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 SAVOIE other class. Danger also was apprehended that if the government made itself responsible for too large sums of money payable on demand, difficulty might be experienced in their pay- ment. In Belgium savings banks exist in most of the principal towns, and are under the di- rection of the towns themselves or of financial establishments. Switzerland has long been famous for its savings banks. In 1874 it had 303, with deposits amounting to $57,600,000. In the various states of the German empire savings banks exist, one having been founded in Berlin as early as 1818. In Austria the deposits in these institutions amount to $179,- 475,824. Throughout Europe the deposits in savings banks are estimated at $1,180,000,000. SAVOIE, a department of France. See SAVOY. SAVOIE, Haute. See HAUTE-SAVOIE. SAVONA, a fortified city of Italy, in the prov- ince, on the W. side of the gulf, and 23 m. S. W. of the city of Genoa; pop. in 1872, 24,- 851. It is very antique, has a large trade in silk, wine, and fruit, manufactures paper, cloth, firearms, soap, and glass, and is famous for its pottery. It has a cathedral dating from 1604, with fine wood carvings from an older one, a citadel, an arsenal, a naval school, a seminary, and a college. The port was filled up with hulks and stones by the Genoese in 1525-'8, but has been partly cleared out, and the work is still in progress (1875). SAVONAROLA, Girolamo, an Italian reformer, born in Ferrara, Sept. 21, 1452, executed in Florence, May 23, 1498. In 1475 he became a Dominican at Bologna ; and having completed his theological studies and received orders, he was sent in 1482 to the convent of San Mar- co in Florence to preach the Lenten station. His diminutive stature and harsh voice having caused him to fail in this, he was removed to the convent of Brescia, where he achieved such success as a pulpit orator that in 1489 he was recalled to San Marco in Florence. Applying the visions and prophetical denunciations of the Apocalypse to the vices and corruptions of the pagan renaissance in Italy, he assumed the character of a prophet. In 1493 he was ap- pointed vicar general of his order in northern Italy, and was encouraged by the court of Rome to carry 'out a thorough reform in all Dominican houses. Soon afterward the pope made the reformed Dominicans of Tuscany an independent body under Savonarola. After the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1492, the friar allied himself with the political par- ty which favored the French domination in Lombardy, and his discourses pointed plainly to the speedy arrival of one who should liberate Florence from the yoke of the Medici and the corruptions of paganism. He was appointed one of a deputation to welcome Charles VIII. of France as the saviour of Italy, and to invite him to Florence in 1494. Thenceforward his influence was for a time all-powerful in the city. When the French evacuated Florence, a theocratic republic was proclaimed by his ad- SAVOY 649 vice, in which Christ alone was to be sovereign, and legislation and public order were regulated on the ascetic principles of monastic life. He made war upon all amusements, proposed a rigid censorship of morals, and even demand- ed the deposition of the pope. A sentence of excommunication, which he disregarded, only increased his popularity. He continued his harangues, organized processions, and held pub- lic autos da fe, in which beautiful and licen- tious works of art were destroyed. But after a time the combination of the Medici with other powerful families, the hostility of the Francis- cans, Savonarola's extravagant interpretations of Scripture, and the censure of the court of Rome, caused a sentence of banishment to be issued against him. He shut himself up in his convent of San Marco, but surrendered after a violent contest. Pope Alexander VI. demanded that he and his companions, Domenico Buon- vicini and Silvestro Maruffi, should be sent to Rome. The Florentine council refused, but al- lowed the papal delegates to share in the trial. The prisoners were sentenced to death and strangled, and their bodies burned. Monuments to Savonarola's memory were erected in the convent of San Marco in 1873, and in Ferrara on the anniversary of his death, May 23, 1875. He left numerous ascetic and political writings and religious poems. In his Triumphu* Grucis he strives to prove the truths of religion by philosophical arguments, and to bring the nat- ural and supernatural together. In his work De Divisione omnium Scientiarum he rejects all pagan authors, and would substitute for these the study of the fathers. His works were partly published at Lyons (6 vols., 1633- '40), and portions have been translated into various languages. Among recent publications of his writings are Prediche (Florence, 1845), and Poesie (1862). His life has been written by Carle (Paris, 1842), Madden (London, 1853), and many others. The best biographies are by Perrens (2 vols., Paris, 1853 ; 3d ed., 1859), and by Villari (2 vols., Florence, 1859-'61 ; French translation by Gustave Gruyer, with collections of Savonarola's correspondence and poetry, 2 vols., 1874). Villari corrects the ex- aggerated accounts of his execution. SAVOY (Fr. La Sawie), a territory of France, formerly an independent duchy and afterward part of the kingdom of Sardinia, between lat. 45 4' and 46 24' K, and Ion. 5 37' and 7 15' E. ; area, 3,888 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 540,- 985. Its length from N. to S. is 92 m. and its greatest breadth from E. to W. 75 m. It is bounded N. by the canton and lake of Geneva ; W. by the department of Ain, from which it is separated by the Rh6ne ; S. W. by the de- partments of Isere and Hautes-Alpes, being divided from the former by the Guiers, a trib- utary of the Rh6ne, and from the latter by the Maurienne ridge, an offset of the Cottian Alps ; and S. E. and E. by the Cottian, Graian, and Pennine Alps, with their ramifications projecting toward the lake of Geneva, which