The Argosy — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

In Sunny Climes. 143 the religious errors of the time. Thus he offended the powerful Medicis, who saw in him an enemy of the most dangerous force and influence: and thus he sowed the seeds of the fate that was later on to overtake him. With the church itself Savonarola had never hitherto been at variance ; and by the Pope he was highly esteemed. But his preach- ing gradually assumed a more political tendency and influence, for he thought that a political revolution in Florence and throughout. Italy would alone bring about the still higher results of a religious awaken- ing and reformation. He prophesied the advent of the French under Charles VIII., and when it took place he was one of the deputation who welcomed Charles as the saviour of Italy, But the French had to leave Florence, and Savonarola, fired by enthusiasm, we might almost say fanaticism, his genius breaking through all restraints, directed all the powers of his mind to political reform. Like many another man of genius, he went to excess, his mind becoming almost unhinged by his fervour. But his earnestness carried all before it; his preaching was such as had never been heard ; and his party became strong and numerous. Savonarola fell into extravagances and aimed at impossibilities. Asceticism was his keynote, and it did not accord with the spirit of the age. Every- thing was to be swept away; all the licentiousness, all the cardinal sins that reigned. His preaching had a wide-spread effect. Crowds of women flocked to the square in front of the Cathedral and there threw down their costly jewels. Men hitherto debauched and sin- stained brought pile upon pile of the licentious poetry and fiction of the age, and the whole was burnt in a huge mass, of which the smoke must have ascended like incense towards Heaven. But Savonarola in his religious zeal went too far. It is often so. In his denunciation of everything that was evil, he spared no one; and even the Pope fell under his lash. This was a fatal mistake, and brought down upon him the displeasure of the head of the church. With more moderation he might have become the greatest religious reformer of his age, almost of any age. As it was, he failed. He was cited before Rome on a charge of heresy. He had spoken against the infallible head of the Church: and this the infallible head could not stand. When cited to appear before Rome, he took no notice of the summons. Then he was forbidden to preach ; was again cited before Rome; and again disregarded the summons. His star now set; his troubles increased. ‘That party of the Medici called the Arrabbiati once more grew in the ascendant. In £497 Savonarola was excommunicated. He refused to accept the decree, and became more and more at variance with Rome. In £498 the Arrabbiati once more came into power, and these were the declared enemies of Savonarola. He was again forbidden to preach, and the final crisis was brought about by the preaching of connicaookKks (SO)