Note 4 — Chapter X · THE SAVONAROLA FALLACY

Here we have to note that as regards the main event Savonarola is predicting a thing that had repeatedly happened in Catholic times, and that as regards the minor details he is speaking with his eye on Jewish history. It was not the mere presence of horses and pigs in churches that he meant to stress, but the defilement that they brought. In the case of the Jewish Temple the “abomination of desolation” had been understood to include the defiling of the altar with swine’s flesh.4 This, in all likelihood, was the origin of Savonarola’s prediction as to the bringing of pigs into the sanctuary at Rome, which, as we have seen, was not fulfilled.