SAVONAROLA, PRIEST AND PROPHET.

By EDWARD F. O'FLYNN, of Notre Dame University.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

The winner of the 1907 contest was Edward F. O'Flynn, of Notre Dame University, Indiana. Mr. O'Flynn is twenty years of age, and was born in Saratoga, N. Y. His parents moved West, and settled in Butte, Mont., where they now live. Though the son of humble parents, still he has always been able to receive all the education he could acquire. At an early age he carried newspapers for the Butte dailies, and was enabled to help himself through the primary and high schools of his city. He received his elementary education in the schools conducted by the Sisters of Charity, from whose high school in Butte he graduated in 1902. After leaving high school he worked for a year, until he found an opportunity to enter Notre Dame, which he did in the fall of 1903. He has put himself through the big Catholic University on money earned in the copper mines of Butte. While at Notre Dame he has distinguished himself in oratory and debate, winning the Breen medal in 1906, and receiving second place in the State contest by one point short of Mr. P. Smith, who won second place in 1906, Inter-State. In 1907 he again won the Breen medal, being the only man to make that record at Notre Dame. In the State contest he won first place by a margin of three points over the representatives of the other Indiana colleges. His record in an Inter-State contest, in which he represented Indiana, was exceptionally good, winning the contest by five points, the largest margin in years. Besides being an orator, Mr. O'Flynn is editor-in-chief of The Notre Dame Scholastic, the college weekly, and takes an active part in athletics. He was the first man to win the State Contest for Notre Dame, and consequently the first to win the Inter-State. His work has won honors for that school, which has been in the Inter-State Association only five years.

THE ORATION.

Delivered at the Inter-State Oratorical Contest at Parkville, Mo., May 3, 1907, taking first prize. Judges: Prof. J. R. SLATER, Hon.

W. S. SUMMERS, Dr. M. HUGHES, Chief Justice DEEMER, S. E. SPARLING, and Hon. E. D. ELLISON.

Majestically enthroned in the heart of Italy lies the beautiful city of Florence. Behind her, raising their massive shoulders into Italian clouds, stand the lordly Apennines; before her, stretching away into the distant purple, spreads Italy's loveliest valley; within her, stately edifices and magnificent temples form a great forest of stone and marble; and down from the vine-clad hills and through it all and out into the peaceful valley flows the crystal Arno.

To tell the story of Florence is to tell of her beauty, her glory, her art, and her men. But it is of her men I would speak; great, gallant men, who living consecrated their lives to the uplifting of humanity, and dying left their impress on history that all might read. Of such was Girolamo Savonarola.

Born in the middle of the fifteenth century, he came into an Italy submerged in the pagan renaissance. Like a Cæsar or a Pericles ruled Lorenzo at Florence, and like them, too, did he, whom men called the Magnificent, pervert his people and buy their liberty through pompous show. Frivolity and dissipation reigned. Corruption in high places had an evil effect on society, and the profligacy extended to the lower classes. Immorality and sensuousness marked the Carnival. At length prolonged dissipation and ribaldry worked its effect. Well had Lorenzo learned from Tacitus that to enslave the people was first to

corrupt them. But all the time the show went on, though Florence groaned and rotted beneath it.

Into this Athens, worn from fast and tears and vigils, came the monk, Savonarola, a John at the court of Herod. Even as a child, the sight of sin and vice had sickened him. On entering manhood he turned his back to the world and sought contentment in the cloister. But not in his new life was he to find peace. Cruelty and vice spread over Italy, whilst within the church where he sought refuge he was shocked to behold the relaxation in morals and the scandals in ecclesiastical life. Great indeed was his sorrow as he perceived the evils that were to come in consequence of many sins. And oh! the terror of it, as he beheld the evil spirit like a horrible vampire that had spread its great wings over the prostrate form of the Church and slowly sucked its life's blood from it. Then in anguish at the sight of the spectacle he cried out: "O God, give me to break those spreading wings, to slay this monster, to lift up and restore your beloved Church." Such was his life's purpose. Day by day he besought God in his cell to give him strength to carry out his ideals, until at length his prayer was heard.

The great Duomo was thronged with penitents, and Florence turned from her crime and revelry to listen to him who preached of Christ. Hundreds came at midnight and waited patiently for the opening of the doors. There was something awesome in the frail, delicate body as it arose in the pulpit and thundered out against sin. What

man could resist him whose eyes burned with the zeal that fired his soul, whose earnestness convulsed his whole frame, whose threats were dreadful, whose appeals were awful. Florence arose from her shame. Instead of the old pagan songs, hymns to the Creator were chanted; men and women abandoned lives of sin; the churches were filled, and the city took on a new appearance. So much did Savonarola do for morality in Florence. Never flinching, never abandoning his purpose, he worked harder each day. By degrees his popularity grew, and as the mist cleared away, in fancy he saw Jesus of Nazareth enthroned over the city cleansed and purified. Then circumstances made the vision a reality. Lorenzo died and Piero succeeded him, but ruled weakly, and fled at the approach of Charles of France. Through the streets riot stalked, and Florence stood on the brink of Anarchy; when suddenly, the bell in the Duomo pealed out, and rising, Savonarola quelled the people.

Thus did he enter political life. Historians have criticised him for it; but when we consider the circumstances we must admit there was no alternative only one man could have saved Florence, and he was Savonarola. So now we see him in a new rôle, that of the statesman. Nor was he a mere moralist and theorizer: "Do you, citizens," he said, "wish to be free? Then above all love God, love your neighbor, love each other, love the common good." And what a lofty code that was which resulted in the reduction of taxes,

the improvement of justice, the return of money unrighteously acquired, and the abolition of usury. Into the hearts of the Florentines he instilled a love for true liberty, a love for a just, well-ordered government, the basic principle of which was the temporal and spiritual welfare of all.

He was no faction politician, no street demagogue, no moral agitator, but a cool, clear-minded statesman, who by his breath called a people back to life and set up a government that has been the admiration of sages. His ideal was grand, and for two years at least Christ ruled in Florence.

But it is characteristic of history that men must work and sweat and bleed and then fall victims to the cause they uphold. And so with the savior of Florence. It is not a mark but an effect of greatness that great men have enemies. Unconsciously they make them, and so with Savonarola. In Rome the adherents of the Medici succeeded in stirring up a quarrel between him and the Pope. This resulted in excommunication. Though he denied the validity of the act of Alexander VI., still he never failed to recognize the authority of the Church, and so when excommunicated abstained from preaching and retired to St. Mark's. Nor was his fall due to papal anger so much as to the fickleness of the Florentines. When he no longer moved among them reassuring and counseling them, when conspirators arose and determined to have his blood, when silence meant suspicion and suspicion meant guilt, then did the crowds turn against him and there arose the ac