Note 6 — Chapter IX · BLASS AND FLINDERS PETRIE

Here there is obvious confusion, apart from the fact that the predicted regeneration and unification of the church never took place. The invader is to do no fighting, and yet so much blood will be shed that everywhere the people of Italy will be thinned. Are we, then, to believe that the “Cyrus” prediction was made at the same time? Is there not ground for suspicion that it was interpolated post eventum, in the Latin report? The only alternative solution seems to be that Villari or the Italian compiler has mixed prophecies of different years. In his sermon of November 1, 1494, Savonarola speaks of the French invasion as the “scourge” he had predicted6—an odd way of speaking of one promised before as “the Lord’s anointed,” even though the French host is said to be “led by the Lord.” In any case his own claim to have predicted of “Cyrus” is unsupported by evidence, and, even if accepted, does not involve a date earlier than 1493–4.7