Three hundred years later the fanatical Savanorola stormed: "You clothe
and adorn the Mother of God as you clothe and adorn your courtesans, and
you give her the features of your mistresses!" which, as we shall
presently see, was literally true.
The clergy resisted all counsels of the _cortezia_ and _cavalaria_ with
the sure instinct desiring the continuance of existing conditions
rather than the victory of the higher conception. Some writers aver that
it was partly due to this fact that later on the cult of woman developed
into the cult of Mary. Again we are confronted by a process which in the
course of time has been repeated more than once: the spiritual-mystical
principle of Christianity entered upon a new stage, and took possession
of a new and important domain; but the Church, rigid and unyielding,
preferred clinging to a past lower stage rather than tolerating any
change. Had she been absolutely consistent, her greatest poet would be
on the index to-day, for, following his own intuition and ignoring her
rigid dogma, he introduced his beloved Beatrice into the Catholic
heaven.
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