ate, and the mob would demand the release of the men.

The prisoners walked firmly and conversed in undertone, encouraging each
other to stand firm. Each held a crucifix and pressed it to his lips,
repeating the creed. Halfway across to the gibbet, they were stopped,
the crucifixes torn from their hands, and their priestly robes stripped
from them. There they stood, clad only in scant underclothes, in sight
of the mob that seethed and mocked. Sharp sticks were thrust up between
the crevices of the board walk, so blood streamed from their bare feet.

Having advanced so that they stood beneath the gibbet, their priestly
robes were again thrown over them, and once more torn off by a bishop
who repeated the words, "Thus do I sever you from the Church Militant
and the Church Triumphant!"

"Not the Church Triumphant!" answered Savonarola in a loud voice. "You
can not do that."

In order to prolong the torture of Savonarola, his companions were
hanged first, before his eyes.

When his turn came he stepped lightly to his place between the dead and
swinging bodies of his brethren. As the executioner was adjusting the
cord about his neck, his great tender eyes were raised to heaven and
his lips moved in prayer as the noose tightened.

The chains were quickly fastened about the bodies to hold them in place,
and scarcely had the executioner upon the platform slid down the
ladders, than the waiting torches below fired the pile and the flames
shot heavenward and licked the great cross where the three bodies
swayed.

The smoke soon covered them from view.

Then suddenly there came a gust of wind that parted the smoke and
flames, and the staring mob, now silent, saw that the fire had burned
the thongs that bound the arms of Savonarola. One hand was uplifted in
blessing and benediction.

So died Savonarola.

MARTIN LUTHER

Only slaves die of overwork. Work a weariness, a danger, forsooth!
Those who say so can know very little about it. Labor is neither
cruel nor ungrateful; it restores the strength we give it a
hundredfold and, unlike financial operations, the revenue is what
brings in the capital. Put soul into your work, and joy and health
will be yours.

--_Luther_

[Illustration: MARTIN LUTHER]

The idea of the monastery is as old as man, and its rise is as natural
as the birth and death of the seasons.

We need society, and we need