The Protest – Savonarola

December 16, 1962
Rochester

Sermon Series: Our Judeo-Christian Heritage
13. The Protest – Savonarola

During the vivid days of the Italian Renaissance, amid the glorious artistic creation, the reach of discovery and the exciting applications of inventions, a dour religious fanatic rebelled against the Church. This was Savonarola, the Prior of San Marco. Luther and other Reformers were to look back at Savonarola, finding in his life and death spiritual sustenance for their years of travail in the struggle for Reformation. Savonarola illuminated the cause of conscience. We, too, are in his debt for strengthening this important strand in the fabric of our heritage.

On September 21, 1452, the year before Constantinople fell to the Turks, Girolamo (Jerome) Savonarola was born to Michele and Elena Savonarola in Ferrara, Italy.

Although born in the Renaissance, Savonarola did not share its spirit. As a somber lad of sixteen, he was detached from his fellows. Although he possessed superior intellectual abilities, he could neither enter into the activities nor share the animal vigor of his peers. He decided not to acquire the habits of a world where “all vices are lauded and all virtues derided.” (See MAN OF THE RENAISSANCE, ROEDER, p. 7). His morbid fancies created visions and his notebook became a tracts on “THE CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD.”

He found no joy in the usual life of a young man. When a girl of the Strozzi family rejected his proposal of marriage as preposterous, because her family position was much superior to the Savonarola’s, the young man’s readiness to reject the world increased. Later he said, “two things I loved above all, freedom and peace; to have freedom I would not take wife, and to find peace, I fled the world and gained the port of religion.” At the age of twenty-three, he entered the Dominican monastery at Bologna.

There his conviction strengthened that his was a call to preach repentance to a vain, pleasure-loving age. The Dominicans cherished a famous preaching tradition. Over the doorway of the monastery, their emblem, the Domini-cani, proclaimed that they were the “hounds of the Lord with the torch in their teeth.” (ibid, p. 13)

In the process of time, a most curious encounter occurred. The city-state of Florence was the gem of the Renaissance. Under the patronage of the wealthy and cultured Medici family, the most talented artists, sculptors, poets and scholars had been sponsored, with no return obligation expected other than to create. The Medici family sponsored Michelangelo at the age of fifteen; had recommended Leonardo to the Duke of Milan; had been patrons for the careers of Botticelli, Ghiberti, Raphael, Della Robbia and many others. Among these was the leading scholar, philosopher, and poet of his age, Pico Mirandola.

Pico was a young genius who knew twenty-two languages, had studied and understood the weaknesses of all philosophies, could write excellent poetry and was the sparkling center of the cultured discussions at the home of Lorenzo the Magnificent, greatest of the Medici family, who ruled Florence with a benevolent despotism.

Mirandola, with all his versatile genius and vast knowledge, was harassed by uncertainties. Although he had comprehended formal learning to its limits, he possessed no burning convictions about life and death and destiny. By chance, Mirandola heard Savonarola speak on the corruption of the clergy at a Dominican chapter meeting. Mirandola was so impressed by the passionate conviction of the monk that when the chance came to have him invited to Florence, the philosopher recommended the monk to Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo had the power to ensure Savonarola’s appointment as Prior of San Marco convent.

When Mirandola discussed the matter in Florence, he found to his surprise that Savonarola had preached briefly in that city four years before. At that time, Savonarola had been fumbling, hesitant, awkward – a failure as a young preacher. In the interval, he had so developed power and conviction that Mirandola had felt his spine tingle when the Dominican’s stern voice applied the scripture of Revelation to the Renaissance scene. When Savonarola returned to Florence in the maturity of his spiritual strength and preaching ability, events soon provided the opportunity for a head-on clash between the power of the Medici family and new forces set in motion by the Dominican preacher.

As Prior of San Marco, Savonarola not only instructed novices, as was his regular duty, but also led a laymen’s class which from small beginnings in the garden, grew until he was urged to preach from the pulpit. He felt that this invitation was a summons from on high.

On August 1, 1480, the church of San Marco was thronged as the monk who once had been a failure, returned to the same pulpit. As he began a scathing indictment of the corrupt church, licentious government and immoral laity, he cast the spell of the revivalist. The crowd of worshipers were gripped by hypnotic preaching power. The failure had become a magnetic success.

As the people continued to crowd the church at his preaching services, his denunciations and his invoking of the terrible last things predicted in the Book of Revelation became more directly related to the political and social issues of Florence.

The commercial involvements of Florence demanded the levying of interest on loans. Forty years before a preacher had been ejected from Florence because he had criticized usury. Savonarola thunderously condemned usury. While the ruling families were disturbed, Savonarola was too popular to be removed.

He condemned the clergy for corruption, greed and lust. He proclaimed this in a city where Lorenzo’s son, one day to be Pope, was made a bishop at the age of seven, and a cardinal when thirteen. The inter-relationships of the powerful, wealthy families and the ecclesiastical hierarchy were so locked in that Savonarola could not help but create lasting enmities. His popularity with the people may have temporarily postponed actions against him, but could not prevent ultimate retaliation.

The Medici family has stirred various arguments among historians. Did their benevolent paternalism, bountiful gifts to Florence and their commissioning of some of the greatest art ever produced outweigh their tyrannical rule of Florence, their control of the clergy and their abuses of the tax system? That question may be incapable of solution.

But Savonarola made it quite clear where he stood: “... we must proceed without too many scruples and speak frankly and openly. Tyrants are incorrigible because they are proud, because they love flattery, because they will not restore ill-gotten gains. They give a free hand to bad officials; they yield to flattery; they do not heed the wretched; they do not condemn the rich; they expect the peasants and poor to work for them for gratis or they allow officials to oppress them; ... and burden the people more and more. It is your duty, therefore, to root out dissension, to do justice, and to demand honesty of everyone.” (Roeder, p. 27).

Savonarola condemned parties, pleasure, pictures, statues, lewd books and fashionable clothing. All these were attributes of the wealthy society of gay, artistic Florence. But the public seemed undisturbed by corruption.

Lorenzo the Magnificent did not attempt to silence or remove Savonarola. This may be to the credit of the greatest of the Medici, for he had often demonstrated his ability to recognize the man of superior talents. One could also interpret his forbearance as a cautious waiting until Savonarola’s popularity waned among the masses of people.

In April 1492, when Lorenzo was dying, Savonarola was summoned to the death-bed. There are contradictory accounts of the confrontation between Lorenzo, archetype of Renaissance Man and Savonarola, the captive only of an overwhelming conscience.

The mysterious forces of history, life and death soon made their power evident in the life of Savonarola and the destiny of Florence.

In July 1492, Pope Innocent VIII died. His successor was Cardinal Roderigo Borgia, who assumed the papal throne as Alexander VI. Because this Pope was so utterly different from Savonarola, their ultimate and uncompromising clash was certain. Alexander VI was a self-indulgent sensualist, a seeker of special advantages for his four infamous children, Juan, the Duke of Gandia, Lucrezia Borgia, Cesare Borgia and a third son, lesser-known but not more virtuous.

The ascetic Savonarola, who had turned forever from the love of women and family when he was spurned by the Strozzi girl, increased the savagery of his indictments of particulars against clergy and ruling class.

At this time in history, France possessed the only standing army in Europe. When Charles VII became king of France, he determined to embark on an adventure for power with this impressive force. The city-states and papal kingdom of Italy seemed easy prey and an opportunity to re-establish empire.

When the French force threatened Florence, Piero Medici, the son of Lorenzo, went to the French camp with offers to negotiate, to permit the occupation of Florence, in return for which Charles VII would agree not to sack Florence.

Savonarola, with visions pressing on him, preached that the French army would overwhelm Florence for its sins just as God had overwhelmed a sinful world with a flood, saving only Noah and his family.

The fervor of Savonarola’s preaching so aroused the people of Florence that the Medici family was expelled and a people’s party, with the unifying cry, “people and liberty,” took command and ruled the affairs of Florence.

Savonarola, the Prior of San Marco, had no official post in the new government. Nevertheless he was the dictator of Florence. A new order set in immediately. A wave of puritanism changed public morality. The luxuries of the past became forbidden. A rigid system of supervision was installed whereby even the children were enlisted to spy on and report parents and other adults who might be indulging in the older ways.

In place of the spirit of Carnival, there was stern austerity and suppression. In a riot of fanatical, puritanical zeal, books, pictures, fashionable clothing, masquerade costumes were piled in the square and a torch set to the pile of “vanities.” The glare of leaping flames illuminated the excesses to which good men can go. Shakespeare said, “conscience doth make cowards of us all,” but Savonarola embodied the reality that conscience carried to fanatical extremes can make tyrants of us all.

Savonarola demonstrated surprising perception in the measures he promoted for Florence. He was entrusted with unofficial leadership because of his monastic background. He was presumed to be disinterested in partisan politics while committed to the needs of all.

He stood firm for the relief of poverty and unemployment. This note was sounded in his first public statement when the people’s party came to power, “Give over pomps and vanities, sell your superfluities and relieve the poor. Citizens, collect alms in all the churches for the poor of town and country. Give them, this year at least, the subsidies of the University of Pisa; and if that will not suffice, let us seize the vessels and ornaments of the churches and I shall be the first to contribute. But above all open the shops and give work to the people who stand idle in the streets.” (ibid, p. 56).

Reaction always comes; and this was to be the experience of Savonarola. The Reform movement was exhausting its momentum. At the Vatican, Alexander VI plotted and waited patiently for the right time and circumstance.

On July 25, 1495, Savonarola was summoned to report to Rome to answer charges that his preaching of prophecies was a violation of official doctrines. Savonarola evaded the summons, pleading ill-health. (this he could well do, as his health had been poor from the time of his severe adolescent depressions and visions.)

Savonarola based his religious and political evangelism on the Bible as he interpreted it – and it was a radical evangelism. He defended his loyalty to the Church, announcing he would always be obedient. But the real authority for his religion was disclosed by his statement which qualified his professed obedience, (however) “my superiors cannot command contrary to charity and the Gospel. I do not believe the Pope would ever do so; but if he did, I would say to him, you are no longer the Pastor, you are no longer the Roman Church, you err. I say whenever one can clearly see that the commands of one’s superiors are contrary to those of God and above all the precepts of charity, no one is bound to obey, for it is written: it is more important to obey God rather than man.”

Heresy hunters then had ample evidence to build a case which would eventually remove Savonarola.

Events maintained a steady progression. In September 1495, Savonarola was forbidden to preach by Pope Alexander VI. The following February, Savonarola returned to the pulpit, thus being openly disobedient. To add to the accumulation of charges, Savonarola called for a council of the Church to depose the Pope. In May of 1497, Savonarola was excommunicated by Alexander VI. On the following Christmas Day, almost four hundred and sixty-five years ago, Savonarola celebrated mass and served holy communion – a plain act of defiance.

The political and ecclesiastical plotting assumed subtle aspects. Not only must Savonarola be disposed of, but first, the people of Florence, already wearying of puritan reform, must be turned against the Prior and those monks of San Marco loyal to him.

A devious scheme took form. A Franciscan friar challenged Savonarola to ordeal by fire. Savonarola was not inclined to take this seriously, but his loyal monastic colleague, Fra Domenica Buonvicini eagerly accepted the challenge for Savonarola.

For the opposition, this would not do. Savonarola was finally driven to accept the challenge of ordeal by fire. The Vatican and the political parties set plans in motion to make this a circus event. Publicity was built up and the courtyard was crowded with people anxious to see Savonarola and his Franciscan challenger walk through flames, to discover which one would be preserved, and thus vindicated by a miracle of God.

Savonarola and his companions were ready. The Franciscan appeared and then went to confer with his superiors. Hours passed as the delays continued. The mob waited impatiently. In the manner of fickle crowds, they turned on Savonarola who somberly was waiting for the opposition to end conferences. He had no confidence that God would preserve him, but resignedly was willing to undergo the ordeal.

The ordeal was a debacle. The Franciscan friar never did re-appear ready to participate. Savonarola was the scape-goat; his followers fell away; the Pope knew the time was ripe to rid himself forever of the Florentine Reformer.

Savonarola was arrested and abused by the crowd. His two closest companions, Fra Domenica and Fra Silvestra were seized with him. For sixteen days Savonarola was tortured. One day he was subjected to the rack fourteen times. Sometimes he confessed under torture, but withdrew the statements after release from the instruments. Fra Domenica stayed faithful. No extremity of torture could make him say other than Savonarola was on a divine mission. Poor Silvestra yielded at the first sight of the rack and acknowledged himself and Savonarola guilty of every crime of which they were accused.

Even after days of prolonged torture, the inquisitors had so little of substance from Savonarola that they had to resort to a palpable forgery to present incriminating evidence. After all, he really was on trial for the influence he had on people who responded, even if only for a time, to an awareness of oppression and a hope for social, as well as theological redemption.

The accused were condemned to be executed. Alexander VI had sent word from the Vatican that Savonarola was to die, “even if he was a second John the Baptist.”

Permitted to gather together briefly, Savonarola, Silvestra and Domenica prayed together and found renewed strength to meet the awful death that awaited them.

Then came the ceremony of degradation. Sacerdotal robes were thrown on Savonarola and then roughly stripped by the bishop of Vasona, with the words, “I separate thee from the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.”

Savonarola, spirit unquenched, warned, “From the Church Militant, yes. But not from the Church Triumphant. That is not within your power.”

First they were strangled on three crosses from which the perpendicular sections above the cross arms had been lopped off, so that the scene might not be too suggestive to the large crowd. Then the first were lighted and the bodies consumed. At dusk, the warm ashes were thrown into the river Arno, which flowed into the Mediterranean, through the pillars of Hercules, to all the oceans.

And the influence of Savonarola spread through all the world, touching the lives of Luther, Calvin, Knox – and all the reformers since. The flames of that funeral pyre in Florence became a beacon-light forever for those who believe in the necessity of the free soul to be the slave of one’s own conscience. The protest of Savonarola is one of the imperishable human illustrations of that great saying from the Proverbs, (20/27)

“Man’s conscience is the lamp of the Eternal, flashing in his inmost soul.”