[1053] Franco Sacchetti, nov. 72. Preachers who fail are a constant subject of ridicule in all the novels.
[1054] Compare the well-known story in the Decamerone vi. nov. 10.
[1055] In which case the sermons took a special colour. See Malipiero, Ann. Venet. Archiv. Stor. vii. i. p. 18. Chron. Venet. in Murat. xxiv. col. 114. Storia Bresciana, in Murat. xxi. col. 898. Absolution was freely promised to those who took part in, or contributed money for the crusade.
[1056] Storia Bresciana, in Murat. xxiii. col. 865 sqq. On the first day 10,000 persons were present, 2,000 of them strangers.
[1057] Allegretto, Diari Sanesi, in Murat. xxiii. col. 819 sqq. (July 13 to 18, 1486); the preacher was Pietro dell’Osservanza di S. Francesco.
[1058] Infessura (in Eccard, Scriptores, ii. col. 1874) says: ‘Canti, brevi, sorti.’ The first may refer to song-books, which actually were burnt by Savonarola. But Graziani (Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor. xvi. i., p. 314) says on a similar occasion, ‘brieve incanti,’ when we must without doubt read ‘brevi e incanti,’ and perhaps the same emendation is desirable in Infessura, whose ‘sorti’ point to some instrument of superstition, perhaps a pack of cards for fortune-telling. Similarly after the introduction of printing, collections were made of all the attainable copies of Martial, which then were burnt. Bandello, iii. 10.
[1059] See his remarkable biography in Vespasiano Fiorent. p. 244 sqq., and that by Æneas Sylvius, De Viris Illustr. p. 24. In the latter we read: ‘Is quoque in tabella pictum nomen Jesus deferebat, hominibusque adorandum ostendebat multumque suadebat ante ostia domorum hoc nomen depingi.’
[1060] Allegretto, l. c. col. 823. A preacher excited the people against the judges (if instead of ‘giudici’ we are not to read ‘giudei’), upon which they narrowly escaped being burnt in their houses. The opposite party threatened the life of the preacher in return.
[1061] Infessura, l. c. In the date of the witch’s death there seems to be a clerical error. How the same saint caused an ill-famed wood near Arezzo to be cut down, is told in Vasari, iii. 148, Vita di Parri Spinelli. Often, no doubt, the penitential zeal of the hearers went no further than such outward sacrifices.
[1062] ‘Pareva che l’aria si fendesse,’ we read somewhere.