686 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
and on added leaves.^ After his appointment as provincial, he emphasized the study of the Bible in IIebre\v and_(ireek.
In 1481, he was sent to Florence, where he became an inmate of St. Mark's. The convent had been rebuilt by Cosimo de Medici and its walls illuminated by the brush of Fra Angelico. At the time of Savonarola's arrival, the city was at the height of its fame as a seat of culture and also as the place of lighthearted dissipation under the brilliant patronage of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
31ie young monk's first efforts in the pulpit in Florence were a^failure. The congregation at San Lorenzo, where he preached during the Lenten season, fell to 25 persons. Fra Mariano da Gennazzano, an xVugustinian, was the popular favorite. The Dominican won his first fame by his Lenten sermons of I486, when he preached at Bi-escia on the Book of Revelation. He represented one of the 24 elders rising up and pronouncing judgments upon the city for its wickedness. In 1489, he was invited back to Florence by Lorenzo at the suggestion of Pico della Mirandola, who had listened to Savonarola's eloquence at Reggio. During tjie remaining nine years of his life, the city on the Arno was filled with f?avonarola's personality. With Catherine of Siena, he shares the fame orheing the most religious of the figures that have walked its streets. During the first part of this short period, he had conflict with Lorenzo and, during the second, with Alexander VL, all the while seeking by his startling warnings and his prophecies to bring about the regeneration of the city and make it a model of civic and social righteousness. F'rom Aug. 1, 1490, when he appeared in the pulpit of St. Mark's, the people thronged to hear him whether he preached there or in the cathedral. Iiilji)!, he was made prior of his convent. To preaching he added writings in the department of philosophy and tracts on humility, prayer and the love of Jesus. He was of middle height, dark complexion, lustrous eyes dark gray in color, thick lips and aquiline nose. His features, which of them-
1 The one, the Vulgate printed in Basel, 1401 , the other in Venice, 1492. See Luotto : Dello Studio, etc. This author draws a parallel between Leo XIIL's commendation of the study of the Bible and Savonarola's emphasis upon it as the seat of authority.
§ 76. GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 687
selves would have been called coarse, attracted attention by the serious contemplative expression which rested upon them, and the flash of his eye.
Savonarola's sermons were like the flashes of lightning and the reverberations of thunder. It was his mission to lay the axe at the root of dissipation and profligacy rather than to depict the consolations of pardon and communion with God. He drew more upon the threatenings of the divine wrath than upon the refreshing springs of the divine compassion. Tender descriptions of the divine love and mercy were not wanting in his sermons, but the woes pronounced upon the sinfulness of his time exceeded the gentle appeals. He was describing his own method, when he said, " I am like the hail. Cover thyself lest it come down upon thee, and strike thee. And remember that I said unto thee. Cover thy head with a helmet, that is clothe thyself with virtue and no hail stone will touch thee." ^
In the time of his greatest popularity, the throngs waited hours at the doors of the cathedral for the preacher's arrival and it has been estimated by Villari, that audiences of 10,000 or 12,000 hun^j)njiis discourses^ Like fields of grain under the wind, the feelings of his audiences were swayed by the preacher's voice. Now they burned with indignation : now they were softened to tears. " I was overcome by weeping and could not go on." So wrote the reporter while taking down a sermon, and Savonarola himself felt the terrible strain of his efforts and often sank back into his seat completely exhausted. His message was directed to the clergy, high and low, as well as to the people and the flashes of his indignation often fell upon the palace of Lorenzo. The clergy he arraigned for their greed of prebends and gold and their devotion to outer ceremonies rather than to the inner life of the soul. Florence he addressed in endearing terms as the object of his love. " My Florence," he was wont to exclaim. Geneva was no more the city of Calvin or Edinburgh of Knox than was Florence the city of
1 Sermon, March 14, 1498. Schottmiiller, p. 111. Roscoe : Life of Lorenzo, ch. VIII., says : "The divine word from the lips of Savonarola, descended not amongst his audience like the dews of heaven. It was the piercing hail, the sweeping whirlwind, the destroying sword."