dy when He said, "This is my body
which shall be given for you," which was given to death, and to rising
again to bliss, for all that shall be saved by him. But like as they
accused him falsely of the temple of Jerusalem, so now a days they
accuse falsely against Christ, and say that Christ spake of the bread
that He brake among His apostles; for in that Christ said this, they are
deceived, take it fleshly, and turn it to the material bread, as the
Jews did to the temple; and on this false understanding they make
abomination of discomfort, as is said by Daniel the prophet, and in
Matthew xxiv., to be standing in the holy place; he that readeth let him
understand.

Now, therefore, pray we heartily to God, that this evil may be made
short for the chosen men, as He hath promised in His blest Gospel; and
the large and broad way that leadeth to perdition may be stopt, and the
straight and narrow way that leadeth to bliss may be made open by Holy
Scriptures, that we may know which is the will of God, to serve Him in
truth and holiness in the dread of God, that we may find by Him a way of
bliss everlasting. So be it.

SAVONAROLA

THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Girolamo Savonarola was born at Ferrara in 1452, and was admitted in
1475 into the novitiate of the Dominican Order, where he soon made
himself conspicuous for eloquence, and in Florence attracted many
hearers by his diatribes against corruption. Florence, having lost its
independence as a republic, was completely under the sway of the Medici,
who became arrayed against Savonarola, who aimed at establishing an
ideal Christian commonwealth. When he attacked the Pope Alexander VI.
his doom was practically sealed. In 1495 he was forbidden to appear in
the pulpit, and four years later was excommunicated. He rebelled against
papal authority, but the people of Florence grew tired of the strict
rule of conduct imposed by his teaching, and he was imprisoned and tried
for heresy and sedition. On May 23, 1498, he was hanged and his body
burned. His puritanism, his bold rebuking of vice, his defiance of every
authority excepting that of his own conscience, seem to anticipate the
efforts made by Calvin to regenerate Geneva. Both men failed in their
splendid attempts at social reformation, but both left an example of
heroic altho somewhat short-sighted unselfishness, which has borne fruit
in history.

SAVONAROLA
1452--1498

THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST[