The state of Italy as well as of the Church was miserable, and the soul of the young monk was filled with horror-stricken grief, relieved only by study and prayer.  He had been much occupied in instructing the novices, but now he was promoted to the function of preacher.  In 1481 he was sent by his superiors to preach in Ferrara.  Nothing is known of the effect of the sermons he delivered at that time and place.  Savonarola had not yet developed his gifts of oratory.  He was driven from Ferrara by an outbreak of war with the Venetians, and repaired to Florence, where, in the Monastery of St. Mark the brightest as well as the saddest years of his life were to be spent.  The Monastery contained the first public library established in Italy, which was kept in excellent order by the monks.

Savonarola was half intoxicated with joy during his first days in Florence.  He was charmed by the soft lines of the Tuscan hills and the beauty of the Tuscan speech.  Lorenzo the Magnificent had been ruling Florence for many years and was then at the climacteric of his fame.  Under his sway everything appeared to prosper.  Enemies had been imprisoned or banished, and factions had ceased to distract the city.  Lorenzo’s shameless licentiousness was condoned by reason of his brilliancy, his patronage of art and literature, and his lavish public entertainments.

Greek scholars, driven westward by the fall of Constantinople, sought refuge at the Florentine court.  The fine arts flourished and a Platonic Academy was established.  It was even proposed that the Pope should canonise Plato as a saint.  In fact that period witnessed the inauguration of modern culture.

III.—­1481-1490

After the first few days in Florence, Savonarola again began to experience the feeling of isolation.  For he speedily detected the unbelief and frivolity under the surface of the intellectual culture of the people.  Even in St. Mark’s Monastery there was no real religion.  Savonarola was soon invited to preach the Lenten sermons in St. Lorenzo.  His discourses produced no special effect, for the Florentines preferred preachers who indulged in Pagan quotations and rhetorical elegancies rather than in expatiating in the precepts of Christianity.  But a stirring event was at hand.

Savonarola was sent by his superiors to Reggio to attend a Chapter of the Dominicans.  During the discussion he was suddenly impelled to rise to his feet and to plunge into a powerful declamation against the corruptions of the Church and the clergy which transfixed his hearers with astonishment.  This outburst was a revelation of his extraordinary powers.  It instantly secured his fame and from that moment many sought his acquaintance.

Savonarola’s mind from that moment became strangely excited and it is not surprising that he should have seen many visions.  He on one occasion saw the heavens open.  A panorama of the calamities of the Church passed before him and he heard a voice charging him to proclaim them to the people.  In that year, 1484, Pope Sixtus died.  The election of his successor, Innocent VIII. destroyed the hopes of honest men.  For the new Pope no longer disguised his children under the appellation of nephews, but openly acknowledged them as his sons, conferring on them the title of princes.