busy city, but when in 1490, he came for a second time and preached in the garden of the convent of San Marco,* he quickly aroused the attention of the whole town.

The substance of the discourses, which by their fire and power kept for the next three years the whole city in a ferment, was that the church must be purified, that God would scourge Italy for her wickedness, and that their judgments would not be long delayed. The church of the monastery to which he was forced to remove, proved too small to contain the people who flocked to hear him, and he took at the command of his superiors the pulpit of the great cathedral, the Duomo, and here he swayed by his wonderful oratory the thousands who gathered not alone from the city but from all the country around to hear the marvelous monk.

To understand what followed it is necessary to know something of the peculiar government of Florence. Nominally the sway of the people was the supreme law. The guilds, or trades-unions, of the city elected magistrates, who in turn elected every two months eight officers called Priori and the chief magistrate who was called from the great standard which he was supposed to guard, the Gonfalonier. In cases of importance the people were summoned by the ringing of the great bell in the Pallazio Vecchio† to hold in a public square a sort of parliament, where by acclamation was chosen a commission called a balia, which represented the will of the people. It was not difficult for skillful politicians, prepared beforehand, to control the selection of this balia, and thus what was designed to be the safeguard of the liberty of the people became a means to its enslavement. The great family of the Medici, merchants of enormous wealth and the widest connections, by the use of this and other means had come to be the absolute masters of Florence. Having nominally no authority in the government, they yet held the destinies of the city in their

Adjacent to the present church of San Marco (St. Mark's) "is the entrance to the once far-famed Monastery of San Marco, now suppressed. . . . It was decorated by Fra Angelico (1387-1455) with these charming frescoes which to this day are unrivaled in their portrayal of profound and devoted piety. The painter Fra Bartolomeo and the powerful preacher Savonarola were once inmates of this monastery."—Bædeker's "Northern Italy."

Pa-lat'so Vek'-kyo. "A castle-like building with projecting battlements, originally the seat of the Signoria, the government of the republic (of Florence), subsequently the residence of Cosimo I., and now used as a town-hall. It was erected in 1298."

hands and were recognized at home and abroad as its rulers. They worked through the Priori and the magistrates, but they determined peace or war, levied taxes, and exercised all the functions of hereditary lords.

It was not for one with the passionate sense of honesty and the burning devotion to freedom which Savonarola possessed, to endure this lordship lightly. In 1491, the year before Lorenzo de' Medici died, the monk was made prior of San Marco, and he showed his feelings toward the powerful family by refusing to pay to that prince the customary formal visit by which a new prior recommended his convent to his favor; and as time went on he did not hesitate to attack in the pulpit the power which the Medici had usurped in Florence. His dream of freeing Florence from the tyranny which had come to be all but absolute, began to grow in his mind. More and more his discourses became political in their character, as it became more and more the conviction of his ardent mind that religious purification only could come with political freedom. The ideas which were gathering within him took complete possession of his mind. He conceived himself directly commissioned of God to free the city and to cleanse the church; and as his enthusiasm waxed ever greater, he began to see visions and believe himself to have miraculous messages from heaven.

Meanwhile the political condition of Italy was every day becoming more troubled. The death of Lorenzo de' Medici had left not only Florence without a competent leader, but it had removed the power which held all Italy in check. Piero de' Medici, who succeeded to the headship of Florentine affairs, was not capable of controlling so turbulent a country as was Italy at this time. Ludovico, the Moor,* held at Milan the throne, nominally as regent but really as usurper; and when Naples joined with Florence in calling him to account he played the bold game of calling Charles VIII., of France, to enforce an old claim to the throne of Naples. In this Ludovico was seconded by a party of Florentines who at one time and another had been

*"At Milan, in 1476, the cruel Duke Galeazzo Maria was assassinated by three young men near the church of St. Stephen. Giovanni Galeazzo (jo-van'nee gal-e-at'so), his son, a minor, married a daughter of the king of Naples. But his uncle, Ludovico il Moro, had seized on power and ruled in the name of Giovanni (1480). He imprisoned Giovanni and his young wife."—Fisher's “ Outlines of Universal History."

banished from home at the instigation of the house of Medici. Pope Alexander IV., just elected, probably from the policy of checking the power of Naples and bringing it to his own feet, also encouraged the advent of Charles; while the cardinal of San Pietro (St. Peter), afterward Pope Julius II., incited the French king to come to Italy in the character of enemy to Alexander.

In Florence, Savonarola continued his political discourses, and in the autumn of 1494 he boldly preached that Charles was the instrument appointed by the Lord to save Florence from the hand of Piero, who meanwhile was looking to the threatened war as the means by which his hold upon the city could be made tangible and open as it was real. He aimed at an acknowledged lordship, and the sagacity of Savonarola was too great for him to fail to see what direction the ambition of the head of the Medici was taking. The whole city was full of plot and of counterplot; as, indeed, was all Italy. Openly the party which was held together by the powerful personality and the wonderful eloquence of Savonarola was the most powerful after that of the Medici; and the whole city was shaken with the vehemence of the monk's denunciations of the corruptness of the times and predictions of the cleansing of Italy by the coming of the scourge of God in the person of Charles, a person about as poorly fitted to play that part, had Savonarola but known, as well could be imagined. The French entered Italy, demanding a passage through Tuscany, which Piero, true to his alliance with Naples, refused. By the advice of Ludovico, Charles then took the way along the sea-coast, and despite the prohibition of Piero, pushed on into Tuscan territory.

It was then that Piero took the step which led to his ruin. Charles took pains to let it be understood that he regarded the prohibition of his request as coming not from the Florentine people, but from the Medici; and pressed by the openly expressed enmity of the popular party at home and terrified by the fact that in an attempt to enforce his orders three hundred Florentine horsemen had been put to flight by the soldiers of Charles, Piero, with a folly akin to madness, put into the hands of the French for the period of their stay in Italy, the five fortresses, Sarsina, Sarsanello, Pisa, Librafratta, and Leghorn. This attempt to purchase the favor of the invaders put the whole of Tuscany

into their power; and when it was known in Florence the rage of the people was frantic. Only the personal influence of Savonarola prevented it from breaking out in acts of violence, since it would well have suited the temper of the populace to sack the splendid palaces of the Medici. An embassy was sent from Florence to Charles. Savonarola was a member of it, and improved the opportunity to impress upon the French king a sense of his divine mission to restore freedom to Italy, threatening him with the direst vengeance of heaven if he failed to fulfill this high commission. He talked to a man who was capable of superstitious fear, but neither of reverence nor of honesty. The embassy was dismissed with small satisfaction, and Charles listened more kindly to the offer of Piero de' Medici to give him 200,000 ducats if he would confirm him in the sovereignty of Florence.

The embassadors returned to the city in no very pleased mood, and Piero, coming soon after, found the gates closed in his face; when he managed to enter the city and endeavored to incite an uprising in his favor, he was obliged to flee for his life, while the mob sacked the superb palace of the Medici, stored with the priceless collections gathered by Lorenzo the Magnificent.

There were recognized at this time three parties in Florence, of which the names at least are familiar to the readers of "Romola." The supporters of the Medici were called the Pal-les'chi from the three balls, palle, which made the arms of the Medici, and from which is derived the sign of the pawnbroker of the present time. The followers of Savonarola, the party which had since the death of Lorenzo disputed the supremacy of the government of the city in the Signoria* with the Palleschi, were popularly known as the Pi-ä gno'ni, a derisive term signifying the weepers and alluding to the piety which was so intimately interwoven with the politics of the monk. The third party was that of the nobles who opposed the Medici and who were even more cordial in their hatred of the Piagnoni. From their violence they were named by Fra Girolamo the Ar-ra-bi-at'ta, the rabid or the infuriated.

On the 17th of November, Charles entered the city in the midst of pomp which was somewhat dampened by an inopportune

*Seen-yo'ri-a. The board of rulers in the government.

shower. He assumed all the airs of a conqueror, and the Florentines soon found that it was far easier to get the French into their city than out of it. Charles found it for his advantage to affect at least a strong inclination toward the Medici, and when the treaty was at last, concluded, as it was largely by the offices of Savonarola, the specifications included a pledge that the Florentines should pay the French king 120,000 florins, and that Piero de' Medici should be pardoned upon acknowledging allegiance to republican Florence.

The French having been got rid of, it was needful to reorganize the government. In the latter part of the year 1494 there was a new development of the leaning of Savonarola to politics. In the words of George Eliot, "He was rapidly passing in his sermons from the general to the special-from telling his hearers that they must postpone their private passions and interests to the public good, to telling them precisely what sort of a government they must have in order to promote the good-from 'choose whatever is best of all' to 'choose the Great Council.'"' The old council had been abolished, and an attempt to get on with a council of twenty was tried. The state was in a condition not far from anarchy; and Savonarola declared that a Great Council similar to that of Venice and chosen directly by the people was the thing needed for the salvation of Florence. Asked to preach before the Signoria upon the remodeling of the government, he insisted upon four things: the fear of God, to be shown in a reform of individuals; universal peace and oblivion of all injuries; the love of the republic, and subverting all else to its welfare; the establishing of a purely republican form of government. He believed and preached that the government of the city might and should be a true theocracy, with God at its head as in the times when He led Israel in a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. He was now at the height of his influence. The Great Council, consisting of a thousand members, was established as he desired, and an inner council of eighty was chosen from these to act, the whole body being too large for practical work. In the following August, Savonarola took a step which was thoroughly for the public good, yet which resulted to his infinite injury. The Piagnoni were in the ascendency in the councils and they consulted him in a way which made his power quite as autocratic as that he had so

deplored in the Medici. He effected the abolishing of the popular parliaments of the citizens, which had been so fruitful of evil in the past, but which were dear to the popular heart. The enemies of Savonarola, steadily laboring against him, were given a dangerous opportunity of doing him harm in the struggle over Pisa. Charles, after a varied career through southern Italy, was on his way back to France, when he was met at Pisa by Fra Girolamo, who demanded that according to treaty that fortress should be given up to the Florentines. The French king hesitated, despite the most appalling threat of divine vengeance which Savonarola poured upon him in case of refusal; and in the end he went on his way, leaving the Pisans, who detested the Florentine rule, to fight for their liberty-the quarrel being one not settled until long after Savonarola had been ashes. This incident was used to the disadvantage of the monk, and his enemies managing by combination to get a majority in the Council, had the Frate* publicly questioned in regard to his orthodoxy. A discussion resulted which was apparently fruitless, but which did Savonarola the great injury of setting him before the public as one who could be doubted and questioned; and as the whole attitude of the preacher had become that of one who spoke under direct inspiration, and who, consequently, could not err, this in itself was a blow to his authority.

The influence of the monk was still tremendous. During the carnival time of 1496 and 1497 troops of boys under his orders went about the city gathering whatever might minister to sensuous delight and burning the spoils upon a "pyramid of vanities"; the most splendid dresses, rare books, works of art, and things of great value being sacrificed in this mad fanaticism. In October of the former year an incident which by his followers was received as a miracle, told also in his favor. There was a famine in the city, and Pisa, assisted by the troops of the German Emperor Maximilian, had succeeded in blocking the way of the Florentines to the sea. A solemn procession was held, and Savonarola proclaimed instant relief, and in the very midst of the procession a horseman came riding in with the news that the corn galleys had been able to make their way to a safe landing at Leghorn.

*The Italian word for brother, applied to the friars.

The plots of the friends of the Medici were unceasing, and the discovery of one of these schemes in February 1497, led to the act which is the darkest blot upon the life of Savonarola. Among those implicated were five members of the Signoria. The trial of political offenses had of old been before the eight Priori, six votes being necessary for conviction. Savonarola himself had procured the passage of a law allowing those so sentenced to appeal to the Grand Council, where they needed a two-thirds vote for acquittal. The five conspirators were men of influence and rank; they had been sentenced by their political enemies, and the case was exactly such a one as the law had been framed to cover; and yet when the five prisoners claimed the right of appeal, it was denied them. Francesco Valori, Savonarola's right hand man politically, so to say, was a bitter enemy of Bernardo del Nero, the most prominent of the accused, and it is supposed that it was largely through his influence that the decision of the monk was taken. The five were executed, and it was the beginning of the end of the dominion of Savonarola in Florence. The people of the city felt in the action that he betrayed his own principles of justice, and they turned from him visibly. He felt the approach of his own ruin, and misfortune fell upon him in the failure of various predictions which he was rash enough to make. The Pope intercepted letters in which Savonarola urged the calling of a council for the purpose of deposing the Pontiff, and the Franciscans, always bitter enemies of the monk, took advantage of one of his rash assertions to bring about a new disaster. Savonarola in one of his discourses had declared that God would preserve him even amid a fiery ordeal; and pretending to take the words literally, the Franciscans offered one of their number to walk through the flames with one of Savonarola's preachers to prove which was

The enemies of Savonarola were determined not to lose their opportunity, and they stirred up the mob until that night the enraged rabble attacked the convent of San Marco. Several lives were lost; Savonarola and two of his monks were arrested by order of the Signoria; and the reign of the monk had ended in blood.

The trial of the Frate occupied ten days, but its conclusion was evident from the first. He was charged with disobedience to the Pope, with deceiving the people by false prophecies, and of seeking his own aggrandizement in the name of the state. He was seven times put to the torture, and he confessed to any thing, his sensitive nature being unable to endure the horrible agony. He denied his confessions, was made to reaffirm them on the rack, and the pretexts of murdering him were arranged as well as might be. On the twenty-eighth of April, Savonarola and his two companions were strangled and their bodies burned to ashes.

It is impossible here to go into an examination of all the complexities of the character of Savonarola, but it would be unjust to history to fail to add that despite the extent to which he was carried away by his sense of his divine mission, it is impossible to believe that he was consciously inspired by any thing save a holy zeal for the church and for his country. His life and his teachings were of the purest, and he labored for the regeneration of Italy. His personal influence was enormous, and had he been unscrupulous he easily could have put himself so firmly at the head of the Florentine state that his enemies could not dislodge him. He claimed much, but also he did much; and for his mistakes he paid with his life.

I. Into how many different states was Italy divided in the seventeenth century?

2. In extent of territory, how did the Papal States compare with the remaining states?

3. What part of Italy did the French first control? (See THE CHAUTAUQUAN for March, p. 639.)

4. Locate the city in which the Sicilian Vespers began. 5. Were there any strictly inland states in the Italy of the seventeenth century?

6. What states were on the Mediterranean Sea? 7. What states were washed by the Adriatic Sea? 8. To what extent do the natural boundaries of the Alps and Appennines serve as political boundaries on this map?