Girolamo Savonarola

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Girolamo Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo, c. 1498.

Girolamo Savonarola (Ferrara, then Duchy of Ferrara, September 21, 1452 – Florence, May 23, 1498), also translated as Jerome Savonarola or Hieronymus Savonarola, was an Italian Dominican priest and, briefly, ruler of Florence, who was known for religious reformation, anti-Renaissance preaching, book burning, and destruction of art. He is sometimes seen as a precursor of Martin Luther.

Biography

In his youth he was preoccupied with religion, studying both the Bible and Aristotle. Savonarola initially studied at Ferrara University, where he appears to have taken an advanced Arts degree. His anti-clerical stance was initially manifested in his poem on the destruction of the world entitled De Ruina Mundi, written at the age of 20. It was at this stage that he also began to develop his moral voice, and in 1475 his poem De Ruina Ecclesiai displayed his contempt of the Roman Curia by terming it 'a false, proud whore'.

Savonarola became a Dominican monk in 1475, and entered the convent of San Domenico in Bologna. He immersed himself in theological study, and in 1479 transferred to the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Finally in 1482 the Order dispatched him to Florence, the 'city of his destiny'. Savanorola was lambasted for being ungainly, weak and a poor orator. He made no impression on Florence in the 1480s, and his departure in 1487 went unnoticed. He returned to Bologna where he became 'master of studies'. Savanorola returned to Florence in 1490 at the behest of Count Pico della Mirandola.

Savonarola's grief over these sins caused him to withdraw more from his secular studies. Instead he concentrated closely on the Bible, which became his constant companion and guide. In Florence his Church of St. Mark was always crowded to excess. His impassioned discourses brought about a social reform which has never been duplicated in history. Savonarola was not a theologian. He did not proclaim doctrines as did Luther and Calvin. He preached that Christian life involved being good rather than carrying out displays of excessive pomp and ceremonies. He did not seek to make war on the Church of Rome. Rather he wanted to correct its transgressions.

Oddly, Lorenzo de Medici, the previous ruler of Florence and patron of many Renaissance artists, was both a former patron of Savonarola. It has been said Lorenzo called for Savonarola on his death bed, and the Friar did attend. Eventually, Lorenzo and his son Piero de Medici became the target of Savonarola's preaching.

After the overthrow of the Medici in 1494, Savonarola was the sole leader of Florence, setting up a democratic republic. Characterizing it as a "Christian and religious Republic," one of its first acts was to make sodomy, previously punishable by fine, into a capital offence. His chief enemies were the Duke of Milan and Pope Alexander VI, who issued numerous restraints against him, all of which were ignored.

In 1497 he and his followers carried out the famous Bonfire of the Vanities. They sent boys from door to door collecting items associated with moral laxity: mirrors, cosmetics, lewd pictures, pagan books, gaming tables, fine dresses, and the works of immoral poets, and burnt them all in a large pile in the Piazza della Signoria of Florence. Fine Florentine Renaissance artwork was lost in Savonarola's notorious bonfires, including paintings by Sandro Botticelli thrown on the pyres by the artist himself.

Florence soon became tired of Savonarola's hectoring. During his Ascension Day sermon on May 4, 1497, bands of youths rioted, and the riot became a revolt: taverns reopened, and men gambled publicly.

On May 13, 1497 he was excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI, and in 1498, for resisting the excommunication, he was simultaneously hanged and burned, in the same place that the Bonfire of the Vanities was lit, and the same manner that he had condemned others. He was charged with heresy, uttering prophecies, sedition, and religious error. Jacopo Nardi, who recorded the incident in his Istorie della città di Firenze, said that his executioner lit the flame crying, "The one who wanted to burn me is now himself put to the flames." Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince, also witnessed and wrote about the execution. The Medici regained control of Florence.

A plaque commemorates the site of Savonarola's execution in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence.

Savonarola was supposedly intense, fervent, and electrical in personal appearance. He can be compared to Luther in his denunciation of sin but was unlike the German monk in following out logical conclusions. It can be speculated that had he lived a generation later he might have achieved a revolution in the Church as great as that of Luther. A nineteenth century religious authority, Dr. Lord, believed Savonarola was especially Protestant-his spirit was the spirit of progress, and his success would have been the beginning of a new Christian civilization.

In the twentieth century, a movement for the canonization of Savonarola began to develop within the Catholic Church, particularly among Dominicans, with many judging his excommunication and execution to have been unjust. His potential beatification and canonization is opposed by Jesuits. [link]

Reference

New York Times, Savonarola, Second Lecture of the Course by Dr. Lord at Association Hall, January 10, 1871, Page 2.

See also

• Masaniello

Further reading

• [Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola in IV volumes (1888)] by Professor Pasquale Villari
• "Scourge and Fire: Savonarola and Renaissance Florence" by Lauro Martines
• Savonarola and Florence by Donald Weinstein
• The Life of Girolamo Savonarola by Roberto Ridolfi
• The Meddlesome Friar by Michael de la Bedoyere. 1957.
• Savonarola by Piero Misciattelli (trans. by M. Peters-Roberts). 1930.
• Bonfire Songs: Savonarola's Musical Legacy by Patrick Macey
• Savonarola: A Biography in Dramatic Episodes by William Van Wyck. 1927. (A play.)
• The Renaissance by Will Durant. 1953.

Fictionalizations

• The novel Romola by George Eliot features Savonarola as a central character.
• The novel The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason makes extensive references to Savonarola.
• The novel The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant makes extensive references to Savonarola.

External links

• [A sermon of Savonarola - The Ascension of Christ]
• [Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Girolamo Savonarola]
• [NNDB entry on Girolamo Savonarola]

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