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GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA (1452-1498)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 253 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIROLAMO See also:SAVONAROLA (1452-1498)  , See also:Italian See also:monk and See also:martyr, was See also:born at See also:Ferrara on the 21st of See also:September 1452, the third See also:child of Michele See also:Savonarola and his wife Elena Bonaccossi of See also:Mantua . His grandfather, Michele Savonarola, a Paduan physician of much repute and learning, had settled in Ferrara, and gained a large See also:fortune there . The younger Michele was a See also:mere courtier and spendthrift, but Elena seems to have been a woman of See also:superior See also:stamp . She was tenderly loved by her famous son, and his letters prove that she retained his fullest confidence through all the vicissitudes of his career . See also:Girolamo was a precocious child, with an See also:early See also:passion for learning . His first See also:tutor was his grandfather, the physician; Early and, in the See also:hope of restoring their fallen fortunes, his rears. parents intended him for the same profession . Even as a boy he had intense See also:pleasure in See also:reading St See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas and the Arab commentators of See also:Aristotle, was skilled in the subtleties of the See also:schools, wrote verses, studied See also:music and See also:design, and, avoiding society, loved solitary rambles on the See also:banks of the Po . Ferrara was then a See also:gay and bustling See also:town of 100,000 inhabitants, its See also:prince Borso d'See also:Este a most magnificent potentate . To the mystic See also:young student all festivities were repulsive, and although reared in a courtier-See also:household he early asserted his individuality by his contempt for See also:court See also:life . At the See also:age of nineteen, however, he had no thought of renouncing the See also:world, for he was then passionately in love with the daughter of a See also:neighbour, a See also:Strozzi exiled from See also:Florence . His suit was re-pulsed with disdain; no Strozzi, he was told, might stoop to wed a Savonarola . This See also:blow probably decided his career; but he endured two years of misery and See also:mental conflict before resolving to abandon his medical studies and become a monk .

He was full of doubt and self-distrust; disgust for the world did not seem to him a sufficient qualification for the religious life, and his daily See also:

prayer was, " See also:Lord! See also:teach me the way my soul should walk." But in 1474 his doubts were dispelled by a See also:sermon heard at See also:Faenza . He secretly See also:stole away to See also:Bologna, enteredthe monastery of St Domenico and then acquainted his See also:father with his reasons for the step . The world's wickedness was intolerable, he wrote; throughout See also:Italy he beheld See also:vice See also:triumph-See also:ant, virtue despised . Among the papers he had See also:left behind at Ferrara was a See also:treatise on " Contempt of the World," inveighing against the prevalent corruption and predicting the speedy vengeance of See also:Heaven . His novitiate was marked by a fervour of humility . He sought the most See also:menial offices, and did See also:penance for his sins by the severest austerities . According to See also:con-temporary writers he was worn to a See also:shadow . His gaunt features were beautified by an expression of singular force and benevolence . Luminous dark eyes sparkled and flamed beneath his thick, See also:black brows, and his large mouth and prominent nether lips were as capable of See also:gentle sweetness as of See also:power and set resolve . He was of middling stature and dark complexion . His See also:manners were See also:simple, his speech unadorned and almost homely . His splendid oratorical power was as yet unrevealed; but his intellectual gifts being recognized his superiors charged him with the instruction of the novices .

He passed six quiet years in the See also:

convent, but his poems written during that See also:period are expressive of burning indignation against the corruptions of the See also:church and profoundest sorrow for the calamities of his See also:country . In 1482 he reluctantly accepted a See also:mission to Ferrara, and, regarding earthly affections as snares of the evil one, tried to keep aloof from his See also:family . His preachings attracted slight See also:attention there, no one—as he later remarked— Rto emoval being a See also:prophet in his own See also:land . An outbreak of Florence. hostilities between Ferrara and See also:Venice, fomented by See also:Pope See also:Sixtus IV., soon caused his recall to Bologna . Thence he was despatched to St See also:Mark's in Florence . Lorenzo the Magnificent was then (1482) at the height of his power and popularity . At first Savonarola was enchanted with Florence . His See also:cloister, sanctified by memories of St Antonine and adorned with the inspired paintings of Fra See also:Angelico, seemed to him a fore-court of heaven . But his content speedily changed to horror . The Florence streets rang with Lorenzo's See also:ribald songs (the " canti carnascialeschi "); the smooth, cultured citizens were dead to all sense of See also:religion or morality; and the spirit of the fashionable See also:heathen See also:philosophy had even infected the brotherhood of St Mark . In 1483 Savonarola was Lenten preacher in the church of St Lorenzo, but his See also:plain, See also:earnest exhortations attracted few hearers, while all the world thronged to Santo Spirito to enjoy the elegant See also:rhetoric of Fra Mariano da Genazzano . Discouraged by this failure in the See also:pulpit, Savonarola now devoted himself to teaching in the convent, but his zeal for the salvation . of the apathetic townsfolk was soon to stir him to fresh efforts .

Convinced of being divinely inspired, he had begun to see visions, and discovered in the See also:

Apocalypse symbols of the heavenly vengeance about to overtake this See also:sin-laden See also:people . In a hymn to the Saviour composed at this See also:time he gave vent to his prophetic dismay . The papal See also:chair was now filled by See also:Innocent VIII., whose See also:rule was even more infamous than that of his predecessor Sixtus IV . Savonarola's first success as a preacher was gained at St Gemignano (1484-1485), but it was only at See also:Brescia in the following See also:year that his power as an orator was fully revealed . In a sermon on the Apocalypse he shook men's souls by his terrible threats of the wrath to come, and See also:drew tears from their eyes by the See also:tender pathos of his assurances of divine See also:mercy . A Brescian See also:friar relates that a See also:halo of See also:light was seen to flash See also:round his See also:head, and the citizens remembered his awful prophecies when in 1512 their town was put to the See also:sack by Gaston de See also:Foix . Soon, at a Dominican See also:council at Reggio, Savonarola had occasion to display his theological learning and subtlety . The famous See also:Pico della See also:Mirandola was particularly impressed by the friar's attainments, and is said to have urged Lorenzo de' See also:Medici to recall him from See also:Lombardy . When Savonarola returned to Florence in 1490, his fame as an orator had gone there before him . The cloister See also:garden was too small for the crowds attending his lectures, and on the 1st of See also:August 1490 he gave his first sermon in the church of St Mark . To quote his own words, it was " a terrible sermon," and See also:legend adds that he foretold he should preach for eight years . And now, for the better setting forth of his doctrines, to silence pedants, and confute See also:malignant misinterpretation, he published a collection of his writings .

These proved his knowledge of the See also:

ancient philosophy he so fiercely condemned, and showed that no See also:ignorance of the fathers caused him to seek See also:inspiration from the See also:Bible alone . The Triumph of the See also:Cross is his See also:principal See also:work, but everything he wrote was animated by the ardent spirit of piety evidenced in his life . Savonarola's See also:sole aim was to bring mankind nearer to See also:God . In 1491 he was invited to preach in the See also:cathedral, Sta Maria del Fiore, and his rule over Florence may be said to begin from that date . Lorenzo sent leading citizens to him to See also:Prior of See also:mar" St m urge him to show more respect to the head of the See also:state . Mark's . Savonarola rejected their See also:advice and foretold the impending deaths of Lorenzo, of the pope and of the See also:king of See also:Naples . In the See also:July of the same year he was elected prior of St Mark's . As the convent had been rebuilt by Cosimo, and enriched by the See also:bounty of the Medici, it was considered the See also:duty of the new superior to See also:present his See also:homage to Lorenzo . Savonarola, however, refused to conform to the usage . His See also:election was due to God, not Lorenzo; to God alone would he promise submission . Upon this the See also:sovereign angrily exclaimed: " This stranger comes to dwell in my See also:house, yet will not stoop to pay me a visit." Nevertheless, disdaining to recognize the enmity of a mere monk, he tried, but in vain, conciliatory See also:measures .

The Magnifico then sought to undermine his popularity, and Fri Mariano was employed to attack him from the pulpit . But the preacher's scandalous accusations missed their mark, and disgusted his hearers without hurting his See also:

rival . Savonarola took up the See also:challenge; his eloquence prevailed, and Fra Mariano was silenced . But the latter, while feigning indifference, was thenceforth his rancorous and determined foe . In See also:April 1492 Lorenzo de' Medici was on his See also:death-See also:bed at Careggi . Oppressed by the See also:weight of his crimes, he summoned the unyielding prior to shrive his soul . Savonarola reluctantly came, and offered See also:absolution upon three conditions . Lorenzo asked in what they consisted . First, " You must repent and feel true faith in God's mercy." Lorenzo assented . Secondly, " You must give up your See also:ill-gotten See also:wealth." This, too, .Lorenzo promised, after some hesitation; but upon See also:hearing the third clause, " You must restore the liberties of Florence," Lorenzo turned his See also:face to the See also:wall and made no reply . Savonarola waited a few moments and then went away . And shortly after his penitent died unabsolved .

Savonarola's See also:

influence now rapidly increased . Many adherents of the See also:late prince came over to his See also:side, disgusted by the violence and incompetency of See also:Piero de' Medici's rule . The Prophetic same year witnessed the fulfilment of Savonarola's Vis . second prediction in the death of Innocent VIII . (July 1492); men's minds were full of anxiety, an anxiety increased by the scandalous election of See also:Cardinal See also:Borgia to the papal chair . The friar's utterances became more and more fervent and impassioned . It was during the delivery of one of his See also:Advent sermons that he beheld the celebrated See also:vision, recorded in contemporary medals and engravings, that is almost a See also:symbol of his doctrines . A See also:hand appeared to him bearing a flaming See also:sword inscribed with the words: " Gladius Domini supra terram cito et velociter." He heard supernatural voices See also:pro-claiming mercy to the faithful, vengeance on the 'guilty, and mighty cries that the wrath of God was at hand . Then the sword See also:bent towards the See also:earth, the See also:sky darkened, See also:thunder pealed, See also:lightning flashed, and the whole world was wasted by See also:famine, bloodshed and pestilence . It was probably the See also:noise of these sermons that caused the friar's temporary removal from Florence at the instance of Piero de' Medici . He was presently addressing enthusiastic congregations at See also:Prato and Bologna . In the latter See also:city his courage in rebuking the wife of See also:Bentivoglio, the reigning lord, for interrupting divine service by her noisy entrance nearly cost him his life .

Assassins were sent to kill him in his See also:

cell; but awed, it is said, by Savonarola's words and demeanour they fled dismayed from his presence . At the See also:close of his last sermonthe undaunted friar publicly announced the See also:day and See also:hour of his departure from Bologna; and his lonely See also:journey on See also:foot over the See also:Apennines was safely accomplished . He was rapturously welcomed by the community of St Mark's, and at once proceeded to re-establish the discipline of the See also:order and to sweep away abuses . For this purpose he obtained, after much difficulty, a papal brief emancipating the See also:Dominicans of St Mark from the rule of the Lombard vicars of that order . He thus became an See also:independent authority, no longer at the command of distant superiors . He relegated many of the brethren to a quieter See also:retreat outside the city, only retaining in Florence those best fitted to aid in intellectual labour . To render the convent self-supporting, he opened schools for various branches of See also:art, and promoted the study of See also:Oriental See also:languages . His efforts were successful; religion and learning made equal progress; St Mark's became the most popular monastery in Florence, and many citizens of See also:noble See also:birth flocked thither to take the vows . Meanwhile Savonarola continued to denounce the abuses of the church and the See also:guilt and corruption of mankind, and thundered forth predictions of heavenly wrath . In 1494 the See also:duke of See also:Milan demanded the aid of See also:France, and King See also:Charles VIII. brought an See also:army across the See also:Alps . Piero de' Medici, made See also:alliance with the Neapolitan sovereign whose See also:kingdom was claimed by Charles . Then, repenting this ill-judged step, he hurried in See also:person to the See also:French See also:camp at Pietra See also:Santa and humbled himself before the king .

Not content with agreeing to all the latter's demands, he further promised large sums of See also:

money and the surrender of the strongholds of See also:Pisa and See also:Leghorn . This See also:news drove Florence to revolt . But even at this crisis Savonarola's influence was all-powerful, and a bloodless revolution was effected . Piero See also:Capponi's See also:declaration that " it was time to put an end to this baby See also:government " was the sole weapon needed to depose Piero de' Medici . The resuscitated See also:republic instantly sent a fresh See also:embassy to the French king, to arrange the terms of his reception in Florence . Savonarola was one of the envoys, Charles being known to entertain the greatest veneration for the friar who had so See also:long predicted his coming and declared it to be divinely ordained . He was most respectfully received at the camp, but could obtain no definite pledges from the king, who was bent on first coming to Florence . Returning full of hope from Pietra Santa, Savonarola might well have been dismayed by the distracted state of public affairs . Nevertheless, with the aid of Capponi, he guided the bewildered city safely through these See also:critical days . Charles entered Florence on the 17th of See also:November 1494, and the citizens' fears evaporated in jests on the puny exterior of the " threatened See also:scourge . " But the exorbitance of his demands soon showed that he came as a foe . Disturbances arose, and serious collision with the French troops seemed inevitable .

The signory resolved to be rid of their dangerous guests; and, when Charles threatened to See also:

sound his trumpets unless the sums exacted were paid, Capponi tore up the treaty in his face and made the memorable reply: " Then we will See also:ring our bells." The monarch was cowed, accepted moderate terms, and, yielding to Savonarola's remonstrances, left Florence on the 24th of November . After seventy years' subjection to the Medici Florence had forgotten the art of self-government, and See also:felt the need of a. strong guiding hand . So the citizens turned to the patriot monk whose words had freed them of King Charles, and Savonarola became the lawgiver of Florence . The first thing done at his instance was to relieve the starving populace within and without the walls; shops were opened to give work to the unemployed; all taxes, especially those weighing on the See also:lower classes, were reduced; the strictest See also:administration of See also:justice was enforced, and all men were exhorted to See also:place their See also:trust in the Lord . And, after much debate, as to the constitution of the new republic, Savonarola's influence carried the day in favour of See also:Soderini's proposal of a universal or See also:general government, with a See also:great council on the Venetian See also:plan . The great council consisted of 3200 citizens of blameless reputation and over twenty-five years of age, a third of the number sitting for six months in turn in the See also:hall of the Cinquecento expressly built for the purpose . There was also an upper council of eighty, which in See also:conjunction with the signory decided all questions of too important and delicate a nature for discussion in the larger See also:assembly . These institutions were approved by the people, and gave a See also:fair promise of justice . Savonarola's See also:programme of the new government was comprised in the following See also:formula:—(r) fear of God and See also:purification of manners; (2) promotion of the public welfare in preference to private interests; (3) a general See also:amnesty to See also:political offenders; (4) a council on the Venetian See also:model, but with no See also:doge . At first the new machinery acted well; the public mind was tranquil, and the See also:war with Pisa—not as yet of threatening proportions—was enough to occupy the Florentines and prevent internecine feuds . Without holding any See also:official See also:post in the See also:commonwealth he had created, the prior of St Mark's was the real head of the state, the See also:dictator of Florence, and guarded the public weal "Dictator with extraordinary political See also:wisdom . At his instance or Florence .

" the tyrannical See also:

system of arbitrary imposts and so- called voluntary loans was abolished, and replaced by a tax of io% (la decima) on all real See also:property . The See also:laws and edicts of this period read like paraphrases of Savonarola's sermons, and indeed his counsels were always given as addenda to the religious exhortations in which he denounced the sins of his country and the pollution of the church, and urged Florence to See also:cast off iniquity and become a truly See also:Christian city, a See also:pattern not only to See also:Rome but to the world at large . His eloquence was now at the See also:flood . Day by day his impassioned words, filled with the spirit of the Old Testament, wrought upon the minds of the Florentines and strung them to a See also:pitch of pious emotion never before—and never since—attained by them . Their fervour was too hot to be lasting, and Savonarola's uncompromising spirit roused the hatred of political adversaries as well as of the degraded court of Rome . Even now, when his authority was at its highest, when his fame filled the land, and the vast cathedral and its precincts lacked space for the crowds flocking to hear him, his enemies were secretly preparing his downfall . Pleasure-loving Florence was completely changed . Abjuring pomps and vanities, its citizens observed the ascetic regime of the cloister; See also:half the year was devoted to See also:abstinence and few dared to eat See also:meat on the fasts ordained by Savonarola . See also:Hymns and lauds rang in the streets that had so recently echoed with Lorenzo's dissolute songs . Both sexes dressed with Puritan plainness; husbands and wives quitted their homes for convents; See also:marriage became an awful and scarcely permitted rite; mothers suckled their own babes; and persons of all ranks—nobles, scholars and artists—renounced the world to assume the Dominican robe . Still more wonderful was Savonarola's influence over See also:children, and their response to his appeals is a See also:proof of the magnetic power of his goodness and purity . He organized the boys of Florence in a See also:species of sacred See also:militia, an inner republic, with its own magistrates and officials charged with the enforcement of his rules for the See also:holy life .

It was with the aid of these youthful enthusiasts that Savonarola arranged the religious See also:

carnival of 1496. when the citizens gave their costliest possessions in See also:alms to the poor, and tonsured monks, crowned with See also:flowers, sang lauds and performed See also:wild dances for the See also:glory of God . In the same spirit, and to point the See also:doctrine of renunciation of worldly enjoyments, he celebrated the carnival of 1497 by the famous " burning of the vanities " (i.e. masks and other See also:objects pertaining to the carnival festivities, indecent books and pictures, &c.) in the Piazza della Signoria . A Venetian See also:merchant is known to have bid 22,000 See also:gold florins for the doomed vanities, but the scandalized authorities not only rejected his offer but added his portrait to the See also:pile . Nevertheless the See also:artistic value of the objects consumed has been greatly exaggerated by some writers . There is no proof that any See also:book or See also:painting of real merit was sacrificed, and Savonarola was neither foe to art nor to learning . On the contrary, so great was his respect for both that, when there was a question of selling the Medici library to pay that family's debts, he saved the collection at the expense of the convent See also:purse . Meanwhile events were taking a turn hostile to the prior . See also:Ale See also:cider VI. had long regretted the enfranchisement of St Mark's from the rule of the Lombard Dominicans, and now, having seen a transcript of one of Savonarola's denunciations of his crimes, resolved to silence this daring preacher . See also:Bribery was the first weapon employed, and a See also:car- w wit h the dinal's See also:hat was held out as a bait . But Savonarola pope. indignantly spurned the offer, replying to it from the pulpit with the prophetic words: " No hat will I have but that of a martyr, reddened with my own See also:blood . " So long as King Charles remained in Italy See also:Alexander's concern for his own safety prevented vigorous measures against the friar . But no Borgia ever forgot an enemy .

Phoenix-squares

He bided his time, and the trans-formation of sceptical Florence into an austerely Christian republic claiming the Saviour as its head only increased his resolve to crush the See also:

man who had wrought this marvel . The potent duke of Milan, Ludovico See also:Sforza, and other foes were labouring for the same end, and already in July 1495 a papal brief had courteously summoned Savonarola to Rome . In terms of equal See also:courtesy the prior declined the invitation, nor did he obey a second, less softly worded, in September . Then came a third, threatening Florence with an See also:interdict in See also:case of renewed refusal . Savonarola disregarded the command, but went to preach for a while in other Tuscan cities . But in See also:Lent his celebrated sermons upon See also:Amos were delivered in the duomo, and again he urged the See also:necessity of reforming the church, striving by ingenious arguments to reconcile See also:rebellion against Alexander with unalterable fidelity to the Holy See . All Italy recognized that Savonarola's See also:voice was arousing a See also:storm that might shake even the power of Rome . Alive to the danger, the pope knew that his foe must be crushed, and the religious carnival of 1496 afforded a See also:good pretext for stronger proceedings against him . The threatened See also:anathema was deferred, but a brief uniting St Mark's to a new Tuscan See also:branch of the Dominicans now deprived Savonarola of his independent power . However, in the beginning of 1497 the Piagnoni were again in See also:office, with the prior's staunch friend, See also:Francesco Valori, at their head . In See also:March the aspect of affairs changed . The Arrabbiati and the Medicean See also:faction merged political See also:differences in their See also:common hatred to Savonarola .

Piero de' Medici's fresh See also:

attempt to re-enter Florence failed; nevertheless his followers continued their intrigues, and party spirit increased in virulence . The citizens were growing weary of the monastic austerities imposed on them, and Alexander foresaw that his revenge was at hand . A signory openly hostile to Savonarola took office in May, and on See also:Ascension Day his enemies ventured on active insult . His pulpit in the duomo was defiled, an See also:ass's skin spread over the See also:cushion, and See also: