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SAVONAROLA,
ir.r.rsTBATivE op the
Jfigfoi*]) of 6i|ni*ei| ^b §i^fe £^oiii}mot}.
R. K. MADDEN, M.K.I.A.,
AUTUOK OF "TRAVELS IK TURKEY, SYRIA. AND PALESTINE," "THE MUSSULMAN,'
" TITE SHRINES AND SEFULCHBES," &C. &C.
*' Igne me examinasti et non est Inrenta in me iniqaitas."~P«a/m vi.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
I-IBRARY. LONDON:
lifotss ^'mii^^ \twm.
WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE.
MDCCCUII.
;i,
ni
TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.
€yts Wnk,
ILLUBTBATIYE OF THB CH1&A.CTSB AKD CABEXB OF
THE GREAT CHRISTIAN HERO OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY,
AKD OF A SUBJECT WHICH HAS ENGAGED THE ATTENTION OF THINKING HEN IN AGES LONG PAST, AS WELL AS IN RECENT TIMES,
THE STATE, IN ITS RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH,'
Si rif|iirtfttll]( hitiratik,
BY THE AUTHOR,
(I
London, May 2, 1853.
INTRODUCTION.
There was a monk in Florence, at the close of the fifteenth century, who was of opinicm that the mortal enemy of Christ's Gos^I, in aQ ages of the world, had been mammon ; that simony was the sin against the Holy Ghost ; that the interests of religion were naturally allied with those of liberty ; and that the Arts were the handmaids of both, of a Divine origin, and were given to earth for purposes that tended to spiritualise humanity.
Men of all creeds, who believe in Christianity, have an interest in the life and labours of this monk — Girolamo Savonarola, of Ferrara — the great Dominican Missionary, and champion of Christ's truth of the fifteenth century ; who, in a dark and degenerate age, proclaimed the necessity of allying the interests of religion with those of civil liberty and civilisation, and who directed all his teachings, preach- ings, and writings to one grand object, for the accomplish- ment of which it seemed as if it were his destiny to '' live, move, and have a being,'* namely, tie separation of religion from all worldly in^uences.
It was attempted in the days of Savonarola, and has been
VI INTRODUCTION.
tried in our own, to give this illustrious Dominican the character of a mere demagogue, an enthusiast, and a vision- ary. Literary men of great eminence have represented him as a fanatic and a firebrand ; a pulpit agitator, who perverted the Gospel of peace and charity, to the ends of faction, strife, and selfishness. Such representations have been made by writers who had scarcely any knowledge of the works of Savonarola, except at the hands of his cotem- poraries, who were fiiends, favourites, or admirers of the Medici, as patrons of learning, a class of men who were the enemies of Savonarola. Some philosophical writers, who were cotemporaries of this monk, speak of him disparagingly ; writers who almost worshipped the Medici for substituting Platonism for Christianity, having no sympathies veith spiritual men, who derived their inspirations from a Gospel preached by lowly, illiterate men, who sympathised with the poor and the oppressed in their times, and who denounced hypocrisy, cupidity, and impiety, in high places. How could the literary courtiers, the men of letters, who were the protegees of princes, spiritual and temporal, appreciate the labours, for the renovation of religion, of a simple eccle- siastic, without preferment, rank, station, wealth, or influ- ence, or tolerate his boldness, in dealing with the vices of the rich and powerful — rebuking cardinal princes and sovereign pontiffs, calling on them to put a stop to the relaxation of Church discipline, and to stem the torrent of ecclesiastical disorder, that was sweeping away all reverence for religion, its ministers, and its truth ?
The Life of Savonarola can be written only by one who thinks the interests of truth and justice must not be sacri-
INTRODUCTION. Vll
ficed for the purpose of upholding any polemical opinions, or the character of any power that has dominion over them.
It is not with a view of gaining a martyr for Protestant- ism, a saint for one of the religious orders — making an adversary for one Church, or an advocate for another — that the life must be written of the great reforming Friar of Ferrara, who waged war — ^fatal, indeed, to himself — with the abuses of the Court of Rome and the Government of Alexander the Sixth, upwards of three centuries and a half ago.
On the subject of Church and State connexion and its results, some original documents will be found in these volumes, of the highest interest. The materials for a true and faithful account of Savonarola, must be sought, chiefly, in his own numerous compositions, sermons, homi- lies, moral treatises, revelations, and commentaries on the sacred writings. Savonarola, in effect, must be made to speak, from his own works, for his sincerity as a Christian ; his devotedness to the cause of truth and of humanity, as a Reformer ; his fidelity to his vows of poverty, obedience, and charity, as a member of a religious order. The pos- session of the greater part of his remarkable performances, now of great rarity (as the learned are well aware), enables the Author to carry this design into execution — ^namely, to make Savonarola the exponent of his own opinions, pur- poses, and methods of aiming at their accomplishment; the recorder of his own revelations, the reporter of his own labours, in the pulpit and in the cloister, for the restoration of religion and the salvation of soul^.
For the sake of truth and justice, which conduce more
Vlll INTRODUCTIOX.
than all things in this world to the honour and glory of God and to the good of true religion, this Life of Savona- rola has been undertaken — with a strong conviction on the mind of the Author, that to do justice to it would be to render a service to religion and to humanity at large.
A man who loves truth more than he does sect, has a dif&cult task to execute, who seeks to put Savonarola before the world as a soldier of the Cross, faithful to his cause, and a martyr for it. Protestants claim him for their creed, as the precursor of Luther. Luther himself claimed him for it ; so did Haccius, Beza, Heidegger, Arnold, Fabricius, and, in later times, Milner, Heraut, and Hafe. Very many Catholics, on the other hand, such as the prelate Ambrosio Catharine Polito, Burchard, Apostola Zeno, Delrio, Feller, Rochrbacher, Brownson, and many more, readily admit that claim, or, at all events, reject Savonarola, as a heretic or schismatic, and deny him a place within the pale of Catholicity.
Then we have other Catholic divines and great doctors of the Church, several eminent Dominican fathers — Bzovius, Natalis Alexander, Raynaldus, Burlamacchi, Benevieni, Qnetif, and others, extolling his sanctity, and claiming for him the honour due to an illustrious confessor of the faith, and a martyr.
Bayle is content to make it impossible for any church to claim him with advantage or credit; and, to crown our bewilderment, we have the trumpets of history giving most uncertain sounds in regard to his merits, and, like the people of Jericho, we are exceedingly confounded by the variable blasts of those instruments of literary controversy.
INTRODUCTION. IX
Nerli, Buddaeus, Paulus Jovius, Nardi, Machiavelli, and Schraekh, cum multis aliis, leave us in doubt whether most to admire the piety and learning of the Friar, or to marvel at his fanaticism or imposture.
The majority of mankind require to be thought for, it is imagined by polemical writers in general ; and many his- torical ones hold the same opinion, but do not profess it.
I have written this work with a different conviction, and in the manner that seemed to me most calculated to enable my readers to form their opinions on the subject of it justly and correctly.
With this view, I have abstained from consulting any persons, either of the clergy or laity of any creed, or of the religious order of the subject of this biography, on any topic connected with my undertaking. I have no doubt I might have derived much useful assistance from many of the Dominican order, had I sought it ; but acting as I did on the opinion I have just now expressed in regard to my readers, and resolving to think for myself, I abstained from soliciting or accepting any aid, advice, or co-operation from them, except in regard to the inedited correspondence of Fra Girolamo, recently brought to light by the learned Padre Marchese.
Wliatever may be the merits or demerits of any opi- nion advanced, or information given in my work, to me alone do they belong. My desire in undertaking this work has been to do justice to the memory of a man whom I regard as the great Christian hero of the fifteenth century ; and to make the calamitous results, to reUgion and its ministers, of connexion between Church and State,
X INTRODUCTION.
manifest to the world as the sun at noon-day. If that object be one that deserves success in the opinion of the public, I may venture to hope that my work will then have some claim to their favour. But^ if I am mistaken in respect to that object, then have I imposed on myself a vast amount of labour and research in vain.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
INTRODUCTION.
FAOB THX 8TAn OF TTAJ^T, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AJTI) BEUGIOUfl, FBX*
TIOUSLT TO THE SIXTEXlTrH CSNTTTBT. — ^FLOBIKCfi AND ITS
BXPUBLIC ITNDEB THE MEDICI 1
CHAPTER I.
SABLX CABBEB OW SAYOVABOLA, FBOM HIS CHILDHOOD TO HIS
EmouircB nno BSLioiors lifb in 1475, ik his twejiti-thibd
TEAS. — SCHOLASTIC THE0L06T IN THE TIME 07 SAVONABOLA, AND ANTECEDENT TO IT 56
CHAPTER 11,
M0NS8 AND M0NABTSBIE8 80
CHAPTER III.
THE BEOINNINO OF THE CONYENTXJAL CABEEB OF 8AY0NAB0LA. — FIB8T EFFOBTS IN THE PULPIT, AND FAILUBE — 1475 TO 1490 . 90
CHAPTER IV.
THE MISSION OF SAYONABOLA 101
CHAPTER V.
BAYONABOLA'S BBTUBN to FLOBBNCE. — THE SCENE OF HIS FX7TUBB LAB017BB AT THE INSTANCE OF LOBENEODB MEDICI. — ^BB-APPEAB- ANCB IN THE FULPIT; SIGNAL SUCCESS THEBE. — PBSDICTED CAXiAXIZISS OF ITALY. — BEOINNINO OF THE STBUOGLB WITH PAOANIHMf IN ABT, UTEBATUBE, AND BELIOION. 1490 . .109
XU CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGB
OBIGIK OF THE COmTENT OP BAN MARCO, IN FLOBENCE. — ^FBA OIBOLAHO APPOINTED PBIOB. — ^BEGINNINa OF THE KIBUNBEB- BTANDING BETWEEN LOBENZO DE MEDICI AND FBA GIBOLAMO. — SCENES IN THE OABDEN OF SAN MABCO. — EFFOBTB OF LO- BENZO TO GAIN OTEB FBA GIBOLAMO TO HIS INTEBESTS. — PULPIT SET AGAINST PULPIT BT LOBENZO. — DISSENSIONS OCCASIONED BT THE PBEACHING OF BITAL DOCTBINEB. 1490 TO 1491 . .124
CHAPTER VII.
BATONABOLA IN THE OFFICE OF PBIOB OF SAN MABCO. — HIS CON- DUCT IN THE CONVENT 135
CHAPTER VIII.
DEATH OF LOBENZO DE MEDICI. — ACCOUNT OF HIS LAST MO- MENTS, AND INTEBVIEW WITH BATONABOLA, 1492. — SUCCESSION, BEGIME, AND FLIGHT OF PIETKO. — DOWNFALL OF THE MEDICI . 144
CHAPTER IX.
THE PONTIFICATE OP ALBXANDEB THE SIXTH. — HIS ELECTION. — MODE OF 8ECUBINO IT. — HIS COBONATION. — EABLY CABEEB. — HIS CHILDBEN. — DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON, THE DUKE OF GANDIA. — ^ABANDONMENT OF THE CHURCH BY HIS SECOND SON, CiESAB BOBGIA, CABDINAL VALENTINO.— THE CARDINAL EX- CHANGES A BED HAT FOR A DUCAL CORONET 164
CHAPTER X.
THE BEFOBM OF SAN MABCO. — FBA GIBOLAMO CALLED ON TO PBEACH DURING THE LENT IN BOLOGNA, IN 1493. — OFFENCE GIVEN BT THE PBEACHEB TO THE WIFE OF JOHN BENTIVOGLIO. — ^ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF FBA GIBOLAMO. — RETURN TO FLO- RBNOE. — RESUMPTION OF THE LABOURS OF HIS MISSION. — REFORM COMMENCED OF HIS ORDER. — BEGINNING OP THE QUABREL WITH THE COUBT OF BOME.— rOFFEB MADE TO HIM OF
A cabdinal's hat. — 1493 to 1494 . .189
CONTEXTS. xiii
CHAPTER XI.
PACK
FBEDICTED INTASIOK OF ITALY BT CHABLSS THE EIGHTH OF FBAKCE. — ABBIYAL OF CHABLES AND HIS ABMY HT FLOBENCE. — FLIGHT OF THE MEDIOI. — BE8T0BATI0K OF THE BEPITBLIC. — THE COMMBHCEHENT OF SAYONABOLA's INFLUENCE IN FVBLIO AFFAIB8. — SUCCESSFUL BE8ULTS OF HIS EFFOBTS ON BEHALF OF THE FLOBENTINE BEPUBLIC, AND SUBSEQUENT MEDIATION WITH THE KING AT FLOBENCB TO FBEVBNT THE SACKING OF THE CITY. — DEPABTUBE OF THE FBENCH FBOM FLOBENCE. — CLOSE OF THE YEAB 1494 195
CHAPTER XII.
FLOBENCE BESTOBED TO ITS LIBEBTY. — THE BEPUBLICAN FOBIC OP GOYEBNMENT BE-MODELLED. — SAVONABOLA's AID AND COUN- CIL SOUGHT FOB BY THE SIGNOBIA. — HIS INTEBPOSITION IN BECULAB AFFAiaS. — HIS DISCOUBSE ON GOYEBNMENT BEFOBE THE SIGNOBIA. — HIS TBEATISB ON GOYEBNMENT. — THE QUES- TION OF THE LICITNESS OF ECCLESIASTICAL INTEBFEBENCE IN SECULAB AFFAIBS. — SAYONABOLA'S MOTIYES FOB IT, AND ITS
BE8ULTS. — 1494 TO 1495 212
CHAPTER XIII.
LETTEBS OF SAYONABOLA TO HIS FAMILY AND FBIENDS, FBOM THE LETTEBE INEDITE OF THE FADBE MABCHESE, O.S.D. BE- CENTLY BBOUGHT TO LIGHT 248
CHAPTER XIV.
OPPOSITION TO SAYONABOLA OF SOME OF THE BELIGIOUS OBDEBS, AND OF THE FBANCISCANS ESPECIALLY, AND THEIB ADHEBENTS THE PALLESCHI. — ^FBA GIBOLAMO AND THE USUBEBS OF FLO- BENCE.— ANTAGONISM OF SPIBITUAL INFLUENCES AND SOBDID
INTEBESTS. — 1495 TO 1496 266
CHAPTER XV.
ON THE DI8CBBNMENT OF SPIBITS 2/3
XIT OOSmSNTS.
CHAPTER XVL
PAOB
THS TXACHIHG ASD PftXAOHINS OF 8AT0]riLB0]:i4 297
CHAPTER XVII.
THE TBACHI90 AXfD PBXACHHra OF BAYOFABOLl. 324
CHAPTER XVIII.
HEFOBKATIOV OF ICAmmUI.— BXTITiX OF BXLIGIOlf . — ^BELIOIGUB PBOGBSnOirS. — AUTO-DA-FI of TAKinSB, Aira> UCBKTIOUfl BOOKS- AND OBJECTS OF ABI. — ^THB "LAUBB'' Aim 8PIBITUA£
soKas OF saVokaboia 360
CHAPTER XIX.
PAGAIUBH IN BDUCATIOK 384
CHAPTER XX.
THE OBLIOATIOKS OF CHBISTIAy ABT TO 8AY0NAB0LA .... 399
CHAPTER XXI.
OBTGIK OF THE AKIMOSITT OF ALEXAVDEB THE SIXTH AGADTST BAYONABOLA. — EFFOBTS TO GADT HIK OYSB TO THE YIEVB OF ALSXAKDEB. — 8ECBET nTTBIGUES AGAINST HOI. — IKTEBCSPTED OOBBEBPONDENOE WITH CHBISTIAK FBIirCEB, VBGING OK THBH THE KfiCBBBITT OF CALLING A GENEBAL COUNCIL FOB THE BB- NOTATION OF THE OHVBCH. — PBOHIBITION TO PBEACH. — CITATION TO BOMB. — ^EXCOMMUNICATION. — 1496 TO 1498 . .417
APPENDIX.
No. 1.
NOTICE OF BI0GBAPHIS8 OF SATONABOLA AND WOBKB BELATING TO HIM 457
No. 2.
NOTICE OF WOBKS, &C. OF SATONABOLA 475
NOTICE
OF
PORTRAITS OF SAVONAROLA.
Ths most eminent artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have left portraits and other representations of Savonarola. Rafael has in- troduced hisportrait into his picture of the Doctors of the Church, in the ▼ery loggie of the Vatican, from which the anathemas against the Friar had been not long previously fulminated.
An artist of great celebrity, of the order of Fra GKroUmo, has left two portraits of the renowned prior of San Marco.
Fra Bartolomeo Di San Marco, known in the world as Bacdo Delia Porta, was bom in 1460, and died in 1517. He figures in the lives of the Eminent Artists by Georgio Vasari, as a most excellent painter, of exquisite delicacy of touchy admirable design* and great mastery of his art. While a secular man, living in Florence, greatly esteemed for his talents and his worth, we are told by Vasari he attended the preach- ings, with infinite devotion, of ^Uhat renowned theologian Fra Qirolamo Savonarola."
The illustrious painter's respect for the person of Fra Qirolamo, und his constant visits to San Marco, led to an intimate friendship, and, shortly after the death of the martyred friar, to the assumption pf the habit of San Domenico, in the year 1500, in the Dominican convent of Prato« ten miles from Florence. It would appear from the way in which Vasari mentions the portrait by him of Savonarola, to which he refers, that it was painted during the life-time of Savonarola, in the early part of 1498, certainly previous to the 23rd of May of that year. Speaking of the Auto da f^ of vanities, in 1498, Vasari says, ^* Not long after this, Baccio della Porto (Bartolomeo), moved by the love
XVi NOTICE OF PORTRAITS OF SAVONAROLA.
which he bore to Fra Girolamo, painted a picture, wherein was his portrait, which is indeed most beautiful. This work at the time was transported to Ferrara, but was brought back to Florence not a great while since, and is now in the home of Filippo, the son of Alamanni Salviati, by whom, as being a work of Baccio's, it is held in the highest estimation.*'
The editor of Bohn's edition of Vasari's work observes : " There is a fine portrait of Savonarola, by Fra Bartolomeo, now in the Academy of the Fine Arts in Florence. It has a deep wound in the head, doubtless in allusion to his martyrdom, and is therefore not likely to be that here alluded to, although some annotators| appear to consider that it may be the one mentioned by Vasari, as in the possession of Filippo Salviati.*'*
The annotators are certainly mistaken in the opinion.
In a very rare illustrated work, in Italian and English, entitled ** Vita di Fra Bartolomeo," published in Florence, in folio, by an English artist, Thomas Patch, in 1772, in which copies of all the principal works of Fra Bartolomeo are to be found, there is a fine copy of " the por- trait of Savonarola," by Fra Bartolomeo.
No such wound as is represented in the head of the picture in the Academy of the Fine Arts, is to be found in this portrait.
The portrait painted by Fra Bartolomeo, which Marchese styles Lo Stupende Ritratto, is now in Florence, he states, in the possession of Ermolao Rubieri.* Another, by the same artist, he adds, formerly in San Marco, is now in the gallery of the Florentine Academy. Several medallions exist in bronze. There is a full-length portrait of Savona- rola, in a group of figures in fresco, at a villa at Poggio Cajano, by Pocetti.
In the biography of Savonarola by Mons. Carle, there is a half-length portrait of Fra Girolamo, taken, with some slight alteration in the posi- tion of the hands, from an original picture, said to have existed in the cell of Fra Girolamo, in San Marco, ascribed (perhaps erroneously) to a cotemporary artist.
There are two portraits in oil, of Savonarola, in the possession of Mr. D. Macarthy (residing in Bath), a gentleman intimately acquainted with Italian art and literature. " One," says Mr. Macarthy, " is an
* Yasari*s Lives of the most Eminent Painters, &c., Bohn*s Bug. Ed. in 3 vols. 1841, vol. ii. p. 449. t Lettere Inedite di Sav. Introd. di Pad. Marc1iej»e.
NOTICE OF PORTRAITS OF SAVONAROLA. XVU
original of the time of the renowned Dominican, a very fine painting and most probably by a scholar of Fra fiartolomeo, representing the head and bust only. The other is a copy of a very Indifferent oil painting, taken (for Mr. Macarthy) from the original which is in the cell at San Marco. . It is half size, and represents the Father with one hand holding a crucifix, and the other uplifted as if in an attitude of contemplation. The Florentine gem by Giovanni della Corniole, from a cast of which the small portrait (engraved for this work) is taken, is doubtless the most authentic portrait in existence."
Mr. Macarthy also possesses an old and good portrait, said to be (and as he thinks truly) of Fra Matteo Maruffi, one of the fellow- sufferers of Fra Girolamo.
There was a bust of Savonarola made, many years after his death, in porphyry, by a sculptor orFiesole, named Checco del Tadda, a co- temporary of Fra Girolamo (testa bellissima), says Fra Timoteo di Perrugia. Of this bust mention is made by P. Marchese (in his pub- lication " Documenti intorne ai Savonarola,'* ap Arch. Istor. Ital. Appen. 25) ; of which there is an account in a letter of Padre Poggio, prefixed to the Life of Savonarola, by Burlamacchi (in the Lucca ed. 1764, Letter XXXV.). Michael Angelo, in his old age, recalling some passages of Savonarola's sermons, which inspired him with the ideas of one of the finest pieces of Italian poetry, in remembrance of the martyred Friar, suggested a symbol for the reverse of the medal struck by Leone Aretino, in honour of Savonarola, the figure of a blind man led by a dog, and a motto fur the medal — ** Docebo iniquos vioi tutu et impii ad te convertentur" *
The engraved gem, with the likeness of Savonarola, the work of Giovanni delle Corniole (so called, from several of his best works hav- ing been executed in Cornelian), in the Royal Gallery of Florence, has been copied and engraved in Italy, the first time in 1818 {Vide Reg- gimento degli Stati di Fra G, Savonarola, S^c), This admirable object of ancient art is valuable moreover for being the best likeness of Savonarola in existence. It is erroneously asserted by several writers that this gem was executed by Corniole, by the orders of Lorenzo de Medici. The word " Martyr '* occurs in the inscription round the face. It was executed in the old age of Corniole, after the deaths both of Lorenzo and Savonarola.
♦ Prediche de Sav. vol. iinico. Pir. 1815.
XVUl NOTICB OF PORTRAITS OF SAVONAROLA.
From the engraved gem, the portrait prefixed to thit work (enlarged to double the sise of the original) is taken.
The accompanying medallion is a fac*Bimile of one existing in the Florentine gallery, taken from the copy in the ^ Academie Royale des Inscriptiona,** of Paris.
THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
OF
8AV0NAE0LA,
INTRODUCTION.
THE STATE OF ITALY, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS, PRE* VI0U8LY TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. FLORENCE AND ITS REPUBLIC UNDER THE MEDICI.
DechlraiuB k TexiTi leur propre K^pubUqae, Lions contre Lions, parens oontre parens, Combattent foUement foub lx choix dss ttbans.
BoiLBAU, Sat — " Dimmi la cagione
Perohe Ilia tanta disoordia assalita P
Snperbia, invidia e avarixia sono
Le tre faville c'hanno i cnori acoesi."
Daktb, L'lf^emo, Canto vi.
Denina, in a parallel between the Republics of Italy of the middle ages^ and those of ancient Italy under the Romans, observes, " Whoever reads in the annals of Lombardy, and in the old chronicles of Tuscany^ how the free people passed so quickly into external wars, and civil tumults, from war to peace^ from amity to enmity, and kept up a perpetual succes- sion of alliances, insurrections and discord — ^might imagine the accounts were reproduced descriptions, imder different names, of the wars of the Romans with the Latins and with the Yolscij and the continual quarrels of the people with the Patricians, and of the senate with the tribunes ; and perhaps, in reading
VOL. I. B
2 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
the Florentine History of Scipio Ammirato, one might fancy he had before him the work of Livy rendered into Italian.
" The mode of intimating and making wars^ and concluding peace^ that was practised in ancient Italy in the times of Camillus and of Pyrrhus, does not materially differ from that of the times of Frederick the Second and of Manfred.
" And within towns and cities also, alike were the haughti- ness of the nobles towards the people, and the injustice of the people in their demands when they began to feel their own strength, and to meddle in matters of government. The one and the other, I say, were animated with the same spirit, influenced by the same motives, and subjected to the same revolutionary results. . . . We observe, also, a most striking re- semblance in the destinies of the tyrants of ancient Italy and those of the Tuscan and Lombard republics, of the times of Frederick the Second and his successors ; and might very well find striking points of resemblance between Ecccllino de Romano and Tarquin the Proud; the Marquis Oberto Pala- vicino, Buoso de Doara, Martino della Torre, and Porsenna, king of Chiusi, and princes of his character ; and similar re- semblances between the supreme magistrates of the ancient Tuscans, Latins, Campani, and Samnites, with the despots of the middle ages. Amongst them we have seen how free and independent cities sometimes come under the yoke of one powerful citizen, or under the dominion of a tyrant of some other neighbouring city, in such a way as a lord of Padua, or Milan, or Verona, obtained the government of many other Lombard cities, alike free and independent."*
The Roman empire perished with Augustulus, in 476, It revived (for a short time) under Charlemagne, about 776, after a lapse of 300 years. The different hordes of barbarians, who had taken possession of Italy, had become enervated by idle- ness and sensual enjoyments; and the remains of the old Roman race had sunk into barbarism, not far removed from that of their conquerors, being involved in continual raids and
• Denina, Eivol. dTtal. t. ii. p. 383.
OF SAVONAEOLA. 3
petty warfare^ and living iu a state of turbulent^ lawless inde- pendence. Society was composed of different classes of marau- ders ; a privileged order^ having power to maintain their position without commerce^ arts, or agriculture ; and a serf class, the people of which were held to have been bom for the use and advantage of counts and barons, feudal chieftains, and military commanders of those times.
The power that revived the empire of the west, and filled up the gap in history between Augustulus and Charlemagne, was recognized by all the barbarian races settled in Italy, and like- wise by the remnant of the old Roman stock, now mingled with them in a chaos, wherein the social elements of life lay in utter confusion.
" From that hour,** says an elegant writer, " the barbarian tribes acquired a new relation — one that attached them all simultaneously to a grand idea of general and permanent asso- ciation. This was the beginning of modem Europe."*
But what was to maintain this association in Italy, when the power of the empire proved insufficient, as it did in Gaul, and Germany, after the death of Charlemagne, to sustain its mighty mission, and when the new empire came to an end with the founder of it ?
Guizot in part answers that question : " I believe I am not saying too much in affirming that it was by the Church, Chris- tendom was preserved in those ages. As to the conservative influence of civil government, of law, of opinion, they had absolutely no existence; in that very crisis, too, when it is certain that nothing but a society strongly organised (as was the Church) coxdd have been able to cope with such disasters, and to come out victorious from such a hurricane.f
" It was the Church," he observes, " with its institutions, its hierarchy, its power, that arrayed itself firmly against the internal dissolution of the ancient social order against barbarism ; it conquered the barbarians, it became the link, the medium, the
* Dr. Miley's Kome under Paganism, yol. ii. p. 328. t Hist, de ]a Civil, en Europe, p. 51.
b2
4 THE LIFE AND MARTTRDOM
propagating principle of civilization between the Roman world and the world of the barbarians."
Leo the Thirds from the mountains of Isauria, had ascended the throne of the East^ a.d. 7S6. '^ Ignorant of sacred and pro- fane letters," as we are told by Gibbon^ " the martial peasant was inspired with an hatred of images." Having undertaken the reformation of religion, '^ he demolished the images of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints ; and a smooth surface of plaster was spread over the walls of the churches of Constanti- nople and the provinces."*
In the reign of his successor, Copronymus, a general assembly was convoked in a.d. 754, all visible symbols of Christ, except in the Eucharist, were declared blasphemous or heretical ; and the destruction of all representations of saints, &c. was ordained. From this period the war was fiercely waged of the Iconoclasts withmonksandmonasteries,under the mask of zeal for the purifica- tion of religion; and this war soon spread from the east to the west.
It was after the imavailing remonstrance of Gregory the Second to the Emperor Leo, against the sacrilegious outrages committed by his orders, in churches and all holy places, that the separa- tion of the eastern empire from its former western dominions was formally declared. The exercise of moral influence for some time sufficed for the protection of the territorial possessions of the Church, obtained by bequests and donations during several preceding centuries.
It soon, however, became necessary to employ an armed force to defend them against the £x-Archate of Bavenna, and even- tually to make war, on tiie lord of those territories, in con- junction with the new sovereign of the Franks, and the ally of the Pontiffs, King Pepin.
The diadem of the Caesars was placed on the brow of Charle- magne, the son and successor of Pepin, in the year 800, and the Church profited largely in temporal matters by the solem- nity. Charlemagne made wars, avowedly to defend and extend the possessions of the Church.
* Decline and Fall of the Eom. Em. chap. xxxv.
* OF SAVOKAROLA. 6
The wars of Pepin and Charlemagne, we are told, were j ust and necessary wars, which gave rights of conquest, and disposal of territory to the victors over the conquered people and captured territory. Whether their wars were just and necessary, is a question which might he more easily debated than determined.
When the temporal power had been assumed by the Popes, it is admitted by Gibbon, ^' the ruins of Rome presented the sad image of depopulation and decay." The people of Rome, and of the papal territory, were benefitted by coming under the power of the see of Rome. They were foimd by it in barbarity and anarchy. The inhabitants, the offspring of slaves and strangers, were despicable, we are told, even in the eyes of the northern barbarians who had conquered them. '^ In the name of a Roman," says the bishop Ltdtprand, " we indicate what- ever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is perfidious ; the extremes of avarice and luxury that can prostitute the dignity of human nature."*
It is universally allowed, the influence of the Holy See in government matters was a beneficent one, wherever it was ex- ercised. Those of the ancient inhabitants who had been scat- tered over the &ce of Italy by barbarian chiefs and feudal lords, wherever the power of the Popes prevailed, returned to their old cities, towns, and hamlets ; and those small gatherings of people in time became the nuclei of young republican insti- tutions.
^' The originators of those young republics," says Denina, '' were of the old Latin races, and of the stock of the Etruscans, the Sabines, the Marses, the Volsci, and the Hemi."
But the remnant of that old Roman stock had assuredly ter- ribly degenerated in the eighth and ninth centuries.
We find the Holy See largely, if not chiefiy, indebted to Pepin and Charlemagne for its territorial possessions and tem- poral sovereignty. But if the obligation had never been in- curred. Catholic doctrine teaches that the Church would have subsisted in its integrity all the same.
* Ap. Gibbon's Deo. and Fall, ch. xxxr.
6 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
All experience demonstrates that the less secularized a church is^ the more spiritual is its goyemment and its teachers* All reasoning on the results of that experience leads to the con* elusion that the more spiritualized is a churchy the more likely it must be to he regarded with favour by its divine founder.
Belief, then^ in the doctrine above referred U>, must neces- sarily cause the protection^ the patronage^ the profuse bounty of Constantine^ Fepin^ and Charlemagne to the Church, to be regarded as a great calamity.
The fierce contests between Henry the Fourth, of Germany, and Pope Gregory the Seventh, involved Italy in a protracted warfare between the spiritual and temporal powers.
*' Up to the middle of the eleventh century," says Dr. Doyle^ *' when Pope Gregory the Seventh appeared, the papal power, to which he gave a certain form and consistency, though gra^ dually gaining strength, was not such as could create alarm. Its progress was silent, and it was much more occupied in ad- vancing the interests of religion amongst the nations newly converted, than in making encroachments upon princes."
The new Pontiff, with powers of intellect unsurpassed by any of his predecessors or successors, with purposes high and holy as ever were had in view by a prelate of his Church, if the Pro- testant pastor, Yoight, his biographer, has written truly of him, found the Church plunged in difficulties and disorders fatal to religion — ^in simony, corruption, scandalous living, in all the evils that had sprung up from an utter confusion of jurisdictions; the secular power seeking and obtaining temporal advantages from a control over spiritual offices, the spiritual power secu-* larizing itself for the patronage of princes, and the protection of worldly possessions. Hildebrand attempted lo stem the torrent of iniquity which stirrounded religion, to extinguish simony, to reform and renovate the administration of spiritual affairs, but the means at his disposal were inadequate to that end ; the evils of the connexion of spiritual and temporal power in his own office were too great even for his vast intellect and exalted virtues to surmount.
OF SAVONAROLA. 7
Views, however, of a very different kind, with respect to Gregory the Seventh, from those of the Protestant pastor, Voight, have been taken by a very eminent Roman Catholic Prelate, the Kight Rev. Dr. Doyle, of this Pontiff and his acts.
" This Pope," says Dr^ Doyle, " excited by an extraordinary desire to extinguish simony, and to render all mankind as fer- vent Christians as he was himself, conceived it necessary for his purpose to subject all the nations of the earth to his sway. He assembled his counsellors, and delivered to them and to the holy apostles, whom he frequently addressed, the most impas- sioned harangues.. He resisted the Emperor Henry the Fourth, not with the prudent caution used by his predecessors, but with violence. Not accustomed to meet with opposition, he waxed angry, — ^he took the empire into his own hands," &c.
Doiina attributes the consolidation of the independence of the Italian republics to the contentions of the Emperor, Henry the Fourth of Germany, and Gregory the Seventh, which left it out of the power of that imprincipled Emperor to prevent the establishment of the several republics which had spnmg up amidst the ruins of the empire of Charlemagne, in places that had been either abandoned, desolated, or neglected by the Emperor or the Pontiffs, or their several adherents, in the course of the long struggle between the chiefs of the temporal and the spiritual power of Europe.
But the very ardour of the desire of the young republics to be enabled to resist foreign aggression, eventually led to the overthrow of most of their governments by domestic treasons.
They raised forces for defence more than were required for their security, or their revenues enabled them to sustain.
They realized in the twelfth century the picture of the horrors of a distracted people, involved in ceaseless, and apparently causeless wars, that has been left by a great historian of ancient times.
" The chiefs of the factions had each of them a specious name and pretext. Some held forth a political equality among the citizens, and some a plan of a more temperate aristocracy.
8 THE LIFE AND MARTTRDOM
Their speeches had a reference to the common prize of contest, power and sovereignty; and every art was used by the an* tagonists to defeat each other. Having obtained their ends either by unjust sentences^ or by acts of violence, they were prepared to fill up the measure of their crimes and iniquity/'*
The Suabian dynasty of the German empire, from the time of Henry the Fourth to that of Frederic the First, sumamed Bar- barossa, who was crowned in 1155, was always true to its old original hostility to the see of Bome.^
When the deputies of the Senate of Bome addressed the newly-crowned Emperor on the subject of their rights, Frederic replied to them, " Borne is no longer what it was : Charlemagne and otibers have conquered it, and I am your master." In reply to letters of the Pope, he said — " He held his empire from God and the election of princes, and not by the bounty of the Popes of Bome." Frederic proved to the latter, as far as de- pended on him, that he had the power of electing them, or of involving their elections in confusion, strife, and sdiiflm, at his will.
He contemplated the establishment of an universal monarchy, of which he was to be the emperor, and so far had acted on the project he had formed, that lus chancellor was instructed by him to substitute for the style and title of the European mo- narchs, that of kings of provinces.! The see of Bome stood in the way of the reckless ambition of the prince, who projected an imdertaking which the genius of Alexander the Great, with all his daring, co\ild not have accomplished^
Frederic proclaimed himself to be the source of all authority, temporal and spiritual — " The Living Law."
The Pope Alexander the Third had to fly for refuge to France from the intrigues and acts of violence in his capital, of which Frederic was the author.
The emperor was excommunicated in 1168. In 1176,
• Thncid. lib. i. sect. 80.
t Hbt. de Saint Louis par M. le Marquis de YillanueTa, t. i. p. 298. 8vo. Paris, 1830.
OF SAVONAROLA. 9
Frederic, after his defeat near Como by the Milanese, had to sue for peace to the Pontiff. A reconciliation took place in Venice. Frederic kissed the feet of his holiness, he served the Pope at mass in the cathedral, he led his mule in the public square of St. Marc. He, Frederic, the projector of an universal empire, who was to have been the lord of the wide world — ^the Living Law to all mankind, in temporal as well as spiritual matters, had to bend his knee in humble obeisance to the power of the successor of the fisherman, and to hold the bridle of his mule in the face of the people of his court, to whom he had proclaimed himself the master of Some and of its PontiSs.
Frederic atoned for his mistake and his misdeeds, by a cru* sade in '1189. He gained two victories over the Turks, and died near Tarsus in Cilicea, in 1190.
Barbarossa was succeeded by his grandson, Frederic the Second, who had been elected king of the Somans in 1196.
His intervention in the a&irs of Italy was not long delayed after his accession [to the empire. He came into Italy, we are told, with a firm purpose of crushing the yoimg republics, and establishing a Grerman influence throiighout the length and breadth of the land, from Sicily to Lombardy, where ultimately in Milan he placed the iron crown upon his head. He effected however, says Denina, little more by his ^'jomadas" in Italy than his coronation, the devastation of some lands, and the death of some thousands of people in this his first expedition. In his second, he effected little more than resuscitating ancient discords, and playing off the old factions with the Guelphs and Ghibelines, for the promotion of his German interest.
He maintained an external appearance of amity with the Holy See till after his coronation, on which occasion he swore to be the champion of the Church, and a promoter of the crusades against the infidels. Frederic, nevertheless, was of the category of those unbelievers whom he swore to extirpate, if he has not been greatly slandered and wrongfully anathematized on divers occasions, i Frederic the Second, like his grandfather, indulged in impc-
10 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
rial projects of uxuveFsal empire^ and inherited, moreoyer, all the rancorous hatred of his race against the Holy See. He de- clined to fulfil the engagements into which he had entered with the Pontiff at the time of his coronation in regard to the crusades, and was excommunicated by the Pope. The thunders of Rome, however, began to be too frequoitly fulminated to be feared by imscrupulous princes. Frederic set out for Palestine, and was restored to the Church, and in the year following, entered into a truce with the Mahometan Sultan, for a period of ten years.
The Pope Gregory the Ninth disapproved of this step,, accused him of having executed his sworn promise in an illusory manner, and de novo anathematised him.
The Pope assembled an army, seized on a great part of Apulia, and invested the father-in-law of Frederic, John of Brienne, with the sovereignty. The son of Frederic the Second, Henry, king of the Romans, in the midst of those civil wars, declared against his father, and caused a report of his death to be disseminated. This false rumour occasioned a general revolt in Sicily and throughout Italy.
Frederic thought it was time to abandon the crusade, and came to the defence of his crown. He proceeded with his army to Southern Italy, seized on Bomagna, the Marshes of Ancona, the Duchies of Spoletto and Benevento, and besieged Rome.
The soldiers of the army of the Pope, who were called GKielphs, bore a badge with a representation of two keys on their shoulders. Those of the army of Frederic, designated Ghibelines, borei a cross for their distinctive symbol. The troops of Frederic pre- vailed in most rencontres over those of the Holy See.
A reconciliation, however, was effected in 1230, advantageotis to the Pontiff. The emperor undertook to pay 180,000 marks of silver, and to restore all the places he had taken. His son was then in revolt in Gernumy. Frederic convoked a diet in Mayence in 1SS3, had his son condemned to perpetual impri- sonment, and his second son, Conrad, elected king of the Romans.
In a short time Frederic was master of nearly all Italy, and
OF SAVONAROLA. 11
again at war with the Pope. Rome was besi^ed by him^ and during the siege, the atrocities committed by him on the Guelphs he had taken prisoners were unparalleled.
When the siege of Rome was raised, his arms were next turned against the territories in which the Templars had pos- sessions. The chronicles of the time state, " Churches and con- vents were ravaged by him, sacred things profaned, the graves of holy people were violated, and their ashes scattered to the winds. Ecclesiastics were cast into prisons, and some of them had their eyes torn out, others were banished or put to death by the sword or in the flames. Counts and barons of the Guelph party were executed on the scaffold, others perished of hunger and hardship in the filth and vermin of subterraneous dungeons of old fortresses. The homes of the Guelphs were utterly devastated. Ezzelino, a furious and sangidnary Ghibe- line, caused to perish twelve thousand citizens of Padua, shut up in the amphitheatre of Verona,'**
That all the atrocities committed in these Guelph and Ghibe- line wars were not perpetrated by Frederic and his army, we have evidence in the admissions of Pope Gregory the Ninth, in one of his epistles to the effect, " That the army of Italy, of that Lombard league which defended the Holy See, with the Pope's legate in the camp representing it there, had committed shocking acts of inhumtoity on their prisoners."
Gregory the Ninth gives expression to some generous sent!* ments, in a letter dated the S9th of May, 1280, addressed to Cardinal Pelagius, legate in the camp of the army of Sicily, in those imhappy wars waged by the sovereign of Rome with the Suabian dynasty of Germany, in which the fierce animosities of the Guelph and Ghibeline factions were played off against each other by the high contending powers, spiritual and temporal.
" It is the will of God," says Gregory the Ninth, " that to preserve the liberty of the Church, humility does not prevent the defence of it by arms,, provided that defence does not go beyond the limits that humanity prescribes. Hence it follows, that the
• FeUer. t. iii. 636.
12 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
defence of ecclesiastical liberty ought not to recur^ except rarely and with reluctance, to other arms but spiritual ones^ against the tyrants who persecute the Church. That he ought not to desire bloodshed or spoil, but should seek rather to bring back those who haye gone astray into the right road, and leave to him his own liberty. It is unwortiby of an army under Christ's banner^ as we have learned, to our great sorrow, has recently happened, to put to death those whose lives might be preserved, and to disfigure the image of the Creator. Ah, my brother, it does not comport with the office of one whose duty it is to call back into the bosom of the Churchy which is their mother, the children, who have deserted her, and to irritate them by exulting in the sight of their sufferings and of their blood. The Church which extends its protection to criminals, even to save them from death, should be very far £rom the guilt of mutilating or slaying them. For these reasons, we command you to pre-« serve £rom all injury those who fall into the hands of our troops, and to treat them so that they may rejoice to have exchanged a state of culpable licentiousness for that of Christian captivity. You shall instruct the commanders henoeforth to abstain from all kinds of violenbe^ and the penalty of incurring our indignation, and of being fined to the ampunt that shall he determined by us."*
In 1239, Frederic was once more exconununicated by the Pope, and a little later he was again excommunicated by Pope Innocent the Fourth^ and deposed also in the council of Lyons^ in 1245, after the Pope had in vain endeavoured to effect a reconciliation with him.
The fortunes of Frederic from this time declined, both in Italy and in Germany. He was beaten by the Lombards, and in 1246 the claims of Henry of Thuringia, and in 1247 of William, Count of Holland, to the imperial throne, were pre- ferred to his.f
* Bohrbaoher, tome zriii. p. 365.
t In 1250, Frederick the Second ended his nnfortonate career at Firen- zuels, at the age of fifty-seven yean ; some say of sorrow and chagrin, others state at the hands of one of his illegitimate sons.
OV SAVONAROLA. IS
Frederic, with all his faults, was a patron of learning, the founder of the university of Padua, one of the most accom- plished troubadotirs of his time ; and in his testament there is evidence that he was not so utterly destitute of religious senti- ments as he is represented to have been ; as he ordered his son Conrad to restore all he had taken from the Church, and bequeathed 100,000 ounces of gold for the succour of the holy land.
We find the disputes of Frederic and his predecessors with the Holy See referred to by a pontiff in the sixteenth century. Pope Paul the Third addressed a pontifical letter to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, dated the S5th of April, 1544, remonstrating against an edict issued by the Emperor, wherein, with the professed view of putting a stop to religious dissensions, it was intinmted, that at the next imperial diet something should be determined with respect to the calling of a council to deliberate on ecclesiastical matters. His Holiness complains of the Em- peror promising to call a council without previously consulting him, thereby claiming an illegal jurisdiction, and undertaking an investigation that was alien to his ofiice.
In that remarkable document, Charles is thus reminded of the antecedents of his predecessors : —
" The first of the emperors we read of who broke out in open revolt and contempt of the Holy See was Anastasius. Gelatins, the Roman Pontiff, admonished him not to favour the party of Acatius, bishop of Constantinople, who had been condemned by the Holy See ; but he disobeyed the admonition. Hormisdus, the successor of Gelasius, having sent delegates to him to urge him to desist firom communion with heretics, he first heard them with contempt, and then dismissed them with insult. At length, the divine anger struck him dead by lightning. He was succeeded in his impiety, but at intervals, by other emperors, as Mauritius, Constans, the second son of Justinian, Constantinus, Pogonatus, Philip, and Leo.
" But it was tedious to number up those who perished by deaths, differing in their nature, but all violent or ignominious.
14 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
after having been previously stripped of tbeir power and dignity ^ that in them divine justice might manifest itself in taking venge- ance on the disobedient. The series might be continued as fiar as that Henry, who had long most grievously vexed the Apostolic See, but at length made captive at Lodi by his own son, died in prison. Divine justice, by a most just retribution, punishing by a son, him who had in so many ways molested and disregarded the authority of one whom Divine Providence had set over him in the Chtirch, in the place of a father. The same thing may be said of Frederic the Second, except that his death by strangulation was more disastrous, inasmuch as his own son was the executioner.***
The son of Frederic the Second, Conrad, his legitimate heir, but not his recognized successor, was poisoned a few years after his father's death. He left a son, named also Conrad; this unfortunate youth, the grandson of Frederic the Second, per- ished on the scaffold, in his seventeenth year, and with him the last of the Suabian princes.
Bodolph of Hapsbourg was elected king of the Ilomans in 1273, and governed his states like a Christian sovereign. Italy and the Holy See, during his reign, enjoyed peace. He died in 1291. It is somewhat strange, that notwithstanding the
* The doGament from which this extract is taken is wrifcten with ability, and with eqnal moderation and affectionate regard for the illustrious sovereign to whom it was addressed. Calvin, however, sets no bounds to the fury of his rage in dealing with it. He uses the following language in speaking of the writer, Popej Paul the Third : — " Old dotard" with " hia half-rotten carcass,** " unparalleled monster," " vile priest," " wicked apos- tate," ''this madman," "Boman antichrist," "savage beast," "impious man," " Heliogabalus," "Saturn," "servant of the father of lies," "less than the devil whom he invokes" ! 1 !
Theodore Beza, in his life of Calvin, says, " He (Calvin) was naturally of a keen temper, and this had been increased by the very laborious life which he had led. But the Spirit qf the Lord had so taught him to eom^ mand his anger, that no word was heard to proceed from him unbecoming a good man"
Vide Life of Calvin, Introd. p. xcix., and Letter of Paul the Third to Charles the Fifth, in the works of Calvin, translated by Beveridge, Cal. Trans. Soc. ed. 8. i. JEdin, 1844. vol. i. p. 246.
OF BATOSAROJJL. 15
great yirtues and zeal for religion of this good sovereign, tiie Holy See constantly procrastinated his coronation as Emperor of Germany. To his varions and urgent applications to the Popes, his supplications to this effect received only promises of compliance at very distant periods. Before the last appointed period, his death released the Court of Rome from a promise which it had shewn manifest signs of reluctance to fulfil.
Albert, duke of Austria, son of Rodolph of Hapsbourg, counting on being recognized the successor of his feither to the throne, took possession of the crown jewels. The electors, how- ever, made choice of the Count Adolphus of Nassau, who was crowned king of the Romans in 129S. In his pecuniary em- baxroBsments he had recourse to the English sovereign, and obtained a subsidy of £100,000. For this favour he entered into an alliance with Edward the First, against Philip the Fair, of France.
The Germans took offence at their sovereign becoming a mercenary dependant on the bounty of a foreign sovereign, and fer this and other reasons he was deposed in 1298 ; and Albert, duke of Austria, son of Rodolph, was elected by three of the electors.
By their counsel, Albert applied to the Pope, Boniface the Eighth, to confirm his election, and the deposition of Adolphus.
'^Some sort of ratification at Rome of the imperial title appears to have been at all times sought for, and obtained, if not as a condition necessary for its legality, at least as some- thing extremely useful for the undisputed exercise of its autho- rity. The popes, long befi>re the time of Gregory, had been the only representatives of the honour, if not the absolute sovereigns of Rome: as such, they claimed to exercise the rights which originally resided in the senate and people. They were, moreover, the ministers of religion, and entitled to anoint and crown the emperor elect. They united all these powers, and all these claims ; and by commixion, rendered them less intelligible, but not less mysterious or sacred. They interfered.
16 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
out of Borne as well as within it, at the election of the emperors ; and causes similar to those which created their influence in conferring, ratifying, or sanctioning the title to the empire, enabled them afterwards to share in defining the number, the rights, and the proceedings, of the imperial electors.''*
The new king, Adolphus, was downed in his own country, and excommunicated in Rome. In the meantime, having sued for mercy to the Holy See, and submitted the rights of his throne to the decision of the Pontiff, he was pardoned and recognized by Boniface.
In 1S08, Albert perished by the hands of assassins, and Henry, Count of Luxembourg, was elected in his stead king of the Bomans.
In the same year, Henry the Seventh of Germany was suc- ceeded in the dignity of king of the Bomans, by Albert of Austria. In ISll, Albert made a descent on Italy, more of a diplomatic than a warlike kind. He traversed Italy, seeking to re-establish German influence, feudal rights, and imperial autho- rity. In some cities he was received as a sovereign with acclamation, in others he was repidsed.
He alternately employed menaces and caresses, conciliation and severity ; but in 1818, broken down in health, he aban- doned Italy, leaving every part of it more distracted than he found it. Lewis the Bavarian, and Frederick of Austria, contested the succession of Henry the Seventh, to the year 1322, when Lewis triumphed over his competitor. In 1S27, he made a descent on Italy, levied heavy contributions wherever he went, and took on himself^ in 1828, on his own proper authority, to depose the Pope ^ John the Twenty-second, and to place the Antipope, Peter of Carvara, on the chair of the Apostle, in the cathedral of St. Peter's. But the following year he was com- pelled to abandon Italy, " where," says Muratori, " he lefi; an abominable memory with the Guelphs, and one, perhaps, not less odious with the Ghibelines."t
* Bt. Ber. Dr. Doyle's Essay on Catholic Claims, t Annal. d'ltaUa. de Muratori.
OF SAVONAROIJL. 17
Cliarles the Fourth was crowned king of the Romans in 1346^ by the interest and influence of Clement the Sixth. He came twice into Italy, in 1354 and in 1S68. ^* But instead of establishing his authoHty and bringing peace," says Tiraboschi, " he was compelled to return speedily to his own country, ill- satisfied with the reception he met with, and gratified only with the gold he carried away with him.
^* He was succeeded by Wenceslaus^his son, who was elected king of the Romans in 1S78 ; but in 1S99, this sovereign, on account of his crimes, was deposed, and succeeded by Robert, Duke of Bavaria." *
m
Of the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, whose feuds so powerfully influenced the destinies of Italy, it may not be displaced to say a few words.
Carlo Denina, in his work, " Delia Revoluzioni d*Italia,** treating of the origin of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, says : " There flourished in Germany two families of distinction, one called Arrighi di Ghibelinga, and the other of Guelf, of Alt- dorfio, in which, by the marriage of Azzo d'Este with Cuna- gonda, daughter of Guelf the Third, originated the house of Este, therefore called Guelf-Estense, firom which descended the Dukes of Modena, and those of Bruns¥rick and Hanover. Of the Guelph family for many years there were many famous dukes ; and those gaining power and credit with the same emperors, had many times disturbed the quiet of the state. In the reign of Henry the Fifth, the two families became happily united in relationship, by Frederick of Swabia taking for wife Judith, daughter of Henry, the dark Duke of Bavaria, the sister of Guelph the Sixth, who was at that time the head of the house of Altdorfio, thus uniting in Frederick Barbarosa the blood of the two rival families. He, finding himself head of one of the factions, and near relation, as the son of a sister, by whom he was head of the other, there was reason to hope that such a person, raised to the Imperial throne, would keep the factions united, and bring back tranquillity and concord into the repub-
* Tirabosohi, tomo r. parte i. p. 14. VOL. I. c
«
18 TH£ LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
lie, when in Frankfort he was declared King, not without the intervention of some Italian lords." *
" The Guelphs and Ghibelines," says Machiavelli, ** whose dissensions afterwards proved the destruction of all Italy, were first called by those names in the city of Pistoia. The faction which sided with the Church was called Guelphs, the faction which was in alliance with the Emperors of Germany, and at variance with the Popes, was denominated Ghibelines." t
But the best account of those fierce rival factions is that of Corio, in his admirable History of Milan :
Corio says, in the city of Verona there was anciently two factions ; one was called the faction of Saint Boniface, this was the Guelph party, which espoused the cause of the Church ; another was styled the faction of Tegio, which was always leagued with the German interests of the Emperors ; and a third was called the faction of the Scala, which adhered mainly to the views of the former. When the magistrates of the Pon- tiflf Boniface were driven from Verona, the Ghibeline party had introduced Ezzelino, after which the party of the three, brothers of the Scala family obtained dominion.
Elsewhere Corio observes : — ^* In the year 1227, the Emperor of Germany, Frederic the Second, convoked a meeting of the principal nobility of all the Italian states bordering on Lom- bardy, near Cremona, to treat of his coronation in Milan; which meeting not being successful, he came to Verona, and there, with Ezzelino's Mends and many other factions of the Ghibe- lines, he combined against the Roman Church. On hearing of these events, the Pope Gregory, under pain of excommunication, commanded the Emperor to join the crusade against the infidels. This proceeding so much enraged the Emperor, that he collected an army against the Church, and passing into Sicily, occupied Apulia, for which act he was excommunicated by the Pope." J
At the commencement of the thirteenth century, the deadly
• Denina, Eevoluzioni d'ltalia, ed. 12mo. lib. ii. p. 280. Venice^ 1779.
t Historie Florentine, lib. i.
X Historia de Milano, parte ii. p. 88.
OF SAVONAROLA. 19
feuds of the Guelphs and Ghibelines prevailed^ even in tlie states of the Holy See; and one of their factions was made use of in the quarrels of Boniface the Eighth against his enemies.
. Tiraboschi^ treating of the civil state of Italy in the fourteenth centory, observes :
** The love of liberty and independence, which in so many Italian cities had, in the ^preceding century, put arms in the hands of citizens to maintain their newly-acquired rights, had already begun to produce an effect totally contrary to their desires. To present a bold &ont to their enemies, they were obliged to confide the command of their armies to some indi- viduals, the most powerful of their citizens. And these com- manders, after having begun to enjoy the privilege of authority and the power of governing masses of men in the midst of the turmoil of war, could not be made so easily to comprehend the obligation of depositing that authority and power in the breast of peace. It was sought to constrain them by force to return to the condition of private citizens. At the beginning of the four- teenth century, the Torriani, the Visconti, disputed the lordship of Milan and other cities of Lombardy. Azzo the Seventh, of ^ Este, was lord of Ferrara, Modena, Beggio, Bovigo, and many more castles ; the Scotti, in Piacenza ; the Bisiraga, in Lodi ; the Busca, in Como ; the Langoschi, in Favia ; the Awocati, in Vercelli; the Brusati, in Novaria; the Maggi, in Brescia; the Corregeschi, in Farma; the Scaligari, in Verona; the Buonacorsi, in Mantua;* all these maintained their power,, either by the suffrages of their fellow citizens or by force of arms, if they had rendered themselves masters of the city, or they combined together, or became enemies, and sought to con- firm or to extend their power. Ample territories in Bomagna had John, Marquis of Montserrat; the Lords of Folentani b«« gan also to have large possessions in Bavenna ; the Ordelaffi, in Forli ; the Malastesta, in Bimini ; and others in other places. Florence also, and several other cities in Tuscany divided into
* The ancestors of the motker of Savonarola.
c 2
20 THE LIFE AND MARTTEDOM
those well-known factions of Bianchi and Neri, went on lace- rating themselves and their country lamentably ; and scarcely was there a part of Italy where one did not encounter the strife of factions and wars." *
Tiraboschi, to all these calamities^ adds one crowning misfor- tune in 1805— the transfer of the Holy See to Avignon — ^**Colpo che fti all' Italia sommamente £Eitale."
During "the captivity*' of the Church in Avignon^ Italy was harassed by domestic tyrants and factions, that were sustained or countenanced by foreign powers, in their efforts to disunite and weaken one another, and promote the interests of other powers. Occasionally, too, we find the German sovereigns makxDg incursions into Italy ; always sowing discords and dis- sensions, and never effecting any great or important object.
Maoaulay enumerates four grand revolts against the Church of Rome, since her authority was established in Western Christ- endom.
" The first of these insurrections,'' says Macaulay, " broke out in the region where the beautiful language of Oc was spoken. That country, singularly favoured by nature, was, in the twelfth century, the most flourishing and civilized portion of Western Europe. It was in no wise a part of France. It had a distinct political existence, a distinct national character, distinct usages, and a distinct speech. The soil was fruitful and well cultivated ; and amidst the corn-fields and vineyards arose many rich cities, each of which was a little republic, and many stately castles, each of which contained a miniature of an imperial court."
The doctrines of the ancient Manichees, dressed up in new garbs in the Levant, had been conveyed into the provinces of Languedoc and Provence by the merchants and traders who came from the East to the maritime places bordering on those pro- vinces. Those doctrines spread rapidly ; and the leading one of them seemed to be hostility to the clergy of the Church of Rome. This feeling prevailed first among the feudal lords and military
* TiraboBchi, Storia Delia Letteratura Italiana, tomo v. parte i. p. 3. Ed. 8vo. Fer. 1807.
OF SAVONAROLA. 21
chie& ; then it found an exponent in the poetry of the trouba- dours ; and finally it gained ground more than could have been imagined, not only among the inhabitants of the towns, but th^ rural population.
^* The danger to the hierarchy/' continues Macaulay, *^ wa$ indeed formidable. Only one transalpine nation had emerged from barbarism ; and that nation had thrown off all respect for Rome. Only one of the vernacular languages of Europe had yet been extensively employed for literary purposes ; and that language was a machine in the hands of heretics. The geo^ graphical position of the sectaries made the danger peculiarly formidable* They occupied a central region, communicating directly with France, with Italy, and with Spain.
^' A war, distinguished even among wars of religion by mer^ ciless atrocity, destroyed the Albigensian heresy, and with that heresy the prosperity, the civilization, the literature, the national existence, of what was once the most opulent and enl^htened part of the great European family. Rome, in the meantime, warned by that fearful danger from which the exterminating swords of her crusaders had narrowly saved her, proceeded to revise and to strengthen her whole system of polity. At this period were instituted the Order of Francis, the Order of Dominic, the Tribunal of the Inqmisition. The new spiritual poUce was everywhere. No alley in a great city, no hamlet on
simple Catholic, who was content to be no wiser than his fathers, found, wherever he turned, a friendly voice to encourage him. The path of the heretic was beset by innumerable spies ; and the Church, lately in danger of utter subversion, now appeared to be impregnably fortified by the love, the reverence, and the terror of mankind.***
The spiritual power in Italy throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in its various contests with the feudalism of those ages, sometimes successful, more frequently defeated, always militant, underwent many vicissitudes.
* Macau]aj*8 Essay on Bankers Liyes. Ed, Bet,
22 THE LIFE AND HARTTRDOH
Wherever it was successful^ the material interests of the people^ it is universally admitted^ were benefitted by its protection, or the domination of its influence.
But whether the Church itself benefitted by its intervention in the political affairs of states — an intervention necessitated in those times by it^ own connection with temporal power and ter- ritorial dominion — is a question that a curt and flippant affirma- tion will not answer satisfactorily.
We find the contest of the spiritual with the temporal power — ^whenever entered into for mere political purposes or terri- torial interests — ^productive of great evils to the Church. We find Italy in those ages we have just referred to, with short inter- vals of repose on various occasions, a scene of strife and war- fare between the partisans of rival competitors for the papal throne. We find the rival factions of the aristocracy and the democracy, of conflicting feudalism in all its branches, the champions of the Gruelphs and Ghibelines, the Bianci and the Neri, the Fiagnone and the Tepidi, the Pazzi and the Medici, always leagued with such competitors, or arrayed against them.
Boniface the Eighth, in 1294, brought the qualities that are fit for the protection of temporal interests and territorial pos- sessions, into his contests with secular princes. He brought few to his great spiritual office of Supreme Pontiff, that were cal- culated to promote the interests of peace, or to establish the principles of the Gospel.
His continual interference with the affairs of foreign princes, his feuds and warfare with nearly all the rulers of the Christian commonwealth, were more mischievous to Italy, and more injurious to Catholicity, than all the ravages of the barbarians in Rome and its territories.
The great intellectual energies of Innocent the Eighth, who was created Pontiff in 1447, were pushed — ^in the promotion of objects political, or at least auxiliary, to the protection of temporal in- terests— to the extreme length of the spiritual and temporal power exercised by Boniface the Eighth. The king of Naples was excommunicated and deprived of his kingdom by his
OF SAVONAROLA. 2S
Holiness^ and subsequently^ on submission^ was pardoned and restored to his own dominions. In this pontificate^ civil wars in which the diplomacy of the court of Borne was too frequently found engaged; preyailed in several parts of Italy. Among the unfortunate results of such intervention in the affairs of foreign countries^ is to be accounted the sentence of excommunication and deposition of the king of Naples.
The removal of this sentence, on the king's submission, did not remove the evil impression it left on the minds of Catholic princes, that the motives for it were reasons of state, and that the interests of religion had not much to do with them.
The consequences of the quarrels of Innocent the Eighth with the king of Naples, extended to the times of Charles the Eighth of France, and the Neapolitan king, Ferdinand,
'^ Before Charles the Ninth of France had passed into Italy (in 1494), that country," says Machiavelli,/' was under the do- minion of the Popes, the Venetians, the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and the Florentines. The power most jealously watched by the smaller states was that of Bome and of Venice. To keep the Venetians in check, the union of all the other states was required ; and to keep down the Papal influence, the power of the Pontiff was secretly neutralized, by engendering jealousies and animosities, and causes of disunionin Bome between the principal houses of the nobility. Diplomacy did the work bf war in Italy in those times, without manifesting hostile in- tentions. These dissensions were sedulously promoted. The magnates of Bome were divided into two factions, the Orsini and the Colonnas, pains being taken," continues Machiavelli, ^' to have them with arms in their hands under the eyes of the Pontiffs, and thus to keep the court of Bome weak and dis- united."*
On the other hand, the people of Lombardy, Genoa, Pisa, Ferrara, and Bologna, it cannot be doubted, had their subtle agents at work in Florence. It could be no small amount of intrigue, circumvention, diplomatic cajolery, corruption, and
* Mac. Hist. Flor. Del. Prin. cap. xl p. 28.
24 THE LIFE AND KARTYRDOM
state strategy^ which could have kept the Guelphs and Ghibe- lines^ the Pazzi and the Medici^ the Strozzi, Ridolfi, Soderini, Carducci, the Yiscontis, Sforzas, Ezzolinis, the GaLeazzoe^ and Mirandolas in continual wen, or preparations for mutual injury/ for so long a period.
Florence and its Republic under the Medici.
Florence had its origin in the debris of the surrounding colonies of Fiesole,* which were established by Sylla, of which mention is made by Cicero.f The territory in which Florence was buHt, was called " Florentia, or ager Florentinus/' and the Colonia^ according to Borghini^ was established about fort}*^ years before Christ4
In the eleventh century, Florence, the oflEshoot of the vene- rable city of Fiesole, having acquired sufficient strength to begin aggressions on neighbouring places, exhibited its young vigour and sense of obligation to the city that gave it birth, by an attack on it, and its utter demolition.
Nardi, whose " Historia Delia citta de Firenze" begins with the affairs of 1494, describes the population as being divisible into three classes; the nobility, the bourgeosie, ^HlpapoligrassOy^ and the labouring poor, ** */ popoli miUMfo." Other writers have sub-divided the aristocracy into three orders ; the nobles, the grandees, and the gentry, ^' delle famiglie." All were of one accord in respect to their hostility to the republic. It was ill regarded or abhorred by the aristocracy .§
The extremes often met in the Republic ; the highest and the lowest class frequently coalesced to disconcert and to oppose the middle class. The nobles made use of the labouring poor against the papolo ffrasso, because they had no apprehensions of the former meddling in governmental affairs. The middle
* The ruins of the ancient Fiesole are about three miles from Florence. t'Cic. ii. inCatil.
X Discorsi di Borf^hini, Milano, 8to. in 4 tomos. 1808, vol. i. p. 15. § Nardi, Hist, della Fir. p. 2.
OF SAVONABOIA. 25
class had to strengthen themselves as best they could^ with governmental aid and influence against both.*
At various periods^ prior to 1494, there had been serious difference between the court of Bome and the Florentine Be- public, and there never was at any time a very cordial attach- ment— '' I Fiorentini consueti certamente d'essere sempre reve- rent! e ossequiosi ma non mai sudditi k santa chiesa."t
In 1S78, the contests between the Church and the Republic having been carried on with great rancour, with excommuni- cations and interdicts on one side, and most abominable out- rages on the other part, against sacred things and offices — molte cose indegne et impie^ contra la d^ita e autorita eccUAastica — frightful tumults broke out in Florence between the partisans of the Church and those of the ruling powers, under the turbu- lent magistracy of the state, Salvestro de Medici being Gon- Moniere of Justice. On this occasion, the populace was called to arms from the windows of ^the Gonfaloniere's palace by his instructions, to repress the nobles who were giving xmibrage to the rising power of the Medici. The people flew to arms, and the first use they made of them ^as to slaughter several citi- zens, to sack the churches and convents. This is called by the historian of Florence, ^* The first tumult of the excommunicated people of Florence."J
The tumultuous popidace and the scandalous abettors, the magistrates of the Signoria, with Salvestro de Medici, were, however, ultimately put down. Then came the magistracy of the Signori Priori, Luigi Guicciardini being Gonfadioniere, in the room of Salvestro de Medici. The former Signoria, with Salvestro de Medici, now stirred up the lowest class of the people, " infirna fUhe^^ to another revolt. Several of the in- surgents having been taken up and tortured, '' to get at the truth," Salvestro was found implicated in this conspiracy, and being examined, acknowledged the plot had been got up by
• Nardi, Le Storic di Firenza, p. 2. 4to. Fir. 1684. t lb. p. 3. X lb. p. 4,
26 THE LIFE AND MAKTYHDOM
persons who were desirous to see the honours and dignities restored to him, of which he had been deprived.
The new government acted with mistaken lenity towards Salvestro ; he again conspired with the dregs of the pe6ple/and this time the rabble had a complete triumph. During their reign of terror, burning of houses^ banishing of citizens, menacing supposed enemies, was the order of the day. The reigning rab- ble were pleased to make a Cavaliere of their patron Salvestro de Medici, and to support the dignity, they decreed that he should have the revenue of certain shops on the old bridge of Florence. It did not comport with the morality of the mob, that those of their order should commit robbery, when they committed the crime of arson. They erected a gallows in the great square of the city, to hang all offenders against the law that was laid down by them.
All persons who fell into the hands of the populace, who were in arms — and this government of malefacters was composed of about six thousand persons — ^were put to death. The domina* tion of this rabble, due to the acts of Salvestro de Medici, was the greatest scourge, in the opinion of the principal Floren- tine historians, which which Florence was visited since the invasions of the Goths.*
Things, however, gradually settled down, and the republic was reduced into a state of order again in a period of time so brief, as to seem almost incredible ; its powers were duly distributed, its administrative departments remodelled.
The dignity of the office of Gonfalioniere de Gustizia differed only from that of the eight members of the supreme magistracy of the Signori Priori, with the new adjunct de Liberia ; in point of dignity, the Gonfalioniere had precedence of the other mem- bers of the supreme magistracy, and in some other privileges of slight importance.
The supreme magistracy sat for a term of two months in the palace, living there during this brief period of the administra- tion of public affairs, together with their colleagues, who were
• Nardi, p. 6.
OF SAVONAKOLA.
2f
Sixteen Gonfalionieres, representing the several companies, or divisions, of the people, and the twelve " good men," who were the appointed counsellors of the Signoria. The entire body of this magistracy, in the aggregate, was called the College, and also the Signoria, and the College. Besides this magistracy, there was the senate, whose numbers varied with the circum- stances of the times. There was also the greater councils, in which ordinarily projects of laws were deliberated on and enacted ; general plans and proposals, and private matters too, were examined into. Up to the year 1494, there were two of these councils, one called the Council of the People, in the business of which the citizens of the people class, cittadini popo- fant, intervened ; the other the Common Council, in the affairs of which both nobles and people, />opo2ani, took a part in common.
Magistrates were appointed by a special council, and the se- lection of persons for the magisterial office was made by scru- tiny, a process which they called ^* lo squittino," — a corruption of the Latin word scrutinutn^ — ^because they inquired minutely into the qualities of every man there was an idea of appointing. The scrutiny was made only once in every three or five years ; and this being an innovation on the old custom of the republic, and the intervals between the scrutinies being far too long, great evils arose from the new mode of election.*
The special duties of the GonMoniere were as follows : with their subordinate Gonfalioniere, and several companies, to defend the city from domestic and foreign enemies when necessary : to . preside over the safety of the city from fire, and to divide the city into four wards, and depute a certain number of the magis- tracy to act for him in case of fire in the several wards.
All the laws and provisions of a public or a private nature, proposed in the council of the Signoria, to have effect, should be submitted to the magisterial college, and sanctioned by it ; afterwards submitted to the senate, and sanctioned by it, and finally, by the above-mentioned supreme council of the Signoria.f
When one considers the barbarism out of which this republic
♦ Nardi, p. 7. t Ibid.
S8 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
had SO recently emerged^ and carefully examines the nature of those institutions, there is not a little to wonder at in the wisdom to which they owed their origm, i^d the various amendmenta that had been made in them.
The republic of Florence, before the time the power of the Medici became wholly predominant, had been frequently torn by factions, as we have seeA. The Plebeians and the Patricians comprehended a variety of conflicting social influences ajad Ipcal interests. Eventually, these fiictions merged into the partizana. of the Medici and Paz.zi, the aristocracy and democracy of the state, and a little later, the adher^ts of the democracy, who looked to France for the restoration of the freedom of the Florentine republic. Of the latter, those who especially de-^ nounced the disorders of the Pontiff and the Court of Bome> were accounted not unjustly en.emies to the Medici, and w^re accordingly looked on unfavourably by them.
It was the policy of the Medici, at all periods, to see Borne j reduced to weakness, divided, discredited, and degraded in the sight of Christendom.
With all the dissensions that prevailed in the Florentine republic from the earliest times, there were elements of power and popular privileges tolerably well secured in it, that gave the Florentine State a sort of moral pre-eminence over the other Italian countries, while its physical strength was far inferior to that of Milan, Naples, and Venice. The government was essen- tially democratic, and the people were ever jealous of their liberty, and deemed the security of it depended on the state never being subjected to the will and rule of one man.
They were particularly jealous of the great £unilies of Florence, whose power and influence were capable of becoming at any time dangerous to the republic, and very often unjustly suspicious of the designs of the leading citizens. This led to a Idnd of ostracism, which ultimately proved most injurious to the re- public.
A vast number of Florentine refiigees, called Fuorusciti, were to be found in all the adjoining states, carrying on intrigues
OF SAVOKAROLA. 20
with theiir pardzans, and urging on. the enemiefl of the republic to acts of hostility against its government.
The power exercised by the Medici in Florence was not a recognized authority^ attached to any very exalted office, such as that of President or Primate ; but was an influence silently ^/ accorded and acquiesced in, arising from great wealth, aptitude for public affairs, a reputation for prudence, diplomatic skill, and a good knowledge of the circumstances and the designs of the principal Italian governments*
The Medici, from the time of Cosmo, had made a sophism of the Republic. They engrossed all the power of the state, without overtly arrogating to themselves official pre-eminence. Their .apparent moderation caused their stealthy encroachments, gradually carried into effect, to attract little attention, till it was too late to resist a tyranny firmly established, but withal ren- dered less odious, or burdensome, or unbearable, to the citizens of Florence, than any previous despotism had been, by the per- version of state power to the ends of private interests.
The power which enabled a man of leading influence in Florence to carry the appointment of the magistracy, constituted that person virtually, though not nominally, the head of the Bepublic.
The Medici, in the fourteenth century, were simple citizens of Florence. They began at the close of it to obtain authority and distinction in the Republic, and to exert an influence in its affairs ; " the result," says Tiraboschi, " of the riches they gained in commerce, and of their astuteness in making use of it."
The flrst authentic account of the employment of one of the Medici family in a high office of trust in the Republic, is that of Giovanni de Medici, in the year 1351, in a military command of importance.
In 1379, Salvestro de Medici, a partisan of the democratic party, exercised the authority of a chief magistrate of the Republic.
After his death, his son, Giovanni Veri (or Averardo) de
4^"
80 THE I4FE AND MARTYRDOM
Medici, of the same principles as his father, filled offices of high rank in Florence.
Gioyanni de Medici (son of Averardo), a merchant of great opulence, and endowed with that peculiar sagacity and prudence which distinguished so many of his descendants, filled the highest offices in the state.
Nardi ohserves, that John, hy his excessive riches, and quali- ties which are apt to aggrandize a man, was exalted ahove the condition of civil equality, which was convenient in a repuhlic, and many cavaliers and other grandees and citizens of repute were opposed to him. These, hy the friends and partizans of the coterie of Medici — amid e fautare della setta de Medici — were called Uzanesi, and afterwards Rinaldeschi, from the names of the adverse cavaliers ; while the partizans of the Medici in the time of Cosmo were called by the opposite faction Puccini, the name of two persons of bad repute, of great influence over Cosmo. John de Medici died in 1428, leaving two sons, Cosmo and Lorenzo, the former bom in 1389.
" In 1484, the family of Medici," says Machiavelli, " in the persons of the descendants of Giovanni, began to acquire more influence and authority than any other republican magnates in Florence.'**
** Cosmo and Lorenzo," says Tiraboschi, " the sons of John de Medici, were the first to have a great name in Florence, and to become leaders of the faction which then divided Florence, These persons became so formidable in 1433, that Cosmo, having rendered himself too much suspected, was by the machinations of his rivals shut up in prison, and was afterwards with others of his family exiled. But he managed to get himself recaUed, and those of his family who were with him in exile, the year following to Florence, with the highest honour, and the uni- versal applause of the citizens, as we learn from Foggio, the Florentine, in one of his letters to Cosmo himself. He con- tinued at Florence to his death in 1464, having arrived, though one in a private station, to the high position of being the arbiter * Hifltorie Florentine, p. 6. Fremio Ed. 4to. Boma, 1650.
OV SAVONAROLA. SI
of the republic which he swayed by his genius. The "pru- dence of his acts^ but more especially the wealth of which he was wisely prodigal on fitting occasions, conciliated the esteem and affection of his own people, gained for him the respect and admiration of foreigners, and obtained for him also the glorious title of father of his country."*
Tiraboschi, in his gratitude to the memory of Cosmo, as a patron of learning, omits all mention of an act of perfidy of Cosmo, not surpassed by many acts of bad faith even in Italian history.
Cosmo had no sooner returned, than he made diligent enquiry into all particulars respecting those who had opposed his resto- ration. He learned that several of the most eminent citizens, during his exile, had used all the exertions in iheii power to prevent the Signoria from allowing him to return ; had even taken up arms for the purpose of intimidating the Coimcil, but had finally deposed them, and returned to pacific measures, by the interference of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, who was then in Florence, on being assured of pardon and exemption from aU punishment by the government, and having that engagement guaranteed by the Pontiff. Cosmo made no account of the en- gagement whatsoever (two months after it was made) ; all these citizens, many of distinction, were banished and scattered over
Italy.t
*'In 1444,'* says Nardi, "Cosmo altered the constitution of the republic by reducing the number of those who had a voice in the election of persons for the dignity of the Signoria, and many persons were deprived of their offices, and imprisoned."^ In 1458, the Medici made still frirther inroads on the constitution.
Biondo Flavello, a cotemporary of Cosmo's, in his " Italia Illustrata," speaks of him as a man " who surpassed the citizens of every part of Europe in wealth, prudence, humanity, and liberality ; and whose intimate acquaintance with the arts and sciences, and especially with history, had rendered him cele- brated and worthy of all praise."§
* Tiraboschi, Historia de Letteratora Italiana, tome yi. part i. p. 11. t Nardi, p. 9. J Idem, p. 10.
§ Ital. UluBtrata, p. 53. £d. Taur. 1527, ap. Tiraboschi.
82 THE LIP'S AND MARTYRDOM
' Several of the Italian historians make allusion to a report, that Pope John the Twenty-third, after his deposition, had in-* vested in the bank of the Medici, in Florence, the immense riches which had been acquired during his Pontificate, and which, remaining there at the period of the death of the deposed Pontiff in 1419, had been appropriated by the Medici, and made the nucleus of their enormous wealth.
Boscoe refutes those reports, as malevolent fabrications, and states that John, at his decease, did not leave sufficient to pay his debts.*
Cosmo, having caused a collection of manuscripts of inesti- mable value to be made for him in the East, and of the most rare works that could be procured in every part of Italy, ** had them deposited for public use in the Dominican convent of San Marco, at Florence, which he had himself erected at an enor- mous expense in 1437. This collection was the foundation of another celebrated library in Florence, known by the name of the Bibliotheca Mariana, which is yet open to the inspection of the learned, at the distance of three centuries."
Cosmo committed the arrangement of the library of San Marco to one Tommaso Calandrino, the son of a poor physician of Lazano, an obscure young man in the lower order of the clergy, who had an excellent taste, however, for literature, and a good knowledge of works of learning. Tommaso Calandrino, in course of time a Pontiff of the Holy See, Nicholas the Fifth, of glorious memory, for his patronage of learning, having enlarged the scanty library of his predecessors, and planned the establish- ment of one in Rome, worthy of the Eternal City, "may be con- sidered the founder of the library of the Vatican," we are told by Roscoe.f
The library of S. Marco owed its chief riches to the passion that began to prevail all over Italy, after the downfall of the Roman empire in the East, in 1452, for collecting the works of the ancients, that had been rescued from destruction by the eminent prelates and scholars of Constantinople, who had found • Life of Lorenzo, p. 54. f Idem, p. 68b
OF SAVONAROLA. 33
a refuge in Italy. But long previously, the library of St. Mark's had the collection of valuable manuscripts, which had belonged to Nicolo Nicoli, secured for it and for the public use by Cosmo. The intercourse which he maintained with the East, had enabled him, more than all the other Italian magnates of his time, to turn the destruction of Constantinople to the account of Italian enlightenment and civilization. Cosmo's successor made im- portant additions to the literary treasures of St. Mark's, and Lorenzo surpassed both his predecessors, in his mimificent donations to this collection.
Cosmo, the " Padre delle Patria," was the first of the Medici to arrogate to himself the dignity of the chief of the Republic — " Primato della Bepublica." Many records of his magnificence* and mimificence have been left by cotemporary historians and philosophers. Cosmo was an enthusiastic admirer of the philo- sophy of Plato ; he established schools for the study of it ; he caused many eminent scholars, celebrated for their proficiency in it, to establish themselves in Florence — Marsilius Ficinus, Fran- cesco Filelfo, and other distinguished scholars. Cosmo trans- mitted his Platonic tastes to his son Pietro, the latter to his son Lorenzo, and Lorenzo to his son John, the juvenile cardinal, who, on his elevation to the Papal throne, took the name of Leo the Tenth. Florence had soon its academy, where Platonic eloquence flourished under the protection of the munificent Cosmo ; and there, we are told, '' the sublime mysteries of the Platonic philosophy," **sublimi nusterii della filosofia Platonica," were reasoned on by Cosmo, with a wisdom ** perfettamente Platonica."
Ficinus, in one of his letters, says, *' he owed much to Plato, but more to Cosmo, who represented in his own person the virtues which the philosopher had traced the idea of, in his works." And Ficinus adds, '^ he (Cosmo) was as subtle in dis- puting as he was wise in his governing." In fact, the Greek scholars, who had found a refuge in Florence, on the downfall of the Latin Empire in the East, had inspired Cosmo with an
* Tirabosclii, tomo yi. part i. j). 33. VOL. I. D
34 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
admiratiaii bordering on idoktry for the pHilosopIiy of Flato« And those sublime mysteries of the Platonic philosophy in ^Florence superseded those of Christianity^ which were believed in by the vulgar and unlettered in other countries. / Florence, in fact, was heathenised by the Medici^ the Pagan philosophy was preferred to that of the Gospel, and was made the rule of life for the scholars and the sages of this new Athens of intellectual refinement.
Cosmo de Medici, the Platonic Philosophej, left ample work to be done by the Christian Monk, Girolamo Savonarola, in the time of his grandson Lorenzo.
Of the banking operations of the Medici, we have an example? in the time of Cosmo, of the extent in which they were carried on.
During the contests between the houses of York and Lan- caster, " Edward the Fourth resorted to one of Cosmo's agents in England for a loan, to such an extraordinary amount, that it might be almost considered the means of supporting that monarch on the throne.'**
The Medici were not only bankers and merchants, but ex- tensive farmers and miners. They carried on an extensive trade with Egypt, via Alexandria.
Machiavelli, in the eighth book of his history, speaking of Cosmo as one of the wisest and gravest men of Italy of his time, observes : " He would now and then play the most egregious fool in his carriage, and was so much given to jesters, players, and childish sports, to make himself merry, that he that shoidd but consider his gravity on the one part, his foUy and lightness on the other, would surely say, there were two distinct persons iu him."
Burton, moralising on this tendency of great men to be gam- blesome, whose efforts to be lively somewhat resemble the exertions of an ungainly camel to be frisky of an evening, when the burden which it bore is taken off, and the process of un^ packing is concluded, says : ^' Now methinks, though Salis- buriensis be of opinion that magistrates, senators, and grave
* Life of Lorenzo, by Boscoe, p. 78;
OF SAYONAROlJi. 35
men should not descend to lighter sports, ne respublica ludere vi/deateTf but, as Themiatoclea, keep a stem and constant courage,
" I commend Cosmus de Medicis, and Castrucius Castrucanus, than whom Italy never knew a worthier captain, another Alex- ander, if Machiavel do not deceive us in his life; when a friend of his reprehended him for dancing, aa beside his dignity (belike at some cushen dance), he told him again, qui sapit interdiu vix unquam noctu dessipit; he that is wise in the day, may dote a little in the night Paulus Jovius relates as much of Pope Leo Decimus, that he was a grave, discreet, stay'd man, yet sometimes most free, and too open in his sports. And 'tis not altogether unfit or mis-beseeming the gravity of such a man, if that decorum of time, place, and such circumstances, be observed. Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem.**
Pietro, the son of Cosmo, succeeded to his father's wealth and dignities in 1464, with the additional title of Gon&lionere. Bandini states that he delighted much in the maxims and mys- teries of the Platonic philosophy. While he was yet a youth, in 1441, he took a leading part in getting up a literary tourna- ment, combattimenti letterario, unique in its kind, in which the subject of '' True Friendship" was to be disputed, in poetry of whatsoever kind of verse the disputants' might choose to adopt. The mimic war of wit came off in the church of Santa Maria, on a Sunday, before duly appointed judges. A crown of silver, in the fashion of a laurel garland, was to be awarded to the victorious disputant, but the judges were unable to decide on the merits of so many claims of equal excellence. Pietro's title to celebrity is limited to the origin of this combatHtnenti lette- rario, and another origin of more importance, that of Lorenzo de Medici. "*
The career of Pietro was short; he died in 1469, leaving two sons, Julian and Lorenzo, the latter of whom elevated himself to the highest eminence, political and social.
Lorenzo, on his accession to the dignities, wealth, and high station enjoyed by his father, seems to have set out from the commencement of his career by regarding himself as the state.
36 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
His acts spoke intelligibly this purpose to the people of Flo- rence : ** Errare cives si turn, senatum aliquid in Repnblica posse arbitrebantur/'*
Lorenzo was no exception to the general rule of persons of in- tellectual powers being chiefly indebted to their mothers for those remarkable qualities which render men renowned^ whether as scholars, sages, philosophers, artists, or patrons of learning and of arts, or adepts in those pursuits.
Lorenzo's mother " was one of the most accomplished women of the age, and distinguished not only as a patroness of learning, but by her own writings/'f
She transmitted her accomplishments and tastes, " en Traie mere," to her favourite son Lorenzo.
The Volterra atrocities, at an early period of Lorenzo's public career, consequent on his unjust and cruel measures^ constitute the great blot on his character ; one which all the efforts of Roscoe to efface, have not been successful in accom- plishing.
In 1475, after the return of Lorenzo to Florence from Rome, where he had been on an embassy to congratulate Sixtus the Fourth on his elevation, a dispute arose between the Florentine Republic and Volterra, which city composed part of its domi- nions, on a subject which nearly concerned the commercial interests of the house of Medici.
That house was largely engaged in money transactions in several parts of Tuscany. They held mines of lead, silver, alum, and nitre, on leases from the landed proprietors, on whose e8ta[tes those mines were situated from the time of Cosmo. Whenever they had serious contentions with such proprietors, or with other states on the subject of transit imposfe or dues of entry or exit, they used the powers of the Republic, which, in fact, in their hands had become a mere family apanage, for the promotion of their commerce and interests, and ambitious objects. •
A mine of alum had been discovered in the district of Vol-
♦ Cioero, Orat. pro Sent. f Life of Lorenzo, by Bosooe, p. 81.
OF SAVONAROLA. 87
«
terra^ which had remained in the rightful possession of the proprietors of the soil, from the time of its discovery to the period of Lorenzo's retom from Rome. By these proprietors some monies had been raised in Florence from certain mer- chants, and shares in the property had been given to them. The municipal authorities of Yolterra, finding the mine had become profitable, had claimed a part of the profits for muni- cipal revenue.
This proceeding, however, was neither in accordance with, or by the express instructions of, the supreme government of the Bepublic in Florence ; for when it was appealed to by the proprietors against the Volterra municipality, the Bepublic decided against the latter, on the groimd that the profits in question ought not to be applied to local public purposes, but shoiild be devoted to the general revenue of the government of the Republic in Florence.
The monstrous injustice of the decision enraged the citizens of Volterra. Indignation, fruitless expostulations, commotions and tumults, terminated in open resistance to the Republic, and a detefmination to separate their territory from its tyranny. The Florentine commissary had to fly from Volterra to save his life. The people of Volterra had already made four previous unsuccessful attempts at revolution.
The Florentine government was atarmed and disconcerted by this event.
Some of the lords of the council and superior magistrates, and especially Tomaso Soderini^ were strongly in favour of con- ciliatory measures. But these were as strongly opposed by Lorenzo de Medici, says Machiavelli, ^'thinking this a fair opportunity to demonstrate his wisdom and his prudence (by a contrary opinion) ; and being more influenced in thus advising, because he was encouraged by those who were inimical to So- derini, declared in favour of an armed expedition to punish the arrogance of the Volterani ; and he affirmed, that if that city was not punished, and made a memorable example of, — ' en essempio mcmorabile coretti,' other people (dependent on the Republic),
38 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
having no longer any reverence for its authority, from fear of similar circumstances, would, on the slightest pretence, do as the people of Volterra had done in their territory.***
So by Machiavelli*8 accoimt, apparently truthful, Lorenzo^ in causing war to be made on the people of Volterra, was knainly influenced by motives of paltry jealousy of one of the most illustrious, wise, and virtuous citizens of Florence, and only then inferior to himself in power and influence in the Republic. So great was his influence, that on the death of the father of Lorenzo, many of the most distinguished citizens of the Republic urged him, though ineffectually, to take the first place in the Republic, to the exclusion of the Mechci.
Lorenzo having succeeded in carrying his views into execu- tion, the territory of the people of Volterra was attacked by a Florentine army of 12,000 men, under the command of the Lord of Urbino. The unfortunate territory was easily ravaged by this great army. The city surrendered at discretion, after a short resistance, and the destruction of the city and inhabitants ensued. Machiavelli, with his usual coolness, relates the atro- cities of the Florentine army in these terms : — " The city for a whole day was pillaged and ravaged by the soldiers, neither women, nor children, nor churches, nor any place, being ex- empt from the rapacity both of their enemies and their merce- naries. The news of the victory was received in Florence with extraordinary joy, and being Lorenzo's own enterpnze, it turned highly to the advantage of his reputation."
Further we are told by Machiavelli : — " One of his own most intimate friends upbraided Thomas Soderino for his ad- vice against the expedition, — saying, * What think you now of it, that Volterra is won ? ' to whom Tomaso replied — ' I rather think Volterra is lost, for had you entered into terms with it, that city might have proved in time of need serviceable to the Republic, and have contributed towards the security of the city; but treated as it has been, and retained by force of arms, it will be
• Machiavelli, Historic Florentine, lib. rii. p. 197.
OF SAVONAROLA. ' S9
a trouble and a weakness to you in time of war, and an expense to you in time of peace.' "*
Boscoe informs us, the destruction brought on Yolterra by this war — Lar€nzo*8 own expedition — was an accident. It was not intended, forsooth, the captured city should have been ravaged, the women defiled, and many citizens massacred in cold blood.
And he states, that '^ Lorenzo was no sooner apprised of this event, than he hastened to Volterra, where he endeavoured to repair the injuries done to the inhabitants, and to alleviate their distresses by every method in his power.*'t
Baffaelle da Yolterra, a contemporary historian, and a native of the ravaged city (In Comment. Urban Geogr. 138), considers Lorenzo as the author of those calamities, and deals with him accordingly.
In plain terms, *^ Lorenzo's own expedition," against the people of Volterra, was carried on at the charge, and with the droops of the Republic, for the protection of the monopoly of an aiticle of commerce, the value of which was likely to be depre- ciated by the discovery of a mine in Volterra, producing the same commodity, which had begun to be productive, by means of capital furnished by Florentine merchants, competitors in trade with Lorenzo. And thus, for the promotion of his own selfish object, he exposed the people of a whole city to the horrors of war, and the danger of having an infuriated soldiery let loose on their property, their wives, children, and places of worship.
*^ The minee of alum,'*^ says Roscoe, " in different parts of Italy, were either the property of the Medici family, or were hired by them from their respective owners, so that they were enabled abnoH to monopolize this article, and to render it highly lucrative. For a mine in the Roman territory, it appears that they paid to the Papal See the annual rent of 100,000 florins."^
In the Pontificate of Sixtus the Fourth, a murderous con-
* Machiavelli, Historie Florentine, lib. xii. p. 298. t Boscoc's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, p. 126. J Idem. p. 117.
40 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
bpiracy against the Medici waa entered into, it is asserted by the organs of the latter, with the express sanction of the Pontiff; but with what truth that assertion is made, remains to be dis- covered.
In 1471, Sixtus the Fourth succeeded Paul the Second. Onofrio Fanvinio, in his continuation of Platina's Yite de Pon- tifici, speaks of the dissensions between the Pope and Lorenzo de Medici, occasioned by the unbounded cupidity of this Pon- tiff, ** immensa e sfirenata cupidita del Papa."* But some other and better reasons might be given for these dissensions, more prejudicial to the character of the Medici, and less injurious to that of the Pope. These dissensions, however, in the opinion of Panvinio, ultimately led to the ruin of the Medici. Sixtus the Fourth died in 1484 ; Machiavelli (Hist. Flor. lib. viii.) states, '' either poisoned or of grief, at the intelligence of the recently- proclaimed peace, of which he was an enemy.'^f
Boscoe, in his Life of Lorenzo de Medici, speaks of the cha- racter of Sixtus the Fourth in strong terms of reprobation. But it is possible we should have heard less of the depravity imputed to him, if he had been less inimical to Lorenzo de Medici and his brother. His vast expenditure for architectural improvements in Rome, occasioned the imposition of heavy taxes on ecclesiastics holding high offices in the Church or the Court, and led to embarrassments, which turned away attention from many grievous evils and abuses of his time, that greatly needed to be reformed.
Ranke states, that Sixtus the Fourth was the first Pope by whom the project was undertaken, with a fixed will, and effec- tual restdts, to establish a sovereignty for himself in those do- minions which were regarded as the patrimony of the Church, but which were now under the dominion of various chiefs. This project, he adds, was most strenuously and most success- fully followed by Alexander the Sixth ; and from Julius the
• Platina, in Vit. Paolo, p. 448. t Life of Lorenzo de Medici, p. 219.
OF SAVONAROLA. 41
Second this plan received a direction wholly unexpected, and of which the effect was permanent.
**Sixtus the Fourth (1471 — 1484) conceived the idea of founding a principality for his nephew, Girolamo Riario, in the fertile and beautiful plains of Bomagna.'**
** If the question had been one of right," continues Ranke, ** the Pope had manifestly a better title than any one of those princes ; but he was greatly their inferior in political force, and the materials of war. He did not scruple to employ his spiritual influence— exalted by its natiire and its influence above all earthly purposes — ^for the furtherance of his worldly interests. Nor did he shrink from debasing it by contact with the tem- porary intrigues in which these involved him."t
The famous conspiracy of Francis Fazzi against the Medici, in which Julian lost his life in 147S, and his brother Lorenzo was slightly wounded, having been defeated, Lorenzo adroitly turned the attempt to his advantage, and to the complete ruin of his principal competitors, both commercial and political.
The Fazzi had carried on a rival banking establishment in Rome, where Lorenzo also had one. They were considered by the people as firmly attached to the Republic, and faithful to its interests.
They were popular with the Democratic party ; the Medici, on the other hand, were looked upon with distrust by that party, as having designs to promote their own interests, rather than those of the Republic ; in fact, to elevate themselves above it. They were merchant princes, in every sense of the term — making use of the state for the benefit of their bank, and using their bank for the promotion of their designs against the Re- public.
It is not in the Life of Lorenzo de Medici, by Roscoe, however admirably written, that we must look for proof of any statements which militate against the character of Lorenzo in any period of his career. Nevertheless, in the earlier part of that career,
* Eanke's History of the Popes, ch. ii. p. 34. t Idem, pp. 33, 34.
42 THE LIFE AKP MARTYRDOM
there was most assuredly much to reduce hero-worship, in the case of the homs^e so extensively offered to his wealth, pru- dence, and prosperity, within moderate and reasonable limits.
If the crime of the Pazzi was atrocious, the crimes of the adherents of the Medici were not less so. No sooner had the conspiracy exploded, and failed in its main object, than the streets were polluted with the dead bodies of their victims, by the adherents of the Medici. " Giacobo Foggio was hanged from a window of the palace. The followers (of the Pazzi) were either slaughtered in the palace, or thrown half alive through the windows." The young Cardinal Biario, who was seized at the altar, where he had taken refuge, was only pre- served from death by the interference of Lorenzo, *' who ap- peared to give credit to his asseverations, that he was ignorant of the intentions of the conspirators."
It would have been well if Lorenzo had then said to his ad- herents— " transeat in exemplo." *' Francesco Fazzi was dragged out of his uncle's house naked, and hanged from the palace windows. This punishment was immediately followed by that of the Archbishop of Fisa, Salviati, who was hung through a window of the palace, and was not allowed even to divest himself of his prelatical robes."*
When Lorenzo effectually interfered to put a stop to the putting to death of persons suspected of taking part in this con- spiracy, ''upwards of one hundred persons had already perished," says Roscoe, *' some by the hands of justice, and others by the fury of the citizens, "t
But throughout the whole " of this just but dreadfrd retri- bution," we are told, '' Lorenzo had exerted all his influence to restrain the indignation of the populace and restrain the shed- ding of blood."
It is difficult to conceive that his influence was so small as Boscoe represents it.
But if " the retribution" on upwards of one hundred people
* Bosooe's life of Lorenzo, p. 146. f Ibid. p. 164.
OF SAVONAROLA. 4S
savagely slaughtered " was just," his interference might hardly be expected.
The adherents of Lorenzo, the literati of his time, and the latest of his biographers, implicate a pope, a cardinal, an arch*- bishop, and some priests in the attempted crime of the assassina- tion of the Medici. They state that Sixtus the Fourth, then Pon- tiff, having two nephews (or, as Machiavelli asserts, sons), named Riario, had provided for one of them by making him a car- dinal, and was desirous of aggrandizing the other, Girolamo Riario, with the territories of the Lords of Imola and of Forli.
The Medici opposed this design, and came to the aid of those Lords of Imola and of Forli, with money and their counsel. The court of Rome took umbrage at those acts of the Medici, and determined on the extermination of the family. A Flo- rentine banker of the name of Pazzi, an enemy of the Medici, proposed their assassination to the Pope, and his holiness ap- proved of the act. TTierefare, to carry it into executton, the Cardinal Iliario was despatched to Florence to direct the can- spiracy, and Salviati, Archbishop of Florence, was charged with the arrangement of all the details of the projected mur- ders. Two priests were specially appointed to dispatch the brothers, and a solemn festival was chosen for the execution of the plans, in the church of the Reparata, at the feast of Saint Stephen ; and the cathedral of Milan had been chosen not long before f<^ the assassination of Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, who fell at the foot of the altar by the hands of similar assassins.
The whole of this statement rests on mere assertion, with the exception of the facts of a conspiracy having existed for the overthrow of the Medici, and the murder]of Julian and Lorenzo, the concoctors of which were members of the Pazzi family — of its having been attempted to be executed in the church of ihe Reparata, on the occasion of a festival, and of a priest named Stcfana having endeavoured to murder Lorenzo at the same time that his brother was assassinated.
The idea of a Pope sending a Cardinal to the capital of ano- ther state to direct the execution of a number of murders, is
44 THE LIFB AND MARTYRDOM
somewhat novel. It was a hazardous mission for a Cardinal to be sent on. But what are we to think of the care of the Pope for a nephew or a son^ whose extreme affection for his relations, we are told, had led him to contemplate very extraordinary- measures to promote their interests ? Is it likely that Pon- tiff would expose one of those relations so dear to him to the very imminent danger of a discovery or failure of the conspi- racy ? Would the Pope have no care for the character of the Church, and make choice of one of the cardinals of his court to direct a murderous plot, which any layman might have managed with less danger of attracting attention ?
Sixtus the Fourth, being the enemy of Lorenzo, has met with very scanty justice at the hands of Roscoe. The conspi- racy to murder the Medici, on the 26th of April, 1478, in the church of the Reparata, he says, was conducted by the Pope and his nephew, the young Cardinal Riario* — ** They were the real instigators of it," he asserts, and '' Salviati, the Archbishop, was the principal agent."
For proof of these assertions, we are given the fact of a con- vocation held in the church of the Reparata, summoned by Urbino, bishop of Arrezzo, and a document the result of the deliberations which took place there — ^the professed object of which was to criminate the Pope as being the chief instigator of the murderous conspiracy ; but " the extreme violence of the language used by the Synod against the Pontiff," and '^ the copious torrent of abuse" poured out by the Synod on the head of their Church, Roscoe admits, exceeded all limits of decorum.
We are told that the government of Florence had directed their chancellor, Bartholomew Scala, to draw up an historical memorial of all the proceedings of the conspiracy; — *'By which," says Roscoe, " it clearly appeared that throughout the whole transaction, the conspirators acted with the privity and assent of the Pope."t
This lengthy memorial is given in the Appendix of the Life of Lorenzo, but not a single valid proof is given of the Pope^ • Life of Lorenzo, p. 141. t Ibid. p. 157.
OF SAVONAROLA. "45
Cardinal^ or Archbishop^ having participated in the crime of * the projected murders of Lorenzo and Julian de Medici^ and the actual assassination of the latter. The evidence of tortured witnesses^ and the confessions put in the mouths of terrified wretches condemned to death, are the foundation of this charge against the Pontiff, the Cardinal, and Archbishop.* But Lo- renzo was not always at war with the Holy See.
Machiavelli tells us that " the Pope (Innocent the Eighth) had a son named Francis, and desiring much to procure for him state honours, and an advantageous alliance, in order that after his death he might be maintained, he did not know in Italy a more secure alliance for him than with the family of the Medici, and so he managed with Lorenzo, that the daughter of the latter was given in marriage to his son Francis."t
The alliance of the Pontiff's son with the noble house of the Medici led to political alliances, conjoined influences, and events of great importance — to the maintenance and origin of wars, suspended during the latter years of Lorenzo, but which terminated ultimately in the downfall of most of its republics.
Machiavelli, in his encomiums on the pattern of a prudent and fortunate Prince, Lorenzo de Medici, expatiates on the successes of Lorenzo, on all the prosperous undertakings of his life, and, amongst the rest, the elevation of his second son, Giovanni, a boy not yet thirteen years of age (the embryo Pontiff Leo the Tenth), to the dignity of a Cardinal, which great honour the Florentine historian tells us, " fu tanto piu notabile quanto fuora d'ogni passato esempio che non havendo ancora XIII anni, fu a tanto grado condotto. II che fu una scala da poter fare salire la sua casa in cielo come poi ne i tempi seguenti intervenne."J
This accomplishment of Lorenzo's great ambition for the elevation of a boy of thirteen years of age to the dignity of a
* We read in Boscoe's life of Lorenzo (p. 822), that, " two dajs before his death, the great dome of the Beparata was struck with lif^htning, and on the side which approaches towards the chapel of the Medici, a part of the building fell.** ,
t Hist. Flor. lib. viii. p. 345. % Ibid. p. 349.
46 THE LIFB AND MARTYRDOM
Caxdinal, was one of the happy events^ on account of which it was judged by Machiavelli^ that Lorenzo lived in the greatest felicity, ^' in una felicita grandissiDm," to the end of his days, in 149S, when he died, at the age of forty-four years.
This most wise and fortunate of the Medici, Machiavelli's model Prince, Roscoe's "Lorenao the Magnificent," who derived his religion £rom Plato, deemed it a master-stroke of policy to marry his daughter to the son of a Pontiff, and made the degra- dation of one of the highest dignitaries of the Church, the acquisition of a Cardinal's hat for a boy under thirteen — " a ladder to enable his house to mount to heaven, as it came to pass in after-times," as we are told by Machiavelli, with all the cool complacency of his peculiarly complimentary sarcasm.
All these things must be borne in mind by those who would read the life of Savonarola, and understand his labours.
We learn also from the Storie Florentino de Segni (ed. fol. Augusta, 1723), that Julian de Medici, the brother of Lorenzo, who was murdered by the Pazzi, in 1478, left a natural son, whom the interest of the family was powerful enough to place in the chair of St. Peter, under the name of Clement the Seventh.
Lorenzo's relations with the Holy See became so intimate, as to privilege him to advise the Holy See in matters of great delicacy.
Ranke refers to an attempt of Lorenzo de Medici to cause a Pontiff to abuse his office, and turn the advantages it afforded him to the account of his private interests. He quotes a passage from a letter of Lorenzo's, without date, but apparently of the year 1489, addressed to Pope Innocent the Eighth, in the following terms — *^ Others have not so long postponed their efforts to attain the Papal chair, and have concerned themselves little to maintain the retiring delicacy so long evinced by your Holiness. Now is your Holiness not only exonerated before God and man, but this honourable conduct may caxise you to incur blame, and your reserve may be attributed to less worthy motives. Zeal and duty lay it on my conscience to remind
OF SAVONAROLA. 47
your Holiness that no man is immortal. Be the Pontiff as im* portant as he may in his own person, he cannot make his dignity and that importance hereditary; he cannot he said absolutely to possess any thing, but the honours and emolu- ments he had secured to his kindred.''*
The facts of the case are told in a few words : Lorenzo de Medici had a daughter married to a son of the Pope ; and in his anxiety for the interest of his son-in-law, he set about removing all scruples of the Pontiff in regard to Simoniacal practices, and delicately points out the moral obligation, he endeavours to persuade his Holiness that he was imder, to turn his sacred office to the account of his private interests.
Lorenzo patronized art and architecture, he enriched artists and architects, he" embellished his capital, but he did little to establish liberty, or to secure the independence of the Republic.
His liberality, however, to artists and scholars, covered a multitude of sins against the state, — as such liberality always does. Lorenzo was incensed by all the worshippers of wealth and power of his time; the literati, the artists, the men of science, all who had patronage to expect, and eulogy to give for it, swung their censers in the air before the face of the mag- nificent Lorenzo, the god of the idolatry of the Foggios, the Foliziano, and other literati of the time.
There are no eulogies in Florentine history, ancient or modem, on Lorenzo de Medici, as a patron of learning and of ait, un- deserved. " He was the Augustus of his city, and the Meecenas of its scholars," in the words of Corsi. Florence under his guidance became a new Athens. In the words of Ermolao Barbaro, " Letters were much indebted to the Florentines, and amongst them, singiilarly so to the Medici, and amongst the Medici were particularly obliged to Lorenzo. — Molto doveano le lettere*^ Florentini ma tra questi singolarmente a Medici, h fira i Medici piu che ad ogni altri k Lorenzo."
Lorenzo the Magnificent not only patronized *^ en Prince," art and letters, and artists, and learned men, but he cultivated
♦ Fabroni, Vita Laurentii, vol. i. p. 390. Ap. Banke, vol. ii. p. 33.
48 THB LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
literature himself with great success. He was an excellent poet^ well skilled in music^ was an accomplished scholar^ a writer possessing great fecility in expressing his thoughts pre- cisely and perspicuously, a philosopher of the school of Plato, and somewhat more of a Platonist than a lover of the philosophy of the man of Tarsis, or a disciple of Him whose doctrines were transmitted to the Apostles, and by them committed to the cus- tody of the Church.
Lorenzo looked on religion as an adjunct to the civil power, to be maintained in pomp for political purposes. The Church, in his estimation, was deserving of protection, so long as its rulers were in alliance with the Medici, and disposed to pro- mote their interests.
Of the maxims of ^neas Sylvius, the subsequent Pontiff, Pius the Second, there are many which deserve to be held in remembrance, and that are applicable to all men, in all times and all circumstances. But there is one that it would have been well for Lorenzo de Medici in particular, if he had borne it in mind for his guidance and government :
'^ Every citizen should consider his house of less importance than the city ; the city than the state, the state than the world, and the whole world than the kingdom of Heaven."
There is another truism likewise of ^neas Sylvius, that might have been remembered with advantage by Lorenzo :
" Though Christianity were not attested by miracles, it should be believed by all nations, for its intrinsic worth, its confirmed moral excellencies."
Lorenzo, not long before his death, we are told by Nardi, made an important change in the fundamental law of the Re- public, creating a Council of Seventy, and giving to it very full authority to transact all the business which had been heretofore done by the several administrative, deliberative, and legislative councils. " Of the old councils of the Bepublic, nodung now remained but the shadow and the name.
" And thus," says Nardi, " by a successful issue to all things
OF SAVONAROTA. 49
undertaken by him^ Lorenzo attained such greatness, that he became little less than a legitimate and absolute sovereign.**^
It matters not to literature what solemn engagements entered into by a Prince may be broken ; it is of no importance how much perfidy has been practised, to undermine by stealth a long- established form of government, or overturn a constitution by open violence ; how much sophistry is employed to give a plau- sible appearance of adherence to principles, while it passes over manifest perversions of them in practice ; how much injury is done to public morality by those highway robberies of a people's rights, by ambitious felons in high places. All that literature feels called on to inquire about the rulers of the earth is. How are they affected towards learning? Do they patronize it? Have they done so long, and liberally ?
It is marvellous to see Italy, in the fifteenth century, though still torn by domestic factions, and ravaged by external enemies, beginning to encourage learning in its principal states and cities simultaneously, each republic and sovereignty emulous of its neighbour ; all apparently moved by one common instinct, an impulsive energy directed to the revival of arts and letters, the acquisition of liberty, the removal of the defences of feudalism from various barbarisms in society, and £rom the organized ra- pacity of despotic governments administered by military chiefs.
The fifteenth century, for Italy, was productive of more im- portant events, and of greater men, than history furnishes an account of in any preceding age, and perhaps it might be said in any subsequent one. To their influences are to be traced the grandest discoveries, the greatest stimulants to mental energy and revolutions in opinion, that have elevated all Euro- pean countries, advanced the progress of civilization in them, and affected the constitution of states and churches.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the re- sults of the downfall of the Roman Empire in the East ; the transfer to Italian libraries of the riches of ancient learning, saved from the wreck of civilization in that Christian Empire,
• Narfi, p. 12.
vol,. I. B
A
50 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
and the asylum afforded in the principal Italian States, and pre-eminently in Florence by the Medici, to the distinguished scholars of Constantinople, who had fled their ruined country ; the invention of printing ; the encouragement of arts and letters in the several courts of Italy ; the concourse of scholars, poets, philosophers, painters, sculptors, and men of mind, of all peace- ful and humanizing pursuits, in the courts of Rome, Florence, Milan, Pisa, and Ferrara,
We find, in the fifteenth century, the sure signs of a great social and intellectual revolution manifesting themselves, in the contact of men of mind with the men of force, of the poets and philosophers with the feudal lords, the soldier barons with the chiefs of all factions, who were indebted to the sword for their possessions and position ; in the triumph of civilizing art and literature, of religion, in spite of all impediments to its true power, over the brutalizing soldier-sway of feudal institutions ; in the recent restoration of the Church to the old capital of the Chris- tian world, in its strength to cope with the violence and rapacity of feudal chiefs and princes. The transition, however, from feudalism to civilization, was a state of society in which gross- ness of manners, and corruption in Church and State, had rather changed external appearances than real character. The rays of the sun of science and learning, which shone on the surface of society, had not reached the depths of it, nor penetrated far into the interior of Italian life, or into court or castles.
A man familiar with Italian history may well bless his stars that his lot was not cast in the fifteenth century ; in that Borgian Era, when incarnate fiends seemed to have been let loose on humanity, and on the Church, for its sore trial and retri- bution.
From that trial, though the Church came forth unhurt in doctrine, not unscathed did she come forth in character ; and most grievously did humanity suffer in the contest, at the close of that century, between the powers of light and darkness, in which it pleased God that some of the best men should be
OF SAVONAHOLA. 51
beaten down, and the worst men should have a triumph, and a temporary advantage.
It was the destiny of Savonarola, in the prime of life, and the full vigour of his noble intellect, to be thrown into the arena of contention in that Borgian era of Pagan iniquity arrayed in Christian vesture, and to have to fight the wild beasts of Ephe- sian wickedness in defence of truth and religion, with those oppressors who professed to protect their interests, and it was his fortune to perish in that unequal struggle.
The state to which religion was reduced, and the uses to which the power and influence of the Court of Rome were perverted at the close of the fifteenth century, when Roderigo Lenzuole and Borgia, with all the infamy of his early cioreer, a matter of public notoriety, found it possible to practice simony and corruption, with such success as to ensure his election and elevation to the throne of the Christian world, in a conclave composed of twenty-three cardinals, can only be ascertained and comprehended by a close examination of the relations between Church and State in that interval to which I have referred.
Platina's continuator of the " Vite Pontefici" — Panvinio, in reference to the election of Alexander the Sixth, says, ** The ambition and avarice of some Cardinals left them to be sub- orned.** . . . • The subornation he designates '* this infamous and mercenary work.". . . •" The foremost of these (Cardinals), Ascanio Sforza, was suborned," he says, *' without any doubt by means of a great reward."*
Guicciardini, Corio, Denina, Tiraboschi, Nardi, and several others, assert the fact of the venality of the Cardinal, and the simony and corruption practised by the Pope on this occasion.
The state of religion in the fift;eenth century, was such as the influences on it of the relations between Church and State, from the age of Constantino to the pontificate of Alexander the Sixth, might have been expected to produce.
* " L'ambitione-^ rararitia d'alcuni Cardinali si lasciarono subomsre . . . Quefito Boelerato h mercenaria opera. . . .H primo di loro,AL Asoanio Sfors% subomata senza algnn dubbio da un grosso premio.'*-^Paninnfo, in Vite
K 2
i-
52 THB LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
These subjects will be found entered into at some length elsewhere. It is only essential to the main subject of my work that the fact should be distinctly stated at the very threshold of this account of the life and labours of one, whose continual cry was against the scandals and abuses that prevailed in his time in the Court of Rome^ and the government of religion, that the Church of God was not what it had been in primitive times ; that wealth, and power, and worldly grandeur, and the cares of terri- torial possessions and of civil government, had brought great calamities upon it ; that luxury and rapacity prevailed at that period, and long anterior to it had prevailed in the Court of Rome and its sacred colleges, and that spirituality was banished from its Councils and its Churches. The dignitaries of the Church had long ceased to live after the manner of the prelates and pastors of apostolic times. The negligence of the clergy, and the secular spirit that had crept into religion, had made practical I infidels of professing Christians.
The connexion with the State had poisoned the pure atmo- "^ sphere of -truth. Everything in ecclesiastical government was contaminated by it. The few exceptions to the general rule, I fear it must be admitted, do not materially affect these observa- tions. Savonarola most assuredly was not mistaken when he affirmed that ecclesiastical government greatly needed a reform, and that many of the religious orders required to be brought back to the intentions of their founders — ^to a new sense of the piety, self-denial, humility, and poverty, which early charac- terized them, and to make the Church of God what it was in the ages of faith, and freedom from the cares of territorial wealth and government.
" Who shall grant me," cried St. Bernard, " to seethe Church of God such as she was in primitive times ?"
Bernard saw not that glorious restoration of religion, and return to the ancient piety and poverty of the faithfril.
Savonarola, too, pined for the same blessed consummation, and he, too, died without beholding it.
But St. Bernard could address language of reprehension to
OF SAVONAROLA. 68
the supreme heads of the Church of his times with impunity, which at a later period would have brought anathemas on the heads of those daring to make use of it. After the council of Pisa had put an end to the schism and the conflicting claims of the two candidates for the Pontifical throne, Bernard learned that the Pope Innocent the Second had not fulfilled a promise he had made him, to restore the Cardinal Pietro of Pisa to his former dignities, firom which he had been removed on account of his adherence to the other candidate for the chair of Peter ; he accordingly wrote to the PontiflT, '* Who shall execute judg- ment on yourself? If there were any judges before whom I could cite you, I would not fail to shew you what treatment you have deserved at my hands. I know that there is the tribunal of Jesus Christ ; but God forbid that I should accuse you before that tribunal, where, on the contrary, I would it were in my power to defend you. It is for this cause that I apply to him, who has received commission to render justice to all men. I appeal firom you to yourself***
Jacopone, a writer of celebrity of spiritual poetry, and an eminently holy man, a member of the order of St. Francis, about 1278, made the calamities of the Church the subject of a dolo- rous canticle^ beginning with the words :-^
" Piange la chiesa : piange e dolora."t
And others before them prayed, and preached, and laboured to bring back ecclesiastical affairs to their old condition. The char- ter of King Edgar " to the monastery of the Holy Mother of God, at Glastonbury,** recites : " Though the decrees of Pontiffs are fixed like the foundations of the mountains, yet, nevertheless, through the storms and tempests of secular affairs, and the cor- ruption of reprobate men, the institutions of the Church of God are often corrupted and broken.**
In the eighteenth session of the Council of Constance (18th August, 1415), a Carmelite friar, professor of theology, in Montpellier, named Bertrand Vacher, pronounced a discourse,
* Neander's Life of St. Bernard, p. 113. t Tiraboschi, torn. v. parte ii. lib. iii.
i>4 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
urgpLQg on the Council the imperatiye necessity of a prompt and efficacious reform of abuses in the Church, and, abore all, ** to put a stop to the insatiable avarice, indomitable ambition, gross ignorance, scandalous indolence, and execrable worldliness of ecclesiastics."*
" From the period of the Coimcil of Vienna," says Bossuet, " a great prelate charged by the Pope with the preparation of the matters which ought to be treated of there, laid it down as the basis of the work of that holy assembly, that it was essentud to reform the Church in its chief and in its members,*\ • . .At the Council of Basle, we are told, the Cardinal Julien represented to Pope Eugenius the Fourth the disorders of the clergy, espe- cially those of Germany, as matters for the gravest considera- tion. " Those disorders," said he, ** excite the hatred of the people against the whole ecclesiastical order ; and if they are not corrected, care is to be taken that the laity do not fail on the clergy in the manner of the Hussites, as they loudly menace us." He predicted, " that if the clergy of Germany were not promptly riformed, that when the Bohemian heresy should have been smothered, another would arise still more dangerous ; for the clergy," said he, " it will be affirmed, are incorrigible, and have no wish that a remedy should be applied to their disorders^
&c The little of respect left for the sacred office of the
priesthood will end in being lost. The whole blame of those disorders will be cast on the Court of Rome, which will be regarded as the cause of all existing evils I see," con- tinued he, '^ that the axe is laid to the root ; the tree bends, and, instead of supporting it whilst it could be done, we help to cast
it down God has taken away the perception of our
perils, as He is accustomed to do with those whom He intends to punish. The flames are kindled before us, and we nm on tiU we rush into the midst of them."t
" It is thus," says Bossuet, j: " in the fifteenth age, the greatest man of his age deplored the evils, and foresaw the sad conse-
• L'Enfant, Hist, du Concile de Confit. tome i. liv. iv. p. 452. t Hi«toire des VariationR, vol. i. liv. 1, p. 2. J Ibid. p. 4,
OF SAVOKAKULA. 55
quences of them, and seemed to predict those which Luther was about to bring on the Christian world, conmiencing with Ger- many ; and he was not deceived when he imagined, that reform being contemned, and the hatred against the clergy redoubled, an enemy was about to be produced, more formidable to the Church than the Bohemian one/^
Saronarola saw with that quickly penetrating and discerning "f- power of vision which belongs to genius of the highest order, if not with organs of intellectual vision, endowed with more than natural gifts and inspirations, — ^that terrible calamities were impending over the Church, that the acquisition of territorial wealth and influence, and of inordinate affluence arising from the possessions of the Church, in real and personal estate, could not fail to excite cupidity in the breasts of secular princes.
He foresaw the result of this great crime against one of the first principles of Christian doctrine : that attempts would be made to -discredit the clergy, to lessen their influence, to hurt their authority, to defame, and then to plunder them ; that the clergy in return, to defeat those attempts of brutal and rapacious men, would fall into the commission of acts imworthy of the clerical character ; sometimes of violence, other times of chica- nery and intrigue, and of choler, too, going to the extent of a terrible misapplication of the uses of spiritual power.
It was with a profound conviction of those evils impending over the Church, and with a most earnest desire and heart-felt anxiety to stay them, and to ward off*, if it were possible, the anger and retribution of heaven, that he exclaimed, in the lan- guage that of old belonged to those inspired by heaven : —
" Pray God that it may be permitted to me to preach the gospel to unbelievers. But we commend our bark to God, that he may come to its aid if it should strike on rocks. "^-^Z^a< Ser. of Sav. in Flor. 1495.
56 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
CHAPTER I.
EARLY CAREER OF SAVONAROLA^ FROM HIS CHILDHOOD TO HIS ENTRANCE INTO RELIGIOUS LIFE IN 1476, IN HIS TWENTY- THIRD YEAR. SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY IN THE TIME OF
SAVONAROLA, AND ANTECEDENT TO IT.
" I entered the cloister to learn how to suffer ; and when sofferingB risited me, I made a study of them, and they taught me to lore always, and to forgiye always." — Sermon qf Savonarola,
The ancient and honourable family of Girolamo Savenarola was originally of Padua. The first of them who came to settle in Ferrara was Michele, the grandfather of the subject of this his- tory, a distinguished professor of the physical sciences, and a phy- sician of great eminence, distinguished for his medical writings.
He was invited to the Court of Ferrara by Nicolo D'Este, Marquis of that territory, and accepting the invitation, repaired to Ferrara, and established himself there with his family. This must have been prior to 1440 ; for the Marquis Nicolo ceased to govern Ferrara, if not to exist, in that year.*
The paternal grandfather of Girolamo, Michele Savonarola, who was bom in 1384, had the distinction conferred on him, at an early period of his career, of the Cross of the Order of the Knights of Rhodes. He wrote several treatises on medical subjects, of which Castellan treats in his ViUB lUustrarum Medi- corumj Yander Linden in his learned work, de Scriptoribus M edicts, and Tiraboschi extensively in his Storia delta Letteratura Jtalia7ui,f Nicolo Savonarola, the son of Michele, married Anna Helena Buonacorsi, a lady of Mantua, of a noble family,
* Sansovine, Case lUnstri D'ltalia, p. 869.
fXhe principal works of Michele Savonarola are the following: — 1- Com- pendium Medicin» ; 2. Opusculum Physionomis ; 3. De Balncii et
OF SAVONAROLA. 57
of' whose connexion with important events in Italian his- tory, we have many notices in Gxdcciardini's and Muratori's works.
Of seven children by this marriage, five were boys, and two girls, llie eldest son, named Ognibene, served with some dis- tinction in the army. The second son was named Bartholomeo. The third, Girolamo, the subject of this biography, was bom in Ferrora, the 21st of September, 145S, and was remarkable, even in his childhood, for gravity, composure, and devotion. The fourth, named Marco Aurelio,* entered the church, became a secular priest, and, ultimately, a Dominican Friar, having re- ceived the habit from his brother Girolamo. The fiflh son was named Alberto— he studied medicine, and became distinguished for scholarship, benevolence, and amiability of disposition. The eldest daughter was named Beatrice, who died unmarried ; the other, Clara, married, and on the death of her husband, went to reside with her brother Albert. Of the mother of these children scarcely anything is to be found respecting her character, intel- lectual qualities, or career, recorded in cotemporaneous his- tories. In two very long letters addressed to her by her son Girolamo, after he had entered religious 'life, we have aU the information relating to her that is known to exist ; and all that is valuable in those communications which have been recently brought to light by Padre Marchese, will be found in a succeed- ing chapter.
The education of the young Girolamo had been taken charge of by his grandfather, Michele ; and there can be little doubt, from the notices of his writings that are to be found in Tiraboschi,
Thermis ; 4. Fractica de Mffrita^ne ; 6. De Arte Conficendi Aquas Vita ; 6. Introductio in Medicinam Practicam ; 7. Libra de Natune ; 8. De Mag* nificia Omamentis Begiee Civitatis Padua ; 9. Disputatio tra la Grotta h Mediciua Dedicato Alio Illustre Principe Marchese Nicolo da Este. An edition of this work, printed in Pavia, 4to., 1509, is in the author's posses- sion. The subject of it is treated with great ability, manifesting very extensive knowledge and experience, and no inconsiderable degree of wit and humour. * Mirandola mentions him as Maurelio, or Marcus.
>
58 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
and from a work of his particularly^ treating of Padua> that he was admirably fitted for the tajsk he had undertaken*
Deaths however, unfortunately deprived the young Girolamo, at an early age, of his kind and able instructor, Michele, who died * about 1462, in his seventy-ninth year, when Girolamo was only ten years of age. The father of Girolamo soon after caused hiin to attend the lectures in the public schools of science and letters in Ferrara, where the scholastic theology of that age was much in vogue. In those vague subtleties, in attempts to master which the miad of youth was then frittered away, Savonarola's time and talents were likewise employed for some time, till at lengthy dis- gusted with the jargon and dialectics of Axistotle, he discarded that pagan philosopher, and betook himself to the study of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, and on that foundation and the L^ Holy Scriptures he chiefly built the structure of his religious, faith.
We are told by Burlamacchi, that " during the life of his grandfather he made good progress in grammar and Latinity. Afterwards, when his father made him apply to the study of the liberal sciences, he shewed the finest talents and most acute in- tellect ; and to these studies he applied himself day and night, with such assiduity, that in a short time he became famous for his acquirements, far surpassing all others of his fellow-students. Nor did he profit less in the study of good manners, and of holy morals. While yet in the tender years of childhood, it was his delight to be alone, employing himself in making little altars, and performing acts of devotion."
Later he gave himself up wholly to the study of sacred theology, devoting to it nearly all his time, except the leisure which he reserved for the composition of Tuscan verse, to which he was passionately addicted. *^ He followed in philosophy the peripatetic system of Aristotle," observes Burlamacchi, " but
* TiraboBchi makes mention of Michele as the author of two works in praise of Padua — " Laudi Padoun" — ^written by him in 1443, and for the first time published by Mi^^tori in his great work Scrip. Italic, vol. xxiv. pp. 1137i et seq. Stor. deUa Let. Ital. torn. v. part i. p. 193.
OF SAVONAROLA. 59
prbicipally of St. ThomaBj from whote writings he said * he had V learned nearly all the knowledge he had acquiredy deeming that saint the most excellent philosopher who had ever appeared among the Latin sages.' In studying the sentiments of other men, he did not adopt the peculiar conceits and notions of the authors whom he read, but formed his own opinions, and always turned his regard towards truth and reason. When he found Bome author whose writings did not satisfy him, he conld not be induced to continue its perusal, but freely told his preceptors it did not please him."*
Of the pleasure he once took in the philosophy of Plato, he said at a later period of his career, in one of his discourses in public — " I was then in the error of the schools, and I studied with great assiduity the Dialogues of Plato, but when God brought me to see the true light, I destroyed and cast away from me those futilities which they had inspired me with the idea of writing. What does all this wisdom of philosophy serve for, if a poor old woman, established in the faith, knows more of the true wisdom than Plato ?"
When the yovmg Girolamo commenced his studies in the public schools of Ferrara, the divina Caligo of dogmatic theology was at its height, all the false science of the scholastic philosophy and metaphysics reigned in the university.
For many years his time and talents were given to these pur- suits with evident reluctance. But, fortunately for him, the high gifts of genius, and that most rare accompaniment of it, strong, sound, justly-discriminating common sense, preserved his mind from being injured or impaired by this long devotion of its powers to the mere external appliances to knowledge. However wearied his faculties may have been in the course of those protracted studies, by the " fratras et jargon d'Aristote," it is certain his reasoning powers were sharpened by the habits thus acquired, of close investigation of all propositions he had to deal with ; and while other students turned this one advantage of their pursuit to the account of " their school phi-
* Bur. Vit. da Sav. torn. i. p. 631.
v/
60 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
losophy" alone^ Savonarola made it subservient to the purposes of all true spiritual knowledge^ the aim and end of which was the attainment of the science of the saints — an acquaintance with the wisdom of Christ, and the mystery of the cross.
In the time of Savonarola, the ecclesiastical theology was in full vogue in all the Italian schools, colleges, and conventual establishments. It pervaded all literature dedicated to religion, and had taken possession of all the chairs of the universities, and all the pulpits of the Italian churches. This &Gt requires to be borne in mind, for it will be found that Savonarola's nu- merous treatises and sermons, though they manifest a perfect acquamtance with it, and an extensive use of its formulas and technicalities, exhibit also a settled purpose to substitute for it a scriptural theology, and to introduce into his discourses and exhortations the spirit of Christianity, and the science of the Saints, instead of the subtleties of Aristotle, Abelard* Scotus, / and Peter Lombard.
This innovation was looked on by Savonarola's ecclesiastical contemporaries, by the rationalists of the schools, and the so- phists of the academies, with alarm and distrust. The interests of religion were thought to be endangered by it. There was a sort of veneration for Aristotle, a blind imreasoning acquies- cence in the prevailing opinion that was entertained, of the absolute necessity of his system of ethics, for the explanation and illustration of the great truths of Christianity. This sen* timent of devotion had a certain degree of pagan idolatry in it.
Minutius Felix, afler examining the various systems of the pagan philosophy, came to conclusions not very favourable to the " wild speculations of learned men," the deliramenta doe- trina of the several religions he inquired into.
Had he examined the various systems of scholastic theology of a later period, perhaps he might have referred to his former judgment, on the other deliramenta doctrivuB of the heathen theo- logians, for his opinion of their merits.
" In my opinion, the whole of their systems present to us nothing but the gross darkness of ignorance, and the blackness
OF SAVONAROLA. ' 61
of deceit^ with errors wide and infiiiite ; mere fancies^ and crude conceptions^ and ignorance which sets all comprehension at defiance. I have therefore submitted to examine them, from a desire to point out the contradictions which prevail in their writings, and to show that they lead into discussions incapable either of limit or of definition ; and further to convince you, that the end and result of them all is unsatisfactory and pro- ductive of no advantage whatsoever ; without any support from matter of fact, or from the evidence of reason.**
The Greeks and the Romans had their " scholastiii theolo- gians,*' and very contentious and bewildering elucidators of sound doctrine were they.
" These descendants of Thales were, by all accounts, a set of vain and wordy rhetoricians, really very ignorant, while pretend- ing to know and explain everything. But to form adepts con- summate in the wiles and chicane of sophistry was their chief ambition."*
*' When Abelard commenced his studies," says the author of Les Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des Egaremens de L'Esprit Humain, " philosophy was divided into three parts, logic, morals, physic. Of these three parts, logic was chiefly cultivated, and it included metaphysics. Logic was only the art of ranging under certain classes the different subjects of human knowledge, of giving them names, and of forming on these names reasonings or syllogisms."
Abelard extended the science to the explanation of dogmas of faith, established by authority, so as to render them by ex- planation intelligible to reason. " He undertook to explain the mysteries and truths of religion, and to render them cogni- zable to the senses, by comparisons, and to combat the objections raised by sophists, who attacked religion, by the authority of philosophers, and by the principles of (profane) philosophy.f
* Eome as it was under Paganism* and as it is under the Popes, vol. i. p. 25. f Les Memoires, Ac. 12mo. tome i. p. 273. Paris, 1762.
62 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
Abelard^ who flourished in the middle of the twelfth century, and died in 1142, discussed theological questions on the Aris- totelean system of ethics, and was the first writer who gave notoriety to this mode of dealing with sacred subjects. His efforts at establishing a scholastic divinity were improved on by his disciple Peter Lombard, *' The Master of the Sentences,** whose celebrated work, *' The Sentences," appeared in 1172.
Peter Lombard was cast into the shade by Albertus Magnus, a Dominican monk of great erudition, who has left behind a vast legacy of obsolete learning in twenty-one volumes; he flourished ia the latter part of the thirteenth century, and died in Cologne, in 1280.
It has been said of him, as it was said of Cicero, by a writer of huge tomes of his time, '^ His body might have been burnt to ashes with his books alone.'*
The ponderous tomes of Albertus Magnus consist chiefly of commentaries on Aristotle, and adaptations of his metaphysics to all sorts of subjects and reasonings on their presumed con- nexion with theology.
Albertus Magnus, in his turn, was eclipsed by his illustrious disciple Thomas Aquinas, a man of gigantic intellect, and most wonderful attainments, a member of his order, " The Angel of the Schools," " The Angelical Doctor," '' The Eagle of The- ology," who flourished likewise in the latter part of the thir- teenth century, and died before his master in 1274, leaving seventeen volumes in folio of scholastic divinity, but of matter and doctrine widely different from the re-produced ethics of Aristotle, and rhetorical subtleties of that kind, which had been transferred to the pages of all his metaphysical prede- cessors " of the Schools.*'
Thomas Aquinas accomplished works, the labour of which might have been deemed more than suflicient for the occupation of three or four lives of a long duration. He died, however, at the early age of forty-eight years.
Above all the scholastic theologians of his time, he dis- tinguished himself for making the Holy Scriptures, and the
OF SAVONAROLA. 63
decisions of the Cliiirch the touchstone of all doctrines, in contradistinction to those who applied the ethics of metaphy- sicians^ primarily or solely, to the elucidation of mysteries of faith, or questions in theology. He founded a new school of scholastic divinity, and he brought to his task a vast genius, just in its conceptions, quick to perceive, and stable in its con- victions ; profound and lucid, marvellously acute and penetra- ting, and imbued with a spirit of piety, which predominated in all his undertakings, and shed an influence over his writings, that were looked upon in his time as the results of superhuman knowledge. He disembarrassed religious enquiries from the trivial subtleties of mere logicians, and established a solid critical science of inquiry into matters that are essential to religion.
To the genius of John Duns Scotus, an Irish Franciscan, of vast intellectual powers and theological acqtdrements, the subtle doctor of the schools, who was bom about 127S, and died in Cologne in 1308, is mainly due the merit (once above all praise) of reducing the ethics of Aristotle into a disputative science adapted to ecclesiastical enquiries, a system of philosophy held to be applicable to the solution of all theological speculations and settlement of controversial subjects, in an argumentative manner strictly rational. Many attempts to do this had been made by others before John Scotus, but not with the success that crowned the labours of the latter, in the opinion of Mos-* heim, and many of the most eminent theological writers.
John Duns Scotus exhausted his vital powers, even at an earlier age than St. Thomas of Aquinas ; he completed his twelve folio volumes, and ended all his labours, before he had attained his thirty-fifth year. Scotus, in all his latter works, seemed to write as if he thought a special mission had been as- signed to him d rehabiliter Aristotle in the schools of theology, and to bring the new system of theological criticism, established by St. Thomas, into disrepute. Hence arose the wordy war in the schools of the Thomists and the Scotists, and the battles be- tween the partisans of the universali a parte rei doctrine main- tained by Scotus, and the universale a parti mentis supported
64 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
by bis opponents, in which such a vast deal of ink was shed to little purpose.
Of such disputations, as of similar speculations of old, it might be said : '^ It is far easier to comprehend the doctrine of the rising and setting of the stars, than to understand these strange contortions and eccentricities of speech."
A new school divinity champion in the course of a few years made his appearance on this stage of the controversy, in the person of an eminent Dominican, Bishop Durand, or Durandus, in the see of Puy, in 1318, and of Meaux in 1326. This cele- brated prelate wrote commentaries on *' The four books of the Sentences." The art of subtilizing theological speculations,* and demolishing dialectics of former schoolmen, " d'une maniere extremement tranchante," acquired for Durandus great celebrity in his time, and obtained for him the honours of a martyrdom of censures and controversies for a large portion of his life, with opponents of his opinions, or rather misinterpreters of his terms concerning the important subject of the " Concours immediat" and the " Creation continuel.**
" Le Docteur tr^s Resolutif," though a man of great wit and genius, who is said to have mystified "The Sum "of St. Thomas very considerably, who combated his opinions, and involved the subtleties of John Duns Scotus in more inextricable perplexities than they were in before, and who encumbered " The four books of the Sentences " with a vast amount of explanatory matter and additions, from other writings on the same subject, that mystified the old scholastic theology, by an eclectic admixture of metaphysics, — left scholastic theology in a worse condition than he found it, when he died, in 1333.
The great misfortune of the all-absorbing taste for scholastic theology, was the want of inclination and of leisure which it oc- casioned for the pursuit of more ennobling as well as useful studies. '' Qidbus occupatus et obsessus animus quantulum loci bonis artibus relinquit." (Dial, de Oratoribus, sec. 29.)
In the many wars waged with an excessive zeal, sometimes bordering on ferocious ardour and internecine fury, by the
OP SAVONAROLA. 65
champions of the several controverted opinions in scholastic theology, none were carried on with greater bitterness, and sometimes savagery, than the disputes between the Nominalists and the Realists. Their principal differences seem to have been occasioned by their disagreements respecting the existence or non-existence of abstract or universal ideas.
Gerson, in his day, represented, by the universal consent of Catholic Doctors, the opinions of the Nominalists. Huss, on the other hand, had to contend for his life too, with the odium that was cast on him by Gerson, at the Council of Constance, on account of the notoriety of the Realist principles he advocated when he was in France.
In conclusion, on this subject of scholastic divinity, it may be observed, that with all its iinprofitable wars of words and sbam fights of opinion, rhetorical niaserics, formulas, and sophisms in all the solemn garbs of dialectics, it exercised the reasoning powers, gave acumen and precision to modes of thought and style of composition. And thus scholastic divinity eventually rendered the same service to theology that alchemy did to che- mistry and metallurgy.
In the condition which Durandus left scholastic theology, in 1333, Savonarola fovmd it, when he entered the Dominican order, and took the habit in the year 1476.
The mind of the young friar of Ferrara was not of a nature to receive such teaching as was to be derived from the pages of these scholastic theologians. The very names of Aristotle, Abelard, Scotus, and Durandus, eventually became odious to him.
His spirit pined after truth, the truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures, taught by the Church of Christ, inculcated in the works of the fathers, discernible in the simplicity of Christian life, the triumph of the Cross, the mystery of mysteries, the re demption of mankind.
His mind was occupied with the sacred duty of preserving the precious deposit of the faith, the spouse of the Holy Spirit of Truth, the Church of Christ, to which the care of that de- posit had been committed, uncontaminated, uncorrupted, and
VOL. I. . F
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66 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
spotless as the mother of his Lord. These were the great sub- jects of meditation on which all the faculties of Savonarola were fixed. He had no taste for any studies or pursuits, save those which were calculated to refine, to improve, to elevate the in- tellectual character and social position of his fellow-men. He thought that the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, more than all other philosophical productions, were calculated to produce such effects. A very slight acquaintance with the works of Savonarola is sufficient to shew what a profound study he had made of the works, and especially of " The Sum" of St. Thomas. The best evidence of the excellent and extensive use he made of those works, will be found in his principal treatises, " Tri- umphus Crucis," and " De SimpUcitate Vitae Christianae," and especially in his discourse, " Circa il Reggimento e Governo degli Stati e Specialmente sopra el governo della citta di Firenze," a production which embodies the principles and opinions of St. Thomas's most remarkable treatise on government, "De Regimine Principis.**
All historians who treat of Savonarola are agreed on one point, that his youth was full of promise, and of evidence of great virtues, as well as extraordinary intellectual endowments. And all those who make themselves acquainted with his history and his writings, become convinced that he possessed a singular combination of qualities, fitted to constitute an eminently great and heroic man, destined to influence the most important events of his time ; and as the master-spirit of his age, to make not only a powerful impression on the minds of his fellow-men, of his ovni age and country, but to leave a lasting impression on the minds of men of succeeding ages, throughout the civilized world.
He possessed all the qualities which one might expect at the hands of nature, for a man to whom a great mission had been given by Divine Providence. His physical conformation was adapted to the office, and fitted for the labours of a Reformer.
Though of a sanguineous temperament, and his nervous sys- tem most delicately organized, rendering him remarkably sus- ceptible of external impressions, and sensitive even to atmo-
OP SAVONAROLA. 67
spherical influences^ he possessed bodily strength and robustness^ that made him capable of enduring great fatigues, of going through extraordinary labours. He possessed, moreover, a penetrating spirit, an ardent love of truth and justice, natural feelings that were affectionate, kind, and pitiful. He had strong sympathies with poverty and suffering, and equally strong an- tipathies for pride, oppression, and meanness of every kind.
The simplicity of his nature was strongly contrasted with the enthusiasm of his zeal, the heroism of his character, the vivacity y. of his genius, and the inflexible adherence to the principles of true Christian morality, when he had to deal with sophistry^ error, injustice, or impiety.
The peculiar character of Savonarola's mind, and the con- sciousness of his mission, are very manifest in two poems of his ; , the earliest of those sacred lyrics of the young man of Ferrara, whose love of study and of solitude was already beginning to attract the attention of his friends, and of his instructors and fellow-students.
The earliest of the poems of Savonarola, the Canzona " De
Ruina Mundi," was composed in 1472, in his twentieth year.
This piece is a lamentation for the calamities of the times, the
prevalence of luxury, avarice, and impiety, couched in poetry
more remarkable for its vigorous expression than the exquisite
harmony which distinguishes that of Petrarch, but breathing a
spirit of lofty enthusiasm, and love of virtue and of religion,
which Petrarch was a stranger to. If it were not for his belief
in Providence, the author of the " Canzona de Ruina Mimdi,**
tells his readers in the first stanza, he would have been utterly
confounded at the frightful aspect of the world, tiimed from
God, and devoted to unworthy pursuits ; and at the continual
encounter of men forgetful of God, despisers of his mercy, or
deniers of his attributes. Sceptres, he tells us, had passed into
the hands of pirates ; Religion had turned her face earthwards,
and crawled in the midst of worldly lures and grovelling cares :
" A terra ra San Fietro Quivi lussuria ed ogni preda abbonda Che non to come '1 oiel non se oonfonde.*'
F 2
68 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
The earth appears^ in fact^ to him oppressed with every ▼ice ; and Rome^ the chief of nations^ hangs her head, as if she was sensible of the other great ruin that had fallen on her. Every one around her seems disposed to add something, to her sorrows. It seems to him the time was past of piety, the time was past of purity :
" Fassata h il tempo pic e il tempo Casta."
The canzona ends with some very remarkable words, ad- dressed to the Spirit of his song.
Audin de Rians, the collector and publisher .of the Poems of Savonarola,* states this canzona was composed by Savonarola prior to his entering the Dominican order. It has some internal evidence in it of the fervour of youth and classical lore of a poetical imagination, influenced by the prevailing taste of the fifteenth century, for allusions in the same poetical pieces to sacred and profane personages. But de Rians, nevertheless, observes of this poem : " In this canzona, as in the other " — De Ruina EcclesisB — " we find not the divine refinement of some other Italian poets ; but, reading it, one feels all the pure love, fiiU of energy and zeal for what was just and good, that burned in the soul of the young man of Ferrara."
I have endeavoured to render this poem into English verse as faithfully to the thoughts of its author as it was in my power to do, and so far, I hope, I have been successful.
Surely, the mind of the young man of twenty, from which proceeded the deep thoughts we find given expression to in this canzona, was of no common order.
He by whom it was composed, it is said, at that period of his career, was more familiar with the philosophy of Plato than with any other ethics. But there are evidences in it, as de Rians has truly observed, of a spirit of pure love, and a great zeal for justice and goodness.
• Foetie de JeroDimo Savonarola, 8vo. Firenza, 1847.
OF SAVONAROLA. 69
THE CANZONA " DE EUINA MUNDI,"
C0MP08BD BY SAVONABOLA IN 1472, AT THB AGB OF TWBVTY.
I.
Euler of earth, thy Providence I know
Ib infinite, else were this world of ours A dreary Chaos, finding as we do
Disorder all around, and all the powers Of virtue and of morals in men's cores
Spent and exhausted, and no shining light Of fidth, no shame of vice, but folly that ignores
Thy law, or deems thy justice sleeps — Thy might
Has failedf and scoffs at all that's sacred in thy sight
II.
Wisdom divine perhaps retards the doom
Of man for hu defection ; it may be That retribution's near — ^its sword will come
With direst terrors soon and suddenly. Virtue at last this world of ours will flee —
Here home, or shrine, or altar she has- none ; The sceptre's swayed by men who wait for prey ;
Justice, religion, goodness are unknown,
One only wonders how mankind are not undone.
III.
See how the satyr revels in delights, How proud, licentious, vicious in the extreme :
The spirit sickens at those carnal sights — Here men in purple, there in motley seem.
Blind admiration's idols, and its theme. How long, O Lord, those scenes wilt thou endure
Of riot on &e part of those who deem Their usurpation sanctioned and secure, While thy true servants suffer daily more and more P
TV.
Happy he's deemed who now by rapine thrives. By bloodshed even prospers all the more ;
By spoil of widows and of orphans' lives. And by the ruin of the helpless poor.
70 th£ life and martyrdom
The maa ii held to have the noblest core By force or firaud most booty who obtains,
Contemns the gospel, and by ey*ry Inre Seeks from a world that smiles on Gbdless gains, Its worthless honours, and that aim of his attains.
V.
The earth with every yioe is so oppressed,
The sum cazmot be told ; Eome even now, With downward look and anguish in her breast.
Sees her great office marred by friend and foe. How this new ruin fills her heart with woe.
To see what Marius, SyUa, left undone. Accomplished by her sons and daughters too,
Each warring with her peace and her renown :
The times of faith indeed and chastity are gone I
VI.
Now downcast worth and goodness fold their wings. The rabble shout, the thoughtless jest and smile ;
And luxury in syren accents sings, And grave philosophy doth e'en beguile
The few who keep in the right road ; meanwhile All hope would sink within me at this doom.
To see the triumphs of the false and vile ; But that I know the reign of Christ will come. With joy for justice, for all oppressions grief and gloom.
I
FINALS.
Oh, muse of mine I be it thy destiny
To leave the purple vesture still unsought, To fly the palace and the court, and be
A chary keeper of thy heart's deep thought ; A stranger to the wisdom that is fraught
With worldly instincts and a foe to men Of worldly minds, of sordid views : let nought.
Oh muse of mine, thy spotless plumage stain,
Or the swift pinion, as it soars on high restrain.
The most poetical compositioii of Savonarola is of a date three years later than the preceding; and the evils that had fallen on the Church, are the subject of it.* The first intimation
• This piece was written twenty years before the time of Alexander.
OF SAVON AKOLA. 71
of the mission on which the young man of Ferrara was about to enter^ and which, with all its perils and responsibilities, seems to be clearly and distinctly before his eyes, is given in this poem. But that intimation is clothed in such allegorical lan- guage, and with such apparently purposed obscurity and mys- ticism, for motives of prudence no doubt necessary for safety in those evil times, that the difficulty of translating this poem so as to make the true meaning of every passage intelligible to the English reader, is far greater than that of translating the other piece.
If critics may find some evidence of a close acquaintance with the works of Plato in the canzona " De Ruina Mundi," they will certainly find much more evidence of an intimate acquaintance with the Holy Scriptiires, and a predilection in particular for the Apocalypse of St. John, in the next poem of his in the order of time and of composition, '^De Ruina Ecclesise."
This piece was written the same year he entered into reli- gious life ; but whether immediately before or after that date, is unknown.
THE CANZONA " DE EUINA ECCLESLE."
COMPOSBD ABOUT 1475, (JBTATB lUCTORICT, 23.)
I,
Oh thou chaste Yir^n ! thy nnworthy son
(Since thy eternal spouse approves that claim) In sadness oft recalls those times bye-gone.
Of glorious perils, martyrdoms, of fsme For ignominious death, of the bright flsme
Of faiih. Alas ! those times exist no more, Zeal there is none : the men are not the same ;
Heroic Christian men they were of yore, The pristine love must now be sought in Mary's core.
n.
Alas 1 where must we seek the precious stones P The burning lamps of faith, the sparkling gems P
The tenderness of heart, the tears and groans P Where the white stoles and the sweet hymns P
72 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
The zone of chastity, the eyangelic themes P
The Apostolic twelve, the great wings, where The eagle and the lion P no brightness beams
In those dark symbols are aronnd thee here.
Thou chaste one, tell me why thy griefs are so serere P
in.
The ancient holy mother I addressed.
Made with accustomed sadness my demand, And she likewise with sorrows long oppressed,
Tho' poor, most pitiful, now pressed my hand, And deigned e'en while she wept thus to respond :
" When I see Pride on holy ground intrude. And worldly schemes by sacred persons planned.
My wearied spirit sinks, its strength's subdued,
But theirs with greater courage seems to be imbued.
IV.
** Oh, son ! " she cried, " those ruthless deeds behold.
Things are revealed, from stones might call forth tears. No plants of living faith or truth unfold
Their leaves : no ancient purity appears. Oh, piteous sight ! enough to cause the spears
And swords of Pagan Bome itself to rise And make the work of retribution' theirs !
The milk that nourished souls, our sons despise ;
The breast that teemed with love now bleeds before their eyes.
V.
" Virtue still goes in rags, with pallid cheeks.
With hair disheveUed and with garland torn. The virgin honey of sweet doctrine seeks.
But for all food to heathen lore must turn. The scorpion's sting by her must still be bome,
The serpent's wile, the locust's nuschief hence. Her sacred cause and mine have I to mourn ;
Her solemn feasts and shrines made a pretence For acts that only give the saints of GkKl offence !
VI.
" Weep for the wrongs religion has endured. Ye aged men, who stand around the throne, 4.po8t1eB, Saints, Disciples of the Lord, Angels of heaven, Evangelists, look down,
OF SAVONAROLA. 73
Martyrs weep tears of blood, there is not one Of all the stars and planets unrestrained
In their swift oourse, exulting in each zone. To speak as mortals feel — that is not pained To see the Temple spoiled and the white marble stained.
VIII.
" Oh say, chaste mother ! " I exclaimed once more,
" Whose soul contents itself with plaints of woe, What strength remains of all thy wasted power P
What pride is this that dares to war with you P She speaks of foul ooiruption, as her foe ;
And I of force and ardour to restrain The mighty wings of pride and lay them low.
But words like these with her are worse than vain.
For she needs only tears and prayers from mortal men."
FINALS.
Spirit of song, I know those strains of mine,
The scorpion sting of slander must endure ; Or it may be, that men will not diyine
Their meaning, and perhaps 'tis even more To be desired, they should my thoughts ignore —
For my own peace of mind — ^nay, better too. Leave the dread struggle with abuse and power,
And thus for quiet sake the task forego.
That seems to be imposed on me, for weal and woe.
I have endeavoured to give the true sense, but have no idea of having done justice to the poetry of the original.
We are told that Girolamo Savonarola was a silent, joyless child, given to seclusion — ^that he shared neither in the amuse- ments nor occupations of young people of his age ; that he arrived to the age of twenty, without ever having been seen in the fashionable resort for the citizens of Ferrara, the public promenade.
One of his biographers, however, says that he had been strongly attached to a young lady of Ferrara ; but how or when that attachment ceased, no information is given.*
* In Fontanini's Bibliotheca dell Eloquenza Italiani con le Annotaxioni del SigQore Apostolo Zeno, Ven, 4to. 1753, refereoce is made to a poem of
74 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
The latest of his biographers^ Monsieur Carle, justly observes, that the peculiar qualities of the young Savonarola, however calculated they were to fit the future man for enterprizes of great pith and moment, are still indicative of a destiny that may well make the parents of such children thoughtAil if not apprehensive in regard to their future career.
The young Girolamo grew up to manhood in a world of his own creation, of deep thoughts and isolemn meditation on sub- jects of grave importance to the eternal interest of humanity. One opinion of his mind, from a very early period of his career,. £rom his first entrance into college life, was a profound con- viction of the vanity of all earthly honours and enjoyments.
This peculiar turn of his mind was noticed but mistaken by some of those aroiind him, as similar peculiarities in young people are too frequently noticed and mistaken. He was sup- posed to be melancholy, misanthropical, over - studious, too much reserved, too little disposed to demonstrate his feelings and inward emotions. And those who thought thus were little able to appreciate his mental qualities, or to form a just opinion of the height and depths of his great intellect.
" Woe ! " says Carle, " in all its accimiulated wretchedness, woe to those in the constitution of whose intellectual qualities nature seems to make a sport of her ordinary rules I Woe I especially to those who have never known the joys of childhood, and in coming into life who seem to bring with them the tem- perament of matured man and the mind of advanced age, when the energy of ripened intellect, and the seriousness that usually comes with the cares and weight of years, establish their seat in the breast of youth ! Of such persons we may prognosticate that their lives will pass in agitation, fluctuations (of fortune) of thought, in flights of ambition, regrets, passionate desires, and the isolation of mind which is caused by sadness. Christianity
Savonarola entitled the " Cameo," of a lighter strain than any of his other pieces, and even of undue levity ; but there is no notice of ahy such poem in any of the biographers I have seen of Fra Girolamo, nor in any of the rest of his writings given elsewhere.
OF SAVONAROLA. 75
alone can turn away the miseries of such a wretched state of existence^ and render all those dispositions useful and holy, and beneficial to themselves and others."*
For the same reasons, then, for which Socrates abstained from frequenting public assemblies^ courts, and senates, and from motives also of a far more exalted character, Savonarola deter- mined on seeking an asylum from the perils by which he felt that not only his own soul, but the whole social fabric was beset, and even religion itself was menaced, in those disastrous times in which his youth was cast, with all its enthusiasm and exaltation, its longing aspirations after good, and abhorrence for everything sordid, selfish, and profane.
A monastic community appeared to him alone to afford such an asylum.
He earnestly desired to be permitted to spend his days in a convent ; but so great was his humility, and so exalted his ideas of the perfection which was required for the priestly character, that he deemed himself unworthy of sacred orders, and enter- tained no intention of taking them, when he resolved on retiring from the world.
The choice of a religious order was determined by his admi- miration for his favourite author, St. Thomas of Aquinas. Of his early feelings of reverence for " The Angel of the Schools," we may form some idea from a passage in one of his sermons long after he had joined his order, wherein he proclaimed his obligation to St. Thomas, for whatever knowledge or science he possessed, in those terms : —
" I am almost nothing, and even that little which I am, I possess because I have kept within the influence of his doc- trine. He was truly profound, and when I want to become small in my own eyes, I read his works, and then it appears to me that he is a giant, and I nothing."
The idea which had been long floating in his mind, of relin- quishing the world, and dedicating himself wholly to the service
* Histoire de Hieronymo Savonarola, par Fi|?et Carle, page 69, 8yo. Paris.
-h
/
76 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
of religion^ was at length confirmed^ and converted into a settled purpose, by a sermon of a monk of the Augustinian Ermitano order, an ascetic of some celebrity in the pulpit, and also by a sudden impulse which had been communicated to his mind in a dream, which some of his biographers speak of as a supernatural intimation of his vocation for a monastic life.
So Savonarola understood it, and, like Abraham, he imagined a command was given to him — ^^ egredere de terra tua et de Cognatione tua et de patris tui et veni in terram quam mons- traveris tibi." *
And after a little, like Abraham, *' profectus inde in terram Australem et habitavit inter Cades et Assur ;" and if we adopt the interpretation of this passage by John Scotus Erigena, *^ hoc est inter sanctificationem et squanimitatem ; inter quas in SBtema requie omnis sanctonim felicitas constituta est."t
On the 2Srd of April, 1475, Savonarola, then in his twentjr- third year, a young man of fair prospects, of fine talents, and more than ordinary proficiency in science and learning, aban- doning the world, home, parents. Mends, and all earthly goods, quitted his father's house for the asylum of a cell in a convent of Dominicans.
He was accompanied by a young man, a native of Bologna^ named Ludovico, a member of the Dominican order, the only person to whom the secret of his flight had been communicated. His intention at departure was to enter into the Dominican con- vent at Bologna as a lay-brother, and as such to take up his permanent abode there.
He told John Francis Pico de Mirandola, in after-years, that it was his firm intention not to assume the clerical habit when he entered the convent, so repugnant to him was the prevailing taste among ecclesiastics for mere human knowledge, and the occupation of their time in futile disputations and distinctions in
* Sav. Sennon xi. Feria 4 dope Imo. domenioa de quaresima Anno 1497. t De Divisione Natur», p. 222. 4to. Oxon. 1681. »
OF SAVONAROLA. 77
terms^ definitions of attributes, and the strife of contested opinions.
The Dominicans gladly received the young Gfirolamo as a lay-brother ; but the qualities of his mind, and the spiritual gifts of the young man, were no soonei; known to his superiors, than their pleasure was intimated that he should receive the clerical habit, and the duty of obedience made it incumbent on him to adopt it.
He addressed a letter of consolation to his father, written the 25th of April, 1476— written two days after his flight from Ferrara. Burlamadchi states, '' that having received the clerical habit, he wrote immediately to his parents, much afflicted and grieving for his departure, a consolatory letter." But he must mean that it was immediately after his being admitted into the convent that he wrote. Rians, in his Sommario della Vita di Savonaroli^ in his records of the year 1476, says : " After a year of noviciate Fra Girolamo received the Dominican habit, and applied himself assiduously to the study of the Holy Fathers, and especially of the sacred Scripture, which he learned as it were by heart."
The letter to his father was in the following terms : —
" I doubt not but that you are|^eatly grieved at my departure, and the more so on account of that departure being kept a secret from you ; but I wish you to learn my mind and intention from this letter, that you may be comforted, and understand that I have not acted so childishly as some think. And, first, I beg of you a£ of one who justly estimates temporal things, that you will be guided by truth, rather than by passion, as women are, 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 dedicate myself to religion is this ; in the first place, the great wretchedness of the world, the iniquity of men, the debauchery, the adultery, the theft, the pride, the idolatry, the dreadftd profaneness 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 have recited this verse : — * Ah, fly those cruel regions — ^fly those shores of co-
78 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
vetousnesB ! ' And this because I could not endure the great wickedness of certain parts of Italy ; the more also, seeing virtue exhausted^ trodden down, 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 raise me irom the mire. Continually I made my prayer, with the greatest devotion, to God, saying, * Show me the path in which I should walk, for to Thee do I lift up my soul.'
'^ Now God has been pleased in his infinite mercy to show it me, and I have received it, though unworthy of such grace. '
Answer me then, is it not a great good for a man to fly from the i
iniquity and filth of this wretched world, and to live like a rational being, and not like a mere animal among swine ? In- deed, it would have been in me most ungrateful, if having asked God to show me the straight path in which I should walk, when He deigned to shew it to me, I had not taken it ? Oh ! Jesus, rather let me die a thousand deaths, than that I should be so ungrateful as to oppose thy will.
" Then, my dearest Father, you have rather to thank our Jesus than to weep ; he gave you a son, and has not only pre- served him to some extent from*evil to the age of twenty-two years, but has vouchsafed to choose him for his soldier. And do you not consider it a great mercy to have a son made so easily a soldier of Christ ? Either you love me or you do not ; well, I know you wiU not say you do not love me ; if then you love me, as I 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 vilest part of me ; if then you love my soul best, why not seek the welfare of the soul? Thus, you should rather rejoice and exult in this triumph. Nevertheless, I know it cannot be, but that the flesh must grieve, still it should be restrained by reason, especially by wise and magnanimous men like you. Do you not think it is a great affliction to me to be separated from you ? Yes, indeed, believe me, never since I was bom had I greater sorrow and anguish of mind than in abandoning my own father.
OF SAVONAROLA. 79
and going among strangers to sacrifice my body to Jesus Christ, and to give up my own will into the hands of those I never knew. But afterwards reflj^cting on what God is, and that He does not disdain to make of us poor worms, his servants, 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 suffering of my inmost soul at having to leave you, 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 I did not tell you. It is true, I left, behind the books which are placed against the window, certain writings which give you an account of my proceedings — I beg you then, my dearest father, to cease to weep, give me not more sadness and grief than I have : not of regret for what I have done, for indeed I woidd not revoke that, though I expected to become greater than Csesar Augustus ; but because I am of flesh, as you are, and sense is repugnant to reason, and I must maintain a cruel warfare, that the devil may not seize hold of me, particularly when I think of you. Soon will these days pass, in which the recent calamity will appear (as it now does), and afterwards I trust both you and I shall beconsoled in this world by grace, and in the next by glory. Nothing remains, but that I beseech you that aa a man of a strong mind, you would comfort my mother, whom I beg, together with you, that you will bestow your blessing on me, and I will ever pray fervently for your souls.
" GiROLAMo Savonarola, "Your Son."*
Bologna, April 2&th, 1476.
* Burlamacchi, in Vit. SaF. ap. Miscellanea Baluzii, torn. i. p. 532.— It will be observed the date of this letter is 1476, but Burlamacchi followed the old style of computation, and not observing this, several writers have fallen into chronological errors.
80 THE LIFE AMD MARTYRDOM
CHAPTER II.
9
MONKS AND MONASTERIES.
" We in the world's wide mouth Lire scandalized and foully spoken of.**
Shak. Hamlet.
" To Touch this is no proof Without more certain and more overt test, Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods Of modem seeming do prefer against him."
Othello,
" Saltern daretur in sacris literis tranquilly oonsenesoere."
Ebasmi, JSpist
What influence is it that invests monastic institutions with a sort of spirit-soothing character in the minds of those who have suffered afflictions, or seem to have anticipated them ; young people, for example, in the prime of life, prematurely weaned from worldly enjoyments, interests, and ambitions, who have pined after the peaceful, calm, and spirit-subduing silence of conventual seclusion.
It was no passing caprice, or ill-considered reason, or fanciful impulsive mode of thinking, of acting on sudden resolutions, adopted in times of trial or adversity, that led the young GirolaQio secretly, and with privity, from his father's house to the Dominican Convent of Bologna, in his twenty-third year. It was no such light and foolish motive that actuated the mind, and worked upon the feelings of the young Luther, when, his com- panion Alexis, lying dead at his feet, killed by lightning, he hearkened, in the midst of his terrors and his sorrows, to the interior voice which appeared to him to be speaking to his soul, saying, " To the Convent — ^to the Convent !"
* Histoire de la Vie des ecrits et des Doctrines de M. Luther, por Mon. Audin, 6 tome. Par. 1845.
OF SAVONAROI^. 81
There must have been some peculiar attraction in that in- stitute for the stricken spirit, when the young man Luther, in his twenty-second year, nearly the same age at which Savonarola abandoned the world, at the moment his young companion was struck dead by his side, determined to embrace a monastic life ; and, like Savonarola, too, without a word of intimation to any of his friends or fellow-students, on the following day, with his little package of clothes, and his Plautus and his Virgil under his arm, entered the Convent of AugustiniafU Friars, at Erfurt.
Luther entered the Convent of the Augustinians with his Plautus and his Virgil. Savonarola entered the Dominican Con- /^ vent with his Prayer-book and his Bible.
Those convents and their cloisters were the same institutions which the wise and wealthy of highly civilized and enlightened nations, of the nineteenth century, hold in such contempt and abhorrence, — let us bear in mind how the master-spirits of their times, Jerome and Augustine, Benedict and Bernard, Dominic and Francis, thought of them, — ^how they fled from the storms and tempests of the world to the cloisters for repose — who, in flying to them for an asylum, they seemed to consider that humanity was deeply indebted to them.
But let us briefly inquire into the origin and nature of those first asylums and places of refuge of men fearing God, trem- bling for their salvation, touched by the hand of sorrow and of suflering, or sick of the vanities and miseries of a wretched world.
The anchorets from the beginning regarded the retreat of our Lord in the desert, the solitary life of St. John the Baptist, and the retirement of Elias, as examples which authorized their solitude and austerities, as we learn from St. Basil, St. Jerome, Cassian, and others.
Paul, the first hermit, one of the shining lights of that mona- chism, which commenced in the ruins and sepulchres of the Thebaid of Egypt, and the caverns and mountain-caves of the
VOL. I. G
8S THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
desert places of Palestine^ with the early persecutions of the Church, found a biographer worthy of his sanctity, austerity, in- tensity of love for Christ, and contempt for this world, in a man of a congenial spirit, one of the fathers of the desert and of the Church, the great St. Jerome.
The narrative of the hermit's life is certainly devoid of any of that kind of interest which is inspired by accoimts of im- provements in machinery, the construction of railways, or the fluctuations in the price of the raw material of woollen or silken textures.
But there is a kind of interest, if I mistake not, in the closing passage of that biography, of an anchoret of the wilderness, which will find some response in the hearts even of worldly- minded men, who ere wont to hear monks and monachism treated with the most profound contempt.
'* Perhaps," says St. Jerome, *' at the close of this little book, some who are ignorant of his inheritance — ^who adorn their houses with marble, and cover their estates with elegant villas — may ask, ' Why were all these wanting to this poor aged man V You drink out of a cup of gems ; he was content with one which nature supplied, the hollow of his own hands. You clothe yourself in embroidered tunics ; he was clothed in a garb such as your slaves would not wear. But, on the other hand, to this poor man paradise was opened ; for you, rich men, per- dition is prepared. He, though naked, was clothed in the robe of Christ ; you, clothed in fine linen, lack that better raiment. Paul, covered with a litde dust, is about to rise to glory ; you, slumbering under marble sepulchres, shall be consumed with all your possessions. Spare yourselves, I beseech you, spare the wealth you love. Why should you wrap ' your dead in gilded robes ? Why should your vain pride linger among your mourning and your tears? Will not the bodies of the rich decay unless they be folded in silk ? I intreat you who read these things, that you would be mindful of Jerome a sinner, who, if the Lord would give him the choice, would much rather
OF SA#)NAROLA. 83
have Paul's humble clothing with his merits^ than the purple robe of kings with their punishment."*
Cenobites, living in *' Laura," differed from the anchorets in many particulars ; they did not abide altogether in solitude, but partly lived in community, so far as assembling for spiritual exercises and religious duties in one place of worship ; though their cells were generally detached, they were associated under fixed rules, and the government of a superior.
In the East, we first hear of them, chiefly in conjunction with the name of St. Antony, towards the year 305 ; but previous to the fourth century, there were Cenobitcs living in Laura, called " Therapeute8."t
They were the first who called their small cells or lodges " Monasteries." They combined community of life with soli- tude, and practised great austerities ; but from the mention made of them by some early writers, it seems more than doubtful whether they were not rather an ofF-shoot of Judaism, by whose members the Jewish ritual observances and traditions had been discarded, and had only adapted to their notions of a religious reform some of the leading doctrines of Christianity. Eusebius, however, considers them as Christian Csenobites.
It is certain there were communities of virgins who had taken the vow of chastity prior to 270. J
Origen speaks, in his letter to Celsus, of the Ascetes of his time, renowned for the austerity of their lives. The Acts of Saint Inda and Saint Domna speak of religious communities in Nicomedia, in the reign of the Emperor Maximian. Saint Cyril, who was Bishop of that See, was a protector of those ancient monasteries, and a founder of new ones.
The origin of the monastic institutions, regulated by some prescribed rules extensively recognized, is almost universally attributed to St. Antony. He was bom in Egypt, about the
• Vita PauH.
t Histoire Monaatiqae d'Orient par une membre de la Congregation de S. Maur, p. 9. 8vo. Far. 1080. J Hifitoire Monastiqup, p. 19.
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84 THE LIFE AND Martyrdom
year 250. He abandoned the world in the year 270, and died inS56.
In the beginning of the fifth century, the earliest regularly constituted monasteries of Caenobites were established by St. Benedict.
The Laura were to be substituted by monastic houses. The Institute varying with the locality, and the peculiarities of the holy person who was at the head of it, was to become a regular system for the government of men dwelling in one place de- voted to religion.
In Benedict's account of this great reform, and the rules of an institute which became the basis of all the monastic institu- tions of the middle ages, he describes four classes of monks existing in his time; Ceenobites, Anchorets, Saraibites, and Gyrovagi.
The two last orders were held then in little repute.
The '* Tractatus," which is the prologue to the Benedictine Rule, begins with the word " Resurgamus." The text of the discourse, prefixed to the proposed reform, is the verse of the 94th Psalm — " To-day, if you will hear my voice, harden not your hearts."
The way to mollify and bend them to the will of God, and bring them to a due understanding of the words of Sacred Scripture, Benedict tells his brethren, is to be filled with the fear and the love of God.
The Rule of St. Benedict was specially intended for the Cseno- bites. Each community was to be under the government of one abbot duly selected for his office, on account of peculiar quali- fications for it, and fitness to instruct and to direct the brethren, to treat them as a father, and rule them in a patriarchal and paternal spirit.
The abbot had power to reprove and expel, to separate from communion, and even to punish with stripes, offenders against the rules. But on all grave matters he was to consult the fi-a- temity in chapter or council. Having heard the opinions of the brethren, he was left to act on his own judgment.
OF SAVONAROLA. 85
Obedience to authority stands first in the order of impor- tance^ in the list of virtues required of ** the true monk."
Silence and recollection^ self-sacrifice and humility^ are en- joined him in connection with it.
The order of the Church service, or canonical hours of pre- scribed devotion, is duly set forth and appointed : — Clauds, prime, tierce, sexts, nones, vespers, and complines. Each community was divided into decades, and a dean had the special charge of the ten members of each decade.
All property was to be in common, and from the tune of entrance, no member was to possess aught that he could call his own.
Precedence was to be taken according to priority of date of admission into the convent.
There were to be no distinctions on accoimt of former rank or station, and no exemptions on such accounts from any of the duties of the house, whether of the kitchen or the refectory.
Slight additions of bread or wine to the ordinary allowances were permitted for persons who performed those services. The ordinary food was to be bread, vegetables, and fruits.
Dinner-hour in general was at noon, and on fast days at three o'clock, when it was the only meal.
The sick were to be treated with especial care and kindness, and allowed luiimal food and wine. But in all matters of diet, large discretionary powers were left with the abbot. Edifying books were to be read in the refectory, especially after supper and vespers on fast days. Idleness being iryurious to the mind, in the opinion of St. Benedict, labour was directed, manual and mental.
Hospitality was strenuously enjoined on the abbot. Guests were to be received by him with holy greeting and kindly wel- come.
The abbot was to direct the attire of the community, to see that each monk had two tunics, cowls, and scapularies, duly kept and worn, and that neither raiment, food or luxuries of any
86 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM
kind^ save such as were allowed by the convent, were admitted or privily kept in the cells by any of the brethren.
Admission into the order was not to be lightly granted, but after several days' continuous application at the convent gate, bearing with patience the rigour that was exhibited towards the applicant, and hearing with attention and respect the explana- tions given to him of the austerities of monastic discipline, by the aged brother appointed to communicate with him. A year's noviciate was required previous to investiture with the habit, when the admitted brother irrevocably abandoned the world, took the sacred vows, signed the solemn obligation under his hand, or made the sign of the cross on the record of that obli- gation.*
Many regulations of minor importance are laid down, and connected with all are brief observations, councils, and memo- rable sayings of the saints, and maxims of St. Benedict himself, wherein that wisdom aboimds that comes from God — a spirit- ualized sagacity, blended with all that is sweet and consolatory in devotion, and tender and compassionate in human feeling.
" The convents," says Monsieur Audin, in his History of Luther, " in the middle ages, were the asylums of arts and letters. The monks were then the only representatives of intelligence : it is in the cloisters we must look for paint- ings, sculptures, poetry, and archaeology. Behold all the vast edifices, the temples, chapels, houses of prayer, they have raised! the monasteries, abbeys, priories, which they have founded and endowed ! the bridges they have cast over rivers ! the hospitals and infirmaries they have opened to the sick and the infirm ! the schools and academies they have instituted ! It is there that civilization took refuge. Without the cloisters, Europe would have grown old, and died perhaps in barbarism. Every Caenobite order has its determined labour ; some^ like the Chartreux, sow the ground, cut down the forests, reclaim
* Quatuor primmn approbates religiosis quibusquo vievendi regulas, Ac. In Keg. S. Benedicti, p. xvii. 4to. Argent, 1614.
OF SAVONAROLA. 87
waste lands^ set bounds to torrents, teach and transmit the principles of irrigation and agricultural science.
" Others, like^ the Benedictines, occupy themselyes ia trans- cribing and deciphering old documents, and thus preserving the titles even of our municipal liberties, or in commenting or translating the Grreek and Latin texts, while simple scribes, labouring with angelic patience, were occupied in illuminating our missals and the Psalmody of the Church.
^' The cloisters in Italy, for example, in the middle ages, were transformed into studios of painting, of architecture, and of sculpture. When prayers were finished, the monks ran to their work, some to one description of employment, some to another.
^' Italy is full of the glory of the monks. At Florence, the greatest wonder of art in the Fitti gallery is the Saint Marc of Fra Bartolomeo. The French had to call the Friar Giocondo from Italy, to construct one of the finest bridges of the capital.
*' One would say, at the sight of a convent in the Middle Age, it was a hive of industry. Some laboured in carving wood, which in their hands assumed all forms, and frequently imitated life, as well as marble did ; others were occupied with explorations and * paleography. Others, again, had committed to them a world of greater wonder than this world of ours — the heart of man. Asia Minor was filled with cloisters, where the poor firiars were occupied night and day in transcribing the works of the poets of Greece and Bome. One hundred and fifty of their asylums existed in Calabria, and in the precincts of Naples. Behold this monastery, which projects from Macedonia on the shore of the Egean. It is th^ monastery of Mount Athos. Never did himian institution render to civilization such services as did this house of prayer.
" Mention is made of sixty-three palaces of the Frank sove- reigns, wherein the monks were employed in copying the royal charters. The Church maintained a numerous tribe of scribes, all devoted to religion, and consuming their intellectual powers in copying, in the haUs of the ' Scriptoria,' manuscripts, profane or sacred.
88 THE LIFE AND MARTVKDOM
" The cloisters have other titles to consideration. It was in the seclusion of the cloisters that the quarrels between feudal lords and vassalsy in Germany especially, were frequently composed. Let us do justice to the monks. The oppressed found in them zealous defenders. If, unfortimately, their voice was not heard, and if the feudal chief appealed from them to the sword, then was there a call for an asylum in the convent, where the weak vassal was secure against the strong master, and there was con- solation, a shelter, and support for him, till he was reconciled with his proud lord.
" The victor was no unfrequent visitor at the convent. He came there to expiate his sins and his successes in tears, in sack- cloth and ashes. Let us not forget that the convent was the sacred ark which, in the great deluge of barbarism and ship- wreck of learning, saved the Sacred Scriptures from destruction : that the first versions of them, in Germany, are due to the monks," &c.*
The Dominican order had more attractions for Girolamo than any other religious institute. It could hardly be otherwise with one of Savonarola's capacity and endowments — his exalted genius, his vast intellectual powers and imaginative tastes and faculties — ^his love of the fine arts, of books and bookish people, his oratorical talents^ his veneration for heroic Christian men, his profound respect for the virtues — ^rare as they were exalted — of St. Dominick, the founder of this order; of St. Peter Martyr, his holy self-renouncing follower ; of St. Thomas of Aquinas, the angelic doctor, the great glory of the Dominican order ; of Alberto Magno, the master of the angelic doctor ; of St. Catherina of Sienna, with aU the renown of her great sanc- tity, of her raptures and ecstatic visions, and marvellous com- munications with the spiritual world, and her terrestrial ones no less marvellous, in her strange office of ambassadress, when appointed by the Pope to treat of peace between the Court of Rome and the Republic of Florence.
Dominick was nearly thirty years of age, when, happening
• Hist, de M. Luther, par Audin, tome i. p. 18.
OF SAVONAROLA. 89
to pass through Languedoc^ about a.d. 1190^ " the reveries " of the Albigenses became known to him. At Toulouse, he found his host and his family infected with the errors of the new sect. He spent an entire night, we are told, in endeavouring to con- vince these people of their dangerous errors, and was gratified to find, the following day, his labours had not been in vain.
The utility of preaching was now forcibly impressed on his mind ; and this occurrence gave rise, eventually, to the insti- tution of an order, to be specially devoted to the duty of preaching for the conversion of those who lapsed into error.
The Rule of the new order was not confirmed by the Pope tiU the year 1216.
Dominick, of the illustrious house of Guzman, was not only of a noble but of a kingly race, and if a man of genius need to be beholden to genealogy, it would appear there was no dearth of ancient blood — ^the " Sangre azul " of Castilian royalty — ^in the veins of