Note 508 — BOOK THE EIGHTH. (continued 3)

Friar Francis of Apulia, of the Order of Minor Observantines. His challenge to Savonarola was in these terms: “I know,” he said, “I am a sinner; I have not the presumption to perform miracles: nevertheless, let a fire be lighted, and I am ready to enter it with him. I am certain of perishing, but Christian charity teaches me not to withhold my life if, in sacrificing it, I might precipitate into hell an heresiarch, who has already drawn down into it so many souls.”—Sismondi, xii. 461.