That friar began the year 1498 by preaching a fierce defence of his disobedience to the inhibition and to the sentence of excommunication; and by a frenetic onslaught on the Roman as distinguished from the Tuscan clergy. The Lord Alexander P.P. VI, the acknowledged Head of the Christian Church, (indeed He was the _only_ representative of Christianity in Authority at that time) found Himself in the position of a commander-in-chief dealing with a mutinous mad sergeant whom captains, colonels, and generals have failed to reduce to order. The Pope’s moderation and long-suffering, prior to his allowing the law to take its course, are perfectly marvellous. Fra Girolamo had been in a state of mutiny for more than four years. Preaching the duty of obedience, he would not practise it. He was totally insensible to the many graces with which he had been indulged; and he met all overtures for peace with evasion or with insolence. After all, he was “a man under authority,” under authority to which voluntarily he had vowed, and refused, submission while admitting the right of that authority to claim it:—an anomalous position, illogical, scandalous,—the position of a mad man. To the Signoria of Florence, then, the Lord Alexander P.P. VI issued a Brief commanding the withdrawal of support from the excommunicated friar; threatening Florence with an Interdict (a hideous lash that invariably brought curs to heel) if His commandment were disobeyed: but, at the same time, offering to absolve the rebellious son of St. Dominic, upon submission. The Signoria replied, defending Savonarola; and the Pope’s Holiness replied that, either he must be imprisoned, or be sent to Rome: a decision which was explained at greater length to the Signoria by the Florentine Orator in Rome, who also described the Pope’s natural feelings of embitterment at finding His reasonable demands so spurned and set aside. Half measures only were taken. The Lord Alexander P.P. VI justly was dissatisfied when the Signoria simply forbade the friar to preach. His Holiness commanded, then, the entire vindication of His supreme authority. Here, Fra Girolamo Savonarola committed his final sin. He joined in the stale howl appealing to the Powers of Europe for the convocation of a General Council; and he redoubled his treacherous intrigues with the Christian King Charles VIII: completing the exasperation of the Lord Alexander P.P. VI. Events moved swiftly then. Defying the commands of his acknowledged superior, the Pope, as well as the injunctions of the Signoria, he fell on disrepute. His influence in Florence waned and withered; his prophecies fell thick and fast on no believers: and then the Signoria insisted on his submission to the Pope. He replied by demanding the Ordeal Of Fire; offering to walk through a blazing furnace with one of the many who opposed him, the person who should take no hurt from that Ordeal to be adjudged innocent and under the special protection of God.