vicegerent--is the voice of God. Necessity is laid on me, which I dare
not gainsay, to preach this Gospel of God's kingdom, as, even on earth, a
kingdom of righteousness, truth, and love."

Such is one phase of the Savonarola here portrayed to us; and herein is
placed before us the secret of his greatness and strength. This firm
assertion of the highest right his consciousness recognises, amid all
difficulty, hardness, and disappointment; this persistent endeavour by
precept and example to rouse men to a truer and better life than their
own varied self-seekings; this unflinching struggle against everything
false, mean, and base,--these things make him a power in the State before
which King and Pope are compelled to bow in respect or fear. Over even
the larger nature of Romola his words at this time have sway,--the sway
which more distinct perception of _all_ the relations of duty gives over
a spirit equally earnest to seek the right alone.

In time there comes a change, almost imperceptibly, working from within
outwards, first clearly announced through the changed relations of others
to him, though these are but symptomatic of change within himself. The
political strength of his sway is broken, its moral strength is all but
gone. The nature of the change in himself he unwittingly defines in
those last words to Romola already quoted, "The cause of _my party_ is
the cause of God's kingdom." Various external circumstances have
contributed to bring about the result thus indicated; but on these it is
unnecessary to dwell. God's kingdom has lowered and narrowed itself into
his party. The spirit of the partisan has begun to overshadow the purity
of the patriot, to contract and abase the wide aim of the Christian; and
he has come to substitute a law of right modified to suit the interests
of the party, for that law which is absolute and unconditional. He whom
we listened to in the Duomo as the fervid proclaimer of God's justice,