Luca then reads and
explains to him the story of the Passion according to the Gospel of St.
John; the poor listener, strange to say, can perceive clearly the
Godhead of Christ, but is perplexed at His manhood; he wishes to get as
firm a hold of it 'as if Christ came to meet him out of a wood.' His
friend thereupon exhorts him to be humble, since this was only a doubt
sent him by the Devil. Soon after it occurs to the penitent that he has
not fulfilled a vow made in his youth to go on pilgrimage to the
Impruneta; his friend promises to do it in his stead. Meantime the
confessor--a monk, as was desired, from Savonarola's monastery--
arrives, and after giving him the explanation quoted above of the
opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas on tyrannicide, exhorts him to bear death
manfully. Boscoli makes answer: 'Father, waste no time on this; the
philosophers have taught it me already; help me to bear death out of
love to Christ.' What follows, the communion, the leave-taking and the
execution--is very touchingly described; one point deserves special
mention. When Boscoli laid his head on the block, he begged the
executioner to delay the stroke for a moment: 'During the whole time
since the announcement of the sentence he had been striving after a
close union with God, without attaining it as he wished, and now in
this supreme moment he thought that by a strong effort he could give
himself wholly to God.
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