“No word of mine can be produced against Catholic faith or against whatever is approved by the Catholic Church, to whose correction I have always submitted, and, if need be, again and for ever submit myself.... It will be made manifest whether I have disseminated heresy—far be it from me—or Catholic truth.”
[119] La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola e de’ suoi Tempi, Narrata da Pasquale Villari con l’Aiuto di Nuovi Documenti. Firenze. 1859.
[120] The original is very picturesque: “A ciò ch’el diavolo non mi salti sopra le spalle.”
[121] He ruled from 1469 to 1492.
[122] “Egli secondò il secolo in tutte le sue tendenze: di corrotto che era, lo fece corrottissimo.” “He helped forward the period in all its tendencies,” says Villari. “From corrupt he made it most corrupt.”
[123] M. Perrens and Dean Milman both express some doubt as to this fact, but we prefer to follow Villari, whose explanation of the matter is satisfactory.
[124] Here are his own words: “E mi rammento come predicando nel Duomo l’anno 1491, ed avendo già composto il mio sermone sopra questi visioni, deliberai di sopprimerle e nell’avvenire astenerme affatto. Iddio mi è testimonio, che tutto il giorno di sabato e l’intera notte sino alla nuove luce, io vegliai; ed ogni altra via, ogni dottrina fuori di quella, mi fu tolta. In sull’alba, essendo per la lunga vigilia stanco ed abbattuto, udii, mentre io pregava, una voce che mi disse: Stolto, non vedi che Iddio vuole che tu sequiti la medesima via? Perchè io feci quel giorno una predica tremenda.”
[125] The original is, “Avendo perduto ogni fiducia degli uomini,” which the English Protestant translator (London, 1871) renders, “He had lost all confidence in the priests.”
[126] We have followed Villari in the account of this interview. M. Perrens questions its authenticity for several very good reasons. If it was a confession, no one would know anything about it. But it is claimed by some that it was merely a consultation on a case of conscience, and that Politian was an ocular though not an auricular witness. If such an interview took place, we should be inclined to admit Villari’s account of it only on the latter hypothesis.
[127] Master of the Hounds.