Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/249

 SAVONAROLA. 233 and not judicial, for the matter had been prejudged at Kome. Roinolino openly boasted, " We shall have a fine bonfire, for I bring" the sentence with me." * The commissioners reached Florence May 19, and lost no time in accomplishing their object. The only result of the papal inter- vention was to subject the victims to a surplusage of agony and shame. For form's sake, the papal judges could not accept the proceedings already had, but must inflict on Savonarola a third trial. Brought before Romolino on the 20th, he retracted his con- fession as extorted by torture, and asserted that he was an envoy of God. Under the inquisitorial formulas this retraction of con- fession rendered him a relapsed heretic, who could be burned with- out further ceremony, but his judges wanted to obtain information desired by Alexander, and again the sufferer was repeatedly sub- jected to the strappado, when he withdrew his retraction. Special inquiries were directed to ascertain whether the Cardinal of Naples had been privy to the design of convoking a general council, and under the stress of reiterated torture Savonarola was brought to admit this on the 21st, but on the 22d he withdrew the assertion, and the whole confession, although manipulated by the skilful hand of Ser Ceccone, was so nearly a repetition of the previous one that it was never given to the public. This mattered little, however, for the whole proceedings were a barefaced mockery of justice. From some oversight Domenico da Pescia's name had not been included in the papal commission. He was an individual of no personal importance, but some zealous Florentine warned Romolino that there might be danger in sparing him, when the commissioner carelessly replied " Afrataccio more or less makes no difference," and his name was added to the sentence. He was an impenitent heretic, for with heroic firmness he had borne the most excruciating torture without retracting his faith in his be- loved prophet.f Perrens, p. 399.— Processo Autentico, p. 522.— Burlamacchi, p. 568.— Brev. Hist. Ord. Prsedicat. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 393). t Landucci, p. 176.— Nardi, Lib. n. pp. 80-1.— Burlamacchi, p. 568.— Violi (Villari, II. App. cxxv.).— Villari, II. 206-8, 229-33; App. clxxxiv., cxciv., cxcvii. There was one peculiarity in this examination before Romolino which I have not seen recorded elsewhere. During the interrogatory of May 21 Savonarola
 * Landucci, p. 174.— Nardi, Lib. n. p. 79.— Wadding, ann. 1496, No. 7.—