtue to rule one's self and others, and particularly a community and a kingdom, than to rule one's self only, it follows that he who governs a community well, deserves a very great reward in everlasting life. Where- APPENDIX. 317 fore, we see that in all the arts we give greater praise to the principal that guides all the things belonging to the art, than to the servants who obey the principal. A greater reward also in military affairs is given to the captain of the army than to the soldiers ; and in the art of building, we likewise give greater reward to the master and the architect than to the workmen. And so on in the other arts ; and also the more excellent is the work of man, and the more it honours God, and the greater utility it renders to his neighbour, the more it becomes merito- rious : seeing, then, that governing a community well, such as the Florentine is, is an excellent mode, and redounds particularly to the honour of God, and renders the greatest utility to the souls and bodies, and to the temporal welfare of men, as may be easily understood by what we have said above, it is not to be doubted that it merits an exceeding reward and very great glory. We see also that he who gives alms and feeds a few poor, is greatly rewarded by God our Saviour, saying, that in the day of judgment he will turn to the just and say, " Come, ye blessed of my Father — possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world ; because, when I was hungry and thirsty, and when I was naked and a stranger, you fed, and clothed, and received me, and visited me when I was sick. Be- cause what you have done to the least of mine, you have done it also to me." If, then, for private alms, God will reward each one exceedingly, what reward will he not give to him who shall govern well a great city ? By whose good government numbers of poor are fed ; many wretched are provided for ; the widows and orphans are defended ; the weak are rescued from the hands of the unjust and powerful ; the country is delivered from robbers and assassins ; the good are guarded ; and Chris- tian living, divine worship, and numberless other singular ad- vantages are maintained. Again, persons love those like them- selves, and the more one resembles another, the more he is beloved. All human creations bring their like to God ; they are loved by him, but because some are more like him than others, they are also more beloved. Seeing, then, that he who governs 318 APPENDIX. is much more like to God than he who is governed, it is plain that if he governs justly, he is more loved and rewarded by God than when in his own operations he does not govern, particu- larly as he who governs is in greater danger, and has greater labours of mind and body than he who does not govern, where- fore he deserves a greater reward. On the contrary, he who wishes to be a tyrant is unhappy in this world, and weighed down with earthly infelicity, inasmuch as in respect of riches he cannot enjoy them, from his many afflic- tions of mind fears, and continual thought, and particularly be- cause he must spend a great deal to maintain himself in his tyranny. And, wishing to keep every one subject, he himself is more subject to all, having necessity of serving all in order to create good will towards him. Moreover, he is deprived of friendship, which is the greatest and sweetest blessing that man can have in this world, because he wishes no one to be equal to him, and keeps every one in fear, and particularly because the tyrant is almost always hated on account of the evils he causes ; and if he is loved by the wicked, it is not because they wish him well, but they like what they wish to get from him, and therefore amongst such there cannot be true friendship. He is also deprived of good reputation and honour for the evils he does, and for being always hated and envied by others. He can never have any true consolation without sadness, because he has always to think of, and to fear the enmities against him, wherefore he is always in fear, and never even trusts his own guard. He has also spi- ritual unhappiness, because he is deprived of the grace of God and of all his knowledge. He is encompassed by sins and by perverse men, who wait upon him and hurry him into many errors, as we have said above. Lastly, he will have never-ending unhappiness, because the tyrant is almost ever incorrigible, both on account of the multitude of sins which he sees himself to have committed, in which he has acquired such a habit that it is very difficult to leave off, because he has to restore so much ill-got property, and to repair so many wrongs, that he would have to remain despoiled of every thing, which every one can easily un- APPENDIX. 319 derstand how difficult it is for one accustomed to live in such pride and pleasures. Moreover, his flatterers make light of his sins, nay, they give him to understand that to be good is almost impos- sible, wherefore the tepid religious confess and absolve him, and therefore he is wretched in this world, and goes to hell in the other, where he suffers more grievous pain than other men, both on account of the multitude of sins he has committed and caused others to commit, as also on account of the office he has usurped ; therefore, as he who rules well is highly rewarded by God, so he who rules badly is exceedingly punished. All those who follow the tyrant, partake of his misery, as well in temporal as in spiritual and everlasting things ; whence they lose liberty, which is above all treasures, besides that, their wealth, honours, sons and women are in the power of the tyrant, and they are continually imitating his sins, because they endea- vour to do everything that pleases him, and to be like him as far as they can, and therefore they shall be in hell the sharers in his most grievous punishment. Again, the citizens who are not content with citizen go- vernment, although they may not be tyrants, because they can- not share in these same miseries, wanting wealth, honours, reputation and friendship/ all the hungry citizens and bad men gather round them ; whence they must spend and are avoided by the good, and therefore they have no true friendship with any one, but every one who follows them seeks to rob them, and by their bad company they commit thousands of sins they would not otherwise, and they are uneasy in their heart, and always full of enmities, envy, and detraction, and have hell in this world and in the other. He who rules well, being (as we have proved) happy, and like to God, and he who rules ill, unhappy, and like the devil, every citizen ought to leave off his sins, and own affections, and endeavour to govern well, and to preserve, augment, and make perfect this citizen government, for the honour of God, and sal- vation of souls, particularly as it has been specially given by him through the love he bears this city, that it may be happy 320 APPENDIX. in this world and the next, through the grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. No. IV. SAVONAROLA'S MEDITATIONS ON PSALM L. TRANSLATED FROM HIS " EXPOSITIO IN PSALMUM." "Miserere Mei Deus."* Unfortunate that I am, abandoned by all the world, who have sinned against heaven and earth, where shall I go ? On what side shall I turn? To whom shall I address myself? Who will be my comfort in my misery ? I durst not raise my eyes towards heaven, I have too much offended against it. I behold no asylum for me upon the earth, too great is the scan- dal I have given. What then am I to do ? Must I give my- self up to despair ? God forbid it. Full of mercy is the Lord, my Saviour. To him alone will I have recourse ; he will not disdain the work of his hands ; he will not cast his image from him. Broken in spirit and sorrowing, to thee then I come, O most clement God, because thou art my only hope, my sole resource. But what shall I say to thee ? Alas ! I dare not raise my eyes towards thee ? But I shall pour forth my sorrows ; I shall im- plore thy mercy, and I shall say to thee : — Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. God, who dwelleth in light inaccessible, hidden God, whom corporal eyes cannot behold, nor created intelligence compre- hend, nor tongues of men or angels can explain the nature of ; incomprehensible God, it is you whom I seek, ineffable God, it is you whom I invoke ! Whatsoever thou art, everywhere thou art. I know thou dost surpass in excellence all that is in * Ex. Edit. 16mo., Eemboldi Ascensii, 1510. APPENDIX. the universe. If thus it be allowed to speak of thee, and not rather as the universal cause of all things ; if thou mayest yet be called the cause, for no name can I find that I dare to give to thy inexpressible majesty. O God, who art all that is, is in thee, thou art thyself thy own wisdom, goodness, power, and sovereign felicity. Since thou art merciful, nay, thou art mercy itself. "What, on the contrary, am I, but misery itself? Behold then, O God of mercy, misery presents itself before thee. What, then, will mercy do ? Thy own work assuredly. Thou canst not act contrary to thy own nature. And what is thy work ? To take away misery, and to relieve the wretchedness of men. Have mercy on me, then, O Lord of mercy ; remove from me my misery. Take away from me my sins, for they are the cause of all my distress ; raise me, unfortunate that I am ; mani- fest in me the might of thy hands. Exercise thy power over me. Abyss invokes abyss, the abyss of misery invokes the abyss of mercy, the abyss of sin invokes that of grace. Since, then, the depths of mercy exceed those of misery, let abyss swal- low up abyss ; let the abyss of mercy absorb the abyss of wretch- edness. Have mercy on me, then, O God, according to thy great mercy ; not according to the mercy of men, which is small, but to thy own, which is so great, which has no limits, is incompre- hensible, and exceeds even all sin in its immensity ; according to thy great mercy, through which thou didst so love the world, as to give up for it thine only Son ; have mercy on me. What greater mercy can there be ? what greater charity than this ? AVho can despair ? Who will not trust in thee ? God made man, and was crucified for the sins of men ; have mercy on me therefore, O God, according to this great mercy, thou who didst give up thy Son for us, who didst deliver him up to death for the sins of the world, and by his cross didst illuminate all men ; who by him all things, both in the heavens and the earth, didst establish and restore, wash me, O Lord, in his blood, enlighten me by his humility, renew me by his resurrection. Have mercy on me, O God, not according to thy ordinary mercy, for such is that compassion by which thou dost alleviate VOL. II. Y APPENDIX. the bodily miseries of [men. But great is thy mercy where thou rcmittest sins, and through thy grace dost raise men above terrestrial things. So, O Lord, have mercy on me, according to thy immense mercy, that I may be perfectly converted to thee, that thou may est blot out my sin, and by thy grace thou may est justify me. And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, Mot out all my iniquities. Thy mercy, O Lord, is the abundance of thy goodness, which compassionately regards our wretchedness. Thy mercies are thy works, and the effects of thy bounty. O my good Jesus ! Mary Magdalen threw herself at thy feet, bathed them with her tears, dried them with her hair ; thou didst pardon her, and sent her away in peace. This is, O Lord, one of thy com- miserations. Peter denied thee, and with an oath declared against thee ; he bitterly bewailed his sin, thou didst remit it to him, and confirm him Prince of the Apostles. Here, again, O Lord, is one of thy mercies. The thief upon his cross, by one word alone, obtained his salvation. Paul, in the heat of his persecution, was called by thee, and in one instant he w T as filled with the Holy Ghost. Behold, O my God, how great are thy mercies. Time would be insufficient to enumerate them all. The number of the just is equivalent to the number of thy mercies. No man can glory in himself. Let all the just in heaven and on earth stand forth, that in thy presence w r e may interrogate them, if it be by their own merit they have been deemed worthy to obtain salvation ; assuredly w T ill they all respond — " Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory, for thy mercy and thy truth." Not by any power of their own have they possessed the land, but by the might of thy right hand and arm, and the light of thy countenance which had shone upon them, when thou wert pleased to illuminate them. That is to say, neither by their own merits nor by their deeds have they been saved, non ex meritis eos non ex operibus salvati sunt, that none may glorify themselves in anything but in being APPENDIX. 323 found pleasing in thy sight, which the prophet expresses, saying, / was saved by Him who willed me (for himself). As thou art, then, always the self-same God, in whom there is no change, or shadow of change ; and we are thy creatures as our fathers were, born in sin, and children of concupiscence ; all men, then, have the same mediator, Jesus Christ, before God, who will exist to all eternity. Why not shew us the effects of thy mercy, as thou didst pour them down upon our fathers ? hast thou forgotten us ? are we the only sinners ? hath not Christ died for us ? are not his mercies above all ? O Lord, our God, I beg and entreat of thee blot out my iniquities accord- ing to the multitude of thy mercies, for great and infinite indeed must be thy mercies. One will suffice for me, that I may de- light in thy compassion, that thou mayest blot out my iniquities and draw me to thee, as thou hast done so many sinners whom thou hast raised up, and rendered just. Efface, then, my ini- quity according to the extent of thy mercies ; purify my heart, blot out all its corruption, cleanse it from its stains, that it may be as a new tablet, whereon the finger of God imprints his law of love, with which no iniquity can dwell. Wash me still more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. I confess, O Lord, that thou didst once blot out my sin, that thou hast repeated to me this grace, and pardoned me a thou- sand times, but wash me anew, O Lord, because I have again relapsed. The number is not specified of the transgressions thou dost forgive the sinner. When Peter demanded how many times he should forgive his brother who had offended him, and if he was to pardon him still seven times, thou didst reply, " 1 did not say seven times, but seventy times seven," thus taking a finite number for an infinite. Never could it be that man's clemency was to surpass thine, O Lord ? Is not God more powerful than man ? is* he not better than man ? beyond all comparison. God is the sovereign Lord. (And all men are vain, God alone is good, but every man is a liar.) Hast thou not said that in what day soever the sinner would cry to thee y 2 324 APPENDIX. thou shouldst no longer remember his iniquities ? Behold me, a sinner, I have fallen into extreme misery. I am so bowed down, I cannot raise myself up. I walk sorrowful before thee all the day long. I am afflicted and humbled exceedingly. I roared with the groaning of my heart ; it is not concealed from thee, O Lord. Before thee are all my desires, and my groaning is not hid from thee. I feel my heart within me is troubled, my strength has left me ; the light of my eyes is no longer with me, they cannot see. Why/, then, O Lord, dost thou not blot out my iniquity entirety ? Though thou shouldst already have effaced it according to the multitude of thy mercies, wash me from it still more and more, for I am as yet but imperfectly cleansed. Complete thy work ; take away all my crimes, efface all trace of them. Shed upon me thy light ; inflame my heart with the fire of thy love ; banish fear from it, all servile ap- prehension, for perfect love casts out fear. Grant that love of the world, of the flesh, of vain glory, and all selfishness may be removed far from me. Still more, still more, O Lord, wash me from my iniquity, which has so often made me sin against my neighbour, and from my sin, by which I offended directly against thee, my God. Cleanse me not only from my grave transgressions, but from the lightest imaginations of sin. Wash me with the salutary water of thy grace ; give me of that water of which whosoever drinks he shall thirst no more, but that in him it may be a fountain springing up to eternal life. Bathe me in the water of my tears, wash me in the water of the Holy Scriptures, that I may be of the number of those to whom thou hast said, tf Now thou art clean by reason of the words I have spoken to thee." For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. Although the thought of thy mercy and compassion makes me approach thee with confidence, nevertheless I come not in the spirit of the pharisee, who in the garb of holiness seeming to pray to thee, praised himself and contemned his neighbour. But I present myself before thee as the publican, who durst not raise his eyes towards heaven, for I know my iniquitv. AP TEN 1)IX. 325 When I examine the number and enormity of my sins, I dare not turn my eyes on high, but humbling myself with, the pub- lican, I say, O God be merciful to me, for I have sinned. My soul wavers between hope and fear, so that the horror of my sins makes me despair, and then the consciousness of thy mercy comforts me. But as thy mercy is still greater than my misery, never shall I cease, O Lord, to hope in thy goodness, and thy mercies I shall sing to all eternity. I know thou wiliest not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted to thee, acknow- ledge his iniquity, and abandon his sins, that thus he may return to thee and live. My God, grant me the grace to live in thee. Because my iniquities are known to me, O Lord, and it is known to me how grievous, how many, and how perilous my trans- gressions. I am not ignorant of any of them, I seek not to hide them from my sight, but place them before my eyes to weep over them, and to accuse myself of all my injustices before thee, O Lord. For my sin is continually before me. How proudly have I acted against thee, quo superbo contr ate egi; and against myself truly, since against my soul I have sinned, and unceasingly before the Judge does it accuse and condemn me ; at all times and in all places it is before my eyes, opposes itself to me, and intervenes between my prayers and thee. It would rob me of thy mercy, and avert it far from me, therefore I tremble, I groan, and implore thy goodness, as thou, O Lord, hast given me to know my iniquity and to bewail my sin; grant me per- fect contrition, and grace to make fall satisfaction, to which I can never attain of myself, for all excellence and every perfect gift is from on high, descending from the Father of lights. To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee ; that thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. I have sinned exceedingly against thee, O Lord, thou dost command me to love thee for thy own sake alone : and that from creatures all love should be transferred to thee alone. I have preferred creatures to thee ; because for themselves I have loved them. What is it but to sin, to be attached to the creature on 326 APPENDIX. its own account ? Is not this affection a wrong against thee ? He who loves the creature for itself, makes his god of this crea- ture. Therefore against thee only have I sinned, since I have looked upon the creature as my god. I have despised thee, and thee only have I wronged. I have not sinned against creatures, in considering any created thing as my end ; because thou hast not commanded me to love any creature for itself. If thou didst send an angel to me to love for himself alone, and that nevertheless I gave myself up to the passion of avarice, against that angel I should thus have sinned ; since then we ought to love thee alone as our last end, that only in thee and for thee all creatures are to be loved ; too true it is that against thee only have I sinned, when I have esteemed the creature on his own account. But still more heinous is my crime, because in thy presence has it been committed. I have not blushed at sin- ning before thee. O, my God, how many crimes have I com- mitted in thy sight, that I never would have been willing to expose to the eyes of men ? What should I not have done to conceal from them that which I blushed not to allow thee to behold ? I feared men more than thee. I was blind, and loved my blindness, and therefore I saw thee not. I did not even think on thee : my eyes being only sensual, observed but men who like myself were sensual, and they alone I feared. Thou beheldest me committing all these sins ; thou didst record them, so that I cannot conceal them from thee ; neither can I excuse them to thee, nor fly from thy presence. Where must I go to banish myself from thy mind ? where fly, to hide myself from thy face ? What then shall I do ? On what side shall I turn ? Whom shall I find willing to defend me ? whom — let me implore — if it be not thee, O God ? Is there a being so good, so tender, so merciful as thou art, who in an incomprehensible manner excels all thy creatures in goodness ? Thou art ever ready to grant grace and pardon ; and above all things thou art pleased in alleviating wretchedness, and shewing mercy to sinners, to make thy Almighty power transcendent. I confess, my God, I have sinned against thee only, and have done evil in thy sight ; APPENDIX. 327 but. Lord, take pity on me, shew forth thy omnipotence in me, that so thou mayest be faithful in thy words ; for thou hast said, I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance. Sanctify me, O Lord, according to thy word. Call me, receive me under thy protection, give me grace to bring forth fruits worthy of penance. For this end thou didst suffer the ignominy of the cross, died, and wast buried in the tomb. Hast thou not said, when thou shouldst be raised up, thou wouldst draw all things to thyself? Show now that thou art justified in thy words. Draw me after thee, and let me follow in the sweet odour of thy grace — in odorem unguentorum tuorum. Again, thou hast said : Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Behold, I come to thee loaded with sins, labouring day and night with the groaning of my heart. Refresh me, O Lord, that thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. For many say, There is no salvation for him in his God ; God has forsaken him. Con- found, O Lord, the impious who thus judge thee, and forsake me not in the end. Grant me grace and salvation, and they shall be overcome. For they say, thou wilt not have merey on me, but that thou wilt cast me from before thy face, and wilt not receive me. Such are the discourses, thoughts, and judg- ments of men. But thou art godly, thou art merciful ; have pity, therefore, on me ; reverse their judgments ; shew forth thy mercy in me, that they may praise thy goodness ; make of me a vessel of thy tender pity, that thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. Men look upon thee as rigid and severe : but by thy meekness and clemency confound their judgments, that they may follow thy example, be indulgent to sinners, and that by them sinners may be drawn to repentance, seeing in me how great is the extent of thy sweetness and thy mercy. For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities ; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Consider not, O Lord, the enormity of my sins, regard not their number ; but look on me as the work of thy hands. Re- 528 APPENDIX. member that I am but dust, and all flesh is but as grass. Be- hold in iniquity was I conceived, and in sin did my mother conceive me. I have been born in concupiscence, of a carnal mother, and thus I contracted original sin. And what is original sin, but the privation of original justice, and of all uprightness in men ? Therefore man, conceived and born in this state of sin, is he not totally unruly ? is he not distorted ? His flesh wars with his spirit. Reason is weak ; the will is infirm ; man is fragile and filled with vanities. His senses deceive him, his imagination beguiles him, ignorance leads him to impassable ways : infinite are the obstacles which withdraw him from good, and impel him to evil. Original sin is then the root of all sin, because it is the seed which generates iniquity ; and though in every man by nature it is but one sin, nevertheless it becomes the parent of all sin. Eehold then, O Lord, what I am ; from whence I come ; truly was I born, and my mother conceived me in original sin, in which all sin and iniquity is included. Being then wholly born in sin, and surrounded with snares, how can I but fall ? Lord, thou seest I do not the good that I will, but I commit the evil I desire to avoid ; because in me the law of my members combats with the law of my mind, and makes me a captive to the law of sin and death. Lord, in pity then support me, and the more willingly, as thou seest my ex- treme weakness, and the continual snares which surround me. Who does not compassionate the infirm ? Who but pities a man overcome with toil and weakness ? Come, come, thou good Samaritan, assist a wretch faint with blows, and about to expire ; bind up my wounds, pour upon them oil and vinegar ; and, like the charitable stranger in the Gospel, have pity on me, and con- duct me to a place of shelter ; order me to be taken care of, and reward those who shall have succoured me. For, behold thou hast loved truth ; the uncertain and hidden things of thy icisdom thou hast made manifest to me. Come, thou good Samaritan, behold thou hast loved truth. The truth of the promises thou hast made to man, and thou lovest these thy promises, because thou hast made them, and APPENDIX. 329 every day thou dost fulfil them, because to love and accomplish them is for thee one and the same thing, for thou art ever im- mutable. Thy love is not subject to change like that of men, who love one day, and not the next ; but thou art all love, and never changest. God is love, as we learn from St. John. Now, according to thee, to love creatures is to serve them, and the more thou lovest them, the more beneficent art thou to them. Hence, to love truth, what is it but truly to fulfil it ? Thou didst promise a son to Abraham, and although Sara was an old woman, thou didst perform it, for thou lovest the truth. Thou didst cause the children of Israel to hope for a land flowing with milk and honey, and at last led them into it, because thou hast loved truth. Having promised David, saying, I shall establish thy seed upon thy throne ; it was so done, because thou hast always loved the truth. Infinite have been thy promises, to which thou wert always faithful, because thou hast ever loved truth. Thou hast promised pardon and favour to sinners who would have re- course to thee ; and never hast thou denied it to any, because thou hast always loved truth. The prodigal son, who went into a distant land and dissipated all his fortune in excess and de- bauchery, entering into himself, sought thee, and said, " Father, I have sinned against heaven and thee ; I am not worthy to be called thy child ; make me as one of thy lowest servants." "VHiilc he was yet afar off, thine eyes of mercy were turned towards him ; thou didst run to him, fall on his neck, and kiss him ; thou didst put upon him the first robe, and a ring upon his finger ; didst kill the fatted calf, and invite thy whole house to rejoice, saying : " Because this my son was dead, and is come to life again, he was lost, and is found." Why all this, O Lord ! but because thou hast loved the truth ? Shew forth in me, O Father of mercies, this love of truth in thee. I return to thee from a far distant land ; run to me and cast thine eyes upon me. Restore to me my first garments ; bring me back into thy house. Kill the fatted calf, that all may rejoice with me, and hope in thee, and that at thy spiritual banquet we may all be filled. Shall I alone, O my God, not experience the truth of thy pro- 330 APPENDIX. mises ? If tliou wilt observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord who shall sustain it ? But no, thou wilt not consider my sins, because thou hast loved truth ; thou lovest it with an intense love. But what is this truth thou so much lovest ? Is it not thy beloved son who said, I am the way, the life, and the truth ? Is he not the truth whence all things in heaven and on earth proceed ? Yes, O Lord, this is the truth thou lovest, and on which thou hast placed all thy affection. Thou hast found it immaculate, and thou didst immolate it for the sins of men. Preserve, therefore, O God, this truth. Behold me, a great sinner, in whom there is a multitude of crimes to pardon. Thou wilt wash me in the blood of Jesus, and by his sufferings I shall be ransomed. And where- fore, O Lord, hast thou made thy dear Son known unto me ? Why hast thou taught me to believe in him ? Is it that I must pine away contemplating the subject of redemption, without the power of attaining to it ? Alas ! thy motive, on the contrary, has been that I should be sensible ; thou art ever ready to grant me pardon of my sins. Spare me then, O Lord, the uncertain and hidden ways of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me, and thou hast made them known to me, that they might lead to my salvation. Truly thou hast not discovered it to philosophers ; it has been hidden from them, totally unknown to them, and be- fore the incarnation of thy son, none knew it, save the small number whom thou lovedst. Learned men, who studiedto discover the wonders of the world, have raised their eyes even beyond the stars of heaven. But never have they been able to penetrate the ways of thy wisdom, because thou hast concealed them from the wise and prudent of the world, and hast only revealed them to the little ones, to thy lowly apostles, and to thy prophets whom thou hast sent. If thou art then pleased to discover to me thy wisdom and thy Scriptures, wherefore is it that they should be useless to me ? Yet so it would be, if they serve not to conduct me to salvation. Philosophers who though they knew God, did not glorify him as God, but lost themselves in vain reasoning, desirous to pass for wise men, have become fools and madmen. Wilt thou suffer me to be of their number ? No, APPENDIX. 831 my God, thou wilt not permit it, for thou art mercy itself, and thou dost never abandon the sinner. Spare, O Lord, then, spare thy servant ; command me to be received among the num- ber of thy little ones, that the hidden mysteries of thy wisdom, which thou hast revealed, may lead me to that fountain of truth, which is in the highest heaven, and mayest thou be glorified for the mercy thou shalt have shewn thy servant, O Lord : never dost thou forsake such as hope in thee. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed : thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. As thou hast always loved truth, O Lord, and hast made known to me the secret and hidden ways of thy wisdom, I con- ceive a great hope, and trust thou wilt not cast me from before thy face, but that thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. Hyssop is a lowly herb, aromatic and odo- riferous ; what else does it set forth, but thy Son our Lord J esus Christ, who humbled himself to death, even to the death of the cross ? Its heat is the intense charity with which he loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood ; its fragrant odour is the clemency and justice by which he has spread over the world a celestial perfume. With this hyssop sprinkle me, O Lord, and thou wilt shed on me the virtue of the blood of Jesus, and he shall dwell in me by faith in Christ, when love shall have entirely united me to him : when I shall imitate his humility and his sufferings. Then shall I be purified from all my stains ; thou wilt bathe me in the tears I shall shed, for the love of Jesus ; I shall be weary with groaning ; every night I shall water my couch with my tears ; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness : and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice. To thee, O Lord, I shall address my prayers, and early in the morning my voice shall come before thee. I mean, at the first ray of light thou shalt shed upon me, I shall be attentive to all that thou, O Lord, shalt say to me interiorly. For he will speak but of peace to his people and to me. Yes, O Lord, thou shalt 332 APPENDIX. give me peace, for in thee I have put my trust ; thou wilt fill me with joy and consolation, when I shall hear thee as did Magdalen, weeping at thy feet, Go in peace, thy faith hath made thee whole. I shall also hear thee, as did the good thief: This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Then shall I rejoice, be- cause my sins will be remitted. Thy promise of good things will nil me with gladness. And shall I not rejoice and be tran- sported, when I shall receive as thou hast promised, graces far beyond the number of sins I have committed ? Then shall 1 begin to taste how sweet is the Lord ; then shall my conversa- tion be in Heaven, and with the Prophet I shall say : How great is the multitude of gifts thou reservedst to those who fear thee ! Then shall I be filled with consolations, and loaded with joys; and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice. What are these bones, but to support our flesh ? They are merely the energies of the rational soul, bearing up against the weakness of our nature, which prevents it from falling into all sorts of vice, by which man becomes all-sensual, decays, and is annihilated. These are the bones which in me are now humbled, because my mind is weakened, and my will inclines to evil. My flesh is no longer subject to my reason, but my reason is become the slave of my flesh. I no longer resist incitements to vice. My bones have been humbled. And why have they been humbled ? Because they have forsaken thee, the fountain of living waters, and have dug to themselves cisterns that can hold no water : whereby they were not refreshed by thy grace, with- out which none can live piously or holily : for without thee, O Lord, we are incapable of good. They trusted in their own merits, which were valueless, and hence they are lost by their own folly. Lord, strengthen me by thy power, and my humbled bones shall rejoice. Restore to me thy grace, grant me the faith which acts by love. Return to me thy gifts and virtues, and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice. My under- standing shall exult, my memory be glad, and my will be de- lighted ; verily they shall rejoice, and bound with joy ; whilst they shall bring forth good works, by the great strength exer- APPENDIX. cised in tliem : nothing shall be wanting to conduct them to that perfection to which they shall aspire. Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. "Why, 0 Lord, dost thou consider my sins ? why dost thou number them ? why examine them so carefully ? Thou knowest that man is but as the flower of the field. "Why not look upon the face of thy Christ ? Alas ! wretch that I am. Why have I irritated thee ? I confess I have sinned. But thou, who art kind and good, take pity on me. Turn away thy face from my sins. Thy countenance is thy knowledge. Turn away from me thy knowledge of my sins. I speak not of the full know- ledge thou hast of all things ; but of thy judgment which com- mends the good deeds of the just ; and thy reprobation of the crimes for which thou dost chastise the wicked. Regard not my sins to reproach me with them, but turn away thy face from my sins, and let thy mercy entirely efface them. Lord, turn thine eyes upon the creature thou hast formed. Look upon thine image. Thou didst create me to thy image, but I have been so miserable as to place thereon that of the devil. Turn away the sight from the image of the devil, lest thy wrath be enkindled ; and look upon thy likeness, that it may invite thee to shew me mercy. O Lord of goodness, remember thou didst raise thine eyes to look favourably on Zaccheus, who ascended into the sycamore tree ; and that thou didst deign to enter into his house. Wouldst thou have acted thus, if in him thou didst regard the image of the devil ? But, looking on thine own image, thou wert moved to compassion for him, and granted him salvation. He restored four times as much as he had un- justly taken ; gave the half of his goods to the poor ; and he thus obtained mercy. And I desire to give myself entirely to thee, to reserve nothing for myself. I promise to serve thee always with an upright heart ; I shall offer my vows to thee all the days of my life. Wherefore, O Lord, not look upon thy image in me ? Why take further notice of my sins ? Turn away, I beseech of thee, thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities ; efface them all, I conjure of thee, O God, that APPENDIX. no trace of them may remain : for it is written, Whosoever having observed the law, but in any one way offends, is guilty of all, and merits eternal torments, which is the punishment of all sins that lead to death. Blot out all my iniquities, that nothing may offend thee, which might render me guilty of a violation of thy law. Create in me 3 O God, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within my bowels. Seeing that my heart has left me, that it thinks no more of its salvation, is totally regardless of it, goes in crooked paths, follows vanities, and fixes its wandering eyes on the limits of the earth. I have called, but it does not answer me ; it flies away, it perishes in sin, it is cold. What, then, shall I say to thee, O Lord ? what can I say ? Create in me a new heart, may it be pure, an humble heart, mild, patient, full of piety, benignity, doing wrong to none, not rendering evil for evil, but good for evil. May it love thee above all things, think on thee unceasingly, speak of thee, and offer continual thanks to thee ; may its sole joy be to sing to thee hymns and spiritual canticles, and let all its conversation be in heaven. My God, create a like heart in me ; draw it forth from nothing ; may grace make it what it cannot be of its own nature ; thou alone dost endow our souls with it at the moment of their spiritual creation ; this it is which forms a pure heart, draws with it all virtues, and at the same time expels all vices. Cleanse, therefore, my heart by thy grace ; create in me, O God, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Thy spirit will conduct me in the right way, as it will detach me from terrestrial affections, and will elevate me to heaven. The beloved and the thing loved are but one ; hence, he who loves the body becomes all corporeal, and who loves the spirit is all spiritual. Give me, then, a right spirit, that I may love and adore thee as the supreme spirit ought to be adored. God is a pure spirit, and they who adore him must do so in spirit and in truth. Give me an upright spirit, that I may desire nothing for myself, but solely seek thy glory. Renew this upright spirit within me which my sin has extinguished. APPENDIX. 335 Grant me a new spirit, that all my depravity may be expelled. My soul is a spirit, and thou hast fixed in her a principle of justice, so that by its nature it loves thee more than itself, and desires all for thee, for its natural inclination is always upright, because it is from thee, but the disorder of the will quickly corrupts and annihilates this first gift of nature. Renew, then, in me, I beseech thee, by thy grace, this spirit and this love, that I may no longer wander from the right path. Renew in me an upright spirit, and may its roots so penetrate as never to be eradicated ; may I be ever inflamed with celestial love, sigh after thee unceasingly, and for ever enjoy thy divine embraces, so as never more to be separated from thee. Cast me not away from thy face , and take not thy holy spirit from me. Behold me, O God, before thy face, here I implore thy mercy. I supplicate thy goodness and thy liberality, and expect thy gracious answer. Cast me not ignominiously from before thy face. Hath any one ever come before thee who had to leave thee abashed ? Where is the suppliant who presented himself and obtained not what he asked ? Truly thy excessive goodness by far surpasses the merits and expectations of those who ad- dress themselves to thee. Thou givest more than men can hope for, far more than they can understand. Has it ever been heard in any age that those who had recourse to thee were re- jected? Shall I, O Lord, be the first thou wilt thus cast off? Wilt thou begin with me, to repulse those who come to throw themselves into thy arms ? Wilt thou no longer show mercy, nor again grant pardon ? I cannot believe this, O my God ; the Chananean woman followed thee, cried aloud to thee, filled the air with her lamentations. Thy disciples were moved with compassion, and thou wert silent ; she persisted, and adored thee, saying, Lord, take pity on me, but still thou dost not answer. The disciples besought thee, and said, Send her away, for she crieth after us. Alas ! O Lord, what was thy answer ? Didst thou not give her to understand that she uselessly tor- mented herself, and sayest to her, I was not sent but to the sheep 336 APPENDIX. that arc lost of the house of Israel. Hearing this, what will the ( Ihananean woman do ? Surely she will despair of the grace she desires ; but she does not relax, and full of confidence in thy mercy, she cries anew, Lord, assist me ! And to her im- portunity thou, O Lord, didst answer, It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs. This was telling her, Depart from me ; ye Cananeans are the dogs, un- clean idolaters ; the gifts of celestial grace are not for ye, I must not take them from the Jews, who worship the true God, to give them to those who adore demons. What wilt thou now do ? Unfortunate woman ! blush with shame, and retire, the Lord is irritated not only against thee, but thy whole nation. Who, O my God, would not have retreated at those words ? Who would not have murmured against thee, have judged thee cruel ? This woman, however, persists, she does not lose courage ; is not angry at thy repulsive words, but humbles herself still more, perseveres in prayer, and says with confidence, I am, in truth, O Lord, all what thou sayest ; I ask not for bread, the favour of thy children, for I am a dog ; I ask but the crumbs that fall from the table of thy children ; let all thy miracles and graces be for them, but refuse not to deliver my daughter from the devil, for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Behold what faith, what confidence, and humility ! Thou art not, therefore, irritated by her importuni- ties, but rejoicing at so much virtue, thou sayest, O woman, great is thy faith ; be it done to thee as thou wilt ! Why, O my Lord and my God, are those things written ? They tell us to hope in thee, to pray piously and humbly, to persevere, for thou seekest but to give ; the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent only shall bear it away. Hence all that is written is written for our instruction, that with patience and con- solation we may have hopes in the Holy Scriptures. Cast me not away from thy face, O Lord, for day and night I weep before thee, not to deliver my body from the ojDpression of the devil, but I ask thee to free me from the spiritual tyranny which he exercises over my soul. Confound me not, O good Jesus APPENDIX. 337 for in thee only do I hope ; only from thee do I expect salvation, 0 Lord. I am forsaken by all the world ; my friends and neigh- bours have despised me ; I am an abomination to myself. I have no longer any protector but thee. Cast me not away from thy face, and take not the Holy Spirit from me. No one can pronounce the name of Jesus but by thy holy spirit. If I sorrow for my sins and ask pardon for them, I do it but by thy Holy Spirit. O God, I beseech thee, take not thy Holy Spirit from me ; may it always labour with me. We know not what we need from God, nor how to pray to him, but his Spirit com- forts and assists us in our weakness, and he himself prays with and for us by inexpressible groaning. I then entreat of thee not to take this Holy Spirit from me. May it teach me to pray, support me in my labours, make me persevere in prayer and tears, so that I may find grace in thy sight, and serve thee faithfully all the days of my life. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit. Lord, what I ask of thee is great ; but as thou art an om- nipotent God, a sovereign Lord, and a great King above all gods, it would be an insult to require but little of thee. All that passes away, that is corporeal, is but trifling ; there is no- thing great and precious but what is spiritual. Take away the spirit, the soul, from the body, what remains but corruption ? nothing but dust, a shadow which vanishes. There is as much difference between the spirit and the body, as there is between the body and its shadow. Therefore, to petition solely for cor- poral things, is to ask but little ; but truly is it much to require spiritual things ; but it is still greater to demand of thee the joy of thy salvation. What is this salvation but Jesus Christ him- self, who is true God and life eternal ? Why, then, omnipotent and most liberal Father, who lovest so much to give, why should 1 not ask of thee this salvation, who didst deliver thyself for me upon the cross ? Why hesitate to ask it of thee, since thou dost offer it to me ? It is an infinite gift, the greatest thou canst give ; I know that I am in no wise worthy of it : but it behoves thee VOL. II. z 338 APPENDIX. to give a thing so priceless. Therefore, trusting to thy ineffable goodness, I approach thee with confidence, to ask of thee again the joy of thy salvation. If the son of a carnal father shall ask of him a fish, will he reach him a serpent ? Will he give him a scorpion, if he demand of him an egg ? If he asks bread, will he offer him a stone ? If then carnal fathers, evil and sinners though they be, know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more wilt thou, O Heavenly Father, who art good- ness itself, give a right spirit to those who ask it ? Then why should I delay, or fear not to obtain great things from thee, for thou dost invite and encourage me to demand of thee, and to knock even to importunity ? What can I most desire, that thou art not more willing to give, and what can be more profitable to me than this joy of my salvation, which I have lost ? I have already tasted how sweet thou art, and that thy yoke is light and easy. I still remember what peace and tranquillity I enjoyed, when I rejoiced in the Lord, and I exulted in God my Jesus ; therefore is my affliction so great, for I know what I have lost. I know the value of the gifts I have let escape from me, and hence I importune thee, crying : Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Restore to me what my sins have despoiled me of. Give me back what I have lost by my own fault. Give it to me, I be- seech of thee, O my God, through the merits of him who is, and ever shall be, seated to all eternity at thy right hand, and who continually intercedes for us, that by his mediation I may find thine anger appeased. May he be as a seal set on my heart, that I may be able to say with the Apostle : I am fastened to the cross. And I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me. And as my weakness is extreme, strengthen me, O Lord, by thy all-powerful spirit ; that neither troubles, fears, nor torments may draw me away from thee, or separate me from thee, nor weaken my resolutions ; for without thy aid my strength is not sufficient to overcome, nor even to combat against the old ser- pent. St. Peter proves to me, how great is our frailty. He saw thee, 0 Lord Jesus, he conversed with thee familiarly on earth ; thou didst discover to him thy glory on Thabor, he be- APPENDIX. 339 held thee transfigured, he heard the voice of thy Father. Thou didst work an infinitude of wonders in his presence. By the power thou gavest him, he performed many miracles, he walked upon the waters, he heard each day the sweet and powerful words which came forth from thy lips. His faith seemed proof against all : he protested that he was ready to suffer prison and death for thee. When thou didst foretell to him his blasphemy, he could not believe it, because he confided in his own strength. He trusted more to human resolution than to thy divine word. But the moment a servant-maid said to him, Thou art one of his, fear seized him, he denied thee : then came another servant, who said : Thou art truly one of his ; he a second time denies it, he had not courage to resist the voice of a woman : others in the crowd again questioned him, and accused him ; he began to curse and to swear that he knew thee not. "What would he have done if the Jews had made use of scourges and tortures ? doubtless Peter had spared no sort of oaths, blasphemies, or execrations, that he might escape from their hands. But thou, O my God, replete as thou art with goodness, didst cast a look on him at this moment, and opening his eyes, made him know his sin ; but he had not the courage to face thine enemies, nor to confess loudly that thou wert the Son of God, because he had not yet received strength from on high. For without doubt he would again have denied thee, had he seen any preparation for punishment ; and therefore he did much better in going forth, and in bitterly bewailing his sin. After thy resurrection, thou didst really appear to him, thou didst console him ; he remained always concealed, for fear of the Jews. He beheld thee taken up glorious into Heaven, he was consoled and fortified by an- gels, but yet he dared not expose himself in public, for he had experience of his weakness and frailty : or rather he waited the coming of the sovereign spirit, whom thou hadst promised, and which at last descending from heaven, filled his heart with thy grace. He then no longer dreaded to shew himself, he began to speak, and gave his testimony of thy resurrection with courage ; he feared neither the chiefs of the priests nor kings, but re- z 2 340 APPENDIX. joiced in tribulations. He embraced the cross as his supreme delight. Fortify me thus, O Lord, by thy all-powerful spirit, that I may continually live in the joy of thy salvation ; other- wise I can make no stand against so many enemies. The flesh has desires contrary to the spirit : the world assaults me on all sides : the devil never sleeps. Give me the strength of thy Holy Spirit ; may a thousand fall beside me, and ten thousand on my right hand : may I be for ever firm and constant in thy faith. If Peter, whom thou hadst favoured with so many graces, fell nevertheless so miserably, what will become of me ? What shall I do, O Lord, who had not the privilege of beholding thy divine humanity, nor thy glory on Thabor, and who witnessed not thy miracles ; who have only learned of thy marvellous works from afar, have never heard thy voice, and have been always plunged in sin ? Strengthen me then with this sovereign spirit ; that I may serve thee with perseverance, and at last yield up my life for thee. / shall teach the unjust thy ways, and the wicked shall be con- verted to thee. O Lord, condemn not my presumption in desiring to teach the unjust thy ways, wicked, infamous, and captive that I am. I pretend not to set aright the wicked ; but supposing thou hast restored to me the joy of thy salvation I had lost ; that thou hast fortified me by thy sovereign spirit ; that thou hast freed me from the state in which I was ; then, O my God, I shall teach thy ways to sinners. And is it difficult for thee to work this change, thou, who of stones raised up children to Abraham ? Neither can my sins be any obstacle, if thou so will it ; on the contrary, where sin did abound, grace shall be superabundant. Paul, breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the High Priest, and asked of him, that if he found any men and women confessing the Holy Name, he might bring them prisoners to Jerusalem. He went forth furious like a ravenous wolf, seeking only to desolate, ravish, and strangle thy sheep. And as he went on his journey, in the ardour of persecution, in the act of sin, whilst he pursued APPENDIX. 311 thee, and sought to kill those who followed thee, as yet without any inclination to attract thy grace, feeling no remorse for the crimes he was committing ; whilst he blasphemed and cursed thee ; he suddenly heard the voice of thy mercy, saying to him, Saul, Said, why persecutest thou me ? Struck down by this voice, but raised at the same moment ; the body prostrate, but the spirit lifted up ; for thou didst rouse him from the sleep of death in which he was buried ; thou didst pierce his heavy and darkened eyes with thy light, and shew him thy face ; thou didst let flow upon him the sweets of thy ineffable mercy ; the dead arose, his eyes were opened ; he saw thee, and said to thee, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? Thou didst send the wolf to the lamb ; thou didst send him to xlnanias who bap- tized him, and he was instantly filled with thy Holy Spirit, and was made a vessel of election, to carry thy name before the Gentiles, the kings, and the children of Israel. Entering into the synagogues, he preached intrepidly, affirming that thou art Christ. He disputed, defeated, and confounded the Jews. Behold, O Lord, thou of a persecutor didst make a preacher, and so great and fervent, that he laboured more than thy other apostles. How wonderful is thy power ! If thou wiliest of a sinner to make a just man, of a persecutor an apostle, who shall forbid it ? who can resist thee ? who dare ask of thee why thou shouldst do so ? Thou dost all that thou wilt in heaven, and in earth, in the sea, and in all the depths. I shall not then be accused of presumption, if I desire to teach the unjust thy ways ; I know of myself I cannot do it, and that from thee I must receive the power. O my God, I desire it, for I know I can present nothing more pleasing in the sight of thy great mercy ; it is the greatest of all the sacrifices I can offer, and that which will be to me most profitable. If, then, thou wilt charge me, I shall teach the unjust thy ways, not the ways of Plato and of Aristotle ; nor- the perplexities of syllogisms, or the maxims and opinions of philosophers ; nor flowing eloquence, nor worldly traffic ; not the ways of truth ; not the ways which lead to death, but thy ways, and thy precepts which lead to 342 APPENDIX. life ; not one alone, but all thy ways, which, though they are great in number, terminate in one ; all end in charity, which so unites the souls of the faithful, that they have but one heart, and one soul in God. This number of divers ways, should rather be understood of the different states of life, as well of the clergy as of monks, poor married persons, widows, virgins, princes, learned men, merchants. In fine, each state has its own peculiar way, but all, however, lead to one heavenly coun- try. I shall teach the unjust thy ways, to each one according to his vocation and capacity, and the wicked shall be converted to thee, because I shall preach to them not my thoughts, my rea- sons, but Jesus Christ crucified ; they shall be converted, not in lauding my discourses, but by following thee with all their hearts ; they shall forsake all their ways ; shall enter upon thine, and thus shall they walk, till they come to thee. Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall extol thy justice. O Lord, I am cast down by the remembrance of a multitude of evil deeds, and from the depths I cry to thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice ! O Lord, make no delay ! I am about to give up my soul. My deeds of blood are my sins ; for as blood is the life of the flesh, the life of the sinner is in his sins. Draw away all blood, the animal dies ; remove sin by confession, the sinner dies, and the just man is born anew. As for me, not only am I plunged in blood, but I am even submerged therein. Torrents of blood drag me down towards hell, O Lord, assist me, that I may not perish for ever. O God, deliver me from blood, thou who dost govern all, who givest motion to all, and hath alone the power to save me ; who in thy hands dost hold the thread of life. Deliver me from blood, O God, thou author of my life ; O God, in whom alone is health. Deliver me, O Lord, as thou didst Noah from the deluge. Deliver me as thou didst Lot from the fiery Sodom ; the children of Israel from the depths of the Red Sea. Deliver me as thou didst Jonas from the whale. Deliver me as thou didst the three children from the fiery furnace ; Saint Peter from the dangers APPENDIX. MS of the sea ; and Saint Paul from the depths of the ocean. De- liver me as thou didst a multitude of sinners from the hands of the dead, and from the gates of hell, and my tongue shall extol thy justice, of which thy grace shall have made me feel the effects. For thy justice, as the apostle says, is by faith in Jesus Christ, in all ; and upon all those who believe in him. My tongue shall extol thy justice ; exalting thy grace ; magnifying thy goodness ; confessing my sins ; glorifying thy mercy in me. Thou shalt be eternally praised for the mercies thou shalt have showered on me, in having deigned to justify so great a sinner, that men may know thou dost save all who hope in thee ; and that thou, O Lord, our God, dost deliver us from all evils and affections. O Lord, thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise. Thy praises, O Lord, are something great, for they can only now from the source of those waters of whieh the sinner cannot drink. Thy praise has no echo in^the mouth of the sinner. De- liver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall extol thy justice. Thou, O Lord, wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise. For thou hast the keys of the house of David, and thou shalt shut and none shall open, and thou shalt open and none shall shut. Then shalt thou open my lips, as thou hast opened those of the house of Israel, and of those who were at the breasts, that they might more per- fectly praise thee. The perfect were, without doubt, thy pro- phets and apostles, as likewise thy other saints, who praised thee with simple and pure hearts, and not the philosophers and ora- tors, who said : We shall use our tongues ; we are the masters of our words ; who is our God ? They opened their lips ; thou didst not open them, therefore they did not praise thee with perfect hearts. Thy children, O Lord, in praising thee, sought but contempt for themselves, but philosophers, in seeming to praise thee, thought only how to signalise and glorify themselves. Nurselings have manifested thy glory, which, by thy all heavenly grace, was discovered to them ; but philosophers, who only knew 344 APPENDIX. thee from a natural feeling, could praise thee but very imper- fectly. Thy saints praised thee with hearts, and lips, and by their good works. Philosophers made use of words only, and of vain reasonings. Thy children spread thy praises over the whole earth, whilst philosophers only spoke before a small num- ber of disciples. Thy friends, in proclaiming thy greatness, brought forth from darkness a multitude of men : conducted them to the paths of virtue, and to real felicity. But philosophers knew neither true virtue nor real felicity. Thy beloved have published the inexpressible goodness thou hast shewn in giving to us thy Son for love of us, and never could philosophers com- prehend the depths of this mystery. From the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast produced the most perfect praise ; for it has pleased thee to raise up the lowly, and to cast down the proud, for thou dost always resist the proud. Give me, then, true humility, that my lips may proclaim thy praise. Give me heart like to a child, for I know unless I become as a little child, I shall never enter the kingdom of heaven. Grant that I may be as one of thy children and thy nurselings, that I may be ever attached to thy bosom, to thy wisdom, because better are those springs of living water than wine. More excellent is wisdom than riches ; and all the things that men pursue with so much avidity, deserve no comparison with it. It is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use become the friends of God. Deign, then, to make me as a little child, and thou shalt draw from my lips a perfect praise. Then shalt thou open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praises. I shall announce them perfect, like to those thou receivest from the mouths of children, and of those who are still at the breasts. If thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it ; with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted. Lord, my mouth shall declare thy praise, for this it is, I know, which is most acceptable to thee ; for thou hast said by the prophets, with the sacrifice of praise shalt thou honour me, and then shall I shew forth my salvation. I shall offer praise to thee ; praises like to babes and sucklings for all my sins. But APPENDIX. 345 why offer to thee praises, and not sacrifice for all my sins ? If thou hadst desired sacrifice I would have given it, with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted ; neither can the blood of goats and calves appease thee, for thou dost not eat the flesh of oxen, nor drink the blood of goats. Dost thou require gold ; to whom heaven and earth belong ? Wilt thou that I sacrifice myself ? thou who desirest not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live. I shall, however, so chastise my body, as that, by thy grace, it may be subject to my spirit, and that it may always have strength to assist me in serving thee, because, if I exceed the bounds of discretion, sin would be imputed to me, for zeal must be subject to reason. Thou hast said, by the mouth of thy prophet, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. Hence- forth my mouth shall declare thy praise, because this will be an oblation honourable to thee, and which will open to us the way of thy salvation. My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready ; it is prepared by thy grace to do all that is pleasing to thee. This is the only sacrifice perfectly agreeable to thee, and the only one that I shall offer. Thy praise shall be eternally in my mouth, and every where shall my lips make it resound. If thou hadst desired a material sacrifice, I would have offered it, for by thy grace and mercy my heart is ready to fulfil thy will in all things ; but I know that such holocausts are not pleasing to thee. Thou createdst the body, but to be subject to the spirit ; hence spiritual and not corporal offerings thou requirest, and thou hast said in the Proverbs : My son, give me thy heart. Be- hold, the sacrifice thou lovest. Let each one then offer thee a heart pierced with sorrow for its sins, and filled with love of heavenly things. May it never be withdrawn from thee, and this shall be a holocaust well pleasing to thee. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit ; a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. An afflicted spirit, and not an afflicted body, is that which pleases thee, for the body is afflicted when it has not the earthly goods it desires ; but sin afflicts the spirit, because it has been committed who loves. It repents, having offended its Creator, 346 APPENDIX. its Redeemer, of having made so little of the blood of Jesus, of having despised so mild, so good a Father ; and this is the affliction of spirit, which is to thee a sacrifice of excellent odour, composed of bitter aromatics, that is to say, of the remembrance of the most dreadful sins ; thus, however guilty and hardened may be the heart, whoever comes to thee without being dis- couraged by the number and enormity of his sins, in sorrow and humility to offer thee the sacrifice of his tears, may feel assured of not being rejected, for thou, O God, never canst reject an humble and contrite heart. This was the perfume composed by Mary Magdalen, who was a public sinner ; her heart was the box of alabaster in which she enclosed it ; after this she feared not to enter the house of the Pharisees ; she prostrated herself at thy feet ; she blushed not to mingle her sighs with the joyful feast prepared for thee ; grief kept her silent, but her heart dissolved in tears, she bathed thy feet with them ; she wiped them with her hair, and ceased not to cover them with kisses. Who had ever heard like unto this ? Never- theless this sacrifice pleased thee, and was much more accept- able to thee than that of the Pharisee, who passed for being a just man. By thy word thou didst insinuate that there was as much difference between the justification of Mary and the righteousness of the Pharisee, as between washing thy feet with water and in bathing them with tears ; in once kissing thy face, and in not ceasing to kiss thy feet ; in anointing thy head with oil, and in pouring upon thy feet a precious ointment ; yea, more, thy preference of Magdalen beyond the Pharisee was so much the greater, that neither water, nor a kiss, nor oil, had he offered unto thee. O Lord, how great is thy virtue ! how omni- potent thy power, in granting pardon and in shewing mercy ! I see, then, O my God, that a contrite and humbled heart thou wilt not despise ; therefore I labour to offer such a heart to thee. But to what purpose persuade thee of it, thou who art God? and who dost search the reins and hearts of men. Re- ceive, therefore, this my sacrifice ; imperfect though it be, thou alone canst perfect it, and make of it a holocaust, inflamed with APPENDIX. 347 all the ardour of thy immense charity, well pleasing to thee, or at least that thou wilt not despise. For verily if thou wilt not despise it, I know I shall find grace before thee, and that hereafter neither thy saints in heaven nor on earth will despise me or cast me off. Deal favourably, O Lord, according to thy good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be rebuilt. As it is written thou wilt be holy with thy saints, with the innocent thou wilt be innocent ; and with thy elect thou wilt be elect ; and with the perverse thou wilt be perverse. I earnestly desire that all men may be saved, and that all may come to the knowledge of thy truth ; this is for them the only thing necessary, and would be to me most useful, that by their prayers, merits, and example I should be revived and daily animated to become better. Sinner though I am, I entreat of thee, O Lord, to deal favourably according to thy good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be rebuilt. Sion is thy church which signifies a watch-tower, because thy church, by the grace of thy spirit, is ever on the watch to contemplate the glory of God, as far as the clouds which obscure us in this life will allow us to do. Hence the apostle says, " But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away, and we shall behold the glory of the Lord with open face, and be transformed to his image from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. Alas ! my Lord and my God ! how small is thy church to-day, almost the whole world forsakes thee. Infidels are now more nume- rous than Christians ; where are those to be found who renounce earthly things, to give themselves up to contemplate the glory of God alone ? Verily their number is but small, compared to that of those whose taste is for perishable goods alone, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame. Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion ; increase the number and the merits of the good. Look down from heaven upon us ; deal favourably with us according to thy custom ; send down upon us the fire of thy charity, that all our sins may be consumed. Deal favourably, O Lord, in 348 APPENDIX. thy good will, and not according to our sins in thy sight, nor as our iniquities deserve, but deal with us according to thy great mercy. My God, thou art our Father and our Redeemer ; thou art our peace and our consolation, our hope, and eternal salvation. From thee alone do men expect all good thou dost give them, they gather, thou openest thy hand, and dost re- plenish all creatures with thy gifts ; but if thou turnest away thy face, they become troubled, thou dost withdraw thy spirit, and they fall into weakness and return to dust. Send down thy Holy Spirit, and they shall be created, and do thou renew the face of the earth. O Saviour of the world, of what use, I conjure thee, will be the damnation of so many millions of men? Hell is filled up, and thy church is daily abandoned. Rise up, O Lord, why sleepest thou ? Rise up, and cast us not off to the end. Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. What is this Jerusalem, which is interpreted, vision of peace, but that Jeru- salem which is our mother ? Its walls fell with Lucifer and his angels, but thou fillest their places with just men. Shower down, then, O Lord, so much mercy on Sion, that the number of thy elect may be filled up ; that the walls of J erusalem may be rebuilt with new stones, and may ever praise thee, and sub- sist to all eternity. Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations, and whole burnt offerings ; then shall they lay calves upon thy altar. When in thy good will, thou didst shew mercy to Sion ; thou didst accept a sacrifice of justice. I say accept, because by the fire of thy charity it was consumed. Thus thou acceptedst the sacrifice of Moses and Elias. And dost thou not accept the sa- crifice of justice, and testify it, when thou dost enrich with thy gifts the souls of such as use their endeavours to live according to thy justice ? Why offer sacrifice to thee if thou wouldst not accept it ? O Lord, how many offer sacrifice to thee this day which are not grateful in thy sight, but are rather an abomina- tion ; we offer in our sacrifices not indeed justice, but only ex- terior ceremonies, and therefore thou dost not accept them. Where do we r^w see shine forth the glory, which. ; *» the ai™&- APPENDIX. 349 ties, was so resplendent ? Where the courage of the martyrs ? Where the fruits produced by the preachers ? Where the pious simplicity of the monks ? Where do we see the virtues and works of the primitive Christians ? Such sacrifices as theirs thou didst accept, and fill their souls with thy graces, and with all the virtues they desired. If then thou wilt deal favourably with Sion, then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice; thy people will begin to live well, to keep thy commandments, and, doing justice, thy blessing will be upon them. Then the oblations of thy priests and clergy will be acceptable to thee ; being detached from this earth, their lives will be more perfect, and the celestial unction of thy benediction will flow more abundantly on their heads. Then will the holocausts of the truly religious be grate- ful to thee ; for having forsaken the torpid and tepid state, in which they began their course, they will be perfectly inflamed with divine love. Then shall bishops and priests offer victims upon thy altar ; being perfect in all virtue, and replete with the Holy Spirit, they will not shrink from laying down their lives for their flocks. What is thy altar, O my good Jesus, but the cross on which thou wert immolated ? Our bodies represent the material and gross victims of the ancient sacrifices, and thy mi- nisters shall say they offer victims to thee, when for thy name they immolate their bodies on the cross ; that is to say, when they give themselves up to torments and to death. Then shall we behold thy church flourish, extend her bounds, and make thy praises resound from one extremity of the earth to the other. The universe will be filled with joy and gladness. Thy saints shall be exalted in glory, and will praise thee joyfully on their beds, expecting to be united with us in the land of the living. O Lord, I now beseech of thee that in me all this may be ful- filled. Have mercy on me according to thy great mercy. My God, receive my heart as a sacrifice of justice, as a victim immo- lated on the altar of thy cross ; render my oblation holy, and may I be consumed as a holocaust worthy of thee, that so I may go forth from this vale of tears to that incomprehensible glory thou hast prepared for those who diligently love and serve thee. Amen. Amen. 350 APPENDIX. No. V. EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. TRANSLATED FROM THE EXPOSITIO ORATIONIS DOMINICB FRA. HIER. SAVONAROLA* GENERAL PREFACE. Piety is a virtue, by which one renders to God the worship which is due to him, as to the universal principal and Ruler of all things. This worship is paid in two ways, exteriorly and interiorly ; but the exterior worship is rendered only in con- nexion with the interior worship. The sacraments of the Church, the chaunt, and all the exterior ceremonies, are only instituted for the edification of the interior spirit. This is why the first care of all Christians, in the rule of their life, ought to be to honour God by inward acts ; without, however, omitting the exterior ones, particularly those that are obligatory. The in- terior actions are reading, prayer, meditation, and contemplation : these depend on the understanding, and serve to excite in us hope, charity, and devotion, and other emotions of the will, which, combined together, lead men to the perfect knowledge and perfect love of God. But as the action of the understanding precedes the effect of the will, and that we can only love that which we know, it is necessary that he who would fill his heart with the love of God, in which consists all the excellence of a spiritual life, applies himself as much as possible to know Him by the interior action of the understanding. It is with this de- sign, that the Eternal Wisdom has dictated to us the sacred Scriptures, in order that by the knowledge which they give us of the goodness of God, they strengthen in our hearts that love which we ought to have for him and for our neighbour, without which love, though -we could do every thing pleasing to him, we should otherwise have done nothing. * Ex. Edit. 16nio. Remboldi Ascensii, 1510. APPENDIX. 351 But whoever would acquire a knowledge of the Holy Scrip* tures, should begin by reading them often, and render them- selves familiar with them. "When he shall have an understand- ing of them in the ordinary sense, which is called the literal sense, he will penetrate by means of meditation to the most lofty mystical sense of them by the assistance of those lights, which other passages, more intelligible, would have furnished him with. But because it is nothing to know, if one does not act, when they have come to the knowledge of the mystical sense, he must have recourse to God by prayer, and he must pray to Him to conduct him by his grace to love him, and to do good works. If he takes care every day to renew this exercise, he will draw from it so much profit, that he will soon raise himself up to contemplation. In order that what we say may be the more easily and clearly understood, and that we may trace the road that we must follow to penetrate deeply into the Scriptures, let us take the Lord's Prayer, which is so well known throughout the world ; and that we may understand it well, let us examine every word therein : let us. study it in its literal sense : let us make it the subject of meditation, of some prayers, of some contemplation : and that what we shall say upon this subject, serves to shew us the means by which we may arrive at the knowledge of other passages of the Holy Scriptures. FIRST EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. PEEFACE. He who undertakes to read the Holy Scriptures without being- enlightened by a supernatural light, embarrasses and deceives himself ; for he will read, and will not understand them, and it is employing time uselessly. Natural sciences can be acquired by the natural lights which reason gives to all ; but divine sci- 352 APPENDIX. encc cannot be attained, without some rays of light from on high. From thence it happens, that many of those who read the Holy Scriptures do not comprehend their beauty. That which Isaias predicted, is accomplished in them. The visions which the Prophets have had shall be unto you as the words of a book that is closed and sealed, because the blind cannot see colours. Would to God, that at least they might answer with humility what Isaias says immediately after : This book is such, that when they shall deliver it to one that is learned, and they shall say to him, — Mead this book, he shall answer, I cannot, I cannot, for it is sealed. And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letter, and it shall be said to him, Mead, and he shall answer, I know no letters. Because no one, be he learned or ignorant, can understand the Scriptures without the aid of that light which alone can impart the knowledge of them. Therefore, let no one take them up who does not keep himself pure and dis- engaged ; for as it treats of things the most sublime, it requires an extreme application of the mind. Let him therefore, who would profit by reading the Holy Scriptures, begin by purging himself of his sins, and disengage himself from the cares of the world ; let him shut himself up alone in his chamber, that he may then place himself in prayer, with great faith and humility, to the end that, having received, by the efficacy of prayer, some participation of celestial light, he may acquire a perfect knowledge of what he reads, and, above all, feel it within himself — that is to say, that it may be his good works which will enable him to penetrate the mysteries, and that he may thus be more assisted by the interior light which God shall have communicated to him, than by the con- victions of experience, and the commentaries of others. Let him not read hurriedly, but let him examine carefully each word, and he must believe firmly that all he reads is perfectly true, as having been dictated by him who cannot err. Let us then read these holy words of " The Lord's Prayer" with much fear and respect, in order that, by the mercy of him who com- posed, it we may attain to the true knowledge of them. APPENDIX. 353 Our Father. First, God is called the father of man by excellence and by a special right, because he has formed him to his own image and likeness. In the second place, on account of the particular care that he takes of him ; for he does not treat him as a slave, but as the master and lord of all created things ; it is thus that he behaves principally towards the elect, whom he governs with such admirable providence, that he makes all things con- tribute to their good. In short, he is called Father, on account of that supernatural love which induced him to adopt man by the blood of Jesus Christ, and to make him the inheritor of eternal life. Who art in Heaven. If by the heavens we understand those material heavens which we see with our eyes, in that case we say that God is in the heavens, not that we pretend to say that he is there in the same manner that a body is in some particular place ; be- cause he is everywhere, we ought not to believe that he is either confined in the expanse of heaven, nor that the manner in which he is there, hinders him from being beyond its limits. But it is said that he is in heaven, because it is there that he acts in the most noble manner ; and although he is in every- thing, because he acts in all things, it is said, notwithstanding, that he is principally in heaven, because it is in heaven that he shews more clearly his greatness. We can even add, that the heavens assist us to penetrate more into the knowledge of the divine nature, for if they are of a matter so elevated above that of other bodies, that we attri- bute to them the things which are produced here below, and even which we believe to be incorruptible, although they are only material, what a sublime idea ought it not to give us of the nature of God, which so far surpasses their excellence. By his admirable power, he sustains and preserves all things. By the extent of his strength and of his power, he causes all things to be done everywhere. His eternal being gives action to all thiugs, without undergoing in himself either motion or altera- VOL. II. A A 354 APPENDIX. tion. His incomprehensible light spreads the brightness of day and beauty over all things, and it is that which illumines all men coming into the world. If by the heavens we mean the angels and the blessed, and even the good men who are still on earth, according to this passage of David, " The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands," then they say that he is in the heavens, because he dwells by his glory in the beatific spirits, and by his grace in the saints who are still in this world. If by the heavens we understand those eternal blessings which he has promised to the just, according to what he says, (( For your reward is very great in heaven," in this sense we say that he is in the heavens ; that is to say, in the midst of those eternal goods which he amasses and preserves for those for whom he designs them, as we say that a father of a family is in the possession of that which he amasses and keeps for his children. Hallowed be thy name. The first and principal name of God, considered simply as God, is the name which he gave to himself: " I am who am." — Qui est. If we regard him as the universal cause of all things, accord- ing to Dionysius, his name is The Good. For as in every thing and in every action, the end is the first cause which impels our actions, how comes it that he is called the Cause of Causes ? and as there is no end which does not involve within itself some good, and that there is not also reciprocally any good which is not looked upon by some one as an end ; for this reason the word end and the word good may be used indifferently one for the other. Thus, God being the first cause of all, he is the first good of all, and the name of God suits him supremely. How comes it that the Saviour has declared that it is only God alone who is good, because it is he alone who is good in him- self and by his essence ? Well, then, in this first petition of prayer, ought to be understood every name that is given to God. We ought particularly to direct our attention to that APPENDIX. 355 name of The Good, and desire above all things, that the good- ness of God diffuse itself into the hearts of men, as it is by that means that they can themselves be sanctified, and that it is by their sanctification the name of God is truly sanctified, that is to say, glorified, exalted, praised, and adored as it deserves to be. We begin, then, by praying that the name of God be sancti- fied first in ourselves, to the end that, understanding well how far his bounty extends, we should love him with all our heart. For the philosophers in truth did know him, but as well as they knew him, they did not glorify him as God, and never rendered to him those acts of thanks which are due to him, because they never knew his goodness. They could not comprehend that the goodness of God could bring him to annihilate himself so much as to be made man, and to make himself obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. That which as soon as men have known by the preach- ing of the apostles, so soon did they renounce sin, and have been sanctified by this Sovereign Good full of love, desiring in all things first to sanctify themselves this holy name, in apply- ing themselves wholly to know him and to love him, and de- siring then to see him sanctified by all men who are spread over the earth. Let us, then, say, Hallowed be thy name ; first in us, that is to say, let us ask for ourselves the grace to know him, to love him, and to honour him as he deserves, but let us ask also, that by the preachings, the exhortations, that by a thousand blessings, and by the fame of miracles, it may be carried throughout the whole universe, that all men may adore him because he is holy and adorable : may celebrate him not only with the lips and the voice, but by just and perfect actions, that thus their light may shine in the eyes of one another, in order that those who shall see good works done may glorify our Father who is in heaven. Thy kingdom come. This petition may first of all be understood to mean that kingdom of God by which he has the sovereign right over all APPENDIX. men ; and as in this life the impious seem to think themselves exempt from this dependence, imagining that God does not watch over them, under the pretence that he does not chastise them, as it appears also that his providence ceases to watch over the just, since he permits that they should suffer so many evils, for all these reasons we pray to God that his kingdom may come, that is to say, we pray to Mm to make his power manifest in punishing the wicked and rewarding the good, in order that his name may cease to be blasphemed, and that they may no longer say the providence of God does not descend upon men, or that God is not just, which are execrations we hear preferred every day by the impious. We may also understand in this place the kingdom of God, for the beatitude that he has pro- mised to his saints, and which they petition for with extreme earnestness in their prayers, above all when they say, Thy kingdom come. But it is best 10 take these words in both ways. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The will of God is accomplished in heaven in all the blessed, by the abundance of that consummate grace with which they are filled ; and they ask here, that on the earth, that is to say, that in men who are still on the earth, the will of God may be done by an abundance of grace, as it is done in heaven. Not that it is thought possible to be able to accomplish it in a manner equally perfect ; there is too much disproportion between us who are as yet only pilgrims, and those who are already in pos- session of glory ; but we ought to imitate in some degree the blessed, that is to say, to serve God with an upright and sincere heart in approaching as near as we can to their zeal and their love. Give us this day our daily bread. Inasmuch as man is composed of two different substances, which are the soul and the body, that both one and the other of these parts are Very weak and fragile in their nature, it fol- lows that they need sustenance and nourishment, as well spi- ritual as corporal. We pray, then, for one, a spiritual nourish- APPENDIX. 357 nient, which is first the word of God, according to what our Saviour says : " Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." Secondly, this spiritual nourishment is the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, according to other words of our Saviour, " For my flesh is meat indeed ; and my blood is drink indeed." How comes it that one of the Evangelists says, " Give us this day our supersubstantial bread "? We ask also for the body, the material bread ; by which is to be understood food, and all that regards the wants of the body, such as dress, shelter; and every thing else of this kind. But bread alone is there named, to teach us that amongst the goods which regard only the body, we ought not to wish for more than are absolutely necessary. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us. He who usurps the goods of another becomes his debtor, and the thing that has been taken, is held to be the debt of those from whom it was taken. Xow we all belong entirely to God, all that we possess comes from him, in acknowledgment of which we ought to honour him for ever : and as all sin is a kind of injury done to God, and that when we sin we rob him of an honour which is his right, it is certain that we become by that his debtors. Our sins are his debts ; we pray that they may be remitted us, when we determine to change our way of life, and that eventually we strive to honour God in all our works. But in order to incite him to remit what we owe him, we must ne- cessarily on our part remit the debts and injuries which others owe to us, that is to say, of those who have offended us ; thus, whoever will not pardon those who have offended them, cannot hope for pardon from God. That those, nevertheless, whose hearts are hardened, and who will not forgive their enemies, should never cease to say this prayer ; and that they retrench not this part, but that they say it always entire, in the name of the Church, and they do not lie, for the Church pardons offences, and remits to those who are her debtors. Otherwise, all men who should fail to say this 358 AFPENDIX. prayer, or that part of the prayer, while he would be resolved not to forgive others, would commit mortal sin, not for not choosing to say it, but because he will not say it, being deter- mined not to forgive. And lead us not into temptation. God tempts us in one way, and the devil tempts us in another manner. For God only tempts us to give us an occasion of doing good, and not to incite us to evil ; according to those words of St. James : God is not a tempter of evil, and he tempteih no man. God tempts the just, that is to say, he tries them ; not that he requires this trial to know them, but he thus acts that others may know and imitate them. It is thus he tempted Abraham and Job. The Devil also tempts and tries men ; but it is only with the design of inducing them to evil. Hence J esus Christ puts these words into his prayer : And lead us not into temptation ; which means, permit not that the Devil, the world, or the flesh, make no consent to evil. It is often said, that God does certain things which, to speak properly, he never does, but only that he allows to occur. As in Exodus, where he himself says, I shall harden the heart of Pharoah ; and again ^ speaking of Pharoah, I have established thee expressly to de- clare my power against thee, and that my name may be glorified throughout the earth. Therefore we say in this prayer, Lead us not into temptation : not that we suppose God impels us to sin, but it is said, because, as a chastisement for certain crimes, he forsakes men, and permits them to fall. But deliver us from evil. Although afflictions are necessary to us, and that virtues can neither be increased or preserved in us without them, we never- theless desire to be delivered from them ; not that we ask that none may occur to us, but our only entreaty is, that God in his goodness deign to comfort us in those which may happen to us, lest they overwhelm us ; for it is true that in trials no one can uphold himself, and progress with fidelity, without the special assistance of God's omnipotency. Some consider this last de- mand is like unto the former, and say, that as in the preceding APPENDIX. 359 we beg that we may not be let to fall into temptation, wc join to this, to perfect our request, But deliver us from evil : that is to say, from the devil and from hell, where is found the excess of evil. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is allowable that the faithful add these words to the Lord's Prayer, when it is said in private, but never are they to be made use of in public, for we must then adhere to the usage of the Church. We see besides they do well, as the Church adds these words to the end of all her other prayers. And truly as all our merits are solely founded on the Passion of Jesus Christ, through whom all gifts are given to us, it is right that in his name all our thanksgivings be made to the Eternal Father. Amen. This word demonstrates itself in three ways : It is certain : With truth : So be it. It is well then to answer Amen, at the end of this prayer, as if we said, it is certain God exists ; that he is our Father ; and^that he is in heaven. We make all these demands with fidelity, that is to say, persevering in faith and loving it. May what we ask be granted to us ; and may he deign to attend to our supplications, that thus it may be so. THE SECOND EXPOSITION ON THE LORD'S PRAYER. PREFACE. As God is the author of the Holy Scriptures, we must be per-, suaded that all the words contained therein have so much force and energy, that no man can have a full knowledge of them. If the meaning of the words which great men have left to us, are sought after with so much care, how much more weight should we not attach to those of God, whose wisdom is bound- less ? As we already understand something from the study of the letter, let us now meditate on these holy words, and as the 360 APrENDIX. apostles did press those ears of corn in our hands, that there- from we may extract the grain. For whoever frequently me- ditates upon those holy words, with faith, humility, and a sin- cere heart, makes astonishing progress in the knowledge and love of God, and never enters into this garden without carrying away from it some fruits. It even at times chances that God discovers to us quite a new meaning in a passage which we be- lieve we have thoroughly examined, when we endeavour to present it often to our own minds. Therefore, after having read the prayer of our Lord, let us examine anew all its words. Far from the perplexity of the world, and in perfect quietude, let us hold converse with our own souls, and say to him, Pa- ternoster ', Sfc. MEDITATIONS. Our Father. O my soul, as God is our Father, that he has created us, preserved us all by his special care, that he has adopted us in so supernatural a manner, we should truly love him with an intense love ; for every effect naturally loves its cause, and pri- vate advantage yields to universal good. As he is our Father, we should imitate him ; for the son of a good and upright father ought to imitate his father in goodness and in justice ; hence our Saviour says to us, Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. As our Father, we are bound to obey him, and to keep all his commandments. Since, then, he is our Father, we ought to endure his chas- tisements with patience ; for who is the father who does not punish his children ? He does not chastise them from aversion, but because he loves them, and endeavours to make them still more perfect. In fine, as he is our Father, that is to say, Father of all men, and in particular of the elect, it follows that we are all brothers. Let us then love one another : let us love with a true love. Let each one be desirous of the salvation of his brother, and try to procure it by every means within his power, for being all children of the same Father, we have equal right to the inheritance of eternal life. Let us love ac- APPENDIX. 301 cording to justice, and may the greatest blessings be those we always desire most for our neighbour. Wish them all spiritual gifts in preference to temporal ones, grace and eternal glory above riches and transient honours ; that they may be good and per- fect, but never imperfect nor wicked. Finally, let us love holily, and seek in creatures, and in all their actions, but the glory of God alone, and the salvation of souls. May ours be an effective love, giving proof of it, by deeds as well as words ; let us do good to our brethren, and succour them in their wants. That this love be sincere, proceeding from the depths of our hearts, that thus, no inclination to contempt, envy, or resentment have place within us. May our love be universal, extending even to our enemies, for we are all brothers. In fine, let us never be weary of loving, for they alone who persevere to the end shall be saved. In these two words, our Father, let us meditate on the two great precepts of charity, which contain all the law and the pro- phets : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength ; and thy neighbour as thyself. Who art in Heaven. O my soul, are not the dwellings of thy Father, places which thou shouldst look upon as thine inheritance ? Ponder well, that as thy Father is in heaven, thou art not to consider the earth as thy country ; it is but the road, over which thou must hastily travel to inherit thy succession. As life is then but a passage, stop not to seek terrestrial goods, let the necessaries suffice to thee, and as travellers always keep in mind their return to their country, so may thy thoughts ever be in heaven, liaise thyself ever towards Him, of whom it is said, Seek ye the Lord: seek his face evermore. Hallowed be thy name. O my soul, if well brought up children respect their earthly parents, how much more right have we to honour our Heavenly Father, to whom belongs all the goods that we possess ? But in this world we cannot see him, and as we can only understand invisible things by outward signs, he suits himself to our weak- 362 APPENDIX. ness, and gives the means whereby we may reverence him, in the sacraments and in outward signs. For in these visible signs it is not, clearly speaking, the thing created which we honour, but God himself, our Creator and our Father, whom the created thing represents to us. And whereas, with regard to these signs, the name is specially appointed to represent the thing spoken of, whence comes it, that it is denned as a voice chosen to signify what is designed to be expressed. Thus of all the signs by which we honour God, his name ought to be the most revered, because the name of God com- prises every sign that manifests to us his omnipotence and his majesty. We should then hallow this holy name, and not only honour it with our hearts, by preserving our consciences pure and free from all stains and terrestrial affections, but with our lips we ought to honour and sanctify it, by announcing and publishing it in all places, and by praising and blessing it un- ceasingly. We should also hallow it by our actions, keeping the commandments and doing good, not only in the sight of God, but before men. We owe to it adorations and genuflexions. We must reverence our Saviour's cross, his likeness, his holy mother, all the saints, prelates, priests, kings, princes, judges, and all those, in fine, who in aught represent our God to us. We ought likewise to honour the Holy Scriptures in all ways, and on all occasions, and never employ them in our profane writings or frivolous conversations ; never despise them, nor uselessly quote them in jest, or for our amusement. The sublime words of God are not to be listened to, nor uttered, but with profound respect and humility, but in a particular manner the adorable name of Jesus, for it is said : That in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Thy kingdom come. Those who are dazzled by this world, only run after fragile goods, seek but perishable crowns, try but to make themselves beloved by kings, and only offer their vows for the welfare of the great on whom they depend. But we, my soul, let us simply APPENDIX. 363 say to God, Thy kingdom come. O how mighty is this kingdom, in which, according to Saint Augustine, neither poverty or sick- is feared, nor wrath, envy, or cupidity there ever disturb the soul. Where one is never pressed by hunger, nor tormented by vain glory or ambition ; there the devil is no longer feared, and all the artifices of hell know not how to reach it. Far from this abode is all dread of men, destruction of the body, death of the soul, nothing therein is to trouble a life that the gift of immortality loads with all sorts of delights. There, contentions will be no longer witnessed, all things shall be at peace, in tran- quillity, in perfect day, and, to say yet more, there shall we find ourselves united to the choirs of angels. The company of all the celestial virtues will be enjoyed ; and there shall be revealed the incomprehensible splendour with which the saints shine, the lustre with which the faith of the patriarchs, and the joy where- with the hope of the prophets have been rewarded. There shall appear the apostles judging the twelve tribes of Israel, the martyrs crowned as conquerors, and the virgins laden with flowers. But who can speak worthily of the king who is seated in the midst of his celestial court ? Were we obliged every day to endure the greatest torments, or were it necessary to suffer in hell for a time, that we might be entitled to behold Jesus Christ in all his majesty, and to be received into the number of his saints, should we not be most willing to bear with all those evils, in order to attain to so much good, and such great glory ? Let us then, O God, implore thee from the bottom of our heart : That thy kingdom come ; and that we may no longer look upon the crowns of earth and all their lustre but as contemptible things ; and count them but as dung, that we may gain Christ. 71iy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As the will of God must be right, or, to speak more properly, is uprightness itself, or the rule of all things, and of all actions, it is certain, O my soul, that whoever does the will of God can never go astray. The blessed, who always fulfil it, never wander ; all their steps are right, they walk in the ways of jus- tice and of truth. As to creatures purely material, who have 361 APPENDIX. neither desire nor liberty, they only move according to God's holy will, hence it follows that the natural order of things is seldom or ever interrupted. In hell the damned always retain a free will, but as they are totally destitute of grace, they are always in error, go astray in all their actions, which renders them miserable, and makes them continually desire what they could never know how to obtain. Like unto them are the impious, who still live on the earth, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah — The wicked are like a raging sea, of which no part is ever at rest ; the waves rise, oppose one another, and roar un- ceasingly. There is no peace for the wicked, saith the Lord ; the further one recedes from his road, the more difficult it is for him to regain the path ; his trouble augments still more, the nearer he approaches to the misery of the damned, because the only way we should follow is the will of God. So that even in this world we may resemble the holy spirits, and become par- takers of their eternal happiness ; let us say to our Father, not only with our lips but with all our hearts, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May we purify our souls and become saints, as God's will is that we labour for our sanctification, that we observe all his precepts, that, whether in success or in diffi- culty, we always endeavour to be submissive to whatever he ordains for us, and that we may say with the holy man, Job, " The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, nothing has happened but as it has pleased the Lord. May the name of the Lord be blessed for ever." Give us this day our daily bread. My soul, thou art to me much more precious than the body, therefore before thinking of its wants it is right to demand of God thy nourishment, which is his holy word, and the sacred body of Jesus Christ. It is from God we are to receive them, for all those who hear his word, and partake of the body of Jesus Christ, do not all receive it from the hand of God. Those who only study the Scriptures that they may seem learned, or to be admired, and not as their rule of life, nor to sanctify them- selves, receive not the bread of the word from the hand of God ; APPENDIX. 3G5 and likewise those who unworthily approach the holy Eucharist receive not the celestial bread from the hand of God. Let us, then, say to our heavenly Father, Give us our daily bread ; that is to say, give us thy word, lest we should fall fainting by the way ; and as each day revives our weakness, it is necessary our Father also feed and nourish us on all days, enlightening and inflaming the depths of our hearts with the fire of his divine love, which will let us taste and see how sweet is the Lord. For if he imparts not to our souls his lights and this heat, in vain do we receive our bread, that is, the divine word and the body of Jesus Christ. Now we call this bread daily bread, and we are each day only to ask it for one day, because we should every day and every moment, if we could, reiterate this prayer. And as we ought each day and moment, if it were possible, feed on the bread of the word of God, by reading, applying our- selves to prayer, singing canticles from our hearts, and in con- tinual thanksgiving to God, always in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour ; in like manner we should each day receive in spirit, at least, the bread of the body of Jesus Christ, by assisting devoutly at the Sacrifice of the Mass, and by offering it in union with the priest at the altar. Let us also sacramentally receive this mystic bread as often as we possibly can, according to our devotion and by the advice of our spiritual Father. Saint Austin says on this subject, " I neither praise nor censure those who communicate daily, but I exhort all the faithful to receive it at least every Sunday. As it is God who gives the grain to him who sows, and bread to him who eats, it is also from him we are to expect, and from him we are to ask bread and all things needful for our corporal life, nevertheless we must only expect and ask them, inasmuch as they are necessary for us, and neither from sensuality, nor that they may be to us a cause of sin. For this reason we ask for bread alone, which clearly means the wants of each, according to his state of life ; and be- cause we are commanded to fly idleness by the precept of the apostle, who says, " Neither did we eat any man's bread for nothing." Thus, in asking bread, we ask for our bread, that is 366 APPENDIX. to say, that which we have earned by our labour, and not the fruit of the labour of others, as thieves do, because it is written, " In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy bread." But as some men trouble themselves too much for the morrow, to remove from us this disquiet Jesus Christ says the bread of each day, which means we are only to foresee our wants from one day to the other, or at least but for some days, and not to figure to ourselves a distant period, nor anticipate all the accidents which may chance to occur, but solely the dangers probable, leaving the rest in the hands of God. Consider that he who feeds the birds of the air, and clothes the lilies and the grass of the field, which is to-day and to-morrow, is cast into the oven, will he not at all times have much more care of us ? But as God could in one instant deprive us of all he has given to us, as in one hour he impoverished J ob, we should each day say to him, Give us this day our daily bread, confess- ing that from him we hold all the things we each day make use of, for our clothing and our word ; hence the most pious Chris- tians before meals use these words as a blessing at table. The eyes of all, O Lord, are ever upon thee, because from thee they expect all, and thou givest them food in due season. Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which of thy bounty we are going to receive. And also after the repast, thanking God for the food they have taken, they say : We give thee thanks, O Lord, for thy benefits. May the Lord be blessed for all his gifts ; and so on. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. As it is absolutely necessary that grace and our free will concur to obtain the remission of our sins, O my soul, it is need- ful, if we desire to draw down the grace of God, that we should do all that we can on our parts, lest in asking pardon for our faults, and persevering in evil, we come to be of the number of those who wilfully tempt God. First then, penetrated with sorrow, and confounded at our low- liness, let us prostrate ourselves before God, and ask him after- AIT ENDIX'. 367 wards to forgive us our sins : and as no one knows whether he be worthy of love or hatred, and that all things are to remain un- determined until the final day ; each one should always pray for his past sins, and say, Forgive us our trespasses. Not only ought we to pray each day for our past sins, and for our mortal sins, but even for the venial ones which we each day fall into j for we commit many faults, and if we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us ; our weak- ness not allowing us to live without falling into venial sins. Furthermore, each should pray not alone for his own sins, but likewise for all the sins of his neighbour, because we are com- manded to pray for one another, if we desire to be saved. And as he who does not pardon, or is unwilling to forgive small faults, is unworthy to obtain the remission of great crimes ; if we desire our prayers to be heard, we must commence by for- giving, and entirely forgetting all the offences committed against us ; for not until we shall have done so, can we be permitted to say : Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. As it is impossible, O my soul, in the state of corrupt nature, that man can avoid sin without grace, whosoever wishes to be preserved from falling into it must have recourse to God, and ask him for this grace, which alone can save him from the stains of mortal sin. And because the weakness of our nature, and the numerous obstacles which continually present themselves before us, cause whoever is in the state of grace to require a special aid from God to persevere in this state ; we must every day fly to God by constant prayers, for many have received grace who have not obtained perseverance. It is the same God who worketh all in all ; who supports all things by the power of his word. For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to his good will. For in him we live, and move, and be ; so it is impossible for us to do any good, still less can we persevere in good works, without his special aid, because every perfect grace, and every good gift comes from 3G8 APPENDIX. above, descending from the Father of lights. We obtain these gifts, and the grace of conserving them by our assiduity in prayer. For this reason our Lord exhorts us to pray earnestly, even to importunity. He tells us, we must always pray and never cease. The flesh, the world, and the devil attack us on all sides. The flesh is a seductive enemy, which we always carry about with us, and never is it at rest. The world be- witches, deceives, and betrays us. The devil is cruel, powerful, and crafty, he knows an infinity of wiles ; thus we should ever walk with great discretion. And as our wisdom and our strength are incapable of upholding us, it is necessary that we recur to the hand of God, saying our weakness cannot understand how we should resist the assaults of so many dangerous enemies. We beg of thee, O Lord, who hast created all, who can do all, not to permit us to fall into the snares laid for us, that is to say, we beseech of thee not to forsake us ; for this abandonment would cause our ruin, and if thou dost withdraw thy arm, we shall forthwith consent to evil ; as thou dost assist such as hope in thee, permit not, O Lord, that we let ourselves yield to sin. But deliver us from evil. It is true, O my soul, as the apostle says ; all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and that it is necessary to pass through many trials and afflictions to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But as, on the other hand, our frailty is so great, that we easily lose courage in adversity, if the hand of God does not sustain us, for this reason the just who reflect on their weakness, wish to be delivered from their evils. And this it was which made the prophet cry out, Deliver me, O Lord, from my necessities, from the sorrows which I cannot avoid, and which now makes us say, Deliver us from evil, or rather, deliver us from our afflictions and miseries, and this we ask, apprehending they may become to us so burthensome that we cannot endure them ; and deliver us in like manner from those which thy grace gives us strength to support, that is to say, console us under them, grant us spiritual gifts sufficient to enable us to bear the weight of our trials ; increase our fortitude, and after the storm APPENDIX. 369 let us enjoy some repose ; that we may profit by our troubles, so that thou may est be always glorified in thy saints, whom, after the sorrows of this life, thou dost crown so splendidly in Heaven, where they shall live with thee for endless ages. Amen. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the third Lamentation of the prophet Jeremias, our Lord invites his creatures to meditate on his passion. Remember, said he, my poverty, the outrages offered to me, the wormwood and gall : and the holy man answers him with love, never shall I lose the recollection of it, my soul shall grieve for it. How- ever, the more I reflect on thy sufferings, the more am I filled with hope in God. The memory of the passion of Jesus Christ ought then to raise within our hearts an unbounded confidence of obtaining all from God. For, as the apostle says, he that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also with him given us all things ? Hence, my soul, let not the multitude of thy sins terrify thee, nor the crosses of the world, nor the temptations of the devils, nor the persecutions of the wicked, nor all the obstacles which oppose themselves to the peace and purity of our lives, that the wonderful sublimity of the glory of Heaven may not discourage us, as we can obtain all things from God the Father, who is all-powerful, through the interposition of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Yes, my soul, with this assistance we can obtain all. The examples of our holy fathers are answerable for it ; for what have they not obtained through the merits of the passion of Jesus Christ ? In this holy name did they not impart the Holy Spirit under the form of fire ? Did they not restore sight to the blind ? raise from the dead ? Have they not by this holy name cleared the universe from the errors with which it was filled ? Have they not adorned it by the practice of virtues, and have they not without labour accomplished an infinite num- ber of other wonders ? Let us all then say Amen, which means that certainly God has heard them. We make open profession of not doubting that he has done so. We beseech of him, that VOL. II. B B 370 APPENDIX. it may be so with us ; and that, through Jesus Christ our Lord, we may obtain from God our Father all that his Son has taught us, that we ought to ask in this prayer. Amen. THIRD EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. PREFACE. Amongst all the prayers which the Holy Spirit hath taught us, this ought to be regarded as the most efficacious, because it con- tains in itself alone an infinitude of admirable things, which it would not be easy to find thus combined in any other prayer whatsoever. First, the effect of it is infallible, and we ought to be filled with confidence in addressing it to God, because we are well assured that we cannot deceive ourselves in the petitions we therein make, since it has been prepared by wisdom itself, which can never err. The infallibility of its effect is again de- rived from the circumstance, that its author, Jesus Christ, our Advocate, is at the right hand of God, that he prays continually for us ; to whom, consequently, we ought to address ourselves with great confidence, since we know that this Advocate is him- self our Judge, conjointly with the Father and the Holy Ghost : which ought to assure us that we shall never say this prayer to him without drawing the fruits of it, provided always that it is accompanied with a right intention. Saint Augustin and Saint Thomas believe, moreover, that it possesses the virtue of effacing the venial sins of those who recite it with these dispositions. In what it excels still more is, that it is very reasonable, and that it asks nothing from God but what is necessary, since it only asks of him that which all men are obliged to ask from him. One can judge of that from what has been said above, but it will be more clearly seen in what we are now going to say. The third ad- vantage is, that it is drawn up in a very judicious order, for we should ask of God all that is reasonable for us to ask him, and APPENDIX. 371 all that we can desire without displeasing him. But as our will is left free, first to seek what it thinks good, secondly to fly from what it believes bad, we ask first in this prayer to obtain the ne- cessaries of life, and^then to be delivered from evil. But as amidst all good, that of God should be preferred to our own, because we should love God better than ourselves : we ask above all things the glory of God, in saying, Hallowed be thy name. From that we come to the goods that are proper for us, and as the soul is more precious than the body, we ask first for the goods that are necessary for the soul, and then those that are requisite for the body. The soul is in need of two kinds of goods : of a good end, and those things necessary to conduct it to tliis end ; and because the end is much more important than the means which are used to acquire it, the first thing that we ask for ourselves is this end, in saying, Thy kingdom come. Afterwards, we pray for that which assists us to obtain this end : Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Then we ask for the goods of the body, Give us this day our daily bread. As to the evils from which our inclinations should fly, they are first those which offend the goodness of God, then those against ourselves. The evils which offend the goodness of God are sins, those which go against ourselves are the penalty due for sin. It is for this reason, that in the second part of this prayer we ask in the first place to be delivered from sin, in the second place from the penalty due to sin. Amongst the sins, there are some which have been already committed, others which we fear committing. We begin by praying to be cleansed from those which have been already committed, when we say, And forgive us our trespasses, &c. Then we pray to be strengthened in the practice of good, for fear that in future we should fall back into the same sins, and we say, And lead us not into temptation. In fine, we finish in praying God to deliver us from the pains that we have merited for our sins, in saying, But deliver us from evil. Thus it may be seen how admirable is the order of this prayer. Its fourth advantage is, that it is very comprehensive, and b b 2 372 APPENDIX. nevertheless very short. Its briefness causes it not to fatigue any one, its fullness is so wonderful, that it contains in a few words all that could be asked of God ; for all that could be asked of him, or, at least, all that he ought to be prayed for, is precisely marked out in this prayer, or is to be reduced to one of those petitions which it contains, as it may be easy to under- stand from the division which we have made. In the fifth place, we ought to be assured that this prayer is particularly agreeable to God, since it is he himself who dictated it, who has commanded us to make use of it to pray to the om- nipotent Father, and that it is he also who has put at the begin- ning of it this word, so full of sweetness and of kindness, Our Father : for he never taught us to say, Our Lord, or Our God, but he made choice of an appellation of love rather than of a name of fear, to make us understand how tenderly he loves us ; that he would have us, sinners as we are, to call him Our Father, and to make us know with what confidence we ought to ap- proach him, and pray to him for that which he desires we should ask him. In fine, he would not order us to ask him for that which he would not be disposed to grant us, and he would not have us call him Our Father, if he would not adopt us, and treat us as his children. We ought, therefore, to bring with us to this prayer a very great application of the mind, and a fervent devotion : we ought unceasingly to meditate on those words from which we can draw wonderful fruits, because it contains within itself all the science of the spiritual life, all the sweetness, and all the fecundity of the gifts of God ; for which reason it would be of much more use to say it but once in our lives, with all the attention and all the fervour of which the soul is capable, than to recite it many times in the day carelessly, and with the mind distracted. But although each one of those whom the Spirit illumines, draws from this prayer a different subject of meditation, because all have not the same manner of praying ; nevertheless, all these meditations are to be reduced always to the same meaning. But in order to open a way to those who are less versed in APPENDIX. 373 meditation, and to teach them to make their prayers upon the sense and the spirit of this, we propose in a few words a model for prayer, in explaining at length each part of this holy text, in order that this way of praying may serve as a hint to an in- finite number of others, that the Holy Spirit does not fail to inspire into those who have disposed themselves to prayer by a great purity of heart. Let those then who wish to pray well? begin by shutting themselves up in a retired place, let them suspend as much as possible the action of all their senses, let them remove from them all those thoughts and phantoms which could distract the mind, let them concentrate all the powers of the soul, let them consider that they are truly in the presence of God, who is everywhere, and let them say with the heart alone, or with the lips and the heart together, the prayer of Our Father. THIRD EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Our Father. My God, I call thee my Father, thou who alone art blessed, the all-powerful, the King of kings, the Lord of lords ; thou who alone enjoyest immortality, and who dwellest in light inac- cessible, which no man has, and no man can ever see. I call thee Father, my God, because thou didst create all that we see, and all that we cannot behold : not that thou hadst need of any creature, but to share with them thy graces thou didst create them. Yes, in thyself thou art perfectly content, nothing be- yond thee can diminish or increase thy felicity. Father of the Universe, thou canst do all, thou hast made all from nothing, and all would become void, if for an instant thy powerful arm ceased to sustain all. Such is thy intelligence, that no crea- ture can for one moment conceal himself from thy sight ; all is manifest, all is open to thine eyes, and as good naturally seeks to communicate itself, thou art so perfect, that although all things are included in thee, the extent of thy goodness in- duces thee to come forth from thyself, so to speak, that thou mayest diffuse thyself upon all that thou hast formed, and to 374 APPENDIX. extend thy providence over the wants of all thy creatures. Thou art wholly in each particular creature, and in every one of its least parts. God immense, thou dost confound all our learning, and our sciences can never reach to thee. There is no other God besides thee, O Lord ; thou art God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, three persons, and yet thou art not three natures ; thou art not three Lords, nor three Gods, but one only Lord, one God alone ; one single nature, one sole Majesty. Who, then, am I, O Lord, whom from no- thing thou didst create ? Dust and ashes, who by my own power cannot change the colour of one of my hairs, who lives buried in ignorance, even as a corpse, whose crimes are as nu- merous as the hairs of my head. Who am I in thy sight, O Lord ? I am but a beggar and exceeding poor ; and thou, O God, doth great things, and unsearchable and wonderful things without number, which our eyes and our minds can never attain to. Who, then, am I, to dare to call thee Father, or to name my- self thy son ? No, I should not be so rash, if thou thyself hadst not commanded it. O my God, how great is thy love for men ! What prodigious goodness to be willing that wretched sinners should call thee Father. O how good a father is he who maketh his sun to shine upon the wicked as well as upon the good, and reigneth upon the just and the unjust. So much hast thou loved us, O my God, that thou didst send thy only Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. Pardon me, O Lord, if I dare to call thee Father • this is not rashness in me, it is thy infinite goodness which in- vites me to speak to thee in this manner ; and we approach to thee with a lively confidence, as thou hast commanded us to treat thee as a father, and so to begin all the prayers we should address to thee. In effect, who is the son who is not loved by his father ? What is there that a son obtains not from his father ? Reflecting then upon thine ineffable mercy, I flatter myself that I shall obtain all that I ask of thee, not merely for my own salvation, but even for that of my neighbour. For if thou commandest me to say, our Father, and not my Father, it APPENDIX. 375 is to teach me that I am to ask with confidence for myself, and for my brethren in J esus Christ. I prostrate myself then boldly before thee, O Lord, in the hope to obtain of thy goodness for myself, my parents, relatives, friends, and even for my very enemies, not ordinary favours, 0 my God, but thy most special and surpassing graces. Who art in Heaven. I know, O Lord, O God, our omnipotent Father, that it is thy nature to be everywhere ; that all things created are in thee, that out of thee all is nothing. I know that thou art pre- sent everywhere, and dost uphold all things, which without thy constant assistance would relapse into nothing ; thy eyes pene- trate everywhere, thou seest all, nothing can escape thy look. The Prophet says, but darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as the day, the darkness thereof and the light thereof are alike to thee. Wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well that thou alone doth all that is, and that thou dost absolutely govern all. Hence, O God, I re- quire to seek thee but in my heart. For where shall I go, to hide myself from thy mind, and where shall I fly to conceal my- self from thy sight ? If I ascend into heaven thou art there, if I descend into hell thou art present. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Now, then, my Lord and God, can I say thou art in heaven ? art thou not also upon the earth ? art thou not, O my God, everywhere ? But it is true, however, that quite in another way thou art in heaven, from on the earth ; because, in heaven the angels and blessed reside, and they are the hea- ven of heavens, which thou dost fill in a manner so inexpres- sible, that it seems as if thou canst not be elsewhere, for all creatures are as nothing, compared to the celestial hierarchies. Another heaven wherein thou dost also reign, are those holy souls so elevated above this earth, so enlightened, exempt from all corruption, whose hearts and conversation are unceasingly in heaven, and in whom, by grace, thou art ever present. Grace 376 APPENDIX. so precious and inestimable, that whoever would own the whole world without possessing it, could be said to be destitute of all. - This is then the heaven in which thou dost dwell, by thy good- ness and clemency, which are indescribable. Thou desirest then, O Lord my God, our Father, that we say thou art in heaven, to the end that this reflection may lessen the attachment that we have to the things of the earth, and that considering nothing therein worthy of our thoughts, since it does not possess thee, we may raise our whole mind and heart towards those hea- venly abodes where thou dost reign. Yes, my God, heaven is thy throne, and the earth but as thy footstool. We then confi- dently ask great things of thee, as thou art so great, so rich, so powerful a Father ; and since thou art master of those costly treasures, That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. Hallowed be thy name. f May it be known, loved, praised, honoured, respected, may it resound over all the earth, and likewise thy praises, O my God, because thou art the only living, all-powerful, all-wise, all-good, all-merciful, and dost alone deserve to be praised to endless ages. No one merits praise or glory before thee, no one has holiness. Behold even the moon doth not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight ; for thou art the true light, and the light which shineth in darkness. Thou art true goodness, and man cannot be justified compared with God, who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. We beseech of thee then, most good and holy Father, that thy name may be hallowed, acknowledged, celebrated, and honoured as it de- serves. May the name of thy divine majesty, goodness, wisdom, justice, and mercy, be feared and universally revered throughout the whole world. In the name of Jesus, let every knee bow in heaven, on the earth and in hell : and every tongue confess that thou art God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one only true, unchangeable, invisible, incomprehensible God, and that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God. Why is it, O God, that we praise creatures, and so exalt the names of some of them ? APPENDIX. 37 T Why esteem one another, we who are but dust and ashes ? Why, so to speak, do we make saints and gods of certain men ? And what have they done worthy to be presented in thy sight ? Thou hast made all that is in them. Why do we praise the anvil and the hammer more than the workman ? Mayest then thou alone be praised, and thy name be blessed and reverenced over all the earth, for thou alone art worthy of ad- miration for thy works, and for all that thou dost in favour of thy saints. Hallowed be thy name through the whole world, for all evils only happen because thy holy name is not acknow- ledged. "Who would not tremble in thy presence, if he re- flected upon thy divine majesty ? Who is there could compre- hend thy wisdom, that would not constantly adore it ? And who would not love thee entirely, if he knew the extent of thy good- ness ? At the instant we believe with a lively faith, that it is thy Son who was crucified for us, shall we not be eager to follow his example, and carry his cross ? Diffuse then, O Lord and holy Father, the knowledge and love of thy holy name on all nations, on so many people who perish for the want of knowing thee, that they may return to thee, love thee, glorify thee, and that thou mayest appear throughout the universe, and in every age, worthy of glory and of praise. Amen. Thy kingdom come. O God, shew us thy face, and we shall be saved : for he who beholds thee, can say he enjoys all; and eternal glory consists but in seeing and knowing thee, as the true and only God, from whom nothing is hidden. Yes, my Lord and my God, he who sees thee reigns with thee, and participates in the possession of thy kingdom, which he shall enjoy for all eternity, and beyond it, if it could so be. Thy kingdom come then for us, and may it soon arrive ; as we are but travellers in this valley of .weeping and afflictions, where on all sides the sorrows of death and the perils of hell surround and afflict us, in which we cannot avoid sin, where we incessantly suffer a multitude of miseries ; wherein, be we rich, poor, wise, or senseless, not one can be ever happy, be- cause in every thing the mind finds cause of sorrow and affliction. 378 APPENDIX. So, most holy Father, it is easy for us to know that thou hast not destined this miserable abode as our inheritance, but that elsewhere we must seek a kingdom. Since then we are but travellers, as were our fathers, we beg of thee, our real Father, to give us immediately possession of this kingdom thou hast prepared from the beginning of the world, that, being disen- gaged from the corruption of the age, we may reign with thee and thy saints through all eternity. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As none but the just can enter into thy kingdom, to the righteous a light is risen up in darkness : since none can be called just, but those who do what thou demandest, and none can do as thou requirest, if thou thyself dost not impart the grace and strength needful to perform it. In fine, as nobody can come to thee if thou dost not attract him, O Lord my God, be watchful to make me execute thy will ; give us thyself by thy grace as much ardour to fulfil it on earth, as the sight of thy glory inspires thy saints with it in heaven. Our Father, dispose of us as thy most submissive children, and grant that we may do all that thou shalt find most worthy of thee, as from thee alone thy faithful servants receive strength to serve thee well. 0 divine light ! fullness of all felicity ! purify so perfectly our hearts, that we may entirely banish from them all self-love, that we may reject all our own desires, that only thy will may be accomplished in us, and that our own may be totally annihilated ; 1 say totally, my God, to the end that "nothing ofjourselves may remain in us, and that in all things we be animated but by thy holy will. Purify in such a manner our understandings, that we may no longer have any attachment to terrestrial goods ; but chastise our bodies, and bring them into subjection, that so we may renounce all the glory of this world. May we be persuaded that from thee alone proceeds all that happens ; that of ourselves we are nothing, can do and know nothing. Grant that in our own eyes we may seem vile and contemptible, and, in fine, that we shall love the Lord our God with our whole heart, and with our whole soul and with our whole strength, and our neighbour APPENDIX. 379 as ourselves ; for this is the only way that can lead us to the prac- tice of thy commandments, and by which alone we can hope to accomplish thy holy will : and thou hast said, On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. Give us this day our daily bread. For those incapable of all good without thy aid, it is writ- ten, I was 'with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling, that your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. To obtain then from thee thy grace, and the gift of thy love, that both may be fortified and preserved in our hearts ; give us this day, O my God, the nutri- tious bread of thy word and of thy sacraments, let our eyes be opened, that we may penetrate the writings of the prophets and evangelists, for thou alone hast the key to the Scriptures. If thou dost close them to us, no one can open them ; and if thou openest them, nobody can prevent us from comprehending them. Enliven our devotion, that so we may with love and humility approach to this excellent sacrament of the body, and of the precious blood of thy only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant that by it we may advance our salvation, and that each day progressing in virtue by this divine food, we may attain to the kingdom of God. Father, supremely good, prepare thvself for us these holy aliments, dispose our taste, our palate, and our tongue to receive them, lest strength and courage fail us, for the way we have yet to make ; for we are very weak, and might die were we to be one day without this salutary support. ( rive this day our spiritual bread, our super-substantial bread. Give us also, in order to complete this fleeting life, material bread, and all that is needful to satisfy our bodily wants. "We ask neither honours nor worldly splendour, but solely neces- saries for the present life, that we may entirely devote ourselves to thy service. O Lord our God, we fear lest our hearts, puffed up with prosperity and riches, may forget thee, and lead us into pride, but we likewise dread that indigence may too much engage our cares for the time to come. Give us not over, then, to riches nor to extreme poverty, but only grant us what is necessary for subsistence. Give us this day the bread thou 380 APPENDIX. hast promised to give us each day, in proportion to our daily- labour ; for we are unwilling to receive thy bread in idleness and without toil, since it is written, " The slothful shall not taste of my bread : he who labours not, must not eat thou art content, and all shall be well with thee, as by the work of thy hands thou dost subsist. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us. O Lord, in a variety of ways are we indebted to thee. Who could number the sins which we have committed, and who would tolerate as thou dost those we daily fall into ? Our best deeds are corrupt, and our evil thoughts innumerable. What durst I say of our words, since the most perfect can with diffi- culty refrain their unruly tongues ? As to our works, never do we perform a good one ; our faults are without number or measure ; and as soon as we closely examine our best actions, we discover that they rather destroy and spoil thy works, than raise up any thing good. The multitude of our omissions can only be compared to the sands of the sea. With what face, O Lord, dare we then present ourselves to thee, unless in the con- fidence given us by the death of thy dear Son ? But he hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. How immense is thy goodness, O my God ! It is incomparably greater than either the number or enormity of our sins. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand it ? But we are filled with confidence, because we have wherewith to satisfy thy justice, through thy Son Jesus Christ, who is the victim immolated for the remission of our sins. Great God, our preserver, cast then thine eyes upon us, but turn them instantly on the dying face of thy Christ, and out of love for him forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us, for we from our heart forgive them ; and it is right, Holy Father, that when thou dost pardon the crimes we have committed against thee, we forgive the slight APPENDIX. 381 faults our neighbour can be guilty of towards us. Forgive us, then, as we forgive them. And we protest that so sincerely do we pardon them, that not only we shall never do, or desire evil to them, but thou shalt even see us ready to serve them, and to do good to them when the occasion of it shall offer. Thus thou, O Lord, forgive us ; take not vengeance for our sins. May thy mercy forget them, and even totally blot them out. Grant to us, O my God, all the good thou knowest us to need. May we receive from thy hand, as thou hast promised in the Holy Scriptures, 'double the number of graces that we have committed sins. And lead us not into temptation. As it is written, he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved, we must conclude that he will not be saved who does not persevere. In the prophet Ezechiel thou hast said : More- over, if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity, I will lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done shall not be remembered ; for he is fallen headlong into error and disobedience. Ah ! my Lord and my God, who can persevere to the end without thy aid ? All is for us a continual snare ; we walk but in darkness, we have enemies who rest neither by day nor by night. We throw ourselves at thy feet ; Father, full of bounty, complete the work thou hast commenced. May thy mercy never for one instant forsake us, so that we may enter into the house of the Lord, there to dwell for all eternity. Turn not away thy face from us. Deal not with us according to our iniquities. O God, our Saviour, assist us, finish the work of our salvation, for which thou hast already performed so many miracles ; grant us all the patience we require, that we may be always able to subdue ourselves. If thou dost forgive us our sins, pardon them, so that we may be no longer at the mercy of temptation, which we so little understand how to resist. Never allow us to yield to them, nor by basely consenting to them ever again give over our souls to death. 382 APPENDIX. But deliver us from evil. Though we well know that it is necessary to suffer much for thy holy name, and that to glorify it we ought to be heartily willing to be crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son ; we nevertheless beg of thee to deliver us from the evils and afflic- tions we have each day to suffer, so that we may not offend thee by murmuring. For without thy grace who could be exempt from sin in the midst of so many trials ? Was it not necessary that thou shouldst enable the martyrs to conquer their tyrants ? Do they not now in heaven each day say with David : If it had not been that the Lord was with us, let Israel now say, If it had not been that the Lord was with us, when their fury was en- kindled against us, perhaps the waters had swallowed us up. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. My Lord and my God, deliver us from evil, that is to say, from all misfortunes, troubles, and afflictions ; not that we ask to meet with none, but that they may not draw us into sin. Thus, bearing our cross, we shall follow Jesus ; for we have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin. The Prophet has said, He shall drink of the torrent in the way : therefore shall he lift up the head. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thou hast given him to us, O my God, that by his mediation thou mayest enable us to obtain all from thee ; it is through him thou hast created all. He that descended, is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Hear us then, O sacred Father, and since by him thou wert pleased to make us to thine own image and likeness, deign also, through the infinite merits of all fc that he has suffered for us, to regenerate us in grace, and to grant us this felicity so pure, which cannot have an end, nor change, nor alter, and that thou dost reserve for those whose names are inscribed in the Book of Life. Amen. Yes, Lord, may what we ask of thee be granted to us, and APPENDIX. 383 may "we not have addressed to thee the prayer of thy dear Son, without profit to us : T\Tio livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Ghost, one only God, for ever and ever. Amen. FOURTH EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Our Father. When a perfect man, enlightened from above, applies himself to consider this word, he feels himself lifted up with so much spirituality, he no longer finds relish but in the contemplation of God's goodness, who, from an excess of love for men, has made them his children, not only by creation, but besides by an effec- tive adoption. He considers the Son of God true God. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, bred under the law ; that he might redeem them who were brought up in the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. I will declare thy name to my brethren ; and speaking to Mary Magdalen : But go to my brethren, and say to them, I .ascend to my Father, and to your Father, to my God and your God : hence the Apostle says : For whom he foreknew, he also pre- destinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. AVhat can be more sweet to think on ? For this reason the righteous, in reflecting on this prerogative, are transported with an incon- ceivable love, whilst in these elevations they consider themselves by grace the brethren of the Son of God, Son of the Omnipotent Father, by his mercy, and the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, because he endows their hearts with his most precious gifts. The soul, besides this inexpressible pleasure, enjoys a still more sensible sweetness in these words, Our Father, considering that not only are all those who are on earth her brothers, but also all the blessed spirits who are in heaven ; whence she compre- 384 APPENDIX. hends God's goodness to us, who by the effect of his grace, and the merits of the passion of his Son, has given to man, vile and abject as he is, the title of brother of the angels, and of the highest spirits. But the joy of this soul ascends still higher, when she adds these words : Who art in heaven. It is then this soul perceives how good God is, to show him- self so freely, and with so much sweetness to the blessed in heaven, and so inexpressibly to replenish them with his glory, as to be but one and the same with him, and that they all form but one being and one heart in the Lord. She also understands how admirable he is in the manner in which he communicates himself by grace to the just who are still in the prison of this mortal body ; for he is to them so mild and meek, that at times they are filled with astonishment, and comprehend not that dust and ashes ought to speak with confidence to him whose sublimity is unbounded, and whom all the celestial powers adore with trembling. Thus the just man, in the midst of so much glorious brightness, stops not at any of the wonders we have just ex- plained, but in a manner not to be described he at one glance includes them all interiorly, and feels that he is penetrated with such sensible delight, that all earthly pleasure that is, or can be enjoyed, he counts as nothing. This joy is succeeded by a copiousness of the greatest graces with which in an instant he is filled, so that he advances still further in those degrees of which we have spoken, if he thus begins his course by the most sublime to descend from thence to the inferior, than if by the inferior he commenced ascending to the more sublime. But to the end that this may be better understood, we shall add some- thing in order upon each one of those degrees. Hallowed be thy name. The name is a word selected and designed to signify a thing. Hence the name comprises two things — the word that is uttered, and the thing signified by this word. And though, clearly speak- ing, a name can only be explained by a word, nevertheless we hesitate not to say that the name may be in the mind, on account APPENDIX. of a certain notion or interior action of the judgment, which, although we may not say any word, represents the thing to us most perfectly, so that this idea may be called a name formed in the mind, because it has the full force of a word pronounced. For example, when heaven is conceived by the mind, without, however, saying the word heaven, this interior action of the understanding represents heaven as well to us as could the word heaven do, if it had been uttered. In like manner, the soul which rises to God by contemplation, being illumined by a supernatural light, forms within itself the name of God, in as great perfection as the ray which gives it light is the more piercing. Whence it happens that the saints in contemplation discover at times by one single look such miraculous and sublime things that they never could understand from other men, unless they had been explained to them with uncommon diligence. Thus when the righteous man, who suddenly is raised to the seventh degree, enters upon the consideration of divine things, he finds himself filled with supernatural light, and in a moment this first demand is perfectly accomplished in him, and this idea, or interior word, that we style a name, formed in the understanding, represents immediately to him the majesty of God, his wisdom, goodness, and an infinitude of other wonders that man can never express. This knowledge loads him with delights not to be imagined, and he then instantly hallows the name of God, which means he confesses how great is this name, how adorable and elevated above every other name ; for at the same time that he considers the excellence of the divine nature, he perceives that all the imaginary grandeur with which he was dazzled is but as nothing. When he casts his eyes on the infinite power of God, he is forced to own his weakness, frailty, and how incapable he is of good. If he regards the wonderful wisdom of the Lord, he sees for his own part that he is plunged in an abyss of darkness. "While enjoying so much the sensible effects of the goodness of his Saviour, he counts and weighs Iris own crimes, and blushes to behold himself laden with so much iniquity. So that he does not elevate himself, or VOL. II. cc A 1'F ENDIX. glory in any tiling, but lie glorifies God, and returns thanks to him for all, chaunting with the Blessed Virgin, My soul doth magnify the Lord. Thy kingdom come. The righteous soul has no sooner come to hallow the name of God, during this elevation, than immediately the second demand is found to have effect in him, for he begins to taste how sweet is the Lord, and becomes partaker of celestial glory. From this it is that perfect men make as little account of all worldly gran- deur, as if they in this life commenced to enjoy eternal blessings, which caused one of them to exclaim for all : I have desired understanding, and it was given me, and I called upon God and the spirit of wisdom came upon me, and I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her. But as all that is imperfect desires to be improved, and that the saints can never be perfectly happy on earth, the desire of supreme felicity increases in them according as they receive some foretaste, for it is written. They that eat me shall yet hunger, and they that drink me shall yet thirst. And al- though this petition be in some measure accomplished in them here below, the enjoyment, however, of this first happiness only increases their wish to arrive at the next, which is really the perfect kingdom of God, and thus it is they never cease to say to him : Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. This participation of eternal beatitude advances the just to the third request, that is to say, to the soundness of desires, which consists in a perfect conformity of our will with that of God ; and this is the infallible consequence of bliss. The nearer we come to it, the more is our will united to that of the supreme good, and the righteous clearly perceive in their contemplations, that the more their hearts are united to the will of God, the greater is the facility they acquire in gaining the kingdom of heaven. As they ardently wish to attain their end, they labour with all their strength to resign themselves perfectly in all things to this holy will, and never to swerve from it, so that it APPENDIX. 387 may be fulfilled in them, although they be as yet upon the earth, in the same way as it is accomplished in those who arc already in heaven. This celestial light with which they are replenished keeps the flesh in such subjection to the spirit, that it is no longer liable to rebel. Therefore they complete this petition in another sense, which is that the will of God be done on earth, that is in the flesh, as it is in heaven, that is in their spirit ; for thus spoke the prophet, " My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." Give us this day our daily bread. This fourth petition also necessarily follows from the pre- ceding ones ; for when the just have reached so high in con- templation, they no longer value earthly things. They lead a simple life ; are satisfied with a little, even with what is abject ; and the further they advance in meditation, the more they daily seek simplicity and lowliness. They only find gratification in heavenly food, that is to say in the Holy Scriptures, in the divine office, and in the use of the sacraments. They every day par- take of these holy gifts, nevertheless they are not satisfied by them. They fly from men, contemn the magnificence of cities, they run only after the sweet pastures of eternal life, crying unceasingly to their God, Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our tresjjasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. They also obtain the whole effect of the fifth petition, because in avoiding the occasions of sin, which means self-interest, and the unprofitable disquiets of the world, in sustaining themselves every day by pious reading and the divine sacraments, shun- ning the company of men, and chiefly of sinners, conversing but with angels and blessed spirits, they continually purify themselves more and more from those weaknesses into which human frailty cannot avoid falling, and never, or very seldom, do they let themselves commit serious faults. The more perfect they become, the better are they transformed into the likeness of God, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and who raineth upon the just and the unjust. sss APPENDIX. Hence it is no trouble to them to love their enemies, to do good to them that hate them, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate them. Therefore they obtain more easily from God the full pardon that they ask, and re-enter, so to speak, into a species of baptismal innocence. And lead us not into temptation. The sixth petition is very quickly granted them after the fifth, because a soul free from sin easily obtains lights ; these lights inflame her with the fire of love, and this burning ardour strengthens and confirms her in good resolutions. For a soul thoroughly purified from all sin, and detached from all earthly affections, receives from God by his grace most perfect know- ledge, and when thus highly favoured, she in humility reflects on God's goodness, she feels herself inflamed with this divine love, because the more virtue lets itself be understood, the love of it becomes more intense ; and the stronger this affection is, the more eager is the heart in the pursuit of the good that it loves. Thus the more the soul burns with these divine flames, the more zeal does it feel for the performance of good, and the greater is the labour of the devil to turn her away from God. Which in- stantly causes it to obtain its request, that it may not yield to temptation, for it is written : " The wicked man fleeth when no man pur sue th ; but the just, bold as a lion, shall be without dread." But deliver us from evil. At length they likewise find themselves in possession of this last petition, and are so much out of the power of the devil, that this wily enemy dares not to approach, seeing they allow him no hold on them. They, moreover, have themselves the power to chase away the demons, and to crush serpents beneath their feet, as the Prophet says : Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon. They shall be also freed from present dangers, not but that some may occur, but because nothing is capable of moving them, according to what is written, " Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad : " hence the AVPKNDIX. 389 Apostles went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whatever is the least perfect, owes even that little to what is most excellent ; and as we see in natural things that Causes are more perfect than effects, and that from the cause it is that the effect receives all its perfection, thus our Lord Jesus Christ, being the most perfect and the first of all, it is from him, as from the head, that all perfection and holiness descend upon some men, as upon his members ; and all the merits of men would be very defective, if they did not receive their worth and perfection from the merit of the Passion of Jesus Christ. It is, then, through him alone that the saints and the just have ob- tained the effect of the petitions of which we have now spoken, and it will be only by him that those shall obtain it who are to come after us. It is even a very great cause of gladness to men, that they can gain nothing but through this channel, and it is this way of obtaining it that constitutes the fulness of their glory, which caused the Apostle to cry out : "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Amen. All that we have just said is true ; we believe it firmly. God grant that in us all these things may be fulfilled. They shall be accomplished in us, if with a contrite and humble heart we shall persevere in demanding them from the Lord, who has himself taught us to ask them from him ; our Saviour, Jesus, having said, " Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." To which, may we be guided by thy grace, O ! God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, God in Trinity, God in Unity, worthy to be glorified for ever and ever. Amen. 300 APPENDIX. No. VI. CANZONA DE RUINA MUNDI, COMPOSTA DA JERONIMO SAVONA- ROLA DE FERRARA, l'ANNO M-CCCCLXXII. I. Se non che pure e vero, e cosi credo, Bettor del mondo, clie infinita sia Tua providenza ; ne gianimai potria Creder contra, perche ab experto vedo, Talor saria via piu clie neve fredo, Vedendo sottosopra tutto il mondo, Ed esser spenta al fondo Ogni virtude, ed ogni bel costume ; Non trovo un vivo lume Ne pur chi de' suoi vizii si vergogui. Chi ti nega, chi dice che tu sogni. ii. Ma credo che ritardi. O Ee superno, A maggior pena de' suoi gran difetti ; O pur ch'e forse appresso, e tu l'aspetti, L'estremo di che fur tremar lo'nferno : A noi virtu non tornera in eterno. Quivi si stima chi e di Dio nimico ; Catone va mendico ; Nelle man di pirata e giunto il scetro ; A terra va San Pietro ; Quivi lusuria ed ogni preda abbonda, Che non so come '1 Ciel non si confonda. in. Non vedi tu il satiro Mattone Quant' e superbo, ed e di vizii unfiume ? Che di gran sdegno il cor mi si consume. Deli, mira quel Cinedo e quel Lenone Di purpura vestito, un istrione Che'l volgo segue, e il cieco mondo adora ! Non tu vien sdegno ancora, Che quello lussurioso porco gode, E le tue alte lode Usurpa, assentatori e parasiti, E i tuoi di terra in terra son sbanditi ? APPENDIX. IV. Fclici ormai chi vive di rapina, E che dell' altrui sangue piu si pascc ; Chi vedoe spoglia, e i suoi pupilli in fasce j E chi di povri corri alia ruina ! Qull' anima e gentile e peregrina, Che per fraude o per forza fa piu acquisto, Chi sprezza il Ciel con Cristo, E sempre pensa altrui caceiari al fondo ; Colui onora il mondo, Che pien di latrocinii ha libri e carte, E chi d'ogni mal far sa meglio l'arte. v. La terra e si oppressa da ogni vizio, Che mai da se non levera la somo : A terra se ne va il suo capo, Eoma, Per mai piu non tornar al grande offizio. O quanta doglia hai, Bruto, e tu Fabrizio, Se intesa hai tu quest' altra gran ruina ! Non Casta Catilina, Non Silla, Mario, Cesare 0 Nerone : Ma quivi, nonrini e done, Ogni noni si sforza dargli qualche guasto Passato e il tempo pio e il tempo casto. TI. Virtu mendica, mai non alzi l'ale, Grida '1 volga e la cieca gente ria ! Lussuria si chiama or filosofia ; Al far ben ogni uom volta pur le spaie , Non e chi vada onnai per dritto cale : Talche '1 valor si agghiaccia che mi avanza, Se non che una speranza, Pur all tutto non lascia far partita, Ch' io so che in l'altra vita Ben si vedra qual alma fu gentile, E chi alzo l'ale a piu leggiadro stile. Canzon, fa' che sia accorta, Che a purpureo color tu non ti appoggia ; Fuggi palazzo e logia, E fa' che tua ragion a pochi dica, Che a tutto 1' mondo tu sarai nemica. 392 APPENDIX. CAN ZONA DE ItTTINA EGCLESIJE COMPOSTA CIRCA l' ANNO M.CCCC.LXXV. I. Vergine 1 casta, ben ch' indegno figlio, Pur son de' membri dell' Eterno sposo ; Pero mi duole assai che 1' amoroso Antico tempo, 2 e il dolce suo periglio 3 Ormai sia preso ; e non par piu consiglio Clic ristorar il possa, o forse ardisca ; L'ardente voce prisca 4 Piu non coaosce Greci ne Romani, E '1 Lume de' primani E ritornato in Ciel colla Regina, 5 Ed a noi, lasso me, piu non s' inchina. II. TJ' son, oime, le gemme 6 e i fin diamanti ? 7 U' son le lampe ardenti 8 e i bei zaffiri ? 9 O gran pietade, 10 o lacrime e sospiri! U' son le bianche stole 11 e i dolci canti ? l2 IT' son ormai le corna 13 e gli occlii santi, 14 Le zone d' oro, 15 e i candidi destrieri, 16 Tre qnattro e cinque altieri, 17 1 Parla alia Cliiesa vergine : perche non fu mai in lei corrotta la fede. 2 E il tempo del fervore de' Santi passati. 3 Quando erano perseguitati i Santi, e che allegramente andavano al martirio. 4 De' Predicatori passati. 5 Con la Cliiesa trionfantc. 6 Li Santi, pieni di virtute. 7 Li giusti uomini, fortissimi in tutte le tribolazioni. 8 I dottori, caritativi. 9 Li contemplativi. 10 Perche non si trovano al tempo nostro. 11 Le Vergini santc. 12 De' santi Cherici. 13 Li Vescovi mitrati del nuovo e del vecchio Testamente, col quale ven- tilavano tutto il mondo, vincendo li nimici, per esser ripieni delli doni dello Spirito santo. 14 Santi Profeti. 15 Li continenti e casti. 16 Li Predicatori, intrepidi in guerra. 17 Li dodici Apostoli, li quali predicorno la fede della Trinita, nellc quattro parti del mondo, alii uomini carnali, che si dilcttavano de' cinque sentimenti corporali. APPENDIX. 393 E le grandi ale, 18 1' aquila 19 c 1 lcone ? 20 A pena che il carbone 21 8 Si trova caldo fra lo ignito incliiostro. Mostratemi, vi priego, il pianto vostro ! in. Cosi dis' io alia pia Madre antica, 22 Pel gran disio che ho di pianger sempre ; E lei, 23 che par che gli occhi mai non tempre, Col viso chino 24 e 1' anima pudica, La man mi porse, ed alia sua mendica Spelonca 25 mi condusse lacrimando, E quivi disse : Quando Io vidi a Eoma entrar quella superba, 26 Che va tra' fiori 27 e 1' erba Securamente, 28 mi ristrinsi alquanto Ove io conduco la mia vita in pianto. IV. Poi : Mira (disse), figlio, crudeltade ! E qui scoperse 29 da far pianger sassi. Iacinti 30 ivi non vidi, o crisopassi, 31 Ne pur un vetro mondo. 32 O che pietade ! O Silla, o Mario, u' son le vostre spade ? Perche non surge, dissi, Neron felo ? La terra, l'aria el Cielo 18 La contemplazione del nuovo e vecchio Testamonto, o vero la potesta spirituale e temporale. 19 II Clero contemplativo. 20 L'imperio Cristianissimo. 21 Li rcligiosi, che sono nel foco delle cose sante, e son mancati di cari- tade, c denigrati fralle Scritture sante ed ignite, e son fatti tepidi. 22 La Chiesa. 23 La Chiesa vera, cioe.la congregazione de' veri Christiani, li quali pian- gono sempre li peccati delli altri, e si dogliono di tanta ruina. 24 Per vergogna di tanti peccati. 25 Qucsto dice perche li buoni sono pochi e poveri, e stanno secreti e ])iangono, perche non possono ne parlare ne comparire. 26 L' ambizione delle dignita ecclesiastiche. 27 Tra le dilettazioni carnali. 26 Perche non si crcde che Dio ne faccia vendetta. 29 Infiniti gravi peccati, li quali si fanno in sccrcto. 30 Uomini di contemplazione celeste, e conversazione angelica. 31 Uomini di viva fede. 32 L T n puro core. 39± APPENDIX. Vendetta grida del suo sanguc giusto ; E '1 latte 33 io vedo adusto, E lacerato 34 in mille parti il petto Fuor dell' umil suo primo santo aspetto/ Povera 36 va con le membra 37 scoperte, I capei 38 sparsi, e rotte le grillande ; 39 Ape 40 non trova, ma alle antiehe ghiande 41 Avidamente, lasso, si converte. Scorpio 42 la punge, e 1' angue 43 la perverte E le locuste 44 le radici 45 afferra : E cosi va per terra La Coronata 46 e le sue sante mani, 47 Bestemmiata da cani, 48 Che van truffando e sabati e calende ; 49 Altri non pon', 50 ed altri non intende. 51 VI. Piangete or quattro sei 52 Canute crine, Quattro animali, 53 e sette tube sante ; 51 Or piangi stabulario 55 mio zelante ; 33 La predicazione del nuovo e vecchio Testamento, da pascer li imperfetti. 34 Perche hanno ogni cosa pieno di filosofia e logica, e di diversa opinione. 35 Perche li dottori nuovi sono divisi in mille diverse opinioni ; perche sono picni di superbia oggidi li predicatori e dottori della Chiesa. 36 Di virtute. 37 Perche non si vergognano piu de' peccati, etiam li clierici. 33 La cogitazioni, vaghe per le cose del mondo. 39 Le virtu, che tengono il core raccolto. 40 Dolcezze di Cristo nelle Scritture. 41 Alii poeti, rettorici e filosofi. 42 Eretici occulti. 43 II demonio. 44 Li falsi fratelli, li quali mostrano di volare in alto, e di essere Cristiani, e pur volano al basso e stanno in terra. 45 ]Non lasciano crescere l'erbe, id est, li buoni ; anzi cercano di sviarli, o rodere la radice della grazia : e questo fanno ancora alii proprii figliuoli. 45 La Chiesa. 47 Le sante opere. 43 Dalli infedeli, li quali dicono : Se fussi vera la Fede cristiana, non viverebbono a questo modo li Cristani. 49 Perclie le feste son piu oggi del diavolo che di Dio. 50 Aiutarla, 51 In che modo e in qual tempo Dio 1' abbia a aiutare. 62 Ventiquattro vecchi scritti nello Apocalissi, che significano dodici Patriarchi e dodici Apostoli. 53 Quattro Evangclisti. 54 Tutti li santi Predicatori. 55 Paolo, apostolo, con tutti li suoi simili ferventi. APPENDIX. 395 Piangete sanguigne acquc 56 peregrine, O pietrc 57 vive altissime e divine ! Or pianga ogni piancta 58 ed ogni stella, Le giunta e la novella Lassu, dove b ciascun di voi felice ! Ben credo, se dir lice, 59 Che avete doglia assai di tanto guasto : Prostrato e il tempio 60 e lo edifizio casto. VII. Di poi (Madonna) dissi : se vi piace _"he con voi pianga, F alma si contenta. Qual forza vi ha cosi del regno spenta ? Qual arrogante rompe vostra pace ? Kispose sospirando : Una fallace Superba meretrice, 61 Babilona. 62 Ed io : Deh, per Dio, Dona, 63 Se romper 64 si potria quelle grandi ale ? E lei : Lingua mortal e Non puo, 65 ne lice, non che mover Y arme. Tu piangi e taci : e questo meglio parme. Canzone io non fo stima 66 Di scorpio punto : non pigliare impresa, 67 Se non sarai intesa. Forse e meglio : sta' pur contenta al quia, Da poi che fa mestier che cosi sia. 56 Li Martiri. 57 Tutti li Angell del Uielo, c tutti i Santi, che sono lo edificio dell a Citta celeste. 58 Dimostrino qualche segno di dolore. 59 Questo dice, perche non e, ne pu6 ess ere tristizia in Paradiso : ma qualche doloroso affetto fanno alcuna volta a provocare li uomini a dolersi. 60 Le menti sante sono prostrate nclli vizii, e pochi buoni si trova 61 Cioc, la Superbia, la Lussuria e 1' Avarizia. 62 Bahilonia, come Lavina per Lavinia. 63 Per donna. 61 Hoc est, rompere la potesta spirituale, che li cattivi non 1' avessino nclle mani. 65 Di questo parlarne. 6,5 Cioe, non mi euro che di me sia detto male, c che io sia punto. 61 Cioe, non disputare, quasi volcndoti defendere, quando e detto dallj ciechi che non sono vere queste cose, e che non verranno tribolazioni ; ma sta' in pace. — Note dell Edit ore A. dc Rians. 396 APPENDIX. LAUDA DA CROCIFISSO : DA CANTARSI, CON MUSICA A FRE VOCI. I. Jesu, sommo conforto, Tu sei tutto il rai araore E'l mio beato porto, E santo Eedentore. O gran bonta, Dolce pieta, Felice quel che te co unito sta ! n. Deh, quante volti offeso T'ha l'alma e'l cor meschino, E tu sei in croce steso Per salva me, rapino ! O gran bonta, etc. in. Jesu, qual forza ha spinto La immensa tua bontade ? Deli, qual amor t'ha vinto Patir tal crudeltade ? O gran bonta, etc . IT. A te fui sempre ingrato, E mai non fui fervente ; E tu, perme, plagato Sei stato crudelmente ! O gran bonta, etc. v. Jesu, tu hai il mondo Soavemente pieno D'amor dolce e giocondo, Che fa ogni cor sereno. O gran bonta, e(c. APPENDIX. VI. J esu, fanimi morire Del tuo amor vivace ; Jesu, fammi languire Di te, Signor verace ! O gran bonta, etc. VII. Jesu, fass'io confitto Sopra quel duro ligno, Dove ti vedo afflitto, J esu, Signor begnino ! O gran bonta, etc. VIII. O croce, fammi loco, E le mie membra prendi, Che del tuo dolce foco II cor e l'alma accendi ! O gran bonta, etc. IX. Infiamma il mio cor tanto Dell' amor tuo divino, Ch'io arda tutta quanto, Che paia un serafino ! O gran bonta, etc. x. La croce e'l Crocifisso Sia nel mio cor scolpito, Ed io sia sempre affisso In gloria ov 'egli e ito ! O gran bonta, etc. LAUD A JESU ALL' ANIMA. Alma, che si gentile Sei, per amor del Padre mio, creata, E da me tanto amata, Eisguarda il petto mio col cor umile ! APPENDIX. I. L'amor ti vinca, e la pieta ti mova ! Deli, lascia il tuo peccato, Da poi che senza me pace noil trova ! Spirito inio beato, Bevi dal mio costato II dolce prezzo dell' eterna vita ! La carita t' in vita All' alto Ciel di basso loco e vile. ii. Spegni '1 proprio amor nella mia luce, Che rompa ogni tua pace ! La mia dolcezza 1' anima conduce A quell' amor vivace, II qual la fa capace Delia mia gloria su' beati cori. Se per mio amor tu mori, Yivrai a me nel mio celeste ovile. in. All' amor mio fatica non e grave, E la penosa morte E piu che '1 favo, e piu che 1 mel soave Desta cotanto e forte : Beata la tua sorte, Se me seguendo prendi la tua croce, E la mia dolce voce Sempre risuoni nel tuo cor vivace. IV. La mio bonta, che in terra non s'intende, Ti chiama dolcemente : Per te ognora il sangue mio si spende ; Deh, torna a me dolente ! Guai a chi non si pente, E a chi con viva fede a me non guarda ! Dunque non esser tarda, Che '1 tempo vola, anima mia gentile ! APPENDIX. 390 LAUDA A, S. MAP I A MADDALENA SCRITTA DAL SAVONAROLA NEL PROPRIO BREVIARIO. I. Jesu, splendor del Cicl e vero lumc, Amor felice e santo, D' ogni soave pianto, E d' ogni grazia fonte e largo fiame, Infiamma il mio cor tanto Ch' io pianga ai dolci piedi con Maria, E sernpre in te sospeso e fisso stia ! ii. La tua clemente, dolce e bella mano, Candida e pura luce, La qual Maria conduce A lacrimar il tempo speso invano, Con gran fulgor riluce, E forte scalda il lacrimoso petto Del tuo benigno, grato e santo aspetto. in. O vivo sguardo, o penetrabil verbo, Che fai Maria languire, E da terra salire, E rivoltare in gaudio il pianto acerbo, Fammi di amor morire, E por me stesso al mondo in tanto oblio Che, morto, in me tu viva, J esu mio ! IV. Apri, Signor, il tuo celeste fonte, Quella celeste vena, Che Maria Maddalena Di basso loco trasse all' alto monte, Con l'anima serena, Piena di raggi e di splendor divino, Pieta, Signor, di questo peregrino ! v. Amar vorrei, e vo cercando amore, Ma ritto non mi rego ; Jesu, dunque ti prego, Illustra questo ottenebrato core, Per sue colpe, io nol nego 400 APPENDIX. Maria me invita, e la tua gran clolcezza ; lionipi, Signor, ti prego, ogni durezza ! VI. Qual cor spietato in te non s' innamora, Se penetrasse il Cielo ? Deh, levami quel velo, Clie mi fa lento e mi ritarda ognora ! Tu sei, Jesu, pur quello Che, per salvare il mondo, in croce pencle : Maria di questo testimonio rende. VII. Dunque, Signor, pieta di tante offese Ti chieggio umiliato, Sperando esser beato Se del tuo lume io sento flam me accese : Maggior del mio peccato E la tua gran pieta, clie l'amorosa Maria tua dolce fece e santa sposa, Canzonetta, ho speranza Che Maddalena a Cristo ti presenti, S' e in Paradiso, e intenda i tuoi lamenti, LAUDA DI S. MARIA MADDALENA I PRO ITIRANTIBUS. I. In su quell' aspro monte, Dove contempla ardente Maddalena, Andiam con dolci canti, E con la mente santa e ben serena, Cantando gloria a Dio, Che tutta 1' ha della sua grazia piena. ii. Con li celesti cori La dolce sposa in alto monte mena : Mirate, peccatori, Quella, la qual fu gia tanto terrena, Maddalena vi mostra Di somma e gran pietade un' altra vena ! APPENDIX. 401 III. In nielodie celeste Fu tutta rimutata la sua pena, E del superno Sposo E fatta dolce amante e sposa amena. In aria sta sospesa In quella pulcra faccia Nazzarena. IV. E tutto 1 suo cor arde, E nelT amor di Dio non si raffrena. Jesu, suo dolce sposo, In alto la conduce e la rimena Nelle delizie sante, Ed ogni giorno seco Jesu cena. v. O amorosa piaga, Che con J esu ti serra e lega e infrena, Abbraccia J esu santo, Che tanto la tua mente rasserena ! Aniore, A more, Amore, Grida tuo core, e canta ogni tua vena ! VI. J esu, tu V hai ferita ; Tu 1' hai conversa, e del tuo amor ripiena : In alto ardendo vola, Senza dimora e senza nulla pena ; In su quell' aspro monte, Dove contempla Maria Maddalena. E liberata d' ogni pena In alto ardendo vola Come sei ali avessi ad ogni pena. L'amor die la trasporta Fiamm' e del Ciel che 1' ha ripiena : E 1 viso luce ed arde Piu ch' al sol la patena. Quel ben fruisce e gode Qual non intese Atena. Jesu, infiammami tanto Quanto infiammasti Maddalena. VOL. II. D D 402 APPENDIX. Fin qui il codice niagliabechi auo No. 90, clas. XXXV Gli undici versi clie segnono sono tratti da uno scorettissimo testo, che fu gia di propriety del prof. Gius. Sarchiani, e che si conserva oggi in questa I. e E. Biblioteca Palatina. ORATIO DEVOTISSIMA AD VIRGINEM MARIAM. Funde preces in Coelis, Maria, Stella maris ! i. Remove eito peccata, Unde vota sint grata, Omniumque prolata, Maria, Stella maris. ii. A Deo benedicta, Ab Angelo iam dicta, Et in Coelis descripta, Maria, Stella maris. in. Alta unda Coelorum, Et decus Angelorum, Ancli preces peccatorum, Maria, Stella maris. IT. Tu, tota es formosa, Tu, tota speciosa, Tu, tota gratiosa, Maria, Stella maris. v. Tu es norma justorum, Tutela peccatorum, Laetitia Sanctorum, Maria, Stella maris. APPENDIX. 403 VI. Eia glorificata, Et cum Christo locata, Sis nostra advocata, Maria, Stella maris. VII. Ut a morbo pestilentiae, Et ab omni pravo scelere Nos defendat semper et hodie, Maria, Stella maris. Amen. LATJDE AD INFIAMMARE IL CORE AL DIVINO AMORE. Che fai qui, cuore ? Che fai qui, cuore ? Vanne al divino amore ! L'Amore, Gesu Christo, Che dolcemente infiamma, Fa lieto ogni cuor tristo, Che lui sospira e brama. Chi puramente l'ama, Si spoglia d'ogni errore. Che fai, &c. Se tu ti senti afflito, Questo e dolce conforto, Questo e quel dolce lito, E quel fclice porto, E qual sempre ti esorto, Amar con gran fervore. Che fai, &c. Non star, cuor mio, phi meco ; Se viver vuoi in pace, "Vanne a Gesu e sta seco, Che'l mondo e si fallace Che ormai a lui non piace, Se non, chi e traditore. Che fai, &c. D D 2 APPENDIX, Se tu stai qui in terra, Sara tua vita amara, In ogni luogo e guerra E fede e pace e rara : Se t'e la vita cara, Vanne al divin splendore. Che fai, &c. t Non ti fidar d'altrui, Che ogn' uomo e pien d'inganni.. Se tu ne vai a Lui, Dolci saran gli affanni, E spenderai i tuoi anni Con merito ed onore. Che fai, &c. Se tu 1 trovi umilmente, A lui mi raccomanda, E fa, che sia fervente A far la mia domanda, Che sua dolcezza spanda Sopra'l mio gran dolore. Che fai, &c. E quando sarai giunto, Parai' gli un baccio santo, Se mani e' piedi appunto. Abbracia'l tutto quanto, Infiammati in lui tanto Che' 1 brami a tutte Tore. Che fai, &c. Se lui la man ti prende, Non la lassar giammai ! Chi del suo amor s'accende, Non sente eterno guai, E se con lui tu stai, Tu spengi ogni timore. Che fai, &c. Sta con Gresu, cuor mio. E lascia ogn' uomo gridare ! Questo e il tuo dolce Dio, E quale tu debbi amare, E per suo amor portare Ogni mondan furore. Che fai, &c. APPENDIX. 405 Prendete tutti l'arme Neniici d'ogni bene, Che piu non temo, e parme Che dolci sian le pene. E questo si conviene A chi sta con l'amore. Che fai qui, cuore ? Che fai qui, cuore ? Vanne al divino amore ! CANZONA A FIOREXTINI COMPOSTA CIRCA IL M.CCCC.XCV. Viva, viva in nostro core, Cristo re, duce e signore ! i. Ciascun purghi l'intelletto, La memoria e volontade, Del terrestre e vano affetto ; Arda tutto in caritade Contemplando la bontade Di Iesii, re di Fiorenza ; Con digiuni e penitenza Si riformi dentro e fore. ii. Se volete Iesu regni Per sua grazia in rostro core, Tutti gli odii e pravi sdegni Conmiutate in dolce amore ; Discacciando ogni rancore, Ciascun prenda in se la pace : Questo e quel che a Iesu piace Su nel Cielo e qui nel core. m. O Iesu, quanto e beato Chi disprezza il cieco mondo ! Questo e quel felice stato, Che tien sempre il cor giocondo : E pero io mi confondo, Clie per pagha, fumo o spine Non pcrdiamo il dolce fine, Che e Iesu nostro Signore. 406 APPENDIX . IV. Sorgi dunque, Agnel benigno. Contra al fero Faraone ! Deli riforma il corvo in cigno, Supplantando il gran dragone ! Sveglia omai il tuo leone Delia tua tribu di Giuda, Ch' a sguardare e cosa cruda Dove han posto il tuo licore. T. 5. Benedetto sia il Pastore Delia soinma ierarcliia, Iesu Cristo, nostro amore, E la Madre santa e pia, Che a' sedenti in tenebria Han mandato uno gran luce ! E per6, con viva voce Chiaman Cristo nel lor core. No. VII. ' THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELINES. " Le furieste fazioni clie diceanse de Guelfi e de Gibellini, il nome de primi (se da) a colore- clie seguivano il partito d'Ottone descendente da Principi Estense Guelfi^, de secondi a coloro che favorivan Filippo descendente dalla famiglia del Principi Gibellini. Quando poi rinnovaronsi in qnesto secolo stesso (13) le fatali guerre tra l'sacerdoczio e l'impero^ gli stessi nuomi furono usati a distinguere i diverse partiti ; e Guelfi dicevansi i seguaci de Papi, Gibellini i seguaci degli imperadori."* # Tiraboschi, Storia Delia Letteratura Italiana. torn. iv. part 1, 8vo. Floren. 1805. APPENDIX. 407 No. VIII. ALPHONZO BORGIA, OF VALENTIA, POPE CALIXTUS THE THIRD. In 1456, Nicholas the Fifth was succeeded by Alphonzo Borgia, of Valencia, who took the title of Calixtus the Third. This pontiff meditated great wars against the Turks, and collected vast sums to make them. Platina, in his life of this pope, tells us that (e he left 115,000 pieces of gold, which he had accu- mulated for the maintenance of the wars, which he had it in his mind to make against the Turks." The siege and capture of Belgrade were mainly due to the energy of his efforts throughout Christendom against the in- fidels. The slaughter of the Turks on that occasion attests the fierceness of the engagement. The Cardinal Capronacio, in his account of the battle to the pope, makes mention of 6000 of the infidels being destroyed, " furone da sei mila Barbare tagliati a pezzi."* Calixtus the Third, on many matters of vital importance to religion, had the sentiments that became a pontiff in his times, and which are more than ever needed to be acted on in ours. He was of opinion that kings, and emperors, and their governments have no business to meddle in the affairs of the church. When the king of Arragon, by his ambassador, intimated to the aged pontiff his desire to regulate the pontifical regime by his councils, and in return required to be informed on what terms his Holiness desired to be connected with his Majesty, Calixtus said to the Spanish ambassador, " Let your sovereign govern his State, and leave me to govern the Church." * Hist, P. Tio II., p. 430 40S APPENDIX. No. IX. MEANS USED FOR THE ELECTION OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH.* " A Ixnocentio succedette Roclerigo Borgia di Patria Valen- tiano, una delle Citta Regia di Spagna, antico cardinale et di maggiori della Corte di Roma: ma assunto al Ponteficato per le discordie, che erano tra i Cardinali Ascanio Sforza et Giu- liano di san Piero in Vincula et molto phi perche con essempio nuovo in quella eta, compero apertammente, parte con danari, parte con promesse de gli ufficii e beneficii suoi, che erano amplissimi, molti voti di cardinali : i quali disprezzatori dell' Evangelico ammaestramente, non si vergognarono di vender la facuita di tramcare col nome dell' autorita celeste, i sacri thesori nella piu eccelsa parte del tempio. u Indusse a contrattatione tanto abomineuole molti di loro il Cardinale Ascanio ; ma non gia piu con le persuasioni et co'- prieghi, che con l'essempio ; perche corrotto dall appetito infinito delle ricchezze : parteggi6 per se, per prezzo di tanta sceleratezza, la vicecancellaria, umcio principale della Corte Romana, chiefe, castella et il palagio suo di Roma, pieno di mobili di grandis- sima valore. Ma no fuggi perci6 ne poi il giudicio diuino, ne allhora l'infamia, et odio giusto degli huomini, ripieni per questa elettione di spauento, et d'horrore, per essere stata cele- rata con arti si brutte : et non meno perche la natura et le con- ditioni della persona eletta erano conosciute in gran parte da molti : et tra gli altri e manifesto, che'l Re di Napoli, benche m publico il dolore conceputo dissimulasse ; signified alia Reina sua moglie con lagrime, dalle quali era solito astenersi, etiandio nella morte de' figliuoli ; esser creato un Pontefice, che sarebbe perniciosissimo a Italia et a tutta la Republica Christiana : Pronostico veramente non indegno della prudentia di Ferdi- nando : perche in Alessandro Sesto (cosi voile essere chiamato il nuovo Pontefice) fu solertia ct sagacita singolare ; consiglio * Guicciardini. Hist. D'ltal. lib. i. p. 3. APPENDIX, 409 cxccllente ; cfficacia a pcrsuadcre marauigliosa ct a tuttc 1 facendc gravi sollcc it inline, e dcstrczza incredibilc. Ma crano queste virtu avanzatc di grande intervallo da vitii, costumi os- cenissimi, non avea sincerita, ni vergogna, ni verita, ni fide, ni religione, ma avaritia insatiabile, ambitione immoderata, crudelta piu che barbara et ardentissima cupiditadi esaltare in qua- lunque modo, i ngliuoli, i quali erano molti : et tra questi qualch' uno, accioche a essequire i pravi consign, non mancas- scro pravi instrument, non meno detestabile in parte alcuna del padre." No. X. the duke Valentino's atrocities at capita.* " Certo h che nel di 24 di Luglio entrarono i Franzesi furi- bondi per un bastione nella misera citta, e le diedero il sacco colla strage, chi dice fui di otto mila persone, e altri chi dicono sole tie mila. II Buonaccorsi, forse piu veritiere degli altri, parla solo di due mila. Xon si pud leggere senza orrore la crudelta usata da' vincitori, die non contend, in tal congiuntura, dell' avere de' cittadini e de' sacri arredi delle chiese, sfogarono la lor libidine sopra le donne di ogni condizione, senza ne pur rispar- miare le consecrate a Dio con essersi trovate alcune, che per non soggiacere alia lor violenza, si precipitarono nel fiume e ne pozzi. Xon poche di esse furono condotte prigioni, e vendute poscia in Roma. II Duca Valentino, che co Franzesi si trovava a quclla imprcsa, fattane una scelta di quaranta delle piu belle, le ritenne per sc, per non essere da meno de' Turchi." * Muratori's Annals of Italy, a. p. 1501. 410 AFPENDIX. No. XL STEPS TAKEN BY SOME CARDINALS FOR THE DEPOSITION OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH.* " Nel tempo medesimo il Pontefice pieno d' incredibil timore, et ansieta s'era ritirato in Castel Sant' Agnolo, non accompagnato da altri Cardinali, che da Battista Orsino et da Ulivieri Carafifa Napolitano. Ma il Vincola, Ascanio, i Cardinali Colonnessi, et Savelli et molt' altri non cessauano di fare instantia col He, che rimosso di quella sedia un Pontefice pieno di tanti vitii : et abomineuole a tutto '1 mondo : se ne eleggesse un altro, dimo- strandoli non essere meno glorioso al nome suo liberare dalla tirannide d'un Papa scelerato la chiesa d' Iddio, che fusse stato a Pipino et a Carlo Magno suoi antecessori, liberare i Pontefice di santa vita dalle persecution! di coloro, che ingiustamente gli opprimeuano." No. XII. ALEXANDER THE SIXTH I HIS PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE COLONNAS, &C.f " Di tempo si favorevole si servi ancora il Pontefice Alessandro per abbattere le nobili case dc' Colonnesi e Savelli, che si erano dichiarati in favor e di Federigo R di Napoli. ** Fulminate prima contra di esse tutte le pene spirituali e temporali, mosse guerra alle lor Terre, portatosi in persona all' assedio di Sermoneta, commisse, come ha Giovanni Burcardo nel suo Diario, f tutta la camera sua, e tutto il palagio, ed i ne- gozi occorrenti, a Donna Lucrezia Borgia sua figliuola, la quale nel tempo di tale assenza abito le camere del Papa. E diedele * Guieciardini, lib. i. p. 35. + t Muratori's Amials of Italy, a d. 1502. APPENDIX. 411 autorita di aprirc le lctterc sue ; e sc occorrcsse alcana cosa ar- dua, avessc il Consiglio de' Cardinali di Lisbona e di altri, ch' ella potessc percid chiamare a sc.' " Qucsta maniera di governo se facesse onore al Papa, poco ci vuole per conoscerlo." No. XIII. DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE SIXTH.* " Ma ccco, che nel colmo piu alto delle maggiori speranza, come Sono vani, et fallacii pensieri de gli huomini il Pontefice da una vigna appresso a Vaticano, dove era andato a cenare per recrearsi da' caldi, e repentinamente portato per morto nel pa- lagio Ponteficale et incontinente dietro e portato per morto il figliuolo, et il giorno seguente, che fu il 18 di d' Agosto, e por- tato morto secondo l'uso de' Pontefici, nella chiesa di S. Piero, nero, enfiato, et bruttissimo, segni manifestissimi di veleno : ma il Valentino col vigore dell' eta et per havere usato subito medi- cine potenti et appropriate al veleno : saluo la vita, rimanendo oppressa da lunga et grave infermita, credettesi constantemente, che questo accidente fusse proceduto da veleno : et se racconta secondo la fama piu commune l'ordine della cosa in questo modo. Che havendo il Valentino, destinato alia medesima cena deliberato d' avelenare Adriano Cardinale di Cornetto, nella vigna del quale doueuano cenare : perche e cosa manifesta, es- sere stata consuetudine frequente del padre, et sua, non solo a' usare il veleno per vendicarsi contra inimici, o per assicurarsi de' sospetti, ma etiandio per scelerata cupidita di spogliare delle proprie faculta le personne ricche, i Cardinali, et altri cortigiani non havendo rispetto, che da cssi non havessero mai ricevuta ofFesa alcuna, come fu il cardinale molto ricco di Sant' Agnolo mane ancioche gli fussero amicissimi et congiuntissimi, et alcuni * Guicciardini, Hist. D 'Italia, lib. vi. p. l&Z. 412 APPENDIX. di loro, come furono i Cardinali di Capua et di Modena stati utilissimi ct fidatissimi ministri. Narrasi adunque, che havendo il Valentino mandati innanzi certi fiaschi di vino infetti di ve- lcno ; et havendogli fatti consegnare ad un niinistro non con- sapeuole della cosa, con commessione, che non gli desse ad alcimo : sopravenne per sorte il Pontefice innanzi all' hora della cena, et vinto dalla fete et da' caldi smisurati che erano ; dimando gli fusse dato da bere : ma perche non erano arrivate ancora di palagio, le provisioni per la cura ; gli fu da quel ministro, che credeva riservarsi come vino piu pretioso, dato da bere del vino, che haveva man dato innanzi Valentino ; il quale mentre il Padre beveva sopra giugnendo si messe similmente a bere delmedesimo vino. Concorse al corpo morte d'Alessandro in San Piero con incredibile allegrezza tutta Roma, non potendo satiarsi gli occhi d' alcuno di vedero spento un serpente, che con la sua immode- rata ambitione, et pestifera perfidia et con tutti gli essempi d' horrible crudelta, di mostruosa libidine et di inaudita avaritia, vendendo senza distintione le cose sagre et le profane ; haveva attossicato tutto '1 mondo, et nondimeno era stato esaltato con rarissima et quasi perpetua prosperita della prima giouentu infino all' ultimo della vita sua, desiderando sempre cose gran- dissime et ottenendo piu di quello desiderava." No. XIV. APPROPRIATION OF CHURCH REVENUES BY ALEXANDER THE SIXTH TO THE USES OF CAESAR BORGIA.* " Nel qual tempo Alessandro suo padre, accioche tutte l'opere proprie corrispondessero ad un medesimo fine, havendo quest' anno medesimo creati con grandissima infamia dodici Cardi- nali, non de' piu benemeriti, ma di quegli, che gli offer sono prezzo maggiore : et per non pretermettere specie alcuna di * Guicciardini, Hist, d'ltal., lib. v. p. 133. APPENDIX. 413 guadagno, spargeva per tutta Italia, et per le provincie forestier il Giubileo, celebrato in Roma con concorso, grande massima- mcnte delle nationi Oltramontane dando faculta. di conseguirlo a ciascuno, che non andato a Roma porgesse qualche quantita di danari : quali tutti insieme con gli altri, che in qualunque moda poteva cavare de tesori spirituali et del dominio temporale della chiesa, summonistrava al Valentino." No. XV. THE CARDINAL ROVERO, AFTERWARDS POPE JULIUS THE SECOND. H Creato che fu il nuovo Papa Giuliano dalla Rovere, Cardi- nale di San Pietro in Vincola, che fu poi Papa Giulio II. non fidandoi di questo, com' egli solea dire, Marano, perchfc aveva avuto delle gare con lui, sino a strapazzarsi villanamente Pun l'altro, sul fine di quest' anno si ritiro ad Ostia, e quivi si forti- fied. Credendo poi di essere rimesso in grazia di Alessandro, se ne torno a Roma ; ma accortosi di essere in pericolo, final- mente andd in Francia, ne piu si lascio attrappolar dalle pro- messe, ne da bella parole."* No. XVI. EXTRACTS FROM A SERMON OF SAVONAROLA. " Penitentiam agite : fate penitentia fatela ahora non indu- geate piu ch'el signora ancora vi aspetta e se vi chiame. " Udite le me parole non come da me, ma come da Dio venute. Io non posso fare altro che io non dica : — agite penitentiam, videte quanto Dio e buono ? quanto e misericcordiosa/'^&c. " O ricchi ! 0 poveri ! fate penitentia : e ricchi date a poveri * Muratori, Anuale d'ltalia, torn. xiii. p. 370, a.d. 1192. 414 APPENDIX. clelle limosine : o voi che timete Dio, fate bene e non habbiate paura clella tribulazioni/' &c. " O Sacerdoti udite le mie parole ! o preti, o prelati della chiesa di Cbristo lasciate i beneficii i quali giustamente non potete tenere ; lasciate le vostre pompe e vostri conviti e desi- nari i quali fate tanta splendidamente lasciate dico vostre con- cubine e le cinedi, che gli e tempo dico de far penitentia chi ne vengono le gran tribulazione per lequali Dio vuole racon- ciare le sua chiesa/' &c. " O monachi lasciate le supernuita e delle veste e delle argenti e di tanta grassezza delle vostre Badie e beneficii : datevi alia simplicita e lavorate con le mane vostre come face- vano gle antichi monachi vostri padri, nostri antecessori. Altri- mento se non lo farete volontiere verra Christo che lo fare per forza. O monache lasciate anchora le vostre supernuita ! lasciate vostre simonie quando accettate le monache che vegghiano a star ne vostri monasteri," &c. (( O mercante lasciate le vostre usure ; restituite el mal tolto e la robba d'altrui altrimente voc perderete ogni cosa/' &c. ie Vox dicentis clama, &c. O Italia propter peccata tua venient tibi adversa. O tutti le citta de Italia egli e venuto el tempo de punire e vostri peccati. O Italia per la tua superbia per la tua ambitione per le tuae rapine e storsioni verrano a te di molte adversita verrano a te di molte flagelli, vox dicentis clama, &c. Penitentiam agite ! Penitentiam agite ! " * No. XVII. notice or Savonarola's career. f " Chi teneva, e chi tien tuttavia il Savonarola per uomo di santa vita, e ch' egli inspirato da Dio predicesse le cose avvenire, * Predicado FraG. Savonarola in Pir. lmo de Nov. 1493. Edita da Fra Stefano Suo Discipolo, 12mo. Fir. 2nd edit. 1544. f Muratori's Annals of Italy, a.d. 1498. APPENDIX. 415 fra non molti anni trovd il tutto avverato. Altrc simili predi- zioni fatte da lui, e nominatamcntc a Carlo VIII. Ke di Francia, ebbero il loro effetto. Si esibi ancora Frate Francesco di con- fermare alia pruova del fuoco le falsita delle proposizioni sud- dette ; ed all' incontro Fra Domenico da Pescia Domenicano accetto di sostener giuste e verificabili le medcsime, con esibirsi di entrar anch' egli nel fuoco. Per che il Frate Minore trovo maniera di sottrarsi all' impegno preso, per lui sottentro un Frate Andrea Rondinelli. Adunque nel di 17 di Aprile per ordine de' Magistrati acceso un gran fuoco, vennero alia pre- senza d' innumerabil popolo i due contraddittori, per provare, se in quella catasta si sentisse fresco, o caldo. Ma non volendo comportare i Frati Minori, che Fra Domenico vi entrasse vestito con gli abiti Sacerdotali ; n& ch' egli portasse in mano il Sacramento dell' Altare : in sole contese termino tutto quell' apparato, e nulla si fece. Scapito molto per uesto de suo buon concetto il Savonarola, e crescendo l'ardire della fazi- one a lui contraria, e massimamente degli scapestrati, nclla seguenta Domenica dell' Olivo si alzo contra di lui gran romore, i quisa che i Magistrati, timorosi ancora delle tante minace del Papa, fecero prendere e menar nelle carceri il Savonarola. Allora fu, che infieri contra di lui ; chi gli volea male. Corse tosto a Firenze un Commessario del Papa per accendere maggiormente il fuoco, ed accelerar la mortc dell' infelice. Si adoperarono i tormenti per fargli confessare cio, che vero non era ; e si publico poi un processo, contenente la confessione di molti reati, che agevolmentc ognuno riconobbe per inventati e calunniosi. Venuto dunque il di 23 di Maggio Vigilia dell' Ascensione, alzato un palco nella Piazza, quivi il Savonarola degradato insieme con due Frati suoi compagni o cio e Silvestro, e Domenico, fu impiccato, i lor corpi di poi bruciati, e le ceneri gittate in Arno, per timore che tanti divoti di questo Peligioso le tenessere per sante Peliquie. Rcsto appresso involta in molte dispute la di lui fama, riguar- dandolo gran copia di gente, cioe tutt' i buoni, qual Santo, e qual Martire del Signore ; ed all' incontro tutt' i cattivi per uomo ambizioso c scduttore. Dio ne sara stato buon Giudice. 416 APPENDIX. Certo h, ch 9 egli manco al suo dovere, dispregiando gli ordini del Papa, i cui perversi costumi non cstingucano gia in lui l'autorita delle Chiavi. Parimente lodevole non fu nel Savona- rola il cotanto mischiarsi nel governo Secolare della Repubblica Fiorentina : cosa poco conveniente al sacro suo abito e ministero. Per altro ch' egli fosse d'illibati costumi, di singolar pieta e zelo, tutto volto al bene spirituale del popolo, con altre rarissime doti, indicanti un vero servo di Dio, le cui opere stampate con- tengono una mirabil' unzione e odore di santita : non si puo gia negare. Ma di questo avendo pienamente trattato Gian Fran- cesco Pico conte della Mirandola, dottissimo Scrittore suo con- temporaneo, nella vita ed Apologia del medesimo Savonarola, e Jacopo Nardi Fiorcntino, anch' esso allora vivente, nella sua Storia di Firenze : senza che io osi di far qui da Giudice, rimetto a' loro scritti il Lettore, che piu copiosamente desideri di essere informato di quella lagrimevol tragedia."* No. XVIII. CHRONOLOGICAL NOTICES OF THE CAREER OF THE BORGIAS AND THE MEDICI. THE BORGIAS. Borgia Alfonzo, created Cardinal in 1444 „ „ Pope, taking the name of Calixtus 1455 Poderigo Lenzuoli Borgia, nephew of the preceding Pope, born in 1430 „ consecrated bishop of St. Nicolo, in Carcere „ appointed vice-chancellor of the Holy See . . „ created Pope, under the name of Alexander the Sixth 1492 „ bull of repartition of the New World . . . 1493 „ French invasion, Pope's seclusion in the castle of St. Angelo 1494 Muratori's Ann. of Italy, a.d. 1498, rol. xiii. p. 403. APPENDIX. 417 Roderigo Lcnzuoli Borgia, scandals of his pontificate, ended the 18th of August 1503 , a His three sons, John, Caosar, Geoffrey, and daughter, Lucretia. John, Duke of Gandia, married an illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples, murdered, it is universally believed, by his brother, the car- dinal Caesar Borgia 1497 „ left two children, a boy and a girl, from the former descended the renowned Jesuit, St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia. Caesar Borgia, educated for the Church, duly ordained and consecrated. He was first appointed Bishop of Pampeluna ; then Archbishop of Yalentia ; then Cardinal. Having caused the murder of his elder brother in 1497, he abandoned the Church, and obtained a special dispensation from his father 1498 „ he was sent on a mission to Louis the Twelfth. The King, Louis, created him Duke Valen- tino, and procured him in marriage Char- lotte, daughter of John Alain d'Albret, Lord of Navarre. Having abandoned the Church, he took to arms, and began to ravage Ro- magna, taking Imola and other places, in . 1499 „ took Forli and Cesene, and entered Rome in triumph ; seized on Pesaro and Rimini . . 1500 takes Firenzuela. Death of young Manfredi. Seizes on the Duchy of Urbino 1501 his treachery and atrocities in Scnigaglia . . 1502 his ravages in Castello and Perugia. Downfall after his father's death 1503 his death in a skirmish at Yiana, in Navarre* . 1507 his widow, the Duchess of Valentino, (daugh- * His death, says Moreri, took place on the 12th of March, the anni- versary of his installation in his see of Pampeluna. VOL. II. E E 418 APPENDIX. tcr of John Alain Sire d'Albret, Compte de Dxeux, and of Frances of Brusse of Brittany),