The walls of the church re-echoed with sobs and wailings dominated by one ringing voice.

The scribe to whom we owe the fragments of these sermons, at times breaks off with these words: 'Here I was so overcome with weeping that I could not go on.' Pico della Mirandola tells us that the mere sound of Savonarola's voice, startling the stillness of the Duomo, thronged through all its space with people, was like a clap of doom: a cold shiver ran through the marrow of his bones, the hairs of his head stood on end, as he listened.

Another witness reports: 'These sermons caused such terror, alarm, sobbing, and tears that every one passed through the streets without speaking, more dead than alive.' [1] Engravings of the several portraits may be seen in Harford's _Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti_ (Longmans, 1857 vol.i.), and also in Villari.
[2] Nardi, in his _Istorie di Firenze_ (lib.ii.cap.

16), describes the crowd assembled in the Duomo to hear Savonarola preach: 'Per la moltitudine degli uditori non essendo quasi bastante la chiesa cattedrale di santa Maria del Fiore, ancora che molto grande e capace sia, fu necessario edificar dentro lungo i pareti di quella, dirempetto al pergamo, certi gradi di legname rilevati con ordine di sederi, a guisa di teatro, e cosi dalla parte di sopra all' entrata del coro e dalla parte di sotto in verso le porte della detta chiesa.' Such was the preacher: and such was the effect of his oratory.

The theme on which he loved to dwell was this.