ty and the more ardent was his devotion to prayer.
He seemed when engaged in prayer frequently to lapse into a trance, and
tradition even alleges that at such times a bright halo was seen to
encircle his head.

_IV.--1491_

Returning to Florence, Savonarola by his Lenten sermons in 1491 drew
immense crowds to the Duomo. From that moment he became the paramount
power in the pulpit. His vivid imagery and his predictions of coming
troubles seemed to produce a magical effect on the minds of the people.
But this growing influence was a source of considerable vexation to
Lorenzo de' Medici and his friends. Savonarola vehemently denounced the
greed of the clergy and their neglect of spiritual life for the sake of
mere external ceremonialism, and he with equal insistence inveighed
against the corruption of public manners. As Lorenzo was already
considered a tyrant by many of the citizens, and as he was universally
charged with having corrupted the magistrates and appropriated the
public and private funds, it was generally inferred that Savonarola had
had the audacity to make allusion to him.

This only enhanced the Friar's reputation and in July, 1491, he was
elected Prior of St. Mark's. The office made him both more prominent
than before and also more independent. He showed this to be the case by
at once refusing to go according to custom to do homage to the
Magnificent, declaring that he owed his election to God alone, and to
God only would he vow obedience. Lorenzo was deeply offended, yet he
judged it discreet rather to win the new Prior over by kindness than to
wage war with him.

The Seignior only deepened Savonarola's contempt by sending rich gifts
to the convent and by sending five of the chief citizens to him in order
to induce him to modify the strain of his preaching. The gifts were
immediately distributed among the poor, and Savonarola in a pulpit
allusion observed that a faithful dog does not cease barking in his
master's defence because a bone is flung him. To the five citizens, who
hinted to the Prior that he might be sent into exile, he replied that
they should bid Lorenzo do penance for his sins, for God was no
respecter of persons and did not spare the princes of the earth.

Wonderful was the effect of Savonarola's preaching on the corrupt and
pagan society of Florence. His natural, spontaneous, heart-stirring
eloquence, with its exalted imagery and outbursts of righteous
indignation, was entirely un