There he entered the order of S.Dominic, the order of the Preachers, the order of his master S.Thomas, the order too, let us remember, of inquisitorial crusades.

The letter written to his father after taking this step is memorable.

In it he says: 'The motives by which I have been led to enter into a religious life are these: the great misery of the world; the iniquities of men, their rapes, adulteries, robberies, their pride, idolatry, and fearful blasphemies: so that things have come to such a pass that no one can be found acting righteously.

Many times a day have I repeated with tears the verse: Heu, fuge crudeles terras, fuge littus avarum! I could not endure the enormous wickedness of the blinded people of Italy; and the more so because I saw everywhere virtue despised and vice honored.' We see clearly that Savonarola's vocation took its origin in a deep sense of the wickedness of the world.

It was the same spirit as that which drove the early Christians of Alexandria into the Thebaid.
Austere and haggard, consumed with the zeal of the Lord, he had moved long enough among the Ferrarese holiday-makers.