DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0335
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
315
fore from the beginning the doom of such a leader among
men is sealed. But it is something when it lasts long
enough to show even for a single year what it is to he so
ruled from Heaven ; and when the man, sure of so much
misjudging, can leave behind him that evidence of his
work and his meaning to put—-when at last, in the long
course of time, the world becomes impartial—his adversa-
ries to the blush.
Even the moment of Savonarola’s triumph, however, was
disturbed by some opposition. The appeal which he
insisted upon in political cases against the decisions of the
Otto (the Sei Fave, as it was called, judgment being given
by a ballot, and two-thirds of the eight being necessary to
make the majority) was given, in spite of him, not to a
limited and select court, as he wished, but to the consiglio
maggiore in full—much too large and popular an assembly
to be trusted in such cases. This disappointment of his
hopes seems to have been the first sign that his day began
to be over, though it was some time later before his general
influence failed ; and indeed, as often happens, his popular
power seemed for a time all the greater and more evident,
after the heart of it had been touched by decay. The
picturesque popular demonstrations which keep hold of
the imagination longer than laws or practical reforms all
took place when the real power of the great preacher was
on its wane.
The carnival of 1496 found him silent, in obedience to a
brief from Rome ; but I will not in this chapter, which is
devoted to his climax of power and influence, enter upon
that darker portion of his story. He was silenced, but his
active spirit was still untouched, and his courage little
broken. The carnival had been in the days of the Medici
a very Saturnalia of license ; and of all the wild Florentine
revelers in that season abandoned to folly, none were more
wildly riotous than the children—those city children,
315
fore from the beginning the doom of such a leader among
men is sealed. But it is something when it lasts long
enough to show even for a single year what it is to he so
ruled from Heaven ; and when the man, sure of so much
misjudging, can leave behind him that evidence of his
work and his meaning to put—-when at last, in the long
course of time, the world becomes impartial—his adversa-
ries to the blush.
Even the moment of Savonarola’s triumph, however, was
disturbed by some opposition. The appeal which he
insisted upon in political cases against the decisions of the
Otto (the Sei Fave, as it was called, judgment being given
by a ballot, and two-thirds of the eight being necessary to
make the majority) was given, in spite of him, not to a
limited and select court, as he wished, but to the consiglio
maggiore in full—much too large and popular an assembly
to be trusted in such cases. This disappointment of his
hopes seems to have been the first sign that his day began
to be over, though it was some time later before his general
influence failed ; and indeed, as often happens, his popular
power seemed for a time all the greater and more evident,
after the heart of it had been touched by decay. The
picturesque popular demonstrations which keep hold of
the imagination longer than laws or practical reforms all
took place when the real power of the great preacher was
on its wane.
The carnival of 1496 found him silent, in obedience to a
brief from Rome ; but I will not in this chapter, which is
devoted to his climax of power and influence, enter upon
that darker portion of his story. He was silenced, but his
active spirit was still untouched, and his courage little
broken. The carnival had been in the days of the Medici
a very Saturnalia of license ; and of all the wild Florentine
revelers in that season abandoned to folly, none were more
wildly riotous than the children—those city children,