Savonarola, enemy of corruption
by Mike Oettle
MANY men have
been burned unjustly as heretics, but few more unjustly than Girolamo
Savonarola, who was hanged and burned on 23 May 1498. Indeed, the injustice
lives on to this day, for the Church of Rome has still not agreed to call him a
saint despite several miracles claimed to his credit.
Born at Ferrara in 1452, Girolamo was educated by his grandfather Michele Savonarola,
a doctor and a man of rigid moral and religious principles. From him, the young
Girolamo appears to have received a mediæval mindset which set him apart from
his Renaissance contemporaries. “Even at that early date, as he wrote in a
letter to his father, he could not suffer ‘the blind wickedness of the peoples
of Italy’. He found unbearable the humanistic paganism that corrupted manners,
art, poetry, and religion itself. He saw as the cause of this spreading
corruption a clergy vicious even in the highest levels of the church
hierarchy.”[1]
He took a degree in liberal arts and began studying medicine, but in 1475 he left his father’s house and his studies to join the Dominican Order at Bologna.
Brother Girolamo became a teacher of Scripture, first in Ferrara (in ’79) and then in Florence (’82), “where he gained a great reputation for his learning and asceticism. As a preacher he was unsuccessful until a sudden revelation inspired him to begin his prophetic sermons.”[1] He gave Lenten teachings in ’85 and ’86 where he taught that the church needed reforming, that it would be scourged and then renewed.
In 1487 he went for a year to Bologna to be master of studies at the school (college) there, and then preached in various cities until Lorenzo dei Medici arranged for him to return to Florence – an irony, for Savonarola was to become the most forthright enemy of the Medici.
“Having returned to the city of his destiny (1490), Savonarola preached boldly against the tyrannical abuses of the government. Too late Lorenzo tried to dam the dangerous eloquence with threats and flattery, but his own life was drawing to a close, while popular enthusiasm for Savonarola’s preaching constantly increased.”1
After
Lorenzo’s death the Medici were overthrown by Charles VIII of France – as
Savonarola had predicted. His prophecies, and his negotiating role, enhanced
his authority, and Girolamo set up a democratic government.
The enemies of France and of Savonarola joined in the so-called Holy League with the aim of overthrowing him, and Pope Alexander VI,[2] one of the ringleaders, called him to Rome. Girolamo pleaded ill health. The Pope ordered him to Bologna. Girolamo pointed out 18 errors in the document. The Pope forbade him to preach. Florence insisted that the ban on Savonarola be lifted, and the Pope gave verbal assent. “Thus Savonarola was able to give his sermons on Amos, which are among his finest and most forceful, and in which he attacked the Roman Court with renewed vigour. He also appeared to refer to the Pope’s scandalous private life, and the latter took offense at this. A college of theologians found nothing to criticize in what the friar had said, so that after Lent he was able to begin without further remonstrances from Rome, the sermons on Ruth and Micah.”[1]
The Pope’s next strategy was to offer Savonarola a cardinal’s hat. He replied: “A red hat? I want a hat of blood.” So Alexander merged Girolamo’s congregation with another, divesting him of all authority. Savonarola, his only alternative excommunication, obeyed. He nonetheless went ahead in Advent 1496 and Lent 1497 with sermons on Ezekiel. Florence responded at carnival time with a burning of the vanities – lewd pictures, cards, gaming tables and personal ornaments went onto a bonfire.
But events had turned against Savonarola. Sacrilegious riots against him marked Ascension Day and he was excommunicated. Yet the bull of excommunication was so
irregular that the Pope had to disown it. The Pope then tried to draw Florence
into the “Holy League” as a price for withdrawing the bull. Girolamo’s response
was a series of sermons on Exodus for Lent 1498.
It was Fra Domenico da Pesca who brought matters to a head. A Franciscan challenged
anyone who doubted the validity of Savonarola’s excommunication to an ordeal by
fire, and Domenico took him up on it. The Franciscan failed to appear on the
day, but the rabble blamed Savonarola that a miracle had not taken place. The
papal faction raised a riot and took Girolamo, Domenico and a third friar.
After a mock trial by papal commissioners, the civil authorities hanged the
three companions on a high scaffold above a blazing fire. Before mounting the
scaffold Savonarola piously received the Pope’s absolution.
Since his death Savonarola has been honoured by both Catholic saints (people who were later canonised) and Protestants. But perhaps his best legacy is his writings, notably Triumphis crucis and Compendium revelationum and some sermons, which someone copied as he preached them. Perhaps he will yet be recognised as a saint.
