Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/228

 212 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH. dominant. Whenever he preached, from twelve to fifteen thou- sand persons hung upon his lips, and in the great Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore it was necessary to build scaffolds and benches to accommodate the thronging crowds, multitudes of whom would have cast themselves into fire at a word from him. He paid special attention to children, and interested them so deeply in his work that we are told they could not be kept in bed on the mornings when he preached, but would hurry to the church in advance of their parents. In the processions which he organized sometimes five or six thousand boys would take part, and he used them most effectively in the moral reforms Avhich he introduced in the disso- lute and pleasure-loving city. The boys of Fra Girolamo were regu- larly organized, with officers who had their several spheres of duty assigned to them, and they became a terror to evil-doers. They entered the taverns and gambling-houses and put a stop to revelry and dicing and card-playing, and no woman dared to appear upon the streets save in fitting attire and with a modest mien. " Here are the boys of the Frate" was a cry which inspired fear in the most reckless, for any resistance to them was at the risk of life. Even the annual horse-races of Santo-Barnabo were suppressed, and it was a sign of Girolamo's waning influence when, in 1497, the Signoria ordered them resumed, saying, " Are we all to become monks?" From the gayest and wickedest of cities Florence be- came the most demure, and the pious long looked back with regret to the holy time of Savonarola's rule, and thanked God that they had been allowed to see it." In one respect we may regret his puritanism and the zeal of his boys. For the profane mummeries of the carnival in 1498 he substituted a bonfire of objects which he deemed immodest or improper, and the voluntary contributions for this purpose were supplemented by the energy of the boys, who entered houses and palaces and carried off whatever they deemed fit for the holocaust. Precious illuminated MSS., ancient sculptures, pictures, rare tapes- tries, and priceless works of art thus were mingled with the gew- Commines Liv. viii. c. 19. — Marsilii Ficini opp. Ed. 1561, 1. 963. — Nardi, Historie Florentine, Lib. n. (Ed. 15T4, pp. 58. 60). — Perrens, Jerome Savonarole, p. 342. — Burlamacchi (loc. cit. pp. 544-6, 552-3, 556-7).
 * Landucci, op. cit. pp. 72, 88, 94, 103, 108, 109, 123-8, 154.— Meraoires de