234 POLITICAL HERESY,— THE CHURCH. The accused were at least spared the torment of suspense. On the 2M judgment was pronounced. They were condemned as heretics and schismatics, rebels from the Church, sowers of tares and revealers of confessions, and were sentenced to be abandoned to the secular arm. To justify relaxation, it was requisite that the culprit should be a relapsed or a defiant heretic, and Savona- rola was not regarded as coming under either category. He had always declared his readiness to retract anything which Home might define as erroneous. He had confessed all that had been required of him, nor was his retraction when removed from tort- ure treated as a relapse, for he and his companions were admitted to communion before execution, without undergoing the ceremony of abjuration, which shows that they were not considered as heretics, nor cut off from the Church. In fact, as though to com- plete the irregularity of the whole transaction, Savonarola himself was allowed to act as the celebrant, and to perform the sacred mysteries on the morning of the execution. All this went for nothing, however, when a Borgia was eager for revenge. On the previous evening a great pile had been built in the piazza. The next morning, May 23, the ceremony of degradation from holy orders was performed in public, after which the convicts were handed over to the secular magistrates. Was it hypocrisy or re- morse that led Romolino at this moment to give to his victims, in the name of Alexander, plenary indulgence of their sins, thus re- storing them to a state of primal innocence ? Irregular as the whole affair had been, it was rendered still more so by the Signoria, which modified the customary penalty to hanging before the burn- ing, and the three martyrs endured their fate in silence.* The utmost care was taken that the bodies should be utterly consumed, after which every fragment of ashes was scrupulously gathered up and thrown into the Arno, in order to prevent the preservation of relics. Yet, at the risk of their lives, some earnest disciples secretly managed to secure a few floating coals, as well was subjected to fresh torture as a preliminary to asking his confirmation of the statements just made under repeated tortures (Villari, II. App. cxcvi.).
- Landucci, pp. 176-7. — Processo Autentico, p. 546. — Villari, II. 239 ; App.
cxcviii. — Cantu, Eretici dltalia, I. 229. — Burlamacchi, pp. 569-70. — Nardi, Lib. ii. p. 82.
