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The next nine years filled Florence and Italy with the personality of this man. By his influence, he stirred the hearts of the pagans in that city and country to become Christ-loving people. The former at this time was ruled by the Medicifamily. Even the society changed its course. The churches overflowed,convents became filled and profane amusements were at a standstill. Love for the Saviour, love and good will to men were an outcome of his preaching. To picture what he had to work with, one man stated, "For Christ's sake people are becoming fools." After a time, Alexander VI (pope from 1492until 1503, when he met his death by drinking a poisoned liquid which he prepared for an enemy) commanded Savonarola to cease ministering unto the people. He did so for a time, but the pleadings of his followers brought him back. The pope then attempted to bribe him by offering to him a seat of a cardinal.路 Savonarola wanted not the red cap of a cardinal but one of martyrdom. For this, the death sentence was pronounced upon him. On Palm Sunday of the year 1498, St. Mark's was assaulted. This forerunner and two intimate friends were captured and imprisoned. After a six weeks trial, "with torture," they were condemned to be hanged and their remains cremated. On May 23 of that year, these three monks met in prayer and, later that day, their ashes were carried to sea by the flow of the Arno River. Such was the end of the last great Forerunner of the Reformation, of whom we know the least. We are now carried back into the fourteenth century for the life of the first man actually to ridicule the evil doctrines which had already been brought into the Church. This man's name was John Wyclif and he carried on most of his work in England. Not much of his youthful days is known but it is presumed that he was born approximately 1324. At an early age, he entered Oxford. It was from Latin translations that he learned much about the Greek classics and the New Testament. He also excelled in scholastic discipline and philosophy. Wyclif became a Master of Arts at this school,and in 1365 was placed at the head of Canterbury Hall. Five years later, he met in a controversy with ecclesiastical authorities. A new archbishop replaced him with a monk as the head of the hall. The pope was appealed to; 7