The North produced an 'Imitation of Christ,' which
worked silently, at first only within the walls of the monastery, but
worked for the ages; the South produced men who made on their fellows
an immediate and mighty but passing impression.
This impression consisted chiefly in the awakening of the conscience.
The sermons were moral exhortations free from abstract notions and full
of practical application, rendered more impressive by the saintly and
ascetic character of the preacher, and by the miracles which, even
against his will, the inflamed imagination of the people attributed to
him. The most powerful argument used was not the threat of Hell and
Purgatory, but rather the living results of the 'maledizione,' the
temporal ruin wrought on the individual by the curse which clings to
wrong-doing. The grieving of Christ and the Saints has its consequences
in this life. And only thus could men, sunk in passion and guilt, be
brought to repentance and amendment--which was the chief object of
these sermons.
Among these preachers were Bernardino da Siena, Alberto da Sarzana,
Jacopo della Marca, Giovanni Capistrano, Roberto da Lecce and others j
and finally, Girolamo Savonarola. No prejudice of the day was stronger
than that against the mendicant friar, and this they overcame. They
were criticized and ridiculed by a scornful humanism; but when they
raised their voices, no one gave heed to the humanists.
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