the Republic was remodelled with Savonarola virtually
controlling its Great Council. For a year or two his power was supreme.

This was the period of the Piagnoni, or Weepers. The citizens adopted
sober attire; a spirit as of England under the Puritans prevailed;
and Savonarola's eloquence so far carried away not only the populace
but many persons of genius that a bonfire was lighted in the middle
of the Piazza della Signoria in which costly dresses, jewels, false
hair and studies from the nude were destroyed.

Savonarola, meanwhile, was not only chastising and reforming Florence,
but with fatal audacity was attacking with even less mincing of words
the licentiousness of the Pope. As to the character of Lorenzo de'
Medici there can be two opinions, and indeed the historians of Florence
are widely divided in their estimates; but of Roderigo Borgia (Pope
Alexander VI) there is but one, and Savonarola held it. Savonarola
was excommunicated, but refused to obey the edict. Popes, however,
although Florence had to a large extent put itself out of reach,
have long arms, and gradually--taking advantage of the city's growing
discontent with piety and tears and recurring unquiet, there being
still a strong pro-Medici party, and building not a little on his
knowledge of the Florentine love of change--the Pope gathered together
sufficient supporters of his determination to crush this too outspoken
critic and humiliate his fellow-citizens.

Events helped the pontiff. A pro-Medici conspiracy excited the
populace; a second bonfire of vanities led to rioting, for the
Florentines were beginning to tire of virtue; and the preaching of a
Franciscan monk against Savonarola (and the gentle Fra Angelico has
shown us, in the Accademia, how Franciscans and Dominicans could hate
each other) brought matters to a head, for he challenged Savaronola
to an ordeal by fire in the Loggia de' Lanzi, to test which of them
spoke with the real voice of God. A Dominican volunteered to make the
essay with a Franciscan. This ceremony, anticipated with the liveliest
eagerness by the Florentines, was at the last moment forbidden,
and Savonarola, who had to bear the responsibility of such a bitter
disappointment to a pleasure-loving people, became an unpopular
figure. Everything just then was against him, for Charles VIII,
with whom he had an understanding and of whom the Pope was afraid,
chose that moment to die.

The Pope drove home his advantage, and gett