lasses of the Frate's disciples, there was the long
stream of poorer tradesmen and artisans, whose faith and hope in his
Divine message varied from the rude and undiscriminating trust in him as
the friend of the poor and the enemy of the luxurious oppressive rich,
to that eager tasting of all the subtleties of biblical interpretation
which takes a peculiarly strong hold on the sedentary artisan,
illuminating the long dim spaces beyond the board where he stitches,
with a pale flame that seems to him the light of Divine science.

But among these various disciples of the Frate were scattered many who
were not in the least his disciples. Some were Mediceans who had
already, from motives of fear and policy, begun to show the presiding
spirit of the popular party a feigned deference. Others were sincere
advocates of a free government, but regarded Savonarola simply as an
ambitious monk--half sagacious, half fanatical--who had made himself a
powerful instrument with the people, and must be accepted as an
important social fact. There were even some of his bitter enemies:
members of the old aristocratic anti-Medicean party--determined to try
and get the reins once more tight in the hands of certain chief
families; or else licentious young men, who detested him as the killjoy
of Florence. For the sermons in the Duomo had already become political
incidents, attracting the ears of curiosity and malice, as well as of
faith. The men of ideas, like young Niccolo Macchiavelli, went to
observe and write reports to friends away in country villas; the men of
appetites, like Dolfo Spini, bent on hunting down the Frate, as a public
nuisance who made game scarce, went to feed their hatred and lie in wait
for grounds of accusation.

Perhaps, while no preacher ever had a more massive influence than
Savonarola, no preacher ever had more heterogeneous materials to work
upon. And one secret of the massive influence lay in the highly mixed
character of his preaching. Baldassarre, wrought into an ecstasy of
self-martyring revenge, was only an extreme case among the partial and
narrow sympathies of that audience. In Savonarola's preaching there
were strains that appealed to the very finest susceptibilities of men's
natures, and there were elements that gratified low egoism, tickled
gossiping curiosity, and fascinated timorous superstition. His need of
personal predominance, his labyrinthine allegorical interpretations of
the Scriptures, hi