DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0294
274
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
them. One of these latter was Prospero Pitti, canon of the
cathedral, a wise and pious old man, of whom Burlamacchi
tells us that he too for years had borne his homely testimony
against the evils of the time, prophesying as so many a
humble prophet does in evil days, that the vengeance of
God must soon overtake the crimes and vices that were
visibly rising to a climax before his eyes. This old canon
was one of those who cherished the beautiful imagination
so long current in those ages, and fondly transmitted from
one generation to another, of the Papa Angelico, the
heavenly-minded pope, true vicar of Christ, who was one
day to come, and revive and renew the Christian world,
convert the infidel, and make the church glorious as when
her Divine Founder planted her on earth. Among the
wide and general prophecies of vague vengeance for sin
and vindication of the righteous in which this old priest
had relieved his soul was one, more particular, of many
preachers to be sent forth by God to sound trumpets of
warning to the sinful, and especially among them of a
prophet who should arise in the order of the Predicated,
“ who should do great things in Florence, and who after
much labor should die there.’’ When the old canon sud-
denly heard a voice rise in his own cathedral, “ intoning,”
with prophetic force, gladius Domini super terram cito et
velociter, he bent his head between his hands, and after an
interval, turning to his nephew, Carlo Pitti, who was at
his side : “ This,” said he, “ is that holy prophet of whom
I have talked to you for ten years.” Nor was Canon Pitti
the only “ devout person ” who had note from heaven of
the coming of the preacher. Another noble citizen of
Florence passing through the Via di Servii in company
with some of his friends, one morning in the year 1487,
before Savonarola had been recalled to Florence, felt him-
self plucked by the mantle by a stranger absolutely un-
known to him, and whom he never saw again, who drew
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
them. One of these latter was Prospero Pitti, canon of the
cathedral, a wise and pious old man, of whom Burlamacchi
tells us that he too for years had borne his homely testimony
against the evils of the time, prophesying as so many a
humble prophet does in evil days, that the vengeance of
God must soon overtake the crimes and vices that were
visibly rising to a climax before his eyes. This old canon
was one of those who cherished the beautiful imagination
so long current in those ages, and fondly transmitted from
one generation to another, of the Papa Angelico, the
heavenly-minded pope, true vicar of Christ, who was one
day to come, and revive and renew the Christian world,
convert the infidel, and make the church glorious as when
her Divine Founder planted her on earth. Among the
wide and general prophecies of vague vengeance for sin
and vindication of the righteous in which this old priest
had relieved his soul was one, more particular, of many
preachers to be sent forth by God to sound trumpets of
warning to the sinful, and especially among them of a
prophet who should arise in the order of the Predicated,
“ who should do great things in Florence, and who after
much labor should die there.’’ When the old canon sud-
denly heard a voice rise in his own cathedral, “ intoning,”
with prophetic force, gladius Domini super terram cito et
velociter, he bent his head between his hands, and after an
interval, turning to his nephew, Carlo Pitti, who was at
his side : “ This,” said he, “ is that holy prophet of whom
I have talked to you for ten years.” Nor was Canon Pitti
the only “ devout person ” who had note from heaven of
the coming of the preacher. Another noble citizen of
Florence passing through the Via di Servii in company
with some of his friends, one morning in the year 1487,
before Savonarola had been recalled to Florence, felt him-
self plucked by the mantle by a stranger absolutely un-
known to him, and whom he never saw again, who drew