SAVONAROLA. 231 was no intention of being restricted to legal rules, the first object was to discredit him with the people, after which he could be judicially murdered with impunity.* The object was thoroughly attained. On April 19, in the great hall of the council, the confession was publicly read in the pres- ence of all who might see fit to attend. The effect produced is well described by the honest Luca Landucci, who had been an earnest and devout, though timid, follower of Fra Girolamo, and who now grieved bitterly at the disappearance of his illusions, and at the shattering of the gorgeous day-dreams in which the dis- ciples had nursed themselves. Deep was his anguish as he lis- tened to the confession of one " whom we believed to be a prophet and who now confessed that he was no prophet, and that what he preached was not revealed to him by God. I was stupefied and my very soul was filled with grief to see the destruction of such an edifice, which crumbled because it was founded on a lie. I had expected to see Florence a new Jerusalem, whence should issue the laws and the splendor and the example of the holy life ; to see the renovation of the Church, the conversion of the infidel, and the rejoicing of the good. I found the reverse of all this, and I swallowed the dose" — a natural enough metaphor, seeing that Landucci was an apothecary, f Yet even with this the Signoria was not satisfied. On April 21 a new trial was ordered ; Savonarola was tortured again, and further avowals of his political action were wrung from him,;j: while a general arrest was made of those who were compromised by his confessions, and those of Domenico and Salvestro, creating a terror so widespread that large numbers of his followers fled from the city. On the 27th the prisoners were taken to the Bargello and so tortured that during the whole of the afternoon their shrieks were heard by the passers-by, but nothing was wrung
- Processo Autentico, pp. 551-64, 567. — Villari, II. App. cxlvii. sqq.
Violi states that the confession as interpolated by Ceccone was printed and circulated by the Signoria as a justification of their action, but that it proved so unsatisfactory to the public that in a few days all copies were ordered by proc- lamation to be surrendered (Villari, II. App. p. cxiv.). t Landucci, p. 173. — Burlamacchi, p. 567. I This confession was never made public. Villari, who discovered the MS., has printed it, App. p. clxxv.
