The thing was
no novelty, and the scoffing Florentines had already in the fourteenth
century learned to caricature it whenever it appeared in the pulpit.
But no sooner did Savonarola come forward than he carried the people so
triumphantly with him, that soon all their beloved art and culture
melted away ill the furnace which he lighted. Even the grossest
profanation done to the cause by hypocritical monks, who got up an
effect in the audience by means of confederates, could not bring the
thing itself into discredit. Men kept on laughing at the ordinary
monkish sermons, with their spurious miracles and manufactured relics;
but did not cease to honour the great and genuine preachers. These are
a true speciality of the fifteenth century.
The Order--generally that of St. Francis, and more particularly the so-
called Observantines--sent them out according as they were wanted. This
was commonly the case when there was some important public or private
feud in a city, or some alarming outbreak of violence, immorality, or
disease. When once the reputation of a preacher was made, the cities
were all anxious to hear him even without any special occasion. He went
wherever his superiors sent him. A special form of this work was the
preaching of a Crusade against the Turks; but here we have to speak
more particularly of the exhortations to repentance.
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