Savonarola's chief shortcoming as a patriot consisted in this, that he strengthened the old folly of the Florentines in leaning upon strangers.[1] Had he taught the Italians to work out their self-regeneration from within, instead of preparing them to accept an alien's yoke, he would have won a far more lasting meed of fame.

As it was, together with the passion for liberty which became a religion with his followers, he strove to revive the obsolete tactics of an earlier age, and bequeathed to Florence the weak policy of waiting upon France.

This legacy bore bitter fruits in the next century.

If it was the memory of the Friar which nerved the citizens of Florence to sustain the siege of 1528, the same memory bound them to seek aid from inconsequent Francis, and to hope that at the last moment a cohort of seraphim would defend their walls.[2] [1] Segni, _Ist.

Fior._ lib.i.p.23, records a saying of Savonarola's, _Gigli con gigli dover fiorire_, as one of the causes of the obstinate French partiality of the Florentines in 1529.
[2] See Varchi, Segni, and Nardi, who agree on these points.
That Savonarola believed in his own prophecies there is no doubt.