Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/236

 220 POLITICAL HERESY.— THE CHURCH the Signoria, by the children of Florence, asking that their beloved Frate be allowed to resume preaching, and by a sermon delivered in his defence, October 1, by a Carmelite who declared that in a vis- ion God had told him that Savonarola was a holy man, and that all his opponents would have their tongues torn out and be cast to the dogs. This was flat rebellion against the Holy See, but the only punishment inflicted on the Carmelite by the episcopal officials was a prohibition of further preaching. Meanwhile the Signoria had made earnest but vain attempts to have the excommunication re- moved, and Savonarola had indignantly refused an offer of the Cardinal of Siena (afterwards Pius III.) to have it withdrawn on the payment of five thousand scudi to a creditor of his. Yet. in spite of this disregard of the papal censures, Savonarola considered himself as still an obedient son of the Church. He employed the enforced leisure of this summer in writing the Trionfo delta Croce, in which he proved that the papacy is supreme, and that whoever separates himself from the unity and doctrine of Rome separates himself from Christ.* January, 1498, saw the introduction of a Signoria composed of his zealous partisans, who were not content that a voice so potent should be hushed. It was an ancient custom that they should go in a body and make oblations at the Duomo on Epiphany, which was the anniversary of the Church, and on that day citizens of all parties were astounded at seeing the still excommunicated Savon- arola as the celebrant, and the officials humbly kiss his hand. Xot content with this act of rebellion, it was arranged that he should recommence preaching. A new Signoria was to be elected for March, the people were becoming divided in their allegiance to him. and his eloquence was held to be indispensable for his own safety and for the continuance in power of the Piagnoni. Ac- cordingly, on February 11 he again appeared in the Duomo, where the old benches and scaffolds had been replaced to accommodate the crowd. Yet many of the more timid Piagnoni abstained from listening to an excommunicate : whether just or unjust, they ar- gued, the sentence of the Church was to be feared, f ducci, pp. 152-3, 157. t Landucci, pp. 161-2.— Machiavelli, Framinenti istorici (Opere Ed. 1782, II. 58).
 * Yillari, II. 25-8, 35-6,79; App. xxxix. — Processo Autentico, p. 535. — Lan-