176 ADVISES HIS DEPARTURE. B. III. that when Moses prayed, Joshua and the people conquered their enemies. Thus will He do to thee, who in thy presumption desirest what is not thine. Let it suffice thee to have the friendship of this people. Relinquish thy wicked and cruel scheme against the innocent and faithful.' Much misunderstanding had existed touching the maintenance of the troops. At length some agreement was come to, but such was still the collision between the soldiers and the people, and such the lawless life of the former, that the departure of the French became exceedingly desirable. No one had had the courage to tell the king of this, and thus it was left for Savonarola to remonstrate with the conqueror on the uselessness of his remaining any longer in Florence, reminding him how, under the happiest auspices, he had entered the city, and how he was appointed to far greater undertakings, which if he did not prosecute, God would elect another and more fitting agent. The people,' said Savonarola, 'wonder much at your protracted stay among them-and cannot without peril continue longer in their present condition. Moreover, if your majesty persist in spending your time here in an unprofitable manner, you must permit to your adviser a sharper style of reproof than may be well pleasing to thee; but in no other can he give thee counsel that is good. God has called thee to a great work-to the renewing of the Church of Italy, as the servant of God has already declared to your sacred majesty, and four years before your majesty's arrival in Italy had continually and publicly prophesied. But by such means perhaps your majesty thinks it is unworthy of God to accomplish such a work. Be it so! God will then not be wanting in another instrument to bring it to a happy consummation !' CH. V. PHILIPPE DE COMINES. 177 Nor was Savonarola's counsel impolitic, nor uncorroborated. D'Aubigny, the general captain of the army, arrived, at this very time, at Florence, from Romagna, with a proposition to the king, similar to that of Savonarola, complaining that the king let so many days, and such fine opportunities pass, that he thereby put weapons into his enemies' hands. Two days afterwards, on November 28, Charles VIII. with his warlike array, left Florence for Naples. Several of the events recorded in this chapter are narrated by the celebrated Philippe de Comines, who was actively engaged in some of them. The histo rian had been sent into Italy previously to the invasion of it by Charles VIII., to ascertain the state of affairs. He then became acquainted with Savonarola, of whom he expresses the warmest admiration, not hesitating to describe him as a true prophet, and extolling his discernment as a statesman. CHAPTER VI. SAVONAROLA'S INFLUENCE. Reform of the monasteries-New monastic society-Savonarola's pastoral habits-The devotees of his eloquenceValori and Alberti-Legends regarding Savonarola-Specimens of his maturer poetry-Practical and devotional works -Epistolary correspondence-He collects the people to consult on the form of government. THE character of Savonarola rises with his position. He is now to Florence what Numa was to Rome, Lycurgus to Sparta, Solon to Athens, and Moses to the children of Israel. Charles VIII. has left Florence, and Savonarola is now the greatest man in it, the spiritual and temporal ruler in one personnothing less than the very Pope of Florence. This is no exaggerated description, but the simple fact, and we must therefore be prepared for the relations it implies making peculiar demands on our attention and regard. The reformation which Savonarola had designed, was such as a spirit full of faith, and a heart full of love towards God and man, might determine in ecstatic vision. Nothing less than the kingdom of God upon earth would be the aim of Savonarola to CH. VI. REFORM OF THE MONASTERIES. 179 establish. He began at the highest point-at that where the political and the spiritual are one: he proposed the projection of a theocracy-not that pseudo one which had raised the Carnal Will into supremacy at Rome, but that real and true theocracy by which the heavenly Jerusalem shall be governed, when sun and moon shall be no longer needed, but God himself shall be the light, and the Lamb himself the temple, by which the soul shall be illuminated, and in which it shall worship. Already, long ago, he had initiated, both in speculation and practice, the reform of the monasteries. Savonarola was a monk, but a true monk-a monk in the highest sense of the word—that is, a spirit who had set himself apart till his last breath from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and had consecrated every function of his soul to the holiest uses, and the highest aims. Having no sensual gratifications to detain him, he was restless in the performance of the spiritual task to which he was devoted, and would not permit the world to slumber in ignorance that day was upon the hill tops. His voice was as a trumpet, that ever announced the earliest dawnstreak, and summoned men to a recognition of the returning glory. The corruption of the monasteries first attracted his indignant notice. It was the thing that lay nearest to him. He was in them a monk in spirit and in truth, and found them occupied by monks only in name and profession. This, said he, ought not to be, and it shall not be-and forthwith he set about the removal of the evil. He began with his own cloister, with an endeavour to cleanse it from all secularity, and to restore it to the standard simplicity of the ancient institution. It was his purpose to quit San Marco, as too beautiful and costly for the severer rules that he desired to enforce-and to erect another 180 NEW MONASTIC SOCIETY. B. III. cloister at Carregi, near the villa of the Medici, of a sterner character, where the regulations of the Dominican order might be strictly observed, and especially the vow of poverty. He had indeed proceeded so far as to collect considerable contributions, and it is said, that all necessary means were prepared, when the plan was frustrated by the misapprehension of the novices and younger members of San Marco, who seemed to have feared that such a change in their habits might seriously affect their health. Such objections as these, however, were suggested from without; and, in fact, Savonarola was impeded in all his endeavours to procure for San Marco an alliance with the Lombard congregation of the Dominican order, inasmuch as the superiors had long abandoned their old rule, and were hostile to its restoration. He depended therefore on occasion, and was content to bide his time, looking forward to a juncture, when the different cloisters should be so reduced in the number of their members, that they would be anxious to seek the union which they now rejected. To promote this design, Savonarola took not only every expedient step in Florence, but dispatched two brethren of his cloister to Rome, to solicit the papal permission and confirmation of his plan. No sooner was this application known, than it was opposed not only by the superiors of the Lombard congregation, but by almost all the political power of Italy. Nevertheless, Savonarola succeeded. Alexander VI. had reasons for favourably considering it; and on May 22, 1493, the papal brief was granted, wherein not only the separation from the general government of the Dominicans, which Savonarola desired, was conceded, but permission to receive into a new community all who were excluded from other cloisters. Thus encouraged, a new society was founded. It consisted at first of about twenty or twenty-five |