He was a truly pious man, of the hard ascetic type, and very masterful. He used his independence rigorously to reform his Convent of San Marco, with, for a wonder, the complete concurrence of his friars; and so he formed a centre of the exclusively religious life. He would make no compromise whatever. He would have God entirely served; and countenanced no paltering with Mammon. He utterly spat upon and defied the World. He burned every pretty worldly thing. Lewd lovely Florence executed a quick change, and followed him in sackcloth and ashes. The alluring melody of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Canti Carnaleschi was drowned in the chaunting of the _Miserere mei Deus_ and the Seven Penitential Psalms with Litanies; while disciplines and scourges in the public streets fell like flails on youth’s white flesh. Fra Girolamo preached penance in the Advent of 1493. In the Lent of 1494, he preached from the book of Genesis. When he arrived at Noe’s Ark, he dwelled upon it; his subject fascinated him; each plank, each nail, became a symbol: but the moral of his allegory was, “Enter the Ark of Salvation that ye may escape the wrath to come.” Florence was disturbed by expectation of the French invasion; which, said Fra Girolamo, (mixing his metaphors in the only way that the vulgar really understand) was the Scourge of God for the Purification of the Church. In September, he preached again. Visions came to him; and he preached of them in parables. His success, his ever-growing power, produced in him an effect like inebriation. Not yet having lost his self-control, he was able to see his danger. He made an effort, and ceased to preach. His brain was in a ferment; sleeplessness gnawed the remnant of his physical strength. Again he mounted the pulpit of San Marco, and thundered like a prophet, like a seer, not his own words now, but “Thus saith The Lord.” He claimed εἰσπνοή—Divine Afflatus—Inspiration. Humanly speaking, he had gone out of his mind—was mad. The excitement of Florence became a frenzy. “Behold,” Fra Girolamo Savonarola tremendously declaimed, “Behold I bring a flood of waters on the earth!” And the French army entered Italy.