FOOTNOTES:
[114] Jerome Savonarola—was a jacobin friar, and had foretold that the king of France would invade Italy, to punish the inhabitants for their vices, and their rulers for their tyranny. He afterward preached against king Charles. He was burnt at Florence by the intrigues of pope Alexander VI. at the instigation of the Venetians and the duke of Milan, against whose vices he had publicly declaimed.
The death of Jerome Savonarola was a disgrace to the times. Florence supported him as an inspired person. His piety, his austere life, and his edifying sermons gained him the esteem and admiration of all the Florentines. There may, perhaps, have been some imprudence in his sermons, which persons of piety will attribute to zeal; and the pope was too severe in having him burnt for the slight censure he had passed on his conduct, which was notoriously infamous.