Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-29

| Prince Lorenzo de Msdici ruled that
turbulent city with characteristic skill. To
wean the thoughts of the Fiorentines from
affairs of state and politics he provided
them with constant amusement. The
wealth which he possessed, and much Of
which was the fruit of rapine, enabled him
to maintain splendid court. Hither he
invited men of letters, poets, artists and
scholaro. There he distributed noble
hospitality, aiding Literature, such as it
was in those days, and priding himself
upon being patron Of Learning, 1t was
the era OF the italian Renaissance, So
called, but FlorentiHe society was never.
theless rotten to the core. Vice had long
ceased to be restricted by shame. There was
no regard for human life. Assassination was
| practiced as the usual resort of enmity.
Sensuality was the popular creed. The
nobility were corrupt, the lower orders
brutal and supersitious.
| Savonarola saw the Generalization which
marked every phase of life, and his spirit
was stirred within him. In the convent
chapel OF San Marco he began TO utter ve-
hement discourses, which by degrees at
tracted attention. The enthusiasm and
audacity of this unknown monk who, under
the very shadow of Lorenzo's court, did
not hesitate to denounce its profigacy,
who threatened the vengeance of heaven
upon the rulers who held Florence by the
throat, who was SO evidently entirely pos.
sessed by the burning thoughts which
arose within him, attracted the Floren.
tines. Soon the convent chapel became
too small for his congregations, and then
the Signoria invited him to preach in the
Duomo. lie accepted the invitation, and
he became the real ruler of Florence. Lo-
renzo did not at first seek to suppress the
bold reformer, but recognizing his genius,
wished to gain his friendship. But Savon-
arola refused to go to Lorenzo, and it was
not until the great Medici lay dying that
these two met. The monk then frankly
demanded the enfranchisement of Florence
as the price of absolution. Lorenzo turned
his face to the wall, and spoke no more.
After his death Savonsrola became more
powerful. Piero de Medici, the new ruler,
was weak and incapable. When Charles
of Anjou invaded Italy, and all Florence
was in an agony OF apprehension, this
feeble prince went out to meet the in
vader, and surrendered his native city to
him. No power less firmly fixed than that
OF the great preacher could then have
saved the city from furious tumult, but
he called the people together.in the Duomo
and Gained them by his eloquence and by
the nobility of his utterances.
Then for two years he almost literally
governed Florence. There was a grand
council, and all the machinery of administra.
ton, but the ordinances which became laws
enansted from the pulpit of the Duomo.
At this period Savonarola proved himself a
statesman as well as a reformer, and during
these two years his career eliminated
He had always been dreamer of dreams
and seer of visions. In such minds it
seems that the partition between reality
and Imagination is often so thin that con-
fusion may arise. Certain it is that he
believed himself to have been the subject
of direct inspiration, and in that age such
belief was an added source of veneration.
But whatever the extent of his hallucina.
ton in this regard, no doubt can be enter
tanned as TO his sincerity. II at last his
judgm became weaker, and the imagina.
tive side of his intellect acquired morbid
prominence, it was probably the natural
result of that long battle with the wicked
ness of the age which he had fought so
persistently. 1t is impossible not to expe-
rience for his later errors feeling OF
tender pity and regret. His challenge to
the Franciscans to pass through fire in
vindication of his belief in his inspiration,
his melodramatic posing in the great square,
to see if fire from Heaven would strike him
if he was an impostor; his abandonment
of the great views which had made his
reputation, for personal and visionary
grounds are all subjects of sorrow to his
admirers. Why the Florentines should
have visited upon him the penalty which
was due to the Franciscans, however, has
always been incomprehensible. All that
can be said is that they forsook him because
his enemies had failed to live up to their
pledges.
The reiguing Pope was Borgia. He
had tried to silence Savonarola with Car.
ninals hat, but the offer was Indignantly
rejected. Then he determined to crush the
audacious Prior of San Marco, who had
ventured to denounce concubinage and
simony in the church. The Florentine
enemies of the great preacher were there
| fore allowed to have their own way. He
was flung into prison, and tortured for
eleven days to make him confess himself
| an impostor. But the boot and the rack
were powerless to achieve this, and at
length his foes were forced to forge con.
| fession, in order to secure the foundation
| for that sentence of death which they had
predetermined. And 80 he was led forth,
mutilated, torn and crushed in body, but
iadomitable in roul. They disfrocked him
at the place of execution, and when the
Papal Legate uttered thecustomary formula,
81 separate you from the church militant
"and triumphant" the martyr replied,
"From the church militant, yes but the
"church triumphant is beyond your juris.
diction.,' Then the rope did its work, and
last of all the fire. And round about the
pile that stood in the Square of Florence
gathered the ancestors of the mon who
have Just sought to atone to his memory
for the cruel treason of their progenitors.
Savonarola was pure, unselfish patriot a
reformer who preceded Luther in derounc.
ing the corruptions of the medieval church;
A Florentine who gave his whole heart to
the tickle city that repaid his devotion with
martyrdom. Yet, mournful as his fate
was, how many of the worlds noblest char
acters have encountered happier destiny,
or been more fully appreciated by their
contemporaries ?
BREEDING CIVIL WAR.
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