Upon this topic Guicciardini, _Stor.Fior., Op.

Ined._ vol.iii.p.

179; Nardi, _Stor.

Fior._ lib.ii.caps.16 and 36, may be read with advantage.
'I began'-- Savonarola writes himself with reference to a course of sermons delivered in 1491--'I began publicly to expound the Revelation in our Church of S.Mark.During the course of the year I continued to develop to the Florentines these three propositions: That the Church would be renewed in our time; that before that renovation God would strike all Italy with a fearful chastisement; that these things would happen shortly.' It is by right of the foresight of a new age contained in these three famous so-called conclusions that Savonarola deserves to be named the Prophet of the Renaissance.

He was no apostle of reform: it did not occur to him to reconstruct the creed, to dispute the discipline, or to criticise the authority of the Church.