had driven the
French out of Italy. He accused them of being traitors to the Church and
to their country for their attachment to a foreign prince. Alexander,
equally offended by the projects of reform and by the politics of
Savonarola, denounced him to the Church as a heretic, and interdicted him
from preaching. The monk at first obeyed, and procured the appointment of
his friend and disciple the Dominican friar, Buonvicino of Pescia, as
his successor in the Church of St. Mark; but on Christmas Day, 1497, he
declared from the pulpit that God had revealed to him that he ought not
to submit to a corrupt tribunal; he then openly took the sacrament with
the monks of St. Mark, and afterward continued to preach. In the course
of his sermons he more than once held up to reprobation the scandalous
conduct of the Pope, whom the public voice accused of every vice
and every crime to be expected in a libertine so depraved--a man so
ambitious, perfidious, and cruel--a monarch and a priest intoxicated with
absolute power.

In the mean time the rivalry encouraged by the court of Rome between
the religious orders soon procured the Pope a champion eager to combat
Savonarola; he was a Dominican--the general of the Augustines, that
Order whence Martin Luther was soon to issue. Friar Mariano di Ghinazzano
signalized himself by his zeal in opposing Savonarola. He presented to
the Pope Friar Francis of Apulia, of the order of Minor Observantines,
who was sent to Florence to preach against the Florentine monks, in the
Church of Santa Croce. This preacher declared to his audience that he
knew Savonarola pretended to support his doctrine by a miracle. "For me,"
said he, "I am a sinner; I have not the presumption to perform miracles;
nevertheless, let a fire be lighted, and I am ready to enter it with
him. I am certain of perishing, but Christian charity teaches me not to
withhold my life if in sacrificing it I might precipitate into hell a
heresiarch, who has already drawn into it so many souls."

This strange proposition was rejected by Savonarola; but his friend and
disciple, Friar Dominic Buonvicino, eagerly accepted it. Francis of
Apulia declared that he would risk his life against Savonarola only.
Meanwhile a crowd of monks, of the Dominican and Franciscan orders,
rivalled each other in their offers to prove by the ordeal of fire, on
one side the truth, on the other the falsehood, of the new doctrine.
Enthusiasm spread beyond the two conv