The monk Savonarola, brought over from the Renaissance and placed against the background of Munich at the turn of the century, protests against the luxurious works displayed in the art shop of M. Bluthenzweig; in particular against a Madonna portrayed in a voluptuous style and modeled, according to gossip, upon the painter's mistress. Hieronymus, like Piepsam, makes his protest quite in vain, and his rejection, though not fatal, is ridiculous and humiliating; he is simply thrown out of the shop by the porter. On the street outside, Hieronymus envisions a holocaust of the vanities of this world, such a burning of artistic and erotic productions as his namesake actually brought to pass in Florence, and prophetically he issues his curse: ``Gladius Dei super terram cito et velociter.''