1496
_negiorni delle feste, finito che
hebbe la quaresima: & prima
riposatosi circa uno mese
ricomincio eldi di Sco
Michele Adi. viii di
Maggio. MCCCC
LXXXXVI._
The text commences "CREDITE IN Dno Deo uestro & securi eritis." In the
cell of Savonarola at the Monastery of St. Mark is preserved a MS. volume
of the famous preacher. The writing is very small, and must have taxed the
skill of the printers in deciphering it.]
The austerity of his teaching excited some hostility against him,
especially on the part of the monks who did not belong to his order--that
of the Dominicans. He had poured such bitter invective both in his books
and in his sermons upon the vices of the Popes and the Cardinals, that
they too formed a powerful party in league against him. In addition the
friends of the Medicis resented the overthrow of their power, and the
populace, ever fickle in their affections, required fresh wonders and
signs to keep them faithful to their leader. The opportunity of his
enemies came when Charles VIII. of France retired from Florence. They
accused Savonarola of all kinds of wickedness. He was cast into prison,
tortured, and condemned to death as a heretic. In what his heresy
consisted it were hard to discover. It was true that when his poor,
shattered, sensitive frame was being torn and rent by the cruel engines of
torture, he assented to many things which his persecutors strove to wring
from him.
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