710 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
cans and Francesco Romolino, the bishop of Ilerda, afterwards cardinal. Lettei-s from Rome stated that the commission had instructions "to put Savonarola to death, even if he were another John the Baptist." Alexander was quite equal to such a statement. Soon after his arrival in Florence, Romolino announced that a bonfire was impending and that he carried the sentence with him ready, prepared in advance.
Fra Domenico bore himself most admirably and persisted in speaking naught but praise of his friend and ecclesiastical superior. Fra Silvestro, yielding to the agonies of the rack, charged his master with all sorts of guilt. Other monks of St. Mark's wrote to Alexander, making charges against their prior as an impostor. So it often is with those who praise in times of prosperity. To save themselves, they deny and calumniate their benefactors. They received their reward, the papal absolution.
The exact charges, upon which Savonarola was condemned to death, arS matter ei some ui^eertaintv and also matter of indifference, for they were^gartly trumped up for tlie occasion. Though no offender against the law of God, he had given offence enough to man. He was accused by the papal comi^issioners with being a heretic and schismatic. He was no heretic. The most that can be said is, that he was a rebel against the pope's authority and went in the face of Pius II.'s bull UxeerabiUs, when he decided to appeal to a council.^
The intervals between his torture, Savonarola spent in composing his Meditations upon the two penitential Psalms, the 32d and the 51st- Here we see the gloss of his warm religious nature. The great preacher approaches the throne of grace as a needy sinner and begs that he who asks for bread may not be turned away with a stone. He appeals to the cases of Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene, the woman of Canaan, Peter and the prodigal son. Deliver me, he cries, "as Thou hast delivered countless sinners from the grasp of death and the gates of hell and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness." Luther, who published the expositions with a notable preface, 1523, declared
^ See the miserable letters sent by the papal commission to Alexander, Lucas, pp. 434-430.
§ 76. GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA. 711
them "a piece of evangelical teaching and Christian piety. For, in them Savonarola is seen entering in not as a Dominican monk, trusting in his vows, the rules of his order, his cowl and masses and good works but clad in the breastplate of righteousness and armed with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, not as a member of the Order of Preachers but as an everyday Christian." ^
At their own request the three prisoners, after a separation of six weeks, were permitted to meet face to face the night before the appointed execution. The meeting occurred in the hall of the signory. When Savonarola returned to his cell, he fell asleep on the lap of Niccolini of the fraternity of the Battuti, a fraternity whose office it was to minister to prisoners. Niccolini reported that the sleep was as quiet as the sleep of a child. On awaking, the condemned man passed the remaining hours of the night in devotions. The next morning, the friends met again and partook together of the sacrament.
The sentence was death by hanging, after which the bodies were to be burnt that " the soul might be completely separated from the body." The execution took place on the public square where, two months before, the crowds had gathered to witness the ordeal by fire. Savonarola and his friends were led forth stripped of their robes, barefooted and with hands bound. Absolution was pronounced by the bishop of Verona under appointment from the pope. In pronouncing Savonarola's deposition, the prelate said, " I separate thee from the Church militant and the Church triumphant " — separo te ah ecclesia militante et triumphmite. " Not from the Church triumphant," replied Savonarola, " that is not thine to do " — militante, no7i triumphante : hoc enim tumn non est. In silence he witnessed the deaths of Fra Domenico and Fra Silvestro, whose last words were " Jesus, Jesus," and then ascended the platform of execution. There were still left bystanders to fling insults. The
1 Weimar ed. XII. 248. Twenty-three edd. of Savonarola's exposition appeared within two years of the author's death and, before half a century elapsed, it had been translated into Spanish, German, English and French. In Italy, it was used as a tract and put into the hands of prisoners condemned to death. It was embodied in the Salisbury Primer, 1538, and in Henry VIII. 's Primer, 1543.