SEP 16 1918 
 
 DG 131 .SI .H47 1843 
 Heraud, John A. 1799-1887 
 The life and times of 
 Girolamo Savonarola 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 littps://arcliive.org/details/lifetimesofgirolOOIiera 
 
THE LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 COLLECTED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES. 
 
roNDOK : 
 
 GILBERT & KIVINGTON, PRIHTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
THE LIFE AND TIMEJ7,];;^^, 
 
 /^v>' 
 
 OF f ...... 
 
 GIROLAMO SAVON^JiCflSr 
 
 ILLUSTRATING THE PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION IN ITALY, 
 
 DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 " La vita sua, la dottriiia, il soggetto che prese, eraiio suliicieiiti a 
 fargli prestave fede." — ^Niccol6 Maciiiavelh. 
 
 " The World knows nothing of its Greatest Men."— Henrv Taylor. 
 
 LONDON: 
 WHITTAKER AND CO. AVE MARIA LANE. 
 
 1843. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 At Naumberg, on his way to the diet of Worms, 
 Luther made the acquaintance of a certain zealous 
 priest, who carefully and reverentially preserved in 
 bis closet the portrait of Girolamo Savonarola, the 
 monk of Florence, though more as a martyr to liberty 
 and morality, than as a religious confessor. The good 
 priest, however, perceived enough resemblance between 
 the Italian and the German, to draw the attention of 
 the latter to this sacred memento. Silently producing 
 the cherished painting, he held the same awhile before 
 the eyes of Luther, who as silently perused it ; but 
 nothing daunted, conceived rather courage than fear 
 from the lesson it presented. The mighty Reformer 
 seems in consequence to have studied the works of 
 his less fortunate predecessor, and in the year 1523 
 published the Exposition by Savonarola, of the fifty- 
 first and thirty-first Psalms ; in the preface to it ex- 
 A o 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 pressing his recognition and reverence of the author, 
 as one of like mind with himself. This, as well as 
 the spirit of several of the writings of Savonarola 
 which had become known, his earnest denunciation 
 of the ruin of the Romish Church, and the consequent 
 fate prepared for him by the infamous Alexander 
 VI., wakened the liveliest interest for the Italian 
 martyr in the friends of the Reformation. They 
 counted him among the witnesses of the truth, named 
 him the Luther of Italy, alfectionately esteeming it 
 of singular importance, as a coincidence, that Savon- 
 arola had commenced preaching in the same yeai 
 (1483), in which Luther was born. Thus says 
 Flacius in particular, whose judgement was echoed 
 by Beza, Wolf, Hottinger, Heidegger, Arnold, 
 Fabricius, andGERDEs, down to the middle of the 18th 
 century. So late as in the 16th century, were seve- 
 ral productions of Savonarola translated by Regius, 
 Spangenberg, and others : the latter also wrote his 
 liistory, in which he gave the greatest praise to his 
 integrity and wonderful stedfastness. In an equal 
 spirit of veneration, although on quite other ac- 
 counts, the companions of his Order, the Domini- 
 cans, even in the Romish Church continued to 
 glorify him ; when a writer who had separated from 
 their community sought to irritate his former 
 brothers, by daring the first really important attack 
 on the orthodoxy and prophetic gifts of this their 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vn 
 
 member, whom they so honoured, and reckoned 
 as a saint. Hostility to the Order to which he had 
 formerly belonged, perhaps also the endeavour to 
 wrest from the ' Lutheran heretics' (of whom he 
 speaks with bitterness in the dedication prefixed) one 
 more historical weapon against the Romish Church, 
 occasioned Ambrosio Catharino Polito, who was 
 already known by other controversial writings, in 
 particular that against the scarcely deceased Cardinal 
 Cajetanus, to attack the doctrine and prophecies of 
 Savonarola, which he sought to represent as pre- 
 sumptive, erroneous, false, lying, self-contradictory, 
 scandalous, and sufficiently refuted by his own revo- 
 cation of them ; — which revocation however, as the 
 reader of the following biography will perceive, never 
 really existed. On the other hand, Savonarola 
 maintained the splendour of a saint in the ecclesias- 
 tical annals of Abraham Bzovius, Raynaldus, and 
 Natal Alexander, who were at least useful to his- 
 tory by the publication of different documents ; while 
 the Dominican Quetif first undertook to rescue 
 the honour of Savonarola, attacked by Catharino, 
 on the basis of copious collections from original 
 sources. 
 
 During the life of Savonarola, enthusiastic rever- 
 ence, and passionately hostile opposition, contended 
 for his name ; after his death, the most different 
 judgments on him were repeated. Giovanni Fran- 
 
viii 
 
 PRKFACE. 
 
 CISCO Pico della Mirandola, who, as a confidential 
 friend of Savonarola, might in his biography of him 
 have afforded the truest image, gave, with several 
 useful notices, almost a mere panegyric, the offspring 
 of admiration and superstitious reverence, which con- 
 cludes with a long and elaborate parallel between 
 Savonarola and Christ, and bears throughout the 
 character of partiality. 
 
 The mention of Savonarola made by the French 
 historian Comines, who possessed a sufficient know- 
 ledge of the facts, and was convinced no less of his 
 honesty than of his prophetic gift, is candid, sin- 
 cere, and critical. The celebrated Machiavelli on 
 the contrary represents the latter as problematic, but 
 the former as commanding veneration, and accounts 
 for Savonarola's ruin, by supposing that he did not 
 understand how to be, or was incapable of being, the 
 ' master of envy.' Savonarola's other biographer, 
 BuRLAMACCHi, was of the Order of Dominicans, and 
 out of reverence for Savonarola, soon after his death, 
 wrote the life of his idol (1519), in the same 
 spirit with Pico della Mirandola, though on better 
 grounds, and more supported by facts, but encum- 
 bered with miraculous relations which bespeak the 
 superstition of the period. Other writers, less closely 
 connected with the times and the man, have given 
 different opinions, according to their sect or party. 
 GuicciARDiNi, a tolerably impartial relator, col- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 lected the different opinions and narratives, and 
 thereby, (especially as he carefully suppressed his own 
 views,) was better entitled to demand a more equitable 
 judgment from posterity, than has been generally 
 awarded. Nardi, though recognizing decidedly the 
 laudable endeavours of Savonarola, in his attempted 
 moral, religious, and clerical reforms, still found his 
 political theocratic plans and hopes too little suited 
 to the circumstances of the times, and taken up with- 
 out sufficient consideration. Nerli, albeit not for- 
 getting himself, so as to fall into the injustice of 
 passion, still perceived only the monk who sought 
 an undue influence in the government of the State, 
 and wished to transfer it from the hands of the nobi- 
 lity into those of the people ; to which decision also 
 Giovio in some degree assents, though from his 
 other excellent qualities, he esteemed Savonarola 
 not deserving of so ignominious a death. 
 
 Savonarola, meanwhile, was never judged more 
 severely or more unjustly, than by John Francis 
 BoDDEUS, who with wanton criticism sought to render 
 suspicious the testimonies of Comines and Guicciar- 
 dini as partial ; and insidiously followed, as unsus- 
 picious sources, the accounts of the papal journalist 
 BuRCHARD, and the printed acts of the process, 
 which were stiU further enlarged by inculpatory con- 
 jectures. He represented Savonarola as a cunning 
 exciter of sedition, who in the politically entangled 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 circumstances of Florence knew how to avail himself 
 of great eloquence, and diligently nourished the super- 
 stition of the people for his own ambitious plans. In 
 this conclusion, Gabriel Naude concurred with 
 equally unproved assertions, while Buddeus saw him- 
 self compelled, by closer examination of history, to 
 retract his former opinion, since he recognized the in- 
 tegrity and innocence of Savonarola, but yet accused 
 him of too great participation in political events. 
 More influential were Bayle's acute remarks, which, 
 however unjust and hypercritical they must appear, 
 compared with history, not only occasioned Christian 
 Eberhard Weismann to retract his former favourable 
 judgment of Savonarola, but moreover found too easy 
 an echo among the friends of the newly awakened 
 criticism. In Italy there appeared, after a flimsy 
 attack, founded chiefly on the printed process, an 
 anonymous defence and history of Savonarola, sup- 
 ported by copious corroborations from the his- 
 torians of that time, as also from his own writings. 
 A biography of Savonarola, which appeared at 
 the beginning of the 19th century, sought to 
 unite the contradictory testimonies of history, in the 
 description that Savonarola was ambitious, fanatical, 
 and daring, but nevertheless a very learned, pious, 
 mild, and well-meaning man. The previous judgment 
 of ScHRCECKH might be found more satisfactory, who, 
 without acquitting him of self-deception and fanatical 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xi 
 
 or enthusiastic piety, recognized in his writings, his 
 religious feeling, and his deep penetration into the 
 sins of the time, which he fearlessly denounced, the 
 nohle seeds of true piety derived from Scripture, 
 whereby he in more than one respect opened the path 
 to the Reformers, who named him with gratitude, 
 and was himself well worthy of better times and a 
 better fate. Yet old doubts and prejudices emerged 
 again in many forms, as long as its full right and 
 satisfaction was not rendered to history. Ammon, 
 indeed, sought to lay down the principles of Savona- 
 rola's theology, from some of his chief writings ; but 
 the loudly-heard voice of history described him as 
 the passionately-excited. and exciting monk who, with- 
 out fundamental learning and deeper knowledge of the 
 science of theology, was not able to understand the 
 nature of the Romish Church any more than that 
 of the State. 
 
 In English literature, with the exception of God- 
 win's Lives of the Necromancers, little or nothing 
 of any mark exists in regard to Savonarola ; and 
 even that is merely a sceptical deduction, not at 
 all admissible by a Christian believer. Roscoe, in- 
 deed, in his Life of Lorenzo de Medici, gives a garbled 
 statement of Savonarola's proceedings, introducing him 
 always as a vulgar fanatic, who by his blunders de- 
 prived Florence of the excellent constitution and asthe- 
 tic cultivation, which it would otherwise have enjoyed 
 
xii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 under the family of the Medici. This position, how- 
 ever, is too absurd to req^iire refutation at this day, 
 when the finger of Providence in all that served to 
 initiate the reformation of the Church is so generally 
 recognized, and the demoralized state of Italy, and the 
 papal see in particular, conceded by every one who 
 treats the history of the period with any show of 
 sincerity. In Germany no fewer than three elaborate 
 lives of Savonarola have appeared in the last six years, 
 by RuDELBACH, Meier, and Rapp. 
 
 It is worthy remark, that a man, the events of 
 whose life are of a character so wonderfully unique, or 
 only to be paralleled — in the estimation of Machiavelli 
 — with those in the lives of Numa, Solon, Lycurgus, 
 and Moses, should have been so cursorily passed over 
 by English biographers, and have held so small a space 
 in general history. The reason is to be found in this, 
 that though his cause in part ultimately prospered, 
 yet in himself Savonarola, unlike Luther, was not 
 successful. The greatest men thus circumstanced 
 are almost unknown to general reputation ; but for 
 that reason their lives are the more valuable, and 
 should be prized as choice and rare by the reader of 
 cultivated understanding and refined taste. 
 
 In addition to the authorities already indicated, the 
 writer of the following biography has availed himself 
 of many other sources of fact and opinion ; a few may 
 be mentioned, notes and references to the authori- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XIII 
 
 ties consulted being omitted, from a desire, not only to 
 avoid unnecessary display in that kind, but to dimi- 
 nish as much as possible the size and weight of a 
 work intended for popular perusal. — E. g. Bene- 
 detto, Razzi, Bottoni, Piero Marco di Parenti, 
 Ammiratt, Segni, Muratori, Tiraboschi, Cres- 
 ciMBENi, Varchi, Neri, Bandini, Valori, Varil- 
 LAs, PiERio Valeriano, Beneviene, Tommasi, 
 SisMONDi, Meyerhoff, Gordon, Waddington, 
 D'AcBiGNE, &c. &c. Though small in compass, the 
 following Life of Savonarola contains more facts of his 
 history, and more extracts from his writings, than exist 
 in any other or in all the memoirs and biographies of 
 him hitherto written. Nothing in it has been mis- 
 stated or overcharged, but the whole subject treated, 
 in its theological, political, and philosophical bear- 
 ings, with the utmost impartiality that the author 
 could command. We now know that the work in 
 which Savonarola engaged, notwithstanding its tem- 
 porary failure, was of God, and not to be attributed 
 to any one person, however conspicuous in its direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The great Protestant Reformation, thus divinely 
 appointed, thus prepared at divers times and in dif- 
 ferent places for its developement, is now felt to be a 
 living thing with a principle of growth in it, well 
 rooted in a genial soil, and nourished with all such 
 influences as promote longevity and productiveness. 
 
 a 
 
xiv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 But some have lately become ashamed of the term 
 Protestant, as if it were a negation only, commissioned 
 to destroy, and not at all to build. As members of 
 the Protestant Church of England, we can permit no 
 such merely negative meaning to a word which has 
 passed into ecclesiastical formularies, parliamentary 
 acts and documents, royal declarations, and corona- 
 tion oaths. That it is destructive only, is refuted 
 by these facts — involving greater ones — that it has 
 a Church and State, nay. Churches and States, of 
 its own ; it has therefore tended to edification, nay, 
 it has edified ; it is accordingly an affirmative exist- 
 ence, and negates nothing but the corruptions and 
 abuses of a preceding order, that had fallen into decay 
 and refused to be repaired. Moreover, it has long ceased 
 to oppose the Church of Rome, it now seeks only to 
 supersede her ; on the other hand, Rome, by resisting 
 reform, became Protestant, in the negative sense of 
 the term, which she has still continued to be, having no 
 abuses and corruptions in the Church of the Reforma- 
 tion to denounce, or which she has cared to denounce, 
 or, in fact, been able to denounce, knowing how easily 
 she might be recriminated upon. Consequently, the 
 Protestant attitude is maintained by Rome, at the 
 expense of her own catholicity ; but by the Anglican 
 Church, to the gain and increase of her's. On this and 
 other accounts, she is entitled to take her place as a 
 co-ordinate and independent institution. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 It is for these reasons that the present writer is 
 inclined to object most strenuously to the Church of 
 England being considered as a mere via media — be- 
 tween the papacy at the one extreme, and ultra pro- 
 testantism at the other. This is at best to degrade the 
 Church of England from a high catholic, to a mere 
 syncretic condition, not at all desirable, and even pre- 
 judicial. There are proofs enough, in the following 
 Life, that the two extremes, of which the Church of 
 England is supposed to be the mean, exist, and have 
 always existed, in the Church of Rome herself — Apos- 
 tolicism on the one hand, and even Atheism on the 
 other. Similar opposites are found in the Church of 
 the Reformation at large, together with every shade 
 of opinion between high- church Episcopacy and So- 
 cinian dissent ; and the Church of England con- 
 fessedly includes every variety of faith, from New- 
 manism to Calvinism. We thus see two or more 
 complete orbs forming part, it may be, of the same 
 general system, but each distinguished from the other, 
 and maintaining its separate integrity, having its own 
 revolutions and distinct sphere of existence. 
 
 The true via media, therefore, is not to be sought 
 in any one entire Church, as the centre between that 
 and other Churches, but in each Church, as the point 
 of agreement, where all her members meet in con- 
 formity. There is a large moderate party in the 
 Anglican Church connecting the two extremes, which, 
 a 2 
 
xvi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ill fact, represents her true spirit and tendency as 
 an institution, the tenets of which are abstracted, 
 not only from her Articles (subject, as these prove to 
 be, to every variety of interpretation), her formularies, 
 and the authoritative interpretations of her bishops 
 and clergy, but also from the Holy Scriptures them- 
 selves, and the comments of men of letters in general ; 
 to which should be added, the influence of moral 
 essayists, critics, historians, philosophers, and poets, all 
 whose works have great authority with the educated 
 mind, and modify even its religious convictions. 
 Every work designed for the perusal of this large 
 class of Christians must imply every one of these 
 data among the principles of its construction, without 
 which it will equally fail to accomplish the demands 
 of intelligence and the ends of charity. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 ?^ i storj). 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CHILDHOOD OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Church disunited — Nicholas V. — Superstitious prac- 
 tices — Family and birth of Savonarola — Tutored by 
 his grandfather Michele — Physiology and psychology — 
 Mysticism embodied in Italian life and art — Calixtus 
 III. — Pius III. — Canonization of Catherine of Sienna 
 — Probable influence of such circumstances on the 
 infant miud of Savonarola 3 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE BOYHOOD OP SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Savonarola taught after ten years of age by his Father 
 — By professional teachers — His rapid progress — Ac- 
 quaintance with Aristotle and Plato — Wherein they 
 apparently differ to the exoteric student from St. John — 
 A 3 
 
xviii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Savonarola studies Thomas Aquinas — Primitive teach- 
 ing of the Apostles — Savonarola's dissatisfaction with 
 the world, and his determination to be a monk — The 
 Dominican Order — The rationale of monastic institu- 
 tions — Savonarola a disappointed lover — His early 
 character and habits 18 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MANHOOD OF SAVO.NAROLA. 
 
 Savonarola's poetic studies — His religious enthusiasm — ■ 
 Difference between his and his father's dispositions — 
 State of the world and the Chui'ch — Specimen of Savon- 
 arola's IjTic poetry — Festival of St. George at FeiTara 
 —Savonarola enters the monastery at Bologna— Letter 
 to his father 32 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 Mot tt int. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A LAY- BROTHER. 
 
 Savonarola in the monastery employed in teaching the 
 scholastic philosophy — Studies Jerome, Augustine, and 
 Cassian — Hesitates to accept priest's orders — His pro- 
 bable reasons — Augustine's doctrines — Primitive idea 
 of the Church — Savonarola and Luther contrasted . . 49 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A PRIEST. 
 
 Savonarola always a Reformer — Extracts from his earliest 
 poems — Monastic, not Christian, life — Old and New 
 Testament — Church authority and the Bible — Digres- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xix 
 
 sion on Chillingworth — Who are Apostles in the priest- 
 hood ? — True Catholic Apostolicity — Extract from Sa- 
 vonarola's ' Trion della Croce' — Prayer — Meritorious 
 obedience — Power of his conversation- — Penitent Sol- 
 diers — Preaches first in the church of Lorenzo at Flo- 
 rence — Returns to his monastery 67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SAVONAEOLA — A PKEACHER. 
 
 Savonarola in Lombardy — Expounds the Apocalypse- 
 Babylon a patristic tj'pe of Rome — Essential differen- 
 ces between the Gospel of Christ and the religion of 
 Christians — Sixtus III. and Innocent VIII. — Savon- 
 arola preaches at Brescia, and denounces impending 
 destruction to the apostate Church of Rome — His pro- 
 phetic claims — Studies and writings 86 
 
 BOOK THE THIRD, 
 practice. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A OONTEMPI.ATIST. 
 
 Savonarola considered as a Prophet — The doctrinal value 
 of prayer — The practical evidence of faith — Savonarola 
 at Reggio — Invited to Florence 107 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FLORENCE UNDER THE MEDICI. 
 
 The family of the Medici — Cosimo's patronage of Greek 
 literature — Chrysoloras and his scholars — Niccolo Nic- 
 coli — Platonic academy — Theodore Gaza — Bessarion — 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 George of Trebizond — Grerm of monarchism — Pietro — 
 Lorenzo and Giuliano — Ckjnspiracy of the Pazzi — Lo- 
 renzo and the King of Naples — Decline of the wealth 
 of the Medici — And consequently of its influence — 
 Levity and frivolity of the literary spirit — Poggio — 
 Beccatelli — And the controversiaUsts — Naturalism in 
 art — Politeness in philosophy — Sensuahty in life and 
 manners 114 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SAVONAROLA AT SAN MARCO. 
 
 Library of San Marco — Savonarola's lectures — Lorenzo's 
 encouragement of ecclesiastical oratory — Mariano de 
 Genezano. The poUcy of Lorenzo — The character of 
 the times — Savonarola's Garden-Sermon — His style of 
 preaching — Is made prior — Refuses to acknowledge 
 Loreuzu's authority — Lorenzo's condescensions — All in 
 vain — Savonarola inflexible — Macliiavelli's opinion on 
 Roman religiosity, human probity — Savonarola's influ- 
 ence 121 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEATH OF LORE.NZO DE' MEDICI. 
 
 Description of Savonarola's person — His rival, the 
 preacher Mariano da Genezano — Monastic reform — 
 Novices' conversation — Savonarola's abstemious habits 
 — Rebukes two abbots — His chastity — Visits Bologna 
 — The princess Bentevoglio — Humility — Personal ora- 
 tory — The Bible — Prediction of the Scotirge — State of 
 Christendom — Relative positions of Lorenzo and Sa- 
 vonarola — Three political factions — Lorenzo's sickness, 
 interview with Savonarola, and death — Savonarola's 
 vision 140 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INVASION OF CHARLES VIII. 
 
 Apparent prosperity of Florence at the death of Lorenzo 
 — Civil contest — Savonarola's prominence — Pietro de 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Medici's feeble rule — Death of Pope Innocent VIII. — 
 Infamous character of Pope Alexander VI. — Satan in 
 the seat of Christ— Charles VIII. of Friince— Con- 
 duct of Pietro — Savonarola's speech to the King at 
 Lucca — Pietro's expulsion from Florence — Charles 
 VIII. and the Pisans — Charles VIII. and the Floren- 
 tines — Savonarola's i-emonstrances — The departure of 
 the French 162 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Savonarola's influence. 
 
 Reform of the monasteries — New monastic society — Sa- 
 vonarola's pastoral habits — The devotees of his elo- 
 quence — Valori and Alberti — Legends regardmg Savo- 
 narola — Specimens of his maturer poetry — Practical 
 and devotional works — Epistolary correspondence — He 
 collects the people to consult on the fonn of govern- 
 ment 178 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A LEGISLATOR. 
 
 Theocracy — Democracy — Aristocracy — Soderini — Ves- 
 pucci — Savonarola's political views — Fra Domenico da 
 Ponzo — ^Ecclesiastical reform — Education — Democra- 
 tic movements — Committee of Eighty 197 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 THE PROPHET OF FLORENCE AND THE POPE OF ROME. 
 
 Relative position of Savonarola, and the reigning Pope, 
 and the clergy — His prevision of martyrdom — His per- 
 petual testimony against the abuses and apostasy of the 
 Church — Conspu-acy of the Medici and Fi-a Mariano 
 de Genezano at Rome against him — Called by the Pope 
 to preach at Lucca — Appeal against this of the Floren- 
 tine magistracy and Signory — PeiTiiitted accordingly 
 to remain at Florence — Subsequent conduct — Agita- 
 tion of the Pope 220 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CITATION TO ROME. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Florence and Pisa — Domestio policy of the former — Sa- 
 vonarola's letter to Charles VIII. betrayed to Alex- 
 ander VI. — Pope's citation — Savonarola's sickness — 
 Suspends and resumes his pastoral duties — Social re- 
 forms — Increasing reputation — Singular carnival — 
 Auto-da-fe of works of art, &c. — Injurious conse- 
 quences —Self-examinations — The troubler of Italy ? — 
 Ludovico 244 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SECOND CITATION. 
 
 Political changes— Emperor Maximilian — Alexander VI. 
 — An individual Pope fallible — Savonarola sarcastic — 
 Cited a second time to Rome — Papal brief — Savona- 
 rola's defensive epistle — Addresses the people by com- 
 mand of the Signory — Increased extravagances at the 
 carnival of 1497 — Spiritual dances — Signs and wonders 262 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EXCOMMUNICATION. 
 
 Savonarola appeals to the princes of the earth for a coun- 
 cil of the Church — Luilovico Sforza — Letter to the 
 Pope from the Signory — Machiavelli to a friend — 
 Conspiracy to i-estore the Medici — Execution of con- 
 spirators — Savonarola insulted while preaching — Riots 
 — Excommunication pronounced — General interest ex- 
 cited 278 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 DEFENCE. 
 
 Apathy of the Signory — Controversial papers — Savona- 
 rola's reply to the Pope — New Signory — The brothere 
 of San Marco and citizens intei-cede— Savonarola again 
 preaches in 1498 — And writes sevei'al lettei'S to the 
 Pope, all in a strain of indignant remonstrance 301 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ORDEAL. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Cliristian and man — Controversy between Donieiiico da 
 Pescia and Francesco di Puglia — Proposal of the fiery 
 ordeal — Savonarola's reluctance — At last yields — The 
 ordeal — The cowardice of the Franciscans — The su- 
 perstition of the Host — Violence — Insurrection — Sa- 
 vonarola's imprisonment — Proofs of the Pope's guilty 
 participatiou iu the infamous trick ;<30 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 INQUISITION AND MARTI RDOM. 
 
 Meditations on the fifty-first Psalm — Inquisition ap- 
 pointed — Savonarola questioned and tortured— Fran- 
 cesco Ceccone — Falsification of evidence and process 
 — Condemnation — Thirty-first Psalm — Execution of 
 Savonarola, Domenico da Pescia, and Silvestro Maruffi 353 
 
 Conclusion 373 
 
 Appendix 
 
 407 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page line 
 
 99 7 for Giovaafrancesco read Giovanni Francesco 
 
 150 18 — ever read always 
 
 156 ^4} — Piagnone read Piagnoni 
 
 203 34 — their read its 
 
 210 13 dele ' {the »ign of quotation) 
 277 i\ 
 
 290 ^2 r ^"'^ 
 300 93 
 
 299 36 — him read them 
 
 346 15 — S. read Santa 
 
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
' Non star, cuor mio, piu meco ; 
 Se viver viioi in pace, 
 Vanne a Gesu e sta seco, 
 Che'l mondo e si fallace, 
 Ciie ormai a lui non piace, 
 Se non, chi e traditore.' 
 
 Savonarola. 
 
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CHILDHOOD OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 The Church disunited — Nicholas V. — Superstitious practices 
 — Family and birth of Savonarola — Tutored by his grand- 
 father Michele— Physiology and psychology — Mysticism 
 embodied in Italian life and art — Calixtus III. — Pius II. — 
 Canonization of Catharine of Sienna — Probable influence 
 of such circumstances on the infant mind of Savonarola. 
 
 The grief of the Church for the loss of her pristine 
 unity was not to be consoled by the licentiousness 
 of the Vatican, nor was the ample learning of 
 Nicholas V. sufficient to compensate the decay of the 
 ancient faith. He might repair, or rebuild altars and 
 temples — remove simony from among the practices 
 of his court — sign a concordat with the German 
 church; — but what availed these or greater benefits, 
 while that faith had been corrupted, and superstition 
 yet received the sanction of the so-called vicar of 
 Christ ? Only so recently as the year 1450, this 
 superstition had been made to subserve the avarice 
 of the clergy and people of Rome. The jubilee had 
 again been celebrated, and such multitudes had been 
 induced to seek plenary indulgence at the tombs of 
 the Apostles, that many were crushed to death in 
 churches, and many perished by the accidents insepar- 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 THE POPE VICAR OF M4MM0N. 
 
 B. T. 
 
 able from all great assemblages of the people. 
 Ninety-seven pilgrims were thrown at once by the 
 pressure of the crowd from the bridge of St. Angelo, 
 and drowned. These physically were the victims of 
 idolatrous imposture, but there were others afar off 
 who were spiritual sufferers. Nicholas V., with all 
 his learning, had not fortitude to resist the pernicious 
 precedent of former pontiffs, who had afforded, to 
 those who were prevented by personal occasions from 
 locally attending, the facilities of redeeming their 
 omission at a distance. Indeed, not only salvation, 
 but full and complete indulgence for all manner of 
 sin and crime had been brought to every man's private 
 door. For the greater convenience of purchasers, and 
 the greater profit of the venders, both the jubilee and 
 its indulgences had frequently been permitted to every 
 place in Christendom. Those therefore who would 
 not or could not come to Rome might lawful!}' stay 
 away, if they paid the price for the privilege of 
 receiving at home the anticipatory pardon for which, 
 at a lesser rate, they must have crossed the Alps. 
 In a word, the pope was no longer the vicar of 
 Christ, but of Mammon. No man can serve both. 
 
 Nor could the pope attempt such double service 
 without a feeling of shame. To the Poles and 
 Lithuanians, for instance, a private jubilee had been 
 accorded, on the condition that every pious person 
 should pay for his indulgence half of the charge 
 which he would have incurred by the pilgrimage to 
 Rome. This contrivanr-e would have raised a sum 
 so enormous, that the blushing traffickers were com- 
 pelled by the natural operations of ccmscience to 
 reduce the proportion to one quarter. The proceeds 
 were even then so considerable, that half of thom 
 were confided to the king of Poland for the prose- 
 cution of the holy war, a fourth to the queen Sophia 
 for charitable uses, and a fourth for the repair of the 
 
CH. I. 
 
 BIRTH OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 5 
 
 Roman churches. They might have been vrorse 
 applied ; but having been levied on superstition, and, 
 in great part, on that of the poor, they were never- 
 theless accursed. 
 
 Providence had decreed that at this period, Giro- 
 LAMO Savonarola should appear on the stage of the 
 world. 
 
 This extraordinary man, whom Luther placed with 
 John of Hiiss and Jerome of Prague amongst the 
 martyrs of protestantism, was descended from a noble 
 and illustrious race, originally of Padua, and was 
 bom of Nicolo Savonarola and Helena his wife, on 
 the 21st of September, 1452, at Ferrara, and soon 
 afterwards BaptTzed with tlie name of Girolamo 
 Maria Francesco Mattheo. His mother was of the 
 ancient house of Buonacorsi at Mantua, but for his 
 instruction he seems to have been mainly indebted 
 to his father and grandfather. The latter, named 
 Michele, was a celebrated physician ; one of the men, 
 whom, to his honour, Nicholas D'Este, Duke of 
 Ferrara, invited to surround his person. To that 
 city, accordingly, the Savonarola family seem to have 
 removed together from Bologna, where they had pre- 
 viously resided. Nor were the brothers of Girolamo 
 undistinguished; the eldest, Ognibene,beinga soldier ; 
 the fourth, Marco, becoming a Dominican, receiving 
 the habit from the fraternal hands of Girolamo ; and 
 the fifth, Alberto, being remarkable for learning and 
 for charity. So beneficial is female association to 
 the mind and heart of youth, that we are glad 
 to find a brief record of two sisters, Beatrice and 
 Clara, of whom the former died early, unmarried, 
 and the other lived long a widow, universally re- 
 spected, in the house of her brother Alberto. But 
 we hear little of the mother — a deficiency of infor- 
 mation to be deeply regretted. Several men of 
 genius have owed so much of early inspiration to 
 B 3 
 
6 
 
 MICHELE SAVONAROLA. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 maternal teaching, that it would have been interesting 
 to have traced its operation on the mind of our 
 Reformer. 
 
 From the ruggedness of his character, both as boy 
 and man, it is to be suspected that Girolamo Savo- 
 narola had never been blessed with the softening 
 influences of such instruction. 
 
 Little less effective, however, are the teachings of 
 a competent grandfather or a great uncle ; — a truth 
 which the present biographer can personally attest. 
 Michele undertook the boy Girolamo's education, and 
 continued to superintend his studies till he was ten 
 years of age, when death removed the old man from 
 the charge he was so well fulfilling. A taste for 
 letters had led Michele early in life, to exchange 
 the profession of arms for that of physic. After 
 receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine, he 
 visited the most celebrated schools, especially those 
 of Salerne, Naples, Rome, Paris, and, in part, Ger- 
 many ; and in particular studied chemistry, taking 
 notes of the mineral waters of different countries. 
 On his return, he was named lecturer of the Uni- 
 versity of Padua. While resident at Ferrara, he 
 occupied the chair of practical medicine. In evi- 
 dence of his learning many works exist — one (enti- 
 tuled Speculum Physiognomice) was translated into 
 Greek. They are chiefly on medical subjects ; ma- 
 nifesting, however, considerable independence in 
 thought and expression, and a disposition to question 
 the learning and intelligence of some authors then 
 vulgarly esteemed first-rate. Such a man was calcu- 
 lated to excite an ardent youth to precocious deve- 
 '.op''ment, and it would appear that even at this early 
 period lie liad not only instructed the lad in grammar 
 
 ' Michele was born in 131!4,anJ commenced life as Chev.a- 
 lier de Rhodes. 
 
CII. I. 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL MYSTICISM. 
 
 7 
 
 and the tatin language, but had also initiated him 
 into his own physiological studies. 
 
 Generally distinguished for a love of learning and 
 the arts, many individual physicians have even prac- 
 tised them with considerable success, besides becoming 
 proficient in their own profession. Medicine, also, in 
 the days of which we are writing, was not only a 
 branch of science but of philosophy ; concerned not 
 only the body but the soul. Psychological investi- 
 gations, therefore, were certainly within its sphere ; 
 but the practitioner, not content either with their 
 limit or their level, frequently aspired to discover the 
 principles of Being, in their most mystical arcana. In 
 fact, it took a long time to distinguish and exhibit 
 the professions apart from one another, and from the 
 common unity in which they were originally involved. 
 The ecclesiastical at first embraced the whole. Re- 
 ligion- — philosophy — art — science — these were only 
 developements of one and the same spirit which com- 
 prised them all within the bounds of the Church. 
 The clergy engrossed the learned professions, which 
 are now divided among the laity. They were not 
 only priests, but physicians, surgeons, lawyers, poets, 
 musicians, artists, architects — nay, actors — and to 
 them we are indebted for the introduction of the 
 drama, as well as for the preservation of all kinds 
 of learning. 
 
 When some distinction began to be made between 
 the different professions, it was not likely that they 
 would lose all at once the marks of their previous 
 unity. They who undertook to heal the body still 
 viewed it in connexion with the soul and spirit. It 
 is evident that Michele possessed much of the enthu- 
 siasm which attaches to these mystical pursuits, par- 
 ticularly when brought in aid of the healing art. 
 Speculation and practice here go together, and play 
 into one another's hands, affording peculiar delight 
 
8 
 
 SUPERSTITION AND RELIGION. B. I. 
 
 to the professor from their mutual and varying inter- 
 course. Extravagant notions were doubtless in this 
 way generated ; but we frequently misjudge such 
 characters and their opinions — for we are yet only 
 again beginning to appreciate the advantages arising 
 from the union of science with philosophy and re- 
 ligion. 
 
 In Italy — however corrupt the form — however de- 
 generate the spirit — all was subservient to the reli- 
 gious sentiment. It might, in the minds of the many, 
 prove only a superstitious feeling ; still we must 
 remember that superstition itself is nothing less than 
 the religion of the natural man, and that the many 
 are always the carnally minded, and if divested of 
 superstition, are left without religion. The few, in 
 all ages, have risen to purer perceptions ; and what 
 subserved, in the vulgar mind, only the gross purposes 
 of idolatry, might in their's conduce to the highest 
 ends of the purest worship. Here the most glorious 
 art had illustrated the holiest mysteries, and the most 
 subtle ' guesses at truth,' were beautifully embodied 
 •in cunning symbols of the sense. 
 
 ' The pomp of columns and trimnphal arches 
 
 Confronted them, the Colosseum's grandeur 
 Encompassed them with wonder, a sublime 
 Creative spirit iu its world of miracles, 
 Its own fair world, shut-in their souls to gaze. 
 How felt they, when, within the churches stepping, 
 Heaven's music hovered o'er them, and the forms 
 Of perfect fulness prodigally poured 
 From wall and ceiling ; when the Highest and 
 Most Glorious, there before the raptured sense. 
 In present motion, swayed ; when now they saw 
 The god-like pictured — to the eye addressed — 
 The Virgin's Salutation by the Angel, 
 The Lord's Nativity, the Holy Mother, 
 The Trinity Descending, and the lustrous 
 Ti-ansfiguration ; when at last they saw 
 The Pope, in pride of office, bless the people. 
 
CH. I. 
 
 NICHOLAS V. 
 
 9 
 
 O ! what is all the gohl, the jewelled sheen, 
 With which the kiugs of earth adoru themselves ! 
 He is embellished with Divinity, 
 Truly, heaven's very kingdom is his house. 
 For not of this poor world is such array ' ! ' 
 
 Michele and Girolamo, the venerable teacher and his 
 docile grandson, were alike surrounded with the same 
 gorgeous types, which made earth speak everj'where 
 of heaven, and suggested the numberless analogies 
 that link the shadows of the one with the realities of 
 the other. Every thing conspired to promote that 
 precocious opening of the mind, which made Girolamo 
 Savonarola seem, at ten years of age, a family prodigy. 
 IMoreover, his mind possessed a poetic aptitude, sub- 
 sequently so developed as justly to beget for him 
 esteem as a lyric genius. 
 
 The era, too, had its startling phenomena, and the 
 character of Nicholas V. was not without interest. 
 He was an indomitable man of intellect — one of those 
 who hope against hope. Thus even when Constan- 
 tinople fell, he sought by a new crusade to regain to 
 the Church her eastern empire. To this end ^neas 
 Sylvius, (afterwards Pius II.) charmed the princes 
 oi Germany by his eloquence ; but one Simonet, a 
 monk without any, performed the task required by 
 the mere force of activity, visiting with his personal 
 efforts Venice, Milan, Florence. A simple, unlearned, 
 undistinguished hermit of St. Augustine, without 
 rank, without wealth, without any worldly support, 
 had accomplished by vulgar enthusiasm an enterprize 
 which the pope and his court of cardinals had in vain 
 attempted. Before, however, all the plans proposed 
 could be brought to bear, Nicholas V. died of grief 
 or remorse — not without leaving his testimony against 
 that chair of St. Peter, which he had so infelicitously 
 
 2 Schiller's « Maria Stuart.' I. 6. 
 
10 
 
 JENEAS SYLVIUS. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 occupied. ' No man,' he said, ' ever crosses my 
 threshold who tells me a word of truth. T am con- 
 founded by the artifices of those who surround me : 
 and if I were not restrained by the fear of scandal, I 
 would resign the pontificate, and become once more 
 Thomas of Sarzana. Under that name I had more 
 enjoyment in a single day, than any year can hence- 
 forth ever bring me.' He was succeeded by Calix- 
 tus III. 
 
 From head to foot, the Church had been found 
 corrupt by every office-bearer, whose conscience re- 
 tained the capacity of making distinction between 
 right and wrong. Inspiration still continued more 
 powerful than learning, yet had learning long substi- 
 tuted inspiration in the Church, notwithstanding that 
 she had not then, as in these latter days, resigned her 
 claims to miraculous gifts, and the power of prophetic 
 vision. She had not congratulated herself on the fact 
 of her being a dead Church, and been consequently 
 content that her pastors, and teachers, and apostles 
 should be likewise dead, venturing the foolish asser- 
 tion (which we regret lately to have seen made in 
 some respectable tracts devoted to the promotion of 
 ecclesiastical discipline,) that, in this manner, the same 
 relation was preserved between the clergy and their 
 flock, asbetween alivingpeople and alivingpriesthood. 
 Bad as they were, the clergy of those times had not ex- 
 pressed themselves satisfied with the mere form of god- 
 liness, while lacking altogether the power. Though 
 learned and eloquent, the practice of dialectics had not 
 overlaid the real enthusiasm that naturally belonged 
 to the character of yEneas Sylvius. True, he was a 
 rhetorician, but yet sincere in his efforts as had been 
 poor Simonet. With the great and powerful, how- 
 ever, jEneas sought to plead ; — nay, pleaded so suc- 
 cessfully, that scarcely was the successor of Nicholas 
 V. estiiblished in his dignity, when the princely orator 
 
CII. I. 
 
 PILS II. 
 
 11 
 
 appeared in Rome, and claimed audience of the new 
 pope and cardinals, to receive the gratifying report of 
 his progress in foreign courts. Calixtus III. was, 
 however, more anxious to apply the infamous system 
 of nepotism to the advantage of his family, than to 
 take vigorous measures for extending or securing the 
 dominion of the ecclesiastical city of the world. The 
 ignoble passion of avarice had substituted the myste- 
 rious sentiment of spiritual ambition in the pontifical 
 bosom, and the riches of the apostolical treasury were 
 exhausted on the worthless nephews of the temporary 
 holder of the papal see. Then also the worldliness 
 of jEneas Sylvius' character shewed itself. When 
 the same Calixtus was accused by the Germans of 
 having raised exorbitant contributions, under the 
 pretext of a holy war, and violated the concordat 
 made with his predecessor ; then JEneas Sylvius, who 
 had formerly opposed pontifical oppression, and only 
 recently advocated the imperial claims, was so un- 
 mindful of the grace of consistency, as to defend and 
 justify the wrong doings of all popes whatsoever, and 
 the existing pope in particular, against the gainsaying 
 prelate-princes of Germany, and especially against 
 the national ingratitude in having resolved to with- 
 hold contributions from Rome, to prevent appeals, to 
 restore elections to the ordinaries, to refuse annates, 
 and so, in effect, to deprive the sovereign pontiff of 
 the plenitude of his power. Doubtless, he had strong 
 motive for such a course of action. The chair of St. 
 Peter was almost within his own reach. Calixtus 
 III. was old — very old. In fact, he reigned only 
 three years, and the fortunate and assiduous jEneas 
 Sylvius thus soon became in very deed Pius II. At 
 the council of Mantua, called by him for promoting 
 the crusade which he had so much at heart, he asserted 
 the paramount and unappealable authority of the 
 holy see, in a celebrated bull, which denounced all 
 
12 
 
 THE CHURCH, 
 
 B. I. 
 
 appeals from the pope to general councils, ' as an 
 execrable abuse unheard of in ancient times — a prac- 
 tice which every man instructed in law must regard 
 as contrary to the holy canons, and prejudicial to the 
 Christian republic,' — and then proceeded to excom- 
 municate all individuals, whether imperial, royal, or 
 pontifical, who might thereafter resort to such ap- 
 peals, as well as all universities and colleges, and all 
 others who should promote and counsel them. Nor 
 was he content with this official edict, but went the 
 length of publishing a retractation of his own early 
 opinions; — confessing, that being liable to human 
 imperfection, he had said or written much which 
 might unquestionably be censured — that he had 
 sinned like Paul, and persecuted the Church of God 
 through want of sufficient knowledge, but that now 
 he imitated the blessed Augustine, who having fallen 
 into some erroneous expressions, retracted them : — 
 adding, ' Believe me now that I am old, rather than 
 then, when I spake as a youth ; pay more regard to 
 the sovereign pontiff than to the individual ; reject 
 ^neas, receive Pius. The former name was imposed 
 by my parents — a Gentile name, — and in my infancy : 
 the other I assumed as a Christian in my Apostolate.' 
 
 Transactions like these could not fail of impressing 
 an imagination so quick, so ardent, as the boy 
 Savonarola's. They tended apparently to support 
 the external dignity of the Church, the rights of 
 which they asserted. All indicated that a struggle 
 was proceeding for the maintenance of her authority 
 — her supremacy — her divine origin. It needs, too, 
 as we shall show, to be in the fold of the Church to 
 fully understand her corruptions. On the outside, 
 the decencies were at this period well preserved, and 
 even increased attention was paid daily to their 
 observance. At all times, too, the ecclesiastical in- 
 stitution has been a positive benefit, and has included 
 
CH. I. 
 
 • OPEN VISION.* 
 
 13 
 
 within its bosom individuals whose personal holiness 
 was calculated to give elevation to any society. The 
 virtues and piety of the inferior clergy were always 
 sufficient to preserve the respectability of the ordinary 
 ministrations. The zeal and sincerity of such indi- 
 viduals, though almost unnoticed by the historian, 
 were fruitful of good example in the retired places 
 of life, where the serenity of daily occupation is un- 
 disturbed by the intrigues of those who are seated in 
 authority. By them the cumbrous machinery of the 
 court and prelacy of Rome was supported long after 
 it had given way at head-quarters. ' Tt was their 
 virtues,' says a modern writer, ' which sustained the 
 vices of their superiors ; it was their humble piety 
 which enabled mitred apostates so long to outrage 
 the name of Christ. And it was not, till the poison 
 had descended to the extremities of the system, and 
 communicated to the village pastor some portion of 
 its hierarchal malignity, that the Church of Rome 
 reeled to its foundation, and by its weakness and 
 depravity invited and justified the rebellion of its 
 children.' But until this result was produced, it 
 preserved enough of ostensible beauty to awaken and 
 maintain the enthusiasm of the young and ardent 
 spirit of Girolamo. 
 
 An occurrence too happened at this lime, which, 
 considering the mystical bias that had been given to 
 his mind, and the poetical temperament that he had 
 derived from nature, was calculated to excite all his 
 genius, and call out the latent energies of a pious soul. 
 
 It was not in art or theory alone that mystical 
 sentiment in Italy received expression, but in the 
 daily business of life — in character and conduct. 
 The Church had still her saints — her miracles — her 
 gifts of prophecy. She still asserted the possession 
 of ' Open Vision' — and the learned Pius II. was 
 now to sanction with his eminent authority claims of 
 
 c 
 
14 
 
 ST. CATHARINE OF SIENNA. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 an extraordinary character, by performing the long 
 delayed canonization of the celebrated Catharine of 
 Sienna, who had died eighty years before, but whose 
 reputation had so continually increased, that at length 
 the popular anxiety could be no longer disappointed. 
 
 St. Catharine of Sienna was a disciple of St. Do- 
 minic, who not only reverenced his virtues, but 
 imitated his discipline ; interposing her own personal 
 efforts to smooth the political difficulties of her 
 country, and seeking to influence, by her reason 
 and authority, the most momentous concerns of the 
 Church. She was a daughter of a citizen at Sienna, 
 early embraced the monastic life, and soon acquired 
 extraordinary reputation for sanctity. In the rigour 
 of her fastings and watchings, in the duties of serious- 
 ness and silence, in the fervency and continuance of 
 her prayers, she far surpassed the merit of her holy 
 sisters ; and the austerities she practised prepared 
 people for the marvels she related. From no human 
 teacher, but by personal communication with Christ 
 himself, Catharine of Sienna derived the spiritual 
 knowledge she professed. Once the Saviour ap- 
 peared to her, accompanied by the holy mother and 
 a numerous host of saints, and in their presence 
 solemnly espoused her, placing on her finger a golden 
 ring, adorned with four pearls and a diamond. The 
 vision vanished, but the ring remained sensible and 
 palpable to her though not to others. Nor was this 
 all. The devotee had sucked from the wound in his 
 side the blood of the Lord ; she had received his 
 heart in exchange for her own ; she bore on her 
 body the marks of his wounds. But unlike the 
 stigmata on the body of St. Francis, on hers they 
 were imperceptible, save to her own gifted vision. 
 At length the fair enthusiast was called from her cell 
 by the messengers of the Florentine people, and 
 officially charged with an important commission to 
 
CH. I. 
 
 DISDNION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 15 
 
 Gregory XI., then resident at Avignon — no less than 
 to mitigate the papal displeasure and reconcile the 
 Church with the Republic. She succeeded in her 
 errand. Admitted to an early audience, she delivered 
 to the pope her arguments in the vulgar Tuscan, ex- 
 plained however by the attendant interpreter; with 
 which his holiness was so satisfied that he finally left 
 the dispute entirely to her decision. She then ad- 
 dressed the pontiff on his own duties and prospects, 
 and urged on him the obligations he owed to his 
 Italian subjects, to the tombs of the apostles, to the 
 chair of his mighty predecessors. Whether influenced 
 by his own predisposition — by the compulsion of 
 circumstances — or the spirit that spake in her — 
 Gregory XI. shortly after removed his residence from 
 Avignon to Rome. On his death-bed, he seems to 
 have repented of the confidence that he had thus put 
 in private revelations ; declaring that ' he had been 
 seduced by such to reject the rational counsels of his 
 friends, and had dragged himself and the Church into 
 the perils of a schism, which was then near at hand, 
 unless Jesus her Spouse should interpose in his mercy 
 to avert it.' 
 
 The schism dreaded by Gregory XI, was not 
 averted. Ere long, and Christendom was convulsed 
 with the contest of two popes, one at Avignon and 
 one at Rome. The female saint supported the claims 
 of Urban VI. against those of Clement VII. The 
 spiritual obedience of Europe was divided. The 
 doctors and learned men of the age took both sides 
 of the controversy, which soon became voluminous. 
 Many pious and gifted persons, say Roman Catholic 
 writers, who are now numbered among the saints of 
 the Church, were to be found indifferently in either 
 obedience — proof sufficient (as they assert) that the 
 eternal salvation of the faithful was not in this case 
 endangered by their error. Catharine was conspi- 
 c 2 
 
16 
 
 CANONIZATION OF ST. CATHARINE. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 cuous not only as the advocate, but the adviser of 
 the Roman pope. Not only did she declare herself 
 loudly for Urban, and employ her talents, her elo- 
 quence, and force, in writing and exhorting all the 
 world to acknowledge him — but in six epistles ad- 
 dressed to himself she discreetly recommended him 
 to relax somewhat from the extreme austerity that 
 had made him so many enemies. But he listened 
 not to the admonitions of his inspired instructress, 
 and continued to rule not only with harshness and 
 rigour, but even with cruelty. 
 
 Such were some of the acts of Catharine of Sienna ; 
 and having thus distinguished herself by her eminent 
 piety, she continued for the rest of her life in the 
 perfect odour of sanctity. After her death continual 
 miracles were performed at her tomb, and the faithful 
 demanded her canonization. A duke of Austria and 
 a king of Hungary even condescended to solicit it 
 from the pontiff of the day, but the confusion of the 
 Church and the disorders of the holy see prevented 
 the ceremony. No less a genius than the learned 
 and enlightened Pius II. was fated to pay that honour 
 to the long since departed enthusiast. By no prelate 
 less accomplished, less liberal, less gifted, less distin- 
 guished, was Catharine of Sienna to be enthroned 
 among the saints of the Church, which in her life she 
 had influenced by counsels received by express reve- 
 lation from the Church's Spouse. 
 
 On the learned yet mystical spirit of Michele, and 
 the no less poetic than enthusiastic temperament of 
 Girolamo Savonarola, such an event, so famous in all 
 subsequent ages, and productive of such popular sen- 
 sation in its own, could not fail of making a deep and 
 lasting impression. One can imagine the venerable 
 grandsire and liis excitable pupil in close and anxious 
 communion on this engrossing topic. What ques- 
 tions ! what rejoinders ! How was wonder awakened ! 
 
CH. I. 
 
 EFFECT ON SAVONAROLA. 
 
 17 
 
 how was faith requickened, stimulated, emboldened 
 and encouraged ! 
 
 Such was Italy in the childhood of Savonarola; 
 such were the influences, and such the times, amidst 
 which his infant intelligence looked out on a world 
 where good and evil maintain perpetual conflict. 
 They must be well considered, if we would arrive at 
 a true estimate of his character and history. 
 
 C.3 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BOYHOOD OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Savonarola taught after ten years of age by his father — By 
 professional teachers— His ra])id progress — Acquaintance 
 with Aristotle and Plato — Wherein they apparently differ 
 to the exoteric student from St. John — Savonarola studies 
 Thomas Aquinas — Primitive teaching of the Apostles — 
 Savonarola's dissatisfaction with the world and liis deter- 
 mination to be a monk — The Dominican oi-der — The ration- 
 ale of Monastic Institutions — Savonarola a disappointed 
 lover — His early character and habits. 
 
 Upon the death of his grandfather, Savonarola was 
 not left without a tutor. His father assumed the 
 office. He was nevertheless under a moral and 
 mental influence of a more worldly character; but 
 still he was happily placed, since education is never 
 so legitimately conducted, as when in the hands of 
 its natural guardians — the parents of the pupil. 
 
 The mind of Savonarola had opened so much in 
 consequence of the precocity to which it had already 
 been excited, that his father determined on having 
 him without delay carefully and liberally instructed 
 by competent teachers. His native town (which 
 only lately had been honoured with the presence of 
 two celebrated teachers, Guarino of Verona, and 
 Giovanni Aurispa, a Sicilian, both of whom had stu- 
 died Grecian antiquity in Greece itself) fortunately 
 possessed such, and by these he was aided not a little 
 in the task of self-culture, that had become habitual 
 
CII. H. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 
 
 19 
 
 to his mind. So greatly zealous was he for the truth, 
 as well as so much accustomed to investigate its evi- 
 dences for himself, that he was wont, when their 
 views differed, to contend with his teachers, and assert 
 his right to maintain his own. His attention was 
 speedily directed to the Greek and Roman lore which 
 had then recently redawned upon the world. It was 
 under the guidance of his father, however, that he stu- 
 died logic and philosophy ; and such was his persevering 
 diligence, and so penetrating his understanding, that 
 he soon found himself in advance of his schoolfellows, 
 not only in amount of knowledge, but in the readi- 
 ness of his intelligence and the accuracy of his judg- 
 ment. It is added, too, that his general character 
 preserved him from envy, and that all who knew him 
 wished him well, and joyfully formed the greatest 
 expectations of his future celebrity. 
 
 His progress must have been rapid, for we soon 
 find that such was his acquaintance with Plato and 
 Aristotle (the latter he appears to have studied first), 
 that the writings of these sages had already induced 
 those ' unworldly yearnings' which are ever found 
 to accompany in the minds of ingenuous youth the 
 first perceptions of the ideal. Not only was Giro- 
 lamo's thirst for knowledge increased, but his desire 
 for moral elevation' grew with his growtli and strength- 
 ened with his strength. He began at once to appre- 
 hend',' in Ihe system of things about hinv-^in the 
 conduct of individuals and general society — and, 
 perhapsV in his own ordinary practice — a rule of 
 living and acting repugnant to those sublime princi- 
 ples which he had been taught to appreciate in the 
 works of his masters, and the truth of which he had 
 recognized in the aspirations of his own better spirit. 
 His friends were delighted with his unhesitating im- 
 provement in science and philosophy ; but for him- 
 self, he could not avoid feeling a dissatisfaction which 
 
PLATO, ARISTOTLE, AND ST. JOHN. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 he kept secret, but which nevertheless was acquiring 
 in its conceahnent a sacred energy, that uhimately 
 produced decided results — such as at once distin- 
 guished him for force of character and personal reso- 
 lution. 
 
 At this point it is, that the mind of youth recog- 
 nizes the reality of a power to which the world is 
 opposed, but which, notwithstanding, is, in fact, uni- 
 versally recognized. This recognition is embodied 
 in the institution that we call the Church, The Church 
 and the world are scripturally represented as per- 
 petual antagonists. The former ought to maintain 
 pure principle against corrupt practice, and this is 
 exactly what was done by the founders of it. Only 
 those who were willing to do this were admitted into 
 it. God, in the first instance, only added to it 
 ' such as should be saved.' Afterwards many were 
 admitted who were never other than children of wrath, 
 and who. like Judas, accumulated perdition by the 
 guilt of treachery. 
 
 Savonarola had not yet advanced so far into the 
 question as this discovery implies. He had only 
 recognized the antagonism of the world to the pure 
 principle which he had accepted as the law of his own 
 character and conduct. Nor had he yet probably 
 received it as more than an idea, since only as such, 
 if exoterically studied, (and Savonarola had not yet 
 the means of deeper insight) it is taught, or seems to 
 be taught, by Plato and Aristotle. He had yet to 
 learn, with St. John, to recognize it as a Person — as 
 not only a Principle but a Being — and that Being, 
 God According to the mystical evangelist, that 
 divine Being celebrated in all ages as the Messiah, 
 
 See this subject very nicely treated in an ' Enquiry into 
 the Heresies of the Apostolic age,' by the late Rev. E. 
 Burton, D.D., Regius pi-ofessor of Divinity, and Cauou of 
 Christ's Church, Oxford. 
 
CH. II. 
 
 EXEMPLARY MEN. 
 
 21 
 
 the Christ, the Anointed, the Word, is veritably the 
 Son of God, in the beginning with God, and himself 
 God, — as well as the life of the human soul and the 
 light of the intelligence of man. He, however, does 
 not neglect or undervalue the latter truth, but de- 
 clares it boldly, announcing the eternal Word as a 
 principle also which may be claimed by every indi- 
 vidual of the race as the common inheritance. Never- 
 theless, ' the light that lighteth every man coming 
 into the world' is manifested in different individuals, 
 and in the race at different times, in very different 
 degrees. In the best of men, under the best of cir- 
 cumstances, it is but as a ' light shining in the dark- 
 ness that comprehends it not.' In natures, and with 
 peoples, that need expansion beyond the sphere of 
 sensual existence, the ' life which is the light of 
 men' is so partially and feebly exhibited, as scarcely 
 to be recognizable. They are indeed pronounced as 
 alive to none other than the natural desires and per- 
 ceptions, and therefore dead in trespasses and sins. 
 In point of intellect, they are but one remove from 
 idiots. ' To be carnally minded,' we are further 
 told, ' is death.' 
 
 It is to be feared that the majority of mankind are 
 in this undeveloped, unquickened condition. ' High 
 capacious powers,' as the poet asserts, ' are folded 
 up' in their souls, but remain unwitnessed ; whence 
 beings, capable of immortality, die like the beasts that 
 perish, — giving no sign of the divinity within. A 
 few, however, have at all times and in all places been 
 privileged to illustrate the purpose of God in the 
 creation of man, and to these we are indebted, under 
 God, for examples of what it is possible for man to 
 become. 
 
 Excellent as some of these examples are, reacliing 
 almost to the summit of human perfection ; such, 
 
22 STANDARD OF HUMAN EXCELLENCE. B. I. 
 
 however, is the disposition of our reason to regressive 
 speculation, that it still remains dissatisfied, and in- 
 sists on conceiving a yet untried possibilitj-. It 
 requires to be furnished indeed with more than the 
 relative instances of a law, and demands such an em- 
 bodiment of the principle it acknowledges as shall 
 serve for a Standard, and constitute an absolute Cri- 
 terion by which it shall be regulated in its judgments 
 of all attempts at similar realization. The four 
 Gospels contain the records of the life and death on 
 earth of a Divine Being in the form of a man, known 
 by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whose character 
 and conduct were such as to justify his believers in 
 accepting Him as the very incarnation of the Word of 
 God — the personal fulfilment of the law of the Omni- 
 potent — and the perfect realization of the Principle 
 which is with the Eternal — and who was accordingly 
 acknowledged by them (though not by the world) as 
 the Christ who was to come, the Son of the everlast- 
 ing Father, the Author and Finisher of the faith of 
 man. By the world He was despised and rejected, 
 and by those who ruled in its high places, ecclesiasti- 
 cal and political. He was arraigned of blasphemy, 
 mocked, insulted, scourged, and crucified. After 
 three days. He rose from the sepulchre in which He 
 had been buried, and subsequently returned into the 
 heavens from which He had originally descended, as 
 the Saviour of the human race. There, seated at the 
 right hand of the Father, He received gifts for men, 
 shedding anon the gracious influences of his holy 
 Spirit on his disciples — enabling ' some to be apo- 
 stles — some prophets — some evangelists — some pas- 
 tors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, 
 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
 body of the Christ : till we all come in the unity of the 
 faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto 
 
CIl. II. 
 
 SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY. 
 
 23 
 
 a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
 fulness of the Christ'.' 
 
 To return. The manifold subtleties of Aristotle 
 seem little to have pleased Savonarola, whether in 
 youth or manhood. Though pursuing the philosophy 
 of the Stagyrite only after the fashion of the time, the 
 strong practical sense, for which he was remarkable, 
 could not fail to detect various errors, that during 
 the solitary period of his early life and the public 
 discussions of his later age he took every opportunity 
 of denouncing. With Plato, with whom, as we have 
 mentioned, he became subsequently acquainted, he was 
 better satisfied — studying and copying his dialogues 
 indeed with enthusiasm, and coinciding with the 
 opinions of the time which quoted him even from the 
 pulpit as ' the godlike man.' The writings of 
 Thomas Aquinas, to whom he is said to have devoted 
 his nights as well as days, likewise exercised his in- 
 genuity, and shan'pened his reason ; familiarizing his 
 mind with speculations calculated to be exceedingly 
 useful to him in after life. The angelic doctor's 
 ' Commentaries on Aristotle' probably assisted Sa- 
 vonarola in that clear insight into those errors which 
 he subsequently gloried in exposing, and his ' Sum 
 of Theology,' together with his voluminous exercita- 
 tions on the Old and New Testaments, were adapted 
 to divert the pupil from physic to theology, and give a 
 religious direction to the mind. It is customary with 
 experimental sciolists of our own days to undervalue 
 the labours of this mighty dialectician, but in so doing 
 they quite as much err by their exclusivencss in one 
 direction as perhaps the scholastic theologians did by 
 their pertinacity in the opposite. The divine, the 
 spiritual and the moral faculties of the human soul 
 were strengthened by such speculations, and not only 
 
 5 Epii. iv. 11. 13. 
 
24 
 
 PRIMITIVE TEACHING. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 Savonarola, but many men of marvellous genius were 
 fortified in their love of truth by the method of a 
 priori study. A logical exercise of higher value and 
 wider utility, however, is doubtless to be appreciated 
 in the careful and critical perusal of the New Testa- 
 ment Scriptures. 
 
 In them we find a high and pure doctrine — such 
 as had never been previously promulged in temple 
 or school — surpassing not only the subtlety of Aris- 
 totle, but excelling the sublimity of Plato. The 
 earliest disciples of the Messiah declared aloud to the 
 people of Jerusalem that the last days had come, 
 when God had said, ' I will pour out of my Spirit 
 upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters 
 shall prophesy, and your young men shall see 
 visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; 
 and on my servants and on my handmaidens T will 
 pour out in those days of my Spirit ; and they shall 
 prophesy. And I will shew wonders in heaven 
 above, and signs in the earth beneath ; blood, and 
 fire, and vapour of smoke : the sun shall be turned 
 into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that 
 great and notable day of the Lord come : and it shall 
 come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of 
 the Lord shall be saved'.' And therewithal they de- 
 manded of all men that they should repent and be bap- 
 tized every one in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
 remission of sins, declaring that thus they should re- 
 ceive the Holy Ghost : adding, ' For the promise is 
 unto you and to your children, and to all that are. afar 
 off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call 
 Such a doctrine, though individually received by 
 many, was not generally patronized by the world, nor 
 by the rulers of its institutions. By these it was in- 
 terpreted in a carnal sense only, and they failed not 
 
 " Acts ii. 17—21. 
 
 ' lb. 3«, 39, 
 
CII. II. 
 
 RELIGIOUS IMPULSES. 
 
 25 
 
 to allege that it was nothing short of ' blasphemy 
 against Moses and against God, against the temple 
 and against the law.' Nor was the truth long with- 
 out a martyr, who was accused of having said that 
 Jesus of Nazareth should destroy the temple and city 
 of the Jews, and should change the customs which 
 Moses had of old delivered to them. So hard it is 
 for institutions that have been long established, to 
 tolerate the statement of those verities, on the foun- 
 dation of which they must, nevertheless, have them- 
 selves been originally edified. Alas ! initiated by the 
 enthusiasm of their earlier members, they substitute 
 thenceforth the rules of an order for the impulses of 
 the individual, until at last mere precedent and cus- 
 tom supply the place of those high feelings, and that 
 conscious inspiration, in which at first they had their 
 genesis. 
 
 Not yet aware how that the Church, instead of 
 rebuking, had long supported the world in its worst 
 evils ; Savonarola, now a young man, acting on his 
 individual impulses, looked towards her as a shelter 
 and a refuge from what he scorned, and would fain 
 shun. His conscience, enlightened by philosophy, 
 had condemned the world, and he sought in religion 
 for redress and safety. 
 
 The mind of Girolamo was indeed tossed to and 
 fro by the state of sentiment into wliich he had been 
 thrown. He contemplated the wickedness of the 
 Avorld with horror — it was a monster of a mien so 
 hideous as not to be endured. He turned from it, 
 therefore, to God — to his own soul. He sought the 
 converse of angelic visitants — of spiritual powers — 
 the privileges of divine communion. He desired to 
 revel for ever in the beauty of holiness, and avert his 
 attention altogether from the ugliness of sin. Hard 
 task for the individual ! We need sympathy, else 
 such aspirations fall back upon the heart, like scorch- 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 PRINCIPLE OF MONACHISM. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 ing steam, and aggravate its anguish. The Church 
 took — or professed to take — all to her bosom who 
 felt and thought like him. She had gathered many 
 such together. Within her folds were the companions 
 who could partake his sorrows and his consolations, 
 with whom he could talk of heaven and heavenly 
 things. Many were the chambers of her house. 
 Wisdom had builded it, and she had hewn out there 
 her seven pillars. She had provided means for the 
 sustenance of piety, receptacles for the nurture of true 
 excellence, and much that was required for the moral 
 necessities of man. Religion had been beneficially 
 invoked to supply the defects of civil government — 
 the name of the Church had been associated with 
 peace. The truce of God mitigated the fury of pri- 
 vate warfare, by limiting the hours of vengeance, and 
 interposing a space for the operation of justice and 
 humanity. The advocate of the weak — the adver- 
 sary of arbitrary power — the dispenser of charity — 
 the Church of Rome provided asylums both for the 
 criminal and the pious. The discipline so strictly 
 inculcated by the earlier prelates, notwithstanding its 
 subsequent abuse, was profitable in its legitimate 
 applications. It arrested the first steps and restrained 
 the earliest dispositions to sin. Confession and pe- 
 nance, and the awful censures of the Church, unop- 
 posed by the popular belief, and dispensed with sin- 
 cerity and discretion, are potent instruments for the 
 improvement of society whether civilized or uncivil- 
 ized. 
 
 To the safeguard of such a Church, Savonarola had 
 resolved upon confiding his eternal interests — in one 
 of her chambers, under the shade of one of her pillars, 
 he would find repose. The principle of monachism 
 in particular attracted his preference. He was 
 charmed by the peace it assured, by the security it 
 offered, lie was, though so young, animated by the 
 
CH. II. 
 
 THE DOMINICAN ORDER. 
 
 27 
 
 same passion for retirement and contemplation as had 
 peopled in the East the mountains and wildernesses 
 with holy recluses. He had yet to understand and 
 to exemplify the utilities which in the West monastic 
 establishments would mainly subserve, namely, as- 
 sociation and education, by these means giving an 
 impulse to the human understanding, which other- 
 wise it w-ould not have received ; whence, indeed, 
 the Reformation of the Church proceeded from the 
 bosom of these her institutions. 
 
 Savonarola then had determined to be a monk, 
 and his mind was bent on joining the Domi nican s. 
 Perhaps, the fact of Thomas Aquinas having been 
 of this order might have swayed Tiim. There are, 
 however, many good reasons why he should have 
 preferred it. The most learned and the most elo- 
 quent, it was also the most active of all the forms of 
 monachism. It professed mendicity and practised 
 preaching. Its great purpose was the extirpation of 
 heresy from the papal dominions. In the valleys of 
 Piedmont and the "cities of Languedoc, it commenced 
 the crusade which ended in founding the Spanish 
 Inquisition, and furnishing it with its sternest minis- 
 ters. St. Dominic, from whom the order received 
 its name, was, at the period of the first persecution of 
 the Albigeois, a young ecclesiastic, remarkable for 
 the severity of his life, the extent of his learning, the 
 persuasiveness of his manner, and the ardour of his 
 zeal. He was a Spaniard of a noble family, and of 
 the order of canons regular ; first having proved 
 in Languedoc the power of his eloquence, and de- 
 lighting in its display, he became desirous of esta- 
 blishing a fraternity devoted to its exercise, which, 
 by a bull of Honorius III., he was enabled to accom- 
 plish. About the same time St. Francis established 
 his rival order; and, though differing much in their 
 origin, both, in the course of time, assimilated in 
 D 2 
 
28 
 
 ELOQUENCE ENCOURAGED. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 their practice, and each brotherhood resolved itself 
 into a society of itinerant preachers, tn some re- 
 spects, however, they materially differed. In one of 
 the controversies which frequently raged between the 
 two orders, the Franciscans were so rebellious to the 
 holy see as formally to attempt the deposition of a 
 pope, while the Dominicans were not only submissive 
 to its authority, but uncompromisingly devoted to its 
 interests : in internal discipline also it excelled its 
 rival. 
 
 In learning it excelled all the orders. The monks 
 of St. Dominic cultivated the science of controversy, 
 and soon became almost irresistible in its use. They 
 exhausted the resources of scholastic ingenuity in the 
 defence of the papal government. Nor in their own 
 behoof were they awanting. They contended during 
 no less than thirty years for a right to lecture in the 
 schools of Paris, and ultimately triumphed over their 
 opponents. In striving for themselves, however, 
 they had indirectly wounded the Church — the possi- 
 bility of her erring having been in the course of the 
 argument openly asserted. 
 
 One of the reasons which swayed the mind of 
 Savonarola in his choice, was doubtless the encourage- 
 ment given by the Dominican order to eloquence of 
 the highest kind. He was already conscious of the 
 first impulses of the orator. Nature right-early 
 makes her secret instincts felt in the soul of a man 
 of genius. But Savonarola's motives, notwithstand- 
 ing, were mainly religious— he was kindled by a 
 sacred enthusiasm, and quickened with the flame of 
 piety. For his disgust with the world, too, there was 
 sufficient reason in the character of the age. Long 
 as Christian principles had been struggling in a world 
 of error, their triumph was not yet assured. There 
 was yet little promise that conduct altogether righte- 
 ous would be permitted to persons busied in secular 
 
CII. II. PROVIDENTIAL INTERPOSITION. 29 
 
 pursuits. There was still in the heart of man a vir- 
 tual paganism, as strong as that which impeded the 
 first progress of Gospel truth, and justified retreat 
 and seclusion to the Orientals and Africans of an 
 earlier epoch. The temperament of Savonarola was 
 as ardent as theirs ; his imagination as impetuous. 
 In him, likewise, the theory of religion had a proba- 
 ble tendency to mysticism and bodily mortification, 
 though not its practice to mere ceremony and un- 
 reasoning superstition. He believed too in the boast 
 of St. Bernard, that those who had embraced the 
 monastic condition lived with greater purity than 
 other men ; that they fell less frequently, and rose 
 more quickly ; that they walked with greater pru- 
 dence ; were more constantly refreshed with the spi- 
 ritual dew of heaven ; rested with less danger, died 
 with greater hope. 
 
 Nor was this boast unfounded. The basis of 
 monastic institutions had always been laid in the 
 reformation of manners. Their history, indeed, pre- 
 sents a series of reformations. Like that of the 
 earliest Cenobites, each successive institution began 
 in poverty, in the most rigid morality, in the duties 
 of religion, of education, of charity. Each grew into 
 power and wealth, and then, by reason of its bright- 
 ness, became corrupted. Wealth, in e'^cry instance, 
 was followed by relaxation of discipline and contempt 
 of decency. After the first, each new order arose 
 out of the corruption of its predecessor. Reformation 
 had, so many times, become necessary ; and the same 
 system was thus repeatedly regenerated under another, 
 or even under the same name, and passed under the 
 same deteriorating process to a fresh corruption. At 
 each period of regeneration also the reformation within 
 had to contend with some similar reformation that had 
 commenced without. In this fact, the miraculous 
 interposition of Providence may be clearly traced. 
 D 3 
 
30 
 
 SAVONAKOLA S EARLY HABITS. 
 
 B, I. 
 
 There is reason, therefore, for the pious gratitude 
 with which the advocates of the Church of Rome 
 declare, that ' the same God who raised up St. Atha- 
 nasius against the Arians, and St. Augustine against 
 the Pelagians, and St. Dominic and St. Francis 
 against the Albigenses, deigned, in a later and still 
 more perilous age, to call for the spirit of Loyola 
 against Luther and Calvin.' The time will at 
 length arrive when, as deep calleth unto deep, those 
 who are within and those who are without shall con- 
 cur together in the restoration of that Catholic purity 
 which is neither of Rome nor of Germany, nor of 
 Spain nor Geneva, but of that holy city, that New 
 Jerusalem, which cometli down from God out of 
 heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 
 
 As a bride ! How frequently in Scripture is the 
 emblem of marriage used to denote the relations of 
 the Church both with man and God. It is because 
 the spring and root of religion is love — for God is 
 love. Savonarola was a loving soul, though of a 
 sanguine-choleric temperament — hence he was en- 
 abled early to subdue his passions, and thus acquired, 
 notwithstanding, an equable tranquillity and self- 
 control, that never deserted him even under the 
 severest trials. It was probably disappointed love 
 which gave him the first distaste for merely secular 
 pursuits — for up to his twentieth year he had certainly 
 no intention of abandoning the world, having until 
 then continued his medical studies, and indeed en- 
 tertained thoughts of matrimony. At this period too he 
 composed some erotic and elegiac verses, which subse- 
 quently he committed to the flames. Often a blighted 
 earthly affection is translated into an enduring hea- 
 venly devotion. Nevertheless, this circumstance was 
 no more than the external occasion, not the essential 
 cause of his determination — for he was evidently pre- 
 disposed to a serious life. In his infancy he had 
 
CH. II. 
 
 SOLITARY MEDITATION. 
 
 31 
 
 ever taken litUe interest in the ordinary sports of liis 
 comrades — as a boy he was of a mute and retiring 
 disposition. Though he could not avoid the circles 
 of his father's house, he mixed in them mostly as a 
 silent spectator; when, however, he spoke, it was 
 with friendliness, grace, and dignity. Public places 
 of resort he avoided entirely, so that the much-fre- 
 quented ducal castle of his native town he had only 
 once visited ; preferring solitary walks, where he might 
 meditate without intemiption. 
 
CHAPTER TIL 
 
 THE MANHOOD OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 Savonarola's poetic studies — His religious enthusiasm — Dif- 
 ference between his and his father's dispositions — State of 
 the World and the Church — Specimen of Savonarola's lyric 
 poetry — Festival of St. George at Ferrara — Savonarola 
 enters the monastery at Bologna — Letter to liis father. 
 
 The religious enthusiasm of Savonarola was doubt- 
 less sustained by his poetical teniperament. It has 
 been said that every poet is a religious man — it may 
 be asserted with more truth that, in the highest sense, 
 every religious man is a poet. The literature of the 
 Italian poets was, in the fifteenth century, calculated 
 to corroborate the pious predilections of the student. 
 It was also a study which the times were far from 
 discouraging ; nay, it is charged against the leading 
 men of the age, that ' they admired the elegance of a 
 finely cadenced sonnet more than the majesty and 
 simplicity of the Scriptures.' This, however, may 
 apply to the critical taste of a period immediately 
 succeeding, rather than to that of which we are 
 writing. The present was an age of production, not 
 of criticism. Savonarola felt as a poet, not as a man 
 of taste. He felt as Petrarch and Dante, as Fol- 
 cHETTo and Sordello had felt before him ; that is, 
 his enthusiasm was not excited by his admiration of 
 a fine poem ; but the fine poems he was qualified to 
 write owed their origin to the inherent enthusiasm of 
 
CH. III. DANTE, PETRARCH, AND BOCCACCIO. 33 
 
 the poetic spirit. The Tuscan language and poesy 
 were more than the mere amusement of his leisure 
 hours. They could not fail of becoming pregnant 
 sources of inspiration, and most valuable means of 
 educating a mind of the highest order. The bold 
 and mighty spirit of Dante, for instance, involved 
 the whole culture of his time, clearly mirroring 
 catholic faith and the entire world itself in his divine 
 work. His wonderful ' Comedia' is a mundane 
 poem : it constitutes a universal drama of the new 
 era, the possession of which it yet maintains without 
 a rival, having moreover no antitype in an earlier 
 age, except perhaps the Edda. The eagle flight 
 which rendered the poet illustrious, elevated also the 
 language in which he wrote, and enabled the Italian 
 tongue to obtain a rapid supremacy over her elder 
 sisters. From Dante the student would derive a 
 precedent and example for the most vehement pro- 
 testation against the abuses and corruptions of the 
 church of which he was a member. Scepticism 
 touching her infallibility had been already suggested 
 in the ' Inferno : ' nor was this state of opinion at all 
 mended by the attempted compromise that desired 
 permission to hold that ' some things might be theo- 
 logically true which were philosophically false.' The 
 controversy became thus, as it were, but a sham 
 strife, a mock 'feud between nothing and creation,' 
 while a new life, spiritual and moral, was in progress 
 of regeneration ' under the ribs of death.' Petrarch 
 expressed this new life, this mighty impulse which 
 was now agitating tlie very heart of Christendom, 
 and added to its impetus by giving to it the tone and 
 voice of love himself, thus advancing mysticism under 
 the disguise of passion. Boccaccio rendered it still 
 more attractive by investing it with a romantic cos- 
 tume. That his romance had a burgher and civic 
 air, was a popular element which served to carry on 
 
34 
 
 PARIS OR BOLOGN A ? 
 
 B. r. 
 
 the movement in a descending direction, into the 
 middle and lower ranks of society. \\Tiat Petrarch 
 had concealed in learned Latin, Boccaccio told the 
 people in his own familiar dialect. From Petrarch's 
 erotics, Savonarola might indeed learn, that to pass 
 existence in the study of poetry was to live always 
 in an innocent yet beautiful dream, — was, in fact, 
 journeying to heaven by a path strewn with flowers — 
 
 * Da lei ti vien 1' amdrdso p^nsiero, 
 Che, mentre '1 se'gui, al sdmmo Ben t'invia, 
 Poco prezzando quel, ch'ogui uom desia. 
 Da lei ti vien I'animdsa leggiadria 
 Ch'al cicl ti scorge p^r destro sentiero ; 
 Si ch' i' v6 giadella speranza altero*.' — So.nettoIX. 
 
 From Boccaccio's tales he might also learn that this 
 same poetry could be profitably applied to the things 
 and persons and events which are usually investi- 
 gated by ' the light of common day ; ' that thereby 
 they might be more satisfactorily interpreted, as well 
 as invested with a lustre which should abide with 
 them for ever, and give them a permanent and cos- 
 mical value. But for himself it was reserved, in the 
 next place, to evolve a point for the ascetic and theo- 
 sophic intelligence, wherein vital religion was ensured 
 a severe species of scientific demonstration to minds 
 prepared by appropriate discipline for its reception. 
 
 The two great nurseries of the Dominicans were 
 Paris and Bologna. Savonarola was attached to 
 Bologna, not only on account of its nationality and 
 convenience, but its family associations. He was only 
 returning to the spot from which his father had emi- 
 
 ' 'She wakes, within, the thought of purest lovej 
 Whicli from the creature rises to its God 
 Unsullied by tlic breath of moi-tal flame : 
 Through her the spruigs of inspiration move, 
 Opening so bright a path from earth's dull clod, 
 That heaven's blest joys even now my soul doth claim.' 
 
 S. WOLt.ASTON. 
 
CII. III. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 35 
 
 grated. Moreover, he had a friend, one Ludovico, — 
 a Bolognese and brother of the Order — who exercised 
 some influence over his opinions. His early philoso- 
 phical and poetical studies had now all merged into 
 religious feeling. Thomas Aquinas had evidently 
 absorbed both Plato and Aristotle. Nothing appeared 
 to Savonarola so desirable as a religious life. The 
 conviction, however, which had now become familiar 
 to him, was not without its peculiar troubles, its secret 
 sorrows. For the first tinie, he began to feel himself 
 alone in the world, as consecrated and set apart from 
 hisjamily, his friends, and his acquaintance. He felt 
 wthin the influence of a mystery, that, like an inspi- 
 ration, had taken possession of his being. He was 
 perplexed in mind and in heart — he suffered much, 
 . . . but in silence. So far from complaining of his 
 state of mind, it is evident that he concealed it from 
 his connexions, and in particular from his father. 
 
 The first impulses of enthusiasm, in all its kinds, 
 are generally accompanied with an instinctive cau- 
 tion, by which the emotion is ostensibly suppressed. 
 The patient feels that the world can have little sym- 
 pathy with the new condition of being into which he 
 has passed. There are fears, too, with the most 
 earnest and faithful, whether hypocrisy or vanity 
 may not underlie the sentiment or aspiration. Pre- 
 cocious genius uniformly conceals its early efforts, 
 and dreads investigation into the imperfect results of 
 a power which has, indeed, already shown its truth to 
 the possessor, but yet wants practice and facility to 
 vindicate its claims on the approbation of strangers 
 or indifferent persons, nay, even of friends. It is 
 the same with piety, while yet struggling from the 
 darkness into which original sin has plunged the 
 human soul. Doubt clings to the combatant until 
 victory is assured. Conscious of indwelling corrup- 
 tion, he suspects the sincerity of his repentance, the 
 
36 
 
 FATHER AND SON. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 genuineness of his resolution, until the fruits are 
 realized and faith proved by good works. Add to 
 this, that the world actually opposes, and feels an 
 interest in antagonizing, all attempts at either artistic 
 or moral excellence. It desiderates that equality 
 which reduces all things to the sensuous level. Even 
 the good would fain continue the state of mediocrity, 
 which they have experienced to require the least 
 exertion, and which, perhaps, satisfactorily represents 
 to them the standard of human perfection. In a 
 word, individual effort is felt to be an assumption of 
 superiority, whether the talent be natural or spiritual ; 
 and the mass of mankind resist it, sometimes actively, 
 and, if not, always by a species of vis inerti^e. Such 
 is the trial appointed by Providence, to prove the 
 worth of the candidate for the blessings of heaven, 
 or the honours of the world. 
 
 Specific circumstances vary particular instances. 
 In the case of Savonarola, an evident discordance 
 existed between the disposition of the father and son. 
 The knowledge, though so eminently metaphysical, 
 which had been imparted to the latter, was all de- 
 signed by the former to qualify the youth, from whom 
 BO much was expected, for the profession of a phy- 
 sician, which had brought already so much glory to 
 the family. But the mind of Savonarola had re- 
 ceived its bent ; and it was to the exclusively spi- 
 ritual side of human developement that it had been 
 inclined. An instinct for truth had been awakened, 
 and given birth to an earnestness of purpose which, 
 from day to day, received strength and vigour. By 
 the operation of such high influences he was more 
 and more withdrawn from the world and its vanities. 
 Meanwliile, in his father's house, the world and its 
 allurements almost perpetually presided. It was a place 
 of gaiety, where the learned and the wealthy and the 
 powerful assembled, and the bribes and temptations of 
 
CII. III. 
 
 Savonarola's mental sufferings. 
 
 37 
 
 society were continually obtruded on the nascent appe- 
 tite. Conditions so alien to his state of sentiment 
 alarmed Savonarola into a conviction of the necessity of 
 retreating from its seductions. But such a convic- 
 tion, from the circumstances in which he was placed, 
 could only be nursed in solitude. How could he 
 dare to tell his father, whose kindness was evidently 
 prerogative, that it was impossible for him to enjoy, 
 under the paternal roof, that communion with his 
 Lord which was necessary to his health and happi- 
 ness ? Family prophets are never much endured : 
 — by parents, their interference is felt as ingratitude 
 and presumption ; by companions, as estrangement 
 and affectation. 
 
 It must be confessed, too, that in this state of 
 mind, under such circumstances, the natural affec- 
 tions do suffer considerable violation. Such conduct 
 needs a justifying apology. None is sufficient which 
 comes short of supposing a special call by God him- 
 self appointing the individual to a special office ; — 
 a call of which, however, only the individual is 
 audient, and the evidence must be left entirely to his 
 own conscience. The witness of the Divine Spirit 
 none knoweth save the recipient; and even he 
 knoweth it in a manner so mysterious, that, in no 
 instance, has a satisfactory account beer rendered to 
 any but those who are similarly influenced. The 
 sincerity of the conviction can only be historically 
 tested by the general course of action — by the per- 
 severing exercise of a mission to the world — and by 
 its ultimate success, either in the person of the indi- 
 vidual himself, or in that of his successors in the like 
 office. 
 
 The mental struggles of Savonarola were over- 
 whelming and incessant, and suffered, as they were, in 
 privacy, at last became intolerable. Having formed 
 his determination, he now awaited the opportunity of 
 
88 
 
 DEATH OF PIUS II. 
 
 B. 1. 
 
 putting it into speedy effect. This was given to him 
 in the year 1475, on the occasion of one of those 
 solemnities which are so numerous in Italy. 
 
 We have already learned what was the state of the 
 Italian church in the childhood of Savonarola — 
 what is it now in his manhood? Fourteen years 
 had elapsed since the canonization of Catharine of 
 Sienna — how had they been occupied ? 
 
 Roused from the consideration of the intestine 
 differences, to activity against the foreign foes of 
 Christendom, Pius II., in consistory, was driven to 
 propose himself marching in person against the Turks, 
 who were then devastating province after province, 
 and thus to invite Christian monarchs, not so much 
 by words as by deeds, to follow in defence of the 
 Church. The spectacle of an infirm old man ad- 
 vancing to such a war would, he thought, awaken 
 them to a sense of shame from the apathy in which 
 they had so long indulged. ' Not,' said he, ' that 
 we propose to draw the sword, a task incompatible 
 with our bodily feebleness and sacerdotal character ; 
 but after the example of the Holy Father Moses, 
 who prayed on the mountain, even while Israel was 
 fighting with the Amalekites, we shall stand on some 
 lofty galley or mountain's brow, and holding before 
 our eyes the Holy Divine Eucharist, which is our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, we shall implore Him to grant 
 safety and victory to our contending armies.' Pre- 
 ceded by the cardinal of St. Angelo, an old and 
 zealous prelate, Pius II. was, soon after this ad- 
 dress, conveyed in a litter, enfeebled by sickness, 
 to the camp at Ancona, and there patiently awaited 
 the arrival of maritime succours which the Venetians 
 had engaged to furnish. At length, the promised 
 galleys arrived, but their white sails had no sooner 
 become visible than the Pontiff expired. The mul- 
 titude by whom he had been surrounded, numerous 
 
CH. III. 
 
 PAPAL AVARICE. 
 
 39 
 
 but ill-conditioned, imperfectly armed, without re- 
 sources, without discipline, nay, without enthusiasm, 
 had been assembled from various and distant regions, 
 only to witness the death of one distinguished man, 
 and augment his funeral procession. 
 
 Paul II., who succeeded him, imperious and vain, 
 pompous and frivolous, — a Venetian, and therefore 
 peculiarly empowered to resist the Turkish aggres- 
 sion — was, nevertheless, so perverted by pontifical 
 prejudices, that he neglected the prosecution of the 
 war abroad for the persecution of heresy at home. 
 To Corvinus, king of Hungary, he gave the crown 
 of Bohemia on condition of his exterminating the 
 Hussites. He attempted the suppression of a lite- 
 rary society at Rome, declaring that ' the terms stu- 
 dious and heretical were synonymous ; ' and carefully 
 impressing upon his subjects the advantages of igno- 
 rance. Acting upon these opinions, he put several 
 persons of literary and moral reputation to the rack 
 — one Agostino Campino died under the torture. 
 Notwithstanding, however, this sanguinary show of 
 zeal, Paul II. cared not for the Church, the interests 
 of which all along he subjected to his own, hoarding, 
 through mere love of gold, great treasures, in pos- 
 session of which he died in 1471. In the year pre- 
 ceding, urged by avarice, and expecting to reap the 
 benefit of his wrong, he had increased an ecclesias- 
 tical abuse by reducing once more the interval be- 
 tween the celebration of the jubilee, changing it from 
 thirty-three to twenty-five years. Thus the year 
 1475 became a year of Jubilee, Rome being then 
 under the pontificate of Sixtus IV. formerly a Fran- 
 ciscan monk. 
 
 It must be confessed that there was nothing in the 
 events of the time to reconcile the mind and heart of 
 Savonarola with the world. In a monastic cell might 
 be cherished that piety of which even the church at 
 E 2 
 
40 
 
 Savonarola's poetry. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 large had neglected the practice. Savonarola had 
 given vent to his feelings concerning both in two 
 canzoni, one entitled " De Ruina Mundi," written 
 in 1472, and the other " De Ruina Ecclesiae," written 
 in 1475. These, though fine, are long and elaborate 
 compositions. The more internal sentiments of his 
 heart are very sweetly expressed in the following 
 lyric : — 
 
 HYMN TO INFLAME THE HEART TO 
 DIVINE LOVE. 
 
 Heart ! no more delajTiig ! 
 Heart ! no more delaying ! 
 From Love Divine thus straying ! 
 
 Love — Jesus Christ — receiveth, 
 And joyfully inflameth, 
 To glad the heart that grieveth ; 
 Himself in prayer still nameth, 
 Yet quickeueth what he claimeth. 
 The Serpent ErroT slaying. 
 
 When thou affliction bearest, 
 
 He thy sweet guardian proveth. 
 Thy shore where peace is nearest, 
 Thy port which joy most loveth ; 
 And thee to cheer still moveth, 
 His love still more bewraying. 
 
 Thme own, my Heart ! be never, 
 
 Wouldst thou repose secure thee — 
 In Jesus rest for ever ! 
 Let not the false world lure thee ; 
 Whom it delights, assure thee. 
 The Lord is he betraying. 
 
 If thou on earth dependest, 
 
 Life makest thou bitter to thee, 
 Wooest strife that ne'er thou endest 
 For peace that ne'er will woo thee. 
 Would'st happy life ? O sue thee 
 In Light Divine arraying ! 
 
CII. III. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 41 
 
 Trust not on earth aught human, 
 
 What's earthly will deceive thee. — 
 Seek thou the Heavenly True Man, 
 Him who will never leave thee, 
 Whose griefs of thine bereave thee, 
 To thee his joys conveying. 
 
 While humbly thou adorcst. 
 He willingly is granting 
 Whatever thou iniplorest ; — 
 Confess to him thy wanting. 
 Unto thy wounds, while panting, 
 The balsam he is laying. 
 
 Comest thou to him, embrace thou 
 And kiss in veneration 
 His hands and feet ; so trace thou 
 The saint's humiliation. 
 While to thy admiration 
 
 His mercies lie's displajing. 
 
 When once thy hand he taketh, 
 'Tis clasp'd in his for ever ; 
 His friend he ne'er forsaketh : 
 With him, or nigh him, never 
 From thee shall pleasure sever, 
 All fear and anguish fraying. 
 
 My Heart ! oh haste to Jesus ! 
 
 Leave men to their disputing — 
 His Love alone can please us. 
 To calm the storm transmuting ; 
 His Love we'll prove how suiting, 
 The world's dread fury staying. 
 
 Bring arms — your weapons bring ye — 
 Ye foes of ruth ! though sadness, 
 Though strength and terror cling ye, 
 No more I fear your madness ! 
 Grief is the heart's true gladness, 
 From Love Divine not straying. 
 
 Heart ! no more delaying ! 
 Heart ! no more delaying ! 
 From Love Divine thus straying ! 
 
 E 3 
 
42 
 
 SAVONAROLA ENTERS THE CLOISTER. 
 
 B. I. 
 
 Having determined to quit Ferrara secretly, Savo- 
 narola made preparations for elFecting his purpose 
 during the time of the solemn festival held in honour 
 of St. George, the patron of the city. On such 
 illustrious occasions, there are gorgeous processions 
 of priests and singers, canons and musicians, and 
 masked men and women, and boys with censers of 
 incense, dignitaries and ennobled persons attendant 
 upon crosses and statues of saint and confessor, and 
 images of angel and archangel, of virgin and child, 
 with the bishop majestically bearing the consecrated 
 host, a visible god, for the worship of a superstitious 
 and idolatrous populace. Nor are more worldly 
 amusements wanting ; the splendours of the opera, 
 the passions and humours of the theatre, the drolleries 
 of Punchinello, the vulgar pleasures of houses of 
 gross entertainment — -with licence and misrule abroad 
 in the public streets, or more retired revelling con- 
 cealed in the haunts of dissipation — all designed to 
 make the holy profane enough for the crowd whose 
 appetites are their only deities. This ended, the 
 gorged and flown multitude hasten from their various 
 sports to the church, where they confess all the sins 
 they have committed during the festive period just 
 closed. 
 
 The bustle of the public games, and the magnifi- 
 cence of the religious spectacles, would engage so 
 much the attention of his father and friends, that Savo- 
 narola knew his absence could not be remarked until 
 it would be too late for them to overtake the fugitive, 
 or interpose remonstrances between his purpose and 
 its execution. On the 24th of April, 1475, he found 
 safe refuge in a Dominican monastery at Bologna, as 
 a candidate for the vows. 
 
 Next day he wrote the following letter to his father: 
 ' My honoiired father. I doubt not tliat you grieve 
 much for my departiu-e,and the more because I left you 
 
CH. III. 
 
 LETTER TO IIIS FATHER. 
 
 43 
 
 secretly ; but I wish you to learn my mind and inten- 
 tion from this letter, that you may be consoled, and un- 
 derstand that I have not taken this step so childishly 
 as some think. And first ; I beg of you as of one who 
 rightly estimates temporal things, that you will be a 
 follower of truth, rather than of passion, like a 
 woman, and that you will judge according to the 
 dictates of reason whether I ought to fly from the 
 world, and execute this my thought and purpose. 
 The reason which induces me to become a monk is 
 this ; in the first place, the great wretchedness of the 
 world, the iniquity of men, the violence, the adul- 
 tery, the theft, the pride, the idolatry, the hateful 
 bl.isphemy into which this age has fallen, so that one 
 can no longer find a righteous man. For this, many 
 times a-day with tears I chaunted this verse : ' Heu, 
 fuge crudeles terras, fuge litus avarum And this 
 because I could not endure the great distemper of 
 some of the people in Italy ; the more also, seeing 
 virtue extinct, ruined, and vice triumphant : this was 
 the greatest suffering I could have in this world : 
 therefore, daily I entreated of my Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that he would rescue me from this defilement. Con- 
 tinually I made my prayer with the greatest devotion, 
 imploring God, saying ' Show me thy path, for to 
 Thee do I lift up mine eyes.' 
 
 'Now God has been pleased in his infinite mercy 
 to show it me, and I have received it, though un- 
 worthy of such grace. Answer me then, is it not 
 well that a man should fly from the iniquity and 
 filth of this wretched world, if he would live like a 
 rational being., and not like a beast among swine ? 
 Indeed, would it not have been most ungrateful, if 
 having asked God to show me the straight path in 
 which I should walk, when He deigned to point it 
 out to me I had not taken it? Oh ! my Saviour, 
 * ' Alas ! f^v the cruel earth, fly the greedy shores ! ' 
 
44 DESCRIPTION OF HIS FEELINGS. B- 1. 
 
 rather a thousand deaths, than that I should be so 
 ungrateful, or so oppose thy will. 
 
 ' Then, dearest Father, you have rather to thank 
 our Jesus than to weep ; he gave you a son, and has 
 not only preserved him in some measure from evil 
 for twenty-two years, but has vouchsafed to choose 
 him for hi^ soldier. Alas ! do you not consider it a 
 great blessing to have a son become so easily a 
 soldier of Christ ? Either you love me or you do 
 not ; well, I know you will not say you do not love 
 me ; if then you love me, as T have two parts, my 
 soul and my body, do you most love my soul or my 
 body ? You cannot answer, my body . . for then your 
 affection would not be for me, but for the meanest 
 part of me ; if then you love my soul best, . . do you 
 not seek the welfare of my soul ? Thus, you should 
 rejoice and exalt in this triumph. Nevertheless, I 
 consider it cannot be, but tliat the flesh will grieve, 
 although it should be restrained by reason, especially 
 in wise and magnanimous men like yourself. Do 
 you not think it is a great affliction to me to be 
 separated from you ? Yes, indeed, believe me, never 
 since I was born had I such sorrow and anguish of 
 mind as in abandoning my own father, and going 
 among strangers to sacrifice my body to Jesus, and 
 to give up my own will into the hands of those I 
 knew not. But afterwards reflecting on what God 
 is, and that He does not disdain to make of us poor 
 worms his ministers, I could not have been so daring, 
 as not to yield to that kind voice, especially to my 
 Lord Jesus, who says ' Come unto Me, all ye that 
 are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest ; 
 take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my 
 yoke is easy and my burden is light.' Because I 
 know you lament that I left you secretly almost as 
 a fugitive, let me tell you that such was my distress 
 and the agitation of my inmost soul at quitting you, 
 
cn. in. 
 
 GRACE AND GLORY. 
 
 45 
 
 that if I had expressed it, I verily believe before I 
 could have departed from you my heart would have 
 broken, and I should have changed my purpose and 
 resolution ; therefore do not wonder that 1 did not 
 tell you. It is true, I left, behind the books which 
 are propped up against the window, certain writings 
 which give you an account of my proceedings — I beg 
 you then, dearest father, cease to weep, give me not 
 more sadness and grief than I have : not of regret for 
 what I have done (for indeed I would not revoke 
 that, though I expected to become greater than Cesar 
 Augustus), but because I am of flesh, as you are, 
 and sense resists reason, and I must maintain a cruel 
 warfare, that the devil may not get the better of me, 
 particularly when I feel for you. Soon will these 
 days pass, in which the misery is present to us, and 
 afterwards I trust both you and I shall be consoled 
 in this world by grace, and in the next by glory. 
 Nothing remains, but that I request you with manly 
 fortitude to comfort my Mother, of whom I beg, that 
 together with you she will bestow her blessing on 
 me, and I will ever pray fervently for your souls. 
 
 'GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA, 
 ' Your Son. 
 
 * Bologna, 
 April 2bth, 1475.' 
 
 END OF THE FIRST BOOK. 
 
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
' Pace ndn trovo, e n<5n ho da far guerra ; 
 E t^mo, e spero, ed ardo, e son un ghiaccio ; 
 E vdlo sdpra '1 cielo, e giaccio in terra ; 
 E nulla stringo, e tutto '1 mdndo abbraccio.' 
 
 Francesco Peteauca. 
 
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A LAY-BROTHER. 
 
 Savonarola in the monastery employed in teaching the Scho- 
 lastic Philosophy — Studies Jerome, Augustine, and Cas- 
 sian — Hesitates to accept priest's orders — His probable 
 reasons — Augustine's doctrines — Primitive idea of the 
 Church — Savonarola and Luther contrasted. 
 
 Savonarola was in the twenty-third year of his age 
 when he entered the Dominican Monastery at Bologna. 
 The young Bolognese, named Ludovico, was the com- 
 panion of liis flight. Savonarola's desires were mo- 
 destly confined to the humble privileges belonging to 
 a lay brother of the Order. He was willing to occupy 
 himself in cultivating the garden, mending the clothes 
 of the monks, and in domestic services, requesting in 
 return permission to live a lifejjf^simplicity and de- 
 votion. The superiors of the institution, however, 
 appointed him to more than this, — availing them- 
 selves to the utmost of the learning he had acquired. 
 In a word, he was employed in teaching metaphysics 
 and natural philosophy. The cloister was the world 
 of Aristotle and the scholastic science, and he was 
 expected to exhibit here the fruits of his former 
 researches. 
 
 F 
 
50 
 
 CALL TO A PIOUS LIFE. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 Many weary years were spent in this occupation, 
 which, however, was soon felt by Savonarola as not 
 exactly the object for which he had renounced the 
 world. The voice that his soul had heard indicated 
 a higher, holier vocation. He resorted accordingly 
 to profounder meditations. In the writings of Je- 
 rome, Augustine, and Cassian,he sought confirmation 
 of his faith. They were eminently calculated to 
 introduce the mind of Savonarola to an apprehension 
 of the internal evidences of religion, and the more 
 hidden meaning of Holy Writ. The Bible, indeed, 
 by much reading, he almost knew by rote. Thereto 
 he added prayer, by means of which, in his lonely cell, 
 he learned more and more of the attributes of the 
 Divine Majesty, and of the nature of his commands 
 to fallen man. A German biographer describes Sa- 
 vonarola's temperament as the sanguine-choleric — 
 equally susceptible of hope and anger. The unde- 
 filed conscience expects in the world of man and 
 nature answerable purity, and we may understand 
 the kind and degree of wrath which would be felt by 
 Savonarola, when he discovered that the members of 
 the fraternity he had entered were as much estranged 
 from the principles that animated him as was the 
 world he had abandoned. He found that their con- 
 duct was as much opposed to the precepts of the New 
 Testament as to the state of his own feelings. They 
 were in antagonism both to the written and unwrit- 
 ten revelation, which he acknowledged as consenting 
 oracles of the same Divine Truth. He had to recon- 
 cile both, with what he had experienced of the pro- 
 vidential government of the universe. Had he erred 
 in his interpretation of either ? 
 
 Such were some of the important considerations 
 that induced Savonarola to pause before he accepted 
 the office of the priesthood. In fact, he hesitated 
 long. He had received a call to a pious life, and yet 
 
CH. I. WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ? 51 
 
 he svished to remain a lay-teacher. It is evident that 
 he was so little pleased with the Clergy, with whom 
 he was acquainted, that he had no desire to receive 
 ordination at their hands — perhaps, might even have 
 doubted its validity. Above all, as is proved by his 
 conduct then and subsequently, he was solicitous to 
 preserve for himself to the fullest extent both liberty 
 of conscience and freedom of opinion. This is a 
 point which ought not to be concealed, any more 
 than the small reverence for the ministers or external 
 rites of the visible church which he dared, in an age 
 of corruption, to entertain. ' Would you have your 
 son a wicked man,' he was wont to say, — ' make 
 him a priest; — O, how much poison will he swal- 
 low ! ' At other times, he alleged that he had 
 'found no gospel, commanding that we should keep 
 in the Church crosses of gold, or silver, or other pre- 
 cious things ; but he had found in the gospel, ' I was 
 an hungered and ye gave me no meat, I was thirsty, 
 and ye gave me no drink.' ' ' God,' he said, ' will 
 take away the mitres, the hats, the jurisdiction of the 
 prelates,' and gave as his reason, that while he and 
 those who acted with him ' lived like Christians, the 
 prelates of the Church of Rome lived like pagans.' 
 His tendencies, in fine, were all favourable to a 
 purely personal, rather than to a ceremonial religion. 
 Even organs and scientific singing were displeasing 
 to him — ' they were introduced into the Church,' he 
 said, ' by the devil, to prevent mental devotion, and 
 delighted the senses without producing spiritual 
 fruits.' Nor had he any very great faith in the 
 catholicity of the Church of Rome. ' To the Ca- 
 tholic Church,' he exclaimed, ' I speak thus. Thou 
 art Peter ! But as to what constitutes the Catholic 
 Church, there are various opinions among theologians. 
 We will put aside the dispute and say this : — strictly 
 speaking, the Catholic Church consists of those 
 p 2 
 
52 
 
 CASSIAN. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 Christians who live good lives and have the grace of 
 God. Less accurately, it consists of those who only 
 possess the faith ; but to explain what the Catholic 
 Church is, I ever refer to Christ and to the decision 
 of the Church.' 
 
 Such were the opinions of Savonarola, which after- 
 wards he boldly expressed v.hen he became a priest. 
 Heretical as they may appear, endeavours have been 
 made by apologists to bring them within the pale of 
 Roman orthodoxy. The chief of these, Neri, defends 
 Savonarola at great length, and interprets such and 
 similar passages in the manner he thought best calcu- 
 lated at once to conciliate the Church, and to rescue 
 the memory of his client from the calumnious patron- 
 age of ' that rascal Luther,' who had (as already 
 mentioned) associated the name of Savonarola with 
 that of John of Hiiss and Jerome of Prague among 
 the martyrs of Protestantism. Nor must we over- 
 look the fact that such opinions were not inconsistent 
 with patristic precedent and authority, nor with the 
 course of study which Savonarola had pursued. 
 
 It becomes, therefore, an interesting enquiry, to 
 ascertain how far the learning of Jerome, the genius 
 of Augustine, and the judgment of Cassian were re- 
 sponsible for the opinions of Savonarola ? 
 
 Cassian, a native of Syria, was the founder of that 
 moderate system of doctrines, since termed semi-Pela- 
 gianism, which, together with that of Pelagius him- 
 self and his followers, was resisted by Augustine. 
 The root of Pelagianism is to be found in the doctrine 
 that ascribes a self-determining free-will to man, 
 irrespective of divine grace, in order to goodness ; the 
 ramifications are contained in the following list of 
 errors charged against Celestius, the associate of 
 Pelagius, and which were condemned in a council 
 held at Carthage in the year 412. — First, that Adam 
 was created mortal, and would have died, whether he 
 
CH. I. 
 
 HIS SYSTEM. 
 
 53 
 
 had sinned or not; 2. that the sin of Adam injured 
 himself alone, not the human race ; 3. that infants, 
 at their birth, are in the condition of Adam before 
 his sin ; 4. that neither the death nor sin of Adam 
 is the cause of man's mortality, nor the resurrection 
 of Christ of his resurrection ; 5. that man may be 
 saved by the law as well as by ttie Gospel ; 6. that 
 before the coming of Christ tliere had been men with- 
 out sin ; 7. that infants inherit eternal life without 
 Baptism. The words free-will and grace, however, 
 had not, up to this date, appeared in the controversy. 
 But when Augustine took part in it they soon began 
 to appear. Augustine had to argue that the internal 
 and immediate operation of the Holy Spirit is neces- 
 sary, both to awaken us to religious feeling and to 
 assist our progress in a holy life. By this course of 
 argument his mind was elevated to the metaphysical 
 bearings of the subject, and he ventured on some 
 novelties which have ever since continued to agitate 
 the Church. 
 
 The system of Cassian avoided the extremes of 
 Pelagius -on the one hand, and those of Augustine 
 on the other. It regards with equal suspicion the 
 assertion of man's absolute independence of Divine 
 aid, and that which subjects him to the influence of 
 an irresistible fatalism. This compromise, however, 
 is as little tenable as semi-calvinism, in our own day, 
 while the difficulties against which they were directed 
 are now effectually met by the mere statement of the 
 philosophical laws, according to which spirit acts on 
 spirit, and matter on matter — the first operating by 
 moral suasion, the latter by physical coercion. By 
 virtue of the mutual freedom with which spirit acts 
 on spirit, we may admit the possibility of man's 
 frustrating the designs of God in his favour, without 
 being driven to the absurdity of maintaining that the 
 human will is, in such cases, stronger than the 
 F 3 
 
54 
 
 DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 Divine. Their voluntary concurrence is what is 
 meant by the communion of the Holy Spirit with 
 that of the Believer. 
 
 That election into the Church is of free unmerited 
 grace, is the concurrent testimony of most of the 
 Fathers ; but there were others who desired to sub- 
 stitute some minor positions for the main proposition 
 — to assign, in fact, reasons for the Divine purpose, 
 which, as existing in the Divine Will, was as such 
 above any reason that could be predicated as a distinct 
 influence. Origen, for instance, supposed that God 
 was regulated in his decree by reference to some 
 good already done by the individual in a pre-existent 
 state ; and Clement of Alexandria thought that the 
 Divine prevision of the good which such individual 
 would do in time, was the cause of his election by 
 God in eternity. Touching Origen, it may be doubted 
 whether his doctrine is more than an exoteric state- 
 ment of an esoteric truth ; with regard to Clement, 
 his error consists in assuming a part for the whole. 
 St. Paul identifies in the prior unity of the Divine 
 purpose the whole development of which it was 
 capable, to wit, prevision of holiness, predestination 
 to holiness, vocation, justification, and glorification. 
 Thus it is that the worst errors of doctrinal men are, 
 after all, no worse than partial truths ; and secta- 
 rianism, however heretical, is only the maintenance 
 of one verity at the expense of all the rest. 
 
 Among the novelties introduced by Augustine to 
 the consideration of the Church, was his peculiar 
 view of the Catholic doctrine of election. Previously 
 to this it was the general belief, that the term implied 
 no more than an admission into the visible Church 
 militant — Augustine refined upon the doctrine, and 
 referred it only to those who should be finally saved 
 — those, in fact, who should constitute the invisible 
 Clmrch triumphant. He distinguished between one 
 
CIl. I. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL TYPES. 
 
 55 
 
 professing believer and another, anticipating the eter- 
 nal doom of each. It was this doctrine which en- 
 abled Savonarola to look beneath the gown and cowl 
 of the priest, and see the hypocrite — to condemn the 
 prelacy of Paganism — and to denounce many of the 
 customs of the Church as superstitions. The ques- 
 tion, however, may reasonably arise, whether the dis- 
 tinction thus instituted must not and does not always 
 virtually obtain ? Confine the election to the visible 
 Church, and we are compelled to admit that some 
 members of the election are holy individuals, while 
 others are unholy ; and that the latter both may and 
 will perish everlastingly. The theory of Augustine 
 asserts the same fact, and no more ; but it endea- 
 vours to account for it by a prior and superior elec- 
 tion into the Church invisible. 
 
 Instances of individual reprobation and election are 
 cited from the Sacred Scriptures — such as of Cain and 
 Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, --but, accord- 
 ing to the early fathers, even including Jerome, they 
 are to be understood only as types of the synagogue 
 and the Church, and of the younger superseding the 
 elder dispensation. Such was also the ecclesiastical 
 idea as held by the primitive Church. Passing from 
 the Church to the New Testament, the same idea 
 may doubtless be found, but not in the same exclu- 
 sive manner, nor with the same intense significancy. 
 Until interpreted by the Church, the New Testament 
 contains no text which gives sacramental efficacy to 
 the Church as an institution, and her sacraments 
 themselves become such only through her own inter- 
 pretation. As very properly insisted on by some 
 modern Tractarians, there is in the New Testament, 
 as separately considered, ' no system of doctrine ' — ■ 
 ' no proposed intermediation between the believer 
 and the Christ, such as sacraments, ministers, rites 
 and observances ' — ' nothing, indeed, of what may 
 
56 
 
 ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIK. B. II. 
 
 be called sacramental, ecclesiastical, or mysterious in 
 its general tone, but much that is moral, rational, 
 elevated, impassioned.' Instead of the solemn, we 
 find the familiar — instead of the literal, we have the 
 symbolical — instead of the physical the mental. For 
 the ' sacred elements of the Eucharist,' we are pre- 
 sented with ' the unleavened bread of sincerity and 
 truth.' Its celebration is spoken of as if it were 
 only a simple ordinary meal, not as a special feast, 
 having a full and awful meaning. In fine, the im- 
 pression left by the New Testament on the mind is, 
 ' not that of a priesthood and its attendant system, 
 still less that of an established, endowed, dignified 
 Church.' The Church that it contemplates is one 
 into which whoever is baptized is incapable of sin, 
 and therefore is unprovided with penitential exercises 
 for its possible occurrence. Hence it is argued, that 
 the Bible needs to be interpreted by the Church, in 
 order to conform the precepts of one with the prac- 
 tices of the other \ 
 
 It may seem singular at first sight that a man like 
 Augustine, whose speculations had such a tendency 
 to undervalue the visible institution, should have been 
 the first to settle the question, long doubtful in the 
 Church of Rome, concerning the assumption of the 
 Blessed Virgin. Jerome even had feared to affirm it, 
 but "Augustine" (says the Jesuit, Salmeron), "settled 
 it with many arguments, by which adventure the 
 Church hath gained this, that persuaded by his rea- 
 sons she hath believed it, and celebrates it in her 
 worship ^" But the fact will receive an important 
 interpretation, if we discern that by his doctrine of 
 election, Augustine had actually translated the Church 
 from earth into heaven, which in a figure is under- 
 stood by the assumption of the Virgin. 
 
 1 Tracts for the Times. No. 85. 
 
 ' Sjiimaron's Di?p. 51, in Epist. ad Rom. 
 
CH. I. 
 
 ARTICLES OF THE CHUUCII. 
 
 57 
 
 Accustomed to contemplate in ecstatic vision the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, no wonder that Savonarola was 
 discontented when, returning to the common world, 
 he looked down upon the earthly one, and accord* 
 ingly preferred remaining a lay-brother in a religious 
 order, to claiming a title which, in his eyes, conferred 
 no essential distinction on the possessor. He was 
 already a priest, and cared not to be so denominated. 
 But the Church on earth is necessarily bound by 
 different laws, and her members are subject to various 
 conditions. While upon the one hand it accepts the 
 ideal as the standard of perfection, on the other it 
 must regard the possible as the measure of its fulfil- 
 ment. While it glories, therefore, in the mind ca- 
 pable of the sublimest intuitions, it requires that it 
 should condescend to the restrictions which are ren- 
 dered expedient by the infirmity of weaker brethren. 
 Hence the Church of Rome tacitly accepted the doc- 
 trines of Augustine, as perhaps necessarily implied 
 (according to his own statement) in those which had 
 been expressed by earlier fathers ; and the Church of 
 England has so framed her articles as to justify the 
 glosses of the Calvinist and Arminian, and, in the 
 present Bishop of Oxford's opinion, to permit the 
 interpretation desired by those of the clergy who are 
 supposed most to sympathise with what they errone- 
 ously deem the Mother-church of Christendom 
 For it is the policy of a church to include within her 
 
 ^ " If, within certain limits, the articles may be so construed 
 as not to force persons of a Calvinistic bias to leave the 
 Church, I do not see why a similar licence w-ithin the same 
 limits is not to be conceded to those whose opinions accord 
 with those of our divines who resisted the puritanical temper 
 of the 16th and 17th centuries ; or why such persons sIkjuIiI 
 be forced into communion with Rome." — Bp. of Oxford's 
 Charge, delivered to the clergy of the diocese of Oxford, 
 May 1842. 
 
58 
 
 EXTREME PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 B. It. 
 
 fold the largest possible number of believers of every 
 shade of opinion. Nor is it politic only, but right 
 also ; since exclusive views are not only extreme, 
 but one-sided, and impair the claim of any commu- 
 nity that adopts them, to the Catholicity which ought 
 to be predicated of every church, that would vindicate 
 its establishment as a national or international insti- 
 tution. 
 
 Savonarola, looking too exclusively upon the hea- 
 venly side of things, was not apt enough to make 
 allowances for the imperfections that distinguish their 
 earthly aspect. The novelty of Augustine's views 
 also probably pleased his ardent and inventive genius, 
 so kindred to that of the earlier saint. Both Augus- 
 tine and Thomas Aquinas had held that the argu- 
 ment drawn from authority is weak. ^Mien the Do- 
 natists gloried in the multitude of their authors, 
 Augustine answered, " It was a sign of a cause desti- 
 tute of truth, to rely only upon the authority of many 
 men, who may err." WTiereto Salmeron, quoting 
 him, adds, " As holiness of life purges no man from 
 sin, so it frees no man from danger of error. Every 
 age finds out some verities proper to itself, which the 
 former ages were ignorant of or, as he has it in 
 the margin, " every age hath its peculiar divine reve- 
 lations." Thus corroborated, Savonarola probably 
 set small store by the canon of Tertullian, that " what- 
 ever is first, is true ; whatever is later, is adulterate." 
 And it must be acknowledged that the primitive 
 Christians were concerned chiefly in establishing a 
 community as a visible symbol of election — their 
 office was to initiate an historical fact ; the doctrinal 
 truth was reserved for evolution by their more intel- 
 lectual followers as originally involved in that fact. 
 On the other hand, that extreme protestantism which 
 depends on private judgment alone, and rejects the 
 aid of antiquity, excludes itself from all historical 
 
CH. I. 
 
 PRIVATE JUDGEMENT. 
 
 59 
 
 evidence to soundness of Scriptural interpretation, and 
 surrenders a great privilege, by despising the moral 
 certainty attending the collating of Scripture with 
 antiquity ; a certainty which, in subjects that by their 
 nature are not susceptible of mathematical demon- 
 stration, is the highest attainable, unless, indeed, 
 revealed truth be brought to the individual by direct 
 inspiration. To which may be added what the late 
 Mr. Coleridge has said upon this very point — ' That 
 Chilliugworth's position, that the mere text of the 
 Bible is the sole and exclusive ground of Christian 
 faith and practice, is quite untenable against the 
 Romanists. It entirely destroys the conditions of a 
 church, of an authority residing in a religious com- 
 munity, and all that holy sense of brotherhood which 
 is so sublime and consolatory to a meditative Chris- 
 tian 
 
 The protestant who practically and thoroughly 
 carries out the right of private judgment, undertakes 
 a great responsibility. To him the ministers of the 
 Church in which he has been baptized are neither 
 mediators nor priests ; but he stands face to face with 
 time and with eternity, to make whatever he can of 
 the things of both, and be a revelation to himself. 
 No visible authority of interpretation, no embodied 
 agent of absolution, no temporal head of religious 
 opinion, no judge, no advocate, no daysman between 
 him and his Saviour ; he stands forth, stript in the 
 arena, valued more for what he is than for what he 
 has — if a layman ; or — if a professional man — the 
 office to which he would pretend, or may have been ap- 
 pointed. For an individual undertaking this respon- 
 sibility, it is desirable that he should have been well 
 — nay even normally educated ; it is expedient that 
 he should be a man of genius ; it is necessary that 
 
 * Table Tallijp. 240. vol. I. 1st ed. 
 
60 
 
 AUGUSTINE. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 lie should be emphatically a temple of the Holy Spirit. 
 In a word, that he should really be in that state of 
 divine illumination which has always been claimed as 
 a special gift by the professed mystic. 
 
 These considerations will help us in picturing to 
 our mind Savonarola, during this period of transition, 
 occupied intently in the perusal of the works of 
 Augustine, and, in anticipation of Calvin, but under 
 far other circumstances, generating republican notions 
 of Church government in the very bosom of a pseudo- 
 theocracy. We may image him glowing with admi- 
 ration of the celebrated Father, who by his victory 
 over the sect of the Donatists, had deserved so well 
 of the Church universal — but his warmest sympathy 
 would be rendered to the poetic spirit, that sufficed 
 to subdue the original repugnance of Augustine to all 
 study, and presented him as it were with a magic 
 key, whereby the gate of learning was ultimately 
 opened to him, not only with facility but delight. 
 On his early Manichean heresies and his subsequent 
 return to Catholic communion, Savonarola doubt- 
 less lingered with some interest; — but it was by the 
 splendid results of Augustine's eloquence, which, while 
 he was yet a presbyter, persuaded the people to aban- 
 don the hereditary practice of accompanying the 
 Christian Agapse with unseemly revelry and pagan 
 additions, that Savonarola would be most strongly 
 attracted. He wondered not at its subsequent 
 triumphs over the Manichean and Donatist heresies. 
 
 But whatever glory might accrue from these con- 
 troversies, it faded utterly before the importance that 
 attached to the dispute between Augustine and Pela- 
 gius, Celestius, Julian, and their followers. Against 
 these he had to defend the following great doctrines : 
 — 1. That the grace of God is given independently 
 of man's merits. — 2. That whatever may be the com- 
 parative righteousness of any one particular man, no 
 
ClI. I. 
 
 VERBAL DIFIERENCES. 
 
 61 
 
 person lives in this corruptible body without incurring 
 the actual guilt of a certain degree of positive sinful- 
 ness. — 3. That we are all born obnoxious to the sin 
 of the first man ; and, consequently, are all subjected 
 to damnation, unless the guilt which is contracted in 
 our generation, be removed by our regeneration. In 
 defending these points, he contended that the Catho- 
 lic Church had always held the allied doctrines of 
 original sin and unmerited grace. As he warmed in 
 the argument, he first struck out the novel idea of elec- 
 tion, which subsequently received from him elaborate 
 development in his treatise on ' Correction and Grace,' 
 and which ultimately was adopted by Calvin. 
 
 The discrepancy between the tenets of Augustine 
 and Calvin, are only apparent and verbal. Both 
 hold the doctrine of predestination — without pre- 
 vision or reference to pre-existence — in both its 
 branches ; both hold, too, the doctrine of particular 
 redemption, and the final perseverance of the elect ; 
 but in regard to the doctrine of regeneration, they 
 express themselves differently. Calvin attached to 
 the term regeneration a sense not intended by Augus- 
 tine : — namel}', ' a moral change of disposition super- 
 added to a federal change of condition.' This moral 
 change Augustine distinguished by another term ; — to 
 wit, conversion. Both agree in the doctrine, that long 
 after infant baptism, a moral change or conversion of 
 the heart is possible to the adult. Augustine goes 
 the extent of adding, that it is impossible to the in- 
 fant. 
 
 Strange it is, that writers who perceive readily 
 enough that this disparity between Augustine and 
 Calvin is mainly verbal, should not be likewise able 
 to perceive, that the difference between Augustine 
 and the Primitive Fathers is also of the same charac- 
 ter. For what is the patristic doctrine, reduced to a 
 convenient formula, but this ? that though all be- 
 
 G 
 
62 
 
 PERSONAL ELECTION. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 lievers are redeemed, yet all believers are not saved. 
 If the Church, therefore, held not the doctrine of 
 particular redemption, she did hold virtually that of 
 particular salvation ; and this is all that is meant by 
 either Augustine or Calvin. True, she was silent upon 
 the point, but Augustine drew no dishonest infer- 
 ence, as is pretended, in interpreting her silence into 
 consent. She admitted the fact, if she did not avouch 
 the doctrine. The expressed doctrine itself Augus- 
 tine claims as the discovery of his own genius — as a 
 personal revelation. In writing to the objectors 
 Prosper and Hilary, he recommends prayer as the 
 means of obtaining the like revelation. Both he and 
 the Church had yet to learn that its peculiar revela- 
 tions were denied to any age — that a theological dis- 
 covery was impossible — or that the priest who exer- 
 cised his genius in the service of religion was a traitor 
 to his order. 
 
 There is then, first, an election from out the world 
 — next an election from out the visible Church — the 
 first a matter of history, the second unsusceptible of 
 historical statement. This is the reason why the 
 patristic divines before Augustine are silent on it — 
 they dealt with historical facts ; for the philosophical 
 truth which the fact represented, the philosopher was 
 required, and to him when he appeared it was re- 
 vealed. 
 
 It was, however, as we have seen, always necessa- 
 rily implied, and perhaps it is assuming too little to 
 concede, that it was only implied — at any rate, such 
 utter silence cannot be predicated of the Scriptures, 
 new or old. The fathers confess, that according to 
 holy writ, election was made of some individuals — 
 but pretend that they were elected as types, thus 
 illogically reviving the defunct argument of prevision. 
 Not because they were to be types of future Churches, 
 but because of the absolute will of God were they 
 
CH. I. 
 
 PATRISTIC DOCTRINES. 
 
 63 
 
 elected, or pretermitted. Ar " it is written, Jacob 
 have I loved, but Esau have 1 hated." Whether 
 then the election of such individuals related to their 
 redemption only, or their salvation also, it was purely 
 personal, and of free grace. 
 
 Moreover, when we consider what the divine Being 
 and Purpose in dispute are, we shall find that neither 
 the doctrine of pre-existence nor prevision can have 
 any logical right to the prothetic place in the argu- 
 ment. What can precede an Eternal Purpose ? To 
 an Eternal Being must not all creation and time be 
 present at once, and prescience therefore be altogether 
 transcended by prehension ? In this sense — the doc- 
 trine of predestination becomes identical with that 
 of Divine providence, which never forsakes the works 
 of the Divine Creator : and the question, whether 
 redemption be general or particular, is the same with 
 that of a general or particular providence. God, in 
 the exercise of his infinite love, raises up in all times 
 and all places, inspired persons, who live to exemplify 
 his mercy, for their own benefit and that of others. 
 Such are themselves redeemed from the world, and 
 exist for the world's redemption ; to wit, — for its 
 restoration into its original state, when the church 
 and the world were co-extensive. The whole is prior 
 to its parts, but separation being made, reunion is 
 effected by the gradual collection of the parts into 
 the whole — i. e. proceeds from one to many, from 
 many to all, which all was originally one — as in 
 Adam, and in the family of Noah. 
 
 Though contending that 'all the members of the 
 elect Catholic Church, inasmuch as they are the com- 
 ponent parts of the election, constitute individually 
 the elect people of God,' the patristic divines before 
 Augustine conceded to the Deity the right and power 
 of saving whom He willed, directly and immediately, 
 G 2 
 
64 
 
 RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY. 
 
 B. U. 
 
 among the heathen, without reference to the Church, 
 and although such heathen had never been privileged to 
 hear the name of the Redeemer of men. The Augus- 
 tinian divines insist on granting the Deity the same 
 right and power, as well in as out of the Church, con- 
 tending that in the former case the predestination to 
 life is as direct and immediate as in the latter. Ac- 
 cording to both, when interpreted fairly, the redemp- 
 tion is to all mankind, though salvation is realized 
 only by some. ' Many, both in the Church and the 
 World, are called— but few chosen.' The real ques- 
 tion relates only to the necessary intervention of the 
 priesthood, in regard to the Church — and against this 
 the peculiar tone of the New Testament is confessedly 
 directed. 
 
 From what has been stated, the rationale of the 
 doctrine, when thoroughly conceived in the integrity 
 of Catholic truth, appears to be this: — The visible 
 Church included at the beginning the whole of the 
 human race — in process of time individuals, and at 
 length the general body of mankind, apostatized from 
 truth and justice. Nevertheless, God has always 
 had on earth his witnesses, many or few. Every 
 where ' wisdom has entered into holy souls and made 
 them friends of God and prophets.' — Such indi- 
 viduals, justly considered the elect among men, both 
 by precept and example, have induced others to unite 
 in religious community. Thus Abraham and his 
 family laid the foundations of a Church, — not exist- 
 ing for the exclusive advantage of its members, but 
 for that of the race ; for, as was said by Cyril of Alex- 
 andria, ' the election of the Hebrews is the calling 
 of the Gentiles.' When this Church, (being subject 
 to a like apostasy as the original one) fell into decay, 
 the process recommenced in a new but similar series, 
 which has not yet come to an end. Now the recondite 
 possibility of the whole process lies in the assumption, 
 
CH. I. 
 
 SAVONAROLA AND LUTHER. 
 
 65 
 
 that, at any time and in any place, when wanted, one 
 or more of these gifted initiators of a new or revived 
 institution or doctrine may, and will rise up from 
 among the vulgar mass of mankind, and, inspired by 
 God, set a better example than that to which men had 
 been ordinarily accustomed. But as it lies in the 
 will of God to call such as shall fraternize with those 
 who follow the good example when set, so likewise 
 it lies in the will of God to ordain afterward and 
 ultimately, who shall realize the character and 
 conduct thereby required ; in the latter case a special 
 inspiration is of necessity assumed. 
 
 That revelation which Augustine fearlessly partici- 
 pated with the earliest apostles, we must not be sur- 
 prised if we discover Savonarola deeming it no robbery 
 to partake. Having also been distinctly taught an 
 absolute submission to the merciful sovereignty of God 
 — and entertaining a strong feeling of gratitude to 
 Divine love, which had consecrated him for one of his 
 elect ; he was prepared to contend that, not because of 
 any prevision of man's fitness or worthiness— not be- 
 cause of any pre-existent virtue (except indeed His in 
 whom alone God loved the world, and who is himself 
 both God and Man) — but only because of God's sove- 
 reign will, and wisdom, and mercy — are either societies 
 or individuals chosen to be the educators or foster- 
 gods of the human family. 
 
 The conduct and fortune of Savonarola on being 
 admitted to the monasterjl at .Bologna, singularly 
 contrasts with that "oFTiUther when accepted at the 
 convent of Erfurth. Luther went as a student, and 
 was aggrieved at being compelled to pass his novi- 
 tiate as a servant — Savonarola preferred the office _of 
 a servant; but the superiors of his convent elevated 
 him to the rank of a teacher. There were differences, 
 doubtless, in the discipline of the two establishments 
 — there were also manifest differences in the temper 
 G 3 
 
66 
 
 CORRUPTION AND GRACE. 
 
 E. II. 
 
 of the two men. The apprenticeship however tliat 
 each served, was suited to the design of Providence in 
 regard to his calling and election. Both agreed in 
 a like estimation of the writings of Augustine, and 
 equally felt to the inmost core a sense of human cor- 
 ruption and divine grace. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A PRIEST. 
 
 Savonarola always a Reformer — Extracts from liis earliest 
 poems — Monastic, not Christian, life — Old and New Testa- 
 ments — Church authority and the Bible — Digression on 
 Chillingwortli — Who are Apostles in the priesthood^ — True 
 Catholic Apostolicity — Extract from Savonarola's ' Trion 
 della Croce' — Prayer — Meritorious obedience — Power of 
 his conversation — Penitent Soldiers — Preaches first in the 
 church of Lorenzo at Florence — Returns to his monastery. 
 
 Seven years were passed by Savonarola in his lay 
 novitiate, travelling from place to place by the direc- 
 tion of his order, and teaching from cloister to clois- 
 ter. It has been already shown that the foundations 
 of each monastic establishment were the need and 
 wish for the reformation of manners — they became 
 the nurseries for the reformation of doctrines. Sa- 
 vonarola was in spirit a Reformer lo.ig before he 
 sought admittance into the monastery — he desired 
 reform for the world, for his family, for himself. Him- 
 self? Herein lay the source of his feeling the need, 
 and desiring reform for the Church. By self-examina- 
 tion he had gained an intuition of thnt inner world, 
 to the idea of which it was the duty of the Church to 
 give bodily expression. How soon he passed on 
 to the natural inference is evidenced by the two Can- 
 zoni, to which allusion has already been made — De 
 Ruina Mundi, written in 1472 ; and De Ruina Eccle- 
 sise, written in 1475 ; poems having a double inte- 
 
68 
 
 DE RUINA ECCLESIjE. 
 
 B II. 
 
 rest, as being the only extant examples of his poetical 
 essays previous to his entering the monastic life, and 
 as showing the inmost state of his religious feeling, 
 and by what bonds he was connected, both with the 
 Church and the World. 
 
 Let us collect together some scattered lines of 
 these — the whole being too long, and indeed any 
 separate entire paragraph inconvenient for quotation. 
 
 ' Not only all virtue and good morals, but even 
 shame has disappeared before the prevalence of vice ; 
 nay, vice being practised with cunning, attains in 
 the world honour and distinction, while virtue starves, 
 and the scorn of it receives reward. Luxury is the 
 philosophy of the day. They who walk on the 
 straight path are esteemed fools.' 
 
 ' The old chaste time of the first Church has de- 
 parted. Rome, polluted with all vices, rushes on 
 towards a second fall. But to denounce her condi- 
 tion, is only to excite fruitless enmity. Nothing 
 then remains, but to lament silently, and to hold fast 
 the hope of a better future.' 
 
 One stanza in the original, from the latter piece, 
 may serve as a profitable example. 
 
 ' Di poi, Madonna, dissi : se'l vi piace 
 Che con voi pianga, I'alma si contenta : 
 Qual forza vi ha cosi del regno spenta ? 
 Qual arrogante rompe vostra pace ? 
 Risposc suspirando : Una fallace, 
 Superba meretrice Babilonia. 
 Ed io : Deh per Dio, Donna, 
 Se rompersi potria quelle grande ale ? 
 E lei : Lingua mortale 
 Non puo, ne lice, non che muover I'arme. 
 Tu, piaiigi e taci : e questo meglio parme '.' 
 
 ' Then, I exclaimed : — Madonna ! should she please. 
 Weep I witli thee, my soul will be contented — 
 What power has quenched thj- own, thy reign tormented ? 
 
cn. 11. 
 
 Savonarola's lecturks. 
 
 69 
 
 Perliaps, Savonarola thought that institutions which 
 reformers had founded, would prove the most fitting 
 shelter for congenial spirits. If such had heen liis 
 expectation, he was not long ere he expenenced dis- 
 appointment. The course which his studies were 
 taking, was calculated to make him less and less 
 contented with the actual condition of monastic esta- 
 blishments in his time. The task of lecturing, to 
 which he had been appointed, he diligently pursued, 
 and was so successful in its exercise, that he attracted 
 and attached many scholars. But the subject of his 
 discourse caused him to refer for illustration to the 
 ' Lives of the Old Fathers,' and the ' Meditations' of 
 Augustine, and the ' Collationes Patrum' of Cassian, 
 and by these sources of information his conscience 
 ■was so enlightened, that it might not contemplate 
 ■with any satisfaction, the deficiencies and darkness 
 of the mode of life wherewith he had now become 
 intimately acquainted. He still continued his study 
 of Thomas Aquinas, nay, studied him with greater 
 intensity than ever, confessing that he received more 
 profit and delight from the clearness and profundity 
 of this theologian, than from the speculative ingenuity 
 of any philosopher, not even excepting Plato, of whom 
 he now began to entertain a lower regard than for- 
 merly, condemning, indeed, the opinion which held 
 him of ' divine' authority, as an error of the age. 
 But the ' angelic' theologian was his master ; him he 
 reverenced, and in reading his works always felt 
 humiliation, as in the presence of a superior intellect. 
 
 What arro;;ance now violiit''S thy peace ! 
 She answers sigliing — Falsehood mars iny ease — 
 
 Proud meretricious Babylon's oppression. 
 
 And I : Ah ! but such huge transgression 
 
 That, by God's aid, I, Lady ! might diminish ! 
 
 Then she : Such speech must finish ; 
 Not lawful aught that moves to insurrection — 
 Thou — weep in silence ; 'tis thy best protection ! 
 
70 
 
 OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 But whatever might be the relative estimation in 
 which he held his favourite authors, they combined 
 to form in his mind a standard, that alike condemned 
 the customs of every cloister he visited, where he 
 failed to find the example he sought of that elevation 
 and simplicity which rightly belong to the Christian 
 life, and ever accompany it when manifested in its 
 native purity. 
 
 Further progress yet awaited him. At length his 
 books ceased to charm — his soul ceased to affect the 
 food presented by the current religious treatises. 
 Nothing would satisfy him but the sacred Scriptures 
 themselves — therein he wished to lay sure the foun- 
 dations of his belief and practice. Henceforth to 
 study them — to obey them — to solve whatever diffi- 
 culties might be contained in them, and to apply the 
 results to his conscience, became the chief occupation 
 of his existence. He held them in the highest hon- 
 our, treated them with enthusiastic reverence, and 
 was forward to acknowledge that his gratitude was 
 due to them for all his light, his consolation, and 
 better tendencies. Nor was his reading confined to 
 the New Testament — he had indeed great partiality 
 for the Old. 
 
 The brothers of his order were surprised at this 
 predilection of Savonarola for a book which had 
 fallen into such neglect in the seats of religion ; — most 
 of all, they wondered at the great attention and re- 
 gard which he paid to the more ancient writings. 
 
 ' Why,' demanded the monks of Savonarola, ' do 
 you study the Old Testament ? Surely it is of no 
 use to go over again the past, and perplex our minds 
 with the understanding of fulfilled histories ? ' 
 
 To this question Savonarola replied by another — 
 
 ' For what purpose then has God preserved these 
 writings ? and why have the fathers of the Church 
 equally expounded the Old Testament and the New, 
 
cn. n. 
 
 CHURCH AUTHORITY, 
 
 71 
 
 and recognized the inter-dependency of the one with 
 the other ? ' 
 
 Not a reason for study, but an excuse for tlieir 
 indolence, was what the monks had desired — so they 
 left Savonarola unanswered, and the Scriptures un- 
 read. Can we wonder at the ultimate reaction in 
 favour of the Bible, as opposed to the Church, w-hen 
 the Church had so long practically resigned her gift 
 of interpretation, and abandoned her evidences to 
 oblivion ? She had already been guilty of one ex- 
 treme, and the equilibrium had no chance of restora- 
 tion without the assertion of another. 
 
 The assumption of the Church's authority had 
 come to be used only as an apology for the habit of 
 adopting religious opinions or pious practices, without 
 examination. It served as a plea for the inconsider- 
 ate, and saved the indolent the trouble of reflection. 
 
 Thus, as is observed by Chillingworth, the Church 
 in time resembled a ' company of blind men, pre- 
 suming to judge of colours, or the choice of a way 
 • — for every unconsidering man is blind in that which 
 he does not consider — all of whom, either out of idle- 
 ness refused the trouble of a severe trial of their 
 religion (as if heaven were not worth it), or out of 
 superstition feared the event of such a trial, that they 
 might be scrupled, or staggered, or disquieted by it ; 
 and therefore, for the most part, did it not at all : or 
 if they did it, they did it negligently and hypocriti- 
 cally, and perfunctorily, rather for the satisfaction of 
 others than themselves ; but certainly without in- 
 difference, without liberty of judgment, without a 
 resolution to doubt of it, if upon examination the 
 grounds of it proved uncertain, or to leave it, if they 
 proved apparently false.' Such was the decision of 
 Chillingworth, such was the experience of Luther in 
 the convent of Erfurth — such that of Savonarola in the 
 diiferent Dominican cloisters in which he sojourned. 
 
72 
 
 UNINSPIRED PASTORS. 
 
 B. II, 
 
 Now mark the logical conclusion from this ex- 
 perience. Granting that the historical succession of 
 apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, 
 in the Church of Rome is what was intended by the 
 apostle to the Ephesians, we are compelled to ask, 
 where are the extraordinary powers and supernatural 
 gifts which are predicated of such in the New Tes- 
 tament, and how are they manifested in those in- 
 considerate and unreflecting souls, who have too 
 frequently undertaken to minister at the Christian 
 altar ? In the want of this requisite proof, a Chilling- 
 worth may rationally, as he does actually, argue, that 
 if God had really promised such historical succes- 
 sion, he would have made good his promise, which 
 it is evident he has not done. Whereunto, says he, 
 * if any man except, that though the apostles and 
 prophets, and evangelists, were extraordinary, and 
 for the plantation of the gospel, yet pastors were 
 ordinarj' and for continuance ; I answer, it is true, 
 some pastors are ordinary, and for continuance, but 
 not such as here spoken of ; not such as are endowed 
 with the strange and heavenly gifts which Christ 
 gave not only to his apostles, and prophets, and 
 evangelists, but to the inferior pastors and doctors of 
 his Church, at the first plantation of it. And there- 
 fore St. Paul, in 1 Cor. xii. 28, (to which text we 
 are referred by the margin of the vulgar translation, 
 for the explication of this) places this gift of teaching 
 amongst, and prefers it before, many other miracu- 
 lous gifts of the Holy Ghost. Pastors there are still 
 in the Church, but not such as Titus, and Timothy, 
 and Apollos, and Barnabas. Not such as can justly 
 pretend to immediate inspiration and illumination of 
 the Holy Ghost. And, therefore, seeing there neither 
 are, nor have been, for many ages in the Church, 
 such apostles and prophets, &c., as here Eu-e spoken 
 of, it is certain God promised none : or, otherwise. 
 
CH. II. 
 
 APOSTOLICAL AUTHORITY. 
 
 73 
 
 we must blasphemously charge him with breach of 
 his promise.' 
 
 Chillingworth, accordingly, again refers to the text 
 of Scripture, in order to ascertain whether it would 
 not bear such an interpretation as would comport 
 with the fact as it has actually occurred. Re-examin- 
 ing therefore the passage (Ephes. iv. 11 — 13), he 
 finds that no succession was expressed or implied — • 
 nothing more being stated than that the Redeemer 
 had upon his ascension miraculously endowed his 
 immediate apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, 
 and teachers — for the work of the ministry, for the 
 consummating of the saints, for the edification of 
 the body of Christ, till such time as all believers 
 should be beyond the need of teaching ; which work 
 those same immediate propagandists may be said in 
 good sense to have done, not only in their own time, 
 but at any time afterwards, and still to do, — not in 
 their own persons certainly, bnt by their writings, 
 which are yet sufficient to preserv-e students from 
 conducting themselves ' like children, wavering, and 
 carried up and down with every wind of doctrine,' 
 and to promote that special purpose more effectually 
 than the dogmatic unreflecting traditionary process 
 of the Roman communion. 
 
 Chillingworth sums up the argument in these few 
 words : — 
 
 'The apostles and prophets, &c., that then were, 
 do not now in their own persons, and by oral instruc- 
 tion, do the work of the ministry, to the intent we 
 may be kept from wavering, and being carried up 
 and down with every wind of doctrine ; therefore 
 they do this some other way. Now there is no other 
 way by which they can do it but by their writings ; 
 and, therefore, by their writings they do it ; there- 
 fore by their writings and believing of them, we are 
 
74 
 
 WHO ARE APOSTLES ? 
 
 B. 11. 
 
 to be kept from wavering in matters of faith : there- 
 fore the Scriptures of the apostles, and prophets, and 
 evangelists, are our guides ; therefore not the church 
 of Rome.' 
 
 It was the presence and the pressure of this great 
 fact upon their actual experience, that drove Calvin 
 and Luiher, and Savonarola, and Augustine, from 
 the testimony of the Church to that of the Bible, in- 
 terpreted by the Spirit, templed in the hearts and 
 consciences of each, and specially illuminating them 
 for its interpretation. Savonarola too recognizedthe 
 authority of human reason in matters of fauh, and 
 thus expresses himself on the subject, in the prefage 
 to one of his works — ' THonfo della Croce.' 
 
 ' Though it is a common saj^ing, that faith has no 
 virtue when there is a proof from human reason ; 
 (since this refers to those who otherwise would not 
 believe, and therefore believing only because they 
 are compelled by reason, their faith has no virtue) 
 yet who being first enlightened by God, without 
 other proof, embraces the faith ; if he afterwards in- 
 vestigates the arrament for it to confirm himself and 
 others, such an one deserves praise from God and 
 man. The prince of apostles, St. Peter, exhorting 
 us, "be ready always to give an answer to every man 
 that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." 
 And as in this book we mean to insist only on argu- 
 ment, we shall not rest upon any authority, but shall 
 proceed in such manner as if we were not to believe 
 any man in the world, however wise, but only our 
 natural reason.' 
 
 Savonarola was now a priest. Cherishing the sen- 
 timents he did, it was not likely that he would de- 
 pend only or mainly on his ordination rite, but 
 rather on his personal befitting for the office. Pur- 
 suing the theory of Augustine, he would enquire not 
 only who are the elect in the Church, but who are 
 
CH. II. CUURCII HISTORY UNIVERSAL. 
 
 7.> 
 
 the apostles in the priesthood ? and would confine 
 its validity to the chosen few, and not to the called 
 many. He defends the reasonableness of Christianity 
 itself, on the ground only of the genuine piety of its 
 professors. Thus he writes — ' If it appear a hard 
 thing to believe the crucified Jesus to be God and 
 man — reflect, if there were an error, faith in it would 
 not be generated, nourished and increased more easily 
 by a Christian life, than by any other. Surely, if 
 this belief were false, its untruth could not be hidden 
 from the holiest men, especially in their prayer and 
 meditation on divine things ! But we see that these 
 confirm it more than all others. Were it vain, they 
 would not have such gladness, tranquillity, and free- 
 dom of mind. Christians would not reckon tribula- 
 tions among their joys and consolations. If the 
 Christian faith produced all this without miracles, 
 that were indeed the greatest of miracles.' 
 
 Savonarola's religious evidences were all moral 
 and spiritual — of the historical he took little account. 
 Nevertheless, if we examine history in the light of 
 the evidence he adopted, we shall find that it corro- 
 borates holy writ precisely in those points, where to 
 the merely historical enquirer the proof is defective. 
 Thus, as we have seen, it is impossible to make out 
 a succession of apostles in the historical chain, if con- 
 fined to a particular church and system — but elevate 
 the vision and enlarge the horizon, and immediately 
 a different prospect is presented. Church history 
 presents us then with a noble army of initiators, both 
 ordained and unordained — called and chosen in both 
 cases by direct and immediate divine inspiration. 
 The fathers of the Vaudois in their Alpine solitudes 
 — the protestant mountaineers in Dauphine — the 
 Albigeois — perhaps also the Cathari, the Gazari, 
 Paterini, Publicani, and others — certainly Savonarola 
 — Reuchlin — Luther —Calvin — thus all come in proof 
 H 2 
 
7» 
 
 APOSTOLICITY UNIVERSAL. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 of succession, without any need of tracing tliem through 
 historical institutions to early ages. Enough, that 
 the wind blowing where it listeth, (and no one can 
 tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth,) had filled 
 them with the witness of the Spirit, and given them 
 credential of authority in the fact of their individual 
 regeneration, to become in turn generators of com- 
 munities. Always, too, pious and enthusiastic indi- 
 viduals have from the earliest times to the latest, and 
 in every part of the world, and in the bosom of every 
 Christian assembly, whether mystically disposed, 
 or plain and literal in their faith, served as examples 
 of righteousness, and taught the precepts of verity to 
 their own immediate circles of neighbours or friends. 
 Some writers, too, believe, that theosophic fraternities 
 have at all times existed, whose history has not 
 been written, only because it is their policy to pre- 
 serve their secrets from profanation. And seeing 
 that the orthodox faith of the primitive fathers per- 
 mits us to recognize the benefits of Christ's death, as 
 extending even to the heathen, who knew not the 
 name of their Redeemer, and the possibility of God's 
 grace operating to their final salvation, without the 
 intervention either of Scripture, priest, orinstitution, — 
 every person of eminent virtue, of whatever denomi- 
 nation, creed, complexion, or country under heaven, 
 may be claimed as a worthy Son of the same parental 
 Deity, who ' has made of one blood all nations of 
 men.' The most universal acceptation then of Catho- 
 lic verity will not permit us to apply the doctrine of 
 apostolical succession in a carnal sense, and thereby 
 limit and confine it to a semi-hereditary series of 
 ordained persons in a Cliristian society or two, from 
 among the many God has seen fit to raise up for his 
 own good purposes, in the midst of a world lying else 
 in moral darkness and spiritual death. Each eccle- 
 siastical fellowship presents its own class of historical 
 
CII. (I. 
 
 MEN OF GENIUS. 
 
 77 
 
 facts, and must be included in the induction that is to 
 corroborate the principle of perpetual apostolicity as 
 contained in holy writ. Of these historical corrobo- 
 rations, the Church of Rome presents one class, the 
 Greek Church another, the Anglican Church another, 
 the Presbyterian Churches another, and the various 
 sects other classes. In this point of view, we are not 
 simply driven to Cliillingworth's necessity of accept- 
 ing the writings of deceased apostles for the only 
 teachers of the will of God, but have in addition 
 enough of living example and precept to induce us to 
 imitation, and persuade us to believe. 
 
 Nor must we omit to number in the list of God's 
 witnesses on earth, men of letters and masters of 
 song, sophists and gnostics, who have at all times 
 enriched Christendom with the gifts of genius. 
 The Primitive unity of the Church included, as we 
 have said, all arts and professions, which have only 
 at a comparatively recent period become separated 
 from the priestly office. Of old, among the Hebrews 
 in like manner there were not only priests, but ora- 
 tors, wise men, and prophets. Also among the 
 Greeks, their sages and poets have survived for the 
 instruction of scholars in all succeeding times and 
 countries. The influence of Uante, Petrarca, and 
 Boccaccio, on modern Italy and on the mind of 
 Savonarola, has already been specified. But per- 
 haps an objection will be raised here, because of 
 the variety of opinion and the infidel character of 
 some of the writings, even of Christian authors. Let 
 us recollect, however, that all literature agrees in one 
 point, — its ideal tendency. Poetry, romance, and 
 philosophy, like religion, stand in contrast with the 
 world, and constantly rebuke its motives- and conduct, 
 by example and precept, satire or ridicule. And in 
 regard even to works professedly atheistic, we siiall 
 find, upon a nice analysis of his production, that, 
 H 3 
 
78 
 
 CATHOLICITY OF BELIEF. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 ■whatever the author may have meant in the wrath 
 of his heart or the delusion of his understanding, he 
 has been able to do no more than to bring the creeds 
 and customs of his time to trial before the bar of 
 his judgement, and condemn them as short of some 
 standard of purity and excellence, wherewith he would 
 compare them. Thus, however defaced or injured, 
 there is in every heart a shrine of truth, from which 
 God will not be expelled, and in which, wherever he 
 has granted the appropriate intellect, he will make 
 his presence felt and be confessed. For ' the pre- 
 paration of the heart in man, and the answer of 
 the tongue, is from the Lord '." Also, ' There is a 
 spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty 
 giveth men understanding^.' 
 
 Thus it is that God has sent unto his people from 
 time to time, ' prophets and wise men and scribes 
 though too seldom received with honour and reverence, 
 and too frequently recompensed with obloquy, im- 
 prisonment, and martyrdom. 
 
 And what if discrepancies of opinion among this 
 cloud of witnesses may be detected, and the nobler 
 and the elder prove more erroneous tlian the meaner 
 and the younger ? ' Great men,' says Elihu, ' are 
 not always wise ; neither do the aged understand 
 judgement \' Even so has it fared with the chief 
 ecclesiastical authorities ; ' popes against popes, coun- 
 cils against councils, some fathers against others, the 
 same fathers against themselves ; a consent of 
 fathers of one age against a consent of fathers of 
 another age, the Church of one age against the 
 Church of another age'.' Shall then the rule of 
 quod semper, quod vbique, qiiod ah omnibus °, be put 
 
 ' Prov. xvi. ]. ..J xxxii. 8. 
 
 3 Matt, xxiii. 34. * Jol) xxxii. 9. ' Cliilliiigworth. 
 * ' Whatever has been believed always, everywhere, and by 
 all.' 
 
cn. If. 
 
 TRUTH IS ETERNAl. 
 
 79 
 
 aside ? God forbid ! But it should not be carnally 
 interpreted, as holding of time and place, and merely 
 intending traditive interpretation. For truth is eter- 
 nal, whether acknowledged or forgotten in any age, 
 or by any people. ' The always of Divine truth,' 
 says a defender of modern inspiration ' is not the 
 always of time, but of eternity : the everywhere is 
 not that of space, which is finite, but of the spirit of 
 Him who is omnipresent : and the by all, is not that 
 of the many who are called, but of the few who are 
 chosen. A truth, though only the alleged novelty of 
 yesterday, may have in it more of durability, than a 
 doctrine which has lasted from the time of the fall : 
 though confined only to a single spot of earth, it may 
 have in it more of the principle of ubiquity, than 
 an opinion which has spread itself over the globe : 
 though received only by one, it may have in it more 
 of Catholicity, than an opinion which has been re- 
 ceived by one million. Indeed, to test the eternal 
 truth of a doctrine by the number of hours it has 
 lasted, as counted out by the clock — the universality 
 of its nature, by the multitude of superficial miles 
 over which it has extended, by the decrees of human 
 authority, or by the number of voices who have pro- 
 claimed in its favour — is to employ a test which is 
 only worthy of that which can be so tested. Let us, 
 then, concede to the fashions of the world, the prin- 
 ciples of time, space, and custom ; and reserve to our- 
 selves the only characteristics of Divine truth, its 
 intrinsic eternity, infinity and universality.' 
 
 Thus it is, that while Revelation is final, the Spirit 
 of God is evermore discovering to individuals and to 
 his Church, the meaning of his word, and making both 
 practically and vitally better acquainted with himself 
 
 ' The Rev. Augustus Clissold, M.A., formerly of Exeter 
 College, Oxon, iii a Letter to Dr. Whateley, Archbishop of 
 Dublin. 
 
80 
 
 TRIONFO DELLA CROCE. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 and with Divine truth, which, in proportion as it is 
 practical and vital, will prove itself to be productive. 
 There is in its manifestations to man progress and 
 developemeilt, though in itself it remains undiminished 
 and unincreased, immutable and infinite. Immanent 
 in God, it grows in man with his spiritual growth, and 
 strengthens with his spiritual strength. 
 
 Living as he did in the light of many great truths, 
 Savonarola found it possible, while asserting his right 
 of private judgement in regard to the Scriptures, to 
 maintain his allegiance to the Church in which he 
 had been educated. Nay, with the most perfect con- 
 sistency he could show the deepest reverence for her 
 origin and pretensions, and even render-in his belief 
 in some points from which the Churches of the Re- 
 formation would dissent. This will be sufficiently 
 shown by the following curious passage from the 
 work we lately quoted. 
 
 ' It has appeared to me ' (says Savonarola in the 
 ' Trionfo della Croce ' treating of the works of Christ, 
 and desiring by means of a symbolical representa- 
 tion to gather them into one view) — ' it has appeared 
 to me necessary to unite all under the image of a 
 triumphal car, in order that the meanest intellect may 
 contemplate them all at once. First, then, let us 
 place before our eyes a car with four wheels, and on 
 it, Christ like a conqueror crowned with thorns and 
 all wounded, thus showing his passion and death by 
 which he overcame the world. Upon his head, a 
 light like the sun, having three faces, represents the 
 Holy Trinity, from whicli proceeds wonderful splen- 
 dour, illuminating his human nature and the whole 
 Church. In the left hand of Christ let there be the 
 cross with all other instruments of his passion, and in 
 the right, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment. Near his feet, place the chalice with the host, 
 and other vases of oil and balsam with the remaining 
 
CH. ir. 
 
 ALLEGORIES. 
 
 81 
 
 signs of the Sacraments of the Church. Below this 
 first rank in which Christ is, let there be the most 
 pious Mother of God, the Virgin Mary ; and upon the 
 same elevation with her should he ranged all around 
 vessels of gold, silver, and precious stones full of the 
 ashes and bones of the dead. Before the car, the 
 Apostles and Evangelists, so as to appear dragging 
 it, preceded by the patriarchs and prophets and an 
 innumerable throng of men and women of the Old 
 Testament. Around the car, like a coronet, a very 
 great multitude of martyrs, close to them the doctors 
 of the Church with open books in their hands, and 
 next a countless crowd of virgins adorned with lilies. 
 Afterwards behind the car, an infinite multitude of 
 men and women of every condition, that is, Jews, 
 Grecians, Latins, Barbarians, rich, poor, learned, 
 unlearned, small and great, old and young, who all 
 with one heart praise Christ. Surrounding all these 
 ■we have mentioned let us place an innumerable army 
 of enemies and opponents of the Church of Christ, 
 that is, emperors, kings, princes, potentates, wise men, 
 philosophers, heretics, slaves, freemen, males, females, 
 and people of every tongue and nation. Besides 
 these, be there represented idols fallen and shat- 
 tered, heretical books burned, all sects contrary to 
 Christ refuted, and every other religion overthrown 
 and condemned.' 
 
 This allegory Savonarola has not left wdthout ex- 
 planation. The Trinity, he declares, is placed at the 
 summit, because from visible we rise to the know- 
 ledge of invisible things. The four wheels represent 
 the four parts of the world which Christ subdues to 
 himself. The seven sacraments are allegories, depict- 
 ing the progress and adjuncts of life. Baptism is 
 birth, confirmation growth, the Eucharist nutrition, 
 penance medicine to heal sickness, &c. The ra- 
 tionality of the doctrine of the real presence is de- 
 
82 
 
 VOCAL AND MENTAL PRAYER. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 fended on the ground tliat ' nothing is impossible with 
 God,' and the multiplied ceremonies of the Church 
 are \andicated by the consideration, that ' the Spirit, 
 like a physician, prescribes remedies for the infirmi- 
 ties of men's minds, to whom spiritual worship 
 becomes wearisome — slight remedies at first, while 
 the disease is slight, but as it grows worse, they are 
 increased. Those who will always use vocal and not 
 mental prayer, act as if they chose to take medicine 
 perpetually and never to be cured.' Whereupon 
 Savonarola advises, that, ' if it happen by the grace 
 of God, the soul unites itself with him in such love 
 and contemplation, that vocal prayer can no longer 
 be continued without hindering this contemplation, 
 the suppliant should omit the remainder of his vocal 
 and continue his mental orisons, the great object 
 of prayer being attained by such converse with 
 God.' 
 
 * We worship God,' continues Savonarola, ' not 
 only to honour him, but to obtain from him our hap- 
 piness. A good life being a better way of obtaining 
 blessedness than sacrifices and ceremonies, we must 
 allow that a good life is much more true worship than 
 exterior worship.' 
 
 Tliis brief passage lets in a world of light on the 
 inner convictions of Savonarola, and enables us to 
 look throtigh the priest into the man. 
 
 Yet, in other passages we find him struggling with 
 darkness ; asserting for instance the tenet of merito- 
 rious obedience, in the following terms. 
 
 ' True glory is to do that which thou art not obliged 
 by any natural or divine law to do. Doubtless, it is 
 more meritorious to observe the commandments and 
 the councils than the commandments only.' 
 
 In his private meditations, however, we find him 
 so far advanced in the search after personal holiness, 
 as to lose sight of the above and other doctrines 
 
CIT. II. 
 
 POWER OF CONVERSATION. 
 
 83 
 
 and practices without the necessity of formal renun- 
 ciation. They dropped from him as the cotyledons 
 wither away from the unfolded flower. 
 
 Even after his priestly ordination, Savonarola con- 
 tinued the business of teaching. The certainty and 
 clearness with which he treated scientific questions 
 rendered him extremely popular. His going about 
 from cloister to cloister made no difference in his 
 studies, while the mildness of his manner, the ful- 
 ness of his learning, and the strictness of his disci- 
 pline, won for him every whei'e love, esteem, and 
 honour. His high character and attractive behaviour 
 obtained him also much employment in the confes- 
 sional ; and so great was his influence, that in the 
 most important, as well as the least concerns, unre- 
 served confidence was placed in him, and his advice 
 implicitly followed. None ventured to dispute the 
 commands of a man at once so holy and so wise. 
 
 In private remonstrances Savonarola was singu- 
 larly happy. One illustrative incident is recorded. 
 On a voyage from Ferrara to Mantua, in company 
 with thirteen soldiers on board the same boat, he is 
 said to have stimulated them by the power and 
 fervor and unction of his discourse, to a penitential 
 confession of very many and enormous iniquities. 
 
 Instances of this kind, doubtless, led his order and 
 himself to think that, as a preacher, Savonarola would 
 become at once uncommonly effective. An oppor- 
 tunit}' soon occurred of making the trial. 
 
 There was in the year 1482, a war between 
 Ferrara and Venice, the latter having, from ambition, 
 united with the republics dependent on its govern- 
 ment, in stirring up the pope against the former, for 
 the purpose of ruining the house of Este. The 
 fathers of the Dominican Order were then with 
 Savonarola sojourning in the convent of St. Maria 
 degli Angiola, in Ferrara, and thought it politic to 
 
84 
 
 Savonarola's first VREAtiiiXG. 
 
 B. 11. 
 
 avoid the perils of war and transfer their schools to 
 some safer locality. Savonarola and others went to 
 Florence. Immediately after his amval, the prior of 
 the Convent of San Marco, Yincenzo Bardello, showed 
 his estimate of Savonarola's talents and reputation by 
 naming him reader ; and it was arranged that in the 
 Lent of 1483 — (the year of Luther's birth) — he 
 should also preach the fast-day sermons. 
 
 The opportunity long looked for has at length 
 arrived. That fountain of eloquence in the soul of 
 Savonarola, whose living streams had flowed at the 
 lecture-table healingly, and which had refreshed the 
 hearts of companions and of those who came for 
 counsel or confession in private converse, was now to 
 be lifted up in the congregation of believers, and the 
 preacher was to be acknowledged as the orator of 
 salvation, the advocate for God and man. This, and 
 no less a gift than this, was in Savonarola — assurance 
 of it had been felt by him — the ambition for its exer- 
 cise had grown with him ; and now the time has 
 come when it is to do the work for which it had 
 been bestowed. 
 
 With hopes thus high, Savonarola ascends the 
 pulpit in the Church of Lorenzo at Florence. The 
 congregation is numerous, for hitherto the preachers 
 have been sufficiently attractive, and the new 
 preacher has much celebrity, and from him much is 
 expected. But these hopes and expectations are 
 premature. Savonarola has much to learn before 
 he is perfect as an orator. A constrained carriage, 
 an ungainly figure, a piping voice, have little to 
 please an audience. Day after day the number of 
 hearers diminishes — day after day — till at length 
 only twenty-five are left including women and boys. 
 Nor is Savonarola not aware of the cause, but has 
 left his self-condemnation on record. / * I had,' ' he 
 says, • neither voice, lungs, nor style. My preach- 
 
CII. II. 
 
 HIS FAILURE. 
 
 85 
 
 iiig disgusted every one. I could not have moved 
 so much as a chicken ! ' ~^ 
 
 He returned to his monastery with feelings that 
 may be conceived but not described. 
 
 Must Savonarola renounce his hope? Is there no 
 chance of his becoming even so much as useful as a 
 preacher ? Is the pulpit after all no probable stage 
 for the exertions of a genius felt by the possessor to 
 be of the highest order — for the overflow of an en- 
 thusiasm that is consuming his heart, wherein it had 
 long concentrated itself, and been secretly nourished, 
 like the seething lava beneath the crater, with mate- 
 rials of combustion ? We shall see. 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A TREACHER. 
 
 Savonarola in Lombardy — Expounds the Apocalypse — Baby- 
 lon a patristic type of Rome — Essential difl'erences between 
 the Gospel of Christ and the religion of Christians — Sixtus 
 IV. and Innocent VIII. — Savonarola preaches at Bi-escia, 
 and denounces impending destruction to the apostate Church 
 of Rome— His prophetic claims — Studies and nritings. 
 
 It was in the year that gave birth to Luther, when 
 Savonarola made his first, but unsuccessful entrance 
 into the pulpit. His eloquence, like the new-born 
 person of the German reformer, was in its infancy, 
 and none perceived that nevertheless ' Heaven lay 
 about it.' Savonarola, however, was not to be dis- 
 couraged. We read of his making trials in divers 
 towns. His mind was full of truth — he was an artist, 
 if yet a comparatively dumb one ; but he could not 
 rest without making some effort to promulge it — he 
 must teach, if but with a stammering lip. Part of 
 his time he spent in Lombardy, expounding to youths 
 the Scriptures — part in making the preparatory trials 
 just mentioned, at long and accidental intervals, and 
 without publicity. 
 
CII. III. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 87 
 
 Sedulous as a biblical student generally, Savona- 
 rola, like most religious enthusiasts, was an ardent 
 admirer and expounder of the Apocalypse. The 
 divinest of poems, this work of the beloved disciple, 
 his Lord's-day holy labour, when, islanded on soli- 
 tary Patmos, the apostle was in the Spirit, and heard 
 behind him a great voice as of a trumpet, — this mar- 
 vellous prophecy has ever affected in an incomparable 
 degree the imagination of the pious, and excited more 
 devout emotion than any other book in the sacred 
 volume. To the mystical mind it has always been 
 an intense subject of meditation, the imprisoned 
 Saint having therein assembled together all the types 
 and symbols, contained elsewhere separately in the 
 records of revelation, with others then for the first 
 time conceived, making thus a grand composite reve- 
 lation, inclusive of the Old and New, as the comple- 
 ment and supplement of both. It is as if God had 
 made up his jewels, and set his seal upon the casket 
 that enshrined the sacred treasures. What increases 
 the interest also is the visionary character of the 
 poem — the manner in which it is believed to open up 
 the designs of Providence to the world's end — thus 
 making the student thereof a seer into the most dis- 
 tant future. 
 
 There are few who even now are either willing or able 
 to interpret the contents of the Apocalypse in a spi- 
 ritual or moral sense. In a time, when to refer the 
 mystical language of Holy Writ to invisible arcana, 
 was to swim counter to the stream of pntristic autho- 
 rity, what else could be expected but a substitution 
 of one visible thing for another, as the explanation 
 of the mystical term ? If Peter (1 . v. 13) greeted his 
 correspondents with the salutation ' of the co-elect 
 Church which is in Babylon,' the primitive fathers, 
 according to Eusebius, understood him to date from 
 Rome. However fanciful, however strained may 
 I 2 
 
88 
 
 ROME BECOME BABYLON. 
 
 n. II. 
 
 seem to be their solutions, they never violate this 
 canon — never allow themselves to depart from some 
 literal sense concerning the past, which they merely 
 exchange for some literal sense concerning the pre- 
 sent. Nor has an Augustine yet risen, qualified by 
 his genius to elevate the sublime subject of the Apo- 
 calypse above the terrene level, and to translate its 
 pro-Dantean argument into a revelation of eternity 
 rather than of time. 
 
 Very early, then, was ancient Babylon accepted as 
 a type of Rome, and the words of the Apocalypse 
 were understood to refer to the corrupt and adulte- 
 rated Christianity, which was so soon established in 
 the seven-hilled city. Savonarola, boldly poetic as 
 were his fancy and imagination, though a Reformer, 
 was yet no innovator. He was a man of genius, but he 
 was also a man of learning. And his learning exer- 
 cised constant control upon the daring of his genius. 
 Purely religious though he was, yet many of the 
 superstitions of the age, as we have already seen, still 
 clung to him : he manifested rather an instinct for 
 the discovery, than a perfected knowledge of the 
 truth. More should not be expected from him under 
 all the circumstances of time and place, and the con- 
 ditions which qualified his intellectual progress. No 
 wonder, therefore, that his zeal should be fired by a 
 never-doubted conviction that Babylon and Rome 
 were synonymous terms. ' What is Babylon,' said 
 Savonarola, ' but Rome ? Babylon signifies confu- 
 sion. There is not in the world greater confusion 
 of crimes and all sorts of iniquity than at Rome. 
 Since they have made it a dwelling for harlots, God 
 will make it a stall for swine and horses ! ' 
 
 Alas ! the fact only too strongly justified the 
 analogy. The Church of Christ had indeed (to quote 
 from Dr.Tlenry More,) ' degenerated — or rather apo- 
 statized, from the purity of the Gospel into the ab- 
 
cH. in. 
 
 PAOANO-CHRISTIANISM. 
 
 89 
 
 horred condition of anti-christianism, and yet retained 
 the external possession of Christianity, using indeed 
 the name and history of Christ and his Apostles, but 
 introducing thereupon such a face of idolatry and 
 heathenish superstition, and barbarous cruelty against 
 the true servants of Christ, that by those whose judge- 
 ments are more free and piercing, such a state of the 
 Church cannot but be deemed rather a revival of 
 paganism, than an uninterrupted succession of true 
 Christianity in the world ; or, to use the softest lan- 
 guage that the truth of the thing will admit of, it 
 cannot be judged pure and unadulterate Christianit}% 
 but a kind of pagano-christianism, the pagan rites, 
 idolatries, and superstitions being practised upon 
 Christian objects, and this paganism in this pretended 
 Christianity being maintained with as ferine cruelty 
 as paganism itself was in the time of the heathen 
 emperors.' Alas ! not only in appearance, as they 
 who would accommodate the language of the New 
 Testament to the traditions and ceremonies of the 
 Church in one or two of its historical manifestations, 
 would have us to believe — not only in appearance 
 but in reality, are there great dilferences between the 
 record and the institution. Moreover such dilferences 
 nnist be — for the New Testament presents in all its 
 parts the ideal of a Church, equally existing in an 
 individual and a corporation, while the institution is 
 fain to be content with such compromise as could be 
 effected between the ideal and actual, under specific 
 circumstances of time and place. Nothing can more 
 strictly mark this than the sinless state of human 
 perfection required of every Christian by St. John. 
 For such an one, no special sacrifice would be re- 
 quired, whose life would be all one sacrifice to truth 
 and goodness — no special sacrament needed, whose 
 every meal would be a sacrament — no shrine or altar 
 or sacred building wanted for his devotion, to whom 
 I 3 
 
90 
 
 NOMINAL CHRISTIANITY 
 
 B. II. 
 
 every place would be altogether holy, and no spot on 
 earth unblessed by Him who made it. How deeply 
 all this was felt by Savonarola, what he says in prayer 
 sufficiently vouches. Such is the character he con- 
 templated as becoming the Christian, and such is the 
 character presented to us in the Gospel — a being 
 carrying about in his person and habits of mind the 
 most hallowed influences, and consecrating the very 
 air in which he moves with the sanctity of his pre- 
 sence. But, alas ! such is not man ! The Christian 
 is his highest style, but who has yet deserved it ? 
 Nominal Christianity from the first was and could 
 only be a corruption of that which gave it birth. 
 Nominal Christianity is not necessarily the religion 
 of Christ — the doctrines of the scholars are not ne- 
 cessarily those of the master. Nominal Christianity 
 is a system made by professed Christians, not by 
 Christ. It follows and embodies the usages of nomi- 
 nal Christians, not the example of Christ, From 
 the Church of Antioch to the present day it has been 
 so, and could not be otherwise. The pure religion 
 of Christ, as revealed in the New Testament, con- 
 templates man as restored to his original purity, as 
 incapable of sin, as a veritable child of God — but 
 nominal Christianity has ever accommodated itself to 
 fallen humanity, sympathized with its errors, and 
 condescended to its infirmities. When it became 
 joined to the world, and was taken into partnership 
 with the state, this was more particularly the case. 
 A more decided compromise was effected between the 
 ideal and the possible ; and at different periods and 
 in different places, nominal Christianity has assumed 
 different phases according to the circumstances and 
 condition of the age and country. But no such com- 
 promise — no such accommodation is contemplated by 
 the Gospels ; on the contrary, their very spirit is 
 directly opposed to it in every shape and in every 
 
CM. III. 
 
 NOT THE RELIGION OF CHRIST. 
 
 91 
 
 degree. It is of no use deceiving ourselves : for this 
 is the case. It is not that the Gospel precepts are 
 only apparently more pure than the practices of the 
 Church in all times ; hut they are so in very deed 
 and truth. Nor is this conclusion avoided by any 
 necessity for supposing an antecedent institution, as 
 at once their author and interpreter. Granted — there 
 must have been a previous establishment virtually or 
 actually, and acting always in both capacities. What 
 then ? The documents would aim at the same end 
 for which the institution existed, but they would 
 work by different means. The purpose of the insti- 
 tution would be to lead its members to the pursuit 
 of the highest excellence practically ; and the aim of 
 the documents would be to hold up the standard of 
 excellence as the object to be gained. The first 
 would proceed by training an imperfect uninstructed 
 individual, and providing for him means whereby he 
 might be perfected to every good word and work ; 
 this training and preparation — these means would all 
 be adapted to his imperfection and ignorance. The 
 second would be limited to announcing the idea of 
 the utmost excellence, and strictly defining its image; 
 permitting no mutation nor mutilation, but setting 
 aloft and apart the example to be studied, far above 
 and beyond the mists of earthly passion and folly, 
 in the pure ether of wisdom and goodness and power, 
 not to be breathed by the profane, not to be invaded 
 by the unclean. A law is always more strict in its 
 terms than the observance of it can be ; and the per- 
 fection of holiness required by the religion of Christ 
 was never attained by mortal man. Nominal Chris- 
 tianity is just so much as has been realized in time 
 and space, and no more. The religion of Christ is 
 to be found in the New Testament — nominal Chris- 
 tianity in the Church, and real Antichrist in both the 
 Church and the world ; and by so much as one diflfers 
 
92 PERPETUAL IMBECILITY OF THE CHURCH. B. II. 
 
 from the other, by so much the institutions and cus- 
 toms of the Church ditfer from the religion and 
 morality of the New Testament. 
 
 ' In truth,' says the leader of the Oxford modern 
 theological school, ' the wliole course of Christianity, 
 from the first, when we come to examine it, is but one 
 series of troubles and disorders. Every century is 
 like every other, and to thsse who live in it seems 
 worse than all times before it. The Church is ever 
 ailing, and lingers on in weakness, always bearing 
 about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that 
 the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in her 
 body.' Religion seems ever expiring, schism domi- 
 nant; the light of truth dim, its adherents scattered. 
 The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony ; as 
 though it were but a question of time, whether it 
 falls finally this day, or another. The saints are 
 ever all but failing from the earth, and Christ all but 
 coming; and thus, the day of judgement is lite- 
 rally ever at hand ; and it is our duty ever to be 
 looking out for it, not disappointed that we have so 
 often said, ' now is the moment ;' and that, at the 
 last, contrary to our expectations, truth has some- 
 what rallied. Such is God's will, gathering in his 
 elect, first one and then another, by little and little, 
 in the intervals of sunshine between storm and storm, 
 or snatching them from the surge of evil, even when 
 the waters rage most furiously. Well may prophets 
 cry out, ' How long will it be, O Lord, to the 
 end of these wonders ? how long will this mystery 
 proceed ? how long will this perishing world be sus- 
 tained by the feeble lights which struggle for existence 
 in its unhealthy atmosphere?' God alone knows 
 the day and the hour when that will at length be, 
 which he is ever threatening ; meanwhile, thus much 
 of comfort do we gain from what has been hitherto ; 
 not to despond, not to be dismayed, not to be anxious 
 
cn. III. 
 
 SIXTUS IV. 
 
 93 
 
 at the troubles which encompass us. They have 
 ever been, they ever shall be ; they are our portion. 
 ' The floods are risen, the floods have lift up their 
 voice, the floods lift up their waves : the waves of 
 the sea are mighty, and rage horribly, but yet the 
 Lord who dwelleth on high is mightier '.' 
 
 So much by way of apology for the fact, should 
 we find on inquiry a succession of Apostates rather 
 than of Apostles, in the seats of ecclesiastical privi- 
 lege. The pope under whom Savonarola is now 
 living, is one of the worst that ever bore the sacred 
 character. Sixtus IV. professed in the first instance 
 to follow the policy of Pius II., but soon relapsed 
 into indolence and misgovemment. The archbishop 
 of Pisa being ignominiously executed by the Medici 
 during the disturbances that arose between them 
 and the Pazzi at Florence, and of which anon we 
 shall give a full account ; Sixtus IV. was compelled 
 to place the city under an interdict, excommimicate 
 Lorenzo de Medici, and publish a declaration of war. 
 But his pontifical menaces were treated v.'ith. scorn, 
 even by the ecclesiastics. They continued to cele- 
 brate the divine offices in defiance of the interdict ; 
 they assembled a synod of the bishops of Tuscany, 
 in order to appeal with greater solemnity to a general 
 council, and retorting the blame of the original of- 
 fence upon the pontiff himself, called upon France 
 and Milan to aid them against his oppression. In 
 the midst of the confusion external dangers were for- 
 gotten, and the hosts of Mahomet TI. approached un- 
 heard to the gates of Italy. The city of Otranto was 
 suffered to be stormed by the infidel — and then, but 
 not till then, a peace was patched up between Flo- 
 rence and the pope. Mahomet dying, Sixtus IV. 
 had thenceforth leisure to attend to his personal in- 
 ' Newman's Rumanism aud Popular Protestantism. 
 
94 
 
 INNOCENT VIII. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 terests, and carried the transgression of nepotism 
 beyond all former example. He married one of his 
 nephews, Leonardo della Rovera, to a natural daugh- 
 ter of Ferdinand of Naples, shamefully, or rather 
 shamelessly, abandoning to that monarch some estates 
 and fiefs which his predecessors had spared no toil 
 acquire and retain. Another, named Julian, the 
 same who was afterwards Julius II., was enriched 
 with several ecclesiastical benefices. For a third, 
 named Girolamo Riario, the principality of Imola 
 was purchased from the resources of the apostolical 
 treasury. But it was on Pietro Riario, the youngest, 
 that the profusion of his fondness was principally 
 lavished. Without talents, without virtues, from a 
 simple Franciscan monk, Pietro was immediately 
 elevated to the dignity of cardinal : he was made 
 titular patriarch of Constantinople ; he was raised to 
 the archiepiscopal see of Florence ; he received be- 
 sides, two other archbishoprics, and a multitude of 
 inferior benefices. In the mean time his splendid 
 prodigality, the pride of his attendants, his equipage, 
 and his sumptuousness, kept pace with the abundance 
 of his resources, and he expended on the pomp of a 
 single ceremony, or the festivities of a single night, 
 sums which exceeded the revenues of kings. For 
 the rest, Sixtus IV. was signally superstitious, and 
 singularly venal, creating new offices for the pur- 
 poses of sale. By one of his acts he ventured on 
 offering the last insult to his court and his Church, 
 having raised to the dignity of cardinal his own valet, 
 a youth, named Jacopo di Parma. What learning 
 and talent he had — (and he was not without either) — 
 only made Sixtus IV. more mischievous and odious. 
 Dying in 1484, he was succeeded by Innocent VIII., 
 who had actually purchased the votes of the conclave, 
 in order to his election, and had no sooner attained 
 
ClI. III. 
 
 SAVONAROLA AT BllIiSCIA. 
 
 95 
 
 it, than he violated all treaties and oaths made with 
 and sworn to the cardinals — though he had bound 
 himself on pain of anathema, not to exercise his power 
 of self-absolution. Impossible condition ! But though 
 perfidy was common to the popes, none had fixed it 
 at so high a mark before. 
 
 Clear it was, that the mystery of iniquity was 
 approximating its climax. How was a Savonarola 
 likely to bear these things ? Shall he not preach 
 against them ? Yes, if he can ; and now he can — for 
 he has gained facility by such practice as he could get, 
 and has left untried no mode of self-improvement. 
 He is not one of those flowers that veil their petals 
 under the bud, and let them wither ere they blossom 
 and bring fruit. No ! not fruitless will this rich 
 heart full of love be shut up within itself; he will 
 go forth into the world, though as a lamb among 
 raging wolves. His name shall be added to the list 
 of great men, in whom the unconquerable will has 
 triumphed over physical incapacity. Even his weak 
 frame is to become, under the strong impulse of his 
 fervid soul, an efficient instrument, and the neglected 
 preacher shall ere long rise into an orator, who shall 
 ultimately be followed by applauding thousands, who 
 will own his power not only by the deen silence of 
 admiration, but by the violent struggles of hysterical 
 passion, and the more precious tribute of tears of 
 conviction. 
 
 It was the year after the death of Sixtus IV., in 
 the first year of the pontificate of the more infamous 
 Innocent VIII., in the year 1485, that Savonarola 
 went to preach in Brescia. H is mind was full of the 
 Scriptures, and that part of them before him which 
 he has undertaken to expound is none other than the 
 mysterious, soul-inspiring, spirit-stirring Apocalypse. 
 How his imagination was fired — how his eloquence 
 was wakened I Words poured from him like water 
 
96 
 
 HIS SUCCESSFUL PREACHING. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 from the divine fountain of life, and the new light of 
 gospel truth surrounded his brows with a glory like 
 the aureola of saints. He stood before the people as 
 a prophet. Such without his aiuiouncement they 
 believed him to be — for he brought the crimes of the 
 Church to the judgement of the book, and denounced 
 them in the language of God himself. ' From the 
 beginning of the world,' said Savonarola, ' a wonder- 
 ful and inscrutable series of Divine judgements has 
 appeared, wherein have been revealed not only the 
 fearful anger, but the patient loving-kindness of God. 
 Thus the father of the human race, though not left 
 ultimately unpunished, was nevertheless not imme- 
 diately precipitated to Hades. Thus also the univer- 
 sal corruption which had seized the entire human 
 race was not immediately punished, but was per- 
 mitted to continue until the time of the deluge, when 
 it received punishment once for all. In like manner, 
 the obduracy of king Pharaoh led not immediately to 
 his destruction, but was permitted to continue, until 
 finally he was overwhelmed in the waves of the Red 
 Sea. Not otherwise will it be in our corrupt times, 
 from which all the virtues have vanished, and in 
 which all the vices are rampant. Those sunk in sin 
 will be invited to conversion, and mercy will be 
 offered if they turn to virtue, but justice Avill be at 
 length executed on them if they persist and persevere 
 in vice ! The popes have attained through the most 
 shameful simony and subtlety the highest priestly 
 dignities, and even then, when seated in the holy chair, 
 surrender themselves to a shamefully voluptuous .life 
 and an insatiable avarice. The cardinals and bishops 
 follow their example. No discipline, no fear of God 
 is in them. !Many believe in no God. The chastity 
 of the cloister is slain, and they who should serve 
 God with holy zeal have become cold or lukewarm. 
 The princes openly exercise tyranny. Their subjects 
 
Cll. III. 
 
 SUPPOSED TO PUOPIIESY. 
 
 97 
 
 encourage them in their evil propensitie;.?, their rob- 
 beries, their adulteries, tlieir sacrileges. But, after 
 the corrupted human race has abused for so many 
 centuries the long-sufferiug of God, then at last the 
 justice of God appears, demanding that the rulers of 
 the people, who with base examples corrupt all the 
 rest, should be brought to heavy punishment, and 
 that the people of Asia and Africa, now dwelling in 
 the darkness of ignorance, should be made partakers 
 of the light.' 
 
 "StJcTT was the subject-matter of a discourse which, 
 suiting the times, awakened the people of the times 
 to a sense of their own and their rulers' iniquities, 
 and an admiration of the preacher's boldness, who 
 dared to utter such dangerous truths of popes, cardi- 
 nals, bishops, and princes, from the very pulpit of the 
 Church itself. None but prophets in the days of old 
 shewed such extreme daring ; — in these days shall 
 the courageous spirit be deemed by impassioned 
 Italians less than prophetic ? This strain of mingled 
 reproach, menace, and foretelling, is it less than in- 
 spired ? ' I never,' remarked Savonarola continually, 
 ' said I was a prophet — yet this I say, that God sent 
 me to pi-ophesy a scourge to Italy, which if I do I 
 lose my body, if I do not I lose my soul.' Incon- 
 sistent this — yet not to be too strictly criticized. 
 Savonarola was conscious he had a mission — it was 
 proved also by the fact of his performing it. God 
 sets every man the task he has to perform on earth, 
 and therefore had set him his. But Savonarola had 
 not boasted of it as a peculiar and special thing; this 
 others had ventured, not he. The one assertion he was 
 warranted in making, on the other he preferred silence. 
 But by whomsoever he was accepted as a prophet, to 
 him he was one, did his office, and delivered his 
 warning, his blessing, or his curse. 
 
 Nor were the Italian people unprepared for the 
 
 K 
 
98 
 
 SELF-RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 B. II. 
 
 announcement of such truths as Savonarola had to 
 teach. They were not in such ignorance of the con- 
 dition of the papacy, as some of the remoter nations. 
 Savonarola's own mind was satisfied on points, on 
 which at a much later period Luther was in doubt. 
 Distance had lent to the German's view of Rome an 
 enchantment, which to the Italian's closer inspection 
 had no existence. Popular songs in the streets of 
 Rome had satirized openly and boldly the faults at 
 which Luther trembled while he denounced them, 
 and which, not without an ecstacy of wonder, he 
 came to a knowledge of. Not so with Savonarola. 
 He knew intimately what the evil was from the first 
 — yet at first thought it not politic to speak out. 
 That, however, he might have the privilege of always 
 meditating, and sometimes discussing the subject, he 
 sought the protection of the cloister. Invested with 
 its privileges, pious men of every age had dared to 
 expose the impostures and innovations of the Roman 
 see, which had been in a state of uncertainty, perhaps 
 of permission or even of custom, but had not yet been 
 decreed into unalterable laws and constitutions of the 
 Church. It was reserved for a future period, and 
 for the Council of Trent, to ossify the tumours and 
 excrescences which had deformed the Church, and 
 stamp the much doubted and controverted preroga- 
 tive of the pope with the highest authority recognised 
 in the Church. Then it was, that the Church of 
 Rome surrendered her Catholicity for the sake of 
 establishing herself as a Protesting Institution against 
 the Church of the Reformation. 
 
 Yet however free was any man to testify against 
 ecclesiastical corruption and abuse, he must neverthe- 
 less do it on his own responsibility, and liable to those 
 revenges which power so well knows how to take. 
 He might by his honesty put to peril n{)t only his 
 liberty but his life. This was known by Savonarola, 
 
CH. III. 
 
 PROPHETIC IKSPIRATIOX. 
 
 99 
 
 by his friends, and by the people, who accordingly 
 were prepared to sympathize with, and to admire his 
 personal courage and daring earnestness. 
 
 The Italian biographers of Savonarola, and their 
 German compilers, have thought this a fitting place to 
 discuss the question of his prophetic inspiration. His 
 friend Giovanfranscesco Pico tells us that ' the judge- 
 ments then pronounced by Savonarola, were not so 
 indubitably manifest to him at that time as to leave no 
 room for ambiguity, which woyld have been the case 
 had the light of prophecy shone out beyond the veil of 
 human reason. Savonarola was still only partially 
 enlightened by the Divine light, and partially 
 darkened by his own human intellect, yet under the 
 guidance of reason he inclined towards the direction 
 whither the Divine visions he had seen conducted 
 him.' From this we may learn, that the truths on 
 which Savonarola had long brooded, now began to 
 take with him the shape of intuitions, and conscien- 
 tious feeling to transcend, and sometimes supersede 
 the exercise of reason. Difficult, however, for such 
 a mind to explain its state to another — if not super- 
 stitiously experienced, it vd\l be superstitiously re- 
 ceived. Pico interprets it as well as he may ; adding, 
 that Savonarola ' on account of the prophetic spirit 
 with which he was inspired, began to enunciate 
 some mysteries about an impending destruction, 
 although he concealed them under the cover of sacred 
 Scripture, that impure men might be prevented from 
 perceiving them, fearing lest the holy thing should 
 be given to the dogs, and meantime be rendered 
 absurd by visions that were still doubtful.' This 
 Savonarola told to me in private ; but in public he 
 very frequently said that all he had preached con- 
 cerning futurity, he apprehended by a positive infu- 
 sion of Divine light to be true, just in the same way 
 as any person of sound mind knew that every part 
 
100 
 
 DEGREES OF ILLUMINATION. 
 
 B. 11. 
 
 is less than the whole. ' There must be,' he would say, 
 ' either a true affirmation or a true negation in every 
 thing, and consequently he proceeded to preach the 
 impending destruction with greater confidence, alleg- 
 ing that by means of his so preaching, the Christian 
 world, then falling into ruin, and as it were by its 
 abominable morals at the point of death, would be re- 
 established.' Strong terms these to express a moral 
 conviction that unless the Church repented she must 
 perish, misinterpreted to mean, that he foresaw her 
 fall and the time of its occurrence. 
 
 The German commentators agree, that in thus 
 drawing his first prophetic conclusion from the Scrip- 
 tures at Brescia, Savonarola stood on safe ground, in 
 affirming as his fundamental principle, that God would 
 deal with his Church at all times as he had dealt with 
 her in the first ages. If, however, Savonarola, or his 
 biographers, mean (says one ') ' to rest his prophetic 
 claims at this time on an entirely subordinate degree 
 of inspiration, in which much of mere human reason 
 might mingle, and if Savonarola thought that pro- 
 phetic illumination must be concealed under the cover 
 of Scripture and certain symbols, to the end that the 
 holy thing may not be thrown to dogs, one can so 
 far in such a case approve his caution, inasmuch as 
 it served at the same time to prevent his being 
 deluded by doubtful visions : — but this opinion must 
 be rejected, because the prophetic in the New Tes- 
 tament meaning, rests at last on such principles as 
 have their proof in the elder Scriptures and the Divine 
 economy themselves ; yet this in no way excludes the 
 higher illumination.' The writer however consoles 
 himself, that subsequently Savonarola bore practical 
 evidence to the superior light and wisdom by which 
 God's missionaries are at all times distinguished. 
 But the day of small things is not to be despised, 
 "AG. Rudelbach. 
 
CII. III. NIGHT OF THE CHURCH. 101 
 
 Nor is any man what he is other than by the grace 
 of God, which to every individual is a special inspi- 
 ration, and in seasons of obscurity is granted for a 
 special purpose. For truth stands fast, the centre of 
 a system ; entire humanity revolves round it as the 
 earth about the sun. Christ reveals himself as the 
 morninsc, awakening the ever vernal life in the human 
 heart. Never will he set : whether it be high mid- 
 day or deep midnight, he continues to shine like the 
 summer sun in the remotest North. But where the 
 heart is cold, the warm influences even of a hea- 
 venly love expire ; night and winter supervene. 
 Dark stand the walls of the Divine city, of the 
 Church of Christ. Meanwhile, the interior is artifi- 
 cially illuminated, the obscure halls are so lit with 
 tapers, that men forget it is night ; and the cloud of 
 frankincense is so frequently exalted, and in its 
 vapours they are so constantly refreshed, that they 
 are never allowed to think in the wintry desolation 
 on their withered hearts. In the adorned house of 
 night they murmur their prayers and listen to the 
 voice of the preacher, but the stream of life flows not 
 from it, it is stiffened to ice in the w-inter's cold. At 
 length, from out the cloud of frankincense one steps 
 forth and speaks — ' I am God's vicar on earth,' and 
 the people pray to him ; neither can he err though 
 he lieth — he is the only one who may promise bless- 
 ing, even though he make men most miserable. 
 But the people who sit in the darkness and shadow 
 of death, shall yet again see the great light which 
 lighteth the day ; and the true watchmen on the walls 
 shall call — ' The night is far spent — and the morning 
 cometh ; let us put off" the works of darkness, and 
 put on the armour of light ! ' One of these watch- 
 men was Savonarola — one of those whom the agent 
 of the darkness, who had named himself the vicar 
 of the Almightv, shall cause to be conveyed from 
 K 3 
 
102 
 
 SAVONAROLA PREPARES HIMSELF 
 
 B. II, 
 
 their station to the stake, the flaming pile which apos- 
 tate power has continually reared against the twilight 
 of morning, that the prophets who threatened it with 
 destruction might perish therein. But ere long the 
 time shall be fulfilled — the flames of the pile shall 
 soar up into the holy presence of the Righteous 
 One, and kindle there a fire which the unrighteous 
 cannot quench. If the self-seeking human strength 
 can only destroy ; the Divine strength of love can 
 alone create. The Reformation of the Church, 
 which shall then commence, shall go forth conquering 
 and to conquer ; but the last victory the Lord has 
 reserved for himself — in his great day. 
 
 By the success of his preaching at Brescia, Savona- 
 rola was encouraged, and he is reported to have 
 applied himself with still greater assiduity to the 
 practice of elocution ; and by frequent preaching and 
 more sedulous study of the Scriptures, to have culti- 
 vated that unction of speech, without which the 
 preacher is but a babbler, however fluent. He 
 continued loud in his lamentations and denunciations 
 against the corruptions of the Church, speaking with 
 the voice of inspiration, and not by the authority of 
 man. He regarded not the interests of nominal 
 apostles, who had become indisputable apostates — he 
 knew that succession was the worst of pleas for a 
 Church unsouled and reduced to a dead carcase, and 
 that piety was the best credential a priest could show, 
 even though ordained by Peter himself. 
 
 But the dawn is not noon day, and Savonarola has 
 yet a season of preparation to go through before the 
 purpose of his life shall be accomplished. This 
 period he employed in writing a sketch of logic, 
 physic and ethic, and a synopsis of the Aristotelian 
 philosophy. His mode of composition required 
 improvement, and by such exercises received it. 
 After briefly announcing principles, he proceeded in 
 
CH. III. 
 
 FOR HIGHER EFlOItTS. 
 
 103 
 
 these essays to an elaboration of the instances to 
 which they applied, or by which they were illustrated. 
 Aristotle formed naturally their ground-work, and 
 the references to Thomas Aquinas are numerous. 
 The style is light and familiar, but the clearness and 
 decision of the statements bespeak the mind of a 
 master — a mind that had now attained the full matu- 
 rity of its powers, severely disciplined and diligently 
 cultivated. 
 
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 BOOK THE THIRD. 
 
 ^ r a c t u e» 
 
ItpovaaXriii, 'ItpovaaXr]^, /; aTroKrtivovaa tovq irpo^tiTag, 
 Kai XidojioXovaa rovg dirfaTaXfiivovs Trpog avTrjv, irocraKts 
 7iOtXri<ra iTTiavvayaytiv ra r'ixva (row, ov rpoTrov tiriiyvv- 
 dytt opviQ ra voatria tavTr)Q vtto t&q Trripvyag, Kai ovK 
 riOeXi)(TaTC ; Matth. xxiii, 37. 
 
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A CONTEMPLATIST. 
 
 Savonarola considered as a Prophet — The doctrinal value of 
 prayer — The practical evidence of faith — Savonarola at 
 Reggio — Invited to Florence. 
 
 Savonarola, the learned, the poetic, the enthusias- 
 tic ; — Savonarola, the incipient Reformer, the accom- 
 plished orator, — has now assumed the character of a 
 prophet. How will he support the lofty office ? We 
 must not be impatient for an answer. In the year 
 1485 Savonarola had uttered a fearful warning at 
 Brescia — but it is not until 1487 that we meet with 
 him again, and then during a short time only — for 
 any thing more important we have to wait till 1489. 
 Throughout most of this period he comports himself 
 rather as a contemplatist, than as an apostle. It is 
 with him a season of preparation. 
 
 And this is according to the usual manner of God's 
 dealings with his prophets. Thus He prepared 
 Joseph in the dungeon, David on the mountains, 
 Elijah in Horeb, the Baptist in the desert, the Mes- 
 siah in the wilderness, St. Paul in Arabia, and St. 
 John on Patmos. During these un -historical periods 
 
108 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 B. Ill, 
 
 it is, that the most important experiences are vouch- 
 safed to the sanctified intelligence. Thus it was, 
 that during his voluntary abstraction, and while 
 refusing to converse with flesh and blood, the apostle 
 of the Gentiles was caught up into the third heaven, 
 and heard things not lawful to utter. Thus also in 
 the seclusion and solitude of his island imprisonment, 
 the beloved disciple beheld visions of the trials and 
 triumphs of the Church. And Savonarola, as we 
 have seen, had also his visions, whether the day- 
 dreams of an excited fancy, or the calm intuitions of 
 an enlightened conscience. In either case, he was 
 content to embody them in the types of the inspired 
 record, and especially in those symbols so harmo- 
 niously assembled in its last and crowning portion. 
 It was, however, the internal evidences of religion 
 that led him to such embodiment — and these were 
 strengthening and accumulating in his mind, while 
 thus retired from public notice, and peacefully occu- 
 pied in ordinary duties. For all great things are 
 nourished in silence and secrecy, and even so by 
 hidden and quiet processes the mighty powers of 
 nature work out her issues, whether beautiful or ter- 
 rible, whether of life or death. 
 
 Savonarola was formed for a contemplatist ; this 
 is proved by liis preference' of mental to vocal 
 devotion. Like Augustine, he too sought by prayer 
 for revelations of Divine truth. This is a moot point 
 with some theologians, aud must therefore be cleared 
 
 up- . L 
 
 That justice may be done to so important a sub- 
 ject, the argument against the practice shall be taken 
 from one of the ablest advocates ' of the visible 
 Church against the invisible, that modern times have 
 produced. 
 
 ' George Stanlcv Fnlier, B.D., in his Primitive Doctrine of 
 Election, 1836, p. 53 02. 
 
CH. I. 
 
 SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 109 
 
 It is objected against the practice, that it confounds 
 the moral illumination of the Holy Ghost with his 
 intellectual illumination, and that it is incumbered 
 with practical inconveniences which indicate its ab- 
 surdity. 
 
 The object of the illumination of the Spirit, it is 
 argued, is not to make men unerring doctrinal critics, 
 but to teach them self-knowledge through a powerful 
 application of Scripture to their consciences. It was, 
 indeed, the office of the Holy Ghost to guide the 
 apostles into all truth ; truth intellectual as well as 
 truth moral ; but that was an extraordinary gift and 
 grace, not partaken by their successors. To pray 
 for intellectual illumination, by which we may be 
 instructed in the undoubted mind of Scripture, is to 
 pray for the lofty prerogative of personal infallibility. 
 Under such an aspect of the matter, we might as 
 reasonably question the message of an inspired pro- 
 phet or apostle, as impugn the Calvinistic or semi- 
 Calvinistic exposition of the doctrine of predestina- 
 tion, when a pious man shall declare that he has 
 made it a subject of prayer, and that he has risen 
 from his knees internally convinced by the Spirit of 
 the undoubted correctness of this or of that system. 
 
 But the practical inconveniences that flow from 
 the assumption, demonstrate its absurdity. A Whit- 
 field and a Wesley for instance, supplicated the 
 throne of grace concerning the same text. One rose 
 a Calvinist — the other an Arminian. It is contended 
 that these opposite interpretations cannot hotli be cor- 
 rect ; and that each of these estimable individuals 
 had by his own private reasoning and judging upon 
 Scripture, firmly persuaded himself, that his own 
 view of election was undoubtedly right ; and that an 
 erroneous estimate of the nature and oflice of prayer, 
 associated with a strong imagination, readily efl'ected 
 the remainder. Others also had thus fortified them- 
 
 L 
 
110 
 
 VARIETY OF I N TEUIMIETATION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 selves in semi-Caivinism. Infidels and apostates 
 likewise, such as Herbert of Cherbury, and Socinus, 
 had prayed for, and, in their own opinion, obtained 
 the sanction of heaven to their pernicious doctrines. 
 Unless, therefore, we are inclined to believe that at 
 different times, and through the instrumentality of 
 different individuals, God has unerringly decided in 
 favour of Calvinism, Arminianism, semi-Calvinism, 
 Socinianism, and Infidelity ; we must condemn the 
 practice as erroneous, and originating from a want of 
 accurately distinguishing between illumination moral, 
 and illumination intellectual. 
 
 This is strongly put. In answer to it, however, it 
 may be remarked, that the morally illuminated man 
 is not likely to be left intellectually obscure ; that the 
 spiritual man is privileged to know of the things of 
 the natural man ; that we are commanded to read the 
 Scripture in the spirit that maketh alive, rather than 
 in the letter that killeth — a kind of interpretation 
 whicV comes not without prayer and fasting, and 
 pre- supposes the intellectually illuminating Spirit of 
 God ; and finally, that if we do we shall know what 
 is right. But it is asserted that a variety of inter- 
 pretjition is sanctioned. Granted. But what of it ? 
 It is a difficulty certainly — but not the only one in 
 relation to faith. Faith is a subjective act, and in 
 the objective world is liable to all sorts of contradic- 
 tions. If it were not so, it would not be faith but 
 sight. He who has an answer to his prayer must 
 believe in it, though the universe were to negative its 
 consistency. But what, if after all, the apparent 
 anomaly is capable of satisfactory solution ? There 
 is a variety in the unity of truth, and in regard to 
 the doctrine litigated, we have seen that St. Paul in- 
 cluded this whole variety in the proposition as stated 
 by him. Each interpretation, therefore, is correct as 
 a partial developement of the entire truth, and only 
 
CU. I. DIVINE TEACHING AND VOCATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 incorrect if accepted as the entire unfolding. Now 
 the policy of the Di\'ine economy has historically 
 been, (doubtless in condescension to human in- 
 firmity,) seldom to entrust the entire truth to one 
 individual, but to appoint each individual the advo- 
 cate of some one position against other positions, all 
 equally true as partial developenients, all equally 
 deficient as entire unfoldings ; whereby, if sects and 
 heresies have been promoted, it has also come to 
 pass that even.' segment of the circle of truth has 
 been thoroughly sifted and defended, preparatorj- to 
 that glorious time of reunion, when the scattered 
 parts of its broken body shall be re-assembled, and 
 itself restored to its original integrity. Thus it was 
 that John was appointed the apostle of love, Paul of 
 faith, and James of works. What wonder ! that an 
 Augustine and a Whitfield were commissioned to 
 teach predestination to holiness, and an Arminius 
 and a Wesley prevision of holiness ? Were they not 
 both legitimate positions, and involved in the unity 
 of the Divine purpose ? And was not each strength- 
 ened in his office by being each charged with the 
 defence of his particular doctrine ? It was God's in- 
 spiration which declared that the doctrine was a truth; 
 it was man's misapprehension which maintained it as 
 the only truth. Denounce such misapprehension as 
 the worst of errors ? what then ! Not only the folly 
 but the sin of man, is the wisdom and the righteous- 
 ness of God. For His wavs are not as our wavs, 
 neither are His thoughts our thoughts. 
 
 For the rest, it is altogether to beg the question to 
 make a distinction between the apostles and their 
 successors. An Augustine, a Savonarola, and their 
 later imitators, all who have made much account of 
 the internal evidences of religion — have alike asserted 
 either an express and direct Divine teaching, or an 
 especial and immediate vocation — and it is to set 
 L 2 
 
112 
 
 INTELLECTUAL ILLUMINATION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 aside their evidence altogether, to assert as a fact that 
 intellectual illumination was never granted to any 
 but the primitive apostles. As to the authority be- 
 longing to one so illuminated, it may justly be said 
 that it is only subjective. Nor is there need for it to 
 be more ; since every man for himself can appeal to 
 God by prayer, and will receive such measure of the 
 Spirit of interpretation as befits his station and office 
 in the Church, or may be required by his individual 
 condition and personal degree of attainment in grace 
 and holiness. 
 
 It was in the spirit of these remarks, that Savona- 
 rola replied to those who objected to his prophetic 
 assumption. 
 
 ' We believe not,' said they, ' in such prophets as 
 you are, but only in those who are approved by the 
 Church.' 
 
 ' How do you know,' demanded Savonarola, ' that 
 they are true prophets ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, the saints have written it !' they rejoined. 
 
 ' What,' he again demanded, ' do you know about 
 that ? Perhaps those who wrote have written false- 
 hoods. I believe, because God in his mercy has 
 given me the light of faith, which determines me to 
 believe.' 
 
 The general disinclination to these views of spi- 
 ritual belief, was one of the things that afflicted 
 Savonarola. ' So deep has faith sunk,' he writes in 
 one of his works, ' so much is it, the heavenly light 
 in man, extinguished, that I may no longer discrimi- 
 nate, whether men mean by the term something which 
 each man sincerely acknowledges, and exclusively 
 knows to be faith, or something communicated from 
 childhood by human precept, or a light derived from 
 above.' 
 
 The fact is, that just at this period, so far from 
 being disposed to discuss points of spiritual doctrine. 
 
CII. I. 
 
 SAVONAROLA AT REGGIO. 
 
 113 
 
 the minds of men in Italy were given over to politi- 
 cal contention. And Savonarola was himself soon 
 destined to consider rather the civil than the religious 
 relations of men. About the year 1487 a provincial 
 chapter of the Dominicans of Lombardy was held at 
 Reggio, at which not only Savonarola, but also prince 
 Pico della Mirandola, was present. In the disputa- 
 tion which then took place, Savonarola showed so 
 much talent, eloquence, and erudition, that Pico con- 
 ceived a strong interest in his favour, and was desi- 
 rous to have him recalled to Florence, feeling assured, 
 no doubt, that the preacher would now appear to 
 better advantage than he had shown before. He 
 therefore wrote to his friend the celebrated Lorenzo 
 de' Medici concerning him, and strongly urged the 
 expediency of that city being enriched with the pre- 
 sence of so much ability, learning, and merit, as he 
 recognized in the person of this Dominican. Thus 
 was Savonarola invited thither, and became conse- 
 quently the Prior of San Marco. Henceforth his 
 name is connected with the history of Florence. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FLORENCE UNDER THE MEDICI. 
 
 The family of the Medici — Cosimo's patronage of Greek lite- 
 rature — Chrysoloras and his scholars — Niccolo Niccoli — 
 Platonic academy — Theodore Gaza— Bessarion — George of 
 Trebisond — Gei'm of monarchisin — Pietro — Lorenzo and 
 Giuliano — Conspiracy of the Pazzi — Lorenzo and the King 
 of Naples — Decline of the wealth of the Medici — And con- 
 sequently of its influence — Levity and frivolity of the lite- 
 rary spirit — Poggio— Bcccatelli — And the controversialists 
 — Naturalism in art — Politeness in philosophy— Sensuality 
 iu life and manners. 
 
 The family of the Medici had from the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century ruled in Florence. The reign- 
 ing pope, Innocent VIII., was more than friendly to 
 its influence. This pontiff outdid all his predeces- 
 sors in infamy. They were content with the sin of 
 nepotism. Innocent VIII. publicly recognized his 
 illegitimate offspring, bestowing on them the wealth 
 of the Church. Such was the celibacy of the clergy 
 then, not separating them from female fellowship, but 
 substituting for lawful wedlock illicit concubinage ! 
 Seven of his children, by various mothers, thus 
 became pensioners on the ecclesiastical treasury. 
 Having effected the marriage of one of his sons to a 
 daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, he carried his favou- 
 ritism to the family so far, as to bestow a cardinal- 
 ate on her brother Giovanni, though then only about 
 fourteen years of age, stipulating however that the 
 
CH. II. 
 
 GREEK LlTEllATURE. 
 
 115 
 
 boy should not take his seat in the Consistory till he 
 was sixteen. The youth thus prematurely advanced 
 to power and honour, ultimately became that same 
 Leo X., who, notwithstanding his love of letters and 
 various accomplishments, yet infected with all the 
 vices of his age, failed in the first instance to appre- 
 ciate the true nature of Luther's efTorts, and in the 
 last to arrest the progress of the Reformation. 
 
 The foundations of the family prosperity were laid 
 in commerce by a previous Giovanni de' Medici, who 
 died in 1428. Of his two sons, Cosimo and Lorenzo, 
 the former supported and increased its dignity by 
 urbanity, kindness, and generosity, towards all classes 
 of society. The authority which he thus acquired 
 for himself and his descendants, consisted in a tacit 
 influence on their part, and a voluntary acquiescence 
 on that of the people — not in any prescribed or defi- 
 nite compact. It was purely the legitimate influence 
 of great wealth and public virtue. The Florentines 
 considered the Medici as the fathers, rather than the 
 rulers of the republic, while these carefully affected 
 the characters of fellow-citizens and servants of the 
 state. Yet did Cosimo and Lorenzo not escape 
 opposition, imprisonment, and banishment, from the 
 success of a rival family. They were, however, soon 
 recalled to power, and signalized themselves by pro- 
 moting science and encouraging men of learning, 
 particularly the students of Greek literature. 
 
 To Boccaccio Italy was first indebted for the intro- 
 duction, and for the preservation and restoration of 
 Homer's works. On his death, however, the study 
 of the Greek language and its products ceased again 
 to be pursued. But Emanuel Chrysoloras, a noble 
 Greek, during the interval of his important embas- 
 sies, revived them at the beginning of the fifteenth 
 century, among the people of Florence and of other 
 Italian cities. His disciples were neither few nor 
 
116 
 
 PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 noteless. After his death, his scholars, Ambrogio 
 Traversari, Leonardo Bruno, Carlo Marsuppini, (the 
 two latter, being natives of Arezzo, assumed the name 
 of Aretino) Poggio Bracciolini, Guarino Veronese, 
 and Francisco Filelfo, vied with each other in carry- 
 ing on the same noble work, till it received new aid 
 from other learned Greeks, who were driven from 
 Constantinople by the dread of the Turks, or by the 
 destruction of the eastern empire. To tliese illus- 
 trious foreigners, as well as to the learned Italians, 
 who shortly became their successful rivals, even in 
 the knowledge of their national history and language, 
 Cosimo afforded the most liberal protection and sup- 
 port. To him Giovanni Aurispa was indebted for 
 relief from his embarrassments, occasioned by his large 
 purchases of ancient manuscripts. Nor stood Cosimo 
 altogether alone in the patronage of the learned — his 
 fellow-citizen, Niccolo Niccoli, even exhausted his 
 fortune in this kind of liberality. 
 
 Another scholar of Chrysoloras, Gemisthus Pletho, 
 devoted himself to the study of Platonic philosophy, 
 and exercised great influence over Cosimo, who 
 thereon established an academy at Florence for its 
 prosecution, and educated IMarsilio Ficino, the son of 
 his favourite physician, for the express purpose of 
 securing its objects. In this manner attention was 
 revived, not only to the works of Plato — but to those of 
 Plotinus, Porphyrins, and Jamlichus. Ficino, more- 
 over, studied theology, physiology, and music, esteem- 
 ing the latter as a mean for elevating the soul to 
 God. 
 
 But during the time that a deeper comprehension 
 of the Platonic philosophy was working, and an uni- 
 versal acceptation of the same was prepared by con- 
 tinual translations, there was on the other side, if not 
 in the most encouraging manner, an universal atten- 
 tion directed to the difference between Plato and 
 
CII. II. 
 
 MONAKCmSM. 
 
 117 
 
 Aristotle. Two Greeks, Bessarion, and George of 
 Trebisond — the former as great a worshipper as a 
 student of Plato ; and the other, perhaps, through 
 his longer residence in Italy, as much devoted to 
 Aristotle — directed with extraordinary ardour their 
 talents to the question of the worth and importance 
 of the respective philosophers, aided by Theodore 
 Gaza, who, after much consideration, finally declared 
 himself the champion of the Stagyrite. George of 
 Trebisond applied himself to the practical, rather than 
 the speculative phase of the Platonic philosoph}', 
 inasmuch as scarcely any vice or evil existed, which 
 he did not laboriously establish as a consequence of 
 Platonism. So little had he avoided personality, 
 touching the several vindicators of Plato, not sparing 
 even Bessarion, with whom he had previously been 
 on the most amicable terms, that the latter was 
 compelled to defend himself with much decision, 
 and some asperity. Bessarion, accordingly, not only 
 undertook to explain more accurately the Platonic 
 philosophy than his predecessors had done, but 
 sought also to establish, against the attacks of his 
 opponents, its manifold conformity with Christianity, 
 which he did with much success in a work entitled 
 ' In calumniatorem Platonis.' 
 
 Cosimo had conceived the plan of making a firm 
 position for himself and family, by elevating the re- 
 public of Florence into greater significance, and 
 making it the recognized centre of the four continu- 
 ally declining states, — Rome, Naples, Milan, and 
 Venice. He saw this place grow in influence and 
 authority in his own time — and meanwhile laboured 
 to make himself the mid-point of his policy, thus 
 undermining the republican principle of the state, and 
 laying the germ of the monarchical principle, which 
 however beneficial in the commencement, might have 
 ended in tyranny had it not eventually been crushed. 
 
118 
 
 FAMILY ASCENDANCY. 
 
 £. III. 
 
 That Cosimo so earnestly, and with such great libe- 
 rality, advanced art and science was distinctive, not 
 only of his taste and aptitudes, but also of his politi- 
 cal system. He wished to ensure, for the spiritual 
 life of so many accomplished and civically qualified 
 men, a safe standing in relation with the state and 
 proper to their talents, and thereby win popular 
 opinion. This scheme succeeded so well, that when 
 individuals not of his party endeavoured to excel 
 him, he could afford to withdraw himself for a time 
 from state affairs, that by their political incapacity 
 his subsequent influence might be increased. 
 
 After Cosimo's death (1464), the direction of state 
 affairs passed into the hands of his son Pietro, who 
 was advised by evil counsellors to call in the greater 
 part of the considerable sums which his father, in the 
 certainty thereby of obliging many who had not suffi- 
 cient security to give, had beneficently lent. Without 
 reflectinsi on the numbers the measure would bring 
 into distress, Pietro so weakened by it the founda- 
 tions of his consideration and power, that the rival 
 party determined to step forth anew, in order to re- 
 establish the republic, or rather to take the place of 
 the house of Medici. But its power was too firmly 
 fixed — the attempt was in vain — all Anti-Mediceans 
 were expelled or persecuted, the government of the 
 state continued in Pietro's possession during his life, 
 and the virtual monarchism of the family became still 
 more firmly established. 
 
 When Pietro died in 1469, his two sons, Lorenzo 
 and Giuliano, inherited the almost unlimited control 
 of the state affairs of Florence. As, however, the 
 latter was only sixteen years of age, the actual power 
 rested in Lorenzo. 
 
 The favourite designs of Cosimo for the advance- 
 ment of arts and letters, and the establishment of his 
 family ascendancy, though necessarily somewhat at 
 
CII. II. 
 
 THE PAZZI. 
 
 119 
 
 first neglected and opposed, had been projected with 
 sufficient strength to endure the few years of his son 
 Pietro's feeble reign, and then under Lorenzo more 
 vigorously to advance, and even be elevated to the 
 utmost possible splendour. In order to establish 
 these, as well as to promote in every way the study 
 of Platonism, Lorenzo revived the forgotten con- 
 vivial Banquets of Plotinus and Porphyrius, which 
 were celebrated on the 7 th November, a day whereon 
 Plato is stated both to have been born and to have died. 
 The Platonic Academy, according to Marsilio, num- 
 bered on these occasions, as associates, seventy-two 
 mostly well known, and even celebrated names. At 
 its head was Marsilio himself, the most learned and 
 subtle of all the Platonists of his time — a man un- 
 wearied in recommending and translating the writings 
 of Plato, and the later Alexandrines, whose doctrines, 
 with those of many later essayists, had got mixed up 
 with the pure Platonic system. By his side, and in 
 the same circle, appear, with almost equal prominence, 
 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and Angelo Poliziano, 
 both gifted with unusual talents ; the one addicted to 
 philosophy, and admired as a miracle of natiue — a 
 phcenix of genius, but snatched from life too soon, 
 for the mass of his early produced knowledge to 
 receive sufficient ripening — the other not less cele- 
 brated as a poet, and promoter of Greek and Roman 
 learning. 
 
 Of all the opponents of the Medici, the family of the 
 Pazzi were the most inveterate ; against their strata- 
 gems the Medici found themselves, even by reason of 
 their riches and princely pomp, compelled to maintain 
 their high position. Bitter hate was from time to 
 time renewed, and experience having shown that an 
 overthrow of the ]Medici was not to be effected by a 
 popular outbreak, the assassination of the brothers 
 
120 
 
 LORENZO AND THE KING OF NAPLES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 was determined. A horrible transaction this, which 
 has been justly quoted as an incontrovertible proof 
 of the practical atheism of the times in which it 
 took place — one in which a pope, a cardinal, an arch- 
 bishop, and several other ecclesiastics, associated 
 themselves with a band of ruffians to destroy two 
 men who were an honour to their age and country ; 
 and purposed to perpetrate their crime at a season of 
 hospitality, in the sanctuary of a Christian Church, 
 and at the very moment of tlie elevation of the host, 
 when the congregation bowed down before it, and 
 the assassins were presumed to be in the immediate 
 presence of their God. 
 
 The plan was concocted at Rome with the parti- 
 cipation, as before noticed, of Pope Sixtus IV. On 
 the 26th April, 1478, in the church of the Reparata, 
 during the mass, while the host was elevating and 
 the multitude were kneeling, the murderous blow 
 was struck, and the very mass-bell itself sounding 
 the signal to the other conspirators to possess them- 
 selves of the palace and government. Giuliano fell, 
 but Lorenzo escaped with a slight wound. The 
 efforts also of the other conspirators failed, and more 
 than seventy were the following day executed. The 
 troubles of the Medici, however, were not yet ended 
 — they suffered next the ban of the pope, and hos- 
 tilities from his confederates — but the king of Naples, 
 the most important amongst these, was separated 
 from the flagitious pontiff by a bold resolution of 
 Lorenzo's. As the peril of carrying this determination 
 into effect threatened only his own person, Lorenzo 
 heroically and readily delivered himself into the power 
 of the king of Naples, for the sake of an opportunity 
 to deliberate and negotiate with him, for the restora- 
 tion of peace. This daring experiment prospered in 
 the issue — the hostile power was broken, and Lorenzo 
 
CH. II. 
 
 INWARD LIFE OF THE TIMES. 
 
 121 
 
 was received on his return to Florence with merited 
 enthusiasm. Nor was the increase of his reputation 
 without advantage to the republic. 
 
 The wealth of the Medici was nevertheless at this 
 time not what it had been under Cosimo. From 
 Pietro's narrow-hearted measure nothing had been 
 gained, the administration of the property having 
 been necessarily committed to foreign hands. Lorenzo, 
 moreover, gradually, and at length entirely withdrew 
 himself from commercial engagements. The residue 
 of the property was distributed in palaces and landed 
 possessions among the family. The splendour of 
 the house, and so many difficult circumstances, de- 
 manded enormous sums, which could only be regu- 
 larly supplied by drawing on the moneys of the state ; 
 moneys that had been consecrated to its own needs 
 and uses, whence great disorder in the administration 
 of government, and an undermining of the Medicean 
 influence. 
 
 This, then, was the political condition of things in 
 Florence, — a republic struggling to resist the in- 
 fluence of a single and illustrious family, under which 
 it had indeed for a long time flourished, but which 
 was now beginning to absorb its independence, and, 
 from an inevitable necessity, to treat it as the mere 
 appanage of a private estate. 
 
 The more inward aspects of the family influence 
 are likewise remarkable ; the manner in which by their 
 means literature and the Platonic philosophy started 
 into vitality, and grew into vigour. A manifold and 
 glorious life it was that became thus unfolded, making 
 indeed of the last half of the fifteenth century a won- 
 derful preparation for that reformation of religion and 
 learning, which was shortly to astonish the ruling 
 powers of Christendom. Nevertheless, relative]}' to 
 the individuals who were the agents to whom Pro- 
 vidence had confided a task they understood not, we 
 
 >i 
 
122 
 
 VOLATILITY AND FRIVOLITY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 have to suggest many drawbacks. They entirely 
 failed in recognizing the religious and moral basis of 
 the life which they ought to have lived. Even the 
 best and worthiest of those who had engaged in 
 these philosophical and literary studies, allowed 
 themselves, together with the pursuit of heathen 
 learning, an indulgence in the ' cheerful sins,' that 
 were not inconsistent with its profession. There was 
 in consequence much volatility and frivolity both in 
 letters and life. Poggio in his ' Liber facetiarum,' 
 indulged himself in licentious jests and tales, which 
 are scarcely redeemed by the service he renders in 
 exposing the character of the priesthood ; and though 
 he belonged himself to the order, he was in his own 
 conduct equally blameable. It adds to the evidence 
 that it is desirable to accumulate, that this prurient 
 work, produced in the bosom of the Church, was 
 probably an amusement for the learned leisure of 
 prelates and cardinals. His friend Antonio Bec- 
 catelli, of Palermo, the member of another circle, 
 dedicated to Cosimo a book, under the title of ' Her- 
 maphroditus,' — a collection of immoral, obscene 
 epigrams, which Poggio himself found too indecent, 
 and which in many places, such as Fenara, Milan, 
 and Bologna, were with the effigies of the author 
 publicly burned, and also provoked Lorenzo Valla to 
 utter the wish, that the author might be soon 
 doomed to a like fate in his proper person. Even 
 the abundant literary controversies of that time were 
 conducted mostly in a very offensive and scandalous 
 fashion, and ended usually in the opponents impeach- 
 ing each other openly of gross immorality. These 
 mutual recriminations show only too truly the state 
 of morals in the men and their times. 
 
 The study of antiquity and art, nevertheless, re- 
 ceived a beneficial impulse. From the time of Cosimo 
 de Medici, and chiefly under his actual encourage- 
 
CH. II. 
 
 KATURALISM AND SENSUALISM. 
 
 123 
 
 ment and protecrion, a thorough new era commenced, 
 in which appear the names of Lorenzo Ghiberti, 
 Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunellesco, Donato Dona- 
 tello, Fra Angelico da Fiesole, Masaccio, Filippo 
 Lippi, and many others equally celebrated. But 
 again, even in Florence, the proper centre of the 
 whole circle, it became manifest, and chiefly in paint- 
 ing, how the religious and Christian sentiment was 
 gradually banished, and a certain naturalism in art 
 meanwhile introduced. 
 
 Only in the study of the Platonic philosophy ap- 
 peared a more elevated aim ; but even here the easy 
 and polite was preferred. In religion likewise, Christ 
 was less esteemed than Plato, — and Plato, as the fun- 
 damental type of the mixed Christo-Platonic system, 
 was accepted rather than Jesus. In fine, the men of 
 the age sought what might be made the plaything of 
 leisure hours, not what must, if accepted, become the 
 serious business of life. Meanwhile, the multitude 
 were given to sensuality and animal enjoyment. 
 Such was the state of things in Florence when visited 
 the second time by Savonarola. 
 
 V 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SAVONAROLA AT SAN MARCO. 
 
 Librai'y of San Marco — Savonarola's Lectures — Lorenzo's 
 encouragement of ecclesiastical oratory — Mariano da Gene- 
 zano — The policy of Lorenzo — The character of the times — 
 Savonarola's garden-sermon — His style of preaching — Is 
 made Prior — Refuses to acknowledge Lorenzo's authority 
 — Lorenzo's condescensions — Savonarola's inflexibility — 
 Machiavelli's opinion on Roman religiosity, human probity, 
 and Savonarola's influence. 
 
 The Dominican monastery of San Marco at Florence, 
 of which Savonarola is now Prior, had been erected 
 by Cosimo de' Medici at enormous expense. It had 
 a library also, which owed its establishment to the 
 generosity of that great man. The circumstances 
 were these : — 
 
 Niccolo Niccoli, who died in 1436, had directed 
 by his will that his library should be devoted to the 
 use of the public. He appointed sixteen Curators, 
 amongst whom was Cosimo de' Medici. After his 
 death, it appeared that he was greatly in debt, and 
 that his liberal intentions were likely to be frustrated 
 by the insolvency of his means. Cosimo, therefore, 
 proposed to his associates, that if they would resign 
 to him the right of disposition of the books, he 
 would himself discharge all the debts of Niccolo, to 
 which they readily acceded. Having thus obtained 
 the sole direction of the manuscripts, he deposited 
 
CU. HI. 
 
 LIBRARY OF SAN MARCO. 
 
 125 
 
 them for public use in this same monastery of San 
 Marco. This collection was the foundation of another 
 celebrated library in Florence, known by the name 
 of the Bibliotheca Marciana, which is still open to the 
 inspection of the learned. 
 
 In the arrangement of the library of San Marco, 
 Cosimo had procured the assistance of Tomaso Calan- 
 drino, who drew up a scheme for that purpose, and 
 prepared a scientific catalogue of the books it con- 
 tained. In selecting a coadjutor, the choice of 
 Cosimo had fallen on an extraordinary man. Though 
 Tomaso was the son of a poor physician of Sarzana, 
 and ranked only in the lower order of the clergy, he 
 had the ambition to aim at possessing some speci- 
 mens of these venerable relies of ancient genius. His 
 learning and his industry enabled him to gratify his 
 wishes, and his perseverance surmounted the disad- 
 vantages of his situation. In this pursuit he was 
 frequently induced to anticipate his scanty revenue, 
 well knowing that the estimation in which he was 
 held by his friends, would preserve him from pecu- 
 niary difficulties. With the Greek and Roman 
 authors no one was more intimately acquainted, and 
 as he wrote a very fine hand, the books he possessed 
 acquired additional value from the marginal obser- 
 vations which he was accustomed to make in perusing 
 them. By the rapid degrees of fortunate preferment, 
 Tomaso was, in the short space of twelve months, 
 elevated from his humble situation to the chair of 
 St. Peter, under the name of Nicholas V. The 
 scanty library of his predecessors had been nearly 
 dissipated or destroyed by frequent removals between 
 Avignon and Rome, according as the caprice of the 
 reigning pontiff chose either of those places for his 
 residence ; and it appears from the letters of Traver- 
 sari, that scarcely any thing of value remained. 
 M 3 
 
126 
 
 CONVENE Of SAN G.ALLO. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 Nicholas V, is therefore to be considered as the 
 founder of the library of the Vatican. 
 
 And Savonarola is in the monastery of San Marco, 
 bound as it would seem by such associations both to 
 the Medici and the papncy, as it would be difficult to 
 undervalue. Nor was he himself unattended with 
 celebrity. To his lectures crowded hearers of all 
 ranks ; even men like Pico della Mirandola, Girolamo 
 and Domenico Benivieni, and others of like note 
 were among them. What wonder to them who had 
 heard him in his first preaching in the church of 
 Lorenzo — what a difference betwixt then and now. 
 Then the ineffective preacher, now the omnipotent 
 orator. Anon, the numerous audience so much in- 
 creased, that the narrow hall was insufficient to 
 contain them, and the interior of the cloister was 
 needs called into requisition. At length the more 
 influential of the citizens obtained permission to hear 
 the lectures in the church itself. 
 
 Lorenzo could not fail of being proud of such a 
 protege. Already, induced by the serious disposi- 
 tion which formed part of his character, the magnani- 
 mous Medici had favoured many learned ecclesiastics. 
 Moral and religious themes were frequently the sub- 
 ject of his daily talk. He had already eminently 
 distinguished one Mariano da Genazano, an Augus- 
 tine monk, and superior of his order, for whose use 
 and that of his associates, Lorenzo had erected in the 
 suburbs of Florence an extensive building, and en- 
 dowed it as a monastery. Thither, indeed, he was 
 himself often wont to seek temporary refuge with a 
 few select friends from the busy world, and enjoy 
 the conversation of the learned ecclesiastic. Nor are 
 we left altogether ignorant of the arguments discussed 
 in the convent of San Gallo, being informed by 
 Yalori that the existence and attributes of Deity, the 
 
CH. III. 
 
 MORAL PREACHERS. 
 
 127 
 
 insufficiency of temporal enjoyments to fill the mind, 
 and the probahility and moral necessity of a future 
 state, were the most customary topics of discourse. 
 Lorenzo had evidently expected an addition to these 
 refined pleasures in the company of Savonarola — but 
 he was destined to be taught a diiferent experience 
 in the convent of San Marco, from vrhat he had 
 learned in that of San Gallo. 
 
 The frame of mind in which Savonarola assumed 
 his new duties at San Marco, was altogether alien to 
 the then spiritual and political condition of men and 
 manners in Florence. Whatever external glitter 
 might belong to the state of the republic, he saw at 
 a glance that it had become a mere fulcrum for sup- 
 porting the power and consideration of a single 
 family. Whatever the seeming, or even real gene- 
 rosity of Lorenzo, the policy of the Medici was 
 necessarily selfish. That the power of the monied 
 aristocracy also had been there by effectually subverted, 
 could not be hidden from a clear-sighted observer. 
 But the honest mind must have been most troubled 
 by the fact, that from the overbalance of the mere 
 sensuous life, even when refined rather than purified 
 by literature, the legitimate influence of the Chris- 
 tian religion was all but suppressed. There was, 
 besides, no man bold enough to chastise, with elo- 
 quent reproof, the follies and vices of the age. The 
 most celebrated preachers of the time were moral 
 preachers, so called ; who studiously concealed the deep 
 and grievous evil of sin from the people, and based the 
 Divine blessing on the performance of particular 
 merits and self-elected duties. Men admired their 
 masterly disposition, the logical clearness and sound- 
 ness with which they treated their argument — quali- 
 ties surely subordinate in importance, where first 
 the demonstration of the spirit with power is requi- 
 
128 
 
 GENERAL APOSTASY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 site — and went away cold and unmoved from their 
 preaching. Savonarola, therefore, had to fight a 
 double battle, — not only against the times generally, 
 but also against the prevailing and most approved 
 style of preaching, both of them naturally assisting 
 the other in opposition to his efforts. How far he 
 comprehended his times, how keenly he penetrated 
 their inmost poverty and lifelessness, but slightly 
 covered to outward observance, his writings suffi- 
 ciently show. His prophetic voice, without reserve, 
 laid this bare to the minds of all — nay, necessarily 
 became more decided and severe as he beheld sin 
 disguised in the mask of piety, and the mass of half 
 and nominal Christians regarding every demand 
 to submit themselves unconditionally to the truth, 
 as a dangerous fanaticism, — even a trespass against 
 humanity. It is thus that Savonarola writes con- 
 cerning the character of the time, the people, and 
 their leaders ; by which we may more clearly see, 
 how he came by degrees into a misrelation with the 
 most noble representative of the time, Lorenzo de' 
 Medici. How painful was this to Savonarola, from 
 the high esteem in which he ingenuously held Lo- 
 renzo's talents and elevated aims ! , 
 
 ' In our days,' says he, ' when all Christians have 
 come to such a pass, that they communicate only once 
 a year, and that with very sorry preparation, they are 
 worse than the heathen were, and every day become 
 more depraved. Every year they confess their sins, 
 and yet return to the same sins, promising every 
 time God to live better, but never performing their 
 promises. Our priests, who without devotion and 
 reverence administer the Supper, are yet worse than 
 the laity. Thus, because Christians have forsaken 
 the true service of Christ, they are now-a-days fallen 
 into such blindness, that they know not what the 
 
CII. III. 
 
 Savonarola's preaching. 
 
 129 
 
 name of Christian means, and wherein the true ser- 
 vice of God consists. They occupy themselves with 
 outward ceremonies, and know nothing of the inner 
 service of God. Seldom or never they read the 
 sacred Scriptures, or if they read them, they under- 
 stand them not ; or if they understand them, they 
 have no taste for them — yea, they only say, ' Our 
 soul is disgusted with this vulgar feast.' Who will 
 give us to hear Cicero's eloquence, and the sounding 
 words of the poets, the soft diction of Plato, and the 
 acuteness of Aristotle ? For the Scriptures are far 
 too simple, contain food only fit for women. Preach 
 to us the refined and sublime ! ' And thus the 
 preachers accommodate themselves to the people. 
 Since they could no more endure sound doctrine, the 
 people have given themselves to lies, they invite such 
 teachers as suit their itching ears, they turn themselves 
 away from the truth, and follow cunningly-devised 
 fables. Also the princes and heads of the people 
 will not hear the truth, but say, ' Preach to us what 
 pleases us, preach to us flatteries, and tell us some- 
 thing good.' And hence. Christian people now 
 wander in great darkness.' 
 
 It was, according to his own account, on the 1st 
 of August, 1489, that Savonarola began in the gar- 
 den of the cloister at San Marco, under a shrubbery 
 of Damascus roses, to expound to a numerous 
 audience his favourite book — the book so dear to the 
 poetico-religious enthusiast — the Apocalypse of St. 
 John the Divine. The throng of people was so 
 great that there was scarcely room for the monks 
 themselves, many of whom stood on the choir-wall, 
 and it was difficult to find one who would do the 
 customary duty at the door or in the sacristy. It 
 was not the first time, as we know, that Savonarola 
 had undertaken the interpretation of this very pro- 
 phecy, in order to denounce the moral degeneracy of 
 
130 
 
 EFFECT OF HIS PREACHING. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 his times with the threatenings of Divine anger. 
 Now again, he is heard discussing and enforcing the 
 necessity of an earnest reformation in the collective 
 Church, and in individual life. Three points he 
 contends for — that the Church of God must be 
 renewed, and that in his time — that all Italy would 
 be first heavily visited — and that the punishment 
 would soon arrive. ' The sword of the Lord,' he 
 repeatedly exclaimed, ' will soon and suddenly come 
 upon the earth ! ' The connexion between the Re- 
 formation of the Church and the visitation of Italy, 
 was so firmly established in his mind, that he con- 
 tinually insisted, that Italy above all other lands had 
 accumulated sins, and most shamefully abused the 
 glorious privileges granted to her by God, and thus 
 the spiritual and temporal tyranny under which the 
 Church and the people of God suffered, was to him a 
 light matter. It was a system of mind, heart, and 
 devotion with Savonarola. Wherefore any endea- 
 vour to conform himself to the -taste of the times, 
 which according to his own relation he 'little heartedly' 
 attempted at the commencement of 1490, necessarily 
 failed — a failure which only confirmed him the more 
 in his earlier decision. 
 
 The effect of Savonarola's sermon was, as might 
 have been expected, very great, and so much the 
 more, as now the external means that appertain to 
 the finished orator were in his power. On those 
 who were waiting and longing for the truth, his 
 words, though frequently passing as a hail storm, fell 
 as quickening dew. The cit^ were divided in opinion 
 upon him. Some said — ' he is a straight-forward 
 and pious man' — others, ' he is learned, but withal 
 very crafty' — others again, ' he depends on false and 
 foolish visions.' 
 
 After all, however powerful his discourses and 
 appeals, they were not artistically elaborated, and 
 
CH. III. 
 
 PRIORATE OF SAN MARCO. 
 
 131 
 
 well arranged. They, indeed, depended for their 
 effect rather on their general want of elaboration. 
 The preaching of Savonarola was not memoriter, but 
 only meditated. On the contrary, as from the be- 
 ginning has always happened, those more educated 
 aesthetic persons, who in all ways have striven, and 
 know how to guard against the impression of ' monk- 
 ish trickeries,' found much that was objectionable in 
 the subject, the style, and delivery. These were 
 careful how they submitted to the spell of an appa- 
 rently wild sort of eloquence. The natural strength 
 and energy of it, as being the instantaneous and 
 immediate influence of a deep spirit, nevertheless 
 impressed most hearers so powerfully, that not only 
 the immense crowd frequently burst out into loud 
 weeping, but even men such as Pico della Mirandola 
 were not seldom seized with awe, by the power of 
 his discourse, and his striking application of Biblical 
 texts. In a word, Savonarola was an extempore 
 preacher, deriving assistance from Scriptural phra- 
 seology, and a finished elocution. 
 
 On the other hand, there were those who were 
 altogether incapable of feeling these appeals — who 
 not only derided the severe moral preacher, but 
 became his worst and most slanderous enemies. This 
 was the more natxiral, as Savonarola showed little 
 anxiety to earn for himself the favour of the ruling 
 party. Especially displeasing was his want of all 
 proof of attention and deference towards Lorenzo, 
 with which at a later period he was charged, as un- 
 bending self-will and priestly arrogance. 
 
 Not until a year after his return to Florence, was 
 Savonarola installed as prior of the convent of San 
 Marco. It had been customary for the new prior on 
 his induction to make a formal visit, and to commend 
 himself and his convent to the protection of Lorenzo, 
 as the first person in the state, and patron of the 
 
132 THE NATURAL MAN AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN. B.III. 
 
 cloister. This custom, to the astonishment of servile 
 minds, Savonarola refused to observe — God was the 
 only authority he deigned to acknowledge. The 
 brethren were afraid of the scandal his conduct would 
 occasion. ' Who has raised me,' demanded Savona- 
 rola, ' to this dignity, Lorenzo, or God ? ' To this 
 question they had no answer ; Savonarola ac- 
 cordingly pursued — ' Let us render then thanks to 
 God to whom they are due, and not to a mortal 
 man !' 
 
 Lorenzo was not insensible to the sublimity of 
 Savonarola's motives ; and though, doubtless, piqued 
 at this studied neglect, sought by all means to make 
 a friend of the stern pietist, and win him over to his 
 interest. The worldly politician knew the power 
 and popularity of the religious enthusiast. He felt, 
 by instinct, that two equal forces were opposed — 
 his own, and that new zeal which, if only by its 
 novelty, had now a temporary advantage. The natu- 
 ral and the spiritual man were plainly antagonised — 
 the refined man of taste, and the severe advocate of 
 duty, had come within the same arena — and the 
 former soon confessed the superiority of the latter. 
 
 The natural man accordingly determined to make 
 concessions. If the spiritual man will not visit him, 
 he must needs visit the spiritual man. And so it 
 is that Lorenzo frequently visits the church and the 
 cloister of San Marco, apparently to join in the 
 devotional exercises, and partake the mass with the 
 faithful, but really to facilitate a union and agreement 
 between himself and the austere prior. Accordingly, 
 Lorenzo would, after the service, proceed into the 
 garden and there walk awhile, thus affording to 
 Savonarola the opportunity of meeting and conversing 
 with him on amicable terms. But this Savonarola 
 avoided, saying, ' The communion I hold is with 
 God, and not with man.' Sometimes the brethren 
 
CII. III. 
 
 LORENZO AND SAVONAROLA. 
 
 133 
 
 would go and inform the prior of the Medici's con- 
 descension. 
 
 ' Lorenzo is in the garden,' they said. 
 
 ' Has he desired my presence ? ' asked Savonarola. 
 
 ' No,' replied the brethren. 
 
 ' Be it so ! Let him tarry and continue his devo- 
 tions ! ' said Savonarola ; and remained at his post, 
 leaving Lorenzo to take his departure unaddressed. 
 
 But if courtesy have failed, surely gifts will dis- 
 solve the frost of this strange, but only seeming 
 inflexible conscientiousness. Savonarola must abide 
 this test — nevertheless he is constant to his purpose 
 — still as at first he speaks with the same freedom, 
 and condemns all who walk in the ways of wicked- 
 ness. Nay, he repels the temptation from the pul- 
 pit, repeatedly observing, ' A good dog barks always, 
 in order to defend his master's house, and if a robber 
 offer him a bone or the like, he pushes it aside, and 
 ceases not therefore to bark ! ' Not very complimen- 
 tary this to Lorenzo, the magnificent — he the robber 
 base enough to bribe the faithful hound ! It was 
 true, and yet Lorenzo was not consciously such— he 
 thought himself and his house benefactors, and in 
 one sense benefactors they were, and had been, to 
 the republic, and yet, in another, (such are the diffi- 
 culties of political and religious relations,) the greatest 
 and most dangerous enemies. 
 
 One time Lorenzo sent through his chancellor 
 Piero da Babiena, a great sum of gold scudi for the 
 poor-box of the church of San Marco. After they 
 had opened the box, Savonarola divided the silver 
 from the gold, and said to the brethren, ' This is 
 sufficient for our needs, send the gold to the guardians 
 of the poor of St. Martin, that it may be divided 
 among the poor.' 
 
 When Lorenzo saw that the flames only extended 
 themselves, he adopted another mean, to extinguish 
 
 N 
 
134 
 
 THE OLD SEVERE SIMPLICITY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 or keep them at a distance. He commissioned five 
 noble, prudent, and from their powers of persuasion, 
 vyell-qualified citizens, to go in his name and advise 
 Savonarola that he should preach in another manner, 
 for the sake of the public yveal and peace, and for 
 the benefit of the cloister. But Savonarola briefly 
 replied, ' You say you have come to me for the 
 public welfare and our cloister's advantage — but I 
 say to you, that it is not so — but Lorenzo de' Medici 
 has sent you to me. Tell him in my name — he is a 
 Florentine and the first of the state, I a foreigner and 
 a poor brother, yet will it happen that he must go 
 hence, and I remain here ! ' With this they were 
 fain to depart, their business unperformed. 
 
 Such extraordinary conduct on the part of Savon- 
 arola can only be justified by his conviction, that 
 however worthily illustrious, well-intentioned, and 
 for a long time beneficial the house of the Medici had 
 been to the republic of Florence, the time had now 
 arrived when its influence had become destructive, 
 and that, in the person of Lorenzo, it must for the 
 good of the common weal be resisted. With all his 
 excellent intellectual gifts, (which Savonarola, no- 
 ways passionately blind, fully, as we have said, 
 recognized,) Lorenzo nevertheless afiected that sen- 
 suous direction of thought, which though allied to 
 a fine humanity, yet had no necessary connexion 
 with religion and morality. Meanwhile, he had 
 occupied a position in the state, which, over and 
 above many already terrible misunderstandings and 
 constant partizanships, caused by the violation of the 
 original free form of the constitution, seemed also to 
 have undermined and scared away the severer disci- 
 pline, the rude simplicity of the old republic. Such 
 a thing was not to be borne in that circle, where men 
 inspired were celebrating the beginning of a new 
 spiritual life. When Savonarola, therefore, in his 
 
CH. III. 
 
 THE NEW RELAXED CORRUPTION. 
 
 135 
 
 preaching, continued amid threatenings of Divine 
 vengeance, to advocate a general reformation of man- 
 ners, and on the other hand, without reserve, and 
 with energy, to denounce all corruption and injustice 
 wherever he perceived it, not omitting to notice in- 
 dividual abuses of the government, and to hint at the 
 miscarried purpose of his gifts, Lorenzo desired anew, 
 though in another manner, to soften the upright 
 orator. But it was in vain that he sought to impose 
 silence on a man who recognized in himself a pro- 
 phetic impulse, and proposed to do with the Church 
 in his times, what the Seers of old had done with her 
 in their days, — to wit, rouse her from the lethargy 
 that was as death to a life of righteousness, that 
 should be for the salvation of many. Convinced 
 that, notwithstanding all hindrances, the word that 
 he spake would strike root, Savonarola was not to 
 be restrained by the arm of power, cajoled by the lip 
 of flattery, or corrupted by the smiling eye of courtly 
 favour. 
 
 Nor was Lorenzo blind to the condition of the 
 people, but frequently in express terms commended 
 Savonarola for aiming at their moral improvement, 
 and was willing to endure for that the personal re- 
 proofs of the impartial preacher. Bu:; when the 
 regeneration of the multitude is once commenced, 
 then must the rulers be needs troubled, for a change 
 in the relations between them is generating, and 
 verily, a period of transition is both perilous and 
 painful. Of this Lorenzo was to have experience, 
 and it is to his credit, that he could still esteem the 
 agent of a new developement, from which he was 
 already suffering great inconvenience. Even such 
 religion as he possessed enabled him to do this — reli- 
 gion which in an Italian mind, however depraved, 
 never loses its claims. It was this fact which assisted 
 N 2 
 
136 
 
 MACHIAVELLl's OPINION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 Savonarola to get such sudden influence — a fact, on 
 ■which the subtle MachiaveUi, in relation to this very 
 subject, moralizes in one of his discourses, a few 
 sentences from which will enlighten the reader. 
 
 ' Numa, finding a very ferocious people, and wish- 
 ing to reduce them to civil obedience by the arts of 
 peace, instituted religion, as necessary to all who 
 would cultivate politeness, and ensure the existence 
 of custom. For many ages accordingly there was 
 never so much fear of God as in this republic, which 
 facilitated whatever enterprize the Senate or the 
 leading men among the Romans designed to make. 
 And whoever will examine an infinite number of 
 actions, as well of the Roman people collectively, as 
 of many Romans individually, will observe how 
 these citizens feared much more to break an oath 
 than the laws, since these esteemed more the power 
 of God than that of men, as we see manifested by 
 the example of Scipio and Manlius Torquatus. 
 
 ' After the defeat that Annibal had given the 
 Romans at Cannae, manv citizens assembling toge- 
 ther, terrified and timid, had agreed to abandon Italy, 
 and to go into Sicily ; Scipio hearing this, went to 
 find them, and with a naked sword in his hand, 
 obliged them to swear not to abandon their country. 
 Lucius Manlius, father of Titus Manlius, who was 
 afterwards called Torquato, had been accused by 
 Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the peo{)le ; and be- 
 fore the day of judgement came, Titus went to find 
 Marcus, and threatening to kill him if he did not 
 swear to withdraw the accusation from his fatlier, he 
 was obliged to swear, and thus through fear having 
 sworn, he withdrew the accusation. And thus those 
 citizens, whom neither the love of their country nor 
 its laws conld retain in Italy, were held by an oath 
 which they were forced to take ; and that tribune 
 
CH. III. 
 
 ROMAN RELIGIOSITY. 
 
 V67 
 
 put aside the hatred he had to the father, the injury 
 that the son had done him, and his own honour, to 
 obey the oath taken. 
 
 ' All this arose from nothing else than the religion 
 which Numa had introduced into that city. And 
 we see, whoever considers well the Roman history, 
 how much religion served to command the armies, 
 to reconcile the people, to maintain good men, and 
 to shame the bad. So that if we had to dispute to 
 what prince Rome owed most, Romulus or Numa, 
 I think that Numa would hold the first rank, because 
 where there is religion arms can be easily introduced, 
 but where there are arms without religion, the latter 
 is of difficult initiation. And we see that it was not 
 necessary for Romulus to have the authority of God 
 for creating the Senate, and to make other civil and 
 military offices, but it was necessary for Numa, who 
 feigned to have a meeting with a nymph, who 
 advised him of what he had to counsel the people — 
 a fable occasioned by his desire to impose new and 
 extraordinary laws on this city, and his doubt whether 
 his own authority would suffice for the purpose. 
 
 ' And certainly there never was any extraordinary 
 law-giver amongst a people, who did not have re- 
 course to God, because otherwise such benefactors 
 would not have been accepted ; since it is very well 
 known by wise men, that they have not in them- 
 selves self-evident reasons, able to persuade others. 
 Therefore wise men, wishing to avoid this difficulty, 
 have recourse to God. Thus did Lycurgus, thus 
 Solon, thus many others who have had the same aim 
 as they had. 
 
 ' Admiring then the goodness and the prudence of 
 the Roman people, Numa permitted to them the 
 utmost freedom of deliberation. It is indeed true, 
 that the state of those times full of religion, and 
 those men with who.n he l ad mainly to work, 
 N 3 
 
138 
 
 HUMAN PROBITY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 suggested to him great facility in obtaining his 
 aims, being able easily to imprint on them some new 
 form. And no doubt he who wishes in the present 
 times to make a republic, will find it easier with the 
 men of the mountains, where there is no politeness, 
 than with those who are accustomed to live in the city, 
 where politeness is corrupted. A sculptor can more 
 easily form a beautiful statue from a rough marble, 
 than from a bad sketch of another. All things then 
 considered, I conclude that the religion introduced by 
 Numa, was among the first causes of the happiness 
 of that city, because what causes good order makes 
 good fortune, and from good fortune is acquired only 
 the happy success of undertakings. And as the 
 observance of Divine worship is the cause of the 
 greatness of republics, so contempt of this is the 
 cause of their ruin. Because where the fear of God 
 is wanting, either that kingdom becomes ruined, or 
 it is sustained by the fear of a prince who supplies 
 the want of religion. And as the lives of princes are 
 short, that kingdom will soon become lost, after their 
 virtue is missing. Whence it arises, that kingdoms, 
 which depend solely upon the virtue of one man, last 
 but a short time ; because his virtue ceases with his 
 life, and it seldom happens that it is revived with 
 the succession, as Dante wisely says : — 
 
 ' Rade volte discende per li rami 
 L'umana probitate, e questo vuole 
 Quel die la da, perche da lui si cliiami '.' 
 
 It is not then for the benefit of a republic or a king- 
 dom, to have a prince who governs prudently whilst 
 
 ' Human probity seldom ascends to the branches ; — and 
 this he wills who gives it, because by him the possessor is 
 elected. 
 
CII. 111. LEGISLATORS OF DIVINE AUTHORITY. 139 
 
 he lives, but one who governs in such a manner, 
 that dying, he still maintains his government. Al- 
 though unpolished men are more easily led to a new 
 order and opinion, it is not on this account impossible 
 to persuade even civilized men of it, who presume to 
 be not uncultivated. To the Florentine people it 
 did not appear a mark of their being either ignorant 
 or unpolished, that they should be persuaded by 
 brother Girolamo Savonarola that he spake with God. 
 I do not mean to decide whether he was true or not, 
 because of such a man one ought to speak only with 
 teverence. Hut I merely say, that infinite numbers 
 believed him, without their having seen any thing- 
 extraordinary to make them believe him ; because 
 his life, his learning, and the cause which he took up, 
 were sufficient to make him quickly believed''.' 
 
 This extract puts us at once in possession of the 
 philosophy of the case, the circumstances of the 
 republic, the position of Lorenzo, and the relation in 
 which he and it stood in connexion with the extra- 
 ordinary man, the mystery of whose birth, life, and 
 death, we are endeavouring to interpret. 
 
 ^ Discorsi di Nlccolo Machiatelli sopra le deche di Tito 
 Livio, 1. i. c. xii. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEATH OF LORENZO DE' MEDICI. 
 
 Description of Savonarola's person — His rival the preacher 
 Mariano da Genezano — Monastic Reform — Novices — Con- 
 versation — Savonarola's abstemious habits — Rebukes two 
 Abbots — His Chastity — Visits Bologna — The Princess 
 Bentivogli — -Humility — Personal oratory — The Bible — Pre- 
 diction of the Scourge — State of Christendom — Relative 
 positions of Lorenzo and Savonarola — Three political fac- 
 tions — Lorenzo's sickness, intei"\iew with Savonarola, and 
 death — Savonarola's vision. 
 
 Savonarola's portrait has been drawn by his friends. 
 He was, we are told, of middling stature, rather small 
 than large, but erect and easy ; fair, almost florid in 
 complexion, with a high bold forehead remarkably 
 furrowed ; his eyes were brilliant, and of such a blue 
 as the ancients called glauci, shadowed by long red- 
 dish eye-lashes ; his nose was prominent and aqui- 
 line, which added much to his beauty ; iiis face was 
 rather plump than thin, his cheeks somewhat rounded, 
 and a full under-lip gave sweetness to his counte- 
 nance ; his face was well-placed, and every other part 
 of his person proportioned and firmly knit, exhibit- 
 ing in all his gestures and movements an air of gen- 
 tleness and gracefulness. His hands were bony, and 
 so little covered with flesh, that when held against 
 the light they seemed almost transparent; his long 
 spreading fingers ended in very pointed nails. His 
 carriage was upright, his manners grave, equal, rcso- 
 
CH. IV. 
 
 MARIANO DE GENEZANO. 
 
 141 
 
 lute, tempered by humble courtesy, polished and 
 agreeable in every action. 
 
 Such was the person of Savonarola — such a mould 
 and style of man as was calculated to make a strong 
 popular inipression. Such was the man who had 
 turned a jealous eye upon the authority of the Medici 
 as hostile to liberty, — and had accordingly on his 
 induction to the priorate of San Marco, refused to 
 recognize Lorenzo as the head of the republic. 
 Needful it was that Lorenzo should find some means 
 of diminishing the influence of the learned monk 
 whom he had so incautiously patronized. The 
 preacher already mentioned, Mariano da Genezano, 
 naturally seamed to offer the readiest instrument for 
 effecting this purpose. A description of Mariano's 
 style of oratory is on record, and is now adopted, that 
 the reader may have the means of contrasting him 
 with his greater rival, Savonarola, who was soon to 
 enter against him in the lists of eloquence and theo- 
 logy. ' His address,' says Poliziano, ' was striking, 
 and his eye marked intelligence. My expectations 
 were raised. He began — I was attentive. A clear 
 voice — select expression — elevated sentiment. He 
 divides his subject — I perceive his distinctions. No- 
 thing perplexed, nothing impaired, nothing languid. 
 He unfolds the web of his argument — I am en- 
 thralled. He refutes the sophism — I am freed. He 
 introduces a pertinent narration — I am interested. 
 He modulates his voice — I am charmed. He is 
 jocular — I smile. He presses me with serious truths 
 — I yield to their force. He addresses the passions — 
 the tears glide down my cheeks. He raises his voice 
 in anger — I tremble and wish myself away.' 
 
 Notwithstanding this high and deserved praise, 
 Mariano was, after all, only a preacher to superfine 
 wits and polished worldlings, willing enough to talk 
 of sin in the abstract, but unwilling to have their 
 
142 
 
 SAVONAROLA S ENEMIES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 own and other people's sins exposed to censure in 
 order to repentance : critics, who well-pleased weighed 
 the preacher's discourse by sounds and syllables, 
 through which the word of God might not reach the 
 heart. Mariano himself, because he would flatter the 
 world, and had an immoderate vanity to be flattered 
 himself, trusted to temporary effects, without troubling 
 himself or his hearers by exciting conscientious con- 
 viction. To him Lorenzo now applied, for opposing 
 Savonarola, and showing by proof that his manner of 
 preaching was not only wholly fruitless for good, but 
 sowed the seeds of contention among the people. 
 Mariano undertook the task, and on Ascension day, 
 1491, preached in the church of San Gallo, from this 
 text — ' It is not for you to know the times or the 
 seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.' 
 — (Acts i. 7.) He warmed, however, so much in 
 his discourse, and spake with such passionate indis- 
 cretion, that many of his early adherents left him. 
 The contents of Mariano's sermon having been re- 
 peated to Savonarola, he, eight days after, preached 
 on the same text, treated it in a scriptural manner, 
 and concluded with an apostrophe to his absent oppo- 
 nent, among other things, reminding Mariano that 
 only a few days before he had borne witness to the 
 fruitfulness of Savonarola's manner of preaching ac- 
 cording to the Scriptures, and even declared his own 
 readiness to lend a hand in this self-same way to the 
 awakening of the people. ' How hast thou, then, 
 my brother ! ' exclaimed Savonarola, ' so suddenly 
 chani/ed thy mind and thy heart ? ' Mariano now 
 learned that he had undertaken a dangerous task in 
 competing with a superior, and to preserve his credit 
 from further loss, gave up the contest. Subsequently, 
 however, he went to Rome, and resolved on becoming 
 the bitterest and principal enemy of Savonarola. 
 Nor was Savonarola without other enemies in 
 
CH. IV, 
 
 CONVERSATION AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 143 
 
 ecclesiastical quarters, for he had already commenced 
 as a Reformer, not only of the State but of the 
 Church. In his own convent, there were many 
 whose enthusiasm was insufficient to support the 
 austere rule of the order, after the manner of St. 
 Dominic and St. Catherine of Sienna, which the 
 prior was intent on reviving, and already, indeed, 
 enforced by his own example as well as by precept. 
 To such weaker brethren the stem piety of Savona- 
 rola was a constant reproach. They were, perhaps, 
 too much disposed to idleness ; he, on the contrary, 
 slept only four hours, was present day and night in 
 choir at all sacred offices, and gave audience at fixed 
 periods to every one who desired his help in difficult 
 cases of conscience. 
 
 Savonarola, nevertheless, had his seasons of recrea- 
 tion. Though his leisure was brief, and seldom, he 
 passed it with the novices. Frequently he said to 
 the older Fathers, ' Do you wish I should preach 
 well ? Give me time to converse with my children ! ' 
 It was the special delight of Savonarola to discourse 
 with the budding intelligence touching divine things 
 and the sacred Scriptures. ' In this way,' said Savo- 
 narola, ' I have learned much, for God ofttimes 
 speaks and expounds his revelations by these simple 
 youths, as by pure vessels full of the Holy Spirit.' 
 
 In this practice and in these remarks, Savonarola 
 shows the high quality of the wisdom that possessed 
 him. Conversation in itself is pregnant with the 
 highest evolutions — conversation with the young will 
 educe the purest, the subtlest, and most oracular ut- 
 terances of philosophical and religious truth. The ex- 
 periment has been made even lately on veiy little 
 children with remarkable success. Of these advan- 
 tages Plato was sufficiently aware, and Jesus empha- 
 tically said, ' Suffer little children to come unto me, 
 for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' The greatest 
 
1-1 t THE TWO ABBOTS OF VALLOMBROSO. B. 111. 
 
 poet of modem times expresses the same reverence for 
 childhood, and from its phenomena gladly receives in- 
 timations of the soul's immortality. ' Take heed,' 
 said our Redeemer, ' take heed that ye despise not one 
 of these little ones — for I say unto you, tliat in heaven 
 their Angels do always behold the face of my Father 
 which is in heaven.' O thus, if Savonarola was a 
 severe man, still, in the adoption of these divine sen- 
 timents as taught by the earliest, and in the antici- 
 pation of them as held by the latest teachers of 
 mankind, he showed a pathetic tenderness, a simpli- 
 city of disposition, as well as a sublimity of charac- 
 ter, which only belongs to the best and the wisest, 
 and can be excelled by none. 
 
 Savonarola was accustomed also to visit the cells 
 of the monks, not occasionally only, but frequently 
 and statedly. He listened to their conversation, or 
 enquired into the subject of it. Had it concerned 
 eternity ? did that high question now occupy their 
 thoughts ? He kindled and excited them to greater 
 animation, mingling in it and reminding them that 
 God was present. Had they not been thus occu- 
 pied ? did meaner themes engage them ? Then, with 
 peculiar adroitness, he suggested another argument, 
 directed their attention to celestial things, and 
 changed the strain to holy themes. This he did, 
 without producing embarrassment, accustoming thus 
 all the brethren of his convent to spiritual discourse. 
 
 Savonarola was severely abstemious ; he desired 
 the coarsest and most patched clothing. Two abbots 
 of Vallambrosa were once conversing with him about 
 the Reformation of the monasteries — Savonarola 
 glanced at their cowls, which were of beautiful velvet, 
 and smiled. The abbots knew his meaning, and 
 blushed — so much virtue yet remained with them. 
 At length, they gained courage, and ventured to 
 remonstrate. 
 
CH. IV. THE CHASTITY OF THE CLOISTEK. 1 I") 
 
 ' Brother Girolamo ! marvel not at the fineness of 
 our cowls, they last so much the longer ! ' 
 
 Whereto the Prior answered — ' What a pity San 
 Benedetto and San Gio Gualbert knew not this 
 secret ! They would else have worn the same ! ' 
 
 Such gentle irony was sufficient rebuke, and they 
 were silent. 
 
 None ever doubted of the chastity of Savonarola. 
 This is a point that merits deep consideration. Wlien 
 preaching at Brescia, Savonarola had exclaimed, 
 ' The chastity of the cloister is slain ! ' Had not the 
 celibacy of the clergy become a futile pretext, pro- 
 voking fornication and adultery, and encouraging 
 concubinage ? Had not the Church become a 
 brothel ? was not the Church of Rome even the 
 Mother of Harlots ? Was it not written on her 
 front, blazoned shamelessly on the folds of her tiara ? 
 Did she any longer attempt to conceal it ? was not 
 the veil altogether withdrawn? Innocent VIII. 
 regarded as no crime what he had inherited as a cus- 
 tom. The clergy were rendered dissolute by an 
 absurd regulation, which outraged nature without 
 ministering to grace, and. violated the precept of 
 Scripture, declaring, that ' Marriage is honourable in 
 all.' The cloisters were grossly immoral — most 
 odious practices were indulged — all due to what 
 Luther calls ' the hell of celibacy.' Savonarola had 
 not arrived at this perception ; he was a monk. He 
 thought it right to take the vow of chastity — he had 
 taken it, and he kept it. In all the relations of 
 life, he was a sincere man ; and it was this which 
 made him sternly heroic — which fitted him for a 
 Reformer — which predisposed him for the martyr's 
 crown. 
 
 Such are the relations in which Savonarola stands 
 connected with those who now ostensibly minister 
 at the altar of God, or affect to meditate in the 
 
 o 
 
14G 
 
 PRINCESS BENTIVOGLIO. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 retreats of piety. He is a prophet among priests 
 and monks— an apostle in the midst of apostates — a 
 champion of truth numbered with liars — a believer 
 fallen into the camp of practical, if not theoretic, 
 atheists — a victor, ere long to be a victim. 
 
 But not the less he performs his mission — he con- 
 tinues his labours. "We find him now commencing 
 an explanation of the Book of Genesis, which occu- 
 pies liim nearly two years. He had lately interpreted 
 the last book of the Bible — he now returns to the first ; 
 but while thus engaged, he is summoned to Bologna. 
 For a long whQe the people there had wished to hear 
 again the preacher, now famous, who had sometime 
 been a student in that place. During the Lent of 
 1492, Savonarola, in company with one of his brethren 
 of the cloister, freely accepted their repeated invitation. 
 At Bologna his sermons meet with a good reception, 
 and find many kindred spirits. Yet Savonarola feels 
 himself cramped by his change of position. WUling 
 to overlook faults where he is only*a visitor, yet, 
 notwithstanding all his desire to the contrary, he 
 cannot but perceive many moral transgressions, with- 
 out being able to attack them in his accustomed 
 manner. At this he grieves the more, when he re- 
 flects, that here too, where he had received his own 
 earlier monastic education, the cloister severity and 
 simplicity is missing. To return to San Marco, 
 becomes accordingly his most anxious desire. But a 
 singular occurrence at last gives Savonarola an oppor- 
 tunity of again showing himself, even here, as the strict 
 preacher of duty. The princess Bentivoglio, whose 
 husband conducted the affairs of the city, has come 
 often, with a great train, to hear the mighty preacher, 
 but makes a general practice of not arriving till the 
 commencement of the sermon. Savonarola, on one 
 occasion, utters a public request, that for the future 
 all persons will be present before the sermon begins. 
 
CH. IV. 
 
 HUMILITY. 
 
 147 
 
 This gentle hint, however, is found to be unavailing. 
 Savonarola accordingly beseeches the lady in private 
 not to continue to disturb the devotions of the 
 assembled multitude. The lady, as might be ex- 
 pected, despising the remonstrance, will still appear 
 with all that bustle which her retinue cannot help 
 making. At length the preacher, one day full 
 of holy indignation, breaks out at her arrival witli 
 the words — ' Behold ! here comes the evil spirit to 
 disturb the word of God ! ' The protection of his 
 order and his calling, however, shields him from any 
 violence that the indignant lady may meditate. At 
 the close of his last sermon, announcing the period 
 of his departure, Savonarola is careful to demand 
 whether any one had any charge against him— adding 
 pointedly, that he had no intention of dying in 
 Bologna. 
 
 If the preaching of Savonarola had only been 
 remarkable for incidents of this kind, we should be 
 compelled to rank his pulpit eloquence as simply 
 popular and democratic. That it was, however, of a 
 higher character we have many evidences. He knew 
 too the value of humility, and the boldness with 
 which he spake was not from pride, but from duty, 
 ' If,' says he, in a treatise on the subject, ' thy virtue is 
 unknown, seek not that it should be known, because 
 a treasure discovered is in great peril ; and if thy 
 virtue is known, refer it to God, and seek not by 
 word or action to make it better known or under- 
 stood by those who are not acquainted with it. Hu- 
 mility requires that when a man hears himself praised, 
 particularly if for virtues be does not possess, having 
 the good opinion of men undeservedly, he should 
 grieve at it, and try to diminish this reputation with- 
 out sinning, or rather to equal or exceed it by vir- 
 tuous acts Always avoiding to do things which 
 
 are unusual in the sight of men, which attract admi- 
 o 2 
 
148 
 
 MODES OF INSPIRATION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 ration or praise, living with propriety among them, 
 according to the ordinary course of those who are 
 upright and worthy, not dressing more expensively 
 and sumptuously, nor, on the contrary,', more shabbily 
 than becomes thy station. Above all, not exceeding 
 or failing in conspicuous matters, and in resting or 
 moving, in manner and ornaments, in speech, and in 
 aU other things keeping in the medium, because ex- 
 tremes are much observed in such affairs, but the 
 medium as most usual is not remarked.' 
 
 There was, nevertheless, much in Savonarola's 
 pulpit oratory that was personal. He had to con- 
 tend not only for his cause, but for his authority to 
 pursue it in the manner he adopted. Sometimes he 
 had to reply to the accusation of having caused divi- 
 sions. ' Why,' he demanded — ' Because T come to 
 bring truth into the world ? They who are of the 
 world follow lies, therefore there must be divisions.' 
 In defence of his alleged claims, he would say, 
 ' First T was a preacher, therefore am I sent, and if I 
 now prophesy, you have nothing to object to me ! ' 
 Actual reformations attended Savonarola's preaching, 
 to which he was not slow in appealing. ' Why dost 
 thou believe the prophets and apostles? answer — 
 because they wrought miracles. Who told thee the 
 miracles ? How did those who told thee, know 
 them ? Wouldst thou that I should tell thee where- 
 fore thou believest them ? Because a light from above 
 has been given thee, which makes thee believe. 
 Besides, I see none but bad men deny the Gospel, 
 and it makes those who believe it good. God would 
 not give truth into the hands of the wicked, and not 
 to the righteous.' 
 
 Savonarola distinguished three modes of inspiration. 
 ' God,' he said, ' infuses it into the soul ; gives wis- 
 dom as He did to Solomon and David ; or visions by 
 means of the angelic spirits. In each of these ways 
 
CU. IV. THE BIBLE THE CODE OF MORALS. 149 
 
 I have been alwa^^s assured of the truth by the before- 
 mentioned illumination.' The usefulness of prophecy 
 he thus illustrates. ' If thou shouldst see a wolf in 
 the shepherd's clothing among the sheep, and one 
 should teach thee, and say beware of him who appears 
 to thee a pastor, for he is a wolf ; wouldst thou not 
 warn the flock, that they may not follow him ? ' When 
 reproached with having attacked priests, monks, 
 seculars, and even the pope, he replied, ' I have 
 named no one, they judge themselves.' Savonarola 
 was energetic in commending the Bible as the only 
 code of morals. ' People of Florence ! ' he would 
 exclaim, ' give yourselves to the study of the sacred 
 Scriptures ! The first blessing is understanding the 
 sacred Scriptures. Let us publicly confess the truth, 
 the sacred Scriptures have been locked up — this light 
 has been almost extingruished among men ! Has it 
 not been set aside ? left in the dust ? No longer 
 studied, nothing has been attended to but poetry and 
 vanities. In the pulpit, nothing is quoted but Plato, 
 Aristotle, and a thousand trivialities. A worldly 
 priest saying once to a religious man, ' We are the 
 gods of the people ! ' — the latter answered, ' Father, 
 it is written the gods of the people are demons.' 
 Whenever it is clearly seen that the commands of 
 superiors are contrary to the commandments of God, 
 especially to the law of charity, no one should obey 
 in this case. See, now, is not this Book to the pur- 
 pose ? Does it not speak exactly of our times and 
 of our persecutions ? But because I will not keep 
 you longer this morning, I will say but one word, 
 and send you home. ^Vhat say'st thou. Brother ? 
 what shall this word be ? Would I could give thee 
 better news than I have ! But there is no help for 
 it. This night have we received no better tidings 
 than these. To you the good, the upright in heart, 
 I sav ever peace! Doubt not, \e righteous! the 
 o 3 
 
150 SPECIMEN OF Savonarola's preaching, b. in. 
 
 Lord will give you peace. Florentines ! I say to 
 the wicked, ye know it is a proverb, misery comes 
 by sin ! Go, read ; when the Hebrews did right 
 and loved God, they had always prosperity— on the 
 contrary, when they committed iniquity, God pre- 
 pared a scourge for them ! Florence ! what hast 
 thou done ? what sins hast thou committed ? how 
 dost thou stand before God ? Shall I tell thee ? 
 Alas I the measure is full ! thy plague is at its 
 height ! Florence, it is full ! Look ! look ! a heavy 
 Scourge. Lord ! thou dost bear me witness, that 
 with my Brethren, I have striven to bear up against 
 this burden, this destruction, by fervent prayer ; we 
 can do no more, we have entreated the Lord, that at 
 least He would change this Sword into a pestilence. 
 Whether we have obtained that mercy or not ye will 
 perceive. Let each one make confession, let each 
 one be ever prepared for whatever may be done by 
 the Lord. 
 
 ' I can no more — my strength faUs ! O slumber 
 no longer, Lord ! upon that cross. Grant these our 
 petitions ! O Lord ! look upon the face of thine 
 Anointed. O glorious virgin ! O saints ! O ye 
 blessed in Paradise ! O angels ! O archangels ! 0 all 
 ye company of heaven ! intercede for us with the 
 Lord, that He delay not to be gracious to us ! Seest 
 thou not, O God ! that these bad men mock, they 
 scorn us, they suffer not that any should help thy 
 servants ? Every one derides us — we have become the 
 reproach of the world. We have prayed — oh ! how 
 many tears we shed — how many sighs we breathe ! 
 Where is thy providence, thy love, thy faithfulness ? 
 
 ' O Lord ! delay not, that the unbelievers and the 
 wicked may not say, ' where is the God of these 
 men, who have so often repented and fasted ? Thou 
 seest the bad become every day worse, and now 
 they seem to have become incorrigible. Stretch 
 
CH. IV. 
 
 THE SCOURGE. 
 
 151 
 
 forth, stretch forth thy hand, thy mighty arm ! I 
 can do no mote — I think not what more to say. 
 There is nothing left for me but to weep. I would 
 dissolve in tears upon this pulpit. I ask not, O 
 Lord ! that thou shouldst hear us for our merits, 
 but for thy mercy, for the love of thy Son. Look 
 upon the face of thine Anointed, have compassion on 
 thy sheep. Dost thou see them here, all afflicted, 
 all persecuted ? Dost thou not love them, O my 
 God ? Didst thou not become incarnate for them ? 
 Wert thou not crucified, didst thou not die for them? 
 If I cannot prevail — if this work is too much for me, 
 recall my soul — take me away, O Lord ! release me 
 from life. What have thy sheep done ? They have 
 done nothing. I am the guilty one ; yet, O Lord ! 
 have not respect to my sins, have respect this once to 
 thy loving-kindness, thy tenderness, thy bowels of 
 mercies, and let us feel all thy compassion ! ' 
 
 Such was the style of Savonarola's pulpit orations. 
 At the conclusion he would frequently descend from 
 the pulpit bathed in tears — amid the sobs and groans 
 of the congregation. 
 
 The prophetic intimation contained in the dis- 
 courses above quoted, touching the Scourge that was 
 commissioned to punish Italy, and Florence in par- 
 ticular, for her transgressions, alarmed the hearers of 
 Savonarola. Publicly and privately Savonarola per- 
 sisted, as by Divine command, in repeatedly ad- 
 monishing the people under his teaching, of the 
 necessity of a religious moral life to individuals, and 
 of a political reform to the republic in general. In- 
 deed, he was wont to assert that the death of Lorenzo, 
 whenever it happened, would be the commencement 
 of a state revolution in Florence. The accomplish- 
 ment of his prediction, however, both in regard to 
 the reform of the Church and that of the State, was 
 connected, in the mind of Savonarola, with the ap- 
 
152 
 
 ROME BECOME SECULAR. 
 
 n. lit. 
 
 pearance of a foreign conqueror in Italy. There was 
 much in her foreign relations to justify this apprehen- 
 sion even as a probable conjecture. For more than 
 ten years the claim of the younger house of Aiijou 
 to the kingdom of Naples and Jerusalem, had been 
 revived ^vith earnestness, and Louis XI. of France, 
 had in consequence been often invited under favour- 
 able conditions into Italy — but died without enforcing 
 satisfaction of his alleged right : and was succeeded 
 in the year 1492 by Charles VIII., who, fired by 
 j'outhful ambition, resolved to win by battle what 
 had been withheld from honourable negociation. The 
 pope likewise soon found it his interest to fan the 
 flame that was thus kindling. Not content with 
 protecting Italy from Turkish invasion by a treaty 
 with the Sultan Bajazet, whose brother Zizim was 
 sent to Rome as a hostage, Innocent VIII. had 
 excommunicated Ferdinand, king of Naples, for 
 refusing an accustomed tribute to the Roman see. 
 Glad, therefore, was the pontiff of the opportunity 
 afforded him by Charles' ambition, to strengthen his 
 own hands, and favoured the latter's enterprise against 
 that kingdom, making a separate treaty with Milan 
 and Venice, which alarmed Naples and Florence. 
 But soon after, on Ferdinand's death, and the recon- 
 cilement of his son to the Vatican, his holiness tried 
 to dissuade Charles from the enterprize ; vain attempt ! 
 And thus at length, though beginning with the papal 
 concurrence, that very enterprize became part of the 
 opposition which ere long, both spiritualh' and politi- 
 cally, arrayed itself against the power of Rome, which 
 had for some time assumed a secular, in the place 
 of its ancient ecclesiastical character, and accordingly 
 began to be treated by other princedoms as one on 
 the same level with themselves. 
 
 Lorenzo was as aware of this tendency as Savona- 
 rola, and indeed clearly saw how that Christendom, 
 
CU.IV. HEREDITARY POSSESSIONS 01" TH E CH URCil. 1 53 
 
 south and north, was united to counteract the autho- 
 rity of the pope, and how that the secular power was 
 rapidly participating the ecclesiastical revenues and 
 rights, as well as substituting its own policy for that 
 of the Church. 
 
 ' Ferdinand of Naples,' said Lorenzo, ' will make 
 no difficulty of promising Innocent VIII., but by 
 and by, when his obligations ought to be fulfilled, he 
 will meet with indulgence, as kings invariably do at 
 the hands of the popes.' Lorenzo likewise pursued 
 the same course himself, notwithstanding his alliance 
 with the pontiff. Following the example of greater 
 sovereigns, he regarded only so much of the papal 
 mandates as he pleased. The popes, as we have 
 said, had also begun to act as temporal rather 
 than spiritual rulers. Innocent VIII. was the last 
 pontiff who cared for attempting any resistance to 
 Turkish influence. He sounded, indeed, like most 
 of his predecessors, the trumpet of a gener.il crusade 
 against the infidel — and addressed the European 
 ambassadors in the usual strain, and with the usual 
 inefficacy. What answer he received from some 
 Italian states, served to enrich the apostolical trea- 
 sury, and enabled him to increase his personal 
 expenses, and engage in family hostilities against the 
 king of Naples. The head of the Church, indeed, 
 was now only expected at most to devote himself to 
 the interests of her temporal dominions. Thus an 
 influential speaker in the council of Basle ventured 
 the assertion — that ' formerly he was of opinion that 
 it would be well were the temporal power wholly 
 dissevered from the spiritual — but now he had learned 
 that virtue without strength is ridiculous, that the 
 pope of Rome without the hereditary possessions of 
 the Church, would be but the lackey of kings and 
 princes — and that it was not very objectionable that 
 a pope should have sons, who might uphold him 
 
154 
 
 NECESSITY OF RELIGION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 against tyrants.' From this step the next was easy. 
 It was soon considered as an ordinary thing that a 
 pope should promote the interests of his own family, 
 and he would have been censured if he had not done 
 so. ' Others,' said Lorenzo, in a letter to Innocent 
 VIII., ' have not so long postponed their efforts to 
 become popes, and have given themselves little con- 
 cern to evince such delicacy and forbearance as your 
 holiness has manifested for such a length of time. 
 Now is your holiness not only excused before God 
 and man, but one might perhaps even venture to 
 blame this punctilious conduct, and ascribe it to 
 another motive. Zeal and duty force it upon me as a 
 point of conscience to remind your holiness, that no 
 man is immortal, that a pope's importance is just 
 what he himself chooses to make it ; he cannot render 
 his dignity hereditary : nothing can he call his own 
 but the honours and the benefactions he has bestowed 
 on his kindred.' 
 
 Reverting to the political relation which had existed 
 between Lorenzo the politician, and Savonarola the 
 prophet, whose predictions were not lightly esteemed 
 either by the people of Florence or their chiefs, it 
 must be remarked that Lorenzo himself began to 
 perceive the inherent insufficiency of art and philo- 
 sophy alone for the security of a state ; and feeling 
 the want of a higher influence, clearly cherished a 
 secret sentiment that Savonarola was the agent di- 
 vinely appointed to supply it. The licentious life 
 they failed to restrain, religion was needed to pro- 
 hibit. Its first advances were unwelcome, but its 
 presence soon became necessary for the satisfaction 
 even of what at first opposed it. Savonarola besides 
 would only look on Lorenzo in his public capacity, 
 as an innovator on the original republican form of 
 the Florentine constitution, at a crisis when such in- 
 novation was perilous to the safety of the state, and 
 
CH. IV. 
 
 POLITICAL FACTIONS. 
 
 I. -,5 
 
 when the family of the Medici had degenerated from 
 its primitive virtue and wealth, and consequently 
 suffered in its independence and authority. Of this 
 Lorenzo was fully conscious, and had been from his 
 entrance into life — his position private and public 
 was always beset with difficulties. For the rest, he 
 only the more respected Savonarola for disdaining to 
 flatter him in the first instance, and this respect in- 
 creased when Savonarola became his decided political 
 opponent. 
 
 There were three political factions in Florence, 
 striving for supremacy. The first was named Fra- 
 teschi (brethren), or Piagnone (mourners). These 
 were the zealous advocates of liberty, who had not 
 only united for the restoration of the republic, but 
 went about constantly and loudly lamenting the cor- 
 ruption of morals, and the decay of prosperity in the 
 city. To counteract the vice and the ruin that pre- 
 vailed, they proposed the severest discipline. They 
 were considerable in numbers, character, and talent. 
 At their head was Savonarola. 
 
 The second party was named by the first — (having 
 no name of its own), Arrabbiati (the Fnintic), or 
 Compagnacci, from the assistance they derived from 
 companies of young nobles, who enlisted themselves 
 in its service. These aristocrats, under the cover 
 of political partizanship, indulged violent and un- 
 bridled passions. Their aim was to establish an 
 oligarchy. They were disgusted with the pseudo 
 irresponsible monarchy of the Medici — but they 
 dreaded equally the extreme democracy of Savon- 
 arola's views. Besides which, the stern and honest 
 monk would have restrained by legislation the licence 
 which they would have wished to set above and 
 beyond law. This restraint could never be per- 
 mitted by the members of a privileged social order. 
 
 The third party — denominated Bigi (grey), was 
 
156 
 
 SICKNESS OF LORF.NZO. 
 
 B. nr. 
 
 that of the Medici. They were not strong enough 
 openly to oppose the others, but promoted their own 
 cause by secret intrigues among the magistrates. 
 They joined the Piagnone in the ballot, when the 
 contest was between them and the Compagnacci. 
 
 Of the three parties, the first and the third sided 
 against the second ; and the second dreaded the first 
 more than the third. There was more sympathy 
 between the two extremes, than there was between 
 the mean and either opposite. And thus it has al- 
 ways been, and is, in the political arena. 
 
 The conduct both of Savonarola and Lorenzo, was 
 the result of a deep instinct in the nature of both, and 
 of a law by which their position was necessarily 
 regulated. Neither of them knew this — but not the 
 less they acted on the obscure feelings by which it 
 was represented. Savonarola attracted Lorenzo — but 
 was himself only repelled by the advances of the 
 political ruler. The aesthetic and the ascetic man 
 were mutually related — but there might be no contact. 
 
 On his return to Florence, Savonarola saw many 
 good consequences of his unwearied labours, which he 
 resumed with renewed enthusiasm, whilst the novelty 
 and the richness of his conceptions, and the increased 
 boldness of their expression, attracted with greater 
 interest a greater number of hearers. Lorenzo and 
 others of his rank and party, were compelled at least 
 to regard the religious earnestness and the reckless 
 freemindedness of the monk with esteem. Indeed, 
 Lorenzo could not help observing — ' Besides this 
 man, I have never seen a true monk.' 
 
 In the year 1491, Lorenzo was taken dangerously 
 ill. His sickness continuing, he sought and found 
 relief from the warm baths of Siena and Porrettana. 
 He returned about the beginning of the year 1492 
 to the business of the state, and resided in the Villa 
 Carreggi, occupying himself mostly in the conversa- 
 
CII. IV. 
 
 VISITED BY SAVONAROLA. 
 
 157 
 
 tion of learned friends. Here his malady seized him 
 ■with renewed force ; an insidious fever, which from 
 the beginning puzzled the faculty exceedingly. 
 
 The death of Lorenzo was characteristic of the 
 man, accompanied with a splendour that is incon- 
 sistent with safety. It was hastened by the empiri- 
 cal application of abnormal means. The magnificent 
 quack by whom he was attended prescribed a spe- 
 cific of amalgamated pearls and jewels — a medicine 
 reserved for the rich, inasmuch as it could not be 
 administered to the poor — but which, instead of heal- 
 ing, increased the patient's disorder. 
 
 A sick-bed is the place for reflection. Frequently 
 had Lorenzo expressed a desire for the conversation of 
 that same true monk, and frequently invited him to 
 his couch. Now, his sickness had so much increased, 
 and his life was in such great peril, that he had rea- 
 son to fear his death was nigh at hand. 
 
 Still, as Angelo Poliziano relates, Lorenzo not 
 only showed an extraordinary readiness to die, but a 
 true Christian mental fortitude in dying. Having 
 poured out his heart to Poliziano, and bidden fare- 
 well to Prince Giovanni, of Mirandola, he then 
 desired the presence of Savonarola, who could not 
 refuse to attend a fellow-being, though the head of a 
 republic, in his last moments. Taking, however, 
 this opportunity of exhorting Lorenzo to consider 
 himself as if he were then upon his death-bed, 
 Savonarola having commended him to the Divine 
 mercy, and comforted him in the name of the Holy 
 Trinity, proceeded to assure the sufferer, that if he 
 had a strong and living faith, God would and could 
 forgive him. Lorenzo replied, that he had this faith ; 
 whereupon Savonarola added, that it was also re- 
 quired of him that he should restore whatever he 
 might have unjustly obtained, or should direct his sons 
 to do so. This also Lorenzo promised. But when 
 
 p 
 
158 
 
 REFUSED ABSOLUTION, 
 
 B. 111. 
 
 Savonarola proceeded to demand from him that he 
 should reinstate Florence in authority and right of 
 the old repuhlican freedom, Lorenzo maintained a 
 stubborn silence. Savonarola instantly left him, it 
 is even said, without giving his absolution. 
 
 Lorenzo, as might be suspected, had a sufficient 
 number of flatterers. Among these was Angelo 
 Poliziano, the confidant of his studies and his family 
 interests — a man without religion, or respect for its 
 ordinances — and who became Lorenzo's biographer, 
 or rather panegyrist ; one so blinded by party zeal, 
 that his statements are not at all to be depended on. 
 Thus, for instance, he declares that Savonarola, not- 
 withstanding the silent refusal of Lorenzo to set free 
 the city from the evil of usurped authority, adminis- 
 tered to him the sacrament of absolution. Pico 
 asserts the contrary, and his assertion agrees best 
 with the character of the man. There is every rea- 
 son to believe, from the disposition of both parties, 
 that Lorenzo sought with prayerful entreaty, and 
 that Savonarola denied with spiritual indignation, the 
 blessing of the Church to the mortal who refused on 
 his death-bed to make a righteous concession. On 
 the other hand, Burlammacchi, a biographer of Savon- 
 arola, relates that, in addition to the conversation 
 already detailed, Savonarola charged Lorenzo with 
 three special crimes — the plundering of Volterra, 
 whereby many noble ladies were outraged, and other 
 execrable deeds were committed — the robbery of the 
 jSIonte di fanciulli, through which many noble vir- 
 gins lost their dowery : and, finally, the much innocent 
 blood of the Pazzi, that was shed through perjury. 
 But these are evidently subsequent adornments of the 
 original tale, and gross exaggerations of the facts — 
 so hard it is to get at the truth from partisans. In 
 such cases, the characters of the principals furnish 
 the best criteria of judgment. 
 
cn. IV. 
 
 Savonarola's vision. 
 
 159 
 
 Lorenzo died on the 8th of April, 1492. In the 
 night of the last Advent Sunday of that same year, 
 Savonarola relates that he saw, in vision — a Hand 
 from heaven, which held a sword with this inscription ; 
 ' The Sword of the Lord upon the earth soon and 
 sudden.' The hand and arm, however, appeared to 
 proceed from three persons, whose countenances were 
 enveloped in a bright veil. The first of whom spake 
 thus : ' My people has forgotten for unnumbered 
 days my commandments.' The second replied, ' 1 
 will tread them, and destroy them, and they shall not 
 move me to compassion.' The third rejoined, ' I 
 will remember them who have held my command- 
 ments.' Then sounded from the whole three counte- 
 nances together, upon the entire circle of the earth — 
 ' Hear, all inhabitants of the earth, thus speaks the 
 Lord, in his holy zeal ! See the day will come when 
 I will draw my Sword upon you. Turn ye then to 
 me ere my wrath be full, and trouble comes when ye 
 shall seek peace, and find it not. Rejoice ye, je 
 righteous ! yet prepare your soul for trouble by 
 reading and prayer. But ye who are the servants 
 of sin, harden yourselves still more. Yet know that 
 your bodies and your souls rest in my hands. I 
 will, in a short time, chasten your bodies with a 
 scourge, but your souls shall perish in the eternal 
 fire!' 
 
 Savonarola continues : ' Then I saw a glorious 
 temple of marble, adorned with gold, the columns of 
 porphyry, the doors of precious stones, the sanctuary 
 of mosaic. In the night, however, many came, de- 
 stroyed the temple, and began to build a new one, of 
 wood, painted like marble and porphyry, covered over 
 with gold and silver. I saw the priests in their robes 
 approaching with silver staves, and the people praising 
 with joy the beauty of the new temple. But soon 
 the ceiling fell in, and overwhelmed all. The first 
 p2 
 
160 
 
 THE CHURCH OF WOOD. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 temple is the apostolic Church, built of living stones 
 of believers, who, united in love, were one heart and 
 one soul in Christ, as the corner-stone of the building. 
 The temple shone with the gold of heavenly wisdom, 
 the columns were the prophets and apostles. But 
 Satan laboured to destroy this temple. For this pur- 
 pose he took the lukewarm ones, the false brothers 
 in sheeps' clothing, who fast, pray, give alms, and 
 externally comport themselves as Christians, but 
 through whose hypocrisy the Church falls into de- 
 struction. The apostles and prophets are no more 
 — the columns of the Church are thrown down — the 
 evangelic doctrine is no longer heard — the gold of 
 the temple fails, the Divine wisdom which enlightens 
 and quickens the heart. The roof of the Church is 
 broken — the pious priests and princes are gone. It 
 is no longer an united body ; for every one seeks only 
 his own. The walls of the Church are undermined ; 
 for where is the righteousness of princes, where the 
 fidelity of the clergy and priests ? Rather they make 
 a boast of their wickedness ; curses and oaths are to 
 them a sign of manly courage ; extravagance passes 
 for liberality ; fraud they name prudence. On the 
 other hand, they have a new church erected of wood, 
 that is, of Christians who are doomed to hell-fire. 
 Yet is it beautifully painted and gilded, has much 
 external embellishment, golden candlesticks, and 
 beautiful robes. But I tell you, the roof will break 
 in, and bury the heavy sins of the clergy and princes, 
 with all their pomp. See, the wicked prelates ! be- 
 cause they fear that the people may withdraw them- 
 selves from their obedience, they proceed, like the 
 tyrants, who destroy the good and just, to imprison 
 them or to remove them from their offices ; abolish 
 good laws and manners, and entertain the people with 
 holidays and sports ; that they may not reflect on 
 innovations. Thus it is also in the Church of Christ. 
 
CH. IV. 
 
 ELIAS AND CYRUS. 
 
 IGl 
 
 The good preachers are removed, the guidance of 
 ecclesiastical affairs is not entrusted to them ; good 
 laws and manners are abolished ; and, on the con- 
 trary, holidays and ceremonies introduced, which 
 thrust out or destroy those which God has com- 
 manded. O Italy ! for thy sins this trouble will come, 
 O Florence ! for thy sins this chastisement will come. 
 O Clergy ! because of thee comes this storm. I 
 tell you, there will come a storm, like the vision of 
 Elias, and the storm will shatter the mountains! Over 
 the Alps will one come hither against Italy, like the 
 Cyrus, of whom Isaiah wrote. O ! ye high, ye wise, 
 and ye also of low estate, the mighty hand of the Lord 
 hangs above you ! Therefore has the Lord visited 
 you, that He may have mercy on you. Turn ye 
 then to the Lord, your God, with all your heart ; for 
 He is gracious and merciful. But if ye will not obey, 
 He will turn away his eyes from you ! ' 
 
 p 3 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INVASION OF CHARLES VIII. 
 
 Apparent prosperity of Florence at the death of Lorenzo — 
 Civil contest — Savonarola's prominence — Pietro de Medici's 
 feeble rule — Death of Pope Innocent VIII. — Infamous 
 character of Pope Alexander VI. — Satan in the seat of 
 Christ. — Charles the Eighth of France — Conduct of Pietro 
 — Savonarola's speech to the king at Pisa — Pietro's ex- 
 pulsion from Florence — Charles VIII. and the Pisans — 
 Charles VIII. and the Florentines — Savonarola's remon- 
 strance — The departure of the French. 
 
 So flourishing and fortunate appeared the state of Flo- 
 rence in the last year of Lorenzo's life, that a contem- 
 porary writer maintains that no such happy condition 
 of things had for a thoiisand years gladdened the whole 
 of Italy ; yet in reality, the bases of this seeming 
 prosperity were insecure and feeble to the last degree. 
 
 So long as Lorenzo (who followed therein the 
 fundamental principles of his grandfather, for the 
 maintenance of a sort of balance of power between 
 the Florentine republic and the other Italian states) 
 could constitute himself the centre of the political 
 system, the house of the Medici, whatever were the 
 private necessities of the family, might support the 
 
cii. V. 
 
 riETRO DE MEDICI. 
 
 1G3 
 
 external shows of magnificence for which it had been 
 so long remarkable, and which shone with such 
 peculiar intensity, being concentrated, as it were, in 
 that last expense which adorned the death- bed of 
 Lorenzo — that peculiar prescription so costly, yet so 
 fatal. With the death of Lorenzo, however, the 
 gorgeous spell is dissolved ; nor may the remaining 
 members of that once-powerful family escape the 
 dreaded consequences. Not only the diminished in- 
 fluence and enfeebled power, but also the despicable 
 government of the succeeding Medici, led men to 
 predict an unavoidable storm, that was not long in 
 discharging its accumulated terrors. 
 
 Now that Lorenzo was dead, Savonarola took a 
 more prominent part in the civil contest which suc- 
 ceeded. Not only in the Duomo and in San Marco, 
 which were crowded, but in the public squares he 
 harangued assembled thousands. Bitterly — bitterly 
 he inveighed against the corruptions of the pontifical 
 court, the general depravity of manners, and the 
 domineering spirit of the Medici. The orator was 
 in the ascendant ; nor was the prophet in abeyance. 
 Visions and dreams came in aid of his argument — 
 prophecies of the fall of the Medici and of future 
 miseries, to the utterance and accomplishment of 
 which friends and foes alike testify. The latter 
 attribute them to his extraordinary sagacity and ex- 
 tensive information —the former to immediate inspi- 
 ration ; both, probably, considering as deliberate 
 assertions many things which were but scintillations 
 of his fiery eloquence, and which rather threatened 
 than foretold the disastrous future. 
 
 Pietro de' Medici succeeded his father Lorenzo 
 in the government of Florence, but was ill-calcu- 
 lated either to attain or preserve the sovereignty of 
 the state. He held the reins feebly, and pursued a 
 policy opposed to what his father had commenced, 
 
164 
 
 POPE ALEXANDER VI. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 and adopted the counsels of the inexperienced and 
 the young. He was himself not without talent and 
 humane culture, but he was without reflection and 
 decision. Too fond of idle parade and the free in- 
 dulgence of sensual pleasures, he offended high and 
 low by inordinate pride and insolence. He had 
 committed the government into the hands of his own 
 friends, among whom, his private secretarj', Pietro da 
 Bibiena, as if to make it more odious, exercised great 
 influence. This naturally led to much disappoint- 
 ment on the part of those who had expected situa- 
 tions under the new government ; yet these would 
 not have so suddenly shown their resentment, if 
 Pietro's undisguised efforts to assume the princedom 
 of Florence had not made his rule so hateful, that 
 men would rather submit to the dominion of a 
 foreigner, than the tyranny of a fellow-citizen. 
 
 The vision of Savonarola concerning the sword of 
 the Lord that was to come soon and suddenly upon 
 the earth — of the trouble that was prepared for Italy 
 — the chastisement that awaited Florence — the storm 
 that was to fall on the Church — of him who should 
 come over the Alps, like another Cyrus, against 
 Italy — had relation to the foreign policy of Florence. 
 Shortly after Lorenzo's death, in July of the same 
 year, died Innocent VIII., and was succeeded (as if 
 to show that the moral apostacy had now passed its 
 climax) by Alexander VI., who soon applied himself 
 entirely to the secular business of his elevated posi- 
 tion, and relinquished even the appearance of reli- 
 gious motives. As Roderigo Borgia, the new pontiff, 
 had already made himself infamous for his debauch- 
 eries, and on the death of his predecessor felt no 
 shame in actually purchasing the seat of papal power, 
 now more temporal than spiritual, to which he had 
 aspired, and which he but employed to the end of 
 founding a great inalienable sovereignty for his family 
 
CH. V. 
 
 CHARLES VIII. 
 
 in the domains of the Church ; yet this man, who 
 lias been justly called the scourge of Christendom, 
 and the opprobrium of the human race, was on his 
 election by the people of Rome hailed as a deity. 
 On no other occasion, it is said, had the Holy City 
 arrayed herself in such splendour, or descended to such 
 loathsome adulation as on that, when she placed in 
 the apostolical chair the most profligate of mankind 
 — a man in whom there was no sincerity, no shame, 
 no truth, no honesty, no faith— a being of an insa- 
 tiable spirit, an immeasurable ambition, of a more than 
 barbarous cruelty, and a worse than natural lust — in 
 short, an incarnation of the satanic spirit itself, who, 
 having purchased the vacant chair of the apostate 
 vicar of Christ, despised mankind too much to flatter 
 their mock reverence of piety, by playing the hypo- 
 crite on the desecrated throne of superstition. But 
 in the person of Charles VIII. such men as Savon- 
 arola recognized the divinely appointed opponent to 
 the infernal usurper, who had dared to occupy the 
 highest station in God's temple, now perverted to 
 the performance of undisguised evil. 
 
 Charles VIII. was not to be amused by the artifi- 
 ces of Rome ; but at length, finding Venetians, Flo- 
 rentines, Lanese, and the pope all against him, he 
 was fain to abandon the project. But he was again 
 incited thereto by the representations of the anti- 
 Medicean party at Florence, and by the suggestions 
 of Ludovico Sforza, who counselled an attack on 
 Naples, in order to revenge his own quarrels with 
 Ferdinand. Pietro, too, had excited the jealousy of 
 Ludovico, by secretly forming an intimate connexion 
 with the king of Naples and the pope, and by letting 
 it appear, that to secure the supreme dominion of his 
 native place, he was willing to relax the authority 
 that kept Italy under wholesome control. When, 
 however, partly through his own carelessness, partly 
 
166 
 
 Savonarola's 
 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 B. in. 
 
 through his want of sufficient means, Pietro had done 
 nothing for the defence of the Tuscan borders, and 
 Charles, without any opposition, had advanced against 
 the Florentine dominions, andeven conquered a frontier 
 town : then Pietro saw no other way out of his diffi- 
 culties, than by imitating the example (which he 
 had before despised) of his father. Accordingly, he 
 threw himself into the camp of Charles, as Lorenzo 
 had done formerly into the court of Naples, for 
 negotiating the conditions of peace. But Pietro was 
 not Lorenzo, wanting both the skill and boldness of 
 his father ; and imitations are seldom fortunate ; no 
 two cases being perhaps alike in all particulars, and 
 most differing in points of essential importance. 
 With imprudent precipitance Pietro conceded the 
 exorbitant demands of the king, incurring derision 
 even in the enemy's camp for his folly ; while in 
 Florence, the dishonourable and informal step he had 
 ventured, was heard of with marked astonishment, 
 and censured with loud disapprobation. Yet so 
 blindly, he proceeded, that ere his return to Florence, 
 he sought to prosecute further negotiations with 
 Charles, by means of an embassy under Pietro Cap- 
 poni, then bound for Pisa, where Charles had already 
 retired, and whither Capponi himself had desired 
 Savonarola to meet him. Meanwhile Savonarola had 
 been standing, like a faithful guardian, on the watch- 
 tower of his country's liberties ; and, taught by ob- 
 servation, believed that the moment was come, when 
 God would perform a great work for Horencc. 
 Savonarola was not only a saint, but a patriot, and 
 the reproach of the city smote him to the heart. If 
 for the present he mi^ht hardly distinguish between 
 things ecclesiastical and political, it was because the 
 Lord had decreed not alone to purify the Church by 
 separating it from the world, but to create a new 
 Church on the earth. At any rate, we cannot but 
 
CII. V. HIS ADDRESS TO CHARLES VIII. 167 
 
 admire the earnestness and vital spirit of the ener- 
 getic individual who could embrace both in one 
 capacious heart, and dare always entertain the hope 
 of effecting a common reformation for both. Such 
 •was the success of his remonstrances, that the people 
 of Florence had determined on sending an embassy to 
 Charles, for the purpose of demanding the restoration 
 of Pisa, and Savonarola was of course named for one 
 of the five orators on this important occasion. The 
 embassy sought the king at Lucca, but found him, 
 as Savonarola had anticipated, at Pisa. There, (ac- 
 cording to Nardi,) Savonarola had convenient speech, 
 in the vulgar tongue, with the king, vehom, in the 
 name of the embassy, he saluted not only as the ser- 
 vant and delegate of God, who for high designs was 
 to appear in Italy, but withal, reminded him of the 
 duty that belonged to such a mission, which he re- 
 quired him conscientiously to observe, if he would 
 insure the happy issue of his undertaking. He spoke, 
 without pre-meditation, in the following manner : 
 
 ' Almighty God, in whose hand all might and 
 majesty abide, O Christian king, and great minister of 
 Divine justice ! declares his infinite goodness towards 
 his creatures in two-fold manner ; by me'-cy and by 
 justice. By the former, in that he attracts the crea- 
 ture to his love ; by the latter, in that he leaves the 
 creature in his own unworthiness. Both are, how- 
 ever, always and everywhere united ; they go with 
 one another, though under various conditions and 
 operations. To mercy, namely, it belongs, that God 
 patiently bears the fault and transgression : in his 
 long-suffering he permits to the sinner time for re- 
 pentance, solicits him in a friendly manner, and 
 seeks to lead him back by the gentlest means. To 
 justice, however, belongs, that he bereaves of grace 
 and of light the sinner, who despises all signs of 
 mercy, lets him hurry into the abyss of sin and every 
 
1()8 MERCY AND JUSTICE. B. III. 
 
 corruption ; and finally, gives him over to the ever- 
 lasting punishment of hell. After, therefore, the 
 infinite goodness of God, that embraces all men with 
 love, has long-sufferingly borne the heavy sins of 
 Italy, and has invited them for so many long years 
 repeatedly and tenderly by many of his servants to 
 repentance, without its ears having been opened to 
 know the voice of his shepherd, — nay, the Divine 
 long-suffering having been insolently abused, the 
 guilt of its sins daily augmented, and the Divine 
 favour and the holy sacraments with saucy brow dis- 
 dained : — after all this, the highest Almighty God 
 has determined to proceed henceforth in the way of 
 his justice. Because, however, mercy and justice are, 
 as said, united in all the Divine works, God will, 
 according to his infinite goodness, also declare mercy 
 with justice, and reveal again to his unprofitable 
 servant who now addresses your majesty, this mystery 
 — how that he meditates to reform his Church by 
 means of a great scourge. Which mystery his un- 
 profitable servant, already four years ago, according to 
 the Divine inspiration and revelation vouchsafed to 
 him, announced in the city of Florence ; since when, 
 even to this day, he has not ceased with loud voice 
 to exhort the people to repentance. Bear witness 
 this, the whole city ! bear witness, high and low, 
 young and old, of both sexes ! Of these were several 
 who believe— many continued unbelieving — others 
 even mocked. But God, who cannot lie, has hitherto 
 permitted all things which have been foretold in his 
 word, strictly to follow ; whence we conclude that 
 those things which are foretold, but have not yet 
 happened, will without doubt in like manner receive 
 their fulfilment. 
 
 ' Never has his unprofitable servant named the 
 name of your majesty ; yet, albeit this has not 
 been permitted to him by the will of God, neverthe- 
 
Cll. V. POWER DEPENDENT ON MERCY. \G9 
 
 less it was towards thee that he had beckoned, it 
 was thy advent he had expected. Thus then at last 
 art thou come, O King ! as the servant of God — as 
 the servant of justice ; and thus blessed be thy 
 coming ! With good heart and glad face we accept 
 thee ! Thy approach rejoices all the servants of 
 Christ — all who love justice and holy living. For 
 they hope that God by thy hand will bring down the 
 proud, upraise the oppressed, restrain tiie vicious, 
 advance the virtuous, judge the wronged, renew the 
 old and enfeebled. Come then rejoicingly, confidently 
 and victoriously ! As He who conquers by the cross 
 has sent thee for our salvation. Yet hear, further, 
 Christian king ! my words, and take them to heart. 
 The servant of God who would, on the behalf of 
 God, the Holy Trinity, unfold this mystery, even he 
 exhorts and admonishes thee, his delegate, in the 
 name of all the heavenly kingdom, that, after his 
 example, thou everywhere exercise mercy. But 
 especially in his city of Florence, which, though it 
 have many sinners, yet numbers not a few servants of 
 God of both sexes, both temporal and spiritual. For 
 these shouldst thou spare the city, that they may 
 pray God for thee, to give a happy issue to thy 
 labours. On the behalf of God, even he, the un- 
 profitable servant, exhorts thee that thou with all 
 diligence protect and defend the innocent, the widows 
 and the orphans, all who need compassion, especially 
 the chastity of the virgins of the God-consecrated 
 cloister, that not through thy guilt sins should in- 
 crease, by which even thy heaven- conferred might 
 would be infallibly broken. Likewise, he exhorts 
 thee on behalf of God, readily to forgive all injuries, 
 whether received from the Florentine people or other- 
 wise, as done out of ignorance, because they wist 
 not that thou art sent of God. Think on thy Saviour, 
 who compassionately ou the cross forgave those who 
 
170 
 
 TRANSGRESSION AND PUNISHMENT. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 had crucified Him. I know, O king ! if thou observest 
 this, God will increase thy earthly kingdom, give to 
 thee everywhere triumph, and finally bestow on thee 
 his eternal kingdom — He who alone is, He who is 
 blessed and mighty, the King of kings, and Lord of 
 lords ! who alone has immortality, and dwells in 
 inaccessible light, whom no man has seen nor can 
 see, to whom be honour and dominion for all eternity : 
 Amen.' 
 
 Such was the style in which Savonarola conducted 
 a cause which was mainly entrusted to his wisdom 
 and eloquence. The French courtiers were extraor- 
 dinarily excited by the words and bearing of a man, 
 who appeared before them not as a politician only, but 
 as a priest and a prophet. Nor did they less admire 
 his courage when he proceeded to condemn the rob- 
 beries and massacres of which the French troops had 
 been guilty, and to threaten the conqueror with the 
 vengeance of Heaven if he did not restrain such ex- 
 cesses. The calamity thus denounced, was after- 
 wards interpreted to be the death of the Dauphin, 
 but perhaps Savonarola himself had no particular 
 event in view. Such is the superstition of the vulgar 
 mind, that every disaster which befel states or per- 
 sons threatened by him, was esteemed by his disciples 
 a verification of his words. Convinced himself of 
 the connection that subsists between transgression 
 and punishment, his glowing and rapt speeches trans- 
 mitted to tbe hearts of his auditors a vivid conviction 
 of impending vengeance. How the king was affected, 
 and whether the earnest voice by which he had been 
 admonished, left its echoes in his ears for after 
 times, cannot be concluded with exactness, beyond 
 the fact that Charles VIII. showed always afterwards 
 a partiality for Savonarola's person. In all other 
 respects the impression, if made at all, was momen- 
 tary — the words of the saint found no fitting soil in 
 
CH. V. 
 
 EXPULSION OF TIIi; M£URI. 
 
 171 
 
 the heart of the warrior. The more political object 
 of the embassy Savonarola left almost unattempted, 
 perhaps found it impracticable. 
 
 Meantime, Pietro returned to Florence, expecting 
 to reap the reward of his negociations — negociations, 
 by which the interest of his country had been either 
 ignorantly or treacherously sacrificed, by which Flo- 
 rence was to surrender several important forts as 
 hostages, together with Pisa and Livorno. Was it 
 likely that the magistracy of Florence would accede 
 to a compact so dishonourable ? No wonder Pietro 
 found all in fermentation, and was met with defiance. 
 This arrogant and ambitious man had now to endure 
 the bitterness of insult. The magistrates, among 
 whom was Jacopo Nerli, a noble and rich young 
 man, refused him admittance into the palace of the 
 Seignory. The common people took to arms, in all 
 directions, and anticipated the troops under Pagolo 
 Orsino, which, by Pietro's appointment, were on the 
 march to his assistance. The Cardinal Giovanni 
 de' Medici attempted to address the excited multi- 
 tude, but in vain. Moreover, the watchword of the 
 Medici, ' Palle ! Palle ' ! ' once potent to collect 
 thousands, now found no echo. On the cloister of 
 San Marco were two monks, the Cardinal's relations, 
 waiting for him with the keys ; but in the confusion 
 he missed the appointed door, and fled disguised as a 
 Franciscan into the Apennines. Pietro with his two 
 brothers, Giovanni and Giuliano, were also compelled 
 to flee, and sought refuge in Bologna. The palace 
 of the Medici, the residence of the Cardinal in the 
 suburbs of San Anton, and many houses of the 
 leaders of the Medici party, were given up to plun- 
 der. The invaluable treasures of art, which were 
 collected in the palace of Pietro, were scattered ; and 
 
 ' The palle d'oro, or golden balls, the arms of the family of 
 Medici. 
 
 Q 2 
 
172 
 
 CHARLKS VIII. AT PISA. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 even the Seignory took their part in the booty, a 
 great number of costly gems, rings, agate-vases, 
 beautiful cut cameos, above three thousand gold and 
 silver coins, and more than twenty thousand ducats 
 of money, which Pietro had placed in the City bank, 
 fell into their hands. Also the master works of art 
 in the garden of San Marco, a monument of the ruling 
 taste of Lorenzo and his father, were destroyed. 
 The fury and plundering propensities of the people 
 knew no bounds — the doors in the Medicean palace 
 were taken off and broken, that the robbers might 
 expedite their business. A certain Balsac, who had 
 arrived before the king in Florence, in order to pro- 
 vide for him sundry articles, mixed among the popu- 
 lace, and appropriated everything that he could get 
 possession of, among other things a golden unicorn, 
 which alone was worth from six to seven thousand 
 ducats. Lorenzo, and Giuliano de' Medici, the grand- 
 sons of the brother of Cosimo, returning from exile, to 
 secure their- popularity, took down from above the 
 marble portal the Medicean family arms, (which 
 were visible to the people of the whole city,) and set 
 up a white cross instead. They also named them- 
 selves anew Popolani, and no more Medici. This 
 happened on November 9, 1494. 
 
 On the next day, Savonarola returned to Florence, 
 and immediately exerted his utmost authority to set 
 bounds to the unreined passions of the people. To 
 him many of the friends and adherents of the Medici 
 owed their escape from the fate which had else be- 
 fallen them. 
 
 On the very day that the Medici were expelled 
 from Florence, and a dominion, which had been esta- 
 blished for sixty years, was destroyed in one hour, a 
 remarkable event took place at Pisa. When Charles 
 VIIL went to the mass, a great crowd of men and 
 women placed themselves in his way, exclaiming 
 
cn. V. 
 
 ins ENTRY INTO FLORENCE. 
 
 173 
 
 loudly against the tyranny of the Florentines under 
 which they had long suffered, and cried, ' Freedom ! 
 freedom ! ' The Maitre de Requetes, who was next 
 to the king, understood not the precise meaning of 
 the words, but said, ' Certainly it is a grievous busi- 
 ness, the people shall have their desire.' Where- 
 upon the king answered in like manner, that he 
 acquiesced in their demands. Instantly the air was 
 tilled with the joyful cry of the people ; who then 
 rushed to the bridge over the Arno, tore down the 
 golden Lion, an image of the majesty of Florence, 
 and set up instead the image of the king with the 
 lion at his feet. No doubt the Pisans had found 
 their subjection to Florence not compensated by the 
 protection afforded, and accordingly desired to make 
 separate conditions with the French, in the hope of 
 being afterwards enabled to throw off both yokes, and 
 achieve their independence. Whatever Charles VIII. 
 had promised through Pietro to the Florentines, who 
 would not easily be persuaded to relinquish a pos- 
 session so valuable, he would seem in this instance 
 to have shown an extraordinary forgetfulness of his 
 contracts — but that on the other hand he probably 
 felt himself very slightly bound by the word he had 
 given to the Pisans. Probably, he was totally in-- 
 different to the claims of either party, thinking only 
 of the manner in which he might advance his own. 
 He placed, in fact, both the parties hors de combat — 
 restraining the Florentine troops to their present 
 position, and giving up to the Pisans the old citadel 
 of the City — the new one, a very different affair, and 
 of much greater importance, he kept to himself. 
 
 On the 17th November Charles VIII. made his 
 solemn entry into Florence, attended with great 
 pomp, and a martial train : — himself fully armed, 
 gallantly mounted, and gorgeously overcanopied, the 
 reins of his steed being held by a gonfaloniere, whose 
 Q 3 
 
174 
 
 SAVON auola's conduct. 
 
 B. HI. 
 
 banner floated before the monarch as he rode. The 
 gates of San Friano were thrown down to do him 
 honour : the Seignory and the rest of the magistracy 
 met him ; and in this manner the triumphant and the 
 submissive proceeded together to offer up public 
 prayers at the Duomo. These done, he was con- 
 ducted to the palace of the Medici, where alighting, 
 he was for eight days sumptuously entertained. The 
 monarch thus entreated, and misconceiving the peo- 
 ple he was among, naturally misunderstood his posi- 
 tion. They welcomed him as a guest, he deported 
 himself as a conqueror. The pusillanimity of Pietro, 
 no less than his own conceit, induced him to this. 
 Accordingly he began to propose terms — oppressive 
 and insulting — and, among others, the restoration of 
 the Medici — the grant of enormous sums of money, 
 and, in short, the sovereignty of the city. The in- 
 dignation of the Florentine deputies hereon could not 
 be restrained — the arrogance of the French became 
 aggravated almost to violence. One of the deputies 
 named Capponi, grew especially angry, tearing up 
 the paper which contained these ill-considered and 
 mistaken demands — and exclaiming, ' Blow your 
 trumpets, and we will sound our bells ! ' The king 
 was enraged, and vowed to give up the city to 
 massacre. 
 
 Where now is Savonarola ? With his friends and 
 with his God. They and he have devoted them- 
 selves to prayer, that the calamities impending over 
 Florence may be averted. Thus having received 
 assurance of Divine interposition, they then proceed 
 to action. Savonarola presently undertook to soothe 
 the democratic spirits which had bean violently ex- 
 cited, exerting himself in every way to calm and 
 pacify the crowd. While he encouraged the better 
 sort to the maintenance of order, he likewise required 
 their charitable assistance for the sustenance of the 
 
CH. V. HAS AUDIENCE OF CHARLES VIII. 175 
 
 million. Famine and pestilence indeed were abroad. 
 The Piagnoni shared in the merit of alleviating the 
 general suffering. They were zealously indefatigable 
 in procuring food for the starving, shelter for the 
 sick, and graves for the dead. Savonarola urged his 
 brethren to fulfil the same duties, both by example 
 and precept, and was well seconded by the efforts of 
 the monks. Some had fled from their posts for fear 
 of the pestilence. To these Savonarola wrote a for- 
 cible appeal, awakening thereby their hearts and 
 consciences to a sense of duty. At length, he de- 
 mands an audience of Charles VIII. himself. 
 
 Unwilling to grant the required audience, Charles 
 VIII. though he refused at first, yielded to a second 
 application, and even rose to receive Savonarola 
 with reverence, while entering his presence-cham- 
 ber. And this reverence Savonarola receives with 
 dignity, as the ambassador of the King of kings 
 to an earthly monarch. Taking out a small brass 
 figure of Christ cracified, which he always carried 
 about him, Savonarola held it up before Charles 
 VIII., and after a pause, said solemnly — ' This is He 
 who has made heaven and earth ! Honour not me, 
 but honour Him, who as King of kings, and Lord 
 of lords, makes the universe tremble, and gives 
 victory to princes, according to his will and justice, 
 who punishes and overthrows wicked and unjust 
 kings, and will ruin thee with all thy army, if thou 
 desist not from thy cruelty, and set not aside the 
 project thou hast conceived against this city. For 
 there are in it manj' friends and servants of God, who 
 night and day make supplication to the throne of 
 God. Therefore this will happen unto thee, and 
 they will scatter and confound thy troops. Knowest 
 thou not that the Lord can conquer by many or by 
 few ? Dost thou not remember what He did to that 
 haughty Sennacherib king of Assyria ? Remember 
 
176 
 
 ADVISES HrS DEPARTURE. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 that when Moses prayed, Joshua and the people con- 
 quered their enemies. Thus will He do to thee, 
 who in thy presumption desirest what is not thine. 
 Let it sufBce thee to have the friendship of this peo- 
 ple. Relinquish thy wicked and cruel scheme against 
 the innocent and faithful.' 
 
 Much misunderstanding had existed touching the 
 maintenance of the troops. At length some agree- 
 ment was come to, but such was still the collision 
 between the soldiers and the people, and such the 
 lawless life of the former, that the departiu-e of the 
 French became exceedingly desirable. No one had 
 had the courage to tell the king of this, and thus it 
 was left for Savonarola to remonstrate -with the con- 
 queror on the uselessness of his remaining any longer 
 in Florence, reminding him how, under the happiest 
 auspices, he had entered the city, and how he was 
 appointed to far greater undertakings, which if he did 
 not prosecute, God would elect another and more 
 fitting agent. 
 
 ' The people,' said Savonarola, ' wonder much at 
 your protracted stay among them — and cannot with- 
 out peril continue longer in their present condition. 
 Moreover, if your majesty persist in spending your 
 time here in an unprofitable manner, you must per- 
 mit to your adviser a sharper style of reproof than 
 may be well pleasing to thee ; but in no other can 
 he give thee counsel tliat is good. God has called 
 thee to a great work — to the renewing of the Church 
 of Italy, as the servant of God has already declared 
 to your sacred majesty, and four years before your 
 majesty's arrival in Italy had continually and pub- 
 licly prophesied. But by such means perhaps your 
 majesty thinks it is unworthy of God to accomplish 
 such a work. Be it so ! God will then not be wanting 
 in another instrument to bring it to a happy consum- 
 mation ! ' 
 
CH. V. 
 
 PHILIPPE DE COMIXES. 
 
 177 
 
 Nor was Savonarola's counsel impolitic, nor un- 
 corroborated. D'Aubigny, the general captain of 
 the army, arrived, at this very time, at Florence, from 
 Romagna, with a proposition to the king, similar to 
 that of Savonarola, complaining that the king let so 
 many days, and such fine opportunities pass, that he 
 therebv put weapons into his enemies' hands. Two 
 days afterwards, on November 28, Charles VTII. 
 with his warlike array, left Florence for Naples. 
 
 Several of the events recorded in this chapter are 
 narrated bv the celebrated Philippe de Comines, who 
 was actively engaged in some of them. The histo- 
 rian had been sent into Italy previously to the inva- 
 sion of it by Charles VIII., to ascertain the state of 
 affairs. He then became acquainted with Savonarola, 
 of whom he expresses the warmest admiration, not 
 hesitating to describe him as a true prophet, and ex- 
 tolling his discernment as a statesman. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Savonarola's influence. 
 
 Reform of the monasteries — New monastic society — Savon- 
 arola's pastoral habits — The devotees of his eloquence — 
 Valori and Alberti — Legends regarding Savonarola — Speci- 
 mens of his maturer poetry — Practical and devotional works 
 — Epistolary correspondence — He collects the people to con- 
 sult on the form of government. 
 
 The character of Savonarola rises with his position. 
 He is now to Florence what Numa was to Rome, 
 Lycurgus to Sparta, Solon to Athens, and Moses to 
 the children of Israel. Charles VIII. has left Flo- 
 rence, and Savonarola is now the greatest man in it, 
 the spiritual and temporal ruler in one person — 
 nothing less than the very Pope of Florence. 
 
 This is no exaggerated description, but the simple 
 fact, and we must therefore be prepared for the rela- 
 tions it implies making peculiar demands on our 
 attention and regard. 
 
 The reformation which Savonarola had designed, 
 was such as a spirit full of faith, and a heart full of 
 love towards God and man, might determine in 
 ecstatic vision. Nothing less than the kingdom of 
 God upon earth would be the aim of Savonarola to 
 
CH. VI. 
 
 REFORM OF THE MONASTERIES. 
 
 179 
 
 establish. He began at the highest point — at that 
 where the political and the spiritual are one : he 
 proposed the projection of a theocracy — not that 
 pseudo one which had raised the Carnal Will into 
 supremacy at Rome, but that real and true theocracy 
 by which the heavenly Jerusalem shall be governed, 
 Avhen sun and moon shall be no longer needed, but 
 God himself shall be the light, and the Lamb himself 
 the temple, by which the soul shall be illuminated, 
 and in which it shall worship. 
 
 Already, long ago, he had initiated, both in specu- 
 lation and practice, the reform of the monasteries. 
 Savonarola was a monk, but a true monk — a monk 
 in the highest sense of the word — that is, a spirit 
 who had set himself apart till his last breath from the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil, and had consecrated 
 every function of his soul to the holiest uses, and 
 the highest aims. Having no sensual gratifications 
 to detain him, he was restless in the performance of 
 the spiritual task to which he was devoted, and 
 would not permit the world to slumber in ignorance 
 that day was upon the hill tops. His voice was as a 
 trumpet, that ever announced the earliest dawnstreak, 
 and summoned men to a recognition of the returning 
 glory. 
 
 The corruption of the monasteries first attracted 
 his indignant notice. It was the thing that lay 
 nearest to him. He was in them a monk in spirit 
 and in truth, and found them occupied by monks 
 only in name and profession. This, said he, ought 
 not to be, and it shall not be — and forthwith he set 
 about the removal of the evil. He began with his 
 own cloister, with an endeavour to cleanse it from all 
 secularity, and to restoi-e it to the standard simplicity 
 of the ancient institution. It was his purpose to quit 
 San Marco, as too beautiful and costly for the severer 
 rules that he desired to enforce — and to erect another 
 
180 
 
 NEW MONASTIC SOCIETY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 cloister at Carregi, near the villa of the Medici, of a 
 sterner character, where the regulations of the Do- 
 minican order might be strictly observed, and espe- 
 cially the vow of jjovertj'. He had indeed proceeded 
 bu far as tff collect considerable contributions, and it 
 is said, that all necessary means were prepared, v^hen 
 the plan was frustrated by the misapprehension of 
 the novices and younger members of San jMarco, who 
 seemed to have feared that such a change in their 
 habits might seriously affect their health. Such 
 objections as these, however, were suggested from 
 without ; and, in fact, Savonarola was impeded in 
 all his endeavours to procure for San Mari-o an 
 
 alliance with the Lombard congregation of the Domini- 
 es r> 
 
 can order, inasmuch as the superiors had long aban- 
 doned their old rule, and were hostile to its restoration. 
 He depended therefore on occasion, and was content 
 to bide his time, looking forward to a juncture, when 
 the different cloisters should be so reduced in the 
 number of their members, that they would be anxious 
 to seek the union which they now rejected. 
 
 To promote this design, Savonarola took not only 
 every expedient step in Florence, but dispatched two 
 brethren of his cloister to Rome, to solicit the papal 
 permission and confirmation of his plan. No sooner 
 was this application known, than it was opposed not 
 only by the superiors of the Lombard congregation, 
 but by almost all the political power of Italy. 
 Nevertheless, Savonarola succeeded. Alexander VL 
 had reasons for favourably considering it ; and on 
 May 22, 1493, the papal brief was granted, wherein 
 not only the separation from the general government 
 of the Dominicans, which Savonarola desired, was 
 conceded, but permission to receive into a new com- 
 munity all who were excluded from other cloisters. 
 
 Thus encouraged, a new society was founded. It 
 consisted at first of about twenty or twenty-five 
 
CII. VI. 
 
 PASTORAL CARES. 
 
 181 
 
 juvenile brethren, but was soon increased in number, 
 including several Tuscan cloisters of the same order ; 
 the old rule of which, in its primitive severity, was 
 observed in the new institution. The poss essions of 
 the cloisters also were restored or sold, {Eat ,the 
 brethren might serve God in real simple pov erty ,, 
 ^lany other regulations and ordinances in the same 
 spirit, and to the same purpose, were added. The 
 actual brethren of the order were required to devote 
 themselves excliisivery to the study of theology and 
 to preachnig,' anJlhoreover direct attention, accord- 
 ing to the various talents of individuals, some to the 
 Latin, Greek, Hebrew, iloresco, and Chaldaic tongues, 
 othe^ to" philosophy and jurisprudence; while the 
 lay-brethren might select some art or handicraft for 
 the profitable occupation of their time. Hence was 
 every individual in the condition to support himself 
 and a second brother of the order, who should ac- 
 company him on his spiritual missions, that they 
 might not become burthensome to others. Notwith- 
 standing the great austeritj required in the new com- 
 munity, the number of the members, among whom 
 were many even of the first families, so much in- 
 creased, that the accommodation of the cloister had to 
 be enlarged. San Marco was the chief place of assem- 
 bly and authority, and Savonarola, even so early as 
 the year 1494, was nominated the vicar-general of 
 the same ; the next in importance was at Fiesole. 
 
 Savonarola's cares were now divided between his 
 flocks abroad and at home. He was unremitting in 
 his endeavours to promote the welfare of those about 
 him. His greatest joy was to be associated with 
 them in some religious employment. Both while in 
 Lombardy and at San Marco, he would go frequently 
 with a party of monks and novices to some seques- 
 tered spot, where, after having recited a sacred ser- 
 vice, they passed the time till dinner, in conversing 
 
 R 
 
182 
 
 THE FAVOURED CITY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 about God ; after which, they assembled round Sa- 
 vonarola, while he explained a portion of Scripture. 
 Sometimes they walked on a little, then rested under 
 a shady tree, while he proposed sublime truths for 
 discussion, or questioned the novices upon their mean- 
 ing. At other times, they sang psalms, making a 
 circle and performing, like the Israelites of old, re- 
 ligious dances, while they chanted. Occasionally, 
 too, they would narrate certain examples of the 
 saints, from which Savonarola deduced the applicable 
 lessons. 
 
 A beautiful, almost ideal life, seems this which we 
 are now detailing, and such as in actual existence was 
 calculated to fascinate the young and imaginative. 
 Teachers and labourers in the vineyard of life, Savon- 
 arola and his disciples were united in the bands of 
 evangelic and fraternal affection. Some of them were 
 missionaries, to carry the words of truth beyond 
 Florence ; and Savonarola himself, by his letters and 
 spiritual epistles, made many friends at a distance to 
 the cause of God. But in Florence lived and beat 
 the heart, whose powerful pulses were felt in other 
 parts of Italy, even in Rome itself. 
 
 The city of Florence had by these and other 
 means become endeared to Savonarola as the beloved 
 scene of his ministrations ; why should he not, there- 
 fore, make this city of his affections the city of his 
 God ? He had won the hearts, and was zealous for 
 the salvation of the souls of all within it. Of the 
 cities of Italy, in Florence only had the Scriptures 
 been unsealed — to her only had the approaching 
 troubles been announced. The Spirit of God had 
 been felt there in many souls — the Bread of Life had 
 there been abundantly distributed. Through his in- 
 fluence, whatever was corrupt in the writers of Greece 
 and Rome had been banished from many schools, and 
 the various branches of literature, then comprehended 
 
ClI. VI. 
 
 VALOra AND ALBERTI. 
 
 183 
 
 under the term grammar, taught from the books of 
 the fathers. So habitual and general was it for the 
 Florentines to hear him, that shops were shut till 
 after the morning preaching, and the richer citizens 
 olten entertained twenty or thirty at a time, of those 
 who came from a distance. Even in the winter, the 
 Cliurch of San Marco was beset soon after midnight 
 by devotees, who waited until it was opened, then 
 ligliting their tapers, remained in silent prayer until 
 the mighty preacher appeared. Men who had found 
 his eloquence the effectual means of changing their own 
 minds, anxiously sought to bring others within his in- 
 fluence. An amusing instance of this is thus related. 
 
 The celebrated Valori, whose name has already 
 been introduced to the reader, and who was after- 
 wards the intimate friend of that true monk whose 
 story we are relating, persuaded with much difficulty 
 one Alberti, to accompany him on a visit to the prior 
 of San Marco. The door-keeper who carried their 
 message to his cell, said, ' Father, there are two men 
 who wish to speak with you ; one is j'our constant 
 hearer, the other is much opposed ; I pray your 
 reverence do all you can to convert him, for he is 
 my relation.' To which Savonarola replied, ' It is 
 the work of God, not ours ; nevertheless, if they wish 
 to speak with me, introduce them.' So the door- 
 keeper conducted them to the cell, and Savonarola 
 received them courteously, sat down with them, and 
 turning to Valori, said cheerfully, ' What good work 
 are you about, wherefore are you come ? ' Valori 
 replied, ' Father, our work is good, we have come to 
 your reverence to receive spiritual exhortation.' Upon 
 which the servant of God began in a most pleasing 
 way to talk of Divine things, and having spoken 
 some time, Valori addressed Alberti, ' If you wish 
 to say anything, now is your opportunity.' But he 
 was silent. That he might not be embarrassed, 
 R 2 
 
184 
 
 VISIONS. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 Savonarola immediately took up again the thread of his 
 discourse upon heavenly things. Shortly after Valori 
 fearing to intrude longer on him, again asked his 
 companion if he had anything to say ; Alberti was as 
 if dumb, and answered not a word, at which Valor", 
 half-ashamed, took leave of Savonarola, and received 
 his blessing. — Having left the convent, Valori began, 
 ' God forgive thee Pietro, what hast thou done to me 
 to-day ? thou hast half-bewildered me ; what is be- 
 come of thy great boldness by which thou wert to 
 have done such wonders ? hast thou lost thy speech V 
 Alberti answered with shame, ' Francesco, forgive me. 
 I was confused, I know not how ; as soon as the father 
 began to speak, my fear and agitation were such that 
 my tongue clave to the roof of my mouth, and my 
 lips were so closed that I could not have uttered a 
 syllable ; in truth, I confess that the voice and words 
 of that father have almost distracted me.' This in- 
 terview made a lasting beneficial impression on 
 Alberti, but its full effect did not appear till after the 
 death of Savonarola, when Alberti became a zealous 
 Christian. 
 
 All sorts of visions are related by others, as 
 having appeared to Savonarola and to themselves 
 concerning him, many absurd enough to carry their 
 own confutation ; but it is worth while to cite one or 
 two, as illustrating the spirit of the times. From 
 Ambrose to Luther, including both of them, super- 
 natural visitations and demoniacal agency have been 
 represented as visibly taking place with regard to 
 men, whose undisputed holiness of life exonerates 
 them from all wilful participation in any fraud. 
 Savonarola in one of his letters to the pope, of which 
 hereafter we shall have occasion to speak at large, 
 protested that he never pretended to have spoken 
 face to face with the Almighty. ' It is said that I 
 speak with God ; I have never affirmed this, or any 
 
ClI. V(. 
 
 LEGENDARY MAKVELS. 
 
 185 
 
 thing like it, as all Florence can testify ; but if I 
 had, I should have incurred no penalty : it is not 
 written in the canon or civil law, or in any book of 
 authority, that if one says he speaks with God, he 
 should be punished ; foolish indeed, and impious 
 would be such a decree, for who can impose laws on 
 God ? He can speak with whom He will, and com- 
 mand them to tell it, as the prophets did, ' Thus saith 
 the Lord.' 
 
 Pico di Mirandola, a man universally admitted to 
 have lived most piously, relates marvels of his friend 
 Savonarola, such as abound in the legends which 
 figurate the history of the Church of Rome ; and 
 they carry internal evidence of having arisen partly 
 from the heated imagination and metaphorical expres- 
 sions of their object, partly from the exaggerations 
 or fabrications of injudicious friends. For instance; 
 the devils being greatly annoyed at some measures, 
 attempted by the prior for the reformation of his con- 
 vent, began to molest and terrify all of his party ; 
 but finding their victims more assisted by the prayers 
 of the good father than injured by their attacks, they 
 directed all their malice towards him. When he 
 went his wonted rounds to visit the inmates of each 
 cell, and strengthen them by mutual prayer, psalm 
 singing, and sprinkling of holy water, evil spirits 
 congregated around him, so as to darken the air and 
 impede his progress, audibly threatening him in these 
 words, ' What loads of misery dost thou bring on thy- 
 self! we will excite against thee so many great and 
 dreadful things, that thou wilt not be able to sustain 
 thyself against them.' To which he cheerfully re- 
 plied, ' they might do what they would, he feared none 
 of them, for his help was in the Lord, who made 
 heaven and earth.' The devils, however, seem to 
 have been somewhat afraid of him, for when disturbed 
 by his presence, they could not bring themselves to 
 R 3 
 
18G 
 
 THE LOVE OF JESUS . 
 
 A HYMN. 
 
 S. III. 
 
 pronounce his name accurately, but either shortened 
 or transposed it, or vented their spite by muttering 
 nick-names. Some of his disciples fancied they saw 
 the Virgin blessing him, his brows encircled by the 
 crown of martyrdom, and blood flowing from his side. 
 One of them affirms, that more than once, a Dove, 
 the symbol of the Holy Ghost, its wings sparkling 
 with gold and silver, was seen to alight, and rest on 
 his shoulder, whispering gently with its beak in his 
 ear. 
 
 Savonarola's descriptions of his visions and reve- 
 lations are exceedingly vague, and are mostly due to 
 a poetic imagination, highly spiritualized and coloured 
 by its devotion to religious topics. Notwithstanding 
 the business of life had now come upon him so ur- 
 gently, he still continued indeed the practice of poet- 
 ical composition. The following is a favourable 
 specimen of his maturer pieces : — 
 
 Htmn.— OF THE LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 Now, when in pity to iny weary clays. 
 
 My gentle guardian his sweet harp displays, 
 
 Mc from the billows to heaven's gate he brings ; 
 
 From the resounding, yea, the bm'ning strings 
 
 Fall strains of wisdom on my softened heart, 
 
 Which bid the welcome tear full oft to start. 
 
 Alas ! such tears mine eyelids may not steep, 
 
 As fall from those « hom love has taught to weep. 
 
 Never did swift and thirsty stag so bound. 
 
 To reach the spring, as my heart at that sound. 
 
 That hard lieart from which blunted fell the sword, 
 
 But a sharp arrow left the glittering chord, 
 
 Which the obdurate adamant must pierce. 
 
 Thou fount of living waters ! who the fierce 
 
 And angry Nero might'st to mercy move, 
 
 Oh, never can a heart so evil prove. 
 
 As not to yield to thy prevailing dart. 
 
 Thy still small voice, the peace thy words impart. 
 
 My soul, what dost thou ! while each sevei'al tone 
 
 Within my breast waki's echo of its own — 
 
CD. VI. 
 
 MYSTICAL TENDENCY. 
 
 187 
 
 Cheering iny pathway, ever urging on, 
 Recalling yet the time already gone. 
 Oh ! how accordant to my heart's desii'e 
 Tlio harmony those soothing words inspire, 
 ' He raised from earth her pallid Howers, 
 To wreathe them in liis heavenly bowers.' 
 Oh ! happy sin ! say, what hast thou to plead 
 That such a Saviour is thy happy meed ? 
 Come, all ye weary with the soul's unrest, 
 Come from the Indian shores and farthest West ; 
 Needs not the warrior's or the monarch's fame, 
 The fine gold of tliis endless store to claim. 
 Ye who have nothing, to this treasure haste, 
 And lift your heads celestial streams to taste. 
 My refuge certain, now 1 know no fear. 
 My glad heart glows, my fetters disappear. 
 Gazing on yonder sign, yon cruel mark, 
 Alas ! iusensate world, that from thy dark 
 And mournful valley could'st such love efface. 
 Nor of his bitter groans retain one trace. 
 Oh ! had he granted but the lowest seat, 
 Contented, I had crouched beneath his feet. 
 Were my unworthy name the last enrolled, 
 'Mong all the dreadful book shall once unfold — 
 My soul too firm and vigoi'ous to complain. 
 Had calmly borne the bui'then and the chain. 
 But now, mine eyes with grateful tears o'erilow, 
 To thee, blest Jesus ! every thing I owe. 
 Since from my mother's breast 1 went astray. 
 And from the ci-adle shunn'd thy holy way ; 
 Now didst thou nut attune the broken lyre, 
 No harmonies my dull heart could inspire. 
 The lawless current in its rapid course, 
 Had swept o'er all with desolating force. 
 Till eager wishes and rash frenzy sank. 
 Exhausted, leaving but a dreary blank. 
 By thee my heart sings to my gracious Lord ; 
 Let me, I pray thee, often hear thy word. 
 In still communion animate my breast, ~| 
 Guide me, O Lord ! wherever is impressed I> 
 The peaceful image of tliy kingdom's rest. J 
 
 The same strain, approaching to mysticism, prevails 
 in all his practical and devotional works. Of himself 
 Savonarola always speaks most humbly, often begging 
 
188 
 
 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 the prayers of his brethren, that he may be kept from 
 sin, while he urges them to aim at the greatest heights 
 of spirituality, thus realizing the union of the humanity 
 with the Godhead, which he avers ' has been the most 
 efficacious remedy to restore happiness to man, and 
 which, as it consists in the vision of the Divine essence, 
 might have appeared impossible from the Divine sub- 
 limity and the meanness of our intellect, had not God 
 been pleased to unite the human nature to the Divine 
 in one person, which is more wonderful than the union 
 of the souls of the blessed to the Divine soul in that 
 person, so that men have hope of being able to arrive 
 at that glory : hence we see, that since this incarnation 
 men begin to arise again, and aspire to the former 
 blessedness.' 
 
 From a Treatise on the Love of Christ. 
 
 ' When the kind and loving Jesus influences a 
 soul which really loves and seeks Him, He opens the 
 intellect to so much light, and warms the affections, 
 and excites so much delight in his benignity and 
 presence, that He raises it above itself, and softens it 
 to such emotion, that the abundant sweetness descends 
 from the superior part to the body, which melts into 
 tears. And He awakens so great a longing for eter- 
 nal things, that it sojourns on earth as if separated 
 from the body, and absorbed in spirit. It is true, 
 this is the privilege of few. This we see every day 
 in religion, that when any one begins to enjoy the 
 Holy Spirit, he is glad to be alone, and immediately 
 separates himself from other comforts and corporeal 
 recreations, which would not be, if he did not feel 
 within his heart greater consolations than those he 
 refuses. But what is this spiritual comfort — repose 
 of mind, peace, sweetness, gentleness, joy, exultation, 
 triumph, love, ardent desire, celestial intoxication, 
 almost eternal felicity, or whatever else it may be 
 
CH. VI. 
 
 A SPIRITUAL EPISTLE. 
 
 189 
 
 called ? I do not think it can be explained or un- 
 derstood, but by experience ; let it suffice at present 
 that we have proved this consolation which proceeds 
 from the love of Jesus, whatever it is, to be beyond 
 comparison greater than all worldly pleasures.' 
 
 • When the soul feels warmed by this tender love, 
 enjoying a spark of heavenly things, it should be 
 ever watchful over itself, that as far as is permitted 
 by its frailty, it may not offend the eyes of the mer- 
 ciful Jesus who has given it such a treasure, reflecting 
 how great would be the ingratitude of separating 
 from Him by its own negligence, and being so much 
 the more careful in proportion as it has tasted his 
 sweetness, and experienced its own infirmity.' Heb. 
 iv. 4—6. 
 
 ' Soul, what dost thou ? heart, what thinkest thou ? 
 tongue, why hast thou become mute ? Where are my 
 elevated conceptions, where my delightful contempla- 
 tions, where my words ? I am lost, I have wandered, 
 I have totally failed : I would declare, and have not 
 strength ; I would speak, and have no voice ; I 
 would express my ideas, but my mind obeys me not. 
 Oh 1 ungrateful heart ! Oh 1 disobedient mind ! why 
 dost thou not fulfil my wish ? Open thine eyes, 
 and look what a sad image is this day placed before 
 thee. What heart is not afraid, what mind is not 
 confounded, what cruel man becomes not pitiful, 
 what eye can refrain from tears? Oh pity ! Oh charity i 
 Oh infinite love ! I have grievously sinned, and 
 thou Jesus wert stricken, I have been thine enemy, 
 and thou Jesus for love of me wert nailed to the 
 cross.' 
 
 One of the Spiritual Epistles. 
 ' Brethren, beloved in Christ, grace be with you, 
 
190 
 
 CHRIST OUR CAPTAIN. 
 
 B. HI. 
 
 and peace from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Although I have not saluted you by letter for a long 
 while, this does not arise from my having forgotten 
 you, for I continually remember j'ou in my prayers ; 
 but it arises from the tumult of these times, in which 
 we have so many occupations, that we cannot stop 
 to write consolatory letters, nevertheless your entrea- 
 ties and desire have induced me to steal a little time. 
 My brethren, as in natural things, whatever moves 
 sets out from that which is fixed, and all animals 
 who would go forward, at every step plant the foot ; 
 so in spiritual life we must fix our hearts on the love 
 of Jesus Christ before everything, if we would proceed 
 regularlv in good works. We must believe that the 
 source of a good life is the love of God and the love 
 of our neighbour, and belie\-ing this, seek to obtain 
 and exercise it. .\nd because the righteous man 
 through the help of God may exercise it in every 
 place and at all times ; although sometimes he might 
 more willingly remain in one place than in another, 
 nevertheless, when he understands it to be the will 
 of God, that he should remain where he is placed in 
 order to obe}-, he does not murmur, but lives cheer- 
 fully, knowing that in all places there is Jesus Christ 
 his God, whom he may serve and please, and in 
 whom he may delight wherever he finds himself. 
 We must not only believe, but frequently reflect that 
 the goodness of God and his providence extends to 
 all things, even the least ; and that everything which 
 is done upon earth, except sin, is done by God. 
 Since the life of man is a warfare upon eanh, we 
 must think Christ is like a captain, who orders his 
 soldiers to difierent posts. To be good soldiers, and 
 do what belongs to our part, so that the conflict may be 
 carried on in an orderly manner, we must be obedient 
 to the captain, and fight wherever he places us, 
 especially when our chief is one who cannot err. If 
 
CH. VI. CHARITY THE GREATEST. lf)l 
 
 the soldiers do not comply with the regulations of 
 their leader, choosing to do everything after their 
 own fashion, they endanger their own persons as 
 well as the whole army. We ought then always in 
 the spiritual life to think of exercising charity in 
 such manner, and in such place as God wills, who 
 orders everything well, and has made various con- 
 ditions among men, ordained different merits and 
 different crowns. Yet many deceive themselves in 
 this conflict, who fancy that a good life consists in 
 perpetual prayer, or abstinence, or study of the Scrip- 
 tures, or other similar good works, and being intent 
 upon one of these only, not exerting themselves in 
 every place and every time, such persons must have 
 particular respect to certain times and places, so when 
 they are hindered in these exercises they fall into 
 impatience and vexation of mind. They are not 
 content in the places appointed for them by God, 
 they wish to rule their captain, not to be ruled by 
 him. And so they perplex themselves, and often 
 also their companions ; whereas, if they thought that 
 a good life is exercising charity in whatever manner 
 and time God wills, and believed that all which is 
 done, said, or commanded to them, comes from God, 
 intending to serve Him with their whole heart, they 
 would not care about places or persons, or any par- 
 ticular acts, but would simply exercise charity accord- 
 ing as it was ordained by God through his instruments, 
 to which they are subjected, and they would live 
 cheerfully, remembering the shortness of the present 
 life and the eternity of the future. Oh my brethren ! 
 we have to thank God greatly who permits that, while 
 we remain in this life, we gain a reward by exercising 
 charity in every time, in every place, and in every con- 
 dition. Therefore let not him who is .sick grieve, 
 because our leader Christ has placed him there to 
 war and to exercise charity with patience. If thou 
 
192 ALL STATES ALIKE TO THE CHRISTIAN. B. Ill, 
 
 who art diseased wouldest say, I wish to be well, 
 that I may do much good, and not trouble others : 
 foolish ! God has assigned thee this post to carry on 
 the spiritual conflict, why wilt thou be wiser than 
 He who put thee there to purify thee, and crown 
 thy patience ? Attend to thy recovery by the art of 
 medicine, that thou mayest not tempt God, and be 
 content with what He may do with thee. For in this 
 case thou dost not trouble others, but thou art an 
 occasion of merit to them, for they also ought to 
 think that they are placed there, and in that army, 
 by the Captain who cannot err, that by exercising 
 charity they may deserve eternal life. St. John 
 Chrysostom well says, ' no one is hurt except by 
 himself,' because charity, which is our only treasure, 
 as we have said, is not lost without sin, and sin is 
 not sinful if it is not voluntary, and therefore none 
 can be really hurt but by his own will ; no one then 
 can complain of any but himself. I have made this" 
 discourse, beloved, that you may reflect that the 
 kingdom of heaven is everywhere, and we need not 
 go more to one city than another to obtain it, as 
 those do who wish to acquire sciences, who go where 
 learning is common. It may happen that greater 
 comfort in doctrine or in exterior worship is found 
 in one situation than in another ; nevertheless, who- 
 ever has given his whole heart to God is comforted by 
 Him, even in deserts and in solitude, as we read of 
 innumerable holy fathers ; for the good Christian car- 
 ries his consolation everywhere, and may say with 
 that philosopher, ' all that is mine I carry with me.' 
 
 ' Would you see how one place or state is not more 
 advantageous than another to the careless man ? 
 Judas the disciple of Christ was wicked, the school 
 of Christ availed him not. Nicolai, one of the seven 
 deacons, fell in the Primitive Apostolic Church, and 
 numberless others perished in the houses of the 
 
ClI. VI. 
 
 CORnTiSPONDENCE. 
 
 193 
 
 saints. Similarly, in the Old Testament, it profited 
 not Islimael to be the son of Abraham, nor Esau to 
 be the son of Isaac, nor many others to be of the 
 race or school of the patriarchs, or of the prophets. 
 We must not then place our affections on situation 
 or circumstances, but believe that a good life, as 
 aforesaid, is to exercise charity in every place and 
 every way which our Saviour wills. And this also I 
 add for some who, when they have a great tempta- 
 tion, are disquieted, and say I would rather have any 
 temptation than this, not understanding that no one 
 can overcome temptatioiT without the grace of God, 
 and the grace of God is mighty to enable them to 
 overcome every temptation. These like to fight in 
 their own way, and against such enemies as they 
 choose : they should reflect there is no temptation 
 over which holy men have not triumphed, and under 
 which the negligent have not fallen into sin. There- 
 fore, perhaps, thou wouldest have been vanquished 
 by the very temptation for which thou wouldest ex- 
 change the one which so vexes thee. Many have 
 been victorious in great temptations, and ruined by 
 little ones. Pray to God for us, and we likewise 
 will pray for you to fulfil the commandment of the 
 Apostle St. James. James iii. 16.' 
 
 The letters of Savonarola are in a quieter strain 
 than his sermons. He writes thus to his young 
 disciples. ' Above all things love God — with all your 
 heart; seek his honour more than the salvation of 
 your own souls ; strive diligently to purify your 
 mind by frequent confession ; raise your affections 
 above earthly things ; communicate frequently and 
 devoutly ; never consider yourself better than any 
 one, however sinful, but rather worse ; do not think 
 ill of any one, but always well ; be often silent ; do 
 not delight in company or feasts, be as much alone 
 as your station will permit. Let murmuring, de- 
 
 s 
 
194 
 
 HEARTS NOT BOOKS. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 tracting, slanderous, deceitful, idle words be far from 
 your ears, and still further from your tongue ; pray 
 often, meditate every hour, endeavour to unite the 
 whole family in true peace, show no haughtiness in 
 word or action. You must not be too familiar with 
 those beneath you, but rather adopt a courteous 
 gravity with them ; ever pray for perseverance, being 
 always fearful, and having God always before your 
 eyes ; renew your good resolutions every day, and 
 confirm yourself in well-doing ; despair not for any 
 sin. Pray to God for me constantly, that He may 
 make me do what I teach.' • 
 
 Advice for Profitable Reading. 
 
 ' You should reflect that the holy Gospel, which 
 contains all the perfection of spiritual life, was not 
 written on tables of stone, or of any other material ; 
 nor in books or papers ; but in human hearts by the 
 finger and power of the Holy Spirit — therefore the 
 Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, ' Ye are our 
 epistle — not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living 
 God, not on tables of stone, but in the fleshly (that 
 is soft, and flexible) tables of your heart. The books 
 of Christ, then, were the Apostles and other saints, 
 written with the finger of the Holy Spirit. But 
 because our Saviour knew that men would lose the 
 Spirit by their sins, and that their wickedness would 
 increase, in order that the holy doctrine written in 
 the hearts of the Apostles should not fail, might be 
 extended to the absent, and preserved for those who 
 should come after, and that bad men might not cor- 
 rupt it. He willed that the Gospel should be also 
 written in books. It is necessary for him who would 
 profit by s piritua l i's^^ j"g > and penetrate the sacrQd 
 Scriptures, above all thliigs to cleanse the heart well, 
 not only from every mortal sin, but also from all 
 self-love, and to read not only that he may teach, 
 
ClI. VI. 
 
 RESTORATION OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 195 
 
 but in the^first place to learn for himself how to live 
 welt^ ^nd whenever he begins to read, he should 
 firsT pray that God would enlighten him in the way 
 of Ttiatli^ and theh read diligently, not earelessljj but 
 considermg anrt'Teniemberlng the sentences, and re- 
 ferring ever to his own conscience, as a woman adorn- 
 ing herself, who goes not to the mirror to see the 
 things around it, or to see all which the mirror sliows, 
 but to see her face, and her head, if there should be 
 anytliing unsuitable. Thus should the soul go to 
 the perusal of the Holy Scriptures to see the face of 
 conscience and the head of reason, and to observe 
 whether in reason or conscience there is anything 
 wrong, or any spot ; to purify itself that it may be 
 lovely in the eyes of the eternal Bridegroom.' 
 
 He continues on the same subject. 
 
 ' One of the saints asked a monk to teach him a 
 psalm. He began with that, ' I said, I will take heed 
 to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue.' 
 Having learnt the first verse, he asked to have it 
 explained, and having heard the explanation, said he 
 would not learn any more till he had done what this 
 first verse commanded, and would afterwards learn the 
 rest. He did not return for several y-^ars, and the 
 monk meeting him, asked why he did not learn the 
 rest of the psalm ; he replied, he had not yet done 
 what was contained in the first verse.' 
 
 Such then had been the teaching of Savonarola — 
 such the example. What influence naturally belongs 
 to such virtue and talent as they display, was now to 
 be exhibited by him practically, and in the most im- 
 portant relations. Both the tranquillity and the 
 liberty of the Republic had to be restored and esta- 
 blished. True, it had been freed from the tyranny 
 of a family, which had held the inhabitants so 
 long in subjection — but it was necessary now to sup- 
 s 2 
 
196 
 
 PROVISIONAL PARLIAMENT, 
 
 B. III. 
 
 ply its absence, by increasing the executive powers 
 of the State. Soon after the retreat of Charles VII 1. 
 Savonarola collected the people (with the exception 
 of the women) in the Duomo, and in the presence of 
 the Signory, the magistrates, and others in authority, 
 there assembled in a provisional parliament, spake 
 solemnly and impressively concerning their political 
 interests, and the means of securing order and justice. 
 He declared then and there his preference for the 
 Popular Form of Government, and his conviction that 
 the most respectable citizens of Horence were mainly 
 in its favour, insisting, however, as the condition of its 
 durability, on the necessity to all men of godly fear, 
 a Christian walk, and that patriotism which subordi- 
 nates private interests to the general good, and the 
 geiferal peace of the citizens among one another. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SAVONAROLA A LEGISLATOR. 
 
 Theocracy — Democracy — Aristoci'acy — Soderini — Vespucci 
 — Savouarola's political views — Fra Doinenico da Ponzo. — 
 Ecclesiastical Reform — Education. — Democratic move- 
 ments — Committee of eighty. 
 
 There was ever a bias in the mind of Savonarola to 
 the spiritual aspects of whatever subject he discussed. 
 As all along in the ecclesiastical reforms, so now in 
 the political regeneration, the same poetic tendency 
 led him almost exclusively to the one s'de. It has 
 accordingly been objected to the results of the revo- 
 lution in Florence, that they are resolvable into a 
 mere political experiment. They came at first to an 
 agreement to choose twenty Accopiatori, to whom 
 they entrusted the choice of official persons, but were 
 soon compelled to consent to a more democratic 
 course, subject to yet further changes. Thus the 
 organic arrangement of the constitution was de- 
 ferred, and the bare principles only were announced. 
 Some have even said that upon the former almost 
 everything depended, and that in declaring the 
 latter so contentedly, the peculiar mobility of the 
 people was not taken into account. Savonarola, 
 s 3 
 
198 
 
 NEW ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 it appears, imagined that he saw in the popular 
 constitution proposed the best possible defence 
 against tyranny, and that, if it could be organ- 
 ized, it would offer peculiar facilities for spreading 
 the spiritual seed in the hearts of the people. Many, 
 however, were, not without cause, of opinion that the 
 prophetic father in his plans of State-Reform had 
 more in his mind the abstractions of a Christian 
 philosophy, than the activities of a worldly life. 
 As we have said, it was a Theocracy which he had 
 contemplated — which, in the idea, every democracy 
 must in fact be, that at all promises stability. 
 
 Savonarola's whole conduct, and his repeated de- 
 clarations, leave us in no doubt on the subject. 
 First of all, he had already before this, immediately 
 after the expulsion of the Medici, thrown out in his 
 sermons several hints on the new organization of the 
 State as he pictured it to himself ; in November, 
 1494, he was permitted to preach a sermon before the 
 Signory, the other persons of the magistracy, and the 
 people, but with the exclusion of women and child- 
 ren. After h3 had stated separately, in an in- 
 troductory exposition, the opinions of philosophers 
 and theologians on the best constitution of a State, 
 and decided which, according to his view, was the 
 naturally suitable constitution for Florence, he de- 
 veloped in the following exposition the ground-work 
 of this constitution. At the head of all he placed 
 the fear of God, and the Christian life and iiction 
 thence arising, with the improvement of manners. 
 The second principle was, that each should prefer the 
 public welfare to private advantage. The third, a 
 general amnesty, namely for the friends and adherents 
 of the previous form of government, with the single 
 reservation that the debtors of the State should be 
 bound to the restitution demanded from them ; but 
 yet that the collection of such public moneys should 
 
CII. VII. 
 
 THE LIBEUAI. I'AllTY. 
 
 199 
 
 be made with all gentleness and discretion, and more- 
 over that no legal procedure should be adopted against 
 the debtors. Fourthly, a universal form of govern- 
 ment (forma di governo universale) should be intro- 
 duced, so that all citizens who were competent ac- 
 cording to the old laws of the State (therefore not 
 the dregs of the people) should have a share in it. 
 This jreneral council should choose the magistrates in 
 the city and the Florentine territory, and confirm the 
 laws and regulations which were before deliberated 
 on and received in the more select committee of the 
 government. Savonarola was so convinced of the 
 universal suitableness of this constitution, that he 
 ensased that God himself would turn the hearts of 
 its opponents. After many deliberations and debates, 
 it came into life as far as its principal features were 
 concerned, and the general council was constituted. 
 The chief opposition was directed against the amnesty, 
 a measure which not only showed the humane dis- 
 position of the man in the clearest light, but which 
 was moreover one of the most important means of 
 success. But undeniably the religious character 
 which he laboured to impress on the whole, was still 
 more hateful to his personal adversaries than the 
 (considerably modified) sovereignty of tue people. 
 
 Common minds could more readily apprehend the 
 aims and interests of the two parties, the liberal and 
 the legitimates, who fought in the arena on which he 
 looked down with the impartial eye of a superior 
 power. Pagol' Antonio Soderini, the representative 
 of the former opinion, unfolded the principles of his 
 party in the following manner. The love of free- 
 dom, he contended, was as it were innate in the 
 people of Florence ; and the relation of the citizens 
 to one another based on an equality which is a neces- 
 sary presupposition in democracies. Such a govern- 
 ment accordingly was in his estimation unquestionably 
 
200 
 
 GENEUAL AND SELECT COUNCILS. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 fitter for that people than any other. Experience 
 has justified the opinion of Soderini, inasmuch as 
 this form of power has really existed in Florence, 
 ever since the State began to rule in the name of the 
 people. The constitution, whose introduction had 
 been attempted, not without special regard to the 
 older one of Florence, was according to the view of 
 this party more in name than in reality a democracy, 
 they wished therefore a more perfect form, by which 
 the interests of the people would be better guarded, 
 but at the same time a well-ordered and regulated 
 one. The two following might be regarded as the 
 principles of such a democracy. First, that a general 
 Council should be instituted, consisting of all those 
 who according to the Florentine laws are competent 
 to take part in the government ; by whom all laws 
 should be deliberated on beforehand, all offices of State 
 be filled by a majority of voices, that no one might 
 be excluded by passion or foreign arbitrary will from 
 that for which his talent and liis civil activity fitted 
 him. Hence every one who W'ould attain a place of 
 honour must labour to make himself worthy of it by 
 real services to the State. But the second, and 
 equally necessary principle was, that all affairs of the 
 administration, the examination of the laws, the con- 
 sulting on war and peace, &c., should be managed 
 by officials specially appointed for the purjjose. 
 There would consequently be formed from out of the 
 general council a more select Committee (consiglio 
 scelto) of men of experience and capability, in each 
 department of the administration. Nothing of that 
 sort could be generally required from the mass of the 
 people, ncr could tlie most important matters other- 
 wise be dispatched with the needful energy and 
 celerity. But with these two ground-pillars the 
 freedom of the State was to be secured. There 
 might indeed yet remain behind much that related to 
 
CII. VII. 
 
 THE LEGITIMATE I'AKTY. 
 
 201 
 
 the developement and perfecting of single particulars, 
 but this also would be effected in time by the organic 
 strength of that constitution ; and it would be in the 
 highest degree unwise, in a moment when the citi- 
 zens, scarcely escaped from tyranny, were naturally 
 full of distrust, to wish to take up all, since they 
 could not be superintended at once. Besides, they 
 had before them the living example of the Venetian 
 constitution ; for even this was in a certain sense a 
 democracy, since even the aristoci-atic element of it 
 was a purely civil one, and deserved to be imitated 
 by Florence in many parts, the rather as peace, 
 unity, prosperity, and power had undeniably shown 
 themselves there as the noble fruits of such a consti- 
 tution. A retrospect of the former revolutions of the 
 Florentine State would give the same result ; for from 
 time immemorial had it wavered between popular li- 
 centiousness and individual usurpation, whence arose 
 constant discord, discontent, bloody scenes, and lastly 
 tyranny. A government which should lean to aris- 
 tocracy in Florence would always of necessity be a go- 
 vernment of several tyrants. Unquestionably then 
 that of an individual would be much better, which 
 neither possesses the combined strength nor the com- 
 mon will to injure that belongs to an oligarchy. But 
 now the moment was just come, when the Florentine 
 people might decide ; nay, it were inexcusable to let 
 slip such an opportunity as perhaps would not recur for 
 centuries ; or, instead of choosing the better lot, to 
 give the State again a prey to fluctuating agitation. 
 
 The second opinion was represented by Guid' 
 Antonio Vespucci, a famous lawyer, a man of as great 
 talents as undeniable activity. He declared himself 
 in the following manner. History and experience 
 w^itness alike against the sanguine hopes which men 
 indulge from a democracy ; never is a ripe and true 
 judgment to be expected from the collective mass 
 
202 
 
 UATIONALE OF OLD STATES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 of the people, much rather are the highest concern!? 
 every way endangered iu their hands. Where men 
 count votes instead of iveighing them, it remains 
 always at the disposal of chance whether anything 
 good results. But in any case true grounds of pre- 
 ference are scarcely perceived, much less valued, by 
 the multitude ; on the contrary, the greatest influence 
 is given to passion and private interest. The people 
 under such a constitution will by no means content 
 themselves with the honourable fruits of freedom, 
 but each seeks to supplant the other, especially in 
 Florence, where it had never been the custom to 
 yield to the one who had better discernment and 
 greater merit. It is natural for men to go from one 
 extreme to another, and truly democracy is just such 
 an extreme, which soon grows to the worst tyranny 
 of all, because they here know neither measure nor 
 bounds. The constitution of Venice was already firmly 
 rooted in the people by long age, and at all events 
 a third element also there came into consideration, 
 namely, the perpetual office of Doge, not to men- 
 tion that the weightiest matters there were entrusted 
 rather to the power of a few individuals than to that 
 of many. But the State of Florence had a past l\is- 
 tory likewise, and did not grow up then for the first 
 time from the earth ; therefore, as it were foolish to 
 think that the medicines which take effect with a 
 clear body, would also show their strength with one 
 that is filled with much morbid matter, even so is it 
 an unfounded supposition and deceitful hope to be- 
 lieve, that in a State where there are accumulated 
 materials for disorder within, its powers will help 
 themselves by their fundamental organic symmetry. 
 Much rather is it to be feared, that what from the 
 beginning was set up in an imperfect elevation, will 
 with time become a fearful occasion for new disorders. 
 Rome and Athens show what a democracy can do : 
 
CH. VII. 
 
 STATE OF PARTIES. 
 
 203 
 
 short would the life of those Republics have been, 
 had not constant wars occupied them ; and as to the 
 latter, let it be known that its fall and its servitude 
 had their foundation in its democracy. Besides, in 
 that constitution which had been already approved of 
 in the general assembly of the people, no arbitr.iri- 
 ness was possible, since the persons who constitute 
 the government would be chosen not by few but by 
 many, and moreover by lot. The weakness itself of 
 the present Italian body politic, one would think, 
 must make it desirable to entrust the management of 
 the highest concerns to experienced physicians, and 
 not to new practitioners. 
 
 Undoubtedly, according to the position of things 
 at the time, not Soderini's, but Vespucci's opinion 
 would have gained the upper hand, had not Savon- 
 arola, who had already often defended the interests 
 of his country, and certainly from pure love of the 
 people, enlisted himself with his whole authority and 
 popular influence on the former side. If a dehi&ion 
 prevailed here, it was the same that blinded Soderini, 
 namely, that a well-organized democracy seemed just 
 the fit government for Florence. Savonarola, who 
 moreover did not mistake the meaning of monarchy, 
 often makes this avowal in his sermons, and his 
 knowledge of the character of the people, as well as 
 of all the conditions of things in Florence, entitles it 
 to consideration. 
 
 Some of the Medici, though the foremost chiefs had 
 been banished, yet remained as a partj' ; and, though 
 not seeking vulgar popularitj% yet spared no pains 
 that might raise them to the abandoned seat of power. 
 The next party had likewise a dependance on the 
 first, who, though their prospects were not cheering, 
 was not much diminished in numbers, nor without 
 liopes, and plans of operation. But the more influen- 
 tial party at present was composed of the older 
 
204 
 
 Savonarola's political views. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 respectable families and the people, including the 
 Signory. Francesco Valori and Pagol' Antonio 
 Soderini were the political heads of this party, Savon- 
 arola its informing soul. For its prosperity, it was 
 indebted to his continuous admonitions and media- 
 torial endeavours, by which also the last catastrophe 
 since the banishment of the Medici was carried off 
 without bloodshedding or other misfortune. Nothing 
 served more to strengthen Savonarola's influence 
 than the manner in which he had conducted the 
 business with the French invader. The popular 
 government he sought to establish now became the 
 subject of his discourses, in which he still continued 
 to insist on the duties wliich he required as the con- 
 ditions of enduring order and liberty. At length the 
 Signory desired him to reduce his views to writing, 
 and we are thus enabled to consider their principal 
 points more at large and in detail. 
 
 ' The need of help which men experience makes 
 the social life necessary to them, because only by 
 reciprocal assistance they form a perfect whole. In 
 order, however, to enjoy in this community, including 
 as it must many even base members, the necessary 
 rest and security, laws are needed, to control the 
 self-willed efforts of individuals. These, accord- 
 ingly, first appoint a head, a superior of the com- 
 munity, who watches over the common weal ; for 
 without him the community could not subsist. This 
 head of the community may be One who presides 
 as ruler over the whole ; — a Monarchy. But the 
 community may also insist on its being Several 
 — and may appoint the better sort and the more 
 discerning thereto from amongst themselves ; an 
 Aristocracy (governo degli ottimati). Or the whole 
 community may reserve to itself the highest autho- 
 rity, by supplying the public offices by election ; a 
 Democracy, (governo civile). Every one of these 
 
CII. VII. 
 
 MONARCHY. 
 
 20;') 
 
 three forms of government may be good in its way, in 
 so far as it not only seeks to advance and secure the 
 general advanta<;je with all circumspection, but also 
 strives to guide individuals unto virtue and religion. 
 On the contrary, all dominion of mere force is rcpro- 
 bable, that regards individual gain at the cost of the 
 general good, and postpones the moral demands to 
 individual interests. 
 
 ' In general, only those should govern who have 
 shown a capacity for it. Tlierefore in the monar- 
 chy the citizens should not govern, but One who 
 is in capacity superior to the citizens. But if sucli 
 an individual is not to be found, it is just that 
 the people or many of the discerning should govern. 
 But if we ask which of the three forms of government 
 attains most securely the object proposed, monarchy 
 before all deserves the preference. Unity and peace 
 to the people, as the first aim of government, will be 
 more surely gained and kept by One who stands at 
 the head, than by Several, — better by Few than 
 Many. If all members of the community had only 
 One to look up to and obey, they would run little risk 
 of falling into parties, rather they would all unite in 
 love and fear of the One. But if Several stand at 
 the head, it is usual that one holds with these, an- 
 other with those — whereby interest is divided, and the 
 unity and strength of the people weakened. Besides, 
 the principle of monarchy is established in the govern- 
 ment of the world as in nature. The bees have one 
 queen, the cranes follow one leader, the sheep one 
 ram. In brief, the monad goes through all as ground 
 and root. 
 
 * But, as even in nature, much that is in itself good 
 and excellent, yet operates under certain circumstan- 
 ces disadvantageously ; thus also, in the inquiry re- 
 specting the scope and aim of the form of government, 
 
 T 
 
20(5 
 
 DEMOCRACY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 the nature and circuiristances of the people must be 
 regarded. 
 
 ' History and experience show, that for restful- 
 strong people like the Northerns, and for weak- 
 sleepy people like the Orientals, monarchy is bene- 
 ficial and appropriate. While an ingenious, easily 
 moved, passionately enterprising people will not en- 
 dure it ; such as those of Italy in general at all times, 
 and especially in Florence. Nor will the power of cus- 
 tom readily submit to compulsion. This considera- 
 tion demands for the Florentine people a popular 
 government, to which from antiquity the sense of the 
 citizens is so much familiarized, that it has become a 
 second nature. The introduction, accordingly, of 
 another form of government, would be the cause of 
 infinite disturbances and divisions, and the people in 
 the end would be robbed of all freedom ; — which 
 again experience can best confirm. 
 
 ' If then a popular government for the city of 
 Florence is most appropriate, then the inquiry arises, 
 how it should now be regulated, to establish it 
 securely for the future against every attempt at a 
 dominion of force. Not wealth, as we commonly 
 believe, is the cause why an individual attains the 
 headship of a State, nor will a just law militate 
 against the hereditary right and enjoyment of great 
 power. Rather the cause lies in this, that an indi- 
 vidual attains to overwhelming influence and exclusive 
 consideration in the State, by the possession and 
 distribution of public offices and dignities. To de- 
 prive individuals of this power is the first stipulation 
 of a popular government, which demands that no law 
 and no tax — no office nor honour should be conferred 
 or become valid, without the consent of the whole 
 people. The constitution of Venice may serve as an 
 example of this. But in order that the whole people 
 
CH. VII. 
 
 SPIRITUAL FORCE. 
 
 207 
 
 shall not be collected together on every occasion, 
 this right will be vested by the people in a certain 
 number of citizens, who shall be named the Great 
 Council (consiglio grande), and wherein all will 
 partake who, according to the old law of the State, 
 are capable of being invested with public offices, 
 For further confirmation and security of this col- 
 lege, we must by strong laws provide that all the 
 citizens may regularly attend at the meetings of the 
 assembly at the most convenient times ; that all 
 partiality, courting for votes and the like, shall be 
 banished from the council, and all bad citizens as 
 much as possible removed from it. But should a 
 single person aim at being the general ruler, and 
 tyrannize over the people, (the greatest misfortune 
 that can happen to a people,) then on the part of the 
 government there must be a proceeding against such 
 person ; for as it is permitted to no single person to 
 kill a man, or to take the law into his own hands, so 
 likewise is it not permitted to any single individual 
 to expel or destroy a tyrant. But if such tyrant has 
 violently taken to himself the dominion against the 
 will, or with the forced consent only of the whole 
 people, any one of the people may destroy him as an 
 enemy. For the people has a just war against him, 
 and in war any one may kill his enemy. Yet it is 
 better to endure tyranny itself a little, if it be not too 
 oppressive, aud there be not still worse to be dreaded. 
 
 ' As in everything, so likewise in the State, spiritual 
 force is the best and worthiest of ruling powers. 
 Hence it is that even from the beginning a still 
 imperfect state of government will flourish in com- 
 plete security, and with time acquire perfection ; if 
 it is always universally acknowledged that the end of 
 all Christian States is the improvement of the morals 
 of the citizens by the withdrawing of all obscenity 
 and all wickedness, and that the truly Christian life 
 T 2 
 
208 
 
 UNFOUNDED ASPEBSIONS. 
 
 B. Ill 
 
 subsists in the fear of God ; if moreover the law of 
 the gospel is esteemed as the measure and rule of 
 civil life, and of all laws that are made ; if, farther, 
 all citizens show a true love of their country, which, 
 as pure uncorrupted self-love subjects its own in- 
 terests to the general good ; if finally, a general peace 
 shall have been concluded among the citizens, all 
 past injustice of the former government forgiven, and 
 all elder hatred forgotten ; — such unity makes strong 
 within, secure and feared without.' 
 
 Such are Savonarola's views of a State, as left on 
 record by himself. The last clause contains a suffi- 
 cient reply to those who complain that he simply 
 aimounces principles, instead of prescribing a system. 
 More should not be expected from a Savonarola ; 
 nothing other than such abstract propositions was 
 it proper for him even to attempt. And this 'was 
 enough ; for wherever there is life it always ex- 
 presses itself in an appropriate shape. No one knew 
 this better than he, and somewhere he has expressed 
 it. The necessity for his acting as he did, also, early 
 became apparent. An attempt was soon made to 
 cast discredit on him in his political capacity. Many 
 charges were preferred against his honesty, and the 
 truth of his predicti'ons, which, though they gained 
 little credit, were sufficient to warn him that he had 
 enemies on the watch. One Fra Domenico da Ponzo 
 even took occasion to preach against him, announcing 
 from the pulpit, that since the primitive ages of the 
 Church, no more prophets had appeared or could 
 appear ; that the declarations of Savonarola were un- 
 true, and his denunciations of Divine vengeance not 
 to be dreaded. To this attack Savonarola deigned no 
 reply. To those however who accused him of undue 
 clerical interference with secular matters, and an am- 
 bition to have a republic governed by a monk, he 
 answered, that under such difficult circumstances he 
 
CH. VII. 
 
 CHURCH RLFOKM. 
 
 209 
 
 had by all means held it for his duty, from the press- 
 ing demands in respect of the newly-ordered State, 
 to give advice according to his best knowledge, espe- 
 cially at a time when no one had the courage to say 
 the truth in the council, or was free enough from 
 passion to create the necessary rest and peace for 
 the State. But he had done no more. To give 
 oneself to public affairs for the universal benefit, 
 to lead men to justice and propriety — is not to 
 be called meddling in worldly things. Besides, such 
 a share in civil relations is neither unworthy in it- 
 self of a priest, nor without example from elder and 
 modern times. Yet had he never gone further in 
 this respect than to denounce open abuses — to 
 encourage men to peace and what is good — above 
 all, to preach the gospel without ever allowing him- 
 self any more decided influence on the particular 
 government of the State. ' I ba%'e said to you,' he 
 declares in one of his sermons, ' that I will not mix 
 in government affairs, but only labour therein to 
 preserve complete the general peace. To recom- 
 mendations of individuals, or similar solicitations, I 
 never yield — go with those to the right officials. I 
 also say here openly, if any of my friends should be 
 recommended to you, deal no otherwise with him 
 than according to justice. But yet once more, I do 
 not meddle with State affairs ; I wish only that the 
 people should remain in peace, and receive no injury.' 
 
 Savonarola was a Church reformer by choice, but a 
 State reformer by necessity. The reform of his cloister, 
 and an indirect share in the organization of the State, 
 were the proper aim of his efforts, as preparatory to a 
 universal renovation of the Church, that should bring 
 back life and morals in an all-pervading regeneration to 
 the original Christian simplicity, unity, and purity.' We 
 must at least endeavour to comprehend the fundamen- 
 tal principles which led him thereto. They were these. 
 T 3 
 
210 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 B. HI. 
 
 Florence especially should become, in moderate politi- 
 cal freedom, a truly Christian, a Divine Stiite, where 
 tlie law of God should serve as the basis and measure of 
 all arrangements, and only in tliis sense did he urge so 
 unremittingly a general peace and amnesty as the be- 
 ginning of a civic life, worthy of Christians. ' Thou 
 knowest,' he said, ' what grounds I have laid before 
 thee, because thou shouldst be a spiritual City — I have 
 shown to you also with clear grounds, that a kingdom 
 is stronger the more spiritual it is, and is the more 
 spiritual the closer it connects itself with God. But 
 no one can have communion with God who does not 
 make peace with his neighbour.' But as the Gospel 
 should be the foundation of this universal reform, so 
 the first Church gave on all sides the purest image. 
 That Church which, united in will and endeavour, 
 being one heart and one soul, attained the highest 
 and most difficult things by unity and love. In this 
 holy zeal the Church needed no earthly goods — ay, 
 it never enjoyed lovelier peace than in its poverty. 
 First, when the spiritual glow cools by degrees, came 
 forward earthly needs, which (always more richly 
 satisfied in the course of time) retrogressively under- 
 mined still more its original love and unity — so that 
 in the later time the beauty of the Primitive Church 
 is quite abandoned and destroyed. The next con- 
 sequence from that was, that the pure simple worship 
 of God was lost, and a crowd of external usages was 
 made to supply the void of the internal life. There- 
 fore such worship consists in the present day almost 
 exclusively of outward ordinances for delighting the 
 sense, without men troubling themselves about the 
 inward worship of God, the purity of the heart. The 
 Church of Christ has gone back to the old covenant, 
 which was ever rich in exterior rites — but Christ 
 came to take away from us this burthen, while He 
 comprised all those precepts in the one Command- 
 
CH. VII. 
 
 COURUPTION OF WORSIIII". 
 
 211 
 
 ment of love, and instead of the eartlily promises 
 of the old covenant, only promised spiritual goods. 
 But since then men have mixed up with the Gospel 
 laws of Christ, much that is worse than the Jewish 
 additions to the law of Moses. 
 
 ' But if we ask whence it comes, that the Church 
 has so much lost her original purity, the answer is, 
 because the Holy Scripture, which demands and 
 nourishes the Christian life, which men ought to have 
 read and given as the true nourishment of the soul to 
 the faithful, has fallen into oblivion. For logic, phi- 
 losophy, and legal science, there are teachers ap- 
 pointed — all arts have their masters. But no one 
 teaches the Holy Scripture, nor will any one learn 
 it. Since this light was extinguished it has been 
 night. Instead of preaching Christ, they offer for 
 money from the pulpit a mixture of philosophy and 
 Christianity, or one hears of nothing at all but of 
 Aristotle and Plato (the Divine man), of Cic.ro, 
 Demosthenes, and other heathens, whose words they 
 cite without spirit or Christian feeling. Even Dante 
 and other voluptuous poets, who diffuse idolatry and 
 heathenism in all the world, appear in the sanctuary. 
 We also live ourselves even as formerly the heathens 
 did. Thus now the most sacred thing is degraded 
 in the pulpit ; theology to rhetoric, poetry, and fable. 
 The holy is mixed with sin, the ecclesiastical with 
 worldly vanity. They hold market in the churches ; 
 men and women come therein the greatest decoration, 
 and surround the altar, so there is a crowding and 
 a confession without devotion and fear of God. On 
 festival days benches are placed for the pretty women, 
 and the young men surround them like a wall. Then 
 the women go to and fro, and hear a thousand improper 
 speeches. Are these festivals to the honour of God ? 
 And at last to disturb even the still devotion of indi- 
 viduals, the devil has begun to bring into operation 
 
212 
 
 GUILT OF ITALY. 
 
 E. III. 
 
 music and the organ, which gnly please the ear and 
 edify nothing. In the ancient unity there were many 
 festivals, with songs, trumpets, a tabernacle and the 
 like. That for the most part had an end with Christ. 
 Now it appears, all this comes again to honour. It 
 seems they think to adorn the church to the honour 
 of God, and paint the Virgin Mar\' as a mistress. I 
 also tell you, that nowhere in the Gospel is it com- 
 manded to have golden and silver crosses, and other 
 costly things in the church. But the Gospel says, 
 I have thirsted and thou hast not given me drink, &c. 
 Therefore make a law that all these costly things 
 might be sold. Look to it that those who gave them 
 as gifts are contented therewith, that no bitterness 
 may ensue — then wUl I be the first who lays hand 
 on the cups and crosses of my cloister to feed the 
 poor from this superfluity. 
 
 ' But consider only the whole state of the Church ; 
 how few in this day do good, and walk in the path of 
 God. Where are the holy Fathers, of whom there 
 were so many before the altar in the Church ? Wicked 
 and godless men have taken their places, so that the 
 Church of Christ perhaps never found itself worse 
 bestead than now. But since God cannot let them 
 perish in destruction. He must necessarily again renew 
 them, as may be shown still more decidedly from the 
 grounds of Scripture and reason. But He will re- 
 new them under war and trouble — partly to purify 
 them themselves, partly to punish them according to 
 his justice for their former wickedness, the cause of 
 the coming distress and trouble. He who looks 
 considerately, must confess that Italy is the acme 
 of wickedness. But when the measure is full, the 
 sword must clear away all that is wicked. Yes, thy 
 turpitude, Italy, Rome, and Florence ! thy godless 
 life, thy unchastity, thy usuriousness, bring ruin. 
 Therefore have I already, long ago, warned thee and 
 
CJI. VII. 
 
 DENUNCIATIONS. 
 
 213 
 
 called continually — do penance Florence, lead a 
 Christian life, and let it not repent thee to do good 
 for the sake of God and thy soul. For he who does 
 not repent and turn himself to God, is without in- 
 ward and outward consolation. Repentance is the 
 only means of safety in the time of trouble, and can 
 even mitigate a great part of it. Florence, I warned 
 thee before the rest ; for from thee, as the centre of 
 Italy, shall the Reformation proceed — from hence shall 
 all Italy be renewed. Therefore has God favoured 
 thee before all cities of Italy, has opened to thee the 
 Scriptures, and revealed to thee the troubles that were 
 to come; that thou mightest prepare thyself, has Him- 
 self shown to thee how thou shouldst conduct thy- 
 self. 
 
 ' But the false and lukewarm perverted the peo- 
 ple, and prejudiced it against the truth — before all, 
 the wicked priests and servants of the Church are 
 the guilty cause of this corruption, as also of the 
 coming misfortune. Some practise simony — others 
 gambol in the evening — keep concubines in the night, 
 and come with sin in the morning to mass. Others 
 go from riding and hunting to the sacred office. O ye 
 priests and heads of the Church of Christ ' leave your 
 benefices of which you cannot be rightly in possession, 
 leave your wanton pleasures — your clubs — leave your 
 voluptuous and unnaturally obscene life, while it is 
 yet time to repent, and keep your masses with de- 
 votion. O ye monks ! leave the expense in clothes 
 and silver decorations — your fat abbeys and bene- 
 fices — give yourselves up to simplicity, and work with 
 your hands as the old monks did, your reverend pre- 
 decessors. If you do it not willingly, you will soon 
 do it by compulsion — for God wiU punish you, if you 
 change not your life and manners. O my brothers ! 
 I say to you, leave off the superfluity — the images 
 and other vanities wherewith you withdraw your alms 
 
214 
 
 SIMPLIFICATION OF RITES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 from the poor. If you do not hear the Divine warning, 
 you will not escape punishment. Ye merchants! 
 leave off usury — give back what you have unjustly 
 gained, but of your superfluity give to the poor. O 
 ye priests ! — to you must 1 once again return, (I 
 speak of the bad, without prejudice to the reverence 
 due to the good,) leave off the accursed unnameable 
 vices which bring God's anger upon you. 
 
 ' But is it not frightful that the people live better 
 than the clergy ? And you who have your houses full 
 of vanity, improper images and godless books, bring 
 all that to me, to burn it to God's honour, that if the 
 anger of God comes, nothing of the sort may be found 
 among you. Remove those sad books which contain 
 nothing but wantonness and smuttiness. There is, 
 in truth, a great number of books in the world which 
 should be destroyed for the good of faith and religion, 
 though in other respects they may not be wholly 
 useless.' 
 
 By a government framed after such principles as 
 he proposed, Savonarola thought, if the abuses de- 
 nounced by him were abolished, and a better system 
 of living introduced, he might fairly assume that the 
 desirable ecclesiastical and moral reform was com- 
 menced. ' Let the first reform,' he said, ' be that 
 a holy, worthy worship of God be brought in, and 
 all be removed which disturbs the same, as unsuit- 
 able to his dignity and purity. Even the better 
 part of what now exists, would gain by simplifica- 
 tion, for not by many masses is God worthily hon- 
 oured. Were it possible that a mass only were read 
 every Sunday, one would certainly have more devo- 
 tion and reverence at it than now.' 
 
 It was a necessary consequence of these principles, 
 that the reform of the clergy itself should be de- 
 manded, by the removal of all its baser members, 
 who by their example justified the laity in wanton- 
 
CH. VII. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 215 
 
 ness, and by providing for the honest service of the 
 Church, with the consent and authority however of 
 tlie Pope. This reform should be first undertaken in 
 the daily life and walk of the priesthood, insisting on 
 a return to simple manners, and the observance of 
 decency ; and especially, by vigorously proceeding 
 against the practice of obscene and unnatural vices. 
 Savonarola denounces with especial zeal all degrading 
 pleasures, all gaming and drinking clubs, all stu- 
 diously attractive and wanton clothing of women, all 
 feminine ornaments of men, as leading to destruction, 
 and injurious to the health of the soul. He would 
 have them prohibited by stringent legislation. Not 
 that he wished to condemn a style of living decently, 
 according to station and ability — (indeed, he is 
 anxious to provide for this,) but he contended that 
 it might be united with greater simplicity. In par- 
 ticular, all unchaste women he would have had 
 banished from the State of Florence, and all such 
 found within it severely punished. 
 
 ' Likewise,' he continues, ' it is the business of the 
 State to provide for the best possible education of 
 children — to form good citizens from them. Even 
 in respect to their corporeal welfare, the State should 
 look to it that marriages should neither be made too 
 young nor too old — for from both these come our 
 weakly children. ^Mothers' milk should nourish the 
 little ones — the boys should abstain from wine — the 
 youths accustom themselves to hardships and all 
 weathers — should strengthen their bodies by gym- 
 nastic exercises — and for amusement occupy them- 
 selves with music — they should remain far from evil 
 talk, and all that is unbecoming — should not go 
 about with servants, but rather be instructed in reli- 
 gion and liberal arts, and brought up in refined 
 manners. Formerly, the mothers suckled their chil- 
 dren at their own breasts, and truly you do an in- 
 
216 
 
 THE POETS. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 justice in giving them over to rude nurses, that they 
 may also become rude in their mind, passionate, 
 angry, obstinate. For the first milk has great in- 
 fluence on the temperament of children— thus they 
 become half your children and half not. Ye fathers ! 
 let your children learn grammar, and keep able men 
 as teachers who are accomplished, and not players — 
 pay them well, and see that the schools are no holes 
 and corners. All should practise grammar in some 
 degree, for it wakens the mind and helps much. 
 But the poets should thereby not destroy everything 
 else. There should be a law made that no bad poet 
 should be read in the schools, such as Ovid — de Arte 
 Amandi, Tibullus, and Catullus — of the same sort, 
 Terence in many places. Virgil and Cicero I would 
 suffer. Homer in the Greek, and also some passages 
 from Augustine's Civitate Dei — or from Jerome, or 
 something out of the Holy Scripture. And where 
 you teachers find in those books Jupiter, Pluto, and 
 the like-named, say then — children, these are fables, 
 and show them that God alone rules the world. So 
 would the children be brought up at once in wisdom 
 and in truth ; and God would be with them.' 
 
 By such a scheme of moral iniprovement, (which 
 in some parts, it must be confessed, is perplexed with 
 certain prejudices that are due to the then existing 
 state of things and local circumstances,) Savonarola 
 trusted that Florence would acquire wealth and 
 esteem, and even recover some of the possessions she 
 had lost, 
 
 ' Till now,' said he, ' I was the prophet Jonas who 
 warned Nineveh. But I say to you, that if you do 
 not hear my words, I will from henceforth become 
 the prophet Jeremiah, who long before announced 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, and afterwards wept 
 over the same destroyed ; for God will renew his 
 Church, and this Ixas never been done without blood. 
 
CK. VII. THE PKEP.VRATIOS OF PKAYER. 
 
 217 
 
 Italy and Rome, where all crimes especially accumu- 
 late, will not escape the Divine punishment. It will 
 go above and under ; the proud Rome will be no 
 more ; but I say not when, nor how, nor by whom.' 
 
 This conviction, that the renewing of the Church, 
 and the Reformation of Italy, might only be wrought 
 by the force of arms, or at least only amidst such 
 sensible demonstrations, Savonarola continually ex- 
 pressed with as much decision, as that the renovation 
 itself was inevitable. With this notion he had been 
 accused, indeed, of stirring up the people — but he 
 defended himself from the charge by pleading the 
 manner in which he had been careful to announce it. 
 No doubt, however, in the popular sense in which it 
 was understood by the majority of hearers, it had 
 great influence. They could not fail to be moved by 
 the authoritative announcement that foreign armies 
 should invade Italy for a scourge, and as the actual 
 signs of the wrath of God, because of the corruption 
 of the Church, and the obstinacy of those who were 
 unprepared for improvement. Even though such 
 improvement itself should thereby suffer, yet would 
 Savonarola have his hearers pray for the hastening 
 of the troubles, that therewith the renewing of the 
 Church might be hastened. But for these troubles 
 he warned them not to make ready with arms, but to 
 equip themselves with penitence and prayer. With 
 such admonitions he sought to soothe the public 
 agitation. For himself, he appears at this stage of 
 his progress to have become all at once remarkably 
 collected and concentrated. So passionless, so clear, 
 so quiet and meditative, that not only could he him- 
 self appeal subsequently to this singular tranquillity 
 of mind, but his contemporaries have testified to the 
 fact, and quoted it as evidence of his having been 
 confirmed in his course by the assurance of an in- 
 ward voice. 
 
 i; 
 
218 THE NKW MEDICEAN PARTY. B. III. 
 
 But though thus patient, Savonarola was never- 
 theless not content to postpone his reforms to a 
 future age. What if he had given, as it were, but the 
 mere platform of a constitution, he was not willing 
 to wait till a very distant time for its realization. 
 Well he knew, indeed, as he even declared, that ' great 
 things are not permitted to be easily completed, but 
 this is only an argument that there exists so much 
 the more need of an earnest, incessant, striving for 
 something further, so far as our powers and circum- 
 stances will permit.' He therefore was not willing 
 to rest contented with the limited system of govern- 
 ment first designed, and accordingly the scheme of the 
 Accopiatori was very early opposed, and instead, an at- 
 tempt was made to extend the legislative power to the 
 citizens at large. This being strongly seconded in a 
 sermon by Savonarola, who moreover asserted that 
 no ruling authority should be recognized but that of 
 Christ, the newly-elected magistrates voluntarily ab- 
 dicated their offices, the example being set by the 
 spontaneous resignation of Giuliano Salviati. 
 
 To establish the government on a more popular 
 basis, the legislative power of the State was at length 
 vested in the council of the citizens (consiglio mag- 
 giori), and in a select body, called select council (con- 
 siglio degli scelti). The first of these was to be 
 composed of at least one thousand citizens, who could 
 derive their citizenship by descent, and were upwards 
 of thirty years of age ; the latter consisted of a com- 
 mittee of eighty members, who were elected half- 
 yearly from the great council, and were upwards of 
 forty years of age. 
 
 On December 23, 1494, the great college of the 
 council was concluded, with the committee of eighty 
 for the administration, and soon thereupon the general 
 peace and amnesty for the Medici was announced. 
 By this the new Medicean party, the proper great 
 
CH. VII. 
 
 SERIOUS COLLISIONS. 
 
 219 
 
 ones of Florence, were openly offended in the most 
 sensible point, and so much the more exasperated as 
 they were doubly deceived in their efforts, and were 
 yet obliged to conceal the real ground of their dis- 
 satisfaction, in order to maintain at least the appear- 
 ance of popularity. While they, therefore, knew 
 how to strengthen themselves by private alliances 
 with other princes of Italy, among whom the duke 
 of Milan showed a lively interest ; — yet, to maintain 
 some opposition against the new government, they 
 sought to render suspicious to the people the cha- 
 racter of the man, whose political influence began 
 to be so troublesome to them ; but the accusations 
 which they spread obtained little or no credit. Never- 
 theless, the pleasure-loving titled youths, who had 
 else concerned themselves little with the political 
 opinions and behaviour of Savonarola, joined his 
 accusers, because in consequence of his eternal moral- 
 izing, life had been rendered too strict for them. The 
 Arabbiati and Compagnacci were thus brought into a 
 serious collision with the Frateschi and Piagnoni, which 
 menaced even Savonarola with danger. 
 
 V 2 
 
CHAPTER VIIT. 
 
 THE PROPHET OF FLORENCE AND THE POPE OF ROME. 
 
 Relative position of Savonarola and the reigning Pope, and 
 the clergy — His jirevision of martyrdom — His perpetual 
 testimony against the abuses and apostacy of the Church — 
 Conspiracy of the Medici and Fra Mariano, at Rome, 
 against him — Called by the Pope to preach at Lucca — 
 Appeal against this of the Florentine magisti-acy and sig- 
 nory — Permitted accordingly to remain at Florence — Sub- 
 sequent conduct. Agitation of the Pope. 
 
 The state of the Church in the daj's of Savonarola, 
 and the character of its visible head at Rome, must 
 both be well considered, if we would duly estimate 
 the relation in which the ' True Monk' of Florence 
 stood with all false monks whatsoever, with a degenerate 
 clergy, and a pontilf not only completely secularized, 
 but absolutely demoralized. The interest of that 
 portion of his story at which we have now arrived, re- 
 quires this both of author and reader as a sacred duty. 
 
 Savonarola had not feared to denounce the crying 
 evils of those terrible times, charged with guilt so 
 gross and abominable, that ordinary delicacy prevents 
 even a bold writer from doing justice to the subject, 
 by giving illustrative details of the enormities com- 
 mitted. There arc passages in Savonarola's sermons 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 GUILT OF THE TIMES. 
 
 221 
 
 designed for their condemnation, which dare not be 
 translated ; nay, to which even no allusion can be 
 made — such was the iniquity of the period. We are 
 not ready enough to consider these facts, when we 
 charge such a character with illicit fanaticism, undue 
 enthusiasm, or extravagant pretension. We forget 
 the indignation which the moralist cannot help now 
 feeling when only reading the deeds that Savonarola 
 saw acted — we forget the sanctity of his calling, the 
 earnestness of his spirit, and the responsibility he was 
 compelled to incur. To support this, a strong faith, 
 a holy hope, an ardent love, were needed — and given. 
 
 In pemsing some of the sermons of Savonarola, 
 one is affected even to tears, by the consciousness 
 which he displays of the duty to which he was called, 
 the peril by which he was surrounded, and the death 
 that awaited him. In all this, he presents a striking 
 contrast to Luther, both in the progress and the per- 
 sonal issue of his mission. Luther proceeded all along 
 in the dark, not foreseeing the ultimate end to which 
 his earlier efforts were the preludes. Savonarola, 
 on the contrary, from the first, was aware of what 
 ought to be done, and of what he had to do ; nay, 
 of what would be done after his expected martyrdom, 
 for the reformation of the Church. He was a pro- 
 phet, inasmuch as in his character and. conduct he 
 anticipated a future age. He was a prophet, inasmuch 
 as he announced in words the designs of Providence 
 relative to the advening generation. It was nothing 
 less than the vigilant grace of God which saved 
 Savonarola in Italy, as only the previous century it 
 had saved Wickliff in England, from the falsehood, 
 guilt, and folly which everywhere, even in the seats of 
 learning and religion, surrounded both, and sent them 
 equally to the study of the sacred Scriptures. If we 
 deny to such men a Divine mission, there are no 
 grounds for granting it to any. 
 
 u 3 
 
222 
 
 PREVISION OF MARTYRDOM. 
 
 B. HI. 
 
 Nothing but this watchful and Divine mercy would 
 have been sufficient to maintain tlie soul of Savon- 
 arola through the storm, which henceforth he had to 
 encounter, in that state of tranquil and perfect con- 
 fidence which was a marvel both to his friends and 
 foes. He felt himself safe, whether on earth or in 
 heaven, in whatever labyrinth he might be awhile 
 perplexed. Had he dared follow his own inclina- 
 tions, he would have remained in his cell retired in 
 celestial contemplations — but God had active duties 
 for him to perform, and he shrank not from their 
 performance. Notwithstanding all the terrors that 
 began to encompass him, he still slept in peace, and 
 calmly resigned himself to the conviction that he was 
 doing the work of a Master who was able to defend 
 and reward his servant — one who would conduct him 
 through it prosperously ; who would not, even by his 
 death, let it be hindered, even though all the armies 
 of earth were to encamp themselves for its pre- 
 vention. The work once begun, could not be even 
 suspended. Should he die, God would send another 
 messenger more powerful or fortunate than he. 
 
 ' Wonder ye ! ' — thus he demanded of his astonished 
 hearers, when preaching on this very point — ' Won- 
 der ye that the good work has so many enemies ? 
 Even Christ had constantly to contend with the Phari- 
 sees and Scribes.' What follows demands attention. 
 
 ' Do you ask me in general, what will be the end 
 of the conflict ? I answer. Victory ! But if you ask 
 me in particular ? then I answer. Death ! But death 
 is not extinction ! Rather, it sers'es to spread abroad 
 the light ! This light, as I have evermore declared, 
 is spread wider than you believe. Tt is already in 
 many hearts. And if you knew how many were 
 enlightened thereby, not only here but in various 
 places, j'ou would be astonished, and change your 
 lives. Write to Rome, that this light is kindled in 
 
CII. VIII. THE LIGHT IN MANY HEARTS. 
 
 223 
 
 all places, howbeit it is not yet known, yet will it 
 soon be perceived, and divisions spring up therefrom. 
 But Rome shall not quench this fire, as nevertheless 
 it will endeavour to do. Nay, if it quenches it in 
 one, then will another and a stronger break out. I 
 say to you, this light will be kindled in Rome and 
 all Italy, among bishops and cardinals ; even worldly 
 princes and great men will protect it and promote it, 
 when it is time ; indeed, I have already many letters 
 from several, declaring tliat they are prepared for its 
 sake to lose their lives. Write, that I invite all the 
 learned men of Florence, Rome, and Italy, to oppose 
 this truth, and that I am ready to defend it in every 
 way.' 
 
 Before Savonarola had other learned men, such as 
 Occham and Marsilius, complained of the popes' in- 
 trusions and usurpations upon kings — such as Guido 
 and Arraachanus had exposed the sundry abuses of 
 friars and monks, in upholding this usurped power — 
 such as Abelard had declared the right faith in the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper — such as Bradwar- 
 dine had recognized the nature of a sinful soul's jus- 
 tification by faith, in contradiction to Pelagian errors 
 — to saj" nothing of those who, like W^ckliff, had 
 shrewdly suspected that the pope was Antichrist, a 
 suspicion corroborated by the fact of his denj"ing to 
 competent men the liberty of preaching the Gospel, 
 and foistbig ignorant pastors on the Church of ' the 
 all-wise God.' Trulj- has it been written, that •' in 
 those days most monks and ministers never read at 
 all, and the monasteries which, during the first ages 
 of the Church, had been the retreats of learning and 
 the muses, were filled with whole herds of luxurious 
 drones, devoted servants of their appetites, who fre- 
 quented the cellar more than the library of the con- 
 vent, and dearly loved the flesh-pots of Egypt, but 
 cared little for the \visdora of tlie Egyptians.' 
 
224 LIGHT CONTENDS WITH DARKNESS. E. III. 
 
 • What ! ' says Savonarola, in one of his admirable 
 sermons, of 1493, 'What have not the wicked pre- 
 lates done ? They feared the people would slip out 
 of their hands, and withdraw itself from its obedience. 
 Therefore they acted as tyrants of cities are wont to 
 act. These murder the rightly-disposed and God- 
 fearing, or put them in prison, so that they succeed to 
 no post of State ; secondly, all good laws, manners, 
 and customs which are for freedom, they abolish, or 
 affect that men think no more of them ; thirdly, that 
 the people may think of no innovation, they keep 
 them busy with festivals, and show-processions. 
 The same has happened with the Church of Jesus 
 Christ ; first, they have cleared the good preachers 
 and prelates out of the way, and chose not that the 
 direction of affairs should be entrusted to them ; 
 secondly, they have abolished the good laws and 
 manners — ay, do not even wish that men should 
 name them by their name ; thirdly, they have brought 
 in festivals and customs to destroy and abolish those 
 which were commanded by God — if you go to these 
 ceremonious prelates, look, they have the best words to 
 their hand which one can listen to. If you complain 
 to them of the present distress of the Church, you 
 will at once hear — yes, father, you are right — one 
 can no more live if God does not renew us. Faith 
 is going to ruin. But in their heart they keep their 
 wickedness, and make God's festival the devil's festi- 
 val. Then says one to another — what do you think 
 of our Christian faith ? — what do you take it for? — and 
 the other answers— now you appear before me as a 
 very sneak. Faith is only a dream — a thing for 
 sentimental women and monks. Tliese clergy have 
 no clerical judgement — know nothing of distinguish- 
 ing between the true and false, the sweet and bitter. 
 The care of souls lies no more at their hearts — it is 
 sufficient to draw the incomes.' 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 GRACE PERFECTS NATURE. 
 
 225 
 
 Savonarola had been seven years in Florence, and 
 all that time had, with the zeal of a prophet, borne 
 witness to the justice of God and the sinfulness of 
 man, announcing with truth the burthen of the times, 
 and prescribing the means of deliverance, crj'ing aloud 
 for the Reformation both of Church and State. , 
 ' Grace,' he would exclaim, ' destroys not nature,'' 
 but perfects it. One makes the Lord to speak sharp 
 and strong, like Asaph, another mildly and amiably, 
 like David. Wonder not, if thou hearest faithful 
 men ofttimes call down the plagues of God ; for 
 what they do, they do out of zeal for the house of 
 God. So likewise Asaph could not contain himself, 
 when he saw the destruction of the house of God, 
 but let the lyre sound fearfully, and spake : — ' Lift 
 up. Lord, thy hands against the godless and vain- 
 glorious!' (Ps. Ixxiii. 3'.) For such zeal is none 
 other than an exceeding love in the heart for righteous- 
 ness, which will not rest, but ever seeks to remove 
 everything that is contrary to the honour of God. . . . 
 Lift up, Lord, thy hands, against these high-minded 
 prelates, kings, and princes, who have destroyed the 
 people, thy left hand for their temporal punishment, 
 thy right for their eternal. For what scandalous 
 evil has not the enemy practised against thy holy 
 One ! I meditated on this matter by myself, and it 
 seemed to me that I saw a glorious temple of marble, 
 inlaid with gold, with pillars of porphyrj^, with gates 
 of costly precious stones, the sanctuary of mosaic, 
 and the choir of the finest ivory ^, Over it was 
 
 1 These references are to tlie Catholic, not the Protestant 
 Scriptures, and differ in number and diction — often in mean- 
 ing. Our version, for instance, reads ' feet,' and the wliole 
 passage varies. 
 
 ' This allegory in some parts resembles the vision related 
 at the end of the fourth chapter of this boolc, but it differs in 
 others. Savonarola often repeats himself, and this is given 
 as an example of his nianner of doing so. 
 
226 
 
 THE LUKEWARM IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 written, ' Solomon the king has built this to the 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords.' Secretly in the 
 night many came and sought to destroy this temple. 
 Some brought with them axes and mallets, to beat 
 in the doors, others threw lire into the building, and 
 others defiled the holiest place. The glorious temple 
 sank ; but soon they set to work and built a new. Now 
 it was all of wood, but it was painted like marble 
 and porphyry, and covered with gold and silver. I 
 saw the priests in their canonicals, with silver staves ; 
 before them went the singers, and sang so finely and 
 lovelily, that men believed that Paradise had disclosed 
 itself. All the people around shouted with astonish- 
 ment, and said. Truly our temple becomes daily still 
 more beautiful, never was there so fair a temple as 
 ours. In a short time, however, the roof fell through, 
 because it could no longer bear the weight, and buried 
 all that was therein. Now wouldst thou know the 
 meaning of this vision ? The first temple is the 
 original apostolic Church, edified of living stones, 
 namely, of Christians, who were grounded in the 
 faith, united together with the cement of Love, for 
 they were one heart and one soul in Jesus Christ, 
 who was the corner-stone. Hewn out and prepared 
 were they by the persecution of tyrants. The tem- 
 ple shone with gold, it was the gold of heavenly 
 wisdom ; the pillars, which were raised therein, were 
 the prophets and apostles, on whose fonndations 
 Christians are built up. Everything was gloriously 
 conformed one to another ; it was a peaceful garden 
 of God upon earth. But the devil, the enemy of the 
 Lord and his Ciuirch, now laboured to destroy this 
 temple. He took Jews, Romans, heretics, to help 
 him ; all in vaiv. ; they stood him in no stead. Now 
 he bethought himself of another mode. He took the 
 lukewarm in the Church itself, and the faithless 
 brothers into his pay, and let tliem ajjpcar in sheep's 
 
ClI. Vlll. 
 
 THE MODERN CHURCH. 
 
 227 
 
 clothing; that is, they fast, make prayers, give 
 alms, impose penances on themselves, in short, do 
 all things that true Christians do externally. And 
 lo ! the work of the devil now prospers ! These are 
 the members who by their lukewarmness destroy the 
 Church of Christ, and by their hypocrisy have cor- 
 rupted all. The ground was now cleared away. Men 
 thought of the apostles and prophets no more. The 
 pillars of the Church are cast do^vn upon the earth, 
 and evangelic doctrine is heard no more. The gold 
 of the temple is gone ; the true Divine wisdom, 
 which enlightens and gladdens the heart. The roof 
 of the Church has fallen in ; in the storm and the 
 whirlwind are swept away the devout priests and 
 princes, who adorn the bride of Jesus. The binding 
 lime and mortar fail. "VThere seest thou now-a-days 
 true love among Christians ! No more are they 
 united in Christ Jesus — therefore no one seeks the 
 good of the other, but each one only his own. All 
 the walls of the Church are undermined. Where is 
 the justice of princes and rulers ? where the pastoral 
 truth of preachers ? where the obedience of subjects ? 
 All the costly and precious things of the Church are 
 stolen. The revenues of the Church are perverted 
 to perishable pomp and worldly ends. And the sin 
 of the devil's children is doubled ; for they pride 
 themselves in their deed, and boast that they have 
 made broad the way of the Christian life, and pub- 
 lish their vices for virtues. . . . Cursing and swear- 
 ing are tokens with them of manly courage ; prodi- 
 gality they esteem liberality ; fraud upon their 
 neighbour, laudable prudence; self-revenge, honour; 
 ostentation, virtue. With the fires of ambition, 
 of avarice, of envy, they enkindle the sanctuarv'. 
 And not only have they destroyed the true Church, 
 but they have made another after their own fashion. 
 This is the modern Church, not built of living stones 
 
228 
 
 PRELATES AND PRELATUZZI. 
 
 B. in. 
 
 on the basis of faith, but of wood, — that is to say, of 
 Christians who are prepared as tinder for hell-fire. 
 But there is that in our temple which is suiBciently 
 satisfactory to us — it is so beautifully painted and 
 gilded. Our Church has much external beautiful 
 ceremony : with glorious robes, with silver and golden 
 candlesticks, so that it is pronounced truly magnifi- 
 cent. One exercises the ecclesiastical functions. There 
 seest thou great prelates with ecclesiastical harlots, 
 shining with gold and precious stones, in magnificent 
 vestments at the altar ; there hearest thou an adagio 
 from the beautiful vespers and matins, that will en- 
 chant thine ear. Thou thinkest that these must yet 
 be all honourable and holy men, and that what they 
 say and do we must hold as gospel. Behold ! thus 
 is the modem Church made. The people divert 
 themselves with these vanities, and rejoice over these 
 ceremonies, and say, never has the Church of Jesus 
 Christ flourished so gloriously, never was the worship 
 of God so beautifully supported, as now. As once 
 a great prelate said, never was the Church so hon- 
 oured, and never had the prelates such respect, so 
 that the first prelates were actually but as prelatuzzi, 
 compared with our moderns. But methinks, that 
 Asaph rounded these words into my ears : 'Well ! 
 the first prelates were lowly and poor, had neither 
 great episcopacy nor rich abbeys, like the present, 
 had no mitres bedaubed with gold, had not so many 
 chalices, and yet what they had they abstained from, 
 to help the wants of the poor withal ; — while our pre- 
 lates, in order to bring together chalices, rob the 
 poor of those things they cannot live without. 
 Knowest thou what 1 will say ? Jn the primitive 
 Church were the chalices of wood, and the prelates 
 of gold ; in our days, the prelates are of wood, and 
 the chalices of gold. Thus St. Thomas Aquinas 
 once declared himself to a great prelate, who was 
 
CH. VIII. IKCREASING CORRUPTIONS. 229 
 
 apparently one of the present stamp ; and who had 
 exhibited to the saint a great washing-basin, and 
 perhaps several, full of ducats, and said, Look here, 
 Master Thomas, now can the Church no more say, 
 as St. Peter said — silver and gold have I not. That 
 is true, replied Thomas ; — but she cannot also say, 
 what immediately follows thereon — in the name of 
 Jesus Christ, stand up and walk I And I tell you, 
 what my ^nsion announced to me will happen. The 
 roof will fall in upon us, the heavy sins of ecclesias- 
 tical servants as well as of the princes, will be all 
 buried together with the pomp of festivals ; then 
 will they discover too late, that they have made them- 
 selves too secure under its covering.' 
 
 Those alarming corruptions and abuses of the 
 Church, which with a strange and terrible novelty so 
 forcibly impressed both "Wickliff and Luther in their 
 visit to Rome, were familiar to Savonarola from his 
 earliest days. Even from then till now had he re- 
 sided within the tabernacles of sin,- — had lived in the 
 midst of a thick darkness, which, like that brought 
 upon Egypt by Moses, could be handled. He had 
 constantly felt and touched the wickedness of which 
 the earKer and later Reformer had for a long time only 
 dreamed, and even for all that period had not only 
 observed, but experienced the effects of the system 
 of Romish superstidon in destroying the faith and 
 purity of the gospel, in paralyzing the conscience, 
 depraving the heart, deadening and lulling the intel- 
 lect till it became sluggish in its researches after truth, 
 chaining up in those fetters of error and custom, 
 which are stronger than fetters of iron, the free-bom 
 reason of man, and giving for money, a chartered in- 
 dulgence to the most horrid sins and licentiousness. 
 All this he knew and felt, and was constantly filled 
 with holy zeal and indignation against the pressin^j 
 and increasing e\Tl. And now, at the head of its 
 
 X 
 
230 
 
 SUBJECTIVE CERTAINTY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 power, was none other than that incarnation of Satan 
 himself, Alexander VI. The first paroxysm of wrath 
 with which he received this fact having passed away, 
 he settled down into a frame of mind that seems to 
 have concentrated itself in a deep determination to 
 resist the further encroachments of the !Man of Sin, 
 and stem the Mystery of Iniquity that was now coming 
 like an ocean torrent on the world, or to perish in 
 the attempt. In the persons of the prophet of Flo- 
 rence and the Pope of Rome, two Systems had met 
 in collision, and what the immediate event would be, 
 was as yet undecided by the Great Disposer. 
 
 To the infallibility affirmed as belonging to that 
 ambitious, tyrannous, and wicked apostate, whom 
 our own WicklifF described as ' the proud worldly 
 priest of Rome, the most cursed of clippers and purse 
 carvers',' Savonarola ventured on the bold step of 
 opposing his own. Hence, and always with the 
 same confidence, he repeated the assurance, that it 
 was impossible for him to err — else God himself 
 might err. By which assurance it was generally un- 
 derstood, that he signified the immediate and supernal 
 certainty of his cause and doctrine. To those who 
 opposed him, he declared that God would not permit 
 a man, who sought only the general welfare and 
 safety, to err, . . . especially after he had worthily pre- 
 pared himself for his vocation, meditating thereon 
 day and night, and proposing therein the promotion 
 of God's glory, and not his own honour. For such 
 reasons, therefore, he was ready to part with life it- 
 self, when demanded. 
 
 In all this, however, he was careful to describe 
 the certainty he felt as purely subjective ; as indu- 
 hitahly true, and valid for himself only, not for 
 others. Thus he says, in answer to the enquiry, 
 whether what he preached were as certain as the 
 ancient Scriptures and the Gospels, that in what 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE. 
 
 231 
 
 concerned himself, it was as certain as the Gospel ; 
 but in what concerned others, he defended it not ; 
 adding, that they who doubted it, sinned merely 
 through unbelief, being led to judge rather according to 
 appearances than righteously, simply because God had 
 not granted so much seeming weight to his words, as 
 to those of holy writ. But such unbelief, neverthe- 
 less, would become sin, in case a stiffnecked opposi- 
 tion should proceed exclusively from an evil root in 
 the heart of the unbeliever, — especially with such as 
 had experienced many confirmations and transactions 
 that had gone far to prove the verity of his claims. 
 For such, he knew not how they could justify them- 
 selves. 
 
 Some carnal minds, too, as always happens on 
 occasions of this sort, had expected, that Savonarola 
 should confirm the truth of his mission by miracles, 
 and thus convict them of unbelief. These he met 
 with the explanation, that miracles were not neces- 
 sary, that every man had a natural ability to know 
 the truth, and which in the good and pious had ex- 
 pressed itself clearly and strongly in his favour. 
 Even the Apostles had converted more through 
 precept and example, than through niiracles ; for 
 miracles fail in making men believe. If, however, 
 an outward demonstration were demanded, whether 
 what he had preached was true, and of God, 
 then he averred that the following particulars de- 
 served attentive consideration. He had at no time 
 retracted his word ; — he became daily more and 
 more confirmed in his convictions ; — the good by his 
 means became better, the bad yet worse. And, 
 finally, his cause must long since have been lost, if its 
 truth had not maintained it. Nay, was it not in 
 itself an expressive sign, that so many people stood 
 up against one poor impotent monk, and yet the 
 matter continued to progress ? 
 
 X 2 
 
232 
 
 THE LOMBARD CONGREGATION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 The information of his proceedings at Florence, 
 which Savonarola desired might reach the Pope, 
 lingered not on its way to Rome. It sped on the 
 wings of the wind. The expelled ^ledici were there, 
 anxious to hear and propagate any rumour which 
 might afford them the least chance of a return to 
 power. They even took up the settled business of 
 the separation of San Marco from the Lombard con- 
 gregation, and the new monastic establishment there, 
 and at Fiesole, though sanctioned by the Pope, as a 
 means of agitation. But they speculated on the 
 Pontiff" s known want of faith, and depended on his 
 shameless dishonesty for the success of their plans. 
 
 Savonarola's aim in that affair had been to unite 
 those who desired it in a more intimate brotherhood 
 with himself ; and the circumstances attending it 
 were favourable for accomplishing their mutual wishes. 
 The cloister of San Marco at Florence, and San 
 Domenico at Fiesole, originally belonged to a Tuscan 
 province, and had only recently joined the Lombard 
 congregation, by reason of a pestilence, which laid 
 waste many cloisters of Etruria, and these among 
 them. Savonarola first won over to his view the" 
 general and the protector of the Dominican order, 
 Gioachimo Turriano, and Olivieri Caraffa, who con- 
 curred with him in thinking that it was desirable that 
 the two cloisters in dispute should be again separated 
 from the Lombard congregation, and be subject to a 
 voluntary stricter discipline. Caraffa brought the 
 business before Alexander VI., but at the time he 
 did so there was a consistory, and the Pope had 
 declared that he woidd seal no brief on that day. 
 The other cardinals being away, Caraffa found liim- 
 self alone with the Pope, and was — (how characteristic 
 of Alexander VI. is this little incident!) — allowed by 
 his holiness to take the seal-ring from his finger, and 
 seal himself the original recognizance, which con- 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 MARIANO DA GIIENEZZANO. 
 
 233 
 
 tained the desired confirmation for the new congre- 
 gation. Shortly after CarafFa had retired, there 
 came messengers from the Lombard congregation 
 with written powers to prevent the grant — but the 
 Pope answered them, that they had arrived a quarter 
 of an hour too late, the matter having been already 
 decided. Trifling as this transaction may seem, it 
 obtained much consideration and opposition, espe- 
 cially as the cloister reform proved of an extensive 
 nature, and was therefore much canvassed, both by 
 those who saw therein a dangerous innovation, and 
 by those who had felt themselves annoyed by the 
 free preaching of Savonarola ; Ludovico Sforza, Pie- 
 tro de' Medici, the king of Naples, and the prince 
 of Bologna, were united in opposition, and demanded 
 the re-incorporation of San Marco and San Domenico 
 with the Lombard congregation. 
 
 Savonarola had also another enemy at Rome, the 
 jealous Mariano da Ghenezzano, who since his memo- 
 rable defeat at Florence, had exerted himself in the 
 papal court to procure the disgrace of his successful 
 rival in pulpit eloquence. When in the cardinals' 
 college, while delivering his propositions, Mariano 
 would often turn to the Pope, and thus address him : 
 ' Destroy, destroy, all-holy Father ! this servant of 
 the devil, this scandal to the whole Church.' Savon- 
 arola was not without a knowledge of Mariano's pro- 
 ceedings, but comforted himself in the words of the 
 Psalmist— Ps. xxii. 17. 'Many dogs have en- 
 compassed me about, the assembly of the wicked 
 have inclosed me,' adding, ' they evilly wrest my 
 words, and say, I have scandalously attacked the 
 papal name ; but many thousands among my hearers 
 can witness for me, what I have said ; and among the 
 throng of published writings and sermons, mine lie 
 before the eyes of all.' Mariano had, in fact, pre- 
 viously to his apostasy, gone farther in condemning 
 X 3 
 
234 
 
 PAPAL BRIEF. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 the papacy than Savonarola, and the rashness of the 
 former in this respect was frequently charged on him 
 defensively by the latter. All the more, perhaps, 
 Mariano found it needful to make an extraordinary 
 display of his new-born zeal, by exciting the resent- 
 ment of the Pope of Rome against the now acknow- 
 ledged leader of religious and political opinion at 
 Florence, — one who had taken part with that France 
 which had offered the first resistance to papal as- 
 sumption, and with a monarch whose great object 
 was to elicit a spiritual opposition against it — one 
 who had boldly denounced the vices of the Church, 
 and of the pontifical court — and who continued not 
 only to discuss the necessity of ecclesiastical regene- 
 ration, but to announce its near approach ; — this 
 being still the burthen of his testimony, ' Repent ye, 
 for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! ' 
 
 Operated upon by influences such as these, and 
 induced further by the discontents of the Lombard 
 congregation, Alexander VI. determined to take up 
 the challenge tendered by Savonarola. A papal 
 brief accordingly arrived in Florence, directing Sa- 
 vonarola not to preach, as appointed, at Florence 
 during the Lent of 1495, but at Lucca. It was the 
 Pope's policy therefore to remove him from Flo- 
 rence. Savonarola penetrated at once the cunning 
 of his enemies in this ostensible estimation of his 
 oratorical powers ; but yet, because he thought he 
 had done the State as much good service as could be 
 expected from an individual, and might now for a 
 while safely leave the City to itself, he prepared to 
 obey the command of his lioliness, though not with- 
 out expressing publicly his reluctance, and chiding 
 the Florentines for their frequent disobedience, add- 
 ing tauntingly, that when he was absent they might 
 manage matters in their own way. ' I,' he exclaimed, 
 ' will no more trouble myself about anything. Send 
 
cn. viii. 
 
 BRIEF RECALLED. 
 
 235 
 
 not to me — though the king of France or the Empe- 
 ror come, I will not. Do in your Council what your 
 spirit may prompt ! Now I will give place to anger. 
 Must I then go to Lucca to preach, and thence per- 
 haps further ? Pray God that it may be permitted 
 me to preach the Gospel to the unbelieving. But 
 we commend our bark to God, that He may come to 
 its aid if it strike on rocks.' 
 
 The mortification these words express, was that of 
 a man who loved Florence to his soul, and could not 
 leave her without the passionate reproaches of an 
 affection that had been often offended, and had as 
 often forgiven. It found an echo in popular sympa- 
 thy — the magistracy interfered, and, to allay the 
 restlessness of the general mind, wrote to the Pope, 
 praying him to withdraw his direction. The Sig- 
 nory, likewise, sent a letter expressing their astonish- 
 ment, that the authorities in Rome should be incau- 
 tious enough to believe, or men be found bold enough 
 to utter such calumnies of such a man, assuring the 
 ])ontifF that Savonarola had never in his preaching put 
 out of sight the claims of duty and the rights of office, 
 but had only, in a general manner, denounced equally 
 the failings and vices of the great and cf the people. 
 
 This manifestation in his favour, however gratify- 
 ing to Savonarola's feelings, incurred his censure. 
 ' My children,' he said, ' you have done wrong, in 
 being so zealous about my honour. Do not so — for 
 it is not well that all things should always go smoothly, 
 ' — lest conceit should come of it. Strokes of fate are 
 good — for they make us better. Leave only to God 
 to provide ! ' 
 
 The solicitation, however, of the magistracy and 
 the Signory, was effectual with the Pope. He con- 
 sented to recall his brief, permitted Savonarola to 
 preach during the Lent in Florence, and promised 
 that he should not be compelled to quit it before 
 
236 
 
 GENERAL AMNESTY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 Easter. The discerning among the party of the 
 Medici were fain to be content with this result, for 
 they indisputably were better oS under the shelter 
 of the amnesty law, advocated by Savonarola, than 
 they would have been under a one-sided govern- 
 ment, if firmly established by the extreme democratic 
 section, apart from a superior influence. The one 
 desire of Savonarola was, to make Florence, by a 
 well-regulated political freedom, a true Christian, a 
 Divine State, which should esteem the law of God 
 as the basis and standard of all ordinances. Animated 
 by this sentiment, he laboured incessantly for the 
 general peace and amnesty, as the beginning of a 
 State life worthy of Christians. 
 
 ' Thou knowest,' he would say, ' thou knowest, 
 Florence ! what the reason is on which I would 
 establish this peace — it is because thou shouldst be 
 a Spiritual State. I have always shown to thee on 
 clear grounds that a kingdom is so much the stronger, 
 the more spiritual it is, and so much the more spi- 
 ritual, the nearer it relates itself with God. But 
 with God no one can have communion, who makes 
 not peace with his neighbour ! ' 
 
 In what manner Savonarola thought of his present 
 and future position, and of his relation to the papal 
 chair, will be best understood by an extract from a 
 sermon which he preached on February 17, 1495, in 
 reference to the proceedings between the Pope, him- 
 self, and the authorities of Florence. 
 
 ' All things, according to Scripture, must serve 
 to the good of the elect of God (and I see that there 
 are many of them in Florence), so then also the 
 present troubles. You have given me a proof of 
 your love, in that you have this morning saluted 
 me on the open place, with a psalm of the royal 
 Prophet, and offered yourselves to make a guard 
 around me, that I may not be put out of the way. 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 A PARABLE. 
 
 237 
 
 But, my beloved, we stand here, surrounded by the 
 host of angels to contend against the devil and bad 
 men — what need then have we for a further guard. 
 No ! we are joyful and certain of victory. But de- 
 ceive thyself not, O people of Florence ! So long as 
 thou continuedst to live in thy old way, more in a 
 continuous service of ceremony than of a true service 
 of God, then hadst thou no opposition to fear — but 
 now that the eyes of men are open to the light of 
 eternity, spiritual wickedness will also augment, and 
 the contest continue with greater severity. But it is 
 certain, that the more the measure of wickedness be- 
 comes full, the more your redemption draws nigh, 
 for God will punish the wicked and renew his Church. 
 And the more we grow and increase in good, the 
 sooner will the seed be prepared which God keeps 
 for renovation. You wish to know why I lately sus- 
 pended preaching, and at the same time left my post? 
 Many say, oh ! we know it well — there is an excom- 
 munication come which has forbidden you to preach. 
 And were it even so, which thou wilt not be able to 
 show, dost thou not then remember what I said to 
 thee, that if even one such came it would count for 
 nothing, and would not help the dealers in lies ? 
 Hear a parable. A citizen had a fine vineyard, 
 which, by the good government of his son, brought 
 much fruit. Some robbers in the neighbourhood 
 had a great desire to plunder this property. But rs 
 the son guarded it from them, they wrote to his dis- 
 tant father that the son was a glutton, and a drunk- 
 ard, and ruined his father's possession. They also 
 sent at the same time several persons who had the 
 ■ appearance of respectable people, and who should 
 confirm this. The father, who at a distance could 
 not have ocular evidence of his son's work, believed 
 the false statements, and called his son away — but 
 the son, who clearly saw the vineyard in that case 
 
238 
 
 APOSTROPHE TO GOD. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 must go to wreck, did not obey, but wrote back to 
 his father that he was accused and intrigued against 
 by calumniators. Tell me, does this son appear to 
 thee to have acted well or ill ? according to, or 
 against the intention of his father ? Thou, who 
 writest so many lies to Rome, what wilt thou now 
 write there ? That I have said, that they shall not 
 obey the Pope, and that I will not obey him ? Tnily, 
 were the Lord of the vineyard here and saw the 
 fruits, he would set little value on what thou writest, 
 especially if he knew who thou art. One speaks to 
 God with the heart, for God is a Spirit, and dwells 
 in the hearts of believers, and sees all our thoughts 
 and desires. The tongue also which speaks with 
 God, is the power to put into form the conceptions 
 of the heart, and the sighings of the inner man. But 
 words are just these same conceptions, this holy 
 longing. And because the gifts of grace of the Holy 
 Spirit are not the same, so are also the tongues of 
 the Spirit, which speak to God differently so soon as 
 one is exercised by the Spirit. I will then speak 
 with my God and say thus ; — Lord, I confess that Thou 
 art good, just, and Almighty, and that Thou art my 
 God, who hast made me out of nothing. But I am 
 dust and ashes, and yet will I speak confidently with 
 Thee who wert crucified for me. Forgive me if I 
 should appear too confident, and urgent in my speech 
 to Thee. Thou, O Lord, who makest all things good, 
 hast taken my heart from me, and practised the 
 greatest deception that ever was practised on man. 
 For after I had prayed to Thee a long time that Thou 
 mightest grant me the favour, that I should never be 
 bound to the superintendence over others. Thou hast 
 done quite the contrary, and by degrees drawn me 
 unawares to the place wherein I now stand. In 
 short, I long for a quiet life — but Thou must bring 
 me forward as the biid is caught with the lime twig. 
 
ClI. VIII. 
 
 DEFIANCE TO SATAN. 
 
 239 
 
 Had I seen this, perhaps I should not stand here 
 where now I stand. It has happened to me as with 
 the fly, which aims at the light, and where it sees a 
 blazing light flies to it, not knowing that it bums, 
 and so singes its wings. Thou hast shown me thy 
 light, at which I rejoiced ; and as it was told me it 
 was good to spread this light for the salvation of 
 souls, I have come to the fire and have singed my 
 wings. Yes, I am come to a deep sea, and long 
 now for the haven again, and look everywhere around 
 me, and see no possibility of returning. I will say 
 to Thee with Jeremiah the prophet ; Lord, Thou 
 hast persuaded me, and I have let myself be per- 
 suaded. Thou hast been too strong for me, and 
 hast conquered. But I on the other hand have 
 become daily a scoff, and every one derides me. 
 (Jer. XX. 7.) Now, Lord, because Tho\i knowest that 
 I sail on so deep a sea, let thy will be done ! But 
 I pray. Lord, for this one favour, that I may always 
 think on death with the firm hope of thinking on Thee. 
 For as the covetous man fears no danger, either by 
 water or land, because the treasure always floats in 
 his heart, and before his eyes ; and a^ lovers fear 
 neither the dangers of night, nor any shame, because 
 of the violent ardour which they bear in themselves 
 — so, O Lord, will I, if Thou givest me the living 
 knowledge of the glory which Thou hast prepared for 
 thy elect, fear no danger on the sea of this world, 
 but stand finn and joyful in the midst of all troubles. 
 Now, Lord, I am then contented with this way to 
 which Thou hast now persuaded me — for it is full of 
 sweetness and piety. I thank Thee that Thou hast 
 thought me worthy to make me an arrow in thy 
 quiver, and to make me like Thee through sorrows 
 and troubles. So now come forth, thou Satan ! 
 Awaken thy strength, set all thy tools in motion — 
 
240 
 
 WHO TROUBLED ITALY ? 
 
 B. in. 
 
 prepare all thy members against me, I fear not the 
 least — for he who does not fear death, what shall he 
 fear beside ? Hear, says the devil, I will give thee 
 good counsel — do not stir the sore place, wouldst 
 thou live in peace. I desire not thy counsels and 
 tliy peace — for thy peace is no peace, and thy war 
 breaks not my peace. I know well, that if I went 
 lo court and flattered the great masters of this world 
 — if I punished not the vices of the monks and 
 clergy, I should fare easier. I know well, men can 
 do me much evil — but all men are vanity, lords, 
 kings, emperor and pope, and therein are all alike. 
 They live, indeed, a time, and can indeed in their 
 time do much. But man vanishes like an image — • 
 the image in the mirror is an entirely fleeting thing 
 — for when the man removes from the mirror the 
 image is likewise departed. So when God turns away 
 his face and withdraws his life-giving presence, the 
 man is out of the world, as the image is out of the 
 mirror. And therefore I fear no man, for I fear not 
 the image, but him whose image it is. . . . Many say 
 I have brought Italy into confusion — and this has 
 been openly said to me. O ye foolish ! who has 
 bewitched you, that you have not listened to the 
 truth ? Where are then my troops, my treasures, 
 with which T have troubled Italy ? No, T will answer 
 you, as Elias answered Ahab on a similar charge ; I 
 have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's 
 house — for ye have left the commandment of the 
 Lord, and have followed Baalim, t have not trou- 
 bled Italy, but ye have done it, who liave left God, 
 who have despised the baptism and the holy blood 
 of our Saviour, who have trafficked with his sacra- 
 ments, who have wasted the heritage of his Church 
 on harlots and panders, who practise no justice, op- 
 press the poor, who are full of pride, ambition, envy, 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 VICTORY IN DEATH. 
 
 241 
 
 bate,- and are guilty of all filthy and unmentionable 
 crimes, and so openly commit all these things, that 
 heaven and earth cry for vengeance ! ' 
 
 Savonarola employed the liberty which was now 
 accorded him, to preaching on the book of Job — and 
 avoided as much as possible givnng occasion to new 
 accusations. He therefore forbore at the commence- 
 ment of the course from all political and polemical 
 digressions ; confining himself within the limits of his 
 subject, not however without reference to the pub- 
 licly understood fundamental principle of all his 
 discourses — Reform of the public and civil life in 
 godly fear, and the restoration of a mutual under- 
 standing and general peace. Frequently, however, 
 had he to complain that his Florence, ungrateful to- 
 wards God, would not follow the warning voice, and 
 blindly resisted to her ruin. And yet he sought 
 only her advantage, unceasingly and at every sacri- 
 fice, while he feared neither danger, nor the displea- 
 sure of the great, nor the hate of the crowd. There- 
 fore he was willing to persevere till the end, and 
 prayed all who followed, to pray for him, that God 
 would endow him with a full measure of power, to 
 speak only for the welfare of the city, and the gene- 
 ral good ; warning them that they might never give 
 due attention to his words, if they proceeded on pas- 
 sion, and not on the highest motives. The lukewarm 
 in the Church he spared not — and turned from them 
 to God. ' Yes, Lord ! ' he exclaimed, ' I turn to 
 Thee ; let me be 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. "VVe 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.' 
 
 We need not wonder that the powers of this world 
 
 Y 
 
242 
 
 THE POPE AND THE PRELATE. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 were troubled by the assertion of such principles, 
 seeing that these are the very spell-words by which 
 they shall be eventually shaken, that the way may 
 be prepared for the reign of Christ upon earth. An- 
 noyed as Alexander VI. was by Savonarola's teme- 
 rity, prudence suggested that he should avoid pro- 
 ceeding to extremities against a man so learned, 
 pious, eloquent, and influential. Indeed, might he 
 not make of him a friend instead of an enemy ? — or 
 might not other means be devised which, without 
 implicating the papal chair, would suffice to silence 
 or remove him ? These must be tried. 
 
 One day, accordingly, the Pope sent for a bishop 
 of the Dominican order, and said, ' I desire, that as 
 a brother of the same order, you will answer the ser- 
 mons of Savonarola, and controvert effectually their 
 arguments.' 
 
 The caution of the prelate was equal to that of the 
 pontiff, and he seems also to have had an advantage 
 in possessing what the latter wanted — a conscience. 
 
 ' Holy father ! ' (responded the bishop,) ' I am 
 prepared to fulfil your commands ; yet permit me to 
 remark, that if I am to vanquish him, I must be sup- 
 plied with arms.' 
 
 ' Arms ! — what arms ? ' — exclaimed the astonished 
 pontiff. 
 
 'This monk,' — continued the bishop, — 'says we 
 ought not to keep concubines, commit simony, or be 
 guilty of licentiousness. If in this he speaks truly, 
 what shall I reply ? ' 
 
 ' What then must we do with him ? ' enquired his 
 holiness. 
 
 ' Reward him,' answered the prelate ; ' give him a 
 red hat — make of him a cardinal and a friend at 
 once. Send to him Ludovico, a man equally learned 
 with himself, and let him argue with Savonarola, not 
 forgetting, as his strongest argument, this offer — to 
 
CH. VIII. 
 
 TEMPTATION PROJECTED. 
 
 243 
 
 be promised, on condition that he abstains from pro- 
 phesying, and retracts what he has said and written.' 
 
 With this advice, Alexander VI. was well pleased, 
 and gave directions for carrj'ing the same into imme- 
 diate execution. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CITATION TO ROME. 
 
 Florence and Pisa — Domestic policy of former — Savonarola's 
 letter to Charles VIII. betrayed to Alexander VI. — Pope's 
 citation — Savonarola's sickness — Suspends and resumes his 
 pastoral duties — Social Reforms — Increasing reputation — 
 Singular Carnival — Auto da fe' of works of art, &c. — Inju- 
 rious consequences — Self-examination — The troubler of 
 Italy ? — Ludovico. 
 
 Charles VIII. having taken Naples, the Floren- 
 tines naturally expected the restoration of Pisa, 
 which the French, however, still continued to besiege. 
 The Pisans, on the contrary, wroth at their depen- 
 dency on Florence, and groaning under oppression, 
 still iterated the promise of the king that, after his 
 withdrawal, they should he free. This double- 
 minded conduct of the French monarch, which even 
 his historian and, in part, companion, Philip de 
 Comincs, openly censures, and cannot excuse except 
 on the score of pity to the Pisans, occasioned in 
 Florence much disaffection, which grew to indignation, 
 when the Pisans, at the commencement of the year 
 1495, obtained the assistance of the French in oppo- 
 sition to some warlike luidertakings of the Floren- 
 tines. At one time, accordingly, they refused, except 
 
CH. IX. SAVONAROLA RESISTS CHARLES VIII. 245 
 
 conditionally, the subsidies they had promised ; and 
 assuredly would have been followed by the other 
 states and powers of Italy, in an insurrection against 
 France, had they not been deterred by hate of the 
 Duke of Milan, and the persuasion of Savonarola, — 
 ■who, in the constant hope that Charles would securely 
 proceed as God's powerful instrument for the Re- 
 formation of the Church, sought to tranquillize the 
 people with the repeated assurance that the king 
 must triumph, and that Florence by remaining true 
 to him, would in that case regain all her lost posses- 
 sions. 
 
 Savonarola had, indeed, maintained a correspon- 
 dence with the conqueror. When Naples prepared 
 to make head against the unbridled, headlong, con- 
 tagious progress of the French, he wrote to the king, 
 maintaining that ' this revolt was the first penal con- 
 sequence of his having violated his word with Flo- 
 rence,' and reminding him afresh, that ' God would 
 by him overthrow all the tyrants of Italy, and after- 
 wards conduct the Turk into Christendom.' He 
 afterwards complained that this letter, with many 
 errors, was circulated, and had reason to dread its 
 reaction upon himself, inasmuch as therein he had 
 declared, that the Church at that time was without 
 any true visible head, Alexander VI. having pur- 
 chased his election by scandalous bribeiy, and having 
 exhibited, as a man, such a degree of turpitude as 
 was inconsistent with the Christian character, and 
 virtually deprived him of all ecclesiastical authority. 
 Charles VIII., whether moved thereto by this letter 
 or not, actually in a manifesto which he afterwards 
 published against Naples, proposed the calling of a 
 general council. On his return from that place, he 
 came into the neighbourhood of Florence, and was 
 visited by Savonarola with an embassy in Poggi- 
 bonsi, for the purpose of impressing upon him em- 
 y 3 
 
210 LETTER TO THE KING OF FRANCE. B. III. 
 
 phatically the duty of dealing well with the Floren- 
 tines, and of freely restoring to them, according to 
 agreement, the possession of Pisa ; adding, that if 
 the monarch did not do so willingly, he would be 
 compelled, amidst severe judgments, by the Almighty. 
 The king pleaded the inconveniences of a camp as 
 the excuse for his breach of contract, and dismissed 
 the embassy with half promises. He had also pro- 
 posed that Savonarola should attend him to Pisa, and 
 negotiate there the demands of the Florentines : this, 
 however, Savonarola seems to have declined, as he 
 returned to Florence, leaving Charles VIII. to make 
 his way to Pisa alone. There the king was welcomed 
 with great pomp and rich gifts, and at the same time 
 assailed with urgent prayers for the freedom of the 
 city. Finding thus, that idle words and pledges 
 never meant to be redeemed, would not content 
 either city ; he disbanded his troops, and left them 
 both to disentangle their own affairs for themselves. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Florence not only the foreign, but 
 likewise the domestic policy of the State, required 
 deep and wide deliberation. Savonarola continued, 
 by his counsels and warnings, to acquire still greater 
 influence. It was at the beginning of the year 1495, 
 that the general amnesty was decided, and a law 
 made, that persons accused of political offences should 
 have a right of appeal to the Great Council. In con- 
 sequence of a sermon of Savonarola, the twentj' 
 Accoppiatori, to whom hitherto as formerly the pos- 
 session of the highest offices was entrusted, after the 
 precedent of Giuliano Salviati, laid down this dignity 
 in the May of 1495, whereupon, on July 1, the 
 deficiency in the number of the elected was supplied 
 by the Great Council itself. 
 
 About this time, the letter from Savonarola to the 
 King of France was opened by foreign hands, and its 
 contents disclosed to the Pope, who for a while dis- 
 
CII. IX. 
 
 Savonarola's sickness. 
 
 247 
 
 guised his resentment, but with crafty hate deter- 
 mined to neglect no opportunity of getting the writer 
 into the snares which henceforth he laid to entrap 
 him. On July 21, Savonarola received a papal cita- 
 tion, in which it was stated, that ' his holiness had 
 with joy and gratitude to God, received information 
 that Savonarola had, with other labourers, shown 
 himself especially active in the vineyard of the Lord. 
 Nor did the Pope doubt but that he I'ightly employed 
 the power of the Divine Spirit for the salvation of 
 the common people. But it had at the same time 
 been reported to him, that Savonarola predicted 
 future events, and this not by his own human 
 wisdom, but by means of Divine revelation ; — 
 hence he desired, as it belonged to his pastoral office, 
 to speak with him on the subject, in order, if it was 
 of God, to be better acquainted with him ; and com- 
 manded him therefore, by the power of holy obe- 
 dience, to come as soon as might be to Rome, where 
 he would receive him with paternal love.' 
 
 This once. Providence delivered Savonarola. The 
 exertions to which he had submitted had now affected 
 his health. He was in the hands of his physician, 
 and obedience to the citation was impossible, except 
 at peril of his life. In the judgement too of all re- 
 spectable and good citizens, his continued presence 
 in Florence was at present expedient, for the per- 
 fecting of political arrangements yet in their infancy. 
 He therefore printed for the further information of 
 Alexander VI. what he had often declared touching 
 the chastisement of Italy, and the renovation of the 
 Church ; and accompanied the document with an 
 humble request that the Pope would accept his 
 apology, and an assurance that as soon as impedi- 
 ments were removed, he would hasten to gratify his 
 desire. In the mean time, owing to his indisposition, 
 he was unable to preach from July 23 to October 1 1 . 
 
248 
 
 DOMENICO DA PESCIA. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 It was reported, that he had all this time been pro- 
 hibited from preaching — but this was not the fact. 
 No prohibition had arrived even up to the middle of 
 the next year. — ' Perhaps j ou imagine,' he then said, 
 in a sermon, ' that I have received the command of 
 the Pope not to preach. I will relieve you from the 
 doubt — no command of the kind has come to me ; 
 but I have written to him. Moreover you may know, 
 that under the present circumstances such a command 
 could not be given, because it would be useless. On 
 this, some will say, that you cannot judge. I an- 
 swer : if the matter is in itself clear, it needs no 
 further judgement. For there is not even a woman 
 who cannot see that such an order would extend to 
 the ruin of the city. Assuredly, if I were in doubt, 
 whether such an order were, or not, to the prejudice 
 of the vineyard, I must yield to higher judgement — 
 but I am clear on the point. I cannot believe that 
 such an order might come ; for I know that they 
 have understanding, and believe not false representa- 
 tions. I have written that I cannot do it, and have 
 set forth such reasons as cannot be objected to. 
 Should the pope, however, follow the false represen- 
 tations of the pharisee, and command me not to 
 preach, then I would obey not the word, but the 
 purpose ; for such a command lies not in the purpose 
 of the Pope when he is falsely informed. I believe 
 not, that the Pope will do it, when he knows that it 
 will prejudice the vineyard — 1 believe not, that he 
 is of such a wicked disposition.' 
 
 Meanwhile, the place of the master orator, in the 
 pulpit of San Marco, was supplied by one Domenico 
 da Pescia, who, as a brother of the same Order and 
 his great admirer, had, according to his ability, prac- 
 tised himself in the spirit and style of Savonarola's 
 preaching. Savonarola himself was employed in 
 composing his celebrated Compendium Revelntionum ; 
 
ClI. IX. 
 
 COMPENDIUM RliVELATIONUM. 
 
 249 
 
 a compilation of the contents of his sermons on the 
 subject of the impending chastisement of Italy, and 
 the renovation of the Church ; — and also a second 
 polemical essay in refutation of Astrology. 
 
 The first production was a work of self-defence. 
 Many who attended his sermons took written notes, 
 which from haste were not only incomplete, but 
 inaccurate. Others, from misunderstanding, reported 
 his discourses witli additions and omissions, and had 
 even in this manner already printed and published 
 them. Of this he complains. ' Since,' says he, 
 ' Almighty God may no more tolerate the increasing 
 transgressions of Italy, especially those of its spiritual 
 and political heads, He has resolved to redeem his 
 Church by means of great chastisements. For the 
 salvation of the elect. He has permitted nevertheless 
 this scourge to be announced, that they miglit pre- 
 pare themselves with confidence. Florence, as the 
 heart of Italy, has been chosen for this announce- 
 ment, that therefrom it might be spread abroad.' 
 
 Whether the author in this work has vindicated 
 himself so well to this age, as to his own, may be 
 disputed. The visionary character of some portions 
 of this and other works, by the sceptical taste of later 
 times might be disrelished. But if Fancy is ever 
 tlie mother of deep Truth, she was such in the case 
 of Savonarola. . . . What if he speaks of apparitions 
 and revelations, of immense red and golden crosses 
 in the sky — of unearthly voices, exhorting and re- 
 proving him — he was justified in such imaginations, 
 by the belief and practice of his Church, and aff'ected 
 therein no singularity ; not to mention that such 
 phenomena in the pious mind are capable of rational 
 explanation, both physically and metaphysically. 
 Wherever he turned the leaf to read, or his eye to 
 look, he met with such sensuous embodiments of 
 
250 
 
 ANTICIPATION OF PERFECT MAN. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 eternal verity, while, at the same time, in worldly 
 experience, he was stimulated, by the presence of ex- 
 traordinary crime and evil, to those moral and con- 
 ditional denunciations, which are legitimately per- 
 mitted to every spiritual professor, and are in their 
 nature prophetic, though not so popularly understood. 
 Vulgar belief carries the gift beyond moral limits, 
 into the intellectual, even into the physical — and 
 such also was the creed of the Church. In all this 
 we should recognize no more than an anticipation of 
 the excellence of which man, when complete in all 
 his powers — when the lower perfectly represent the 
 higher — may be capable. How near Savonarola was 
 to this perfection, we know not ; enough for us, that 
 he sincerely believed himself authorized in what he 
 said and did. It is therefore, without any repug- 
 nance, that we read in the Compendium such pas- 
 sages as these : — 
 
 ' O people of Florence ! if I have predicted any- 
 thing as from God which has not been true, if the 
 apostolic censure of me is valid, and if I deceive any 
 one ; in order that you may be illuminated by the 
 truth, pray to God. that He would send fire from 
 heaven to consume me in presence of you all, as I 
 also pray our Lord, three in one, whose body is in 
 this most holy sacrament, that He would send death 
 upon me in this place if I have not preached the pure 
 and holy truth. I received these future tilings by 
 another light than the interpretation of Scripture, 
 which words are not taken from the sacred writings 
 (as some think), but have nevertheless lately come 
 from heaven. I said that the Florentines had yet to 
 pass through many waters, and would have other 
 trials ; that Italy, and especially Rome, would fall, yet 
 never saying by whom or when, or in what manner.' 
 
 Most of the sermons are to us at this time very pro- 
 
CH. IX. 
 
 A HOLY rOPE. 
 
 251 
 
 lix, abounding in illustrations drawn from ancient 
 notions of natural philosophy, and they are often 
 thrown into tlie form of familiar dialogues. 
 
 * God will send a holy pope, this or another, for 
 He can make holy whom He will. — Oh ! what 
 thinkest thou brother, dost thou think it will be this 
 pope or another ? I think it will be another ; I do 
 not by this assert that the good man will come im- 
 mediately after the present, I say neither yes nor no, 
 because I am not sent to tell this. Have you seen 
 him, brother ? have you see him ? I will tell you the 
 truth, it does not appear to me that I have ever seen 
 him. Well then, brother, whence does he come ? I 
 do not know whether he is Italian or French, or 
 Florentine, or from some other place. Would to God 
 that I did know, I would go to visit him ! Thou 
 wouldest go, perhaps, that he might give thee a red 
 hat ? You do not understand ; I explain to you, 
 there will be no such times as these, then, nor so 
 many red hats, nor so much pomp, but bishoprics 
 and cardinalates shall be avoided in those days,' In 
 another sermon he gives the reason for his silence on 
 the first announcement of the pontifical displeasure. 
 ' As I saw my leaving the city would occasion the spi- 
 ritual and temporal ruin of the people, I would obey 
 no living man who commanded me to go, both be- 
 cause such command would be contrary to the Divine 
 will, and because 1 should presume this was not the 
 intention of my superior, knowing that I should 
 rather obey the intention than the words.' 
 
 Sometimes he descended to very minute particu- 
 lars, upbraiding his auditors with the little use they 
 had made of all their advantages. He says, ' Truly 
 you ought already to be saints, having heard so much, 
 yet it appears to me you will not understand ; for 
 instance, those women have much lukewarmness yet 
 about them, those T mean who seem spiritual, and 
 
252 
 
 REFORMATION OF THE TIMES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 then buy a veil to wear on their heads, which costs 
 two ducats, so that you pretend to have turned and 
 repented, but it is not so.' 
 
 The second work was directed against an error 
 which Savonarola had often attacked in his sermons. 
 So widely spread was it among all ranks and classes, 
 that it threatened not only to stigmatize a particular 
 age, but to prejudice religion and Christendom. The 
 late Count Pico della Mirandola had written an im- 
 portant and vehement work against it. Savonarola 
 wished to make the contents of that more learned 
 treatise generally available, by a popular mode of 
 treatment, while he endeavoured to prove that Astro- 
 logy was false, superstitious, and contrary to the 
 Christian religion, — that it had been strongly con- 
 demned by the Church, and was utterly scorned by 
 philosophy. 
 
 When Savonarola, on October 11, re-entered the 
 pulpit, he thus greeted his hearers : — 
 
 ' Now have we permitted the body to repose a 
 little, and purpose in the first place two things ; — 
 one to strive, and not to cease again from striving 
 until death, but then to conquer, because the work of 
 Christ must always conquer. Doubt not, even if I 
 should die, that even in this way we should finally 
 conquer. And were it so, like the Hydra of the 
 poets, whose head when smitten ofi' grew again seven- 
 fold, even so would God waken up others. But we 
 have this morning appeared anew on the plain of 
 battle, for the purpose of ascertaining how the troops 
 stand, and whether all things be fit to recommence 
 the war.' 
 
 Savonarola had, in fact, to prepare for new strug- 
 gles, not only against foes abroad, but traitors at 
 home. Men had, indeed, listened to his admoni- 
 tions, and their reformation seemed to have begun 
 in earnest. The cultivation of the silk and cotton, 
 
CH. IX. 
 
 AGONISTIC HEROISM. 
 
 253 
 
 branches of industry which had been much neglected 
 in corrupt times, again received attention. Every 
 one desired to lend a hand in promoting the general 
 prosperity. They abandoned their games, and said 
 to every censurable practice, It is forbidden ! ' Won- 
 derful thing !' exclaims an Italian writer, ' that in a 
 moment such a change of customs should take place!' 
 One mischievous sport, di trare i sassi il carnescialle, 
 annually entailed death on some who engaged in it, 
 and yet was so much beloved by the people, that the 
 magistrates had always failed in every attempt at its 
 prohibition. But now, in consequence of Savon- 
 arola's influence, it was abandoned ; and, at the festi- 
 val time, in which it was usually played, a patricide, 
 with a few mediatory words, was seen imploring the 
 prayers of the good. Such were the symptoms of 
 moral reform, so far as it had already been effected. 
 But how difficult it is to restrain men within the 
 bounds of moral order, and preserve them within the 
 sheepfold of spiritual discipline ! Though the in- 
 fluence of Savonarola's preaching had not been with 
 itself suspended, yet w^as his voice needed to enforce 
 the lessons that he had so energetically given. Men 
 require precept upon precept, line upon line, living 
 example, and the stimulus of agonistic heroism, as if 
 the great and good were but actors upon the world's 
 stage, for the incitement of indolent and undeveloped 
 humanity in the world's theatre. Laws had been 
 passed in Florence for the suppression of injurious 
 crimes, and the promotion of beneficial objects and 
 good manners. It was not long before the continual 
 evil of man's heart, in significant murmurs, and by 
 anonymous threatenings, evinced the desire of re- 
 taliation. But these were soon put down by the 
 voluntary service of individual enthusiasts, while the 
 gaming and drinking-places were abandoned by in- 
 dustrious artizans, and respectable citizens. The 
 
 7. 
 
254 
 
 DISCIPLES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 advent of the year likewise was distinguished by a 
 peculiar abstinence from sensual enjoyments, and 
 celebrated with such an abundance of fasts, that even 
 Lent itself elsewhere scarcely exhibited any thing 
 resembling it. 
 
 Abroad the reputation of Savonarola so much in- 
 creased, that many strangers, not only from the cities, 
 but from the countries and mountains round about, of 
 Bologna, Lucca, Prato, and Pisa, where he had like- 
 wise preached, came to Florence to hear him. In 
 fact, the ample Duomo had scarcely room to contain 
 the crowded audience ; for youths above twelve years, 
 who were permitted to attend, they were forced to 
 construct along the wall, on both sides and opposite 
 the pulpit, a sort of amphitheatre of benches and steps, 
 in order to increase the accommodation of the body of 
 the church. 
 
 The greatest perils of a teacher of truth commence 
 with his popularity, and increase when he acquires 
 disciples. A man who once has disciples is in their 
 power ; either they deny or betray him, or, with the 
 best intentions, misrepresent him. There were three 
 monks of his order who seemed desirous of sharing 
 the celebrity of Savonarola — the above-named Do- 
 menico da Pescia, Thomas Bussino, and Silvester 
 Maruffi. These men were of course inferior to their 
 master in knowledge, and in their zeal accordingly 
 less discreet. It liappened that Savonarola had formed 
 into an order a number of noble youths. Domenico 
 da Pescia was appointed to provide them with ser- 
 mons, and indeed to order the whole ; Savonarola, 
 from his many occupations, not having leisure per- 
 sonally to superintend them. They were marshalled 
 under certain leaders or watchers, had arbitrators 
 among themselves, correctors, almoners, lustrators to 
 purify such holy things as had been defiled or dis- 
 carded, and inquisitors. 
 
CM. IX. 
 
 EXTREMES BEGET EXTREMES. 
 
 255 
 
 The following are the rules drawn up for the 
 guidance of this youthful order : — 
 
 ' Every youth who washes to be a son of Jesus 
 Christ and a disciple of Father Girolamo and of his 
 doctrine, must diligently observe the commandments 
 of God and of the holy Roman Church, must be con- 
 stant at confession and communion, fervent in solemn 
 prayer and at preaching ; must not be found at public 
 worldly spectacles, such as theatres and masquerades. 
 Their clothing should be simple, according to the 
 condition of each, without slashings or other vanities. 
 They should cut their hair close about their ears ; 
 avoid games and bad company like serpents ; never 
 hear or read impure books, either in their own lan- 
 guage or in Latin ; should shrink from lascivious 
 poets as from deadly poison, and occupy themselves 
 on festivals with divine things, not going to schools 
 for fencing, dancing, singing, or playing.' 
 
 In a sermon already quoted, the reader will recol- 
 lect that Savonarola had called upon his hearers, not 
 only to surrender the luxuries of life, but even such 
 works of the poets, and such specimens of art, as 
 were in the least tainted with immorality There was 
 an excess in this, which is only to be justified on the 
 principle that one extreme generates another, and 
 that in his time an evil existed, only to be effectually 
 met by asserting the opposite principle in its most 
 rigid simplicity. An eesthetic cultivation had received 
 the utmost encouragement, and yet had fallen short 
 of securing religious excellence. Savonarola was well 
 acquainted with the fact, and his own mind had been 
 initiated into all the refinements of literature, poetry, 
 and art. Tn all this, however, there was something 
 wanting ; they had failed to satisfy the higher wants 
 of his own nature, quite as much as to effect the 
 nobler reform of the city, to the legislation of which 
 he had been appointed. It was natural therefore for 
 z 2 
 
256 
 
 JUVENILE REFORMERS. 
 
 B. nr. 
 
 such a mind to believe, that an ascetic piety was 
 needful to counteract the corruption vphich a polite 
 philosophy had left untouched. His followers would 
 be inclined to go further than this ; less generously 
 educated, and misapprehending the liberal arts, they 
 would be apt to ascribe to them the very corruption 
 which they had failed to cure. Nor must it be for- 
 gotten, that sometimes they have been enlisted in the 
 service of vice, and employed to pollute the mind. 
 Such men as Domenico da Pescia, — simply enthusias- 
 tic, and ignorant that the arts are so many degrees of 
 developement, and responsible only for what they do, 
 and not for what they leave undone, and that the 
 above-named exceptions to their general tendency are 
 perversions of their current, and not its uniform action, 
 — will push ascetic practices into violent collision with 
 more elegant accomplishments ; not seeking charita- 
 bly to supply their deficiencies, but unfortunately op- 
 posing their legitimate influence. What we have now 
 to relate comes in illustration of these remarks. 
 
 Giuliano Salviati, one of the Piagnoni, who had 
 acquired considerable notice by his resignation, was, 
 as a follower of Savonarola, not only well inclined to 
 carry out any design of Domenico da Pescia that 
 seemed to agree with his master's doctrines, but able 
 to give thereto the sanction of government, being 
 Gonfaloniere in the year 1496. Thus encouraged, the 
 order of youths above described, under the direction 
 of the disciple just named, became guilty of an ex- 
 travagance which has brought some discredit on their 
 master's cause. From the time of the Advent to the 
 time of the carnival, instead of the usual games and 
 shows, troops of children, in orderly procession, divided 
 into bands, were seen at different quarters of the town, 
 each directed by a leader chosen from among their 
 own number. These juvenile reformers, under the 
 orders of Piagnoni, were charged with the expul- 
 
CH. IX. CARNIVAL-DRAMA. 257 
 
 sion from Florence of all obscene books, whether in 
 Italian or Latin, wanton statues and pictures, and all 
 other lascivious works of art, — whatever, in fact, 
 contributed to lust and prurient appetite. Animated 
 with this sacred project, these different regiments of 
 young apostles went from house to house, and after 
 stigmatizing all objects of censurable luxury they 
 could discover with the title of anathema, and other- 
 wise condemning them in the name of God and his 
 holy Church, proceeded with much courteousness of 
 manner and many prayers, to request that such arti- 
 cles might be delivered to them for destruction ; on 
 the receipt of which they spake on the house a brief 
 blessing, prepared for them by Domenico da Pescia, 
 and departed. Between the Advent and the carnival 
 an immense number of wanton pictures, costly chess, 
 dice, toys, cards, guitars, mirrors, perfumes, cosmetics, 
 indecent pictures, profane works (including even the 
 works of Boccaccio, the Morgante, books of dreams 
 and magic), were collected. It had been customary 
 during carnival to erect certain cabins in the market- 
 places, to set them on fire on the eve of Ash-Wednes- 
 day, and bid them farewell amid the shouts of con- 
 vivial mirth and the frolics of amorous dalliance : 
 accordingly, when the day of carnival arrived, as a 
 substitute for this spectacle, a pyramid composed of 
 the matters just enumerated was erected, and forth- 
 with surrounded by the immense crowds who receive 
 gratification from public shows. The hero-bands of 
 juvenile regenerators are also there, and the magis- 
 trates of Florence, in solemn state, to preside over 
 the ceremonial sacrifice. Psalms and spiritual songs 
 are sung ; and while the voice of pious harmony floats 
 on the air, the pile is fired, and the collection of las- 
 civious items blazing up in the face of offended heaven, 
 until the whole is consumed to ashes, and the re- 
 conciled power looks down on the expiring flames, 
 z 3 
 
258 
 
 CONTEST OF PRINCIPLES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 With them — so deemed the magistrates of Florence, 
 no less than those young enthusiasts — vanity was also 
 extinguished, and the city, in consequence, would be 
 restored to godly simplicity. 
 
 Thus begun the carnival. During its progress 
 there were many repetitions of the act on a small 
 scale. Children and common people were wont to 
 amuse themselves at this festival with throwing stones 
 at passengers and each other, or erecting ' still,' — long 
 pieces of wood crossing the streets like a toll-bar, at 
 which they levied contributions from all who wished 
 to pass through, and spent the money in a riotous 
 supper, or made bonfires, which usually occasioned 
 many fights ; but now they devoted the money, 
 voluntarily contributed, to ' Monti di Pieta ;' con- 
 sequently these institutions became so prosperous, 
 that the Jews, who had lived by usury, were almost 
 driven out. Sometimes a splendid image of the 
 infant Saviour was carried on a pedestal of gold by 
 four beautiful boys, twelve supported a canopy over 
 it, others followed in pairs, singing psalms and hymns, 
 and even facetious invectives against the carnival ; 
 they were attended by almoners, who collected more 
 then than in all the year besides, by men with red 
 crosses, by girls and women. After parading in pro- 
 cession round the Duomo, four of the leaders would 
 kindle the pile of vanities, amid the music of trum- 
 pets, fifes, and cornets. 
 
 This contest between the aesthetic and ascetic prin- 
 ciples was dangerous, inasmuch as both parties could 
 only exist by asserting extreme opinions that admitted 
 of no compromise : it was easy also for the enemies 
 of Savonarola to take advantage of such an incident. 
 The juvenile order that had so prominently figured 
 in this carnival-drama incurred considerable derision 
 at its first formation ; and to the contempt thus ex- 
 pressed were now added the complaints of those who 
 
CH. IX. 
 
 SELF-EXAMINATION. 
 
 259 
 
 regretted the loss of so many treasures of art and 
 articles of value. Soon came rumours of plots, and 
 threatening letters directed against the life of Savona- 
 rola. The Ten of the Balia, which consisted of the 
 signory and the college, issued a public caution against 
 any attempt of the kind ; a number also of his ad- 
 herents acconipanied him whenever he went to or 
 returned from Fiesole, armed for his protection : even 
 on his way from San Marco to the Duomo, he was 
 often surrounded by hundreds of his friends. 
 
 Savonarola, however, did not make so much ac- 
 count of this new opposition as others ; he preferred 
 making it a motive for self-examination. ' Whence,' 
 he demanded, ' is this vehement opposition on all 
 sides against one insignificant individual ? I said in 
 my heart. Perhaps thou hast not well considered thy 
 way, that thy tongue has uttered error ; therefore I 
 will prove all things first, whether I had perhaps 
 erred in the sufficiency of human knowledge. Yet 
 because solicitude on this account seemed unneces- 
 sary, I said, for such error I will not afflict myself, 
 since it endangers not salvation, and in heaven we 
 shall be gifted, in addition to all we now know, 
 with a wisdom better than all knowledge. But, I 
 said, perhaps thou hast erred in the matter of faith ; 
 yet on this side also I found my path holy, pure, and 
 blameless, since I have always believed, and do believe 
 all things that the holy Roman Church believes, — 
 have always submitted myself to her, and do even now 
 submit myself to her. Moreover, I thought whether 
 I had erred in something that I had prophesied ; but 
 in this also I found no error, because I had foretold 
 in word and writing, only what was given to me by 
 Him who erreth not. Therefore I go further, to 
 ascertain whether my desires be free from vanity, 
 pride, and covetousness, or whether I preached any 
 thing from such motives ; and through the grace of 
 
I 
 
 260 PAPAL CAUTION. B. III. 
 
 the Lord, I have found that I have preached for his 
 honour and the welfare of souls. Moreover I have 
 not found that any where an unworthy desire or 
 inclination, or at any time anger or hate against my 
 adversaries, moved me to preach. For (not to gain 
 renown, but to speak the truth,) I can assert that I 
 feel not the slightest pique or hatred against them, 
 but lovingly pray to God that He will guide them to 
 the light of truth. And after I had so found all the 
 ways pure, I said. Lord ! consider also further my 
 ways.' 
 
 Whatever peace, however, Savonarola might win 
 for his soul, his enemies would not permit his bodily 
 estate to remain in quiet ; he had to contend against 
 both often-repeated and novel accusations. The rest- 
 less agitation of political circumstances in Florence, 
 and indeed all Italy, was even imputed to him, as 
 partly at least the cause or occasion of it. ' It is not 
 I who have disquieted Italy,' he replied, ' but you 
 who have forgotten your God, who have despised the 
 sacraments and trafficked with his ordinances, who 
 have given his inheritance to harlots and panders, 
 and, instead of practising justice, have oppressed the 
 poor, being full of arrogance, fraud, envy, hate, lust, 
 and all turpitude ; all which things you so publicly 
 do, that heaven and earth cry out for vengeance. It is 
 not I who have disquieted Italy. No ; I have only 
 announced that the punishment which shall shake 
 Italy will not delay.' 
 
 If, however, the question yet remains to be de- 
 cided as to who had been the real troubler of Italy, no 
 question exists but that Italy is troubled ; not only 
 the monk Savonarola, but Pope Alexander VI. is 
 conscious of that alarming fact. Means must there- 
 fore be taken to settle the agitation, so far as the 
 prophet of Florence is concerned. But his holiness 
 has determined to proceed cautiously ; and accord- 
 
CH. IX. 
 
 TEMPTATION RESISTED. 
 
 261 
 
 ingly, in pursuance of the Dominican bishop's advice 
 before mentioned, Fra Ludovico arrives in Florence, 
 and seeks the cell of Savonarola. 
 
 Kindly the submissive monk, receives the pontiff's 
 messenger, becomes his host, and for three days listens 
 to his arguments ; but remains unconvinced. As the 
 crowning proof, the cardinalate is proffered. ' Come,' 
 said Savonarola, ' to my sermon to-morrow morning, 
 and you shall hear my answer.' 
 
 Thus invited, the guest attends the church at the 
 time appointed. What is his wonder when, instead 
 of any intimation whereby he might suppose that the 
 splendid offer of the pope was welcome to the speaker, 
 he heard more violent denunciations than ever fulmi- 
 nated from the pulpit of San Marco ? ' No other red 
 hat,' exclaims the preacher, ' will I have than that of 
 martyrdom, coloured with my own blood.' 
 
 ' Verily,' said Ludovico, ' this is a true servant of 
 God ;' and returned to Rome. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SECOND CITATION. 
 
 Political changes — Emperor Maximilian — Alexander VI. — 
 Au uidividual Pope fallible — Savonarola sarcastic — Cited 
 a second time to Rome — Papal brief — Savonarola's defen- 
 sive epistle — Addresses the people by command of the 
 Signory — Increased extravagances at the carnival of 1497 
 — Spiritual dances — Signs and wonders. 
 
 It is related, that, when at his first preaching, in the 
 year 1489, under the Damascus roses in the garden 
 of San Marco, the laity became urgent for freer ac- 
 cess ; Savonarola, one Sunday evening, in answer to 
 repeated applications, directed his audience to pray 
 until the next for direction from Heaven, when they 
 would know what ought to be done. On the fol- 
 lowing Sunday, they demanded the response. * It 
 is,' replied Savonarola, ' the will of God that I should 
 for the future expound in the Church, and that I 
 shall continue to do so for eight years.' 
 
 Seven of these eight years have now almost passed, 
 and much anxiety is naturally felt for the verification 
 of this prediction. The aspects of things have already 
 suffered considerable alteration. Till the beginning 
 of the year 1496, the respectability of the popular 
 party in Florence had increased, and had, as it ap- 
 
ClI. X. 
 
 liMPEUOR MAXIMILIAN. 
 
 2(i3 
 
 pears, .ittained its highest point, when Francesco 
 Valori was named Gonfaloniere for the months of 
 January and February in this year. Among the insti- 
 tutions and regulations which were made at this 
 period for the security of the republic from without, 
 as for the strengthening of it within, a law was made, 
 according to which, all young men of twenty-four 
 years of age should be admitted to the Great Coun- 
 cil, while formerly the requisite age was fixed at 
 thirty years. They hoped thus, by the greater num- 
 ber of members, to meet in the best manner all the 
 party divisions against the interest of the Great Coun- 
 cil. But the result showed how much they had mis- 
 calculated. Long ago, in particular, a large propor- 
 tion of the young men had already come forward in 
 open hostility to the adherents of Savonarola, more 
 from opposition to their moral severity than their po- 
 litical principles. By this law, the young men had 
 now the fullest opportunity of thwarting the spiritual 
 reforms, by which they had been so much annoyed. 
 Bernardo del Nero, a decided adherent of the Medi- 
 cean party, was consequently named to succeed Fran- 
 cesco Valori, as Gonfaloniere, and ever after there 
 also remained to this party so decided an influence 
 in the Great Council, that the most zealous of them 
 began privately to cherish hopes of bringing back 
 Pietro de' Medici to Florence. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Emperor Maximilian, induced by 
 Ludovico Sforza of Milan, in secret collusion with 
 Venice, had passed the Alps, to form commercial 
 relations in Upper Italy, and to draw the lesser prin- 
 ces, as well as Florence, from their alliance with 
 France. As soon as the latter had heard of the ar- 
 rival of the Emperor, orders were immediately given for 
 making of the haven of Livorno, in spite of all im- 
 pediments, and the continued war with Pisa, since 
 they were determined, as much from distrust ot" 
 
264 
 
 POPULAR MUTABILITY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 Milan and Venice, as in consequence of Savonarola's 
 warnings, to remain true to the alliance with France. 
 From Pisa, whither the Emperor had gone as feudal 
 lord, there came ambassadors to Florence with the 
 royal intimation, that they should lay aside their 
 mutual enmities until the matter was brought before 
 the proper tribunal, where it would be decided with 
 the greatest justice. Though Florence was in such 
 difficulties, standing by itself against so many ene- 
 mies, yet the answer given to the Emperor signified 
 that they would only concede his former demands, 
 on condition that the city should be re-instated in its 
 rightful possessions, which they might confidently 
 expect from the Emperor's justice. He, on the other 
 hand, had reckoned on unconditional submission to 
 his decision, and determined thereon to exert force of 
 arms, and attack Livorno by land and water. Al- 
 though they had little to fear from the Emperor's 
 scanty military powers, this was nevertheless occasion 
 enough for the enemies of the ruling party to publish 
 the most unfavourable and exciting rumours, as at 
 the same time a great dearness prevailed, and the 
 desired supplies from France were longer in ariiving 
 than they expected. Of the latter circumstance, ad- 
 vantage was taken to prejudice public opinion against 
 Savonarola, who, it was now clear, said his enemies, had 
 beguiled the people. At last there came some French 
 vessels, which, besides provisions, brought a sup- 
 ply of men ; and, with a favourable vnnd, which held 
 back the Imperial ships from preventing them, ran 
 into the harbour of Livorno. The news of this was 
 heard with joy in Florence. They saw therein at 
 once a sign of Divine aid, when all human support 
 failed, and at the same a confirmation of Savonaro- 
 la's sayings, which before they had been taught to 
 suspect. During these anxieties, he had indeed con- 
 soled the people with great promises ; but the joy 
 
ClI. X. UNCONSCIOUS SUPERSTITION, 
 
 265 
 
 was still further increased, when a violent storm so 
 injured his ships, that the Emperor was compelled to 
 break up the blockade. 
 
 In spite of persecution and opposition, and not- 
 withstanding his recent illness, Savonarola was now 
 in the flower of his activity. Not only had his 
 attractive eloquence procured for him a crowd of 
 admiring hearers, but he had scattered abroad the 
 genuine and vigorous seed of everlasting life ; and 
 thereby exerted such influence, that its effects are 
 almost incredible. But they are well attested by 
 contemporary witnesses, and acquire, besides, proba- 
 bility from the nature and character of the eloquence 
 itself. Words have an incalculable power, and sucii 
 words as his, so full of confidence, uttered without 
 dread or doubt, had a vital and generative energy, 
 and fell on the undisciplined mind, like dew on thirsty 
 and arid land, which eagerly sucks in the heaven- 
 descended blessing. His contemporary, Nardi, says 
 wisely, ' The severe times which Italy then suffered, 
 inclined men to faith ; and the monstrous crimes that 
 prevailed, especially in the Court of Rome, formed 
 the best commentary on the prophecies of Savon- 
 arola. This was the reason why his fame from day 
 to day increased. Many foreigners and illustrious 
 persons came from afar, either to hear or see him, 
 partly from devotion, partly from curiosity. . . The 
 consequences of his preaching were extraordinary, 
 and the hearers were aflecfed according to their dif- 
 ferent mental conditions. Ordinances and laws were 
 made for restraining vice and promoting morals, so 
 that at his suggestion, men in Horence then lived, 
 whether from the fear of God or of the laws, like 
 Christians indeed, if compared with earlier times, or 
 those that next succeeded.' 
 
 That there was much that must be declared un- 
 conscious superstition mixed up with this religious 
 
 A a 
 
266 
 
 PAPAL CONVICTION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 movement is to be regretted ; yet it was unavoidable, 
 since the purification of mankind can only proceed 
 by degrees, and both the teachers and the taught 
 have equally to free themselves from the fetters that 
 have been forged for ages. If Numa had his nymph 
 in the Egerian grotto, in like manner it was thought 
 by some of the people of Florence, that Savonarola 
 was visited in his cell by an angel or spirit, from 
 whom he learned the wonderful things in which he 
 instructed them. When accused by his enemies of 
 having maintained secret consultations with such a 
 mysterious visitant, he jestingly replied, ' that they 
 might have the door watched, and so satisfy them- 
 selves.' It was in a similar manner that he answered 
 doubts as to his prophetic character, alleging that he 
 never asserted it — but that if he had done so, he 
 should have been warranted, since his predictions had 
 been verified, and there was and could be no law to 
 prohibit the profession of prophecy. If, also, he 
 were justly charged with censuring the clergy, from 
 the meanest to the greatest indiscriminately, he might 
 justify himself by the example of St. Paul, who had 
 publicly censured the Apostle Peter himself, and by the 
 judgement both of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. 
 If, again, he had painted the corruption of Rome in 
 strong colours, he referred the objectors to the early 
 popes, in whose rude courts better breeding and man- 
 ners prevailed, than in the more polished ones of 
 modern times, and when the pontiffs lived simply, 
 and bestowed the superilux on the poor. 
 
 Tlie miscarriage of Ludovico's mission not a little 
 disturbed the mind of Alexander VI. He even seems 
 to have caught a glimpse of the eminent virtue of the 
 man, who had rejected with scorn the splendid bribe 
 for which others had risked the greatest dangers, 
 and even dared the most monstrous crimes. ' Yes,' 
 said the Pope to Ludovico, ' he must be a true 
 
Cil. X. 
 
 PAPAL FALLIBILITY. 
 
 2G7 
 
 servant of God. Nothing of good or evil that man 
 may do, can move him from the position wherein he 
 has confirmed himself. Let him be ! ' 
 
 Ere long, news arrived in Rome, that Savonarola 
 had been expounding Psalm Ixxx., in a discourse 
 which exceeded all his former sermons in giving 
 offence, as it contained much vehement and biting 
 sarcasm, a weapon with which he had not yet assailed 
 the clergy and Pope of Rome. Nay, he had fre- 
 quently before publicly expressed a hope, that the 
 Pope would disregard the misrepresentations of his 
 enemies, and not prohibit him from preaching. Yet 
 he had always added, that if such an injunction should 
 be laid on him, he would rather considt its meaning, 
 than obey its words. For he must needs assume 
 that the Pope had been falsely informed, and misled 
 by others, if he gave judgement counter to the true 
 state of affairs. ' Therefore,' he proclaimed frequently 
 and emphatically, ' if the commands of superiors con- 
 tend with the Divine decrees, no one is bound by the 
 latter to observe the former — nay, in that case, the 
 observance would be sin. Should the Church com- 
 mand anything against the law of love, then say I — 
 Thou art not the Roman Church, nor a shepherd of 
 the same, but a man, and dost err ! ' 
 
 We have already seen Savonarola asserting his own 
 infallibility against that of the Pope. He now ad- 
 vances a step further. While retaining it for him- 
 self, he is prepared to deny it to the temporary holder 
 of Saint Peter's chair. The combat thickens ; in a 
 word, Savonarola is now compelled to discriminate 
 strongly between the Roman Church and the person 
 who may represent it. 
 
 Accordingly, even while declaring that he had 
 written no evil of the person of the Pope, he zealously 
 exclaims, ' Write to Rome, that the Pope can help 
 the Church, if he but will to do so. Even in this way 
 A a 2 
 
268 SUSPENDED FROM PREACHING. B. III. 
 
 let him, by his good example, admonish her to be- 
 take herself to penitence. Tf he ask thee — What 
 says he of my life ? — answer — Nothing! Knows he 
 of it ? Verily, right well ! Tell him, that he should 
 so influence men by example and precept, that they 
 may be converted. If that is impossible — there is 
 no other safe way. That is what we have to say to 
 the Pope ! ' 
 
 Savonarola was now advancing rapidly towards a 
 conclusion, fatal, if admitted, to the claims of the 
 present Pope — no other than that laid down by 
 Augustine, and repeated by Wicklitf in these words : 
 ' No one in mortal sin hath a true dominion over any 
 of the creatures, apud Deum, in the sight of God — 
 but deserves to be called a tyrant, thief, or robber, 
 although by reason of human law he retain the name 
 of a king, a prince, or a lord.' Savonarola was not 
 ignorant, neither are we, of the life led by Alexander 
 VI. — there could be no question in his mind, and 
 can be none in ours, whether he were living in mortal 
 sin. By this, his right to power was virtuallj' for- 
 feited — whether it should be actually, was a matter 
 of expediency, the determination of which must be 
 left to Providence in the disposition of events, and 
 the inter-action of moral forces. This forfeiture 
 Savonarola was now declaring. The combat thickens 
 still more. What chance has the servant of Christ 
 with Satan, incarnate on the throne of Christ ? 
 
 About the middle of October, 1496, Savonarola 
 received a second Citation from Rome, wherein indeed 
 he was apparently treated with even greater forbear- 
 ance than in the first ; nevertheless, it contained the 
 long-expected Decree that suspended him from 
 preaching. ' Already,' thus ran the document — ' had 
 the Pope early expressed his displeasure at the com- 
 motion in Florence, which was principally occasioned 
 by Savonarola's constantly preaching against vices, 
 
CH. X. 
 
 THE PAPAL BKIEF. 
 
 269 
 
 predicting the future, and maintaining that his know- 
 ledge came by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 
 He should iiave considered, that such doctrines fitted 
 very different temporal circumstances, ai)d led to dis- 
 sensions, even where perfect peace reigned. Con- 
 sequently, he was invited to Rome for maturer dis- 
 cussion, that he might justify himself in many points, 
 the burthen of which lay upon him. The Pope, 
 accordingly, had with joy understood from his letters 
 that he, as beseemed a good Christian, submitted 
 himself in all things to the usages of the Roman 
 Church ; in order, however, that so weighty a matter 
 might not be idly conducted, he had resolved once 
 more to write to him, and command him, by the force 
 of his holy obedience, to suspend henceforth, pub- 
 licly and privately, all preaching, till he could se- 
 curely, conveniently, and decently appear in Rome ; 
 on which the contents of the accompanying Brief, 
 with all clauses, should be again withdrawn.' 
 
 Such was the citation : the Brief which came with 
 it was addressed to the prior and convent of San 
 Marco, and couched in a very different tone, as the 
 following version of it will show. 
 
 ' His holiness has understood, that a certain Hie- 
 ronymus Savonarola, lately of Ferrara, had found 
 pleasure in destructive doctrines, and from the altered 
 circumstances of Italy, had wandered so far, that he, 
 without all ecclesiastical confirmation, and against 
 all canonical ordinances, publicly gave forth, that 
 he was sent from God, and had communication 
 with Him — yea, had published the blasphemous de- 
 claration, that Christ and God themselves erred, if 
 he spake untruth. By long indulgence the Pope had 
 hoped he would have been induced to inspection, 
 and have retracted his rebellious words, even would 
 have shown himself humbled and dependent, for that 
 through craftiness he had compassed the separation 
 A a 3 
 
270 
 
 LETTER TO THE POPE. 
 
 B. nr. 
 
 of his cloister from the Lombard superiors. But all 
 hope has been disappointed, since not only has he 
 disobeyed the written summons to appear in Rome, 
 but has daily given great offence, both by speech 
 and writing. Forasmuch, henceforth, the general 
 vicar of the Lombard congregation of his Order was 
 authorized to inquire into and decide the matter. 
 But Savonarola is meanwhile to withdraw himself 
 from preaching. Moreover, the remaining brethren 
 of the cloister of San Marco, at Florence, are ad- 
 monished to incorporate themselves again with the 
 Lombard congregation. Domenico da Pescia, Thomas 
 Bussino, and Silvester of Florence, on the other hand, 
 shall leave the cloister, and betake themselves to 
 Bologna. All this, — under threatening of excom- 
 munication in case of disobedience.' 
 
 Such was the brief, affecting not only the person 
 of Savonarola, but rendering nugatory the scarcely 
 instituted reform of his cloister, and stifling again 
 the kernel of the seed of a new life, under the negli- 
 gent discipline of the general congregation. In a 
 long letter to the Pope, therefore, Savonarola sought 
 in the first place, most of all, convincingly to prove the 
 injustice of the accusations raised against him, as also 
 the inadmissibility of the consequences deduced from 
 them. Against the accusation that he was devoted 
 to new destructive doctrines, he remarks that it was 
 universally and publicly known, that he preached 
 only the Holy Scriptures and the fathers. Besides, 
 he had declared often, that he submitted himself in 
 everything to the holy Roman Catholic Church. But 
 to predict future things, was neither a new doctrine 
 nor forbidden in the Church, so far as it offended not 
 against faith and good morals. Further, the decla- 
 ration was false, that he was induced thereto by tlie 
 change of things in Italy — since he had preached this 
 longer than five — nay, even ten years. He had never 
 
CH. X. 
 
 VINDICATION. 
 
 271 
 
 said that he was sent by God, and spake with God, 
 as all who heard him could witness. Moreover, even 
 this was not punishable or forbidden, even if he had 
 said it, for no one would be so foolish as to publish 
 such a prohibition, since God can speak with whom 
 He will. But in the proposition, if he lied Christ 
 also lied, there was nothing at all blasphemous, since 
 he had never spoken it unconditionally, but only to 
 the establishment of a Christian truth. It was false 
 that he had said, that not to believe his declaration 
 was a sin — what he had said was, that a stiff-necked 
 rejection of that which he had announced, according 
 to a superior assurance, was a proof of a disposition 
 of a mind not in a state of grace. It was utterly in- 
 capable of proof, that he gave himself out for a pro- 
 phet, since he himself had often declared the contrary. 
 Besides, there was no law, and could be none given, 
 which should condemn him who dared to prophesy 
 the future from a higher impulse — so that he did 
 not lead the people astray, under this mask, to what 
 was bad and to heresy. As to the separation of the 
 cloister of San Marco, this was not asked for by some 
 brothers only (who, besides, were very unjustly de- 
 scribed as bad men, since they had the best character 
 in the whole city), but was demanded by all, for the 
 purpose of living according to stricter rule. Besides, 
 the separation was not obtained by craft, but after 
 long and open negotiations. But, even if the charge 
 was made against him, that he had not appeared in 
 Rome according to summons, he had in a former 
 letter given the reasons, which are here repeated, that 
 it was impossible. He must, therefore, suppose that 
 his enemies had concealed that letter. At the same 
 time, Savonarola complains that the investigation and 
 decision of the matter had been given over to the 
 general- vicar of the Lombard congregation ; for noto- 
 riously, since that separation, very violent contests 
 
272 
 
 SAN MARCO. 
 
 B. 111. 
 
 had arisen between both parties, when the general- 
 vicar had shown himself particularly hostile. But to 
 appoint an enemy for the judge of any one, was 
 against all Divine and human rights. Finally, as to 
 the re-incorporation of the Lombard congregation, 
 the object could only be to improve the former. But 
 this was impossible in such a way, since in San 
 Marco they lived according to a much stricter rule 
 than in others — from whence more inconveniences 
 would arise. As everj-thing, therefore, they had told 
 his holiness was proved false, he must believe that 
 the order given cannot be observed, and that the 
 effect should cease when the causes were removed. 
 He hopes, therefore, for the revocation of the Decree. 
 Moreover, the Pope might send one of his faithful 
 men for the investigation, or state particularly what 
 he wished retracted. 
 
 By all this, Savonarola believed that he had done 
 enough, and hoped the Pope would, after viewing 
 the true state of affairs, decide suitably to the dignity 
 and justice of the apostolical seat. But to justify 
 particularly the public opinion, in relation to the re- 
 incorporation of San !Marco with the Lombard con- 
 gregation, and to avoid as much as possible all 
 calumnies, he published at the same time a separate 
 writing of vindication — wherein he sought to prove on 
 clear grounds, that such a re-incorporation was not 
 only unreasonable, unprofitable, and even prejudicial, 
 but wholly impossible, according to the constitution 
 of the order, and the nature of the case. Neither the 
 brotherhood of San Marco, nor of the Lombard con- 
 gregation, could benefit thereby. On the contrary, 
 the separation had proved very advantageous to 
 the first, which had increased both in number and in 
 discipline ; but by the re-incorporation it would be 
 liiudered in the observance of its strict rule, without 
 being able to influence the rest in their lives. To 
 
CH. X. 
 
 DISCOURSE TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 273 
 
 enable them to do this, a decided credit and spiritual 
 preponderance would be wanted, before the others 
 would submit to it with love and reverence. This, 
 however, could be scarcely conceded to the, for the 
 most part, younger brothers of San Marco — while 
 those opposed to them would be little pleased with 
 such influence. It appeared, therefore, that a dis- 
 turbance of the peace that now existed, with many 
 corrupt consequences, would succeed the granting of 
 the proposed re-incorporation. 
 
 Having dispatched his vindication to Rome, Sa- 
 vonarola would willingly have retired from the pul- 
 pit, at least for a season, but the Signory directing 
 him to deliver a discourse to the people, his intention 
 was so far overruled. ' I come,' he declared, ' to 
 ■warn you again to repentance, though we say nothing 
 more, but shall let God's justice rule. But to obey 
 the illustrious Signory, I come forth this morning ; 
 yet I will not preach, but say a few words to the 
 wicked, who maintain, — now know we certainly that 
 we have been beguiled. Let us see if you are as 
 sure of your cause as I am of mine. I am certain 
 that the truth I have preached to you comes from 
 heaven, and that it is sure and undeceptive. Trust 
 me that I see where I am, and that I should now be 
 humanly offending against standard rules, if I were 
 not certain of the truth. But with God's affairs one 
 must not jest. Thou, Florence, sayest, We are cer- 
 tain — I say to thee, that I am certain thou wilt end 
 ill if thou changest not. I have said it to thee — now 
 look thou to it. I will remain in my cell, and fear 
 nothing.' And further, with increasing vehemence, 
 ' Were the power given to me with which the Lord 
 said to the accusers of the adultress — He who is with- 
 out sin amongst you, let him throw the first stone at 
 her — had I the power of look from which all must 
 withdraw themselves one after another, who had a bad 
 
274 
 
 CARNIVAL AGAIN. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 conscience — how few would remain here ! Had I 
 the power to say, He who in the magistracy has God 
 and the general good before his eyes, without regard 
 of person and the people's favour, let him remain 
 here — how few would remain ! And if I with this 
 power could say — He who never practises unchastity 
 or shameful vices, let him remain, and the rest with- 
 draw—how many would go, and how few remain !' 
 
 The ensuing Advent and Lent (that is, from Nov. 
 27, 1496, till Easter 1497), Savonarola preached as 
 usual in the chief church. His subject was the pro- 
 phet Ezekiel ; but these sermons, as the editor him- 
 self remarks, are greatly abridged in the taking down, 
 so that they scarcely give an adequate representation. 
 In single passages, however, even here Savonaro- 
 la's meaning and spirit is not to be mistaken. Still 
 his advice is peace, and the forgiveness of all former 
 injury — with the punishment of unchastity, of 
 gaming, and other open vices. Still he vehemently 
 denounces the unbridled life of the clergy, who 
 sinned from wickedness, while the people so lived 
 only from ignorance, and by reason of their example. 
 But on one point he goes further than ever he 
 went before. ' There have been,* says he, ' many 
 bad popes, and Boniface VIII. was a dealer in the 
 black art !' 
 
 Now, too, Savonarola took a more decided part in 
 the proceedings which Domenico da Pescia had in- 
 stituted at the carnival of last year. The master felt 
 himself pledged to the act of the disciple. Again, 
 therefore, a large scaffold was erected in the market- 
 place, a vast number of the finest specimens in paint- 
 ing and sculpture, offensive from their nudities, were 
 collected ; the pictures placed on the first step ; the 
 sculptures, especially when portraits of first-rate Flo- 
 rentine belles, disposed on the second ; the whole 
 inclosed by foreign precious tapestry ; and that, with 
 
CH. X. 
 
 POPULAR EXCITEMENT. 
 
 275 
 
 great solemnity, set on fire. The scaflFolding of this 
 year excelled the first in magnificence ; its gorgeous 
 apparel invested the busts of the most celebrated 
 beauties of former years ; those of the Bencina, Lena 
 Morella, Bina and jMaria de' Lenzi, works of the 
 most eminent sculptors ; on it was placed a copy of 
 Petrarca, decorated with gold, missal-painting, and 
 miniatures, estimated at fifty scudi d'oro ; and to pre- 
 vent theft, the whole was constantly guarded. The 
 procession approached, surrounded the scafibld, and 
 amid a concert of consecrating hymns, bells, trum- 
 pets, cymbals, and the acclamations of the Signory 
 and the people, the victims, sprinkled with holy 
 water, were delivered to the flames by the torches of 
 the guards. Such was the epidemic influence of 
 this enthusiasm, that even artists, the gentle Fra 
 Bartolomeo, Lorenzo di Credi, and many more, caught 
 the infection, and contributed to the sacrifice. 
 
 The excitement attending such exhibitions now 
 rose to an unparalleled height. The poetic life that 
 Savonarola had commenced in the garden of San 
 Marco, he evidently wished to see brought forth into 
 the public streets ; and to substitute all profane cele- 
 brations by religious ones, he desired to inscribe on 
 the meanest things, Holiness to the Lord. He called, 
 therefore, frequent meetings of the people, and en- 
 couraged at them what he denominated spiritual 
 dances, accompanied with hymns, chiefly composed 
 by Girolamo Benivieni, one of his disciples. The 
 Piagnoni would rush from the churches and the con- 
 vents to join in these sacred exercises, shouting 
 ' Viva Christo ! ' leaping and dajicing in exultation at 
 the thought of the Messiah's approaching reign, some- 
 times in a circle composed of a monk and a citizen 
 alternately, singing spiritual songs composed for the 
 occasion. Undeterred by papal censures, men and 
 women of all ranks crowded to receive the sacrament 
 
276 
 
 SIGNS AND WONDERS. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 at the hands of Savonarola, though by so doing they 
 quitted the pale of the Romish Church. Yet these 
 successes were not obtained without vehement oppo- 
 sition ; perpetual changes in the municipal govern- 
 ment occasioned corresponding variations in the power 
 of the Piagnoni. War threatened from abroad ; dis- 
 contented clamours disturbed the state ; famine and 
 disease exasperated the miseries not only of Florence, 
 but of all Italy ; so that there was every where a dis- 
 turbed and timid spirit, equally prone to violence and 
 superstition. Guicciardini, writing of this period, 
 says, ' Astrologers predict great and more frequent 
 alterations, more strange and horrid circumstances 
 than have been seen for many years in any part of 
 the world. In Puglia by night three suns appeared 
 in the midst of the heavens, surrounded by clouds, 
 with terrific thundering and lightning. In Arezzo, 
 during many days, there passed visibly through the 
 air innumerable armed men, upon immense horses, 
 with a fearful uproar of drums and trumpets. In 
 many parts of Italy the statues evidently sweated ; 
 monsters were born, and many other things took 
 place, contrary to the course of nature.' Ignorant 
 fanaticism, savage fighting, dishonourable intrigues, 
 detestable licentiousness, characterized the dark age 
 in which Savonarola and his followers groped their 
 way among a thousand obstacles towards the dim and 
 distant light of civil and religious freedom. Much 
 was effected in reviving a sense of religion ; but the 
 political tumults in Florence were little short of the 
 horrors of internal war. The Compagnacci ranged 
 the streets ready to snatch at every pretext for a 
 quarrel ; and either inflicted summary punishment on 
 their adversaries by their own swords, or dragged 
 them to a hasty and partial tribunal for the semblance 
 of justice. In some obscure quarter resounded the 
 cry of ' Palle, pulle ! ' where the Medici, too few to 
 
on. X. vioLENa' fanaticism. 277 
 
 be the assailants, were yet too brave to be offended 
 with impunity. The very children assembled at the 
 hour when Savonarola passed from San Marco to 
 preach in San Liperata ; and in their baby rage, 
 mocked and threw stones at each other, the Piagnoni 
 raising the accustomed shout, ' Viva Christo ! ' These 
 infantine warriors drew grave men into their contests. 
 Giuliano Ridolfe, one of the most honourable citizens 
 of Florence, rushed out furiously, on one occasion, 
 from a neighbouring house, into the midst of the 
 rioters, with an axe on his shoulder, shouting, ' Viva 
 Christo ! " 
 
 Bb 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EXCOMMUNICATION. 
 
 Savonarola appeals to the princes of the earth for a council of 
 the Church — Ludovico Sforza — Letter to the Pope from 
 the Signory — Machiavclli to a friend. — Conspiracy to re- 
 store the Medici — Execution of conspirators — Savonarola 
 insulted while preaching — Riots — Excommunication pro- 
 nounced — General interest excited. 
 
 It is rightly remarked by Savonarola's latest bio- 
 grapher, that ' he had to contend with three enemies, 
 who had now come forth against him in visible oppo- 
 sition — servility, lasciviousness, and crime.' He had 
 declared war on all three : their antagonism was but 
 reaction. The blow he had dealt was mortal, but 
 not immediately so ; even while dying they had 
 power to wound, nay, to kill. They were the demons 
 that respectively possessed the popular mind, the 
 Medicean party, and the papal chair. If in the battle 
 he committed some errors, we must recollect that 
 those spiritual influences which had seduced others, 
 left himself not untempted ; that he had to contend 
 against them as much in himself as in others. There 
 was a spell cast over Florence, over Italy ; by which, 
 while dissipating it, he was surrounded. It required 
 strong virtue to breathe at all in the polluted atmo- 
 sphere ; things good in themselves had been per- 
 verted by it. Poetry, which he had so much loved 
 
CH. XI. 
 
 COUNCILS. 
 
 279 
 
 and had so well practised ; art which, in its legitimate 
 uses, he could not but have honoured, — all had been 
 led by infernal agency to pander to the lusts of the 
 flesh, the world, and the devil. Above them all, 
 above all external manifestations, — even Vocal Prayer 
 itself, — he had ever set the mind, the soul, the spirit 
 whence they emanate ; and where there was a ten- 
 dency to substitute the processes and their results for 
 the agent of which rightly they are but ministers, he 
 hastened to condemn it. Should he now forbear, 
 when means had been mistaken altogether for ends, 
 and the salvation of the race of man was not only 
 endangered, but suspended, — while heaven was la- 
 menting and hell rejoicing — Christ absent from his 
 Church, and Satan present in the consecrated place ? 
 God forbid ! 
 
 Of all things most repugnant to the ears of popes had 
 ever been the mention of a Council : such assemblies 
 had maintained their credit with princes and states, for 
 the very reason that the chair of St. Peter was always 
 disinclined to them. They militated against the infa- 
 mous dogma perpetually propounded, and thus ex- 
 pressed by Bellarmine, that ' it is altogether a matter 
 of necessity for every human creature to be subject to 
 the pontiff,' and that ' though the Catholic faith 
 teaches that every virtue is good and every vice evil, 
 yet if the pope should fall into error by commanding 
 vices or prohibiting virtues, that then the Church 
 would be bound to believe that vices were good and 
 virtues evil, unless she wished to sin against con- 
 science j for the Church is hound in doubtful things 
 to acquiesce in the judgement of the pope, and to do 
 what he commands, and not to do what he prohibits ; 
 and lest by chance she should sin against conscience, 
 she is bound to believe good what he commands, and 
 bad what he prohibits.' Now of all popes whatever, 
 Alexander VI. had most need of such a dogma for 
 B b 2 
 
230 
 
 EPISTLES TO CHRISTIAN IMUNCES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 his defence, and was the least prepared to meet an 
 assembly of the Church. Princes, in their contests 
 with the papal see, were desirous of the corroboration 
 of spiritual authority, and a council was just the sort 
 of ally that they required. Such was the dread felt 
 of a council in the court of Rome, that the mere ap- 
 prehension of it, on a subsequent occasion, had the 
 effect of reducing the price of all vendible offices ; 
 and at the time of which we are writing, it would 
 doubtless have shaken the state of things altogether, 
 and given a very different hue to the history of suc- 
 ceeding periods. Clear enough it is, that Alexander 
 VI. wished to get lid of the thought that there 
 existed such a living adversary and invincible witness 
 as Savonarola ; but Savonarola had ventured on a 
 step which precluded all compromise. Foreseeing 
 that the court of Rome and the corrupt clergy would 
 never undertake their own reformation, he felt driven 
 to the adoption of the only means by which the nobler 
 and abler sons of the Church, since the beginning of 
 the century, had seen the only chance of deliver- 
 ance—an appeal to the assembly of a free Christian 
 council — that the business might be laid to the heart 
 of the principal princes of Christendom, as the pro- 
 tectors and supporters of the Church. Accordingly, 
 in the beginning of the year 1497, Savonarola wrote 
 letters to the kings of Spain, France, Hungary, Eng- 
 land, and the emperor of Germany, wherein he la- 
 mented the necessities of the Church, and invoked 
 them, in the name of God, not to neglect their duty 
 as Christian princes. Fortunately two of these let- 
 ters are extant, one to the emperor and the other to 
 the king of Spain, both involving the reasons why 
 the matter between him and the pope had become 
 now an affair of life and death. 
 
 ' We have ' (so run these important epistles) ' the 
 gracious f)i"omise of God from old time, that ' he will 
 
CH. XI. DUTY OF PRINCES. 281 
 
 do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his ser- 
 vants the prophets ' (Amos iii. 6). But now God 
 has in our time resolved to exercise mercy and justice 
 on the earth, in that He will punish the sins and 
 abominations which reign in his Church, drive out 
 from her courts her polluted servants, restore the bride 
 of Christ to her ancient beauty, and convert the unbe- 
 lieving to the one right faith. Albeit, kings and princes, 
 ye build externally the Church, and make good 
 laws ; yet what avails it if within there are those 
 who corrupt every thing, and even spurn her whole- 
 somest ordinances ? The fall of that which is built 
 on the ground must be so much the greater when the 
 ground itself is undermined. But God has aimounced 
 among others this mercy to me, his unprofitable ser- 
 vant, that he will renew his Church by many trials ; 
 and I have therefore for eight years, in the heart of 
 Italy, loudly called all to repentance, and have la- 
 boured to set forth the Christian faith in the fulness 
 of its glory-. Therefore I have now come into many 
 dangers and difficulties, which increase daily ; but 
 they are sweet to me through the love of Christ ; for 
 I know that this is nothing new, but that ever since 
 the days of the Apostles, all who wish to live godly 
 in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution. I have 
 called ; repent ye, that the whole world, that all peo- 
 ples might return to God. But now that the time of 
 vengeance is near, the Lord has commanded ine to 
 cry more fervently, that I may declare in what dan- 
 ger the Church is placed by the sins of the people 
 and the negligence of princes, on whom above all lies 
 the obligation of not forbearing those who lay waste 
 the vineyard of God. For it is commanded to all to 
 be zealous for the cause of the Lord, but to princes 
 in particular, who, by leaving these abuses unpun- 
 ished, and acting as if they saw them not, bring a 
 heavy judgment on themselves ; since they thus them- 
 B I) 3 
 
282 
 
 ALEXANDER VI. NO POPE. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 selves cherish and favour the sin, and make it ripe 
 for destruction, as we now see it in the case of the 
 Romish Church, in which there is nothing sound 
 from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. 
 And yet ye sit quiet, and adore the abomination and 
 disease which is enthroned on the lofty seat of St. 
 Peter, and thence shamelessly spreads itself every- 
 where. But God, who abhors this thing, has already 
 scourged the Church, and left it to be without true 
 shepherds and leaders, and now wills that all should 
 come to the light. Know, then, I most emphatically 
 give you assurance, by the authority of the word of 
 the Lord, that this Alexander the Sixth is no pope, 
 and cannot be recognized as pope, not only because 
 he has bought the papal chair with scandalous simony, 
 not only on account of his many public vices, but on 
 account of his secret scandalous actions, which at 
 fitting time and place we will bring to light. Yes, I 
 say to you that he is no Christian, and believes in no 
 Almighty God. Therefore, ye princes and kings, ye 
 defenders of the Christian state, I adjure you, that 
 setting aside all secondary views and private disputes, 
 ye cause a great Council to be held, at any fitting 
 place, that Christianity may be freed from such a 
 plague and such an offence ; and I offer myself not 
 only to represent the matter before the holy council 
 with unanswerable proofs, but also no ways doubt 
 that God will confirm with miracles what is under- 
 taken to his honour. So now despise not the com- 
 mand of God, but put on the armour of Christ, that 
 when ye have first overcome the worst enemy of 
 the Lord, who is in the Church itself, ye may the 
 easier conquer the unbelievers who are without ; 
 which victory God will certainly give you, as the 
 reward of your endeavours. The Lord Jesus Christ 
 grant you his spiritual mercy and eternal happiness ! ' 
 Such was his appeal ; it was a serious step, nor 
 
CH. XI. CROWS AKD HATS IX DANGER. 283 
 
 waited long for its answer. Among all the enemies 
 of Savonarola none was more bitter than Ludovico 
 Sforza. As an instance of his enmity, this man once 
 wrote to Savonarola, that ' his views regarding Pisa 
 were as good as frustrated.' Savonarola had by his 
 political principles and influence on the people, pre- 
 vented Giovanni Pier Francesco de' Medici, to whom 
 Sforza had given his sister, the princess of Imola and 
 Forli, to wife, from obtaining, in spite of his powerful 
 adherents, any important influence in Florence ; be- 
 sides, whilst poets and orators compared LudoWco 
 with the gods, Savonarola had in prophetic spirit said 
 to him, ' The hens will come and eat up the fox.' 
 Ludovico, who burned with rage and fury, at first 
 treated with assassins to remove Savonarola, and then 
 spread rumours among the Franciscans to undermine 
 his importance among the people, but in vain. At last 
 his spies, of whom he kept many on the boundaries for 
 observation of the neighbouring states, succeeded in 
 getting possession of one of the letters that Savona- 
 rola had written to the difierent courts. When Ludo- 
 vico saw the contents, it was clear to him that this, if 
 any thing, must prepare destruction for the meddling 
 monk. He sent this letter to his brother. Cardinal 
 Ascanius, who long since had rancorously intrigued 
 against Savonarola, that he might submit the same to 
 the pope. WLen A scanius came before Alexander VI. 
 he broke into a loud cry, and said, ' We have set upon 
 thee the triple crown, that thou mightest defend the 
 Church ; but days will come when thou shalt be able 
 to find no rescue, and when thou wilt stand in danger 
 of losing thy crown — we, our hats.' The pontiif, quite 
 perplexed, replied, ' How ? What words are these ? 
 What dost thou mean ? ' The cardinal then immedi- 
 ately drew forth from his bosom the letter, and gave 
 it into the hands of his holiness. He read it, and 
 conceived a more than deadly hate against the writer. 
 
284 REFORMATION AND DEFORMATION. E. III. 
 
 But Alexander VI., a master in dissimulation, and 
 especially skilled in making pretence of virtue and 
 lioly aims when he wished to carry out any wicked 
 deed, conducted his proceedings against Savonarola, 
 as if he was doing all for the sake of God's honour. 
 Even before this had a certain Pietro Clerich'ino, — a 
 deserter from the congregation of San Marco, who 
 quickly rose to great dignity in Rome, became doctor 
 of theology, and procurator of the Dominican order, — 
 given to the pope the advice, that he should deliver 
 over to the Tuscan brotherhood twelve cloisters, out 
 of the Roman province, under the pretence of wishing 
 to reform them. This it was thought would fire 
 Savonarola, who had laid nothing more to heart 
 than the purity of this body, whose separation he 
 had effected with so much pains. The advice was 
 well considered, for Savonarola set himself against the 
 reception of the papal brief, and all the others with 
 him ; at the same time, however, stating the grounds 
 why they could not agree to the union, in a separate 
 writing. 
 
 The grounds of which he avails himself deserve 
 consideration, and let us see at once what, according 
 to his views, real reformation was. For imdoubtedly 
 the principles which he thus applied in smaller mat- 
 ters, he would even more strongly have insisted upon 
 in greater, had he been permitted to sj)€ak in the 
 Christian council, an appeal to which he desired. 
 ' First,' says he, ' a little leaven leavens the whole 
 lump ; but here in the cloisters of the Roman pro- 
 vince is not a little, but much leaven ; and not a 
 reformation, but a deformation would come out of it. 
 Every thing depends on what interpretation one gives 
 to reformation ; but now reformation is, both accord- 
 ing to the word and the idea of it, the renewing of 
 the form. But the form of any thing is, according to 
 peripatetic principles, something inward, and no one 
 
CU. XI. 
 
 THE LUKEWARxM NOT SALVAbLE. 
 
 285 
 
 can pass sentence on reformation who has not recog- 
 nized the form itself. Moreover, the natural man 
 receives not the things of the Spirit of God ; it is as 
 foolishness to him, he cannot understand it. They 
 want to reform the position of the cloister only super- 
 ficially and in outward things, which is quite nugatory 
 and void, and not worthy the name of a reformation. 
 Or if they wish really to reform it inwardly, then 
 they must have men full of spiritual life and spiritual 
 experience ; but these are not there at all, for ' those 
 who are shut up are absent, and the residue are con- 
 sumed ' (Deut. xxxii. 36). It is of no avail to put 
 a new patch on an old garment, or to pour new wine 
 into old bottles. Experience also says that lay- 
 men, if they fall into vice, are much more easily con- 
 verted ; monks and clergy, on the contrary, if they 
 have left their first love, scarcely ever return to re- 
 pentance or spiritual zeal : as also Johannes Cassian 
 excellently says, that ' fleshly and cold men, heathens 
 and people of the world, have come to the spiritual life; 
 but we have never seen that lukewarm and natural 
 men have come to the same.' Therefore God also com- 
 mands by the prophets not to strew the seed of the 
 word in an utterly unfruitful soil, but rather to seek 
 out a new unploughed soil ; that is, heathens and 
 men of the world. ' Plough,' said he, ' anew, and 
 sow not among the hedges ' (Jer. iv. 3). A refor- 
 mation will be effected not merely by an outward 
 alteration and augmentation : ' the lives of the apos- 
 tles,' says Chrysostom, ' and not their miracles, have 
 converted the world.' No wise merchant will enter 
 into partnership with failing or bankrupt men. And 
 truly the servants of God must exert themselves to 
 become wiser in things spiritual than the children of 
 this world are in things worldly, that the Lord may 
 not say of them, ' The children of this world are wiser 
 in their generation than the righteous.' And if a 
 
286 
 
 EPISTLE TO THE SIGNORY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 superior requires such from us, then we must openly 
 resist him, as Paul did Peter. (Gal. ii. 11.) Also 
 peace, which is the highest aim of 'every spiritual 
 community, would be quite destroyed by the mixture 
 of so many lukewarm and worldly-minded brothers ; 
 for Cain always persecutes Abel — Ishmael, Isaac — 
 Esau, Jacob — the pharisees, Christ and liis Apostles.' 
 
 Such is the high position taken by Savonarola, the 
 prophet of Florence, against Alexander VI., the pope 
 of Rome. The latter he has convicted not only of 
 error, but crime. He threatens him with further 
 exposure ; he tells him to his face, ' Thou art no 
 pope!' And the incarnate Satan has heard him utter 
 this blasphemy against infernal usurpation, and has 
 taken it to his malignant soul to cherish and to foster 
 it for the season of vengeance. 
 
 It was a fearful time. The days were full of 
 terror, and the nights of awe. The hours were 
 sandalled with expectation, and winged with wonder. 
 Amazement made the cheek of authority pale. The 
 thunders of Rome were hushed, not silenced. An 
 epistle from Alexander VI. had indeed reached the 
 Signory in Florence, moving them by threatenings 
 and promises, to proceed against Savonarola — ' the 
 son of blasphemy,' as he was therein called, and to 
 deliver him into the hands of the Pope. Though 
 for awhile the Reformer of Florence had submitted 
 to an authority which had long been the cement of 
 the ecclesiastical fabric, however unjustly it was now 
 exercised, and relinquished his pulpit to the prior of 
 Fiesole ; yet soon his free soul asserted its privilege, 
 and he resumed his functions in defiance of the 
 Pope's mandate. ' It is,' said he, ' the will of God 
 that I shall not submit to the decisions of such a cor- 
 rupt tribunal ; and verily, I shall be condemned of 
 God, if ever I am weak enough to ask absolution for 
 a righteous resistance !' In much of this he acted 
 
CH. XI. 
 
 EPISTLE FROM THE SIGXOKY. 
 
 287 
 
 under the direction of the Signory, who were com- 
 pelled, therefore, to vindicate him in order to justify 
 themselves. This they did by means of the follow- 
 ing letter, wliich they sent to Alexander VI. 
 ' Most reverend and blessed Father, 
 ' So soon as Girolamo Savonarola received the mes- 
 senger with the letters of your holiness, in which he 
 is termed ' the son of blasphemy,' he withdrew from 
 the greater Church, wherein he was instructing the 
 people in religion and morals, into his own monaster}', 
 and determined to give way for a time to the false- 
 hoods and calumnies of his detractors, until the 
 wrath of your holiness should cool, and you should 
 be informed by a more sure messenger of the untruth 
 of the accusations brought against him, ' that he dis- 
 seminated great and pernicious errors, to l#le peril of 
 the souls of the faithful in Christ, and gav« rise to 
 much scandal by his predictions.' Now we can 
 testify of this most excellent labourer in the vineyard 
 of the Lord, that he has gathered from it such fruits 
 as no others have yet gathered in our time. And to 
 add still more, if the saying be true, ' tell ye us the 
 things which will happen hereafter, and we will say, 
 ye are Gods,' we must certainly rank higher than 
 man, one who for eight years has predicted to us 
 many events which were about to happen : never 
 ceasing, meanwhile, to reform and improve our reli- 
 gious practices, and by reading, writing, and preach- 
 ing, to destroy our evil habits, and lead us to a holier 
 life. Thus continually influenced by zeal for the 
 house of God, he easily excited the enmity of the 
 multitude, ' who love darkness rather than light,' 
 whose false and calumnious suggestions have in- 
 duced your holiness to believe this man injurious 
 to the Christian religion. These, however, are his 
 fruits in it : he teaches justice to all, exhorts our 
 citizens to upright and fair dealing, detects all at- 
 
288 
 
 REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 B. lit. 
 
 tempts against our republic, permits no one to set up 
 for himself rights in opposition to the rights of the 
 State, induces parents to give their children the best 
 education and instruction, to render them worthy of 
 the Christian name, persuades women to lay aside 
 their ornaments, and follow Christ, children to prefer, 
 before all other knowledge, the knowledge of the 
 acts of Christ and of the saints, expels from our 
 society and assemblies all unworthy professors of 
 Christianity. By these deeds he has given offence 
 to many citizens and foreigners, and has been accused 
 of demolishing the walls of Jerusalem : as well that 
 we may perish wandering from the truth, if we lose 
 our leader in religion, as that they may have this 
 occasion for civil war, the only way left them of 
 indulging 4heir own ambition, and injuring us. 
 
 ' We a^e sorry that we cannot readily obey the com- 
 mands of your holiness, lest we should appear to do 
 any thing unworthy of our city, and exhibit our in- 
 gratitude to a man who has deserved so well of us. 
 Moreover, the attempt could not be made without 
 popular and great danger, so many are there, and of 
 such high standing, whose affections he has con- 
 ciliated by his integrity. This, we are sure, your 
 holiness would shrink from, and would not permit us 
 to incur so great risk in executing your commands. It 
 is a grievous thing, indeed, for us to lose the good will 
 of your holiness towards us for these things ; since, 
 indeed, a few days ago, we received intelligence of 
 your favourable disposition towards the restoration of 
 our Republic. Now, however, (as they say,) in a 
 moment, we hear that such commands are given as 
 we cannot execute without disgrace. 
 
 ' It remains then, most blessed father, that we 
 beseech your holiness not utterly to forsake us, but 
 to entertain our cause with the favour with which 
 you have hitherto entertained it, and not to throw 
 
CH. XI. 
 
 LETTER OF MACHIAVELLI. 
 
 289 
 
 our city into confusion by these commands, and to 
 cause our ruin for the benefit of others. We, in 
 these matters, shall so conduct ourselves, that such 
 as we have always been towards the Church and the 
 Catholic faith, such we shall still be found ; letting 
 it appear, at the same time, that we have our own 
 Republic more at heart than the interests of others ; 
 and we pray your holiness to be of this mind likewise, 
 so will the advantage and security of the whole of Italy 
 be best consulted. We commend our city and people 
 to the favour of your holiness. — March 4, 1497.' 
 
 Four days after the date of the above epistle, the 
 celebrated Machiavelli also wrote a letter to a friend 
 concerning Savonarola. As the testimony of an im- 
 portant contemporary, the reader will not be dis- 
 pleeised with a translation. 
 
 ' In order to give you the complete account of 
 the things concerning Fra Girolamo Savonarola, ac- 
 cording to your desire, know (that after the two 
 predicted actions, which I have already detailed to 
 you) he preached on the Sunday of the Carnival, 
 and, in conclusion, invited all his friends to commu- 
 nicate with him on the day of the Carnival in San 
 Marco ; adding, that he would pray to God that if 
 the things which he had predicted did not come from 
 God, that God might show him an evident sign of it. 
 This, he did, some say, to unite his party, and make 
 them stronger to defend him, doubting whether the 
 Signory newly created, but not made public, would 
 be opposed to him. The Signory was published the 
 Monday afterwards, of which you must have had full 
 notice. Judging that more than two-thirds would be 
 opposed to him, having sent the Pope a brief which 
 he demanded of him on pain of interdiction, and un- 
 certain at first whether he should obey, he concluded, 
 either by his own counsel, or advised by others, to 
 discontinue to preach in Sun Liperata, and to go to 
 
 c c 
 
290 
 
 THE END OF CHRISTIANS, CHRIST. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 San Marco. In the mean time, on the Thursday 
 morninj^, when the Signory entered, he said, in San 
 Liperata, that to prevent scandal, and to promote the 
 honour of God, he wished to witlidraw, and that the 
 men might come to hear him at San Marco, and the 
 women might go to San Lorenzo to Fra Doinenico 
 da Pescia. Then our brother being in his house, 
 and having heard with what boldness the other began 
 his sermons, and by whom he was followed, was not 
 a little astonished, because doubting him strongly, 
 and believing that the new Signory might be of con- 
 siderable prejudice to him, and deliberating that 
 many citizens would remain after his ruin, he began 
 with great feai-s, by reason of which he did not dis- 
 course very effectively, showing his followers to be 
 very good, and his adversaries very wicked, touching 
 all those causes which were to weaken the adverse 
 party, and strengthen his own. Of which things, 
 because I found them at hand, I will make some 
 extracts. 
 
 ' The text of his first sermon at San Marco was 
 these words, from Exodus : ' The more they op- 
 pressed them, the more they were multiplied and 
 increased.' But before he came to the explanation of 
 the words, he demonstrated for what reason he with- 
 drew ; asserting, prudence is the right method of 
 action. Afterwards he said, that ' all men have had, 
 and have an end, but different from Christians, whose 
 end is Christ ; of other men, both present and past, 
 either one condition or another, according to their 
 sects. Assuming that we are Christians, and that 
 this end is Christ ; we then ought, with great pru- 
 dence and observation of the times, to preserve his 
 honour. And when the age requires that we hazard 
 life for him, let us hazard it ; and when it is the 
 time that a man should conceal himself, let him con- 
 ceal himself, as we read of Christ and St. Paul. And 
 
ClI. XI. 
 
 TllREli KINDS OF MEN. 
 
 291 
 
 this, I add, we ought to do, and we have done it, 
 because when it was the time to stand against rage, 
 we did sc, as it was on the Ascension day, because 
 then the honour of God and the season required it ; 
 when the honour of God required that we should 
 yield to anger, we yielded.' This brief discourse 
 ended, he made two ranks, the one which fought 
 under God, which was himself and his followers, the 
 other under the devil, which was his adversaries ; 
 and speaking diffusely, he entered into the expla- 
 nation of the proposed words of Exodus, and said, 
 that by ' tribulation good men increased in two ways, 
 in spirit and in numbers ; in spirit, because in over- 
 coming adversity man united himself more with God, 
 and became stronger as nearer to his agent, as 
 warm water brought near the fire becomes warmer, 
 because it is nearer to its agent. They also increase in 
 numbers, because there are three generations of men, 
 that is to say good, and these are those who follow me ; 
 wicked and stubborn, those who are my adversaries. 
 There is another kind of men, of liberal life, de- 
 voted to pleasures, neither obstinate in doing ill, nor 
 desirous of doing ^ood, because they do not distinguish 
 one from the other. But as among the good and the 
 latter some dissension really is created, in that con- 
 trasts shine the more when placed in opposition, 
 they know the malice of the wicked, and the simpli- 
 city of the good. With these they associate, and from 
 those they fly, because every one naturally flies from 
 evil, and voluntarily follows the good ; accordingly, 
 the bad are missing in adversity, and the good mul- 
 tiply. Therefore, ' the more they oppressed them, 
 the more they were multiplied and increased.' 
 
 ' I shall discourse briefly, because the want of room 
 prevents me entering into a long narration. He then 
 said, entering into various discourses, as is his custom, 
 in order to weaken his adversaries the more, and wish- 
 
 c c 2 
 
292 
 
 BAD MEN, EGYPTIANS. 
 
 B. tll. 
 
 ing to effect a connexion with the following sermon, 
 that ' our discords might make a tyrant spring up, who 
 would destroy our houses, and ruin our country ; and 
 this was not now contrary to what he had formerly 
 said, that Florence would render happy, and rule 
 over Italy : because it would stand a short time, but 
 it would be destroyed.' — And with this he finished 
 his sermon. 
 
 ' The other morning, while he was explaining 
 Exodus, when he came to that part where it is said, 
 Moses killed an Egyptian, he asserted that the Egypt- 
 ian was the symbol of bad men, and Moses the preacher 
 who slew him, thereby destroying the vices of bad 
 men ; and he said, ' O ! ye Egyptians, I wish to stab 
 you ;' and he began to condemn your books, your 
 priests, and to treat you worse than dogs. He then 
 added, that he would conclude by giving the Egypt- 
 ians another severe stroke, and said, that God 
 had told him, that there was a certain man at 
 Florence, who wished to become a tyrant, and had 
 taken ways and means to procure success ; and that 
 this tyrant would kill the monks, excommunicate 
 them, and persecute them ; in short, he would 
 become an absolute tyrant, and that the laws would 
 be enforced. And he dilated so much on this sub- 
 ject, that people the day after made public suspicion 
 of one, who is as near the tyranny as you are to 
 heaven. But the Signory having, meanwhile, written 
 to the Pope in his favour, and seeing that he need no 
 longer fear his adversaries in Florence, in the first 
 place he tried to unite his party with his detested 
 adversaries, and frighten them with the name of 
 tyrant. When he saw that he was no longer wanted, 
 he changed his tune, made not the least mention of the 
 tyrant or of their wickedness, consoling those who had 
 commenced the union, and animated them all against 
 the Pope, and railed against him and his masses, 
 
CH. XI. UNFAVORABLE CHANGE OF SIGNORY. 293 
 
 saying every thing the most abominable of the one 
 and the other ; and, in my opinion, he sides with the 
 times and veils his falsehoods. Now that which is 
 commonly said, that which men neither hope nor 
 fear, to you who are prudent I leave it to judge, 
 because you can judge of it better than I can, since 
 you are acquainted with our dispositions, the quality 
 of the times, and the intention of the Pontiff. This 
 only I pray you, that if it has not appeared a labour 
 to read this letter of mine, that it will not also ap- 
 pear a labour to reply to me, that you may give your 
 opinion of the tendency of the times and people's 
 minds touching our afl'airs. Farewell. 
 
 ' Yours, 
 
 ' Niccolo di Bernardo Machiavelli.' 
 ' Floience, March 8, 1497.' 
 
 This letter, though the picture of an opponent, 
 paints the man and his times to the life ; — it gives us 
 another instance of the unavoidable antagonism be- 
 tween the spiritual and the worldly man, how inca- 
 pable the latter is of appreciating, how liable to sus- 
 picion, mis-apprehension, and mis-judgment, in all 
 that relates to the former. 
 
 To return. On March 6, the Signory wrote a 
 second letter addressed to the Ambassador of Rome, 
 recommending to him earnestly and solicitously the 
 cause of Savonarola, and urging the old topic, that 
 the Pope must have acted from an unacquaintance 
 with the true doctrines, and good influence of the 
 faithful monk. But if the majority of this Signory 
 was disposed in favour of Savonarola, that which 
 immediately followed, when Pietro Alberti was named 
 Gonfaloniere, and many partizans of the Medicean 
 party had attained to the first offices, was even more 
 unfavourably disposed. The unquiet disposition of 
 the citizens, and the distress, from the dearuess of 
 c c 3 
 
294 
 
 CONSPIRACY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 provisions, among the lower classes of the people, 
 were considered by them as advantageous circum- 
 stances, and they ventured even to conceive a scheme 
 for reinstating Pietro de' Medici in Florence. The 
 conspiracy was kept so secret, and the plan acted on 
 so quickly, that Pietro would certainly have appeared 
 in Florence by the end of April, 1497, to the general 
 surprise, at dawn of day, in the midst of them ; had 
 not a violent rain so long delayed him and his 
 numerous train a few miles from the city, that the 
 news of his arrival had time to get to Florence. The 
 gates were shut, and at least a part of the citizens 
 called under arms. So that the unprepared company 
 were compelled to return without accomplishing their 
 business. 
 
 A few months after^vards the conspiracy was dis- 
 covered, and five of the most distinguished citizens 
 were sentenced to death, without permission of ap- 
 peal to the great council, which right not long before 
 had been granted, by law to all who were charged 
 with political offences. The hatred of the people 
 against the State, could not excuse the open law- 
 lessness of tliis, — of which the blame has been 
 charged on Savonarola, — who, however, was in no 
 condition to prevent it, since one part of the Signory 
 was decidedly against him, and the other was indif- 
 ferent. 
 
 The Compagnacci now thought it time to come 
 forward, and do all in their power to cover Savonarola 
 with infamy, and in such attempts were neither hin- 
 dered nor punished by the magistrates. In various 
 ways they sought to prevent his further preaching, 
 on which account, even many friends of Savonarola 
 advised him to abstain from appearing in public. 
 Others, and Savonarola himself, were of a different 
 opinion, liut even these were prepared for extremi- 
 ties, and the feast of Ascension, on wliich Savonarola 
 
CH. XI. 
 
 POWER OF FAITH. 
 
 295 
 
 would preach in the cathedral, was awaited with 
 anxious expectation And, indeed, the night before 
 the appointed day, the adversary was not idle. Some 
 of the boldest of Savonarola's enemies, with the help 
 of some scandalous clergy, then entered in darkness 
 the church ; and not only covered the pulpit with 
 the skin of an ass lately killed, but laid portions of 
 the flesh around, so that the Church was infected. 
 But early in the morning, when, as usual, the people 
 were assembled in the Church, and observed the 
 detestable insult, all was cleansed before Savonarola 
 with many of his adherents entered. On which oc- 
 casion he spake to the following elfect : — 
 
 ' How great is the power of faith, beloved of Christ 
 Jesus, the word of our Saviour shows when He says, 
 ' had ye faith even as a grain of mustard seed, if 
 ye spake to this mountain ' be thou removed from 
 hence,' then it would remove, and nothing were im- 
 possible to you.' Although this authority might 
 be sufficient for us, we will yet, for the better com- 
 prehension of it, show on the grounds of reason 
 that faith is mighty. First : It raises man in spirit 
 and disposition above perishable earthly things to 
 spiritual objects, and into communion with God. It 
 throws him more and more on the power of God, to 
 whom nothing is impossible ; also, when united with 
 love, man becomes by it as one with God, like the 
 loving with the beloved. He who therefore has per- 
 fect faith, fears less the things of the world, m pro- 
 portion as he loves God. Therefore, beloved ! must 
 we in all our afflictions arm ourselves with this faith ; 
 for as I have often warned you, the time of trouble 
 is come, in which it will be shown who has true faith, 
 and who not. Therefore God stirs up great opposi- 
 tion, that they who only feign to believe, may mani- 
 fest their hypocrisy, and God reveal in them his 
 
296 
 
 TRUST IN GOD. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 power and his righteousness. This morning thought 
 I, that I should go to heaven, but the hope is de- 
 layed. Thou, who suspectest that I perhaps have 
 had fears ! knowest thou not, that faith fears no- 
 thing ? He who hath faith, stands where the men of 
 the world cannot reach, where the sword and dagger 
 of the enemy come not. Thou thoughtest T should 
 not ascend this morning the pulpit. Behold I have 
 nevertheless come, and shall always come, as often 
 as God appoints me, unless man should hinder me, 
 for I am resolved to lay down my life for the sheep. 
 Firstly ; I thank Thee, O Lord ! that Thou hast given 
 to me through natural insight, the assurance of thy 
 being — I thank Thee for the supernatural light of 
 faith, by which I acknowledge that Thou art Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost; and Thou, Jesus Christ, art 
 true God and man, come in the flesh, and crucified 
 for our salvation. Lord, my God, Thou knowest 
 that I have trusted in Thee, and not in earthly wealth, 
 nor powerful friendship, nor popular favour, not in 
 arms and warlike might, but in Thee alone, and Thy 
 great goodness, in which I will trust for ever. De- 
 liver me out of the hands of the enemies of truth, 
 that is, set my soul free, that it may be full of assu- 
 rance to make known the truth, that she may not 
 serve lies and wickedness, neither among fawners and 
 flatterers, nor among bravoes and persecutors. They 
 say, O Lord ! I am a misleader and betrayer of the 
 people, but Thou knowest that I have not done such 
 unrighteousness. I call all heaven to witness for 
 me, that I announced all things which should come 
 upon Italy, the Church, and this city in particular, 
 not out of mine own mind ; but have preached, en- 
 lightened by Thee, and at thy command. Lord, 
 Thou art my witness, how false are all the accusa- 
 tions which they have brought against me, that I have 
 
cn. XI. 
 
 LIVE WELL, HAVE PEACE. 
 
 297 
 
 sought to accumulate riches, or honour. Arise, O 
 Lord ! and let men know thy law of love, that they 
 may unite themselves in peace. 
 
 • Now will we speak to the good. Ye believe 
 what I have aforesaid, and know we have to contend 
 against twofold power, human wisdom and wicked- 
 ness — yet be not troubled if ye see wickedness in- 
 crease — yea, for it increases in the proportion in which 
 the life of the good is .revealed, and the truth is 
 preached ; whence by this trouble the elect become 
 better, and the rejected worse, so that we can say 
 with the Revelation, the time is nigh, that he who is 
 godless should remain godless, and he who is impure 
 should remain impure ; also he who is honest let him 
 remain honest, and he who is holy let him remain 
 holy. And now I turn myself to the wicked ; 
 nevertheless, O Lord, I pray to Thee for them, not 
 to be wroth with them, but if it be possible, convert 
 them to goodness and forgive them, for they are blind 
 and know not what they do. O ye ingrates ! hear 
 my words ! Ye strive not against this monk, but 
 against Christ, who is a righteous and powerful judge ! 
 I am not transgressing against you, because I would 
 resist you; rather I am compelled to lay down my 
 life for the honour of Christ, and for the welfare of 
 souls. I exhort you to coneord and peace. But, ye 
 say, thou art the cause of our strife. I answer ; the 
 wicked life is the cause ! Live well, then you will 
 have peace. Ye seek to hinder my preaching, that 
 ye may live after your own fashion. Do it not, for 
 it will bring you into peril. And if ye say, to-day 
 shalt thou not preach, for thou art forbidden by the 
 Signory ; then say I, that it is not true. And even 
 if it were true, the question yet remains, whether I 
 should obey you ? Yet not now to enter into this 
 discussion, I say, that I would not preach, if I feared 
 offence. I hear a noise — the wicked will not forbear 
 
298 
 
 POPULAR DISTURBANCES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 their malice. Have j et a little patience — if ye knew, 
 what I know, ye would weep. Ye who are on the 
 better side, fear not ; since God is for us, and many 
 thousand angels are here to protect us.' 
 
 At this point the sermon was interrupted ; the 
 sons of mischief had mingled with the congregation, 
 one of whom, by name Francesco Cei, now threw to 
 the earth a great alms-box which stood in the middle 
 of the church, while he at the same time, with 
 many others, ran away and opened all the doors, 
 that the people in their first fright might quickly 
 abandon the place, and Savonarola might be readily 
 secured. But great as was the noise and disturbance 
 that arose, this nefarious design was nevertheless frus- 
 trated, as all the adherents of Savonarola, who had 
 partly armed themselves, gathered round the pulpit. 
 Savonarola sought indeed to quiet the crowd again, 
 but he was obliged to speak the blessing, and was 
 accompanied from the pulpit to San Marco thickly 
 surrounded by his friends. Many seized their arms, 
 and the whole town was in commotion. The Signory 
 feared a disturbance, and took several measures of 
 safety ; but permitted the event of the day to pass 
 without even enquiry. Savonarola, however, received 
 from them an intimation to preach no more. Clerical 
 compulsion he had not recognized, but he now sub- 
 jected himself as a citizen to the law. Some days 
 after he circulated printed letters, to pacify his friends 
 and followers, and to encourage them to further sted- 
 fastness in their approaching trouble. He said that 
 ' the Holy Scripture, and also the history of the 
 Church, showed that the latter could only renew itself 
 under persecution, as it was founded under the same. 
 Until now the attempts of the wicked had been frus- 
 trated, which had in vain endeavoured to gain his 
 excommunication by calumnies and lies, and even to 
 get him put out of the way ; but the Lord would let 
 
CII. XI. 
 
 EXCOMMUNICATION PRONOUNCED. 
 
 299 
 
 no one be tempted above his power, and would 
 strengthen him in increasing trouble. Whatever, there- 
 fore, he might attempt, God's work would not fall to 
 the ground ; but to those who remained stedfast to 
 the good under persecution, there was prepared a 
 heavenly inheritance, which outweighed every thing 
 earthly. Therefore,' he continues, ' remain quiet, 
 still, prudent, clear, pure, and do well ; continue in 
 lively prayers ; defend the truth without hatred and 
 bitterness, whilst you expose the folly of the godless : 
 for he who persecutes is miserable, and happy he who 
 suffers persecution.' 
 
 Scarcely were these violent proceedings known in 
 Rome, and still worse interpreted by the enemies of 
 Savonarola, when the pope, on the 12th May, 1497, 
 pronounced the excommunication on Savonarola, as 
 one who was disobedient, and suspected of heresy. 
 The following brief was accordingly directed to the 
 brethren of the Franciscan order : — 
 
 ' Since the pope had often heard by clerical men of 
 spiritual and worldly standing, that Savonarola was 
 spreading destructive doctrines, he had hoped in the 
 beginning that he would turn back from his error. 
 Moreover, that he had not appeared when summoned, to 
 justify himself from the accusations made against him ; 
 and had also not refrained from preaching, as he had 
 been ordered. All this had been borne with great 
 leniency, out of regard to the excuse alleged, and in 
 the constant hope that he would return to obedience. 
 But when he continued in his perverseness, the rein- 
 corporation of the cloisters of San Marco with the 
 Lombard congregation was demanded, which likewise 
 he would not obey. In order, therefore, to perform 
 what was owing to the welfare of the souls committed 
 to him, according to his duty as a shepherd, he com- 
 manded him, under threatening of the like punish- 
 ment, to announce openly in all churches the excom- 
 
300 
 
 GENERAL INTEREST EXCITED. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 munication of Savonarola, and to attend to tlie strict 
 observance of the same, and to give to the papal 
 commissary thereto commissioned all required sup- 
 port.' 
 
 The brief was entrusted to Giovanni da Camerino, 
 a violent enemy of Savonarola, who, however, was 
 restrained by fear from appearing personally in Flo- 
 rence, and therefore sent it from Sienna. The same 
 was indeed fixed up on the cathedral at San Croce, 
 San Miniato, and some other churches ; but the 
 greater number refused to make the same known, 
 because it was not given in the proper form. This 
 occasioned violent contests, and much dispute on 
 the guilt or innocence of Savonarola himself. Lay- 
 men and clergymen came forward to his defence ; 
 among them Domenico Benevieni, the Minorites 
 Giorgio Benigno, and Paolo da Fucecchio, and the 
 philosopher Giovanni Nasi. But not only at Flo- 
 rence was Savonarola and his cause the subject of the 
 most lively contests ; but also in London, Brussels, 
 Lyons, and other places where Florentine merchants 
 came, were the character and conduct of this remark- 
 able monk spoken of in different ways, but with 
 equal interest. Even in Constantinople, where, as 
 Burlamacchi tells us, the contests and speeches of the 
 Florentine merchants and money-changers were so fre- 
 quent and lively about the affair, as they came from one 
 side or the other, that the sultan himself heard of it, 
 and sent for the Italian consul, to be informed on the 
 subject. The consul gave the sultan, at his own 
 request, one of the writings of Savonarola, — the ser- 
 mons on Amos and Zcchariah, — which the sultan got 
 translated into Turkish for his personal use, that he 
 might have the means of judging on the matter for 
 himself. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 DEFENCE. 
 
 Apatliy of the Signory. — Controversial papers — Savonarola's 
 reply to the Pope — New Signory — The brothei-s of San 
 Marco and citizens intercede — Savonarola again pi-eaches 
 in 1498— And writes several letters to the Pope, all in a 
 strain of indignant remonstrance. 
 
 The eight years, predicted by Savonarola, during 
 which he should continue to preach, were now ex- 
 pired ; and the faithful ox that had trodden out the 
 corn was muzzled : thus bound, he was delivered up 
 into the hands of the butcher. Such character, and 
 none other, belonged to Alexander VI. He is sus- 
 pected of having superiirtended the ministration of some 
 slow and subtle, but mortal, substance to the already 
 mentioned Sultan's brother Zizim, before setting him 
 at liberty, according to his contract with Charles 
 VIII., thus ' keeping the word of promise to the ear, 
 and murderously breaking it to the hope,' or, like a 
 * juggling fiend, paltering with men in a double 
 sense,' and ' damning those that trusted him.' By 
 means of his son, Caesar Borgia, who, commencing 
 life as a churchman, threw off the habit in 1498, and 
 took the field as Duke Valentino ; he contrived to 
 
 n d 
 
302 
 
 BAD CUSTOMS REVIVED, 
 
 B. III. 
 
 annihilate the barons of Italy — that Csesar Borgia, 
 who subsequently murdered his brother and brother- 
 in-law — who, as a virtuoso in lust, and blood, and 
 death, nightly filled the streets of Rome with the 
 corpses of the assassinated, and poisoned by craft 
 those he could not slay by force. But it was 
 written in heaven, that both. Alexander VI. and his 
 slaughterous son should themselves suffer in like kind. 
 Purposing to take off by poison the rich Cardinal 
 Corneto, the latter succeeded by bribes, promises, 
 and entreaties, in gaining over the Pope's chief cook, 
 and thus both died of the draught intended for their 
 guest. At the period, however, of which we are 
 writing, both were living ; and these facts are only 
 mentioned to show the kind of enemy with whom 
 Savonarola had to deal. 
 
 The higher classes in Rome felt assured that the 
 excommunication of Savonarola would be certainly 
 acted on, and his few friends there were consequently 
 afraid to plead in his favour. Gasconades, satirical 
 verses, and scandalous epistles were circulated by 
 his enemies ; and night and day the monks of San 
 Marco were disturbed and insulted. Savonarola 
 himself did not publicly appear ; and the Signory 
 showed that sort of apathy in the business which 
 gave encouragement to the adversary. The sittings 
 in the Duomo were broken ; and, as if from insult, 
 in a few days all the bad customs returned, which had 
 been prohibited by law. The Franciscan and Augus- 
 tine monks, moreover, refused to take part in the 
 next procession to the honour of St. John, if the 
 brothers of San Marco were permitted to join. Ac- 
 cordingly, all share in the same was forbidden to 
 these, as well as the brothers of San Domenico at 
 Fiesole. 
 
 Meanwhile, as already stated, learned and inge- 
 nious men were engaged in the defence of Savona- 
 
cn. XII. Pico's APOLOGY FOR SAVONAROLA. 303 
 
 rola's doctrine and conduct, for truth is never without 
 her witnesses. Savonarola likewise defended him- 
 self, and was, in fact, his own best and ablest vindica- 
 tor. Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola, to 
 ■whom we are so much indebted for his earliest and 
 fullest biography, also took up the pen in his behalf. 
 ' There is,' says Pico, in his y4poloc/ia pro Savona- 
 rola, ' but one unerring and infallible judge, Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of the living God. Now he has even 
 given to his Church an office of judging, foreseeing 
 with how many contrary opinions and private and 
 open enmity she would have to contend : but she 
 is unerring only in so far as she appeals to Him 
 in all matters which concern the substance, the 
 essence of faith. That the Church may then judge, 
 she must be thankful to the intercession of our high 
 priest : but in all other things, even the universal 
 Church may err, as Innocent III. himself maintains, 
 * The justice of God grounds itself on truth, which 
 neither deceives nor can be deceived ; the judgment of 
 the Church founds itself often on human opinion, which 
 both often deceives and is deceived.' But if the uni- 
 versal Church is not pronounced freed from the 
 liability of error, how much less popes and councils. 
 It remains, then, that every human judgment is 
 deceptive, so that Cebes the Theban is not far from 
 the truth, when he opines that the Apate (deception) 
 hangs about all mortal things. From this it follows, 
 undeniably, that the power of judgement may be in 
 many ways abused ; for as Gregory the Great says, 
 ' it is often the case, that when the judge speaks, his 
 life nowise agrees with his office ; so that he either 
 condemns the innocent, or even, when bound, sets 
 free the guilty, or generally binds and looses accord- 
 ing to the suggestion of his own will ; and so the 
 very power of binding and loosing robs itself in that 
 he sentences the souls to die, which yet should not 
 D d 2 
 
•304 MANY SHEPHERDS, WOLVES. B. III. 
 
 die, and adjudges them to life, which yet should not 
 live. We are, consequently, to consider all censures 
 and excommunications invalid and powerless which 
 emanate from such a judge, who is himself captive in 
 mortal sin and heresy, or which proceed after a legal 
 appeal, or without previous examination, or which 
 forbear an intolerable error in himself; as for the 
 papal right in other respects, it has a crowd of autho- 
 rities. It is certainly true, that every magistrate is 
 ordained of God, and that not alone for punishment, 
 but for the willing submission of conscience, (Rom. 
 xiii. 15 ; Tit. iii. 1.) but even so undeniably, that 
 God must be more obeyed than man (Acts v. 29). 
 And throughout we find the commandment of obe- 
 dience towards superiors accompanied with the 
 usual maxim, ' Sententia Pastoris, sive justa, sive 
 injusta fuerit, timenda est,' as its natural and neces- 
 sary limitation. For we may not obey what any- 
 where runs counter to a Divine law, and we must 
 take particular care not to interpret the commis- 
 sion of our superiors in such latitude as to respect 
 even their open crimes and sins. If a servant, 
 says Jerome, in his Commentary on Ephesians vi. 5, 
 receives such commands from his lord as would sup- 
 plant his obedience to God's word, then must he obey 
 the Lord of his spirit, and not him who is only lord 
 of his person. No one, as Thomas Aquinas said, 
 can be bound further to obey another than in those 
 points wherein he is subject to him. Over the pro- 
 cesses of the will and the functions of the body no 
 law can extend ; the soldier obeys his general in all 
 things that concern the war, the servant his lord in 
 all things that belong to his service. But it is thought 
 that it is not to be presumed or feared that a shep- 
 herd would command us any thing against the being 
 and Word of God ; — then it is well to remark, that 
 many who are called shepherds arc but wolves ; for 
 
CH. XII. FORCE MAY BE REPELLED WITH FORCE. 305 
 
 a true shepherd will not destroy sheep, or abandon 
 them to the wild beasts. Therefore no one is bound 
 by an unjust excommunication ; neither before God, 
 nor before the Church, dare he acknowledge or 
 fear it. And this rightly : for, if even according 
 to civic law, not every disherison of a son need be 
 feared, but only that which has a legal ground ; how 
 much less need we to fear for ourselves, when by 
 the unjust decision of a man we lose either the 
 heavenly inheritance, or may be expelled from the 
 bosom of the Church, which is yet a witness and 
 bearer of righteousness ? ' One,' says Pope Gelasius, 
 ' is the earthly chair, another the heavenly justice- 
 hall ; from the nether tribunal we receive the sentence, 
 from the higher the crown.' In the same manner 
 Augustine decided, that if one who has a just cause 
 is condemned unjustly, compensation ought to be 
 given to him. "With especial stringency and empha- 
 sis, however, the excellently learned Gerson de- 
 livers himself on this subject, in his book, De excom- 
 municationibus et irregularitatihus. ' In many cases,' 
 says he, ' it is no contempt of a decree if one even 
 disobeys the commands of the Pope, presuming that 
 he is using his power, in a shameful and scandalous 
 manner, for destruction, and not for edification, 
 seeing that the Apostle says, that power is given to 
 us to repair, and not to destroy. Who doubts that 
 one must withstand the Pope in all such cases as 
 come under observation, and say to him, what doest 
 thou ? Also, it is nowise to show contempt for the 
 decree, to challenge worldly help against an unjust 
 excommunication, for that is not right, but force ; 
 and, according to the natural law, we repel force 
 with force, that is a right every man possesses. In 
 general, opposition against every uncivil demand of 
 the kind is only to be praised, if one carefully avoid 
 every scandal which can be given to the less in- 
 
 D (1 3 
 
30G ' UNJUST BINDING LOOSED BY JUSTICE.' B. III. 
 
 formed, but these are sufficiently informed, and yet 
 scandalize themselves ; hence are they to be looked 
 on as Pharisees, and not as children of God. Albeit, 
 we must, in behalf of the accused, do every thing in 
 order, if he is wickedly advised, to open the eyes oi 
 the Pope ; but if mildness and humility have availed 
 nothing, then we must take on manly and valiant 
 ingenuousness. In these cases patience is an ass's 
 patience, and fear a hare's fear.' 
 
 According to these general principles Pico now 
 shews, in the second book of his apology, that nothing 
 has been done on the part of the pope which can 
 make his excommunication a valid and binding one. 
 There has been no preceding inquiry ; the whole sen- 
 tence depends on loose reports. The command of 
 the pope, in so far as it relates to the brotherhood of 
 San Marco and its reincorporation with the Lombard 
 congregation, was not only impossible, but prejudicial. 
 On the other hand, on Savonarola's side all that was 
 serviceable, according to ecclesiastical and divine right, 
 for the clear exposition of the matter and rejection ot 
 all unjust accusations, had been done to superfluity. 
 He had written back to the pope, and shewn the 
 impracticability as well as the injustice of his de- 
 mand. He needs no absolution, on account of the 
 invalidity of the excommunication ; and yet, notwith- 
 standing he had once declared he should sin in doing 
 so, he had sought absolution from reverence for the 
 apostolical chair. ' The unjust binding will there- 
 fore,' as Augustine says, 'be loosed by justice ;' and 
 it cannot hurt a man that human ignorance should 
 wish to strike him out of the community of the faith- 
 ful, if his own bad conscience strikes him not out of 
 the book of the living ; as no rational man, let alone 
 a Christian, has been able to believe that such a 
 judgment has emanated from the papal chair, which 
 had not even any probability in its favour. It is 
 
CII. XII. 
 
 LETTER OF CONSOLATION. 
 
 307 
 
 altogether a foolish conjecture that some maintain, that 
 men must withdraw from fellowship with Savonarola 
 because he is excommunicated ; for according to the 
 papal right there is no need of that, if any one is 
 unjustly shut out ; and he himself on whom such a 
 sentence has fallen need not therefore abstain from 
 his calling. Besides, Christ himself did not give up 
 his acquaintance with the man who was born blind, 
 because the Jewish synagogue thrust him out ; but 
 on the contrary, condemned them, as seized with sinful 
 blindness, who here would not see God's work. 
 
 Such was Pico's apology for Savonarola, who in 
 the midst of peril continued to evince, not only great 
 fearlessness of character, but singular Christian energy. 
 The cardinal Francesco PicQolomini (afterwards Fope 
 Pius III.) offered to procure him absolution with the 
 pope, if he would effect a payment of five thousand 
 scudi to a creditor of his in Florence ; but Savonarola 
 replied, that he could not enough wonder at such an 
 offer, since he had always preached the truth, and 
 therefore neither could nor dared retract. He fortified 
 his followers with the assurance, that the efforts of 
 th* wicked themselves must lead to the fulfilment of 
 that renewal of the Church of God which he had pre- 
 dicted ; reminding them that he had often told them 
 that great benefits were only paid by great ingrati- 
 tude, and that he had expected nothing else from 
 Florence for his labour but persecution. Nor was 
 any thing wanting to Rome and his enemies to fill up 
 the measure of their iniquity, than that they should 
 persecute the servants of Christ. On the 8tli of May, 
 149", accordingly, he wrote to all the chosen of God 
 and true Christians, a letter of consolation, of which 
 the following are the chief contents : — 
 
 ' As we, most beloved in the Lord, wish to follow 
 our Redeemer, who frequently yielded to the greatest 
 provocations of the pharisees and scribes, so have we 
 
308 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF I'EP.SKCUTION. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 given up preaching so long as it pleases Him. But 
 as we well know that the devil proceeds not from the 
 body, but the soul, and that he has raised these per- 
 secutions that he, when the word is dumb, may be 
 the better able to infatuate men, so will I do by writing 
 what for the moment I cannot do by word of mouth, 
 because I am anxious for your welfare. Perhaps this 
 will be the more profitable as it is more general, since 
 even those who cannothear the word may read the letter. 
 
 ' I therefore now pray you, most beloved, that you 
 will not let yourselves he perplexed by my troubles 
 and persecutions, but rather rejoice with me, that the 
 Lord has thought us worthy to suffer this for Him 
 and the love of truth. Consider the Holy Scripture, 
 and what has taken plage in the Church of God in 
 the last time, and you will find that the Church has 
 always increased under troubles ; so that what was 
 in the beginning a small and insignificant community 
 has gradually spread itself, amid great persecution, 
 through the whole world. But when troubles ceased, 
 then visibly it declined in outward and inward strength. 
 As it is now God's intention at this time to renew it, 
 it is also no wonder that persecutions again arise, amid 
 which it will perfect itself in every way. 
 
 ' Consider also how faithful and merciful God has 
 been to us, how gently He has led us ; while He has 
 not brought on us all at once the great persecution, 
 but has, as it were, suckled us in the same by degrees. 
 With his permission, first abandoned men mocked 
 us, then heaped on us abuses ; said we were deceivers, 
 hypocrites, heretics ; and as nothing of all this held 
 good with us, they put forth all their strength, cun- 
 ningly to exclude us from the community of the 
 Church ; and when they could not get any thing by 
 that, they set on us with threatening words, and devised 
 contrivances ag.ainst our person. Next they sought 
 to kill us ; but we have not yet lost a drop of blood. 
 
CH. XII. FOR THE EXERCISE OF PATIENCE. 309 
 
 « 
 
 for the Lord knows our weakness, and permits us not 
 to be tempted beyond our power ; and as trouble 
 gradually increases, He gives us greater strength of 
 faith to bear still greater. And thus He always pre- 
 pares us for greater troubles, that men, when they 
 perceive that we, amid these persecutions, do not 
 permit ourselves to be seduced by them from the 
 wav of truth, may look on our stedfastness, and 
 conclude that we would not endure such if our faith 
 were not true, and there were not a better life than 
 this. Thus will the light spread itself under perse- 
 cutions, and the contrary of that which the enemies 
 of the cross of Christ wish take place ; yes, it will 
 bum the brighter the more its enemies endeavour to 
 extinguish it. Therefore think not that persecutions 
 will destroy or hinder the work of God that has 
 begun ; no, it will mightily grow and increase under 
 the same. 
 
 ' Be not ashamed, most beloved, of the cross of 
 Jesus Christ, but rather exult in it ; for if vicious 
 j-ouths vaunt their bad acts, how much rather should 
 we not boast ourselves of our Lord, and that we are 
 persecuted by the members of the devil ? Now is the 
 time to win great gifts of mercy ; for God's judg- 
 ment begins always with his elect, whom he tries in 
 many ways, as one tries gold in the fire. The judg- 
 ment upon the elect is like a fire that separates the 
 dross, and is always attended with compassion ; but 
 the judgment upon the rejected will be without com- 
 passion. Wonder not that God permits so much 
 misfortune to seize on the poor and oppressed, with- 
 out rising to vengeance ; for truly God's anger cannot 
 be greater than when He lets their accusers accumu- 
 late iniquity, and gives them over to be tools of the 
 devil, that the good may be exercised and strength- 
 ened the more in true patience. And truly the holy 
 martyrs underwent much greater persecutions and 
 
310 
 
 SUFFER WITH JOY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 sufferings than we have ; therefore shall we not bewail 
 and lament, or think that God has abandoned us. 
 No ; we are rather his children, foreordained to eter- 
 nal life, which promise all have who suffer persecution 
 for the sake of his love. Therefore let us endure it 
 with all joy, and demonstrate to the men of the world 
 that our inheritance is so great, that every thing in 
 the present life must appear small to us in compari- 
 son. Let us arm ourselves against their wickedness 
 with a living faith, with patience in all humility, with 
 perseverance and increasing goodness. Nothing is 
 more calculated to convince our opponents of the 
 truth than a blameless life, for when they see this 
 they mnf^ at last be ashamed. 
 
 ' Nor should you be disturbed because the word of 
 God is taken away from you, for this has been, not by 
 human, but divine counsel, that you might clearly see 
 that those cannot be true Christians who, even on the 
 very day whereon the Saviour himself commanded 
 his disciples to preach the Gospel to all creatures, 
 sought to Danish the word of God out of the city, opened 
 scandalous places of voluptuousness, and forwarded 
 the whole work of the devil. But do you pray the 
 Almighty God, that He may again please to open mer- 
 cifully the springs of his word ; for when He com- 
 mands that the mouth of the witnesses shall be 
 opened, and that they shall preach, then will no man 
 be able to withstand Him. 
 
 ' I pray you, therefore, by the mercy of Jesus 
 Christ, that you, at the approaching festival, prepare 
 yoiuselves for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 
 with true contrition, on account of your sins, and 
 purification of your hearts, before the holy Sacrament, 
 that the eternal Father, by the merits and sufferings 
 of our Saviour, may give you the gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit, by which you may not only suffer with pa- 
 tience, but with joy, in these troubles, and obtain the 
 
ClI. Xll. 
 
 DEATH NOT TERRIBLE. 
 
 311 
 
 crown of eternal life. Be peaceable, humble, chaste, 
 pure, full of love, full of compassion, always fervent 
 in prayer, defend the truth without wrath or hate, 
 and tluis disclose the folly of perverted men. And in 
 this sweet joyful time, prepare your hearts for the 
 coming of the Holy Ghost; call Him with earnest 
 faith, with longing, that He may, by the gift of dis- 
 cernment, let you see things invisible and eternal ; 
 by the gift of wisdom, despise things earthly, which 
 vanish in a moment ; — that He, by the gift of counsel, 
 may guide your feet in the path of truth ; — that He, 
 by the gift of love, may make you compassionate and 
 full of love to your neighbours, to all unfortunate 
 persons, and still more to sinners, whose lamentable 
 blindness may move you to put up prayers for your 
 enemies to God. Pray to the Holy Ghost, that by 
 the gift of strength. He may prepare you to endure all 
 sufferings from love to Christ ; that by the gift of 
 holy fear to God, He may preserve you in the way of 
 life with all humility and subjection ; that you may 
 be quiet and joyful in your God, without fearing or 
 asking any thing from the world, knowing that the 
 time soon passes away ; and that we, when it is past, 
 will immediately be with God, and enjoy what no 
 eye has seen, no ear has heard, and has entered into 
 no man's heart to conceive, but which God has pre • 
 pared for them that love Him.' 
 
 This letter sufficiently testifies to the depths of 
 Savonarola's feelings, and that plenitude of peace 
 which emancipated him from the fear of death. This 
 was also proved about the same time in a remarkable 
 manner. A fearful pestilence raged that year in Flo- 
 rence, and attacked many cloisters. Savonarola, as 
 prior of the cloister of San Marco, took care that the 
 brothers should in great part be dispersed in the 
 country, among the wealthier inhabitants, about four- 
 teen or fifteen together, under an overseer and a 
 
312 
 
 PESTFLENCE AND FRATRICIDE. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 reader, which latter regulated their occupations. Sa- 
 vonarola himself remained in the cloister where the 
 pestilence was, and performed the service with closed 
 doors. Several of his secular friends offered to come 
 into the cloister to assist the brothers personally ; he 
 thanked them, but declined it. He read to the in- 
 valids the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the prophet 
 Jonas, and the history of Samson, and often con- 
 soled and encouraged the absent brethren by letters. 
 Among others he wrote to a brother who was much 
 troubled with fear : — ' It is needful that we rely on 
 the Lord, and not on flight from danger. Worldly 
 men have not shewn so much fear as some of our 
 fellows. Once we must die ; and it seems to me 
 happy when one dies in such a time as this, for per- 
 haps death will find him at other times in not so good 
 a disposition. Our brothers who have died here have 
 gone with great joy to their home, not otherwise 
 than as to a marriage feast. Stand with manly spirit, 
 so that you may prepare yovurselves for death, for 
 God will try us all.' 
 
 In the meantime an occurrence had happened in 
 Rome, which brought to light, in so fearful a manner, 
 the abominations and the vices that had full sway 
 in the papal court, that it could not but withdraw 
 for a time attention from Florentine affairs. Verily, 
 Alexander VI. believed in no living God ; he had, 
 as he thought, made an alliance with death and 
 a contract with hell ; and yet the lightning of God"s 
 judgment was about there to illuminate the night of 
 his guilt, in such a way that even the hoary sinner 
 must shudder at it. Caesar Borgia had caused his 
 brother, the duke di Gandia, to be murdered and 
 thrown into the river. This was but the beginning 
 of evils by which the unnatural son was to avenge 
 on an unnatural father the wrongs of insulted hu- 
 manity. Savonarola's friends took advant;ige of this 
 
CH. XII. CHURCH MILITANT AND TRIUMPHANT. 313 
 
 pause to send favourable testimonials of his orthodoxy 
 and general conduct to Rome. These efforts, how- 
 ever, only served to ascertain the strength of his 
 party. As to the apologies themselves, they could 
 only conduce to exasperate the power that they 
 sought to propitiate. 
 
 All these arguments, it is plain, proceed upon the 
 assumption that Savonarola was in the right, and the 
 Pope in the wrong — that Savonarola was a saint, and 
 the Pope not only a sinner, but, what was unfortu- 
 nately too true, a most wicked and corrupt man. 
 The Augustinian doctrine of election is pressed in its 
 highest application. Not alone, who are the elect 
 among the faithful — the apostles among the priests — 
 but who have been the Peters among the popes ? — 
 and whether the present nominal is indeed a real 
 vicar of Christ, to be obeyed or resisted ? — these are 
 the questions- — ^the great important questions, involv- 
 ing the widest and deepest enquiries into the autho- 
 rity of the visible Church and its visible Head, which 
 neither the one nor the other can decide, without 
 assuming her to be what she is not, the Church Tri- 
 umphant in heaven, under the dominion of the Son 
 of God, instead of the Church Militant on earth, for 
 which still combat the prince of the power of the air, 
 and the Prince of life and peace, until the consumma- 
 tion of the age. Says a modern poet, ' The Church 
 is great, is holy, is ineffably Divine ! 
 
 Spiritually seen, and with the eye of faith, 
 
 The body of the Church, lit from \vithin, 
 
 Seems but the luminous jihantoni of a body : 
 
 The incoi-poreal spirit is all in all. 
 
 Eternity, d parte post et ante, 
 
 So di'inks the refuse, thins the material fibre, 
 
 That, lost in ultimate tenuity, 
 
 The actual and the mortal lineaments. 
 
 The Church in time, the meagre, definite, bare, 
 
 Ecclesiastical anatomy, 
 
 E e 
 
314 
 
 WHERE IS THE CHURCH ? 
 
 B. III. 
 
 The body of this death, translates itself, 
 Aud glory upon glory, swallowing all, 
 Makes earth a scarce distinguishable speck 
 In universal heaven. Such is the Church 
 As seen by faith ; but otherwise regarded. 
 The body of the Church is searched in vain. 
 To find the seat of the soul ; for it is nowhere; 
 Here are two bishops, but 'tis not in them '.' 
 
 No ! — nor in all bishops, nor in the Pope himself, 
 nor in a council or synod, or consistory, nor in the 
 total number of believers, no — nor in any one. Where 
 then ? Ask, w here Wisdom may be found ? or where 
 is the place of Understanding ? 
 
 ' The abyss ci-ieth, it is not in me ! 
 Ocean echoeth back ; not in me ! 
 God marketh out the road to it ; 
 God knoweth its abiding place ! 
 But to man He said. 
 
 The fear of the Lord is Wisdom for thee ! 
 
 And to avoid evil, 
 
 That is thy Understanding ! ' 
 
 On May 22, Savonarola wrote again to the Pope. 
 Often and largely enough had he defended himself 
 against the revived accusations, without having been 
 seriously heard, nor dared to hope for consideration 
 by a renewal of the subject. He complains bitterly, 
 that only his accusers obtained attention, who mis- 
 represented his words in various ways, in the most 
 shameful manner, since thousands of his hearers could 
 come forward as witnesses of his innocence, and many 
 of his writings were public, and might be referred to 
 in confirmation of his enemies' accusations, if their 
 charges were not calumnies. At the same time, he 
 saw himself obliged to disclose the scandalous conduct 
 of one of them ; Fra Mariano da Genezano, who had 
 made no scruple himself to speak in the most violent 
 
 ' Henry Taylor's Edwin the Fair. 
 
CH. XII. GOD NOT MAN TO BE OBEYED. 315 
 
 and rudest manner against the Pope. Saj-onarola had 
 never forgotten himself so far, and appealed to his 
 latest published writing, Trionfo dt lla Croce di Chris- 
 to, for proof, whether he spread heresy or the doctrine 
 of the Church. But if all human help was forbidden 
 — he would trust God — yet at the same time make 
 known the godless life of his enemies to the whole 
 world, £0 that they might subsequently be induced 
 to repentance. 
 
 First of all, Savonarola wished to meet the whis- 
 perings of his enemies among his weaker adherents. 
 In several letters, he encouraged them to continual 
 stedfastness of conviction in a Christian life — and 
 proved the invalidity and open injustice of all objec- 
 tions. In a letter of July 19, 1497, to all Christians 
 and beloved of God ; he reminds them in the first 
 place, that truth has at all times been persecuted by 
 the wicked of the world, whereby the fulfilment of 
 the same has been only hastened and confirmed, both 
 under the Old and the New Dispensations. Also in 
 respect to himself, he long before had prophesied, that 
 he must contend against the double power of human 
 wisdom and wickedness. He had also e:.pected for all 
 his labour in Florence nothing but trouble. ' Moreover,' 
 he continues, ' believe, beloved, that this excommu- 
 nication counts for nothing, either with God or in the 
 Church, since it is obtained by the calumny of such 
 men as are opposed to God and truth. How false 
 their accusations are is matter of public notoriety, 
 since I have neither preached heresy, nor been dis- 
 obedient to the Church or the Pope. But it is an 
 irrationality to maintain, that in all things we are 
 bound to obey our superiors, in so far as they stand 
 in the place of God ; which, however, is not the case 
 as soon as their commands oppose those of God. 
 And as this case has several times happened to me, 
 I have not obeyed, because 1 knew that neither 
 E e 2 
 
316 
 
 THE POPE NO COD. 
 
 B. HI. 
 
 God nor tlie Church willed such an obedience. In 
 particular, as to the union of our cloister with the 
 Lombard, I have proved on sufficient grounds that 
 it is against the honour of God, and tlae welfare of 
 souls.' 
 
 ' But if they maintain,' he says, in a second letter 
 to a friend, ' that the sentence of the highest shepherd 
 or judge is always to be feared, whether he be right 
 or wrong, then I refer to the learned and pious 
 Gerson, who declares, that this proposition is not un- 
 conditionally true — for it is no contempt of the power 
 of the keys, not to obey the commands of the Pope, 
 when he uses his power scandalously for destruction, 
 and not for edification. If the Pope wished to plunder 
 the treasures of the Church, or to rob the clergy of 
 their rights, no one could then maintain that we must 
 endure that, and not much rather decidedly resist the 
 Pope. Moreover, it is no contempt of the power of the 
 keys, if any one recognizes not an unjustly spoken 
 excommunication, but rather seeks to protect himself 
 against it by earthly power. For it is clear, that 
 such an excommunication is not right, but force ; but 
 natural right permits repelling force by force. He 
 who in similar cases follows his conscience, has nothing 
 to fear — if he at the same time uses the prudence 
 to give no offence to the weak, who believe that the 
 Pope is a God, who has all power in heaven and 
 earth — but one should seek, by suitable teaching, to 
 correct such irrationalit)-. But those who can correct 
 themselves, and yet will not — they take offence from 
 wickedness like the pharisees, and not from ignorance 
 like the weak. It is true, that one should take every 
 suitable means to induce the Pope, when he is wrongly 
 informed, to retract or to change the unjust judge- 
 ment. But if gentle conduct avails nothing, one 
 must persevere with unfearing frankness ; so excel- 
 lently speaks already John Gerson for us.' 
 
CH. Xtl. 
 
 SPEECH AND SILENCE. 
 
 317 
 
 The reader will readily remark, that in this extract 
 Savonarola repeats the defence already put in for him 
 by his friend Pico. 
 
 Another Latin writing of this time, with the title 
 — ' I must not speak, and 1 cannot be silent,' contains 
 more original and independent matter, and is the 
 more readily quoted, as it is not found in the cata- 
 logue of the writings of Savonarola, by Quetif and 
 Burlamacchi, nor, as it appears, was ever printed '. 
 
 ' The shepherds, not to call them shamers, let the 
 sheep wander from their way, to go unmolested at 
 their will. But those who remain in the right path, 
 and adhere to their true shepherd, they drive from 
 thence as scabbed. Those who desire better pasture, 
 and have drunken from the brooks of purer water, it 
 is those who have so done, whom they threaten with 
 heavy punishment ; and they frighten with wild looks 
 them who mournfully learn their unhappy fate. There- 
 fore must I not speak. We see the shepherds, de- 
 stroyers of the whole herd, keep away the best pastures 
 from the sheep, as already Isaiah prophesied, and the 
 sheep in leanness and consumption perish, or are 
 scattered, to become the prey of the beawts of the field. 
 Therefore can I not be silent. The prelates and 
 priests, who might better be called pharisees, to whose 
 hand and will the dignity of the Church is entrusted, 
 persecute with unheard of cruelty the guiltless faith- 
 ful of the Church. Therefore must I not speak. The 
 wise, the lawgivers, are vanished ; those lie in the 
 greatest obscurity whom it would have fitted to shine 
 forth. They go along in wide garments and broad 
 
 ' The Latin title is as follows — Loqui prokiheor, et tacere non 
 possum. The manuscript itself is found among several smaller 
 wTitings of Savonarola, at the private library of the late 
 Count Boutourlin at Florence, the use of which was permitted 
 to Meier, by the politeness of the librarian Mr. Sloane. 
 E e 3 
 
318 
 
 SOLICITATION OF THE SIGNORY. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 fringes, who should be the leaders of the procession. 
 Therefore can I not he silent. 
 
 ' Xhe princes and mighty ones, who endeavour to 
 subject all to their decision, tlireaten not only with 
 words of fear, but torment and torture, all who speak 
 of their scandalous morals. Therefore must I not speak. 
 The judges and elders of the people, who should give 
 judgement for the people, sit on seats of destruction, 
 and overturn all order. In short, each judges ac- 
 cording to his own will. Self-will counts in place 
 of law, and wickedness overpowers the weak voice 
 of right. Therefore can I not be silent. The people 
 live without laws, despising Divine and human 
 right, and run into the meshes of destruction. Be- 
 sides, spies and calumniators are busy to overthrow 
 the good citizens. Therefore must 1 not speak. The 
 unhappy crowd, who had scarcely left their bad life, 
 return now more greedily to vice, and with frequent 
 invitations proceed in their blindness to destruction. 
 Therefore can I not be silent. The brothers, the 
 favourite scholars, who drank from the richest source, 
 who wondering listened to the higher doctrine, who 
 zealously preached and exerted themselves to incul- 
 cate truth on men's minds — they now are silent 
 as if sunk into forgetfulness, or deterred by fear. 
 Others look obliquely at the fruits which the former 
 faith has produced. Therefore must I speak, and 
 speak loudly with the Psalmist : Praise ye the name 
 of the Lord, all his servants, so praise the Lord, &c.' 
 
 For the months of July and August, a Signory 
 more favourable to Savonarola held the reins of 
 government, which as early as the 8th of July 
 dispatched an epistle to the pope, soliciting very 
 earnestly the revocation of the censure. The old 
 devotedness of the city towards the papal chair, the 
 innocence and laudable activity of Savonarola, the 
 
CH. xn. 
 
 SAVONAROLA DARES ALL. 
 
 319 
 
 lower interests of the accusing enemies, the desire and 
 welfare of the people, — all were adduced in support of 
 their request ; at the same time, their ambassador at 
 Rome was repeatedly urged to second their efforts, 
 by stating who were the chief enemies of Savonarola, 
 and how they might be reached. On the other hand, 
 letters of thanks were already presented to the cardi- 
 nals of Naples and Perugia, who had devoted them- 
 selves to his cause, and endeavoured to obtain for 
 him favour with the pope, while the brothers of San 
 Marco published a paper in defence of the doctrine 
 and preaching of Savonarola ; which, subscribed by 
 two hundred and fifty brothers and several hundred 
 citizens, was transmitted to the pope. The crafty 
 Alexander VI. made, too, as if he would withdraw 
 the censure, on condition that Savonarola would ap- 
 pear in Rome to justify his conduct. But Savonarola 
 soon decided that point for himself. On Septuagesima 
 Sunday of the year 1498, he came again openly for- 
 ward. Even on the first Christmas-day, Savonarola 
 had kept all the three solemn masses of the day in 
 the church of San ilarco, and given the communion 
 to his brothers as well as several hundred others. 
 His preaching was again more numerously attended, 
 and it was said that he should preach in the Duomo 
 during the fast. On the other hand, the chapter of 
 the Canonicates, which was called together by the arch- 
 bishop and vicar, Leonardo de' Medici, had issued a 
 prohibition, declaring that no clergyman should attend 
 Savonarola's discourses ; and at the same time, that all 
 priests should enforce the execution of the prohibition 
 on the people, and the effectuality of the excommu- 
 nication, with its severe consequences ; also that no 
 one who visited the sermon at San Marco should be 
 admitted to confession and communion ; nor, if he 
 should die, could be buried in consecrated earth. 
 But the Signory which came in since the 1st of 
 
320 EXCOMMUNICATES THE POPE, B. III. 
 
 January, 1498, under Giuliano Salviati, was very 
 favourable to Savonarola, and the Lent preachings 
 were restored to him in the Duomo ; and it was 
 commanded the vicar to lay down his office, under 
 penalty of contumacy. The raised seats and steps in 
 the Duomo were again replaced, and Savonarola, to 
 the great joy of his adherents, on the 1st day of 
 February entered the pulpit anew. The crowd of 
 people was extraordinary ; they thronged the streets 
 to the church as often as he preached, and no one 
 dared attempt to prevent him. 
 
 Savonarola was not content unless he might show 
 before all once more the injustice and inefficacy of 
 the proceedings against him ; whilst he went through 
 the single points of the papal censure again in the 
 same way as before, and confuted them both by 
 Scripture and reason. Even before this Savonarola 
 had declared, that no one should or dare obey any 
 law against love. In a similar sense he declared in a 
 sermon of 11th February, 'Thou sayest, I should 
 leave off preaching ; that will never be, for it is 
 against love. Hast thou not seen that when preach- 
 ing was discontinued, good life ceased, vices increased 
 and became quite bold ; so went to the ground the 
 faith of Christ, and the sheep fell into the jaws of 
 the wolf? Say, what else wanted they with the ex- 
 communication, but to remove good life and injure 
 the general welfare ? That every child knows. Now 
 that the censure is come, they go into the drinking 
 and gambling places, and lead a perverse life ; there- 
 fore will I not recognize it, for I cannot act against 
 love. But he who connnands any thing against love, 
 is excommunicated by God. To me it is enough if 
 Christ curses me not, but blesses me. Whether wilt 
 thou turn thyself to those who are blessed by the pope, 
 and whose life is a disgrace to Christendom ; or to 
 those who are excommunicated by the pope, while 
 
ClI. XII. 
 
 AND JUSTIFIES HIMSELF. 
 
 321 
 
 their life brings tlie fruits of truth, and daily becomes 
 better. Thou answerest not, but Christ speaks, " I am 
 the vvay, the truth, and the life." ' ' That I have not 
 come forward till now,' he says in the following ser- 
 mon of the 18th February, 1498, 'was on account 
 of the weak ; but if thou thinkest that I have 
 prayed for absolution, I reply, that although many 
 have urged me to do it, 1 have not yet done it. I 
 have indeed erred in other things, because I am a 
 sinful man, but not in thus having preached the truth 
 of Christ ; the proof thereof is, that my life has agreed 
 with reason and Holy Writ ; also experience speaks 
 for it, since it has brought discipline and morality 
 into the city, and, besides, aimed at the good of the 
 State and the Church. He therefore who prevents my 
 teaching, resists the good and demands the bad ; 
 therefore the excommunication is not to be heeded. 
 First of all,' he proceeds further, ' I subject myself 
 as ever, so also now and henceforth, to the holy Ro- 
 mish Church, that thou may est not believe that I 
 wish to withdraw myself from that which it deter- 
 mines ; but, at the same time, I set forth that there is 
 no man that cannot err, the pope not excepted. It 
 were foolisli to assert that the pope cannot err, as 
 there have been many bad popes who have erred. Were 
 it true, that popes cannot err, we must do what they 
 have done to be saved. Thou wilt say. The pope can err 
 as man, but not as pope. And I answer, that the pope 
 can err even in such decisions and judgements. How 
 many decrees has one pope given which another has 
 rescinded ? and how many opinions of former popes 
 have been contradicted by later ? If, in fact, the 
 pope errs, he is not pope, but a man, who can be 
 deceived and err. Thus, as a Christian, I cannot 
 sin ; but if I sin, it is not as a Christian, but as a 
 man. In fact the pope can err, and indeed in two 
 ways, — either out of false conviction, or out of 
 
322 
 
 THE REIGN OF MAMMON. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 wickedness. But let us leave the last willingly to 
 the judgement of God, and suppose rather that the 
 pope is circumvented or deceived. So will I show 
 thee, that the pope in our alFair also is deceived by 
 false persuasion. He, therefore, who would obsti- 
 nately validate his excommunication, and declares I 
 should not preach this doctrine, speaks against the 
 kingdom of Christ, and for the kingdom of Satan, — 
 is himself a heretic, and excluded from the Christian 
 community.' 
 
 Savonarola attacked more unsparingly than ever, 
 at the same time, the depravity of the Romish Church 
 and clergy. ' The scandal begins at Rome, and goes 
 through the whole ; they are worse than Turks and 
 Moors. Begin only with Rome, and you will find 
 that they have won all their spiritual benefices by 
 simony. Many seek them for their children and 
 brothers, who enter them with insolence and a thou- 
 sand sins. Their covetousness is monstrous ; they 
 will do any thing for money. Their bells sound 
 avarice, — call to nothing else but money and ease. 
 
 ' The priests go for money to the choir, the vespers, 
 and their office. They sell the benefices — they sell 
 the sacraments — they traffic with the mass — in short, 
 every thing is done for money. And then they fear 
 excommunication. As soon as evening comes, one 
 goes to gaming, another to concubines. And when 
 they go to a funeral, where they should pray in still- 
 ness for the dead, there are great entertainments, 
 there is rich eating and drinking and much gossip, and 
 what scandalous vices do they practise ! But they 
 go in the day adorned. They wear fine shirts, and are 
 otherwise richly apparelled. Some know nothing even 
 of the rules of their order, know not what they are, 
 nay, are altogether ignorant. Confession and care of 
 saints are unknown to them. There is no more 
 belief, no more faith, no love, no virtue. Formerly, 
 
cii. xn. 
 
 THE POPE DETERMINED. 
 
 323 
 
 the saying was, " If not fair, then fine." Now pru- 
 dence is not needed, since it has become a shame to 
 live well. Look, if a priest or canon lives well, men 
 will make game of him and accuse him of hypocrisy. 
 Now, the word is no more, my nephew, but my son, 
 my daughter. Harlots go publicly to St. Peter, 
 each priest has his concubine ; they practise infamy 
 without concealment. This poison has so accumu- 
 lated at Rome, that France, Germany, and all the 
 world is infected with it : it has gone so far, that one 
 must warn each other against Rome, and it has 
 become a saying, " If you will ruin your son, make 
 him a priest." ' 
 
 In Rome they heard the news of this with as much 
 astonishment as rage, especially since Savonarola 
 continually asserted that he recognized no respect of 
 persons, but would only obey God. Alexander VI. 
 understood this to mean an intentional doubting of 
 the Pope's right to his dignity. The ambassador of 
 the papal court, Domenico Bonsi, mentioned on the 
 25th of February the violent ill-will of the Pope to 
 Florence, which endured such proceedings as would 
 not be expected from Turks and Heathens. ' His 
 holiness,' he added, ' was determined someway to 
 make an end of the thing;' and a few days later, in 
 a second writing, he says, ' The Pope is determined 
 to lay Florence under an interdict, unless stronger 
 measures be forthwith taken against Savonarola. 
 For teaching the Gospel he was not to blame, but 
 in defiance of the Apostolical Church he made a 
 jest of the papal commands, and declared the ex- 
 communication to be nugatory. The Pope, also, 
 thought there was in the last writing of the Signory, 
 a stamp and impression of Savonarola, which he 
 the more wondered at, as they continually asserted 
 that he engaged not in such matters.' At the same 
 time there went forth a very pressing writing of the 
 
324 
 
 SAVONAROLA S DEFIANCE. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 Pope to tbe Signory, wherein it is summoned ex- 
 pressly, and under threat of interdict, to send 
 Savonarola, the son of perdition, a prisoner to Rome. 
 But the Signory regarded the papal threatening the 
 less, as well as the cry of his enemies, since the period 
 of their office would expire in a few days. 
 
 After the elections that took place at the end of 
 February, the Signory which came in on the 1st of 
 March under Pietro Popoleschi reckoned only three 
 members for Savonarola, and six who were violently 
 determined against him. It might, therefore, be seen 
 beforehand what measures it would take. Savona- 
 rola wished to anticipate force on the day on which 
 this government began : he niounted the pulpit of the 
 cathedral for the last time. Already, at the last 
 celebration of the carnival several disturbances had 
 occurred. They had taken away the cross from the 
 young people, and broken it into pieces ; neither had 
 they shown the accustomed reverence to the Host. 
 ' O, ye priests !' he exclaimed, ' you have gone 
 beyond the heathens in raising such great opposition 
 and persecution to the truth and the cause of God. O, 
 my children ! now it is clear that they are worse than 
 Turks ; now we must strive against the wicked as 
 martyrs against tyrants. Ye wicked ones ! ye strive 
 against this cause, like heathens. Write to Rome, 
 that this monk will contend against you with his 
 cause as against Turks and infidels. There is a brief 
 come from Rome, it is true : therein I am named a 
 son of perdition. Write to them thus, He whom 
 thou so namest says, that he keeps no concubines 
 or catamites. His brothers and all who hear his 
 doctrines look not after such sorry things, but re- 
 ceive the sacraments and live reverently. But as 
 Christ himself, so now we likewise desire somewhat to 
 give place to anger. And, therefore, I say to you, I 
 will no more preach from this pulpit, except when it 
 
CH. XII. 
 
 ASSEMBLY OF ANCIENTS. 
 
 325 
 
 is commanded me by those who wish a good life. I 
 will preach in San Marco, but only for the men, and 
 not for the women : this the circumstances require.' 
 
 Although the rest of the clergy refused in earnest 
 to absolve, to give the sacrament to, or to bury in 
 consecrated earth, any one who should further attend 
 the preaching of Savonarola, yet not only was the 
 church of San Marco full to overflowing with men, 
 but many got themselves received into the order, 
 whilst others recommenced their wicked life with 
 greater boldness. Savonarola's discourse became 
 sharper in like degree, but without degenerating 
 even yet into passionate violence. In an immovable 
 confidence in the Divine truth, and the final victory 
 of the good cause, he stood powerful and truly great 
 against the always more stormy attacks of his 
 enemies. With reference to the words of his text, he 
 repeated his declaration, that ' since it was come to 
 this point of trouble, the second also would not fail, 
 namely, the destruction of Pharaoh in the sea. 
 Whether it will do so now exactly, is not quite cer- 
 tain, yet not improbable. It will take place some- 
 time or other to a certainty.' It is surprising that 
 Savonarola, who, according to former intimations, had 
 assuredly adopted the convocation of a general coun- 
 cil into his plans of reformation, gave no hint of this, 
 even in sermons or writings till now. Perhaps he had 
 convinced himself that in the first place there was little 
 to hope from it, and in the next that the needful ele- 
 ments were to be got in quite another manner. This 
 conjecture has reason on its side ; for when Savonarola 
 came to the words, 'and they assembled all the an- 
 cients of the children of Israel,' (Exodus iv. 29.) he 
 expressed himself thus, — ' That is a capital point, an 
 excellent point, yet I will keep it back awhile ; it is 
 not yet time to pour in oil. I say, therefore, merely 
 
 F f 
 
32G 
 
 A poi'e's salvation doubtful. 
 
 B. nr. 
 
 this. Tell me, Florence ! what is a council ? Does 
 no one then know any more what a council is ? How 
 comes it that your sons know nothing of it? O ! now 
 we can assemble no council. Therein thou art right, 
 but I know not if thou understandest it as I do. A 
 council is an assembly of the Church, i. e. of all 
 good abbots, prelates, good and upright men of the 
 Church. But, observe, the Church is there only 
 where the grace of the Holy Spirit is. In the council 
 must reformers stand up who reform all that is bad ; 
 there should the bishop be deposed who has practised 
 simony ; — in the council should the bad clergy be 
 punished ; in the council the good clergy should be 
 protected. But he who will punish the wicked, and 
 favour the good, must himself be freed from all 
 stain : therefore, now, no council can be assembled.' 
 
 In Rome anger and fear increased every day. 
 They looked for formal separation — so much the more 
 frequent and threatening became the letters of the pope 
 — while the ambassador must have remembered how 
 they jested away the final recovery of Pisa, of which 
 the pope had previously assured the Florentines : yet 
 they lacked spirit to step forcibly forward against 
 Savonarola. He, on the other hand, on the 1.3th of 
 March, 1498, sent a final letter to the pope, in which, 
 full of confidence in the highest Judge, he appeals 
 from him, who, as the highest shepherd of the 
 Church, had not defended innocence and the cause of 
 God as he ought, witli an earnest warning to his holi- 
 ness to think of the salvation of his soul. ' I thought,' 
 he writes, ' that it was my duty at once to defend 
 the truth of the Catholic doctrine, to the honour of 
 God, and the furtherance of the holy faith, and to at- 
 tend to the ruined manners, and bring them back to 
 Christian discipline. Afterwards, I saw that many 
 shepherds of the Church, by bad example and cor- 
 
tii. xn. 
 
 OPINIONS DIVIDED. 
 
 :327 
 
 rupt doctrine, led astray the flocks committed to 
 them, and preceded them, by many scandalous actions, 
 to hell. And while I did this, and by the annoimce- 
 ment of coming punishment endeavoured to guide the 
 people back by the right way, then trouble and 
 anguish came upon me, wherein none consoled and 
 helped me : then I hoped your holiness would stand 
 up in my defence, and contend for me against the 
 enemies of the faith — but the contrary has been 
 the case. Since now, your holiness, the repeated 
 vindication of my innocence, and all the grounds 
 brought forward by me, not to the vindication of my 
 wrong, but to the proving of the purity of my doc- 
 trine, and the demonstration of my submission to your 
 holiness and to the holy Roman Church, have failed; and 
 your holiness has, it seems, given hearing only to my 
 enemies ; I may now believe that in future also I 
 shall not find the help I might have expected with 
 justice from you as a Christian and the highest 
 shepherd. But no power has been given to the 
 devouring wolf to rage against me. Besides, T hope 
 from Him who has chosen the weak of the world to 
 bring the strong to shame, that I shall be heard by 
 Him for the sake of the truth — for .vhich I suffer 
 and bear what T do ; and that He will requite those 
 who persecute me, and hinder the work of God, 
 which I endeavour to promote. For, after the ex- 
 ample of Christ, I have never sought my own 
 honour, and await death with the greatest desire. 
 0 ! icould that your holiness would not delay to con- 
 sider the salvation of your soul.' 
 
 There came anew a threatening letter from the 
 Pope. There was an assembly called of twenty-five 
 citizens from different quarters of the city, which should 
 consult with the college of eighty senators on the busi- 
 ness. But the opinions were so divided, that after 
 six hours' controversv thcv could come to no con- 
 F f ' 2 
 
328 SAVONAROLA ' GOd's HAMMER ! ' B. Ill, 
 
 elusion. At last, on the 17th of March, Giovanni 
 Berlinghieri and Pietro Popoleschi, with their ad- 
 herents, carried the point, that a threatening com- 
 mand should be sent to Savonarola to preach no 
 more. On the following day, 18th of March, Savona- 
 rola appeared in public for the last time. He 
 declared again, in the most solemn manner, the 
 trutli of all he had preached, and threatened severe 
 Divine punishments to the Clergy of Rome and 
 Florence. As no more human aid was to be hoped, 
 nothing else remained but to take his refuge with 
 God and Christ. ' As one flies to fire out of tainted 
 air, and drives away this with that, and withdraws 
 from out of the too great heat into the cool dwelling, 
 so must we now take our flight to the last help out » 
 of the greatest confusion of spiritual aff'airs in the 
 kingdom of Christ. From the Pope we must turn 
 to the heavenly Pope — that is, to Christ.' And 
 further on, he declares that he ' never set himself 
 against the right true power of the Church.' 
 
 ' But if this power of the Church be indeed destruc- 
 tive or ruinous, it is no ecclesiastical, but a hellish 
 POWER OF SATAN. I Say to you, when they main- 
 tain concubines, catamites, and robbers, but perse- 
 cute the good, and endeavour to hinder the Christian 
 life, it is a devilish power which we must resist. 
 / not only submit mi/self to the ecclesiastical power, 
 but I defend it, the Romish Church and the Christian 
 doctrine, against that hellish power of satan. 
 Let the Lord only act ; He has been the teacher of 
 all prophets and holy men. This is the Master who 
 handles the hammer, and when He has used it, lays 
 it not to the accomplished labour, but throws it 
 away. So He did to Jeremiah, whom He permitted 
 to be stoned at the end of his preaching — so will He 
 also do with this hammer, tvhen He has used it after his 
 oivn way. Well ! let us be content : the Lord do 
 
CH. XII. 
 
 TO BE THROWN AWAY. 
 
 329 
 
 what pleases Him ! The heavier the condition here 
 beneath, the more glorious the crown there above. 
 But now of the wicked have you heard and also not 
 heard — heard, that this preaching, which aimed at 
 the welfare of the state, is suppressed ; but not heard 
 for your own welfare : so to those sick men who have 
 frequently driven away the physician, the latter yields 
 the wine they have demanded, and abandons the 
 healing.' 
 
 r f 3 
 
CHAPTER XIIT. 
 
 THE ORDEAL. 
 
 Christian and Man — Controversy between Domenico da Pescia 
 and Francesco di Puglia — Proposal of the Fiery Ordeal — 
 Sav onarola's reluctance — At last jields — The ordeal — The 
 cowardice of the Franciscans — The superstition of the 
 Host — Violence — Insurrection— Savonarola's imprisonment 
 — Proofs of the Pope's guilty participation in the infamous 
 trick. 
 
 Savonarola has now spoken out, he has uttered 
 excommunication for excommunication. The pope 
 of Florence may ere long become the pope of Rome, 
 if further advances be permitted. The present pope 
 is anaigned for the monster that he is, and summoned 
 before the bar of that Church where no error can 
 have entrance, and into the presence of that Judge 
 who tries the spirits of men. Savonarola feels him- 
 self the representative of that Judge, and, as such, 
 infallible ; nay, incapable, as a Christian, of error, 
 though not as a man, — a just though nice distinc- 
 tion, and much insisted on by the beloved Disciple 
 in his first Epistle : ' If we say that we have no sin, 
 we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.' 
 ' WTiosoever is born of God sinneth not ; but he that 
 is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that Wicked 
 One touches him not.' (Compare 1 John i. 8; v. 18.) 
 
Cll. 
 
 xni. 
 
 Savonarola's errors. 
 
 331 
 
 Although as a Christian, one almost as perfect as 
 ever illustrated the only divine religion in the world ; 
 yet as a man, Savonarola was not without his defects. 
 Though prophetically gifted to see the necessity and 
 certainty of reformation to the Church, still in secular 
 aTairs he looked on certain things too much from a 
 temporary and local point of view, and was not yet 
 wholly delivered from all the superstitions against 
 which he protested. His personal chastity, his entire 
 and undoubted celibacy, — while it elevated his cha- 
 racter and his affections, yet deprived him of many 
 S3'mpathies, and involved some of the relations of life 
 to him in an obscure mystery, which sharpened his 
 indignation against vices, and exaggerated sins into 
 crimes. This was an evil of which he was uncon- 
 scious, and imposed upon him by his Church, whose 
 ambitious cruelty in this particular he does not ap- 
 pear to have appreciated. Marriage, had it been 
 permitted to him, would have softened many of his 
 asperities, without quenching his zeal. A more 
 tempered enthusiasm would have preserved him from 
 making enemies of many who might have been his 
 friends, and secured him from much of the peril 
 which he courted, without lessening th3 value of his 
 demonstration in the great cause in which he was 
 engaged. Nevertheless, we must not forget that it 
 was none other than God who had chosen him for its 
 championship, and that therefore the selection must 
 have been wisely made. 
 
 Yet, owing to the circumstance just mentioned and 
 exclusive spiritual contemplations, Savonarola showed 
 too little sympathy with the body and the organs that 
 serve for the channels of the soul. At all times sys- 
 tematically denying it any indulgence, he was willing 
 to surrender it at the shortest notice. He murmured 
 not at being used as God's hammer, and then thrown 
 away. But this state of feeling removed him to too great 
 
332 
 
 FRANCESCO DI PUGLIA. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 a distance from some minds, and rendered him less care- 
 ful of the impressions made by danger and death on 
 others than policy would have dictated. If it were in 
 his power, he might with advantage to his influence 
 have interposed effectually in behalf of those who were 
 beheaded for the conspiracy to restore the Medici. 
 It is said, that in claiming their right of appeal, they 
 were opposed by the Piagnoni, and especially by 
 Valori, at whose feet the relatives of the unfortu- 
 nate men threw themselves in the humblest entreaty, 
 his obduracy being ascribed to personal resentment. 
 PubUc sympathy was moved by the injustice of the 
 case and the venerable age of two of the suflFerers ; 
 and though Savonarola was not individually impli- 
 cated, yet either his silence or his impotency was not 
 without an immediate effect, and his credit with the 
 populace was in consequence considerably diminished ; 
 a proof this, how much his former authority rested on 
 the just and wholesome influence of elevated charac- 
 ter. From that moment the Bigi, who had pre\'ious]y 
 joined his party in preference to that of the Com- 
 pagnacci, attached themselves to the latter, thereby 
 giving them such a preponderance in the magistracy, 
 as enabled them to make some show of enforcing 
 ecclesiastical penalties ; at the same time, though all 
 religious papists, who knew the force of Savonarola's 
 mind and the excellence of his conduct, were natu- 
 rally anxious to reckon him on their side, yet those who 
 were reproached alike by his life and words, were 
 ' glad to undermine the influence of so formidable a 
 censor. The Franciscans took this opportunity of 
 indulging the animosity existing between them and 
 the Dominicans, and eagerly stepped forward to se- 
 cond the papal anathemas on one of their rivals. 
 The Minorite, Francesco di Puglia, in particular, 
 protected and applauded by the Compagnacci, at- 
 tracted congregations almost as numerous and quite 
 
CH. Xlll. 
 
 MIRACLES. 
 
 333 
 
 as clamorous as those which attended Savonarola ; 
 but we hear nothing of reformation of manners as 
 the result of his preaching. 
 
 There was one peculiarity in the theologj- of 
 Savonarola, — he made little account of miracles among 
 the evidences of religion. A pious life was to him 
 the greatest miracle and the best evidence ; other signs 
 than these are demanded only by wicked and adul- 
 terous generations. Yet in his letters to the crowned 
 heads of Europe, appealing to a council, he had 
 suggested that miracles would not be wanting. It 
 was evidently a sublime figure thrown in to affect 
 royal imaginations ; but it was seized hold of at 
 Rome. By a perversion of the doctrine of miracles, 
 and the manufacture of false ones, she had trafficked 
 with the divine sense of wonder in the soul of man, 
 and traded on the ignorant mind ; she therefore em- 
 ployed this Francesco di Puglia to debate the matter. 
 The imprudent, over-zealous Domenico da Pescia 
 was betrayed into the snare. As early as the Lent 
 of 1496, he and Francesca di Puglia, when both 
 preached in Prato, had engaged in the controversy. 
 Francesco seized on the point boldly, — that Savo- 
 narola's mission wanted the authority of miracles. He 
 professed to teach truth and to prophesy, and had 
 acquired some credit, not altogether undeserved, 
 thereby ; but where were the miracles ? He taunted 
 Domenico to show his Master's miracles ; he accused 
 him of fearing to appeal to any such evidence, and 
 attributed Savonarola's indifference on the point to 
 the vilest motives. He dared him or his Master to 
 venture on supernatural proof, until Domenico began 
 to think that it was a point of honour to agree to a 
 reciprocal challenge. The Ordeal was proposed ; and 
 then abandoned. Meantime, by mutual compromise, 
 instead of that test a public disputation was deter- 
 mined on between both. But when did the partizans 
 
3;3t MAGICAL POWER IN THE SACRAMENTS. B. III. 
 
 of Rome meet argument fairly ? The Minorite ne- 
 glected to appear, and — probably by command of his 
 superiors — departed in haste. 
 
 In the Lent of 1498 they both met again in a 
 similar relation, at Florence. Fra Domenico preached 
 in San Lorenzo, the Minorite in Santa Croce, when 
 the latter again publicly disputed the truth of Savo- 
 narola's declarations and those of his adherents, and 
 also defended the validity of the excommunication. 
 The debate became violent, and the declamation loud ; 
 both parties warmed in the argument, and the ordeal 
 was again insidiously demanded by the Minorite, 
 and incautiously accepted by Domenico. Savonarola 
 seems to have kept aloof from the contest ; but, 
 nevertheless, coidd not avoid being committed by it. 
 The acts of disciples needs involve the master. He 
 seems still to have continued to express his convic- 
 tion that the truth of his cause was not in want of 
 supernatural proofs ; but still, to the monarchs whom 
 he had made his correspondents, he had conceded their 
 possibility — their probability, if the natural should 
 not suffice. Rome bound him to that ; she was de- 
 termined on her challenge. The cunning harlot had 
 conceived in her mind the game, and would create 
 opportunity for playing it ; she had arranged all the 
 moves beforehand, and was sure of the result. At 
 length Savonarola's own mind became excited ; it was 
 almost, not altogether, free from superstition. Wiiile 
 he denounced superfluous rites, he believed in the 
 sacramental nature of the Church, and some magical 
 power in the sacraments ; in pai'ticular, he placed 
 great faith in the host, as great as Pope Benedict 
 XIIL when he fled disguised from Avignon, who for 
 his special protection bore upon his breast a little 
 box containing the consecrated element. No doubt 
 was entertained of the validity of such a precaution, 
 so difficult it is to divest the mind of early-received 
 
cu. 
 
 XI It. 
 
 DISPUTED THESES. 
 
 3:55 
 
 opinions, however absurd. Savonarola accordingly, 
 on one occasion, appeared with the sacrament in his 
 hand, on the balcony of the church of San Marco, 
 before a great crowd of people, invoking from God a 
 severe proof of his disapprobation and punishment if 
 he had spoken untruth. Such acts of misprision, of 
 course, gave to the IMinorites an immense advantage. 
 They would not be appeased without the ordeal of 
 fire ; whereupon the case came before the Signory, 
 and Domenico pledged himself to maintain, both by 
 arguments and the ordeal, the truth of the following 
 positions : — 
 
 ' The Church of God needs renovation ; it will be 
 either punished or renewed. Florence likewise will, 
 after the punishment, be renewed and blessed : infi- 
 dels will be converted to Christ. All this will take 
 place in our days. The lately-issued excommunica- 
 tion against Savonarola ought to count for nothing ; 
 they sin not who disregard it.' 
 
 Francesco di Puglia, in his reply, declared his 
 ' readiness to stand the ordeal at the request of the 
 Signory, touching the matters in hand, of which 
 many, though not all, required supernatural proof ; 
 yet not with Fra Domenico, concemiiig whom he 
 had nothing to say, but ' (as a salvo for his cowardice) 
 ' with Savonarola himself, from whom these contests 
 proceeded ' (and who, he had reason to suspect, would 
 not accept the challenge) ; ' another brother of his 
 order might undergo the trial with Fra Domenico.' 
 One indeed made the offer, but soon withdrew, when 
 • Giuliano Rondelli, a simple-minded man, presented 
 himself for the trial. The fanaticism of this indi- 
 vidual was extreme, as he had no faith in the ordeal 
 itself, but was willing to die for the pope's honour, 
 provided his opponent might also be burned. So 
 great was his zeal to murder, that he was willing to 
 die in the committal. ' He was,' he said, ' convinced 
 
336 DISBELIEF IN THE OllDEAL. B. III. 
 
 tliat he should perish in the fire, hut willingly yielded 
 liis life, since he was certain the same fate would 
 come upon others, and the people would thus he dis- 
 abused concerning these men's pretensions ; nay, he 
 thought Christian charity required tJie sacrifice of his 
 life, if he could thereby remove the cause of so much 
 error, and send the heresiarch to hell.' 
 
 The barbarous proposition of an ordeal was sure 
 of creating a popular sensation. A turbulent and 
 divided multitude gladly caught at the promise of a 
 spectacle , and the magistrates, some of one party and 
 some of another, were from various motives not dis- 
 inclined to the trial. Not a few treated the matter 
 with ridicule. It were quite as satisfactory, said 
 they, and much more humane, to immerse the two 
 monks in a tub of water — (for their greater comfort, 
 warm water) ; and he who came out dry might be 
 considered the conqueror. 
 
 How much Savonarola must have lamented this 
 state of things ! He, however, personally declined 
 the challenge of Francesco, justifying himself in a 
 writing, dated April 1, 1498. 'The Minorite,' he 
 said, ' had directed the original challenge not to him, 
 but generally to any one who would stand the ordeal. 
 And since the question related principally to the 
 validity of the excommunication, it was, according to 
 his conviction, unnecessary to prove by such means 
 that it was null — a point which had been otherwise 
 proved by reasons that had never been refuted. Nor 
 might so weighty a matter be undertaken for so small 
 a gain to the Church. But he was prepared to stand 
 even this ordeal, if his enemies in Rome would ap- 
 pear at it as witnesses. At the same time, he cen- 
 sures the design of the Minorite to summon him to 
 such a proof, when not one among them had the 
 belief that he would come alive out of the fire. That 
 was avowedly cruelty and murder ; because the 
 
CH. XIII. 
 
 CONCEALED RIDICULE. 
 
 337 
 
 brothers of San Marco, for the defence of God's 
 cause, found themselves compelled to accept th# 
 challenge : — yes, not only one, or single individuals 
 of them, but all were prepared, in firm reliance on 
 the truth of their cause, to be led out to execution. 
 But should any one think, that if his opponents re- 
 fused to stand the ordeal, the brothers of San Marco 
 were bound to venture alone ; he must then again 
 declare, that they had no need to strengthen by mira- 
 cles what was unanswerably otherwise proved — 
 namely, the invalidity of the exconnnunication. 
 Touching the truth of his prophecies, he compelled 
 no one to believe more than appeared reasonable to 
 him — but he did warn all to live a Christian life — 
 that alone was the miracle he adduced for the belief 
 in his doctrine, and of all truth that comes from God,' 
 The wily Minorites were not so to be baffled in 
 their perfidious aim — which was to implicate the 
 brethren of San Marco in a trial in which they them- 
 selves had no faith, and which they always meant to 
 avoid. There was a solemn jest concealed in the whole 
 affair — there lay under the monk's sanctimonious 
 mask the wanton's smiling cheek — it was altogether 
 an abominable piece of levity, playing with the lives 
 of pious men, and making a game of a sacred cause. 
 ' Either brother Girolamo,' says Francesco, ' is a holy 
 man, and these things are of God, or they are not. 
 If, however, he were holy, he would have charity, 
 without which none can be a saint, or even a good 
 man. If he had charity, he would never consent 
 that I or others should enter the fire, and be burned 
 for his sake. If he be not holy, he will not hazard 
 the trial, and our side will gain the day.' And thus, 
 jby'such fiendish sneers, good men are goaded to the 
 adoption of what they loathe. 
 
 Savonarola doubtless should have met at once so 
 wicked and senseless a proposition with a bold denial 
 
 G g 
 
338 
 
 THE SELF-DEVOTED CHILD. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 — but he was misled by a habit of dialectic subtlety, 
 which induced him to argue where he ought to have 
 acted. Besides, he was impelled by various motives 
 — a ferment of fanaticism was abroad, such as no 
 man could control, and the character of his friend 
 and coadjutor Fra Domenico was at stake. True, 
 the thing had been commenced while he himself was 
 disabled by sickness, and many of his disciples were 
 anxious and ardent for the trial. There was no want 
 of champions on either side, especially on that of the 
 Piagnoni — men, women, and children, flocked around 
 San Marco, eager to become candidates for the 
 honour of martyrdom. The sisters of Savonarola, and 
 other noble ladies, offered themselves. Once, while 
 walking in the garden of his monaster)', a beautiful 
 child came brinsjincr a note in its own hand-writing, 
 proposing to undergo the ordeal ; and lest that should 
 not suffice to procure his ^^^sh, the child, prostrating 
 himself on the ground, earnestly pleaded that he 
 might be permitted to enter the fire. Savonarola 
 replied, ' Rise, my son ; this thy righteous purpose 
 is verj' acceptable to God ; see that thou continue 
 in this good disposition.' After he had dismissed 
 the boy, he turned to one Placido, who then accom- 
 panied him, and said, ' I have received letters from 
 many persons, but none have so comforted me as 
 this, from that child, for whom God be praised ! ' 
 Besides, Savonarola, though not desiring miracles, 
 was no disbeliever in them ; and, indeed, was in the 
 habit of looking for indications of the will of God, in 
 the dispensations of his Pro\'idence. Perhaps he 
 recognised in the circumstances of this trial, volun- 
 teered by his friend against his own advice, and at a 
 period when incapable of exertion, and corroborated % 
 by so much sympathetic fellowship, some leading 
 into a path which he had not dared to choose, but 
 through the dangers of which, since he had not pre- 
 
CH. XIII. 
 
 MANIFESTOS. 
 
 339 
 
 sumptuously incurred them, he might hope to be 
 miraculously sustained. 
 
 The contest, however, for the present, remained 
 with Fra Domenico and Giuliano Rondinclli, to 
 whom afterwards the Dominican Fra Mariano delli 
 Ughi joined himself, according to the legal subscrip- 
 tion of March 30. Malatesta Sacromoro, Ruberto 
 di Bernardo Salviati, nay, all the brothers of San 
 Marco, and many of the other adherents of Savona- 
 rola, had previously made private offers for under- 
 going the trial. 
 
 On the same March 30, the Signory determined 
 on having the ordeal ; and that the brothers of San 
 Marco — for with these had they principally to do — 
 should, in case it ended unfavourably for them, be 
 banished for ever from the Florentine territory, and 
 only be received again on the mature consideration 
 > of the magistrates, appointed at some future time ; 
 and that this determination should also hold good for 
 the opposite party. But in the protocol of the sitting 
 of April 6, the day before that appointed for the 
 ordeal, the question ceased to relate any more to the 
 Franciscans, but how, as if the result of the affair 
 were already certain, the sentence should be made, 
 and communicated to the brothers ol San Marco. 
 ' In case Fra Domenico burns, Savonarola, the author 
 of this doctrine, should quit Florence within three 
 hours, as an offender against the state.' 
 
 According to this, it is probable that at an enter- 
 tainment in the palace, a few days before the fiery 
 ordeal, it was arranged by the chief opponents of 
 Savonarola, that the Franciscans should not go into 
 the fire, though they should force Fra Domenico 
 into it. 
 
 Manifestos were prepared for the signature of 
 each party. The following is that signed by Savona- 
 rola : as its terms were dictated, they are no cvi- 
 G g 2 
 
340 THE MORNING OF THE ORDEAL. B. III. 
 
 dence of his opinions. The assumption it contains 
 was necessarily included in the fact of the ordeal. 
 
 ' I, brother Girolamo, of Ferrara, unworthy vicar 
 of the congregation of San Marco, of the Order of 
 Frati predicatori dell' Osservanza, accept the proposi- 
 tion of the brothers, who have subscribed this docu- 
 ment, and of all the brothers in San Marco and San 
 Domenico di Fiesole ; and I promise to give one, two. 
 three, or four, or ten, as many as shall be required 
 for the work, — that is, entering the fire to establish the 
 truth which I preach ; and I trust in our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, and in his evangelical life, that 
 every one whom I give shall come out untouched, 
 that is, without any hurt ; if I doubted this, I would 
 not give them up for fear of being a murderer. In 
 token whereof, I subscribe this with my own hand, 
 to the praise and glory of Almighty God, the salva- 
 tion of souls, and the preservation of the truth of our* 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, who alone does innumerable 
 great and inscrutable acts, to whom be honour and 
 dominion for ever. Amen.' 
 
 The day preceding that fixed for the trial was 
 passed by Savonarola and his brethren in prayer and 
 fasting, every brother having received permission tii 
 fast three days on bread and water. The appointed 
 time was the Vigil of Palm Sunday (April 7, 1498) ; 
 in the morning, Savonarola publicly celebrated a 
 solemn mass in the Church of San Marco, in which 
 multitudes communicated at his hands ; the remaining 
 time was spent in supplication. The peace of his 
 heart shone out in a countenance full of fervour and 
 animation : having robed himself, he ascended the 
 pulpit with great seriousness, and by a short sermon 
 awakened the love of Jesus in the hearts of believers, 
 encouraged them to be stedfast in the faith, and 
 added, ' As far as it is revealed to me, I think the 
 
ClI. XIII. 
 
 Savonarola's oration. 
 
 341 
 
 victory is ours, and brother Domenico will come out 
 unhurt if the trial take place. But whether it will 
 take place or not, is not revealed to me by the Lord : 
 if you ask me what I believe, I say, as a man, that 
 seeing such preparation is made, I think it more 
 likely than not.' 
 
 These words, taken in connexion with other am- 
 biguous expressions attributed to him, show not only 
 that he could not, but that he did not, pretend always 
 to distinguish accurately between the thoughts which 
 arose in his mind, according to the known general 
 law of the Almighty, and those which he believed to 
 proceed from the immediate inspiration of the Holy 
 Spirit ; — an uncertainty which has been considered 
 by some as thromng discredit on the assertions of 
 all who have claimed more than ordinary intercourse 
 with God ; as if we knew so perfectly the manner in 
 which He is pleased to regulate his communication 
 with mankind, that He could not deviate from his 
 laws without our being immediately conscious of it : 
 yet it would be a more reasonable inference to believe, 
 that the control constantly exercised by the Father 
 of spirits over our inmost souls, is far greater than 
 we usually perceive, and that we should not expect 
 the transition to be so striking from his ordinary to 
 his extraordinarj- influence, if we were aware of the 
 extent of the former. 
 
 Savonarola reminded his brethren to continue in 
 prayer from the time Domenico entered the fire till 
 he came out, exhorting them to speak humbly, not 
 saying to their adversaries We have conquered, because 
 it would be the work of God, and not theirs. ' For 
 no one,' continued Savonarola, ' should be proud in 
 the confidence of victory — much rather is it becoming 
 to withdraw all earthly consideration, and to submit 
 everything to God. Once more I repeat, that we 
 have no need to prove the truth of our cause by 
 
 Gg3 
 
342 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE ORDEAL. B. III. 
 
 miracles, since that had heen done sufficiently by 
 other proofs. But, to maintain the faith aright, we 
 have yielded to the challenge. ' Well then, my 
 beloved i ' (he concluded) ' remain here in prayer 
 while I go to arrange the business, and doubt not 
 that your prayers will be heard.' Finally, he gave 
 the benerliction, and almost the next moment came 
 the mace-bearers from the Signory to summon him. 
 It was the hour of mid-day ; — and all was ready. 
 The Signory had given the strictest orders for the 
 prevention of all possible disturbances. The streets 
 adjoining, and entrances to the Piazza, were barricaded, 
 and only two of them were opened sufficiently wide for 
 more than one to pass at the same time — yet the throng 
 of the curious people was so extraordinary, that all 
 houses on and proximate to the place were crowded 
 to the roofs with spectators. For mutual safety there 
 were, besides three hundred soldiers led by Salviati, 
 drawn up for the Piagnoni and other adherents of 
 Savonarola, and five hundred of the Compagnacci, 
 under the roof of the Pisani, for the opposite party ; 
 and five hundred, under Aretino, surrounded the Log- 
 gia of the Signory, in obedience to the command 
 issued. Besides these, four citizens of consideration 
 were appointed, to prevent tumult among the dispu- 
 tants ; for the Franciscans, Alberto and Antenori ; 
 for the Dominicans, Gualterotti and Ridolfi. 
 
 All Florence and its neighbourhood had assembled 
 to witness this strange contest ; and indeed, — con- 
 sidering what whirlwinds of strong passions were sus- 
 pended to await this decision, and that the religious 
 and political state of Florence, if not of all Italy, 
 appeared to hang upon its result, — no wonder this 
 soleran appeal to Heaven excited the most lively in- 
 terest. The scaffold was erected on the side of the 
 enclosure, next to the Golden Lion, and extended 
 towards the roof of the Pisani, opposite to the street 
 
CH. XIII. 
 
 THE PROCESSION'. 
 
 343 
 
 leading to St. Cecilia, one end facing the Loggia, and 
 the other the gate of St. Romolo. About one in the 
 afternoon the multitude throng around the huge 
 fabric composed of faggots and brushwood ; it is 
 eighty feet long, four feet thick, and nearly six feet 
 high ; a passage two feet wide dindes it lengthwise ; 
 it is covered with oil and pitch, and sprinkled with 
 gunpowder ; so that in the words of an eye-witness, 
 ' the furnace into which the Hebrew children were 
 cast was not more dreadful.' In a moment all the 
 various tones of hope and fear, indignation and 
 triumph, are hushed ; the Franciscans are seen 
 advancing humbly, silently, barefoot, following their 
 champion ; they take their place in that division of 
 the Loggia de Lanzi assigned to them. But where 
 are Giuliano Rondinelli, and Francesca da Puglia ? 
 One, at least, is said to be in the palace of the Sig- 
 nory ! 
 
 Before the murmur of the crowd arises again, the 
 melody of sacred song directs all eyes to the brothers 
 of Saint Dominic, preceded by the Acolyths. Savon- 
 arola walks at their head ; his fine countenance, such 
 as it appears in the portraits and medals still extant, 
 not less ennobled by profound humili*^-, than by an 
 almost seraphic devotion ; in his sacerdotal robes 
 and cope, between Salvestro and Malatesta, he bears 
 the consecrated host in a crystal vessel, and leads the 
 voices of his brethren in a solemn chaunt of Psalm 
 Ixviii. ' Arise, O Lord, and let thine enemies be 
 scattered.' The monks of San Marco follow^ two and 
 two, each carrying a red cross, and chaunting in 
 sonorous voice ; last, Domenico da Pescia, also in 
 his robes, with a red cope, embracing a crucifix, 
 advances between a deacon and a sub-deacon ; they 
 place themselves beside their adversaries. The spec- 
 tators carry lighted tapers in honour of the sacra- 
 ment, and the Piagnoni are distinguished by red 
 
344 
 
 SUPERSTITION OF THE HOST. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 crosses. Already the anticipation of horrors com- 
 municates a shudder throughout the more sensitive 
 part of the multitude. But the judges are suspicious ; 
 some of them, at the instigation of the Franciscans, 
 imagining that the monks may have used magical 
 arts to secure them from the flames, demand that 
 they should put off their robes. This objection is 
 however over-ruled, upon the suggestion that the 
 robes being linen, they must assist rather than pre- 
 vent the action of fire. They content themselves 
 therefore with marking one of the Dominicans, with 
 whom Fra Domenico must change his dress under 
 their eyes. He is already prepared to take this 
 decisive step, when the Franciscans bring forward a 
 new objection, that Fra Domenico should not go into 
 the fire with the crucifix. It is replied, that this is 
 the sign of the soldier of Christ, which he will not give 
 up. Another difficulty is raised, when both champions 
 are prepared for the trial. Savonarola delivers the host 
 into the hands of his disciple ; the Franciscans raise a 
 violent outcry against the impiety of exposing the body 
 of Christ to such peril ; Domenico declares that he will 
 not enter the flames without his God, in whom alone he 
 trusts for deliverance. Savonarola explains that only 
 the accidental part can be burned, but is misunder- 
 stood or disregarded. The debate is loud and angry, 
 the bitterest taunts are thrown out on each side, 
 when the Providence of God silences the disputants 
 in an unexpected manner, which forbidding to either 
 party the triumph of a miraculous victory, is yet in- 
 terpreted by each as a special interposition in its 
 favour. A furious storm of hail and rain, with thun- 
 der, lightning, and tempestuous winds, deluges the 
 pile, so that it is impossible to light it. The popu- 
 lace, shivering and disappointed, cast the blame of 
 failure on the cowardice or wickedness of the Domini- 
 cans, and pursue them to San Marco, shouting — 
 
CH. XIII. 
 
 POPULACE DISAPPOINTED. 
 
 345 
 
 ' This then is the meaning of your Viva Christo ! you 
 would expose Him to the flames.' 
 
 The people were thus disappointed in their expec- 
 tations of a splendid melo-dramatic spectacle. A 
 general dissatisfaction was displayed, and many even 
 of Savonarola's adherents wished that he had ven- 
 tured the ordeal, even if the opposite party had 
 seceded. They overlooked, however, that in the 
 general discontent, the policy and incredulity of the 
 Franciscans would not have permitted this. Thus 
 was gained what the enemy wanted. The hold 
 that Savonarola once had on the multitude was 
 gone. On his return to San Marco, though guarded 
 by the whole array of his adherents, he was insulted 
 on many sides, and coidd only be protected from 
 being stoned by their resistance. 
 
 The cliief object of his enemies was indeed frus- 
 trated, but they the more zealously took advantage 
 of the public disappointment, and the disturbance of 
 people's minds by the rumour which was diligently 
 spread, before the crowd was come to be clear on 
 what had taken place, that Savonarola had wished 
 sacrilegiously to expose the host to the fire, with a 
 view of practising some further cheat, as they chose to 
 allege, on public credulity. 
 
 On the morning of April 8, Savonarola once more 
 entered the church of San Marco, but he not only 
 spake briefly, but appeared deeply humbled. Never- 
 theless, he exhorted his hearers to constancy, since 
 their God had visibly fought for them ; and at the 
 conclusion, declared, that he was ready himself to 
 die as a sacrifice to the cause of truth. Several of 
 his most distinguished friends had, however, already 
 withdra^vn to their villas, and they who were left were 
 defenceless. The Compagnacci, with the clergy of 
 the Duomo, had taken the resolution to hinder in 
 the afternoon the Dominican, a certain Fra Mariano, 
 
346 
 
 RIOT AND MURDER. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 from holding his accustomed vesper in the cathedral. 
 Tlie vesper however was prolonged beyond the usual 
 time, and Fra Mariano had ascended the pulpit, when 
 they crowded into the cathedral, and drove the congre- 
 gation out with great noise. The intimidated audience 
 fled away, whereupon the insolent mob went through 
 the streets in different directions, with the loud cry, 
 ' To San Marco — to San Marco ! ' Others, in the 
 meantime, occupied the corners of the streets, to keep 
 away the adherents of Savonarola from San Marco, 
 by insult, threats, and even by force. So flowed the 
 hostile crowd to San Marco, while they already 
 marked the way to it with blood. 
 
 A noble youth, who was going, praying privately 
 to himself, from San Marco to the church of S. An- 
 nunziata, was thrown down on his back amid insult- 
 ing cries, as the wild mob approached and cast 
 stones into the church of San Marco, while the people 
 in it were still singing vespers. Many brothers 
 provided themselves with weapons, but Savonarola 
 advised them to use no other than spiritual arms, 
 and ordered them all to prayer. 
 
 But while he was at the altar, occupied in devotion, 
 Domenico and others determined on vigorous measures. 
 The monks and novices fought valiantly ; Nerli, one 
 of the assailants, lost an eye. Among the Piagnoni, 
 a youth of the Pantiatichi was mortally wounded, 
 and fell at the feet of some monks, who carried him 
 to the steps of the great altar, where with a joyful 
 countenance he asked for the holy communion, say- 
 ing, ' I was never in my life so happy as now ; I 
 heartily thank God who has given me so great a 
 blessing;' soon after he yielded up his spirit to 
 his Creator. The outer doors being burned, the be- 
 siegers attempted to get into the choir, when a Ger- 
 m;in, Nercio by name, mounted the pulpit with a 
 musket, which he had ventured to go through the 
 
cn. xni. 
 
 FRANCESCI VALORI. 
 
 347 
 
 crowd to fetch, and killed many of the enemies, call- 
 ing out each time he fired, ' O Lord ! save Thy peo- 
 ple, and bless Thine heritage,' for he fired at random, 
 friends and foes being mingled together. The church 
 was full of smoke, so that the brethren could hardly 
 remain in the choir around the host, till a novice 
 broke the window over the great altar with a lance, 
 and the smoke cleared away a little. The poor 
 monks began to faint with distress, and also with 
 hunger, for they had taken nothing that day but a 
 few dry loaves and a little wine, which was brought 
 them from the sacristy. 
 
 As soon as the Signorj' had heard the noise, the 
 watchman of the principal place was sent away to 
 take possession of the cloister — but at the same 
 time, in the assembled college it was determined 
 and made known, that all the laity who were in the 
 cloister of San Marco, should leave the same within 
 an hour, and no citizen should enter it again under 
 punishment for contumacy. That further, all brothers 
 of the cloister should give up their arms on demand 
 — and that Savonarola should quit the Florentine 
 territory, promising to be answerable for their safety, 
 as otherwise they could not protect the convent from 
 demolition, or its inhabitants from massacre, ^\'hen 
 the ordinance had appeared, Savonarola wished to 
 leave the cloister, and to deliver himself up to the 
 Signory — but he was kept back by the others, be- 
 cause they justly feared for his life. Besides which, 
 the messengers were not furnished with any creden- 
 tials, and might have come without authority. IMany 
 distinguished citizens, who when the noise arose had 
 hastened to San Marco, left now the cloister, and 
 escaped privately by the garden door. 
 
 One of these, Francesci Valori, a venerable old 
 man, returned to his house, where, however, he was 
 immediately besieged by the mob. In a moment. 
 
3-48 
 
 SAN MARCO BESIEGED. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 wliilst the messenger of the Signory was summoning 
 him to appear before it, his wife, who was speaking 
 to the people from a window, was mortally wounded 
 by an arrow from a cross-bow ; but he himself, in 
 endeavouring to escape to the palace of the Signory, 
 was murdered by Vincenzio Ridolfi and Tornabuoni, 
 whose relations, through his influence, had been 
 beheaded in the preceding August for high treason. 
 The palace of Valori was plundered, and a little 
 child of his suffocated in its sleep. The palace of 
 Andrea Cambinis and the house of an artist, who was 
 known as a zealous adherent of Savonarola, expe- 
 rienced the same fate. Other buildings were pro- 
 tected from the rage of the people only by the officers 
 of the Signor}'. The infuriate rabble would gladly 
 have extended a vengeance which afforded so good 
 an opportunit)- for robbery, but the principal men of 
 all parties united with the Compagnacci in arresting 
 the evil, so that only one more house was pillaged, 
 and that belonged to a man known as a creature of 
 Valori's, whose injustice and inhumanity were thus 
 visited upon himself and his friend. 
 
 Upon tliis, the mob provoked by having been ex- 
 cluded from the Duomo during the morning service, 
 armed with cross-bows, axes, and burning torches, 
 stonned on with greater violence to San Marco ; 
 they laid fire to the doors of the church and the 
 cloister, while others clomb the walls of the cloister- 
 building, named Sapienza, lying near and uniting San 
 Marco, to get by a subterraneous passage into the chief 
 cloister. Thus they thronged into the church, where 
 a small number of laity, with some brothers, con- 
 tinued to defend themselves on the inclosed choir, 
 while Savonarola had retreated with the others into 
 the library. The fight continued for several hours, 
 without their daring to resist in the least the rude 
 force of tlie people. But the Signorj' took care twice 
 
CIl. XIU. CAPTURE OF SAVON AROLA. 3 tO 
 
 to send their imperative commands, forbidding the 
 defence of the cloister. Already there were several 
 killed and wounded on both sides. When, at last, at 
 midnight, negotiations were come to, officers of jtis- 
 tice appeared and demanded Savonarola, with Dome- 
 nico da Pescia and Silvestro Maruffi, under the pro- 
 mise of safe conduct before the Signory. Once more 
 Savonarola addressed himself in a Latin speech to his 
 brothers, and exhorted them to remain in the path of 
 God, with faith, prayer, and patience, since the way to 
 heaven led only through trouble : therefore they must 
 not be terrified. Florence had at former times shown 
 itself ungrateful for Divine benefactions ; witness 
 Catharine of Sienna, and the Archbishop Antonine ; 
 the less was it to be wondered at, if he experienced the 
 same. Moreover, he was ready to endure all freely and 
 willingly for the Lord's sake, since he knew that a 
 Christian life consisted in doing good and suffering 
 evil. He and Domenico then mutually confessed and 
 administered the sacrament to each other, and partook 
 of some refreshment. On his departure he gave up 
 the keys belonging to the community to the brethren, 
 with such demonstrations of humility and charity, 
 that they could not refrain from tears : many de- 
 sired to go with him, but he charged them upon their 
 obedience to remain, as he and his companions would 
 have to die for the love of Christ : then, having 
 kissed all the brethren, opening the door of the 
 library he gave himself into the power of the com- 
 missioners, recommending to their protection his 
 flock and the other citizens associated with them. 
 He was led away to the palace in company with the 
 officers of justice and a guard of safety. The cries 
 and rage of the mob were terrific, so that many 
 believed he was slain : but the guard even protected 
 him by making a roof of lances over his head ; yet his 
 hands were tied behind him like a criminal, and he 
 
 II h 
 
350 
 
 EXPRESSES SENT TO ROME. 
 
 B. lit. 
 
 had to bear the bitterest insults, and ill-treatment of 
 all sorts, to which the rudest mockings were not want- 
 ing. A savage fellow, however, who attempted to 
 maltreat him was driven away by A. di Medici, one of 
 the commissioners. Silvestro Maruffi liad shortly 
 before withdrawn himself, but when he learned 
 the result, he demanded that they should lead him 
 likewise to the Signory : whereupon he was led 
 there with Alberti, a brother of Savonarola, who 
 was also in attendance at San Marco. After some 
 general questions concerning the truth of what 
 hitherto he had preached and prophesied, and which 
 Savonarola confirmed and maintained in tlie most 
 decided manner, the three were directed to be sepa- 
 rately imprisoned. On the appearance of the prisoners 
 in the streets, shouts of exultation rent the air, and 
 died away, but the silent prayers and tears which 
 accompanied them left more lasting traces. 
 
 With the dawn of day the cloister was beset with 
 many of the citizens who were hostile to Savonarola, 
 and who with great care looked for arms ; those they 
 found, though partly taken from his enemies, were 
 carried through the city for a show. Also, Savona- 
 rola's writing table, by command of the Signory, was 
 emptied by Giovanni Berlinghiere, and the things 
 found in it were distributed. 
 
 On the same day several expresses were dispatched 
 to Rome, to report the particulars of the last forty- 
 eight hours, until the capture of Savonarola. 
 
 In a tolerably similar writing sent to the am- 
 bassador, occurs the following statement. 
 
 ' To be, at last, clear about the matter, it was 
 ordered that the proposed fiery ordeal should take 
 place ; but, at the same time, Savonarola had brought 
 to light his deceitful disposition, since he had hindered 
 the trial by continual excuses. The day follow- 
 ing all arose in great dissatisfaction, and stormed the 
 
CII. XIII. 
 
 PAPAL SATISFACTION. 
 
 cloister. The Signory, on the other hand, to show 
 themselves good sons of the Church, had ordered 
 Savonarola out of their territory under punishment 
 of contumacy, and as he had disobeyed, they had 
 caused him to be taken prisoner, with two of his 
 most zealous brothers.' 
 
 The ambassador at Rome, at the same time, had 
 direction to beseech most pressingly his holiness for 
 permission to make inquisition of the brothers. The 
 Pope was greatly rejoiced at this news, and acted 
 in such a manner as to leave no doubt that the 
 whole infamous contrivance had proceeded from him- 
 self. Thus it was that the papal answer to a former 
 writing of the Signory, concerning the fiery ordeal, 
 was purposely delayed, while, yet, the ordeal was 
 appointed. The decision of his holiness, which was 
 to the purpose that the experiment itself, by the 
 general decision of the whole college, should be pro- 
 hibited as inadmissible, and contrary to the canonical 
 law, came to Florence two days after the appointed 
 time. But scarcely was the result of the affair known 
 in Rome, before, on the 11th of Apiil, two writings 
 of approbation to Francesco and his order were pre- 
 pared. Besides the general recognition of their zeal 
 for the truth, and the honour of the holy chair, 
 wherein all were exhorted to remain and proceed, 
 in order to extinguish even the last traces of the 
 destructive doctrine of ' the godless son, Hieronymus 
 Savonarola,' those were, in particular, praised who 
 had been ready themselves to go into the fire : so 
 pious, religious, and memorable a work will remain 
 unforgettable, and give to his holiness, as well as to 
 the apostolical chair, especial and great satisfac- 
 tion. Meanwhile, a writing was sent to the Sig- 
 nory, which reached Florence on the 1 3th of April, 
 as is proved by a letter of the Ten to the am- 
 bassador at Milan, with the above date, wherein the 
 II h 2 
 
y,)2 ABSOLUTION TO TKANSGRESSORS. li. HI. 
 
 Pope expressed the liveliest thanks and the greatest 
 pleasure at the course of the matter ; and, at the 
 same time, made many offers, if they would, after 
 prosecuting the necessary inquiries, give Savonarola 
 alive into the hands of his holiness. A second brief was 
 addressed to the archbishop and the chapter of the 
 Duomo, with the authority to absolve every one who 
 had transgressed in this affair, even though by mur- 
 der ; whereupon all hastened to penance and abso- 
 lution, even many by whom formerly the validity of 
 Savonarola's excommunication was not recognized. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 INQOISITION AND MARTYRDOM. 
 
 Meditations on the fiftj'-fii-st Psalm — Inquisition appointed — 
 Savonarola questioned and tortured — Francesco Cecconc — 
 Falsitication of evidence and process — Condemnation — 
 Thirty -first Psalm — Execution of Savonarola, Domenlco da 
 Pescia, and Silvestro ilaruffi. 
 
 Verily, superstition is a sword that hath a double 
 edge, wounding him who wields it ; yea, corrupt 
 religion is a foul barrel, that explodes in the gunner's 
 hand. Small was the taint of old impurity left in 
 Savonarola's soul ; and yet it sufficed, not only to 
 emperil him, but also his most sacred cause, investing 
 with suspicion motives and acts which lie near the 
 very heart of truth, and if touched, involve its life in 
 their mortality. But its effects upon the crowd are 
 no less remarkable. Both worshipped alike that con- 
 secrated host as a god : Savonarola and his friends 
 trusted in it to take them safely through the flames 
 — as their guardian angel — the visible presence of 
 Deity. Not less thoroughly trusted the crowd, but, 
 unreasoning, yet feared this divinity might suffer from 
 fire ; at any rate, it was too sacred for experiment, 
 which might undeceive the worshipper, to whom illu- 
 sion was the soul of piety. Not the first time this, 
 H h 3 
 
354 
 
 FIFTY-FIRST PSALM. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 that the same feeling had been manifested. There 
 was once an ordeal in which a cross was enveloped in 
 one of two bundles of wool, and he who took the 
 bundle in which the cross was hidden, was acquitted. 
 But a certain monarch thought that the cross was too 
 holy a thing for such a test, and forbad its being any 
 more subjected to the peril of irreverence by the 
 chance of error. Proofs these, that the ordeal was 
 never thoroughly believed in as an infallible trial, and 
 that the adoration of symbols is implicated with oppo- 
 site errors, as by a bipolar law. 
 
 Savonarola suspected no error here, and could not 
 therefore be prepared for its antagonist reaction. He 
 had, however, to suffer the results. For consolation 
 in his imprisonment, he reverted again to his favorite 
 book, the Bible, and in particular to the words of the 
 sweet Psalmist of Israel. On one of these psalms he 
 had hitherto purposely omitted to make any comment 
 — it was the fifty-first — on the express plea that he re- 
 served it for the day of adversity. This now he began 
 to study afresh, and commenced writing meditations 
 on, which are still extant, — a fact wherein his friends 
 recognized a prophecy of his future sufferings, which 
 we bave other and better proof that he had always 
 foreseen. Known to him was his work from the 
 beginning, and from the first had he counted the cost 
 of its performance. These are some of the words of 
 his meditations : — 
 
 ''Against Thee only.' — Truly I have sinned 
 against Thee only. Lord ! For Thou didst command 
 that I should love Thee for Thyself, and all creatures 
 for Thy sake ; but I have loved the creatures more 
 than Thee, loving them for themselves. And what is 
 sin but attachnient to the creatures for their own 
 sake ? and it is no less than opposing Thee. I have, 
 then, sinned before Thee only, because I made crea- 
 tures my God, and left Thee. Thee only have I 
 
CH. XIV 
 
 DEVOTION. 
 
 335 
 
 wronged ; I have done evil before Thee, because I 
 was not ashamed to sin before Thee. O God ! how 
 many sins have I committed before Thee, which I 
 should not have committed in the presence of men ! 
 even such as I would not on any account that men 
 should know. I have feared men more than Thee, 
 because I was blind, and loved the creature. Thou 
 hast loved the truth.' (Here are enumerated the 
 promises fulfilled to Abraham, David, and others.) 
 ' Surely Thou wilt not reckon iniquities, because 
 Thou lovest truth, and hast loved it with immense 
 love ! What is that truth which thou hast loved ? 
 Is it not thy Son, who said, I am the Truth and the 
 Life ? He is, then, the truth from which all truth in 
 heaven and earth is named. Thou hast loved Him, 
 and in Him alone wert well pleased ; for that Thou 
 didst find Him without spot, and wouldest that He 
 should die for sinners. ^laintain, then, this truth ; 
 here am I a great sinner, in whom Thou mayest main- 
 tain it, to whom Thou hast pardoned many sins, 
 washing them out by the blood of Thy Christ, and 
 covering them by his passion. Why, Lord, didst 
 Thou give me this knowledge of Thy Son ? Why 
 didst Thou give me tliis faith in Him ? Didst Thou 
 give it me that I should have the more sorrow, seeing 
 my redemption, and not being able to attain it? No, 
 certainly ; Thou didst give it me that I, seeing par- 
 don prepared for me, should take it by the grace of 
 Christ. Receive me, then. Lord ! since Thou hast 
 manifested to me the unknown and hidden things of 
 Thy wisdom, that this knowledge may profit me and 
 conduct me to salvation.' 
 
 On the last verse, ' Then do they offer bullocks 
 upon Thine altar,' — ' When they offer in Thy name 
 their bodies to the cross, that is to torments and 
 death. I pray Thee receive me as a sacrifice to 
 justice, an offering in holiness, a holocaust of religious 
 
356 
 
 SAVOKAROLA TORTURED. 
 
 E. 111. 
 
 life, as the young bullock of Thy cross, through which 
 I have a claim to pass from this vale of misery to 
 that glory which Thou hast prepared for those who 
 love Thee,' 
 
 Meanwhile the Signory, having appointed a college 
 of sixteen judges of inquiry, to whom two commis- 
 sioners from Rome, assisted by several Franciscans, 
 two priests, the vicar of the archbishop (who was a 
 Medici), and the vicar of the bishop of Florence, were 
 added, and being, in consequence of a resolution and 
 decree of April 11th, invested with absolute authority, 
 they proceeded at once to the hearing of the prisoners ; 
 wherein they sought to bring Savonarola to recant 
 his predictions, by questions accompanied first with 
 threats of torture, and at last by the infliction. It 
 appears that the superstitious feeling in them could 
 be satisfied with nothing less than his explicit con- 
 fession of his having been a false prophet. All things 
 concurred in announcing the reformation he had fore- 
 told, and common sense would not permit such an 
 absurdity. The examination was tedious, but Sa- 
 vonarola maintained his wonted intrepidity and com- 
 posure, repeating aU he had ever said. His judges 
 trembled, but they stifled their convictions, and found 
 it more easy for them to torture than to answer the 
 victim. The first grade was accordingly tried. His 
 hands being bound behind him he was suspended to 
 a pillar by a cord, which was suddenly let go, that he 
 might fall, not touching the ground, with a dislocating 
 jerk, whereby he sufiered the severest pain in every 
 limb. Francesco degli Albizi, one of the deputies, was 
 so disgusted with this exhibition, that he left them, 
 saying, ' His house should not be polluted with the 
 blood of the jtist.' And thus ended the first day's 
 examination. 
 
 Torture proved, indeed, to be a peculiarly severe 
 trial for Savonarola. Of an ardent imagination, and 
 
CII. XIV. 
 
 STATE OF MIND AND BODY. 
 
 357 
 
 a sanguine temperament, possessing also the constitu- 
 tional irritability of extraordinary genius, his frame 
 ■was singularly sensitive, his nerves violently excitable, 
 besides his health being exceedingly delicate. There 
 was every thing to put his fortitude to the proof. 
 His habit, also, of making subtle distinctions, his 
 expressions of willingness to submit to the true pope 
 and the true Church, with the mental reservation not 
 to submit to the existing pope and Church, as not 
 true, were eagerly taken advantage of by the ques- 
 tioners, and attempted to be perverted into recanta- 
 tions. The rack is not the place to moot the nice 
 points of a differential moral calculus ; and before he 
 could utter the second half of an infinitesimal analysis, 
 Savonarola was silenced by anguish, and what he had 
 said quoted as a recantation, apart from the qualifica- 
 tion which pain had prevented him from adding. 
 When, however, he was restored to his senses, Sa- 
 vonarola uniformly recanted his so-called recantations, 
 and refused to sign the written deposition, as con- 
 taining only half truths and conveying erroneous 
 impressions. This boldness somewhat reassured him 
 in credit with the populace ; but the time was passed 
 for him to reck any longer of earthly reputation, his 
 regards now Vvere all towards God and eternity, — his 
 fame in heaven, and the perfect witness of the All - 
 judging. 
 
 ' Willing in the spirit,' then, but ' weak in the flesh,' 
 Savonarola, with a patience almost divine, appeared 
 the second day before the Inquisition. Other instru- 
 ments of torture were then tried, and he was threat- 
 ened with still more painful punishments — coals being 
 burned under his feet. Nothing could, however, be 
 obtained but dark and doubtful declarations, which 
 were interpreted and used by the judges in their own 
 meaning. Savonarola reasserted that he had always 
 preached only the truth, adding, that if indeed he had 
 
3oS EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES. B. III. 
 
 said anything else while suffering torture, such aver- 
 ments were to be accounted false, or as merely pro- 
 ceeding from excess of pain, ^Vhen the pangs to 
 which he was so cruelly subject were at the highest, 
 his exclamations were loud and urgent. ' Lord ! ' he 
 cried, ' take my life.' Thus baffled, the murderous 
 inquisitors proceeded to examine several citizens and 
 brothers of San ]\Iarco, in the hope of thereby ob- 
 taining evidence regarding the private alliances cr 
 conspiracy that they supposed him to be engaged in 
 with other parties, perhaps of the highest considera- 
 tion. The first among them was Fra Roberto di 
 Gaglano, who was examined especially touching a vin- 
 dicatory writing from Savonarola to the pope, in the 
 June of the previous year (1497), of which he con- 
 fessed himself the author ; adding, that he was pre- 
 sent at the time when the paper was laid out for sig- 
 natures ; that he had read it out to those who came, 
 and had even signed several names by proxy ; but 
 denying that Savonarola himself had ever stood in 
 any nearer or private relations with the citizens, since 
 he had personally known very few. Fra Silvester, 
 however, always brought writing tablets with him, to 
 mark the names of those whom he had learned to 
 know more intimately. Other witnesses gave similar 
 evidence. Sixteen in all were examined, and ac- 
 credited their declarations with their signatures. 
 These affirmed that they had esteemed Savonarola for 
 a prophet,, wherein they might have erred ; but they 
 knew nothing of him that was culpable. 
 
 When the judges perceived that by such means 
 they could not attain their purpose, that the rumour 
 might get abroad that Savonarola was innocent, and 
 that the people, if the examination were procrastinated, 
 might rise in his favour, — albeit they had taken care 
 to counteract such an accident, by false reports and 
 calumnies, wherein the Franciscans were very ser- 
 
OH. XIV. 
 
 FORGED PROTOCOL. 
 
 viceable, — they engaged a certain Francesco Ceccone, 
 a Florentine notary, and a man of very bad credit, to 
 supply them with a forged protocol on the further 
 hearing, so that they might pronounce the sentence of 
 death. Accordingly, while the customary notary was 
 proceeding with the given protocol, Ceccone, seated 
 in a hidden corner, was more rapidly preparing an- 
 other, wherein the frequently undefined and general 
 answers of Savonarola were arbitrarily altered, en- 
 larged, or interpreted. This piece of work was soon 
 afterwards printed as it now stands, as it was said, 
 against the will of the villain who had performed it. 
 They wished to spare nothing that might heap up 
 charges and accusations against Savonarola, but were 
 not very careful that the appearance of justice should 
 support the sentence on which they were predeter- 
 mined. The passionate hate of his judges had not 
 only stifled in them all respect for right and law, but 
 run ahead of that cunning and slyness, which are 
 generally with the wicked esteemed the substitutes 
 of wisdom and discretion. 
 
 'What they principally wanted in this fabricated 
 narrative, was to represent Savonarola as confessing 
 that his prophecies were impostures, and that his 
 censures of the Romish hierarchy were induced by a 
 wish to abase its rulers, in order that, by the reputa- 
 tion of superior sanctity, he might himself become 
 pope. How far his opinions were heretical they 
 cared not much to inquire. Savonarola's movement 
 had altogether been rather practical than speculative ; 
 it was his conduct, not his creed, that was arraigned. 
 Of the statements thus attributed to him, the follow- 
 ing are the chief : — First of all, as to his prophecies. 
 These he is made to confess that he had not received 
 from a higher revelation, but from grounds of reason 
 and the study of Holy Writ. That he had also never 
 maintained that he possessed higher revelations, but 
 
360 
 
 ACT or PROCESS. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 had asserted the perfect certainty of his revelations to 
 ■win respect for himself; honour and fame from the 
 world, especially, had been his onlv aims. He had, 
 therefore, invited a general council to put down many 
 prelates and the pope himself, because they lived a 
 scandalous life, and had persecuted him ; but prin- 
 cipally because he had hoped to get into their place. 
 Lastly, he had asked for a democracy in Florence, 
 which had been the most favourable to his views. 
 The frequent processions and strict life he had re- 
 commended and practised, originated in mere hypo- 
 crisy. He had separated himself from the Lombard 
 congr^ation, in order to be free and to act in his own 
 ■way. He had not entered very closely into state 
 affairs, because he understood nothing about them, 
 and because he was sure of his adherents, to whom 
 he had afforded every information whenever they 
 consulted him. He had written several times to the 
 king of France, to exhort him to restore the Floren- 
 tine possessions, but never received an answer. He 
 never stood in connexion with Pietro de' Medici, 
 because he was his enemy. In respect of the re- 
 acquisition of Pisa, he never knew any thing certain, 
 but had made his assurances from mere probability. 
 The signatures in San Marco in his favour were col- 
 lected without his knowledge ; but he was much 
 pleased with the good-will of the citizens. He had 
 held the excommunication for valid, but when he 
 saw it would ruin his cause, he had not regarded it, 
 and had called on all men not to recognize it. For 
 the same reason he had, on the 11th of February, 
 begun to preach again, though dissuaded from it by 
 several of his friends. In general, he had sought to 
 make himself the first man in the world. Of the fierj- 
 ordeal he greatly disapproved, but he had consented 
 to it for the preservation of his credit. Further, he 
 was resolved not to let Fra Domenico go into the 
 
CH. XIV. 
 
 RESULT OF THE INQUIRY. 
 
 361 
 
 fire, if the Franciscans retreated, but that, if the 
 ordeal was made, he might take the sacrament, which 
 would certainly have protected him. To the ques- 
 tion whether he would confess this before the people, 
 he replied that Jie was fearful of being stoned. 
 
 How much of the contents of what is just given 
 may be esteemed genuine, and how much is to be 
 set down to the account of the unskilful falsifier, is 
 so plain as to need no remark. It contains not the 
 least reason for a condemnation of Savonarola. For 
 no one will fail to observe on what motives the busi- 
 ness was transacted. If the people would only per- 
 mit themselves to be persuaded that they had reason to 
 be angry with Savonarola, his enemies felt that they had 
 no need to fear the charge of injustice. But what can 
 be more hateful than thus to impose on and cheat the 
 popular apprehension ? and that they had so done, 
 there were not wanting extensive and well supported 
 proofs. The more discerning, indeed, could not be 
 deceived, had passion not blinded them, by so small 
 an ostent of justice. Soon after the death of Savona- 
 rola, accordingly, the injustice of the proceeding, as 
 well as the falsification of the act of process, was not 
 only decidedly declared by his adherents, Pico, Bur- 
 lamacchi, and Fra Benedetto, but throughout implied 
 by the historians, Nardi and Guicciardini. The true 
 process and accurate report of the Inquisition, how- 
 ever, has never been published or discovered. 
 
 To satisfy in some degree the extravagant ex- 
 pectation ot the public, six brothers of San Marco 
 were summoned before the court, to communicate to 
 them, in presence of the vicar of the archbishop and 
 the bishop, the result of the inquiry. But this took 
 place, as Guicciardini remarks, in brief and general 
 terms, that the door might be opened to different in- 
 terpretations. When Savonarola was asked if it 
 were all true, he answered, ' What I have written is 
 
 1 i 
 
362 
 
 FRA MALATESTA. 
 
 B. MI. 
 
 true ;' and when the notary inquired further, ' Is all 
 word for word,' he replied, ' Word for word !' Where- 
 upon the clergy and brothers of San Marco sub- 
 scribed to the acts in the way of attestation. To the 
 latter, Savonarola then said, ' How I have lived and 
 taught among you is unknown to no one who is 
 acquainted with me. In this great and extreme 
 trouble, I command you in two ways ; — first, that all 
 brothers devote themselves, according to their powers, 
 to the novices, and keep them in the fear of God and 
 the simplicity of the Christian life in which they 
 have been instructed ; — and next, that you pray 
 earnestly for me to God, since now his prophetic 
 Spirit has almost entirelj' deserted me.' A touching 
 admission this, as if the power of his persecutors had 
 so far prevailed as to obscure the certainty he had 
 previously felt, that the reformation of the Church 
 was nigh its advent. Perhaps induced by the sin- 
 gularity of this, Fra Malatesta said anxiously, ' Is 
 what I have subscribed true ?' Savonarola was at 
 first silent, but soon, with a sigh, rejoined, ' I will 
 not be asked further.' But Malatesta impatiently 
 replied, ' Ex ore tuo credidi, et ex ore tuo discredo'.' 
 When the other brothers were informed of this, there 
 arose among them a great disunion, as many of them 
 were perplexed in their good opinions, while others 
 were still more strengthened. ^lost thought that he 
 designedly, in imitation of many prophets of the Old 
 Testament, had given double answers, and they re- 
 membered, not inappropriately, thereon, that Thomas 
 Aquinas expressly held that no one was bound to 
 declare the truth in the presence of a court of justice, 
 if he were asked out of legal order. In any case, the 
 double answer was the clearest that he could give 
 before such judges ; and if his friends took offence 
 
 * I have believed your word, and I do not believe your word 
 
CH. XIV. 
 
 ROME OR FLORENCE ? 
 
 3G3 
 
 at the human weakness of one so sorely afflicted, 
 they unjustly forgot what he had so frequently de- 
 clared, that they should not believe him as a man, 
 but the Word of God that was put into his mouth. 
 From this time they allowed the people entrance 
 into the great hall, where, in the absence of the 
 judges and seniors, and the accused himself, the de- 
 clarations of Savonarola were publicly read out by a 
 notary. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Signory appeared discontented 
 with the result obtained. In a writing to the Pope of 
 the 2 1st of April, they thanked him for the permission 
 he had given to torture the three clericals, but ex- 
 cused themselves at the same time for not being able 
 to communicate an accurate abstract of the inquiry ; 
 since scarcely any thing had been educed after 
 several days of sharp examination. 
 
 To be certain, beforehand, of the new Signory, 
 which was to come into office on the ] st of May, 
 there were, by command of the present existing 
 Signory, shortly before the day of election, about 200 
 citizens expelled from the great council. Veri di 
 Medici was named for Gonfaloniere, who, with the 
 Signory of the same opinion as himself, proceeded 
 wtth the cause of Savonarola in the way it had com- 
 menced. The Pope repeated anew the request, that 
 the monk, meaning Savonarola, should be delivered up 
 to him, and the ambassador added the assurance that 
 they would so much oblige the Pope thereby, as to 
 obtain from him their wishes in regard to Pisa. But 
 they appear to have feared some loss of dignity in 
 this, and insisted that further inquiiy, and the punish- 
 ment itself, should be consummated at Florence, 
 in the presence of two papal commissaries. And 
 thus, — the Piagnoni having, at this time, no voice in 
 the magistracy, and the papal party being loud in 
 their execration of the excommunicated heretic, who 
 
364 
 
 THIRTY-FIRST PSALM. 
 
 B III. 
 
 had instructed the Florentines to expect succour 
 from a foreign prince, and the faithful subjects of 
 Rome to look, for other guidance than that of the 
 ruling pope, — Savonai'ola was left to console himself 
 for the remainder of his imprisonment by pursuing 
 his task of commenting on the psalms. The follow- 
 ing meditation on the thirty-first psalm contains his 
 last written thoughts. 
 
 ' Sorrow has surrounded and besieged me with a 
 strong host, has taken possession of my heart, and 
 ceases not day and night to contend against me. My 
 friends have gone over to its banner, and have 
 become my enemies. All that I see and hear bears 
 the sign of sorrow — the thoughts of my friends dis- 
 turbs and troubles me — the remembrance of my 
 brothers grieves me. The retrospect of the cloister 
 and the cell gives me anguish — the consideration of 
 my studies gives me pain — the recollection of my sins 
 oppresses me. As to him sick of the fever, all sweets 
 seem bitter ; so for me does every thing change 
 itself into sorrow and sadness. Truly a heavy bur- 
 then of the heart ! The poison of serpents — the de- 
 structive pestilence — murmur against God — cease 
 not to vilify God — exhort to despair. Unhappy 
 man, I; who will deliver me from their God-offending 
 arms ? When all that I see and hear contends 
 against me, who will protect me ? who will help me ? 
 whither shall I go ? how shall I escape ? I know 
 what I will do, I will turn myself to the Invisible, 
 and oppose it to the visible. And who shall be the 
 leader of this mighty host ? Hope, the invisible, 
 shall fight against sorrow — who can stand against 
 hope 1 Yes, thou Lord ! art my hope, the highest 
 refuge art thou : who will stand against the Lord ? 
 who can storm his refuge ? Him then will I call — 
 surely He will come, and not abandon me to shame. 
 Look, He comes already, brings joy, teaches me to 
 
CH. XIV. 
 
 FIN AL ISSUE. 
 
 365 
 
 contend, and says, ' Cease not to call ; speak with 
 confidence, and from a full heart ! On Thee, O Lord, 
 have I trusted — I shall not he given over to eternal 
 shame.' O ! wonderful power of hope, before whom 
 all sorrow yields, all ready consolation comes. Let 
 now sorrow he loud with its whole host — let the 
 world press — let enemies arise — I fear nothing ; on 
 thee O Lord have I trusted — thou art my hope — 
 my refuge art Thou ! AVhile I hear these words of 
 hope, my first wish is to be free from my sins, and to 
 attain to the Eternal, by thy mercy. That I wish 
 before all — for my sins are the greatest trouble — 
 from which all otlier trouble proceeds. Take away. 
 Lord, my sins, and I am freed from all trouble. Yes ! 
 set me free, not according to my righteousness, but 
 according to thy mercy ! For I seek thy compas- 
 sion, I do not offer my righteousness ! But if thy 
 mercy has made me righteous, I have also thy righte- 
 ousness. But new doubts arise again. ' Few only, 
 it is said, are chosen.' Dost thou expect to be 
 numbered with the few, thou who hast sinned in so 
 many ways, who hast been an offence in the Church, 
 who hast offended heaven and earth ?' New consola- 
 tion in calling on the Lord, who has promised, in 
 Scripture, ' in the day that the sinner calls on Me, I 
 will no more remember all his sins ? ' So doubt and 
 encouragment, alternate, in the thought of the con- 
 solation of the Gospel, until with the beginning of 
 the third vrse, ' for my strength and my refuge art 
 Thou ; for the sake of thy name Thou wilt guide 
 and lead me ;' perfect rest is again obtained. 
 
 The continuation is broken off, because the mate- 
 rials of writing were taken away from Savonarola. 
 
 At length, the matter was pressed to its final 
 issue, and the acts that were required for it were 
 directed to be forwarded to Rome. There it was soon 
 decided, and Savonarola was condemned as a here- 
 I i 3 
 
3G6 
 
 RE-HEARING. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 tic, schismatic, disturber of the Church, and perverter 
 of the people. Two papal commissioners, Gioachimo 
 Tui riano, general of the Dominican Order, and Fran- 
 cesco Romolino, doctor of laws, and afterwards made 
 cardinal, were commissioned to carry the sentence, 
 and to be present at the execution of the punishment. 
 In Rome, the sentence of death was already signed, 
 the pope having declared that Savonarola should die, 
 though he were John the Baptist. On coming into 
 Florence, accordingly, Komelino could assure the 
 enemies of Savonarola, that in any case he must die. 
 The form, however, required a second hearing, where- 
 upon Savonarola was examined in presence of some 
 Signors, and of the papal commissioners, on the 
 contents of the process before them, when he again 
 declared in the most decided manner, that all he had 
 formerly said and preached was pure truth — but all 
 that he had retracted and recalled, if he had done so, 
 was false, and the effect of pain and the fear of tor- 
 ture ; and that he should so retract, and so reassert 
 again and again, as often as they might torture him. 
 Taken by surprise at this answer, Romelino threat- 
 ened him again with the torture, whereupon Savon- 
 arola, after a few strokes, acknowledged the truth of 
 the contents, thus saving himself further needless 
 pain. The same took place with the other two pri- 
 soners. But they believed universally, that at least 
 Domenico da Pescia would be acquitted, because he 
 was beguiled by his simplicity. When, however, 
 some one mentioned the consideration, that by his 
 zeal the affair might be renewed, Romelino declared, 
 ' One brother, more or less, was indifferent — but let 
 him die.' 
 
 The sentence was not pronounced in the council, 
 vhen one Agnolo Niccolini, an intelligent and ex- 
 perienced man in matters of State, but neither friend 
 nor foe of Savonarola, ventured to propose the pre- 
 
CH. XIV. 
 
 SENTENCE PROCLAIMED, 
 
 307 
 
 servation, to science at least, of so distins;uished and 
 even gifted a man as Savonarola, inasmuch as they 
 could keep him, if found guilty, in safe custody in 
 any fortress or prison, and provide him there with 
 books and writing materials — tliat his death without 
 profit might not, with the intelli'^ent, conduce to t'le 
 shame of the State. But the enemies of Savonarola 
 answered, that such advice was indeed humane, but 
 gave no sufficient security to the Republic, because 
 no one could stand surety that Savonarola would not 
 be set in freedom by another administration, and so 
 raise new troubles. Nay, his writings might be as 
 mischievous as those of the pestilent heretic Wickliff. 
 Against such a proposition too, there was an old 
 proverb — ' A dead man causes no war.' 
 
 Thus all three were condemned to death, being 
 sentenced to be hanged and burned at Florence, on 
 the day of the Vigil of the Ascension. 
 
 On May 22, the sentence was made known to 
 the brothers, and the execution on the following 
 day announced, and according to custom, a priest 
 appointed to converse with each. Savonarola and 
 Fra Domenico were very composed — the latter wrote 
 besides to the brothers at B'iesole, where he was prior, 
 admonishing them to continue in love and holy exer- 
 cises — to pray for them, and to bring 'he writings of 
 Savonarola from his cell into the library — and to 
 place a copy in the Refectorium, to read out from 
 them at times at table. At their request to confess, 
 three Benedictines were granted, and not, as would 
 have been fair, members of their order. 
 
 In the evening, Savonarola asked permission to 
 speak with his companions in suffering, which was 
 accorded, at the intercession of his spiritual attend- 
 ant, whereupon all three were allowed to converse 
 together, and fettered by their feet, an hour long in 
 the hall of the palace. Fra Domenico had in the 
 
368 
 
 Savonarola's prayer. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 ' zeal of martyr-error,' desired to he burned aiive. 
 Savonarola dissuaded him from this wish. ' It less 
 becomes us,' he said, to select our manner of death, 
 since we know not whether we shall be able to bear 
 it.' Silvestro Maruffi also wished to assert openly 
 on the day of execution their innocence. But Savon- 
 arola dissuaded him ; citing the example of Christ, 
 who with the most perfect innocence did not choose 
 to testify it on the cross. 
 
 At earh^ dawn of ^lay 22, all three came once 
 more together to receive the sacrament. Then Sa- 
 vonarola thus prayed aloud — ' Lord, I know Thou 
 art the true Creator of the world, and of the race of 
 men. I know Thou art the holy indivisible Trinity, 
 I know Thou art the eternal Word, who didst come 
 from heaven to earth in the virgin womb of Mary ; 
 Thou hast raised thyself upon the tree of the cross, 
 to shed thy holy blood for our sins and our misery. 
 To Thee I pray, my Lord ; to Thee I pray, my 
 Saviour ; to Thee, I pray, my Comforter, that Thy 
 sacred blood may not be shed in vain for me, that it 
 may flow for the forgiveness of all my sins ; for them 
 do I entreat Thy pardon, for all that I have committed 
 from the day of my baptism to this moment. Before 
 Thee I confess my guilt, I pray Thee forgive me all 
 the wrong I have done to this city and people in 
 spiritual and temporal things, and all that I cannot 
 know of myself, O Lord, in which I have gone astray. 
 In lowliness, I beg forgiveness of all who are assem- 
 bled around me, and that they may pray for me, that 
 Thou mayest strengthen me in my last hour, and 
 that the enemy majj not obtain dominion over me.' 
 
 Having so prayed, Savonarola administered the 
 sacrament to himself, and then to them, on which the 
 brothers were conducted down the stairs. Meanwhile 
 Savonarola addressed words of consolation and ex- 
 hortation to his brother, Silvestro MaruflS, who had 
 
CH. XIV. 
 
 PLACE OF EXECUTION. 
 
 369 
 
 shown himself till then less composed. They were 
 led through the large hall which, at Savonarola's 
 suggestion, had been built for the reception of the 
 general council, and during their passage exposed to 
 much insult, then brought to the Piazza. A funeral 
 pile was heaped around three stakes, on the very spot 
 where, a few weeks before, stood that which was in- 
 tended for the ordeal by fire. The same multitude 
 assembled, with the same eager curiosity, but with 
 less uproar ; the enemies of the Piagnoni were ap- 
 peased by the prospect of speedy vengeance, and 
 their friends terrified into silence. When Domenico 
 arrived at the stake, he said to the bystanders, ' Why 
 do you not prompt me to say the Te Deum ? ' They 
 replied, ' We should be cut to pieces.' He then told 
 them to join him in saying it softly. The confessor 
 asking if Savonarola had any thing to say. he an- 
 swered only, that he should pray for him, and 
 admonish his followers not to be scandalized at his 
 death. Silvestro, though before much dejected, felt 
 his spirit revive as the hour approached. 
 
 There were three different elevations erected on the 
 place of execution ; on the first, next the palace, stood 
 the bishop of Vasona, Benedetto de Pagagnotti, a for- 
 mer pupil of Savonarola, who, by the strict command of 
 the pope, though not without resistance, was compelled 
 to disrobe the brethren of their clerical dignity, and to 
 read out to them the brief of degradation, already pre- 
 pared on ine 11th of May, wherein Savonarola was 
 designated ' The son of blasphemy, the nursling of de- 
 struction, and the seducer of the people.' During the 
 ceremony of stripping him of his sacerdotal dress, 
 degrading him from his office, and expelling him 
 from the Church, Savonarola remained silent and 
 abstracted, as a man who had already separated him- 
 self from the world, wherein he had no longer any 
 work to perform for his Divine Master ; but when 
 
370 
 
 Savonarola's last words. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 the bishop took him by the hand, and instead of the 
 form, ' I separate thee from the Church Militant,' 
 used the words, ' I separate thee from the Church 
 Triumphant,' Savonarola replied, loud enough to be 
 heard by those standing round, ' From the Militant, 
 but not from tlie Triumphant ; that thou canst not 
 do.' Thus, while mun cui him off. from the visible 
 church, his joyful hope of being admitted to the 
 assembly of saints in the presence of his Lord grew 
 brighter, and he felt himself once more not forsaken, 
 but accepted in the Beloved. 
 
 From thence the brothers were led to the second 
 tribunal, where the commissaries read the papal sen- 
 tence, in which all three, without naming any par- 
 ticular crime, were condemned as heretics. Next 
 something was offered them to eat and drink, which 
 Savonarola refused with the words, ' For what pur- 
 pose, when I am parting from life ? ' To another, 
 who reminded him, for his consolation, of what he 
 had formerly done, he replied, ' Praise and honour of 
 men I need not.' And when a priest, of the name of 
 Nerotto, asked him if he went composed and quietly 
 to meet death, he replied, ' Should I not willingly die 
 for His sake who willingly died for me, a sinful man ? ' 
 Thereupon Remolino addressed to all three the 
 words, ' His Holiness Alexander VI. frees you from 
 the punishment of purgatory, gives you perfect remis- 
 sion of your sins, and places you in the state of your 
 innocence ;' which words the so-pardoned having 
 heard with sunken head, withdrew. 
 
 At the third tribunal they were received by the 
 Eight in coimcil, where the sentence of the Signory 
 having been read, they were then given over to the 
 executioners. Arrived at the place of execution, the 
 confessor asked Savonarola whether he had yet any 
 thing to say before his last journey : " Pray for me,' 
 said Savonarola, ' and tell my friends that they take 
 
CM. XIV. 
 
 THE MARTYRDOM. 
 
 371 
 
 no offence at my death, but continue in my doctrine 
 and in peace.' . 
 
 On the middle of the place was the scaffold erected, 
 from which a high stake with a cross beam was raised. 
 Silvestro first mounted the ladder, calmly and in 
 silence, but with a tear in his eye ; Fra Domenico 
 followed him on the other side of the cross ; and lastly 
 Savonarola, for whom the middle place was destined, 
 ascended the fatal steps, pronouncing to himself the 
 Apostles' Creed. In the last moment Silvestro cried 
 with a loud voice, ' Lord, into thy hands I commend 
 my spirit ! ' When come to the top, Savonarola once 
 more, and for the last time, raised his eyes, and sur- 
 veyed the thickly-crowded throng of people. For 
 them the executioner had intended a peculiar spec- 
 tacle ; he wished to fasten in such haste the iron 
 round the neck of Savonarola, and in the same instant 
 to light the pile, that Savonarola, in dying, should be 
 seized with a double pain ; but he lost the iron 
 among the faggots, and while he was seeking it, Sa- 
 vonarola had already given up the ghost. Also a 
 scandalous man, who had been under the fonner 
 government exiled from the city, but had lately re- 
 turned, expressed his joy that he should now see 
 Savonarola burned, whom he would have gladly 
 helped to the stake ; then taking a bun ang faggot, 
 he assisted to light the torture pile, without the 
 authorities present saying a word. Below there stood 
 some wicked youths, who threw stones in such a 
 mass, that the executioner could only save himself 
 with difficulty. Although soldiers were posted round 
 the place, they could not hinder pieces of Savonaro- 
 la's body falling into the hands of some individuals. 
 The joy of his enemies mingled with the rude cry of 
 the crowd, ' Now, brother, it is time to do miracles.' 
 In the same moment a vdolent wind drove the scarcely- 
 kindled fire so strongly on one side, that for a long 
 
372 
 
 EXEQUIES. 
 
 B. III. 
 
 while it did not touch his body. Universal fe:ir 
 seized on the multitude, so that they hastened from 
 the spot ; hut the fire reunited, and the crowd re- 
 turned. Wiiile Savonarola's arm was burning, they 
 saw his rioht hand still raised with two finoers, as if 
 he yet wished to speak his blessing on the people. 
 Soon, however, the bodies mingled themselves with 
 the ashes, which were taken thence in cars, and 
 thrown from the old bridge into the Arno. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
* Onme quod male possidetur alienum est ; male antem 
 possidet qui male utitur. Fideli homiui totus mundus divi- 
 tiarum est ; iniideli antem nec obolus.' 
 
 St. Augustink. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Nothing the Church has so much dreaded as schism. 
 There was danger of such when Paul found it needful 
 to withstand Peter to the face. Not alone a super- 
 stitious adherence to passing institutions, but the in- 
 troduction of new abuses and corruptions into the 
 ancient faith, alike incur the peril of schism. Secta- 
 rism, however, is not necessarily schism, for Ter- 
 tullian called the whole Christian brotherhood hanc 
 sectam, using the term in its original and proper 
 sense — of a body of men united by certain tenets. 
 Guizot observes, that many of the doctrines contro- 
 verted by the Fathers on both sides, — such as those 
 between Augustine and Pelagius,- — were held as the 
 dogmas of opposite sects, without implying formal 
 separation from the Church, the formation of distinct 
 religious societies, or necessitating a peculiar organiza- 
 tion or worship. The doctrines were pure opinions, 
 debated among enlightened men, and varying both in 
 their credit and in the degrees of their deviation from the 
 general belief ; but never such as to menace a formal 
 schism. Heresy itself had not the formidable mean- 
 K k 2 
 
376 ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 ing now attached to it, and might be ascribed to a 
 system without intending its condemnation. Variety 
 in the miity of the sacred Rose may be permitted, 
 without impairing its beauty or its fragrance ; but 
 sever and scatter its petals, the beauty is lost im- 
 mediately, and the fragrance soon perishes. 
 
 Chillingworth takes the same view of Protestantism, 
 ' As on the one side,' he reminds the Romanist, ' I 
 do not understand by your religion the doctrine of 
 Bellarmine, or Baronius, or any other private man 
 amtmgst you, nor the doctrine of the Sorbonne, or of 
 the Jesuists, or of the Dominicans, or of any other 
 particular company among you, but that wherein you 
 all atrree, or profess to agree, — the doctrine of the 
 council of Trent ; so accordingly, on the other side, 
 by the religion of Protestants 1 do not understand the 
 doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon, nor the 
 Confession of Augusta, or Geneva, nor the Catechism 
 of Heidelberg, nor the Articles of the Church of Eng- 
 land, no, nor the harmony of Protestant Confessions, 
 but that wherein they all agree, and which they all 
 subscribe with a greater harmony, as a perfect rule of 
 their faith and actions ; that is, the Bible. The 
 Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Pro- 
 testants.' 
 
 The appeal by both parties to the doctrine of a 
 council on the one hand, and the record of revelation 
 on the other, was only an endeavour to recover pris- 
 tine unity, now lost. It was vain in regard to the 
 Romanist, because his Church was older than the 
 doctrine and the council ; and notwithstanding the 
 superior antiquity of the Bible, and the incautious 
 assertion of Chillingworth, it was vain for the Re- 
 formist, the Church being more ancient than the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The first breach in the Church's unity was made 
 when one or more members asserted superiority over 
 
CLERGY AND LAITY. 
 
 377 
 
 others ; the second, when they separated from the 
 general body of Christians those who were of different 
 opinions from the rest, or dared to think for them- 
 selves, independent of authority. The distinction 
 between clergy and laity, though of very early, nay, 
 of immemorial origin, was not from the beginning. 
 No doubt it was derived into Christianity from the 
 corresponding institutions of Judaism ; there is, how- 
 ever, no text in the New Testament which refers to 
 the Jewish priesthood, other than in connexion with 
 Clirist himself, as the only Priest of the new dispen- 
 sation. This is indeed the characteristic distinction 
 between the two systems ; accordingly, all the primi- 
 tive converts were entitled to preach, and as many as 
 chose did preach ; though it soon became convenient, 
 for obvious reasons, to select some especially for the 
 office. When this, instead of a mere expediency, 
 was claimed as an exclusive right, then a schism com- 
 menced which laid the foundation of much evil. It 
 was not, however, until the sixth century, that it 
 began to show itself in a cardinal form, and attain its 
 manhood ; it was, as it were, the sixth day of the 
 Christian Church, wherein the carnal Adam was per- 
 fected, and manifested as a separate existence. Leo 
 the Great had already laid the corner-stone, and then 
 Justinian contributed to the elevation of the papal 
 edifice, which gradually received augmentation, until 
 the world groaned under the intolerable abuse. Then 
 were first apostolical succession, the dignity of the 
 clergy, the authority of the Church, prominently as- 
 serted, and the assertion was repeated for centuries 
 after. But then it is confessed even by Fleury, that 
 the brightest days of the Church had passed — the 
 period when martyrs were sanctified, when monastic 
 solitude was solemnly holy, when prelates were poor, 
 and pious, and disinterested — pure in their election, 
 austere in their life, great only in their office, rigorous 
 K k ,i 
 
S78 
 
 THEOCRACY. 
 
 in their discipline, a period whose traditions are autho- 
 ritative and its antiquity venerable. This period was 
 passed, and the age of St. Clement had given place to 
 tliat of St. Gregory : the Church was changed in 
 government, discipline, spirit, and principle. 
 
 The tendency which the assumption of an exclu- 
 sive priesthood possesses to produce schism, has been 
 singularly illustrated in our day, by the attempt made 
 in a moment of anger, and from motives of political 
 excitement, to claim as of apostolical right what had 
 only been conceded as of temporal expedience. The 
 Church of England is now consequently divided into 
 two parties, and one or other of them thereby placed 
 in a condition of heresy. 
 
 Holding, as the writer of the present work does, 
 with those who seek the final identification of the 
 Church with the state (a hope which other holy men 
 besides Savonarola have entertained, though perhaps 
 none so boldly ventured, or had so fair an oppor- 
 tunity of attempting it in practice), he differs from 
 those who seem to maintain that this desirable theo- 
 cracy is to be promoted by drawing the line of de- 
 marcation between the clergy and laity still broader 
 and stronger. The demarcation itself grew out of 
 the circumstance, that the former engrossed the learn- 
 ing of the time, while the latter were left to rust in 
 ignorance. That circumstance no longer exists ; and 
 as it is proved that the Church once included all the 
 professions, so now it may be contended that all the 
 professions belong to the same everlastii.g order of 
 the one Melchizedec, and that ever\' learned man is, 
 in virtue of his learning, a member of the clergy. 
 
 Agreeing, however, with the late Dr. Arnold, and 
 with the present Archbishop of Dublin, in many 
 things and in their general doctrine, we cannot exactly 
 agree with their mode of stating it. They seem to 
 deny the existence of a priesthood at all ; the proof 
 
ALL CHRISTIANS, PlilESTS. 
 
 of which, as a mere negative proposition, is in itself 
 impossible, and can scarcely be attempted, recon- 
 cilably with the positive fact of one already existing, 
 and established for many generations. This negative 
 way of Stating truths is highly inexpedient, particu- 
 larly when the affirmative proposition better serves 
 the purpose. We have the authority of Scripture for 
 declaring, that the select Judaic priesthood was su- 
 perseded in order that a universal priesthood might be 
 established — a religion of which every member should 
 be ' a king and priest unto God.' This is the view 
 that Luther took of the question. 
 
 ' It has been said,' Luther remarks, ' that the 
 pope, the bishops, the priests, and all those that 
 people the convents, form the spiritual or ecclesiastical 
 estate ; and that princes, nobles, citizens and peasants, 
 form the secular or lay estate. This is a fine tale ; but 
 let no one be frightened by it. All Christians belong 
 to the spiritual estate, and there is no other difference 
 between them than that of the functions they dis- 
 charge. We have one sole faith, one sole baptism, 
 and that is what constitutes a spiritual man. The 
 unction, the tonsure, the ordination, and the conse- 
 cration the pope or the bishop gives, may make a 
 hypocrite, but never a spiritual man. We are one 
 and all consecrated priests by baptism, as St. Peter 
 has said, ' Ye are priests and kings ; ' although it 
 does not belong to all to exercise such functions, for 
 no one can take what is common to all without the will 
 of the community. But if this consecration of God's 
 were not upon us, the pope's unction could never 
 make a priest. If ten brothers, sons of a king, 
 having equal right of inheritance, were to choose one 
 amongst them to administer for them, they would all 
 be kings, and yet one alone of their number would 
 be administrator of their common power. So it is in 
 the Church. If some pious laymen were transported 
 
380 
 
 GREGORY THE SEVENTH. 
 
 to a desert, and not having amongst them a priest 
 consecrated hy a bishop, they agreed to choose one 
 amongst them, married or not, that man would be 
 verily priest as much as if all the bishops in the 
 world had consecrated him. Thus were Augustine, 
 Ambrose, and Cyprian chosen.' 
 
 The general recognition of this great doctrine, that 
 ' all Christians are priests,' is the one great mean for 
 restoring that unity in the Church, into which the 
 contrary doctrine had introduced schism. It was of 
 this that Savonarola had a distinct perception, when 
 he wished to remain a lay-brother in the monastery 
 of Bologna ; nay, it is the doctrine especially assumed 
 in the origin of monastic institutions, all of which at 
 first consisted of laymen. 
 
 When Gregory the Great desired to consolidate 
 the authority of a sacerdotal caste, he did what he 
 could to vnden the breach, and to increase the exist- 
 ing schism. He transferred the name of apostolical 
 exclusively to the Roman see, and sanctioned with 
 his authority the abuse of idols in the Church, for- 
 bidding their removal, on the plea of their imparting 
 knowledge to the ignorant, and learning to the illite- 
 rate. It was because there existed a large class of 
 the ignorant and illiterate that he was enabled to 
 erect himself and successors into the ruling idols of 
 the Church at large, and gain for himself and them 
 esteem as the present and visible God in the temple 
 of the Most High. By him the canon of the mass 
 was introduced, and other pompous rites and cere- 
 monies, which, in the opinion of Savonarola, so cor- 
 rupted the simplicity of religious worship. 
 
 It was reserved for another Gregor}', the Seventh 
 of the name, to crown the arch of the system with its 
 keystone. Little he thought that the means which 
 he took for strengthening the fabric of the Church, 
 would so much overlay as almost to crush it. Its 
 
LEARNING AND INSPIRATION. 
 
 381 
 
 political establishment had well nigh superseded its 
 spiritual character, until at length it became so se- 
 cular, as in great part to lose that mysterious power of 
 mind by which it swayed the grosser world. Sejia- 
 rated from the laity, without being distinguished 
 from it in piety or learning, the clergy at length in- 
 vited opposition, as equally inimical both to the 
 moral and physical interests of the rest of mankind. 
 
 Gradually the schism which had taken place in the 
 body of the Church was to manifest itself in its 
 chiefs, thus marking that it was attaining its climax. 
 First, the pope was found usurping on the jurisdic- 
 tion of the bishops, and making them as dependent 
 on his opinion as they had previously made the laity 
 on theirs. Bishops, accordingly, condemned by their 
 metropolitans, crossed the Alps for redress ; next, 
 every priest canonically sentenced by his bishop, 
 hurried to Rome for a repeal of the sentence. At 
 length the papal Head itself became divided, and the 
 impossibility of such unity as had all along been 
 attempted, was demonstrated. 
 
 The influence that Catherine of Sienna had upon 
 Gregory VII •, and the part she took in the dis- 
 putes between the rival pontiffs, were not a little 
 remarkable, and show the dependence of learn- 
 ing upon inspiration. Gregory VII., we have seen, 
 regretted on his death- bed that he had followed the 
 counsel of a visionary, and neglected that of his 
 rational friends. He took it for granted that that 
 advice was designed for his personal benefit, or for 
 the confirmation of the existing order of things. 
 Otherwise was it designed by Providence, who had 
 used her as the agent for promoting the grand schism, 
 which was to testify to the existence of the hidden 
 schism, by which all along the Church had been 
 rent in her foundations. These had given way, and 
 the deep-seated evil was now shown, not onlv in 
 
382 
 
 ORTHODOX INTERPRETATION. 
 
 the walls of the temple, but in its highest tower, 
 which was split even at its apex. For more than 
 twenty years this celebrated ecclesiastical feud divided 
 the opinions and allegiance of Christendom. The 
 co-existence of two supreme and infallible heads of 
 the Church, each proscribing his competitor, and ful- 
 minating the terrors of damnation against the adhe- 
 rents of his rival, was not a little perplexing. All 
 this, however, hindered not the canonization, eighty 
 years after, of the prophetess who had conduced to 
 the result. "Wherein then lay the error of Gregory 
 VII.? Even there, where lies the error of the Church 
 in regard to authority. Learning, we have said, had 
 substituted inspiration, and an orthodoxy was esta- 
 blished from a catena of the opinions of those who 
 had transmitted, from hand to hand, the original in- 
 terpretation of Scripture. As the fathers had copied 
 from one another, it is hard to conceive how they 
 should disagree, except from the mere blunder of the 
 copyist. Even in regard to the mystical interpreta- 
 tion, it is contended that fixed rules were established, 
 according to which the symbols were limited in their 
 meaning and application. Nevertheless, the Apostles 
 themselves professed to have, and called upon others 
 to have, ' a reason to give for the faith that was in 
 them.' They, therefore, had a reason to give for 
 such interpretations when first propounded, and if 
 they since appeared arbitrary, it was only because 
 the reason had been lost. To regain it the same 
 power must be exerted by which it was originally 
 won ; luiless so regained, all becomes a mere 
 dead letter — both interpretation and symbol. The 
 Church of Rome, however, never denied the con- 
 tinuance of inspiration, and though she persecuted 
 some forms of it as heresies of opinion, occasionally 
 she patronized others as prophetic or miraculous. 
 But here came the constant error. As learning had 
 
INSPIRATION UNIVERSAL. 
 
 383 
 
 all along received the dicta of inspiration without 
 claiming itself to be inspired, so now, in such 
 instances as that of Catherine of Sienna, it placed 
 implicit faith in the manifestation, without having 
 any test by which it could be tried. Gregory VII. 
 recognized no inspiration in himself, while recogniz- 
 ing it in the religious enthusiast by whom he was 
 addressed. We have already proved that such in- 
 spirations are only subjective, and true to the indi- 
 vidual receiving them, and need not be true to 
 another ; nay, are not permitted to be true to 
 another, because the source of inspiration is open to 
 all, and it amounts to a denial of the eternal verity 
 to seek it through a secondary channel. Why go to 
 your neighbour's tank when you have a fountain on 
 your own premises ? ' Drink water out of thine own 
 cistern,' is the counsel of the wise man ; but not 
 that which Gregory VII. adopted. Fatal errror ! 
 which substitutes the result for the process ! It 
 matters not, though the orthodox interpretation be 
 ever so correct, if it have not been earned by the 
 labour of the individual. He who receives it on 
 authority only, can never understand what he re- 
 ceives. Hence, disbelief of all kinds. The specula- 
 tive infidelity of the schools never exists but as a 
 counterpoise to the practical infidelity of the Church-; 
 and never was there a. philosophical atheist, who was 
 more than an antagonist to those corrupt religious 
 professors who make a god of their belly, and worship 
 none but Mammon. How should I know what in- 
 spiration is, without conceding the possibility of being 
 myself inspired ? Scripture recognizes it as universal ; 
 and in the primitive Church it was recognized as 
 equally belonging to the Apostles and the congrega- 
 tion. Can that be said to be a Church at all which 
 disclaims it for both ? But God gives different 
 answers to different men ! Granted — he makes one 
 
381 
 
 CHARACTER OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 the steward of one truth, and another the steward of 
 another. All so-called heresies are different phases 
 of truth ; nay. and at last, have their different repre- 
 sentatives in exterior Church establishments as well 
 as in individuals. Thus the Roman Catholic Church 
 has for a long time been Pelagian ; the Church of 
 the Reformation is Augustinian ; and, perhaps, the 
 Gr.^ek Church may be said to be Cassianist. Truth, 
 though but one, is many sided, and what is true to 
 any individual is a segment of the whole truth, even 
 as the individual himself is a veritable portion of the 
 universe. The Churches, therefore, which exclude 
 ail phases but one as heretical, are themselves here- 
 tical — lose their catholicity, and become sectarian. 
 
 Not recognizing the great truth of universal inspi- 
 ration — not acknowledging that the understanding iu 
 every man is given by the Spirit of God — the Scrip- 
 tures were forbidden to private judgment. Yet, 
 whatever might be the dogma of a sell- constituted 
 and usurping clergy, God still continued the gift to 
 ever}- man, and whoso would, might exercise it for 
 his own profit and that of others. One of these 
 willing channels of divine illumination was Savona- 
 rola — a man who, having been classically educated, 
 and poetically inclined, became passionately devout, 
 and recognized the enthusiasm by which he was im- 
 pelled as nothing less than the life and presence of 
 God in his own soul. To that God he sought by 
 prayer, confident that the fitting answer would be re- 
 turned, and accepted the convictions of his reason as 
 prophetic impidses from the Divine wisdom. He 
 was thrown into the Church at a time when all her 
 abuses were ripening, and remained in it until they 
 were fvdly matured, and the monster engendered of 
 corruption ruled visibly in the mystic Babylon — the 
 mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. No 
 doubt, whatever, can exist as to the relations between 
 
TYRANNICIDE. 
 
 385 
 
 Savonarola and Alexander VI. How gradually was 
 iniquity added to iniquity, until hypocrisy was no 
 longer available, and nothing but unblushing crime 
 was left. The sins of Rome had reached unto 
 heaven, and God was then beginning to show that He 
 rememoered her unrighteous deeds. This is the his- 
 torical fact, which we know now that the cycle of that 
 fearful time has long been closed, but which Savona- 
 rola knew at its commencement, and the advent of 
 which he foretold. This was, as it were, the burthen 
 of his lamentations, ' How much she hath glorified 
 herself and lived in luxury, so much torment and 
 sorrow give her ; for she saith in her heart, I sit a 
 queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow !' 
 
 Savonarola had to solve for himself the grand 
 point on which the Reformation turned — how far it 
 is lawful to resist, even to deposition, those who are 
 lawfully invested with and who afterwards abuse 
 sovereign authority ? We have seen, that Savonarola 
 held, that such tyrants had put themselves into a 
 state of war with their species, and, as such, might 
 be righteously slain ; but, ere a subject becomes a 
 tyrannicide, it behoves him to consider the expe- 
 diency of the case, whether by the removal of the 
 present evil he introduce not a greater future one. 
 This expediency the casuists of the Church of Rome 
 had interpreted so largely, that no choice was left to 
 any one but to submit to whatever evil might be in- 
 flicted, though Satan himself might, even as he did 
 in the person of Alexander VI., sit in the chair of 
 St. Peter. But inasmuch as it is a law that one ex- 
 treme should beget its opposite, this, however plausible 
 in theory, was found impossible in practice ; and the 
 antagonist power was forming, which should effec- 
 tually declare that spiritual despotism was ended, 
 and proclaim liberty of conscience to those who had 
 been long sitting in bondage and darkness, in the 
 
 l1 
 
886 
 
 WICKLIFF 
 
 • HUSS 1 
 
 SAVONAROLA. 
 
 midst of that great city which * spiritually is called 
 Sodom and Egypt, where also the Lord was cruci- 
 fied.' Our own WicklifF, and the Bohemian Hiiss, 
 were of opinion with Saint Augustine and other 
 authorities, that ' they who do not rule of God, and 
 whom in having rule He does not acknowledge, 
 there is no doubt they want a just dominion ; nay, 
 that if temporal lords do wrong and extortions to the 
 people, they are traitors to God and his people, and 
 tyrants of Antichrist.' But this doctrine is limited 
 by other considerations, which Savonarola, as well as 
 WicklifF and Hiiss, was always ready to acknow- 
 ledge. But such limitations are exceeded when no 
 alternative is left, but either to disobey the temporal 
 power, or Him from whom all power proceeds ; nor 
 can any exception be taken, when the opponent of 
 abused authority seeks not to become an assassin, 
 but a martyr. 
 
 The dispute which Savonarola had with Rome, 
 unlike Luther's, involved not so much points of doc- 
 trine as points of practice. It was the demonstration 
 of a high moral and spiritual nature against cor- 
 ruptions and abuses, equally abhorrent to the laws of 
 virtue and the obligations of religion. His language 
 was that of irrepressible indignation, and from the 
 circumstances of his local position, was of as much 
 political as religious influence. His time was too 
 actively engaged to theorize on points of doctrine 
 only. A sedulous reader of the Bible, his opinions 
 were mainly derived thence, but he preferred those 
 which bore upon the practices of the Church, and 
 was prepared to condemn or to confirm them as he 
 found warranty in Scripture. We have seen it some- 
 where written, that ' while at a distance from the 
 world, Savonarola's mind had been open to the re- 
 ception of all truth, he had listened to the Word of 
 God almost exclusively, and learned purer doctrines 
 
LOVE. 
 
 387 
 
 than those transmitted through a corrupt church ; 
 doctrines which Luther continued to learn with a 
 mind wholly bent on theological investigation, and 
 communicated to others, gradually, as they were pre- 
 sented to himself ; but Savonarola, with only an im- 
 perfect apprehension of them, plunged into the tem- 
 poral afiairs of men, to use, for their benefit, the little 
 knowledge he had acquired, and amidst the confusion 
 and error by which he was surrounded, had much 
 difficulty in holding fast that little, and no leisure to 
 enlarge his store. The men with whom he was 
 necessarily associated in the prosecution of his 
 designs infected him with their superstitions ; the 
 injustice and opposition he encountered disturbed the 
 exercise of his cool judgment ; it was not till after 
 the conclusion of his political career, that he advanced 
 again beyond his times, and left behind both the 
 world and the Church of Rome in his nearer approach 
 to Divine truth.' 
 
 This decision has such seeming truth, and is so sin- 
 cerely intended to be friendly towards the character 
 of Savonarola, that it deserves attention. That there 
 was not the same progress in Savonarola's mind as in 
 Luther's is plain ; but this arises not from any defici- 
 ency in the former, but its superior clearness, its better 
 knowledge, and its advanced position. He was not 
 more superstitious than Luther, though more mystical 
 and less doctrinal. If we were to compare Luther with 
 St. Paul, we might compare Savonarola with St. 
 John. One sought to discover Truth, the other to 
 manifest Love. Religion with Savonarola was Love 
 — commenced, continued, ended in Love. He was 
 of the seraphic, rather than cherubic, nature. He 
 was ever kindled and consumed with the zeal and 
 energy of the atfections on all occasions ; he unavoid- 
 ably exhibits the soaring and glowing fire of an erotic 
 spirit. He began life with an affair of the heart, in 
 L 1 2 • 
 
ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 which he was disappointed, and commenced poet by 
 c )inposing amorous lyrics, which perished with the 
 destruction of his hopes, and their elevation to celes- 
 tial attachments — then, too, his muse became devout, 
 but still the lyre was attuned to lays of love. Vir- 
 tue, truthfully severe, and benevolently active, was 
 then the beauty he turned to woo ; and he pursued 
 it, under all circumstances, even to suffering and 
 death. Hence it was, that his precepts and example 
 became so attractive and generative. INIultitudes 
 caught the magnetic influence — the flame spread 
 from heart to heart — enthusiasm was communicated 
 from soul to soul. The times are past in which 
 he would incur sneers for attempting a theocracy — 
 this being the point at which modern theologians, 
 whether of the school of Pusey or of Arnold, are now 
 aiming, and which they recognize as the final cause of 
 the Church's existence. In his last perplexity, Sa- 
 vonarola conducted himself nobly — not retracting, as 
 is pretended, though still distinguishing — willing to 
 submit to constituted right, but yet protesting against 
 misconstituted wrong — obedient to authority, but 
 resisting its abuse. Savonarola, though weak in 
 body, strong in spirit, manifested a dignity which 
 compels us to confess that his Imitation of Jesus of 
 Nazareth was so perfect, as scarcely to want any of 
 the attributes which accredit the messengers of Divine 
 truth, except that of miraculous power. In all other 
 things, save in the superstition and error that seduced 
 him into accepting the Ordeal, and exhibiting the 
 Host, he will be found completely to have walked in 
 the steps of his Divine Master, and to have presented 
 a remarkable resemblance. The more we reflect on 
 his career, the more we are surprised and astonished ; 
 it is likewise so unique, that even on this account alone 
 it becomes more and more a marvel ; its rarity, not 
 less than its strangeness, excites our wonder. 
 
LUTHER AND SAVONAROLA. 
 
 389 
 
 Had it pleased Providence that Savonarola should 
 have succeeded in effecting the Reformation of the 
 Church instead of Luther, it would have been marked 
 in some particulars by different characteristics. It 
 would have been less in the spirit of St. Paul and 
 more in that of St. John. We should have had less of 
 faith and more of love. It would have retained less of 
 ceremony, and recognized more of spiritualism. It 
 would have been less Protestant, and more Catholic. 
 Jlystic sentiment would have been encouraged, not 
 discarded. To this kind of feeling Luther's hard 
 intellect was foreign ; Savonarola's tender disposition 
 friendly. D'Aubigne has indeed stated its freedom 
 from mysticism, as among the merits of Luther's 
 Reformation. 
 
 ' The battle fought by the Reformation in the 
 great day of the sixteenth century, under the 
 standard of God's word, was,' he says, ' i^ot one, 
 and simple, but manifold. The Reformation had 
 many enemies to combat at ouce ; and after having 
 protested against the decretals and the sovereignty 
 of the popes, then against the cold apophthegms 
 of the Rationalists, philosophers, or schoolmen, it 
 turned its force likewise against the reveries of en- 
 thusiasm, and the hallucinations of mysticism ; and 
 against these three powers together, it piled with the 
 sword and the buckler of God's holy revelations. 
 There is, we must admit, a great resemblance, a strik- 
 ing unity, between these three potent adversaries. 
 The false systems, which in all ages have been the 
 most opposed to evangelical Christianity, always 
 possess this distinguishing characteristic, that they 
 make religious knowledge proceed from man's inward 
 motive. Rationalism derives it from reason, mysti- 
 cism from certain internal lights, Roman Catholicism 
 from an illumination of the pope's. These three 
 errors seek truth in man; evangelical Christianity 
 L 1 3 
 
'690 
 
 THE POETRY OF RELIGION. 
 
 seeks it wholly in God : and whereas Rationalism, 
 Mysticism, and Roman Catholicism, admit a per- 
 manent inspiration in some of our fellow-creatures, 
 and thus open the door to all kinds of eccentricities 
 and exceptions, evangelical Christianity recognises 
 that inspiration only in the writings of the Apostles 
 and Prophets, that alone exhibits that great, beauti- 
 ful, and living unity, that comes down through all 
 ages, evermore the same. It was the task of the 
 Reformation to establish the rights of God's word, 
 in opposition not only to Roman Catholicism, but also 
 to Rationalism and to Mysticism.' 
 
 Now this can scarcely be admitted as a merit which 
 is really a defect, because by the omission a want is 
 left unsupplied, which nevertheless still exists. From 
 the earliest to the latest times, the Church has 
 admitted mystical interpretation ; and if Protestant- 
 ism has made no provision for it, it so far falls short of 
 the Catholic measure, and the Christian capacity, and 
 needs extension in that particular. But even in this 
 defect, the wisdom of God, which dwells with pru- 
 dence, is observable. An intellectual period had to 
 be passed through, the science of religion needed to 
 be decided, ere mere feeling or fancy could be trusted 
 with emotions and imaginations, which, transcending 
 understanding, require previous discipline to preserve 
 them from extravagance. That period is now rapidly 
 passing, and accordingly we find that the poetry of 
 religion is succeeding to the logic, and adding that 
 final grace, which is, as it were, the extract and the 
 crown of consummated excellence. 
 
 The drama of Savonarola's life naturally ends with 
 the committal of his ashes to the Arno ; but there 
 were some subsequent circumstances which may not 
 inaptly be included in the epilogue, and which the 
 reader will not be displeased at having related. 
 
 On the day itself of the execution, several ex- 
 
ROME AND FRANCE. 
 
 391 
 
 presses were sent, to mention the death of the three 
 brothers ; the papal commissaries, also, dispatched an 
 account to Rome, how they were received with all 
 honour in Florence ; how they forthwith examined 
 the brothers, and convinced themselves of the incre- 
 dible infamy of the same, especially of that most 
 godless of all beings, Hieronymus Savonarola, — 
 whereby decisions, speeches, and plans of the same 
 were related, some of which are not contained in the 
 earlier transmitted acts, others are even contradicted 
 by them. For Alexander there was no need of this. 
 He was content that a voice was brought to silence 
 which began seriously to disquiet him. He also 
 knew how to ward off all considerations on the law- 
 lessness of such a proceeding in another way, as he 
 availed himself of the verdict, ' Thy people and thy 
 high priests have given th^e over to me.' 
 
 But how much soever Alexander might be dis- 
 posed to attribute the whole proceeding against 
 Savonarola to the Florentines, they did not scruple, 
 in a letter to King Louis XII. of France, who on 
 the news of the imprisonment of Savonarola had 
 interested himself in his favour, to reply on June 30, 
 that they had first received the royal letter after the 
 execution of S ivonarola ; and, moreover, that if it 
 had even reached them before, yet iii this matter 
 they could not have yielded to his wish, since the 
 enquiry was conducted by papal commissaries, and 
 Savonarola was condemned by Rome as a heretic, and 
 accordingly burned. Nevertheless, they continued 
 in Florence to persecute the followers of Savonarola. 
 
 On May 7, by a decree of the Signory, the books 
 and manuscripts which Lorenzo de' Medici had de- 
 livered to the cloister of San Marco, were brought 
 from thence into the palace of the Signory. 
 
 From May 28 to June 8, other vexatious proceed- 
 ings were had. Fra Mariano degli Ughi, Niccolo 
 
392 
 
 PERSECUTION. 
 
 da Milano, Roberto di Gaglano, and the brother of 
 Savonarola, Fra Maurelio, with several others, were 
 banished from the Florentine territory. On June 
 28, the bell which was rung on the day of the storm- 
 ing of the cloister, was by a further decree of the 
 Signory taken from 'the brothers of San Marco, and 
 given to the Franciscans at San Miniato, without the 
 city, where it was ordered to remain for fifty years, 
 and on no account to be brought back into the city 
 before that time ; yet these latter suffered so many 
 annoyances in consequence, that they soon themselves 
 requested that the bell might be sent back to San 
 Marco. The church, in the meantime, remained two 
 months shut ; several priests, who were known as 
 adherents of Savonarola, were cited to Rome, whither 
 instead of going, they sent an equivalent sum of 
 money ; many laymen were examined on the charge 
 of heresy, and sentenced to pay a fine. The writings 
 of Savonarola were forbidden, and ordered to be 
 delivered up in the palace of the Archbishop ; but 
 because no formal condemnation of the doctrine and 
 writings of Savonarola followed on the side of the 
 Pope, the prohibition was again removed after a few 
 days, and the books restored on request. Thereupon 
 violence and lawlessness on the part of the enemies 
 of Savonarola, of all classes, broke forth again with 
 greater fierceness. Wherever an adherent of Savon- 
 arola was to be seen, he was followed with insult 
 and mockery ; satires on them were sung in the 
 streets. At the same time it seemed, says Nardi, as 
 if good conduct were legally prohibited, and no 
 greater crime could be found than to have believed 
 the words of Savonarola, and wished a better life at 
 the court of Rome. 
 
 But the more unjustly insult and persecution pur- 
 sued the adherents of Savonarola, the more firmly 
 did the most of them abide by their conviction, which 
 
BEATIFICATIO?r. 
 
 393 
 
 had penetrated into their inmost soul, and not seldom 
 amounteo to fanatical veneration, and sometimes 
 attached itself even to external trifling articles which 
 Savonarola had formerly possessed, or to reliqr»es of 
 hiaiself which they bad contrived to obtain, in spile of 
 the strictest vigilance, on the day of the execution, 
 and one of which Count Pico della Mirandola himself 
 kept, set in gold. 
 
 The day of his death was celebrated for many 
 years after, bv strewing with myrtle branches and 
 flowers, emblematic of martyrdom, early in the 
 mornins, the place where he was burned. Medals, 
 representing the Saviour on one side, and on the 
 other a likeness of Savonarola, were struck in honour 
 of him, in which he was designated as prophet and 
 martyr. Laudatory verses were extensively circu- 
 lated — many would gladly have even made him a 
 Saint ; and it was asserted that Pope Alexander VI. 
 became at length so convinced of the innocence of 
 Savonarola, and of the purity of his doctrine, that he 
 had declared himself ready to beatify him. In such 
 a state of public opinion, an impartial judgment is 
 not indeed to be expected on any side ; but even the 
 voices of history of that time, were too near the scene 
 of action to reconcile contradictions. From later 
 writers other sources were for the most part shut up, 
 and the verdict remained doubtful. It was only 
 after the sacred investment of prophet, with which 
 his friends had adorned him, had faded away in the 
 course of time, that history could give a more per- 
 manent crown to the man. 
 
 Long after the death of Savonarola, his influence 
 was felt in the government of Florence. Nearly 
 thirty years had elapsed, when one of their Gronfa- 
 lonieri. after repteating to the assembled maEristracy 
 an oration pronounced by Savonarola, induced them, 
 according to the advice contained in it, to ordain, 
 
394 
 
 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM. 
 
 that henceforth Jesus Christ should be acknowledged 
 King of Florence ; inscriptions were placed in public 
 places recording the fact, and books prepared for 
 each separate quarter of the city, in which all who 
 consented to this regulation registered their names. 
 
 Succeeding revolutions in Tuscany have swept 
 away all trace of the alterations effected by Savon- 
 arola ; the breath of his eloquence for awhile revived 
 the expiring love of liberty in some few hearts, but 
 the surrounding mass was too dull to be kindled. 
 
 Let us not, however, as Englishmen, especially in 
 these times, when new attempts at spiritual despotism 
 are made, however insanely, and in moments of anger, 
 but always with danger of serious results, from the 
 ambition of man, neglect to gather from the bio- 
 graphy of Savonarola its moral lesson. 
 
 The attempt recently made by some of the Angli- 
 can clergy, to consolidate the power of the general 
 professional body, is not the work of men possessing 
 exactly the same power as Gregory the Great and 
 Gregory the Seventh, and is, besides, repudiated by 
 the parties most interested in such consolidation, if 
 beneficial, — we mean the bishops of the Church of 
 England. In order for the object to be effected, 
 there must be an ignorant laity as well as a learned 
 clergy, an event not now likely to happen in a very 
 short time. And even then, as experience has shown, 
 so much evil necessarily clings to the system, that it 
 would not be desirable. We cannot risk again the cor- 
 ruption of the religion and the Church of Christ, by 
 leaving both in the hands of a dominant class, whose 
 privileges were so exclusive, that even the sacraments 
 of the Church had no virtue except when adminis- 
 tered, and its doctrines no truth except as explained 
 and interpreted, by them. It has once led to super- 
 stition so deeply and widely rooted and ramified, 
 that the noblest minds found it almost impossible to 
 
CORRUPTIONS OF HUMAN NATURE. 3f)o 
 
 divest themselves of its deadly embraces ; — to spi- 
 ritual despotism, so criminally directed and exerted, 
 that the whole body of believers were called on to 
 surrender the conscience prisoner to the decrees of a 
 homicide and an atheist. While these things are 
 recollected, it will be difficult to renew a system which 
 is chargeable with every possible guilt and error, 
 and was compelled for its own support to dye itself 
 red in the blood of martyrs, and prophets, and saints. 
 
 But it will be said that these evils belonged to the 
 Church of Rome, and will not recur in a reformed 
 Church. To which it is answered, that not in the 
 corruptions of a particular Church, but in those of 
 human nature itself, they had their origin. These 
 corruptions are such as to render it highly dangerous, 
 that any body of men should be entrusted with the 
 assumption of any such right and power as would 
 set their authority above the reason and conscience 
 of Christians in general ; — an authority which has no 
 tendency to promote the glory of Christ or the piety 
 of individuals, but whose only professed end is the 
 exaltation of the clergy, and which, as it is wholly 
 unsupported by the New Testament Scriptures, 
 preaches not them, nor God in Christ, but its own 
 traditions, and the self-constituted mediatorship of 
 interested men, whom it invests with dignity, and 
 who, in return, gratefully assert its claims. There is 
 One, and One only, who ever liveth to make inter- 
 cession for us, thus reconciling God and his Church ; 
 but this latter term an ambitious clergy appropriated 
 to themselves, otherwise denominating the Church 
 ' the laity,' or at best, ' the faithful,' and then making 
 the Church in their own persons, the mediator be- 
 tween God and the general body of believers. ' To 
 speak of the Church mediating for the people,' says 
 the late all-revered Dr. Arnold, ' did not sound so 
 shocking, and the doctrine so disguised found ready 
 
390 
 
 I'OSITIVE ORDINANCES SUBORDINATE. 
 
 acceptance. Thus the evil work was consummated ; 
 the great majonty of the members of the Church 
 were virtually disfranchised ; the minority retained 
 the name, but the character of the institution was 
 utterly corrupted.' 
 
 The respected writer whom we have just quoted, 
 uses stronger language than we are inclined to em- 
 ploy, when he states that, ' to revive Christ's Church, 
 therefore, is to expel the antichrist of priesthood, 
 which, as it was foretold of him, as God, sitteth in 
 the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, 
 and to restore its disfranchised members — the laity — 
 to the discharge of their proper duties in it, and to 
 the consciousness of their paramount importance.' 
 As we have already said, we adopt the affirmative 
 form of the argument, asserting the universal priest- 
 hood of the Christian community ; but in what the 
 writer intended, we most heartily and zealously con- 
 cur. Even as the same writer contends, ' if the so- 
 called apostolical succession were — what it is not — 
 of Divine appointment, still, as it is demonstrably and 
 palpably unconnected with holiness, as it would be 
 a mere positive and ceremonial ordinance, it cannot 
 be the point of most importance to insist on ; even if 
 it be a sin to neglect this, there are so many far 
 weightier matters equally neglected, that it would be 
 assuredly no Christian prophesying which were to 
 strive to direct our attention to this. But the whole 
 unmoral character of this doctrine — which, if it were 
 indeed of God, would make it a single mysterious 
 exception to all the other doctrines of the Gospel — 
 is, God be thanked, not more certain than its total 
 want of external evidence ; the Scripture disclaims it 
 — Christ himself condemns it '.' 
 
 ' ' Introduction to Christian Life, its Coui"se, its Hin- 
 drances, and its Helps. Sermons preached mostly in the 
 
SCRIPTURE AND INSPIRATION. 
 
 397 
 
 The disfranchisement of the laity induced of old 
 the suppression of sacred Scripture ; now that the 
 attempt is again made, the same Scripture is destined 
 to suffer with them. Tlie tract in which its suf- 
 ficiency was assailed was of a kind so virulent, that 
 no professed infidel ever wrote so offensively on the 
 topics treated in it ; ' a vehement straining,' it was, 
 as Dr. Arnold has observed, ' of the faith of his 
 brethren, which should scarcely have been ventured 
 by a true Christian. What,' as he adds, ' if such faith 
 were to give way under the experiment ? and if, 
 being convinced that the Scriptures were not more 
 reasonable than Mr. Newman's system, they were to 
 end with believing, not both, but neither ? ' The 
 difficulties of the Scriptures are unwarrantably made 
 the ground of a tu quoque argument ; rather they 
 should be used to lead us to revise and correct the 
 notions of inspiration which are generally received, 
 and by giving to them a more rational and philoso- 
 phical character, preclude the possibility of that in- 
 consistency which serves as the basis of this insidious 
 and unfair argument. Absurd ! by establishing the 
 inconsistency of both parties, to seek to prove the 
 consistency of either ! If the disputed doctrine of a 
 select Christian priesthood needs such a method of 
 conviction, there must verily be small leason for the 
 faith of any who believe in it. 
 
 To claim for the fathers a judicial interpretation of 
 the Scriptures, as if God had by edict authorized 
 their interpretation, is virtually, nay, actually, to 
 repeal those Scriptures, and to substitute others in 
 their room. But no such edict has been issued, and 
 no human power is sufficient to invest the comment 
 with equal authority. The Scriptures, therefore, still 
 
 Chapel of Rugby School. By Thomas Arnold, D.D., Head 
 Master of Rugby School, and late Fellow of Oriel College, 
 Oxford. 1841.' 
 
 M m 
 
398 TRADITION REQUIRES INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 appeal to private judgment, and absolve no man from 
 the duty of exercising it, and the responsibility which 
 such exercise implies. Even if the patristic inter- 
 pretation should be claimed as a revelation, such 
 revelation has only subjective authority, an autho- 
 rity which belongs to the interpretation of every 
 believer ; nay, the original revelation itself is only 
 valid for him so far as he himself has the witness of 
 the Spirit testifying to the same truths. At best, all 
 Scripture is but an occasion to excite such inward 
 testimony, and make him conscious of the life of 
 God in his soul, the light of Christ in his reason. 
 This is, at last, the only revelation which is true for 
 any man. As means to this end they were used by 
 Savonarola, and no man realized it more ; it became 
 to him an abiding presence, and lived in him even as 
 he lived in it. 
 
 Those who deny the exclusive sufficiency of 
 Scripture as a rule of faith, appear to think that 
 by so doing they establish the authority of tradi- 
 tion and of the early fathers ; but the fact is not so, 
 evidence is required to prove their right to such 
 authority ; and when we have done all that history 
 and logic will enable us to do towards demonstrating 
 the validity of their claims, we are compelled at last 
 to submit them to the tests which reason and revela- 
 tion are always willing to supply, and to bring them, 
 not only before the bar of private judgement, but to 
 try them by the oracle of conscience ; and as it con- 
 demns or confirms their united testimony, to accept 
 or reject it, whether individually or collectively. 
 
 An attempt has lately been made to induce Chris- 
 tians to live rather by the Prayer-book than by 
 the Bible, and consequently, to restore certain direc- 
 tions of the Rubric, which had become obsolete. 
 In this it has been too readily taken for granted, that 
 these restorations were desirable, nay, obligatory, as 
 
CONVOCATION OF CLERGY AND LAITY. 399 
 
 points of duty, forgetting that the portions fallen into 
 desuetude were, for the most part.originaliy left standing 
 as concessions to the prejudices of a previous time, and 
 had naturally passed away with those prejudices and 
 with that time. We have laws in the statute-book 
 in the same condition ; but if any attempt is made to 
 revive these, on the part of informers or others, 
 whereby individuals, who had reason to think the law 
 was dead, might be annoyed, the custom of the legis- 
 lature, when appealed to on the subject, has con- 
 stantly been, not to re-enact, but to repeal the law ; 
 that is, being dead, they have buried it. Many of 
 these neglected rites and ceremonies have been, by 
 sincere and pious churchmen, deemed superstitious 
 and idolatrous ; and many of the most earnest and 
 fervent Christians have, in all ages of the Church, 
 wished, like Savonarola, to abolish such observances 
 altogether, or to adopt as few of them as possible. At 
 best, they are but helps to minds that are not strong 
 enough to go alone ; and the highest class of Chris- 
 tian worshippers find them rather hindrances than 
 aids. But for the latter, no legislation is needed, and 
 institutions are only wanted for those who have not 
 attained the full stature of the perfect man. For 
 these some form of worship is desirable ; and therefore 
 it were perhaps well, not only that a convocation of 
 the clergy should be promoted to decide on what is ex- 
 pedient for effecting the object in view, but that the 
 laity throughout Christendom should be consulted, in 
 order that a common understanding and agreement 
 should be obtained, and thereby the entire Church 
 re-edified on the widest possible basis, that its corre- 
 spondent elevation may be ensured, since the one is 
 always necessarily proportioned to the other. 
 
 As the reformation of the Church commenced with 
 restoring the Scriptures to their proper place, so will 
 it be completed by restoring the laity to theirs. The 
 M m 2 
 
400 KEVIVE THE RIGHTS OF THE LAITV, 
 
 Church is something more than a University, consist- 
 ing of a learned class ; it is a society identified with 
 the members, laws, and government of a Christian 
 people, a holy nation. To bring out this cheering 
 truth into full demonstration, Dr. Arnold proposed 
 the revival of an extinct order — that of deacons. Xo 
 Church in any town should exist without its deacons, 
 they are as essential to its completeness as its bishops 
 and its presbyters. Not only is this not so now, but 
 the clergy have here been guilty of a usurpation. The 
 junior members of the clerical body are found bearing 
 the name of deacons, while exercising the functions of 
 presbyters, though productive of exceeding inconve- 
 nience, even to the frequent suspension of one of the 
 sacraments of the Church. Such are the errors which 
 have come down to us from a corrupt age, by which 
 the clergy were in such a peculiar degree invested 
 with the attributes of the Church, that at last they 
 retained them almost exclusively — nay, were put in 
 place of the Church, while the great mass were 
 deprived of their proper share in its government, in 
 its offices, and therefore in its benefits, and in a 
 sense of its solemn responsibilities. The rectification 
 of these errors would be productive of a Church ex- 
 tension more real than that proposed under a Build- 
 ing Act ; not an extension of churches of bricks and 
 mortar, but of temples of the living God, constructed 
 of lively stones, whose builder and maker is Christ. 
 ' It were,' says Dr. Arnold, ' a yet truer and more 
 blessed Church extension, which should add to the 
 building and the single minister, the real living 
 Church itself, with all its manifold offices and minis- 
 tries, with its pure discipline, with its holy and loving 
 sense of brotherhood. Without this Christ will still 
 indeed, as heretofore, lay his hands on some few sick 
 folk and heal them, his grace will convey the truths 
 of his Gospel to individual souls, and they will be- 
 
AND THUS COMPLETE THE REFORMATION. 401 
 
 lieve and be saved ; but the fulfilment of prophecy, 
 the triumph of Christ's kingdom, the changing an 
 evil world into a world redeemed, — this can only be 
 done by a revival of the Chrisrian Church in its 
 power — the living temple of the Holy Ghost, which, 
 visiblv to all mankind in the wisdom and holiness of 
 its members, showed that God was in the midst of it. 
 It may be that is a fond hope which we may not 
 expect to see realized ; but look, on the one hand, 
 to the strong and triumphant language of prophecy ; 
 I know not how any hope to the advancement of 
 Christ's kingdom can be more bold than God's word 
 will warrant : and on the other, tracing the past his- 
 tory of the Church, its gradual corruption may be 
 deduced distinctly from one early and deadly mis- 
 chief, which has destroyed its efficacy ; so that if this 
 mischief can be removed, and the Church become 
 such as Christ designed it to be, it does not seem 
 presumptuous to hope, that his appointed instrument, 
 working according to his will, should be able to 
 obtain the full blessings of his promise.' 
 
 The usurpation which men will no longer permit, 
 was useful for the time while it prevailed, but only 
 in an exceptional point of view ; nay, it was even 
 needful in an age of great and unavoidable ignorance, 
 but for that very reason must be superseded in a 
 more enlightened era. Despotisms, whether spiritual 
 or temporal, are necessary where the people are only 
 carnal. There could be no tyrants if there were not 
 slaves ready made for submission. The higher in- 
 terests of humanity are thereby protected, but it is by 
 an alternative of evils ; and the sooner they can 
 become emancipated from the thraldom the better. 
 The constitution of Church and State is therefore so 
 divinely appointed, that it may adapt itself to altered 
 circumstances and the various developements of rime 
 and place. The mistake that is made, is bv sup- 
 M in 3 
 
402 
 
 INFALLIBLE HEAD. 
 
 posing that in all cases this adaptation will proceed 
 by a mutual growth of the body and its envelope- 
 ments, by gradual enlargement and by accretion, in- 
 stead of recognizing the infinite compensations by 
 which nature wonderfully subdues difficulties other- 
 wise insuperable ; thus providing that the environment 
 incapable of expansion or addition shall, as the body 
 swells, be spasmodically cast off ; that the latter, being 
 so released, may be left to push its growth, and 
 by a new concretion form a new covering, adapted in 
 every part to its increased dimensions, and that as 
 often as may be needed. 
 
 What is true of the ways of nature is also true of 
 those of God, for she is but His mirror and mes- 
 senger. His providence has dominion equally over 
 matter and spirit, and exhibits itself as much in the 
 Church as in the world. How sings Spenser — 
 
 * And is there care in heaven ? And is there love 
 In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, 
 That may compassion of their evils move ? 
 There is ; else much more wretched nere the case 
 Of men than beasts. But oh ! th' exceeding grace 
 Of Highest God, that loves His creatures so, 
 And all His works with mercy doth embrace, 
 That blessed angels He seuds to and fro. 
 To serve to wicked men, to serve his wcked foe. 
 
 How oft do they their silver bowers leave 
 To come to succour us that succour want ! 
 How oft do they with golden pinions cleave 
 The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant. 
 Against foul fiends to aid us militant ! 
 They for us tight, they watch and duly ward. 
 And their bright squadrons round about us plant ; 
 And all for love, and nothing for reward. 
 O why should Heavenly God to man have such regard ? ' 
 
 The unappeasable desire for an unerring authority 
 which the history of the Church so strongly illustrates, 
 is one of the primary instincts of the human mind ; it 
 is connected with a firm belief that there is a standard 
 
r 
 
 NOT MAN, BUT CHRIST. 403 
 
 of certainty, to which it is possible for man to appeal. 
 It has been sought in a general consent of wise and 
 holy men ; in the established opinions and usages of 
 a long-existing institution ; and, finally, in the un- 
 appealable decrees of a visible ruler. But now it 
 has been proved that these are corruptible, and have 
 been corrupted ; also, the soundest philosophy teaches, 
 that the root of certainty is not to be found in any- 
 thing that is external to us, but must be sought in 
 the very constituent laws of our being, as the utter- 
 ances of that Word which was in the beginning, 
 which is with God, and which is none other than God 
 himself. The only infallible judge recognizable by 
 the true Christian, is no mortal man, however wise, 
 knowing, pious, learned, or powerful on earth ; but 
 One, the Lord in heaven, that immortal Man, by 
 whom the Father created and shall judge the world 
 — the risen and ascended Christ, who ever liveth to 
 make intercession for his redeemed with the great 
 Parent of the universe. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 T. 
 
 UVMN- TO INFLAME THE HEART TO DIVINE LOVE.— 
 
 Page 40. 
 
 [The following is the original of the paraphrase, given 
 in the text. 
 
 " Latide ad iiifiammare 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 I'ama, 
 Si spoglia d'ogni errore. 
 
 Se tu ti senti afBitto, 
 Questo e dolce conforto, 
 Questo e quel dolce lito, 
 E quel felice porto, 
 E qual sempre ti esorto, 
 A mar con gran fervore. 
 
408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Non star, cuor mio, pid meco ; 
 Se \'iver vuoi in pace, 
 Vanne a Gesu e sta seco, 
 Che'l mondo e si faUace 
 Che ormai a lui non piace, 
 Se non, chi e traditore. 
 
 Se tu stai qui in terra, 
 Sara tua vita amara. 
 In ogni luogo e guerra 
 E fede e pace e rara : 
 Se'l te la \nta cara, 
 Vanne al divin splendore. 
 
 Non ti fidar d'altrui, 
 
 Che ogn' uomo e pien d'inganni. 
 
 Se tu ne vai a Lui, 
 
 Dolci saran gU aS'anni, 
 
 E spenderai i tuoi anni 
 
 Con merito ed onore. 
 
 Se tu '1 trovi umilmente, 
 A hii mi raccomanda, 
 E fa, che sia fervente 
 A far la mia domanda, 
 Che sua dolcezza spanda 
 Sopra'l mio gran dolore. 
 
 E quando sarai giunto, 
 Darai' gli un baccio santo, 
 Se mani e' piedi appunto. 
 Abbraccia'l tutto quanto, 
 Infiammati in lui tanto 
 Che r brami a tutte Tore. 
 
 Se lui la man ti prende, 
 Non la lassar giammai ! 
 Chi del suo amor s'accende, 
 Non sente etemo guai, 
 E se con lui tu stai, 
 Tu spengi ogni timore. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 400 
 
 Sta con Gesu, 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. 
 
 Prendete tutti I'arme 
 Nemici d'ogni bene, 
 Che piu non temo, e parme 
 Che dolci sian le pene. 
 E questo si conviene 
 A chi sta con I'amore. 
 
 Che fai qui, cuore ? 
 Che fai qui, cuore ? 
 Vanne al divino amore I 
 
 II. 
 
 JOHANNES CAssiAN. — Page 52. 
 
 John Cassian, a celebrated monk of the fourth and fifth 
 centuries, born in Scythia. He spent a part of his early 
 life in the monastery of St. Bethlehem, along with his 
 friend the monk Germain, in Syria. From this monas- 
 tery, they went to one of Upper Egypt, where (in the 
 year 390) they practised the most austere rites of the 
 monastic life. He spent several years in the monas- 
 tery of Scete, considered the most perfect of these esta- 
 blishments. They went barefooted, poorly clothed, and 
 subsisted on the labour of their own hands. 
 
 After some years, Ca<sian went to Bethlehem, and from 
 thence to Constantinople, where he received instructions 
 from the celebrated Chrysostom, who ordained him. When 
 Chrysostom was an exile, (Jassian had the commission to 
 carry to Rome letters, in which the clergy of Constanti- 
 nople undertook the defence of their persecuted pastor. 
 In 414 or 415, he settled in Marseilhs, where he founded 
 two monasteries, one of men, and the other of women. 
 Ac.'ording to the chronicle of Prosper, he lived there to 
 
 N n 
 
410 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 433. Dupin relates his death in 440, while Baillet carries 
 it up to 448. Dom Rivet thinks that he died in 434 or 
 435. 
 
 In reviewing, with Augustine against the Pelagians, the 
 tenet of the existence of original sin, and the necessity of 
 inward grace for all the acts of piety, Cassian departed 
 from the doctrine of theholy doctoruponthe distribution of 
 this grace, which he attributed to the merits of the man. 
 
 His CoUationes or Conferences (in 12 books) of the 
 fathers, is considered his best work. He wrote also 
 (7 books) on the Incarnation of the Word. 
 
 Cassian was a Semi-Pelagian. His sect was con- 
 demned by Synods and the Church. To obtain an idea 
 of one of his collations, take book xii. chapter 16, 
 which he gives from the blessed Abbot Chrenicre, 
 where he treats of the end and the means of acquir- 
 ing and preserving chastity. This chapter begins with 
 the remarkable words, ' Proinde unicuique nostrum 
 adversus spiritum fornicationis totis viribus desudanti, 
 victoria singularis est, de merito conatus sui remedium 
 non sperare,' which implies, that there are exertions on 
 our part necessary for success, that we have no right to 
 expect success without labour : and that we must strive 
 against the tendencies to an opposite course of events. 
 He then proceeds to explain this in a sensible manner : 
 ' That though the slothful, and the careless, and the 
 neghgent, may not understand the effects of these things, 
 I am certain,' says the Abbot, ' that they are to be recog- 
 nized and proved by the studious and the spiritual man ; 
 for there is as much distinction between one man and 
 another as there is between heaven and hell — between 
 Christ and Belial. According to the very sentiment of our 
 Lord the Saviour, ' Si quis mihi ministrat, me sequatur ; ' 
 that is, if any one serve Me, let him follow Me, and where 
 I am, there also will My servant be. Again, ' Where your 
 treasure is, there will your heart be also.' ' 
 
 III. 
 
 ' till it received new aid from other learned 
 
 Greeks, who were driven from Constantinople by the 
 
ArrENDix. 
 
 411 
 
 dread of the Turks, or by the destruction of the eastern 
 empire.'— Page 11 6. 
 
 Amongst the learned Greeks who sought shelter in 
 Florence under Cosimo's patronage, were Demetrius Chal- 
 condyles, Johannes Andronicus, Calistus, Constantius, 
 and Johannes Lascaris, in whom the Platonic philosophy 
 obtained fresh partizans, and by whose support it began 
 openly to oppose itself to that of Aristotle. Between tlie 
 Greek and Italian professors a spirit of emulation was 
 kindled that operated most favourably on the cause of 
 letters : public schools were instituted at Florence for the 
 study of the Greek tongue. The facility of diffusing their 
 labours by the newly-discovered art of printing stimulated 
 the learned to fresh exertions ; and in a few years, the 
 cities of Italy vied with each other in the number and 
 elegance of works produced from the press. 
 
 IV. 
 
 HVMN ON THE LOVE OF JESUS. — Page 186. 
 
 The following is the original of the paraphrase given in 
 the text. The author is indebted for this version to a 
 lady. 
 
 Lauda, composta dal Fraie Hieronymo, dela Consolatione 
 del Crucifixo. 
 
 Quando il soave e mio fido conforto, 
 
 Per la pieta della mia stanca vita. 
 
 Con la sua dolce chitarra fornita. 
 
 Mi trae dall' onde al suo beato porto. 
 
 To sento al cuor un ragionar accorto 
 
 Dal resonante ed infiammato ligno, 
 
 Che mi fa si benigno, 
 
 Che di fuor sempre iagrimar vorrei. 
 
 Ma lassi ! gli occhi miei 
 
 Degni non son della soave pioggia, 
 
 Che della stilla, dove amor s' allogia. 
 
 Qual veloce, qual sitibondo cervo 
 Si vide al fonte mai tal salto fare, 
 N n 2 
 
412 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Qual alia voce il cuor, che gia spuntare 
 
 II fin acciaio io vidi assai protervo, 
 
 Sagitte acute gira il bianco nerve 
 
 Da penetrare un solido diamante. 
 
 Vivace acqua stillante, 
 
 Che'l sdegnoso Neron farebbe pio, 
 
 Lassa qual cuor si rio : 
 
 Non fan prigion le corde e le saette 
 
 Le voce sorde, e le dolci parolette. 
 
 Alma che fai ? or questa, or quella corda 
 Soavemente dentro al cuor risuona, 
 Che mi conforta ed al camin mi sprona, 
 Benche I'andato tempo mi ricorda. 
 O quanto bene al mio desir s'accorda 
 Quella armonia ed il suon delle parole : 
 Palidette viole 
 
 Da terra trae nel serto suo beato. 
 O felice peccato ! 
 
 Che cosa, o qual ti fa degno d'onore ? 
 Chi t'ha donato un tanto Redentore ? 
 
 Venite, genti, dal mar Indo al Mauro, 
 
 E chiunque e stanco dentro nel pensiero, 
 
 Non forza darrai quivi, non impero, 
 
 Prendete senza fine argento ed auro : 
 
 Venite, e pov'ri e nudi al gran tesauro, 
 
 Alle dolci acque d'un celeste foate. 
 
 Levate ormai la fronte, 
 
 Che piu non temo un uom' coperto d'arme, 
 
 E senza dubbio parme 
 
 Gia sciolti i laccii, e dentro il cuor avampa, 
 
 Mirando il segno, e la spietata stampa. 
 
 Ahi ! orbo mondo, dimmi chi I'ha spento 
 In questa valle oscura e tenebrosa 
 L'amor d'una bellissima amorosa, 
 E la pieta del grave suo lamento ? 
 Lasso ! fossi lei, qual io son contento 
 Farmi d'un piede pur I'estrema parte, 
 E neir ultime carte — 
 
 Benche indegno assai, porre il nostro nome — 
 So che r aspre some 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 41a 
 
 E le catene porterebbe in pace. 
 Forte di spirito, e d' animo vivace. 
 
 Ma che debbo altro ortnai, che pianger senipre, 
 
 Dolce Gesu, che senza Te son nulla — 
 
 Id cominciai al latte ed alia culla 
 
 A declinar dalle tue dolci tempre. 
 
 Ed or' che fia di me, se Tu non tempri, 
 
 Le male corde e la scordata lira ? 
 
 Per 1' universo gira 
 
 Questo sfrenato e rapido torrente. 
 
 Che or fossin tutte sjjente 
 
 Sue voglie ingorde ed il subito furore, 
 
 Ed io col mio dolcissimo signore ! 
 
 Canzonetta, io ti prego 
 
 Che spesso meco sola tu ragioni, 
 
 Che'l mio cuor tu sproni. 
 
 10 dico a voi, Signor, dove si mostra 
 
 11 dolce aspetto della terra vostra. 
 
 V. 
 
 LIST OF THE WRITINGS OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 A critical catalogue of the numerous writings of Sa- 
 vonarola, which, even according to Machiavelli's judg- 
 ment, are the best witnesses of his learning, penetration, 
 and mental powers, is the more desirable, since, notwith- 
 standing the meritorious labours, in this respect, of 
 Quetif, Echard, and Wharton, the catalogue given by 
 them allows of many corrections and additions, liesides, 
 instead of the undetermined and necessarily inconsequent 
 division followed by them, into ascetic, parenitic-prophetic, 
 dogmatic, and polemical-apologetic writings, the most 
 natural possible order, that is, the chronological, ought 
 here to be attempted. Of the editions the oldest are 
 chiefly named ; writings as yet unedited are marked with 
 an asterisk. 
 
 I472.*Canzona de Ruina Mundi. 
 1475.*Canzona de Ruina Ecclesiw, 
 
 N n .3 
 
414 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1475. Lettera al padre suo Nicolo, scritta a di xxv 
 d'Aprile, quando entro nella relip;ione ; Venez. 15-17, 
 8vo. Also at the beginning of the Sermon on Job; 
 Venez. 1545. Further, in Jo. Franc. Pici Vita cit. 
 2 vols. Paris, 1674, 8vo. 
 
 1492. — Lettera ai suoi diletti Figliuoli in Christo Gesu, 
 uniti nel Convento di S. Marco di Firenze ; ^'enez. 
 1547, 8vo ; Jo. Franc. Pici Vita cit. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1674, 8vo. 
 
 Trattato dell' Umilta; Firenze, 1492, 1495, 4to ; 
 
 Venez. 1538, 1547, 8vo. 
 
 Trattato dell' Orazione Mentale ; Firenze, 1492, 
 
 1495, 4to; Venez. 1538, 1547, 8vo. 
 
 Tratto dell' Amore di Gesu Christo; Firenze, 1492, 
 
 1495, 4to ; Venez. 1538, 1547, Svo. The last three trea- 
 tises also in Molti Devotiss. Tratt. ; Venez. 1547, Svo. 
 
 1493. — Prediche XXV sopra il Salmo, Quam bonus Is- 
 rael Deus, &c., predicate in Firenze, in S. Maria del 
 Fiore in uno Adento del 1493, dal medesimo poi in 
 Latina lingua raccolte, e da Fra Girol Giannotti da Pis- 
 toja in lingua volgare tradotte; Venez. 1528, 4to ; 
 1543, 1544, Svo. 
 
 1494. — Sermones XLVI Quadragesimales super Arcam 
 Noe; Venet. 1536, Svo. Must be a selection of Ser- 
 mons really preached, made in the Latin language by 
 Savonarola or a translator. 
 
 In Orationem Dominicam Expositio Quadruplex ; 
 
 Paris, 1517, 12mo; Venet. 1537, l6mo. In Italian, Es- 
 posizione sopra il Pater noster, composta in Latino e 
 da un suo amico tradotta in volgare; Firenze, 1494. 
 
 Epistola ad una donna Bolognese sopra la Comu- 
 
 nione; Firenze, 149), 1496, 4to ; Venez. 1547, Svo. 
 
 Esposizione sopra I'Ave Maria; Firenze, 4to; Ve- 
 nez. 1538, 1547, Svo. Tlie latter three writings also in 
 Molti Devotiss. Tratt.; Venez. 1547, Svo. 
 
 ■ Prediche XXIII sopra alquanti Salmi e sopra 
 
 Aggeo Profeta, fatte del mese di IS'ovembre e Decembre 
 I'anno 1494. Raccolte dalla %ava voce da Fra Stefano 
 da Co di Ponte, suo Discepolo ; Venez. 1544, Svo. 
 
 1495. Prediche XXX so])ra diversi Salmi e molte altre 
 notabihssime materie; Firenze, 1496, 4to ; Venez. 
 1517, 1520, 4to; 1539, 1543, Svo. 
 
APPEKDIX. 
 
 415 
 
 1-195. Prediche XLVII sopra Job, fatte in Firenze, I'anno 
 1494 [stilo Romano, 1495], nuovamente venule in luce. 
 Con una lettera al suo Padre, quando entro nella re- 
 ligione; Venez. 1545, Svo. 
 
 *Epistola ad Regem Christianissimum Francorum. 
 
 The editor of the Vita del P. Girol. Savonarola, scritta 
 dal P. Pacif. Burlamacchi, &c. Lucra, 1764, mentions a 
 Lettera al Re di Francia, data in S. Marco, a di xxri 
 di Maggio, 1490, 4to, senza luogo ed anno, but which 
 has not been yet seen by others. 
 
 Compendio di Rivelazioni ; Firenze, 1495, 4to : in 
 
 Latin, Compendium Revelationum ; Florent. et Paris, 
 1496, 4to; Veuet. 153", Svo. 
 
 L'AstTologia Divinatrice in corroborazione della 
 
 Rifutazione Astrologice del Sig. Conte Giov. Pico, 
 della Mirandola ; Firenze, 1495, 4to; Venez. 1513, 1536, 
 Svo ; in Latin, by Th. Boninsegni, Florent. 1561, 
 Svo. 
 
 *Epistoletta ad uno suo famihare Inc. Magnifice Vir, 
 
 No: siamo nel sesto anno dal di, che io cominciai ad 
 invitare in Firenze F Italia a penitenza, &c., in the U- 
 brary of the late Count Boutourlin, at Florence. 
 
 *Epistola ad Alexandrum Papam Sextum die xxxi 
 
 Junii, 1495. 
 
 Trattato Secondo dell' Orazione ; Fu-enze, 1495, 4to ; 
 
 Venez. 1538, Svo. 
 Dieci Regole convenient! da orare nel tempo deUa 
 
 Tribolazione ; Firenze, 1495, 4to; Venez. 1538, Svo. 
 Regole del Ben Vivere Christiano, ai suoi Discepoh ; 
 
 Firenze, 1495, 4to; Venez. 1538, Svo. 
 Regole a tutti i Religiosi molto utili, date ai suoi 
 
 frati per modo d'una scala ; Fu-enze, 1495, 4to ; Ve- 
 nez. 1538, Svo. 
 Epistola a Madalena Contessa della Mirandola, della 
 
 Perfezzioni del Stato Religioso; Fu-enze, 1495, 4to. 
 
 Venez. 153S, Svo. 
 Trattato sopra la Vita Vedo\Tle ; Firenze, 1495, 
 
 1496, 4to; Venez. 153S, Svo. 
 Operetta molto divota sopra i dieci Comandamenti 
 
 di Dio; Firenze, 1405, 4to; Venez. 1538, Svo. 
 Trattato del Misterio della Croce; Firenze, 1495, 
 
 4to; Venez. 1538, Svo. 
 
416 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1495. Trattato del Sacramento e de Misterii della Messa 
 e regola utile; Firenze, 1495, 4to; Venez. 153S, 8vo. 
 
 Epistola al Convento de' Frati Predicatori a Fiesole, 
 
 della Perfezzione e deUe Tentazioni ; Firenze, 1495, 
 4to ; Venez. 1533, 8vo. The latter ten treatises also 
 in Molti Devotiss. Tratt., Venez. 1547, 8vo. 
 
 Psalmus, seu Oratio devotissima : Diligam Te Do- 
 mine, &c. ; Venet. 14£5, Svo; 1517, l6mo; Tubing. 
 1621, l-2mo. 
 
 1495. Prediche XLVIII sopra Amos Profeta e sopra 
 Zacharia Profeta, &c. raccolte daUa viva voce da Lo- 
 remo Violi; Firenze, 1497; Venez. 1514, 1523, 4to ; 
 1539, 1543, Svo. 
 
 De Simplicitate Vitag Christianae libri quinque ; 
 
 Florent. 1496, 4to; Paris, 1511, Svo; Colon. 1550, 
 l6mo. Tradotti in volgare da Hieronymo Benirieni ; 
 Firenze, 1496, 1529, 4to; Venez. 1547, Svo. 
 
 Meditatio in Psalmum, Qui regis Israel, &c. ; Flo- 
 rent. 1509, Svo; Lugdun. 1540, l6mo; Tubing, 1621, 
 12mo; in Italian, Firenze, 1496, 4to. 
 
 Prediche XXIX sopra Ruth e Michea, fatte I'anno 
 
 1496, ne'giorni delle feste, finito che ebbe la Quare- 
 sima; Firenze, 1497, 4to; Venez. 1514, 4to ; 1539, 
 1543, Svo. 
 
 Regole del discreto ed ordinato Modo de Viver 
 
 nella Rehgione, Esortazione fatta il di xiv di Settembre 
 1496; Firenze, 1496, 4to; Venez. 1533, 1547, Svo. 
 
 Responsio ad Alesandrum Papam Sextum, die 
 
 xxix Octobris, 1496. 
 
 Apologeticum Fratnim Congregationis S. Marci de 
 
 Florentia; Firenze, 1497, 4to. Jo. Franc. Pici Vita 
 cit. 2 vols. Paris, 1674, Svo. 
 
 Prediche XLIX sopra Ezechiel Profeta, fatte in 
 
 S. Maria del Fiore, cominciando la prima Domenica 
 dell' Advento, 1496; Firenze, 1497, fol.; Venez. 1520, 
 4to; 1541, Svo. 
 
 1497. Tractatus de Vitae Spiritualis Perfectione ad sep- 
 tem illius Gradus a S. Bonaventura Jistinctos ; Florent. 
 
 1497, 4to; Venet. 1537, l6mo. Tradotto in volgare 
 da Fdippo Cioni; Venez. 1533, 1547, Svo. 
 
 Epistola a tutta la Congregazione dei Frati di S. 
 
 Marco, del Modo di resistere alle Tentazioni e di per- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 417 
 
 venire alia Perfezzione; Firenze, 1497, 4to ; Venez. 
 1537, 1547, 8vo. 
 1497. Del cliscreto e conveniente modo di fnr Orazione, 
 ai suoi Frati; Hrenze, 1497, 4to ; Venez. 1538, 1547, 
 gvo. 
 
 Del adoperarsi in Carita secondo la Divina Dispo- 
 
 sizione, ai suoi Frati ; Firenze, 1497, 4to; Venez. 1533, 
 1547, Svo. 
 
 Epistola alle Sorelle del terzo ordine di S. Dome- 
 
 nico, della Lezzione Spirituale; Firenze, 1497, 4to ; 
 Venez. 153S, 1547, Svo. 
 
 Epistola ai Frati suoi, della peste spirituale; 
 
 Firenze, 1497, 4to; Venez. 153S, 1547, Svo. 
 
 Epistola al P. Fra Pietro di Beccuto, del non tenaere 
 
 ne fuggire la Morte; Firenze, 1497, 4to; Venez. 1538, 
 1547, Svo. The latter seven wTitings are found partly 
 also in Molti Devotiss. Tratt; Venez. 1547, Svo, partly 
 in Quetif, Epistt. Spiritual. Paris, 1674, Svo. 
 
 Predica fatta la mattina dell' Ascensions 1497. 
 
 Raccolta per maestro Hieron Cinozzi, publicata alia 
 riquisizione del Rev. P. Frate Hieronymo. At the end 
 of the Sermons on Ezekiel the Prophet; Venez. 1541, 
 Svo. 
 
 Epistola a tutti gli Eletti di Dio e fedeli Christian! ; 
 
 Firenze, 1497, 4to. ; Venez. 1537, Svo. 
 Epistola a certe Persone Devote perseguitate per la 
 
 verita da lui predicata; Firenze, 1497, 4to ; Venez. 
 
 1537, Svo. 
 
 Epistola a tutti 11 Christiani e diletti di Dio ; Firenze, 
 
 1497, 4to. 
 
 Epistola ad Fratrem quendam, contra Sententiam 
 
 Excommunicationis contra se nuper injuste latam ; 
 Firenze, 1497, 4to. 
 
 Epistola ad uno amico ma vacillante per le per.secu- 
 
 zioni ; Firenze, 1497, 4to. The latter six -wrilings also 
 printed in Jo. Franc Pici Vita cit. 2 vols.; Paris, 1674, 
 Svo. 
 
 Epistola ad Alexandrum Papam Sextum die xx 
 
 Maji 1497. 
 
 Loqui prohibeor, et tacere non possum. In the 
 
 library of the late Count Boutourlin in Florence. 
 Lamer.tatio Sponsa? Christi adversus tepidos et pseu- 
 
418 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 do-predicatores, etc.; Florent. 1497, 4to; Venet. 1537, 
 8vo. 
 
 1497. Lettera a Madonna Caterina di Sforli. 
 
 Copia d'una lettera al Duca di Ferrara, al di 
 
 d'Agosto 1497. 
 Lettera alia Yen. Madre Priora del Monasterio di 
 
 S. Domenico di Pisa. 
 Lettera alia Signora Maria Angela Sforza, Du- 
 
 chessa di Ferrara. 
 ' Lettera al Sig. Giov. Franc. Pico della Miraudola al 
 
 di viii di Maggio 1497- 
 
 Al medesimodapoi che ingiustamente fu scomunicato. 
 
 Lettera a M. Ludovico Pittori, cittadino Ferrarese. 
 
 Lettere tre all' lUustrissima Mad. Giov. Caraffa, 
 
 moglie del Conte Giov. Pico della Mirandola. 
 
 Lettera a due giovani Ferraresi. 
 
 Lettera a M. Bertrando Ferrarese, Protonotario 
 
 Apostolico. According to Burlamacchi, Vita cit. Lucca 
 
 1764, p. 102, the last-named seven letters are found in 
 
 Stef. Baluzii Miscellanea etc.; Lucca, 1761, which 
 
 edition unluckily is not accessible. 
 
 Lettera al Serenissimo Imperatorc. 
 
 Lettera al Re e Regina di Spagna. 
 
 De Veritate Prophetica Dialogus ; Florent. 1497, fol. 
 
 in Italian, Dialogo della Verita Profetica; Firenze, 1497, 
 
 fol. ; Venez. 1548, 8vo. 
 Discorso circa il reggimento e governo degU stati e 
 
 specialmente sopra il governo della citta di Firenze ; 
 
 1497, 4to; Londra, 1765, 4to. 
 Triumphus Crucis, sive de Veritate Fidei libri qua- 
 
 tuor, Florent. 1497, 1524, 4to. Very often also else- 
 where, in Italian. 
 Della Verita della Fede Christiana, sopra il glorioso 
 
 trionfo della croce di Christo; Firenze, 1497, 1516, 
 
 4to ; Venez. 1547, 8vo. 
 
 1498. Epistola ad Alexandrum Papam Se.xtum die xiii 
 Martii 1498. 
 
 Prediche XXII sopra TEsodo e sopra alquanti 
 
 Salmi, fatte in S. Maria del Fiore coininciando la dome- 
 nica della Settuagesima il di xi di Febrajo 149S ; Rac- 
 colte per Messer Lorenzo Violi; Firenze, 1498, 4to; 
 Venez. 1517, 1520, 4to; 1540, 8vo. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 419 
 
 Sermone fatto a molti Sacerdoti, religiosi e secolari 
 
 a S. Marco a di xv di Febrajo 149S; Firenze, 1498, 
 4to. 
 
 1498. Esortazione fatta al popolo a di vii d'Aprile 1498, 
 nel qual di si aveva da fare I'esperimento del fuoco in 
 piazza de' Signori ; Firenze, 1498, 4to. Appended to 
 the Prediche sopra I'Esodo, etc. ; Venez 1540, 8vo. 
 
 Regola del Ben Vivere Christiano, composta mentre 
 
 era in carcere ; Firenze, 1498, 1529, 4to ; Venez. 1547, 
 Svo. 
 
 Meditatio in Psalmum, Miserere mei Deus, etc. ; 
 
 Florent. 1508, r2mo; and frequently elsewhere — In 
 
 Italian, Esposizione sopra il Salmo, Miserere mei Deus 
 
 etc. quando era in prigione nel mese di Maggio 1498. 
 
 Tradotta di Latino in volgare ad istanza di certe devote 
 
 donne ; Firenze, 4to. 
 Meditatio in Psalmum, In Te Domine speravi, 
 
 etc.; Florent. 1508, 12mo, and frequently elsewhere, in 
 
 Itahan ; Venez. 1535, 1547, 8vo. Both together; 
 
 Tubing. 1621, 12mo. 
 Orazione che fece a di xxiii di Maggio 1498, 
 
 quando era preparato alia comunion8 ; Firenze, 4to. 
 
 Also with the Esposizione sopra il Salmo, Miserere 
 
 mei Deus, etc. ; Firenze, 4to. 
 
 Writings of which the time is unknown. 
 
 Compendium Logicse ; Florent. 1497, 4to ; Venet, 1542, 
 Svo. 
 
 Compendium totius Philosophise tam naturalis, quam 
 moralis ; Venet. 1 542, 8vo. 
 
 Opus de divisione, ordine et utilitate omnium Scientiarum 
 necnon poesis ratione ; Venet. 1542, Svo. AU these 
 works together — Wittemberg, 1596, Svo. The latter, 
 with a letter to Ugelinus Verinus, as a reply to his 
 transmission of his Carmen de Christianas Religionis ac 
 vitae monasticas Felicitate, MSS. Biblioth. Magliab. 
 c. 1. vii. cod. 1150. 
 
 Eruditorium Confessorum ; Paris, 151", 8vo; Venet. 
 1520, 1543, Svo. 
 
 Dialogus cui titulus. Solatium Itineris mei, lib. vii.; 
 
420 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Genev. 1536, 8vo; Venet. 1537, iGmo; in Italian, 
 Venez. 1547, 1556, 8vo. A Latin edition different from 
 this in 3 books; Venet. 1537, Svo, is marked as un- 
 finished ; but both perhaps may be regarded as pre- 
 parations for his Triumphus Crucis. 
 
 Sermones XIX super Epist. Joannis Primam; Venet. 
 1536, Svo; in Itahan, Venez. 1547, 1556, Svo. 
 
 Sermoni due fatti ai suoi Frati nella vigiha di natale 
 sopra la nativita del nostro Signor Gesu Christo; 
 Venez. 153?, 1548, Svo. 
 
 Delia provocazione di Dio alio rinovazione della chiesa ; 
 Venez. 1517, 1520, 4to. 
 
 Trattato della rivelazione della riformazione della chiesa 
 divinitus fatta, etc. ; Venez. 1536, 1543, Svo. 
 
 Precatio ex Psalmis Davidis collecta pro remissione 
 peccatorum ; and, Oratio sub compendio omnes septem 
 petitiones in Precatione Dominica expressas complec- 
 tens, in Mcditatt. in Psalmos, etc.; Tubing. 1621, 12mo. 
 
 Trattato della conteraplazione circa Gesu gia elevato 
 in aria sulla croce; Venez. 1547, Svo; also in Mclti 
 Devotiss. Tratt. ; Venez. 1547, Svo. 
 
 Alcuni Sermoni divoti sopra il principio della Can- 
 tica ed altri luoghi della Sacra Scrittura : Sermones 
 VIII super Lamentationem Hiercmia; prophetae : Bre- 
 vis expositio in librum Esther ; Venet. 1556 ; are rather 
 perhaps thoughts and remarks, probably for different 
 Sermons not printed, taken in a great degree from the 
 above mentioned Bible of Savonarola. 
 
 *Alcune laudi e canzone. 
 
 •Expositio super x Psalmos ex Psalmis graduum. MSS. 
 
 *Meditationes diversae in aliquot S. Scripturre loca. 
 MSS. with the already mentioned Sermones super Epist. 
 Joannis Primam, written by Savonarola's own hand 
 for a gift to Domenico Benevieni, now or lately in j)os- 
 session of the bookseller Molini in I'lorence. 
 
 Expositio Ilabacuch prophetae. MSS Biblioth. Kanian. 
 MSS. Latt. cod. CI. No. 28. 
 
 Gii.nP.RT & UlviNOTON, Printers, Si. Jolin's Square, London. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Date Due 
 
 ■» ^ J. .v 
 
 
 
 
 F 26 M',» 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MAK v; ^