DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0387
the makers of Florence.
367
him. Christ did not vindicate Himself upon the cross, or
make any plea of innocence—why should Christ’s servant
have done so ! His boat of life had already jarred upon the
soft shores of the eternal land : what was it now to him-
that tumultuous ocean of faces, as tumultuous as -fickle,
and as uncertain as any sea !
So died the great preacher of Florence, the great prior
of San Marco, the most powerful politician, the most dis-
interested reformer of his time. Florence learned after he
was gone that her only chance for freedom lay in taking up
again and tardily following the system he had instituted;
but did it, one is almost glad to know, too late; and so fell
under the hated sway of the Medici, and out of one tyranny
into another, till recent events have given her back a
better existence. And Rome and Christendom found out
what it was to have crushed the good genius within the
church when the ruder German revolt burst forth, and
tore the Christian world asunder. The faithful in Florence
kept up a secret memory of the martyrs as long as there
remained a Piagnone in the city, and strewed flowers in the
stony square where he died, and burned lamps before his
picture in their houses. Fra Benedetto, after that momen-
tary pause of miserable doubt and dismay which we have
recorded, threw aside his palette and his brushes, and gave
himself up to the examination of all the false documents
of the trial, and to the clearing of his master’s fame. So
did Burlamacchi, from whom we have quoted, also a
Dominican brother, of a noble family of Lucca; and others
of Savonarola’s followers, for whom henceforward the great
object of existence was to vindicate his memory. Even in
the city of Dante, no greater figure has its dwelling. The
shadow of him lies still across those sunny squares and the
streets through which in triumph and in agony he went
upon his lofty way; and consecrates alike the little cell in
San Marco and the little prison in the tower, and the
367
him. Christ did not vindicate Himself upon the cross, or
make any plea of innocence—why should Christ’s servant
have done so ! His boat of life had already jarred upon the
soft shores of the eternal land : what was it now to him-
that tumultuous ocean of faces, as tumultuous as -fickle,
and as uncertain as any sea !
So died the great preacher of Florence, the great prior
of San Marco, the most powerful politician, the most dis-
interested reformer of his time. Florence learned after he
was gone that her only chance for freedom lay in taking up
again and tardily following the system he had instituted;
but did it, one is almost glad to know, too late; and so fell
under the hated sway of the Medici, and out of one tyranny
into another, till recent events have given her back a
better existence. And Rome and Christendom found out
what it was to have crushed the good genius within the
church when the ruder German revolt burst forth, and
tore the Christian world asunder. The faithful in Florence
kept up a secret memory of the martyrs as long as there
remained a Piagnone in the city, and strewed flowers in the
stony square where he died, and burned lamps before his
picture in their houses. Fra Benedetto, after that momen-
tary pause of miserable doubt and dismay which we have
recorded, threw aside his palette and his brushes, and gave
himself up to the examination of all the false documents
of the trial, and to the clearing of his master’s fame. So
did Burlamacchi, from whom we have quoted, also a
Dominican brother, of a noble family of Lucca; and others
of Savonarola’s followers, for whom henceforward the great
object of existence was to vindicate his memory. Even in
the city of Dante, no greater figure has its dwelling. The
shadow of him lies still across those sunny squares and the
streets through which in triumph and in agony he went
upon his lofty way; and consecrates alike the little cell in
San Marco and the little prison in the tower, and the