gilded bedsteads, and splendid furnishings. In short, it is the most splendid city that I have ever seen, the most respectful to all ambassadors and strangers, governed with the greatest wisdom, and serving God with the most solemnity; so that, though in other things the inhabitants might be faulty, I believe God blesses them for the reverence they show in the service of the Church....

I delivered my credentials to the doge,' who presides in all their councils and is honored as a king. All letters are addressed to him, but of himself he cannot do much; yet this one had greater authority than any of his predecessors, for he had been doge for over twelve years. I found him a prudent man, of great experience in the affairs of Italy, and civil and courteous in his person. The first day of my arrival was spent in exchanging compliments and viewing three or four chambers in the doge's palace, in which the ceilings, beds, and portals were all richly gilded; the apartments are very fine, but the court is not large. The palace is luxurious in all its appointments, being built of finely carved marble. The whole front and facings are of stone, with gilt an inch thick.... The doge from his own chamber can hear mass at the high altar in the church of St. Mark, which, for a church, is the most magnificent piece of building in the world, being built of mosaic work in every part. The Venetians pretend to be the inventors of this mosaic work; and, indeed, it is a great trade among them, as I have seen.

In this church their treasure (of which so much is said) is kept, and intended only for the decoration of their churches: there are twelve or fourteen rubies, the largest I ever saw; one of them weighs seven, the other, eight hundred carats, but both of them are unpolished: there are twelve other stones in cases of gold, with the edges and forepart set richly with very fine jewels, There are also twelve crowns of gold, wherewith, anciently, upon certain festivals in the year, twelve women of the city were crowned, and being styled and attended as queens,

Averino Bacsartan olyand diger in 1486, held the office for fifteen years.

they passed in great pomp and solemnity through all the churches and islands. . . . There is also a great store of rich ornaments for the church, with several fair pieces of gold, many fine amethysts and agates, and some small emeralds. But this is not a treasure of equal value with ready money, and, indeed, they have not much of that kind of treasure; for the doge told me in the senate-house that it is a capital crime among them to suggest collecting a treasure of that nature; and they are right, for it might cause dissension among them.

After they had shown me their treasure, I was carried to see their arsenal, where their galleys are equipped and all things necessary provided for their navy. The Venetian navy is, perhaps, even now the finest in the world, and was formerly under better order and regulation.

71. Savonarola 1

The Memoirs of Commines contains a very interesting account of the Italian preacher and martyr, Girolamo Savonarola. He belonged to the Dominican order of friars, and during the years 1490-1498 stirred all Florence by his fiery preaching. Savonarola began as a religious reformer and directed his attacks against the sins of the Florentines. His influence soon became very great, and before long this plain, earnest, God-fearing monk was the real head of the state and dictator of Florence. Commines made his acquaintance in 1495.

I had almost forgotten to mention that while I was at Florence I went to pay a visit to a certain friar called Girolamo, who, by report, was a very holy man, and had lived in a reformed convent fifteen years. . . . The occasion of my going to visit him was that he had always, both in the pulpit and elsewhere, spoken much in the favor of the French king, and his words had kept the Florentines from confederating against us; for never had any preacher so much authority in a city. Whatever had been said or written to the contrary, he always affirmed that our king would come into Italy, saying that he was sent by God to chastise the tyranny of the princes, and that none

1 Commines, Mémoires, bk. viii, ch. 3.

2 Charles VIII.

would be able to oppose him. He foretold likewise that the king would come to Pisa and enter it, and that the state of Florence would be dissolved on that day. And so it fell out; for Pietro de' Medici was driven out that very day. Many other things he predicted long before they came to pass: as, for instance, the death of Lorenzo de' Medici; 1 and he openly declared that he knew it by revelation. He likewise predicted that the reformation of the Church would be owing to the sword. This is not yet accomplished; but it very nearly occurred, and he still maintains that it will come to pass.

Many persons blamed him for pretending to receive divine revelations, but others believed him; for my part I think him a good man. I asked him whether our king would return safe into France, considering the great preparations of the Venetians against him, of which he gave a better account than I could, though I had lately come from Venice. He told me the king would meet with difficulties by the way, but he would overcome them all with honor, though he had but a hundred men in his company; for God, who had conducted him thither, would guard him back again. But because he had not applied himself, as he ought, to the reformation of the Church, and because he had permitted his soldiers to rob and plunder the poor people (as well those who had freely opened their gates to him as the enemy who had opposed him), therefore God had pronounced judgment against him, and in a short time he would receive chastisement.

However, he bade me tell him that if he would have compassion upon the people, and order his soldiers to do them no wrong and punish them when they did, as it was his business to do, God would then mitigate, if not revoke, his sentence; but that it would not be sufficient for him to plead that he did them no wrong himself. He also said that he would meet the king when he came, and tell him so from his own mouth; and this he did, and pressed hard for the restitution of the Florentine

1 Lorenzo de' Medici, despot of Florence, died in 1492. He was succeeded by his son, Pietro de' Medici, who ruled for only two years.

1

towns. When he mentioned the sentence of God against him, the death of the Dauphin 1 came very fresh into my mind; for I knew nothing else that could touch the king so sensibly. This I have thought fit to record, to make it the more manifest that this whole expedition was a mystery conducted by God Himself.

72. Death of Savonarola 2

In my relation of the affairs of Italy, I have mentioned a Dominican friar who lived at Florence for the space of fifteen years, in great reputation for the sancity of his life, and whom I saw and conversed with in the year 1495. His name was Girolamo, and he had foretold several things which afterwards came to pass. He had always affirmed that the king of France would make a journey into Italy, declaring it publicly in his sermons, and asserting that he knew it as a revelation from God, by whom he pronounced our king to have been chosen to reform the Church by the sword and to chastise the insolence of tyrants. But his pretending to receive revelations created for him many enemies, made him incur the displeasure of the pope,3 and gained him ill-will from several in Florence. His life and discourses (as far as could be discovered) were the severest and most holy in the world, for he was declaiming perpetually against sin and making many proselytes in that city.

In the same year 1498, and within four or five days after the death of King Charles VIII, died Friar Girolamo also. I mention these facts together, because he had always publicly asserted that the king would return again into Italy, to accomplish the commission which God had given him for the reforming of the Church by the sword, and the expulsion of tryants out of Italy; and that in case the king refused or neglected it, God would punish him severely.... His threats to the king of God's severe anger if he did not return to Italy, he wrote several times to his majesty a little before his death;

1 Charles Orlando, the eldest son of Charles VIII, died in 1495, when only three years of age.

2 Commines, Mémoires, bk. viii, ch. 26.

3 Alexander VI.

and he told me as much on my return from Italy, assuring me that sentence was pronounced in heaven against the king, provided he refused to observe what God had commanded and did not keep his soldiers from plundering.

About the time of the king's death there were great divisions among the Florentines. Some expected the king's return and very earnestly desired it, upon confidence in Friar Girolamo's assurance; and in that confidence they exhausted and ruined themselves in their expenses to promote the recovery of Pisa and the rest of the towns which they had delivered to the king; but Pisa remained in possession of the Venetians. Some of the citizens were for siding with the league and deserting our king; and these alleged that all was but folly and delusion, and that Friar Girolamo was a heretic and a hypocrite, and that he ought to be put into a sack and thrown into the river; but he had friends in the town who protected him against that fate. The pope and the duke of Milan wrote often against him, assuring the Florentines that Pisa and the rest of their towns should be restored, if they would abandon our king and punish Friar Girolamo. It accidentally happened that at the time of the king's death the Signory consisted chiefly of Friar Girolamo's enemies (for the Signory in that city is changed every two months). They incited a Franciscan friar to quarrel with him and to proclaim him a heretic and an abuser of the people, in pretending to revelation, and to declare publicly that he had no such gift. To prove what he said, the Franciscan challenged Friar Girolamo to the ordeal of fire before the Signory.

Friar Girolamo had more wisdom than to accept this challenge; but one of his brethren offered to do it for him, and another of the Franciscans volunteered to do as much on the other side; so that a day was appointed when they were to come to their trial. Both of them presented themselves to enter the fire accompanied by all the friars of their orders. The Dominican brought the Host in his hand, which the Si

The governing body of Florence.