One proof that the public conscience of Italy, instead of being stupified by the orgy of wickedness at Rome was rather becoming aroused by it, is found in the appearance, just at this time, of a number of preachers of repentance.

These men, usually friars, started "revivals" marked by the customary phenomena of sudden conversion, hysteria, and extreme austerity.

The greatest of them all was the Dominican Jerome Savonarola [Sidenote: Savonarola] who, though of mediocre intellectual gifts, by the passionate fervor of his convictions, attained the position of a prophet at Florence.

He began preaching here in 1482, and so stirred his audiences that many wept and some were petrified with horror.

His credit was greatly raised by his prediction of the invasion of Charles VIII of France in 1494.