tive of its spirit. It was
the time also of that remarkable monk-prophet, Savonarola, whose voice was
raised so powerfully against the corruptions of that most corrupt age. This
unique character, doubtless, had much to do in causing George Eliot to take
this city and time for her story. No one of the reformers of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries was more in earnest, had a loftier purpose, worked
in a nobler spirit, than this Dominican monk of Florence. His opposition to
the Medici, his conflict with Rome, his visions and prophecies, his
leadership of the politics of Florence, his powerful preaching, his
untimely death, all give a romantic and a tragic interest to his life, and
conspire to make him one of the most interesting figures in modern history.
His moral purpose was conspicuous even when tainted by personal ambition.
His political influence was supreme while it lasted, and was wielded in the
interests of Florence, for its liberties and its moral regeneration. As a
religious teacher he was profoundly in earnest; a prophet in his own belief
as well as in the depth of his religious insight, he accepted with the most
thorough intensity of conviction the spiritual truths he inculcated. In his
own belief he was constantly in communion with the spiritual world, and was
guided and taught by it. He swayed the people of Florence as the wind sways
the branches of a tree, and they bowed utterly to his will for the moment,
when he put forth all his moral and intellectual powers in the pulpit. A
puritan in morals, he had a most vivid realization of the terrible evils of
his time; and he could make his congregation look at the world with his own
faith and moral purpose. His influence on literature and art was also
great, and it was felt for many years after his death.

Savonarola spoke in the pulpit with the authority of the profoundest
personal conviction, and his hearers were impressed by his preaching with
the feeling that they listened to one who knew whereof he spoke. Whenever
he preached there was a crowd to hear; people came three or four hours
before the time, and they came in throngs from the surrounding country. He
held separate services for men, for women, for children, in order that all
might hear. And this eagerness to listen to him was not for a few weeks,
but it continued for years. The greatest enthusiasm was awakened by his
influence, the people were melted into tears, every person listened with
bated breath