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Nerli is altogether a less interesting writer than those that have been mentioned; yet some of the particulars which he relates, about Savonarola's reform of manners, for example, and the literary gatherings in the Rucellai gardens, are such as we find nowhere else.
Instantly the report spread through Florence that the mortal challenge was accepted; Savonarola's partisans, all men of the strongest convictions, felt no doubt as to the success of their cause. His enemies were enchanted at the thought of the heretic giving himself to the flames; and the indifferent saw in the ordeal a spectacle of real and terrible interest.
Attempts by his friends, some of them of high and influential position, to defend him, only the more enraged Pope Alexander Borgia. He summoned a consistory of fourteen Dominican theologians who were ordered to investigate Savonarola's conduct and doctrine. The strange issue was he was charged with having been the cause of all the misfortunes that had befallen Pietro de' Medici.
While he sympathizes with Savonarola's political and moral reforms, he raises a doubt about his inner sincerity, and does not approve of the attitude of the Piagnoni. In his estimation of men Nardi was remarkably cautious, preferring always to give an external relation of events, instead of analyzing motives or criticising character. He is in especial silent about bad men and criminal actions.
The wings of dreams have winnowed and withered that cheek as they passed over it. The spirit of prayer quivers upon those eager lips. The color of Savonarola's flesh was brown: his nerves were exquisitely sensitive yet strong; like a network of wrought steel, elastic, easily overstrained, they recovered their tone and temper less by repose than by the evolution of fresh electricity.
But soon there was a wider parting, and with a gentle quickness, like a smile, a stream of brightness poured itself on the crystal vase, and then spread itself over Savonarola's face with mild glorification. An instantaneous shout rang through the Piazza, "Behold the answer!" The warm radiance thrilled through Savonarola's frame, and so did the shout.
He witnessed those stormy scenes of religious revival and passionate fanaticism which contemporaries have impressively described. The shorthand-writer to whom we owe the text of Savonarola's sermons at times breaks off with words like these: "Here I was so overcome with weeping that I could not go on."
When his friar's gown was taken from him, Savonarola said: "Holy gown, thou wert granted to me by God's grace and I have ever kept thee unstained. Now I forsake thee not but am bereft of thee." The monks were first hanged and then burned. The larger picture of the execution which hangs in Savonarola's cell, although interesting and up to a point credible, is of course not right.
The different Physiognomies of the Italian Republics The Similarity of their Character as Municipalities The Rights of Citizenship Causes of Disturbance in the Commonwealths Belief in the Plasticity of Constitutions Example of Genoa Savonarola's Constitution Machiavelli's Discourse to Leo X. Complexity of Interests and Factions Example of Siena Small Size of Italian Cities Mutual Mistrust and Jealousy of the Commonwealths The notable Exception of Venice Constitution of Venice Her wise System of Government Contrast of Florentine Vicissitudes The Magistracies of Florence Balia and Parlamento The Arts of the Medici Comparison of Venice and Florence in respect to Intellectual Activity and Mobility Parallels between Greece and Italy Essential Differences The Mercantile Character of Italian Burghs The 'Trattato del Governo della Famiglia' The Bourgeois Tone of Florence, and the Ideal of a Burgher Mercenary Arms.
It is an attempt to present Florence of the fifteenth century, to contrast Savonarola's ardent Christianity with the Greek aestheticism of the Medicis, and to show the influence of the time upon two widely different characters, Romola and Tito Melema. This novel is the greatest intellectual achievement of its author; but it has neither the warmth of life, nor the vigor of her English stories.
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