lected the different opinions and narratives, and thereby, (especially as he carefully suppressed his own views,) was better entitled to demand a more equitable judgment from posterity, than has been generally awarded. NARDI, though recognizing decidedly the laudable endeavours of Savonarola, in his attempted moral, religious, and clerical reforms, still found his political theocratic plans and hopes too little suited to the circumstances of the times, and taken up without sufficient consideration. NERLI, albeit not forgetting himself, so as to fall into the injustice of passion, still perceived only the monk who sought an undue influence in the government of the State, and wished to transfer it from the hands of the nobility into those of the people; to which decision also GIOVIO in some degree assents, though from his other excellent qualities, he esteemed Savonarola not deserving of so ignominious a death.

Savonarola, meanwhile, was never judged more severely or more unjustly, than by JOHN FRANCIS BUDDEUS, who with wanton criticism sought to render suspicious the testimonies of Comines and Guicciardini as partial; and insidiously followed, as unsuspicious sources, the accounts of the papal journalist BURCHARD, and the printed acts of the process, which were still further enlarged by inculpatory conjectures. He represented Savonarola as a cunning exciter of sedition, who in the politically entangled

circumstances of Florence knew how to avail himself of great eloquence, and diligently nourished the superstition of the people for his own ambitious plans. In this conclusion, GABRIEL NAUDE concurred with equally unproved assertions, while Buddeus saw himself compelled, by closer examination of history, to retract his former opinion, since he recognized the integrity and innocence of Savonarola, but yet accused him of too great participation in political events. More influential were BAYLE'S acute remarks, which, however unjust and hypercritical they must appear, compared with history, not only occasioned CHRISTIAN EBERHARD WEISMANN to retract his former favourable judgment of Savonarola, but moreover found too easy an echo among the friends of the newly awakened criticism. In Italy there appeared, after a flimsy attack, founded chiefly on the printed process, an anonymous defence and history of Savonarola, supported by copious corroborations from the historians of that time, as also from his own writings. A biography of Savonarola, which appeared at the beginning of the 19th century, sought to unite the contradictory testimonies of history, in the description that Savonarola was ambitious, fanatical, and daring, but nevertheless a very learned, pious, mild, and well-meaning man. The previous judgment of SCHRECKH might be found more satisfactory, who, without acquitting him of self-deception and fanatical

or enthusiastic piety, recognized in his writings, his religious feeling, and his deep penetration into the sins of the time, which he fearlessly denounced, the noble seeds of true piety derived from Scripture, whereby he in more than one respect opened the path to the Reformers, who named him with gratitude, and was himself well worthy of better times and a better fate. Yet old doubts and prejudices emerged again in many forms, as long as its full right and satisfaction was not rendered to history. AMMON, indeed, sought to lay down the principles of Savonarola's theology, from some of his chief writings; but the loudly-heard voice of history described him as the passionately-excited and exciting monk who, without fundamental learning and deeper knowledge of the science of theology, was not able to understand the nature of the Romish Church any more than that of the State.

In English literature, with the exception of GODWIN's Lives of the Necromancers, little or nothing of any mark exists in regard to Savonarola; and even that is merely a sceptical deduction, not at all admissible by a Christian believer. Roscoe, indeed, in his Life of Lorenzo de Medici, gives a garbled statement of Savonarola's proceedings, introducing him always as a vulgar fanatic, who by his blunders deprived Florence of the excellent constitution and asthetic cultivation, which it would otherwise have enjoyed

under the family of the Medici. This position, however, is too absurd to require refutation at this day, when the finger of Providence in all that served to initiate the reformation of the Church is so generally recognized, and the demoralized state of Italy, and the papal see in particular, conceded by every one who treats the history of the period with any show of sincerity. In Germany no fewer than three elaborate lives of Savonarola have appeared in the last six years, by RUDELBACH, MEIER, and RAPP.

It is worthy remark, that a man, the events of whose life are of a character so wonderfully unique, or only to be paralleled-in the estimation of Machiavelli -with those in the lives of Numa, Solon, Lycurgus, and Moses, should have been so cursorily passed over by English biographers, and have held so small a space in general history. The reason is to be found in this, that though his cause in part ultimately prospered, yet in himself Savonarola, unlike Luther, was not successful. The greatest men thus circumstanced are almost unknown to general reputation; but for that reason their lives are the more valuable, and should be prized as choice and rare by the reader of cultivated understanding and refined taste.

In addition to the authorities already indicated, the writer of the following biography has availed himself of many other sources of fact and opinion; a few may be mentioned, notes and references to the authori

ties consulted being omitted, from a desire, not only to avoid unnecessary display in that kind, but to diminish as much as possible the size and weight of a work intended for popular perusal.-E. g. BENEDETTO, RAZZI, BOTTONI, PIERO MARCO DI PARENTI, AMMIRATI, SEGNI, MURATORI, TIRABOSCHI, CRESCIMBENI, VARCHI, NERI, BANDINI, VALORI, VARILLAS, PIERIO VALERIANO, BÉNEVIENÉ, TOMMASI, SISMONDI, MEYERHOFF, GORDON, WADDINGTON, D'AUBIGNÉ, &c. &c. Though small in compass, the following Life of Savonarola contains more facts of his history, and more extracts from his writings, than exist in any other or in all the memoirs and biographies of him hitherto written. Nothing in it has been misstated or overcharged, but the whole subject treated, in its theological, political, and philosophical bearings, with the utmost impartiality that the author could command. We now know that the work in which Savonarola engaged, notwithstanding its temporary failure, was of God, and not to be attributed to any one person, however conspicuous in its direction.

The great Protestant Reformation, thus divinely appointed, thus prepared at divers times and in different places for its developement, is now felt to be a living thing with a principle of growth in it, well rooted in a genial soil, and nourished with all such influences as promote longevity and productiveness.

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