d procession of the carnival, a
spirit not of life, but of denial, a little forgetful as yet that the
days of the Middle Age were over: and even as one day that joy in the
earth and the beauty of world was to pass almost into Paganism, so this
mysticism, that was at first like some marvellous fore-taste of heaven,
fell into just Puritanism, a brutal political and schismatic hatred in
the fanaticism of--let us be thankful for that--a foreigner. "If I am
deceived, Christ, thou hast deceived me," Savonarola will come to say;
and amid his cursing and prophecies it is perhaps difficult to catch the
words of Pico--"We may rather love God than either know Him or by speech
utter Him." But in Cosimo's day men had no fear, the day was at the
dawn: who could have thought by sunset life would be so disastrous?

[Illustration: CHIOSTRO DI S. MARCO]

Cosimo de' Medici had a villa near the convent of S. Domenico at
Fiesole, where, as it is said, he would often go when Careggi was too
far, and the summer had turned the city into a furnace. Here, as we may
think, he may well have talked with Fra Angelico, for he would often
walk in the cloisters in the evening with the friars, and must have seen
and praised the frescoes there. These Dominicans at Fiesole had already
sent a colony to Florence, for in June 1435 they had obtained from
Pope Eugenius iv, who was then at S. Maria Novella the little church of
S. Giorgio across Arno. Seeing the order and comeliness of that convent
at Fiesole, Cosimo, on behalf of the magistrates of Florence, presented
a petition to the Pope about this time, praying that since he was
engaged on a reform of the Religious Orders, which, partly owing to the
schism and partly to the plague, were much relaxed, he would suppress
the Sylvestrians who dwelt in the old convent of S. Marco, and give it
to the Dominicans of Fiesole, who in exchange would give up their
convent of S. Giorgio, for in the centre of the city numerous and
zealous ministers were needed. Eugenius very gladly agreed to this, and
in a Bull of January 1436, S. Marco was given to the Dominican
Friars.[97] So they came down from Fiesole in procession, and went
through the city accompanied by three bishops, all the clergy, and an
immense concourse of people, and Fra Cipriano took possession of S.
Marco "in the name of his congregation." The convent at this time would
seem to have been in a deplorable state: in the previous year a fire had
destroyed muc