Titans of History

SAVONAROLA

1452–98

The first city to be renewed will be Florence … as God elected the people of Israel to be led by Moses through tribulation to felicity … so now the people of Florence have been called to a similar role led by a prophetic man, their new Moses [Savonarola himself] … In the Sabbath Age men will rejoice in the New Church and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Girolamo Savonarola’s “Sermon on the New Age,” 1490s

The Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola was a reactionary zealot and bigoted theocrat who vehemently opposed the humanism of the Florentine Renaissance. His “Bonfire of the Vanities” burned books and art he deemed immoral. Savonarola’s “Christian and religious republic” was an intolerant, sanctimonious and murderous reign of terror.

Born and raised in the city of Ferrara (then the capital of an independent duchy), Savonarola received his first education from his paternal grandfather, Michele Savonarola, before moving on to university. His earliest writings already exhibited the mixture of pessimism and moralizing for which he would become notorious; the poems “De Ruina Mundi” (“On the Downfall of the World”) and “De Ruina Ecclesiae” (“On the Downfall of the Church”) are exemplary in this regard.

In 1475 Savonarola entered the Dominican order at the convent of San Domenico in Bologna. Four years later he transferred back to the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli in his native Ferrara, before finally becoming the prior of the convent at San Marco in Florence. It was here that he would earn his place in history.

From the outset, Savonarola denounced the political and religious corruption he believed to have permeated society. His Lent sermons of 1485–6 were especially vehement, and it was during those addresses that he began to call for the cleansing of the Church as a prelude to its reform.

In 1487 Savonarola left Florence for a time to return to Bologna as “master of studies,” but in 1490 he returned on the encouragement of the humanist philosopher Count Pico della Mirandola and with the patronage of Lorenzo de Medici, the ruler of Florence. Once back in Florence, Savonarola soon set about excoriating the very government that had made his return possible. In florid language, Savonarola heralded the approaching “end of days” and claimed to be in direct contact with God and the saints. He condemned the alleged tyranny of the Medicis, and prophesied the impending doom of Florence, unless the city changed its ways.

Such predictions seemed altogether vindicated when the French king, Charles VIII, invaded Florence in 1494. Lorenzo de Medici’s son and successor, Piero, was driven out of a city, which was by then in the grip of Savonarola’s demagoguery. With French support, a democratic republic was now established in Florence, with Savonarola as its leading figure. In his new role, combining political and religious power, he was determined to create a “Christian and religious republic.” One of the first acts of this new, wholesome republic was to make homosexuality punishable by death.

Savonarola intensified his criticism of the Roman curia—its corruption personified by the notorious Borgias—and he even went so far as to attack Pope Alexander VI’s disreputable private life. At the same time, he urged the people of Florence to live ever more ascetic lives. The result of the latter exhortations was the act for which the priest became most famous—the Bonfire of the Vanities, in which personal effects, books and works of art, including some by Botticelli and Michelangelo, were destroyed in a conflagration in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria.

Even as Savonarola reached the height of his power and influence, domestic opposition to his rule was beginning to form. Pointing to his pronouncements against the papacy, these domestic opponents were able to secure the excommunication of Savonarola in May 1497. Beyond Florence, Savonarola was opposed not only by the corrupt Borgia pope, Alexander VI, but also by the duke of Milan—both of whom sought to overturn the king of France’s regional ambitions.

When French forces withdrew from the Italian peninsula in 1497, Savonarola suddenly found himself isolated. His final undoing came in 1498, in a bizarre episode that reflected the zealous atmosphere he had done so much to create. A Franciscan monk had challenged anyone who refused to accept the pope’s excommunication of Savonarola to an ordeal by fire. One of Savonarola’s most committed followers had duly accepted the contest, the outcome of which would be decided by he who withdrew first (that person being the loser). In the event, the Franciscan failed to appear for the trial—formally handing Savonarola the victory. Yet many felt that Savonarola had somehow dodged the test. A riot ensued, in the course of which Savonarola was dragged from his convent and placed in front of a commission of inquiry, packed with his opponents.

Effectively placed on trial by papal commissioners, Savonarola was tortured into making an admission of guilt. He was then handed over to the secular authorities to be crucified and burned at the stake. The sentence was carried out on May 23, 1498, at the very spot on which the Bonfire of the Vanities had been lit, and where Savonarola had himself overseen the execution of various “criminals.” As his own pyre was lit, the executioner was reputed to have declared, “The one who wanted to burn me is now himself put to the flames.”