Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/252

 236 POLITICAL HERESY. — THE CHURCH. Savonarola had built his house upon the sand, and was. swept away by the waters. Yet, in spite of his execution as a heretic, the Church has tacitly confessed its own crime by admitting that he was no heretic, but rather a saint, and the most convenient evasion of responsibility was devoutly to refer the whole matter, as Luke Wadding does, to the mysterious judgment of God. Even Torriani and Romolino, after burning him, when they ordered, May 27, under pain of excommunication, all his writings to be de- livered up to them for examination, were unable to discover any heretical opinions, and were obliged to return them without eras- ures. Perhaps it might have been as well to do this before con- demning him. Paul III. declared that he would hold as a heretic any one who should assail the memory of Fra Girolamo; and Paul IV. had his works rigorously examined by a special congre- gation, which declared that they contained no heresy. Fifteen of his sermons, denunciatory of ecclesiastical abuses, and his treatise De Yeritate Prophetica, were placed upon the index as unfitted for general reading, donee corrigantur, but not as heretical. Benedict XI Y., in his great work, De Servorurn Dei Beatijicatione, includes Savonarola's name in a list of the saints and men illustri- ous for sanctity. Images of him graced with the nimbus of sanc- tity were allowed to be publicly sold, and St. Filippo Xeri kept one of these constantly by him. St. Francesco di Paola held him to be a saint. St. Catarina Ricci used to invoke him as a saint, and considered his suffrage peculiarly efficacious ; when she was canonized, her action with regard to this was brought before the consistory, and was thoroughly discussed. Prospero Lambertini, afterwards Benedict XIV., was the Promoter Jidei, and investi- gated the matter carefully, coming to the conclusion that this in no degree detracted from the merits of St. CatariDa. Benedict XIII. also examined the case thoroughly, and, dreading a renewal of the old controversy as to the justice of Savonarola's sentence, ordered the discussion to cease and the proceedings to continue without reference to it, which was a virtual decision in favor of the martyr's saintliness. In S. Maria Novella and S. Marco he is pictured as a saint, and in the frescos of the Vatican Raphael in- cluded him among the doctors of the Church. The Dominicans long cherished his memory, and were greatly disposed to regard him as a genuine prophet and uncanonized saint. When Clement