uption, had become a sepulchre to hide the lamp. As the years
went on scandals increased and multiplied, and hypocrisy seemed to have
given place to impudence. Had the world, then, ceased to have a
righteous Ruler? Was the Church finally forsaken? No, assuredly: in
the Sacred Book there was a record of the past in which might be seen as
in a glass what would be in the days to come, and the book showed that
when the wickedness of the chosen people, type of the Christian Church,
had become crying, the judgments of God had descended on them. Nay,
reason itself declared that vengeance was imminent, for what else would
suffice to turn men from their obstinacy in evil? And unless the Church
were reclaimed, how could the promises be fulfilled, that the heathens
should be converted and the whole world become subject to the one true
law? He had seen his belief reflected in visions--a mode of seeing
which had been frequent with him from his youth up.

But the real force of demonstration for Girolamo Savonarola lay in his
own burning indignation at the sight of wrong; in his fervent belief in
an Unseen Justice that would put an end to the wrong, and in an Unseen
Purity to which lying and uncleanness were an abomination. To his
ardent, power-loving soul, believing in great ends, and longing to
achieve those ends by the exertion of its own strong will, the faith in
a supreme and righteous Ruler became one with the faith in a speedy
divine interposition that would punish and reclaim.

Meanwhile, under that splendid masquerade of dignities sacred and
secular which seemed to make the life of lucky Churchmen and princely
families so luxurious and amusing, there were certain conditions at work
which slowly tended to disturb the general festivity. Ludovico Sforza--
copious in gallantry, splendid patron of an incomparable Leonardo da
Vinci--holding the ducal crown of Milan in his grasp, and wanting to put
it on his own head rather than let it rest on that of a feeble nephew
who would take very little to poison him, was much afraid of the
Spanish-born old King Ferdinand and the Crown Prince Alfonso of Naples,
who, not liking cruelty and treachery which were useless to themselves,
objected to the poisoning of a near relative for the advantage of a
Lombard usurper; the royalties of Naples again were afraid of their
suzerain, Pope Alexander Borgia; all three were anxiously watching
Florence, lest with its midway territory it should de