Girolamo Savonarola

“ The monks and their few remaining friends made a most desperate defence. In vain Savonarola besought them to lay down their arms. When the church was finally stormed Savonarola was seen praying at the altar, and Frà Domenico, armed with an enormous candlestick, guarding him from the blows of the mob. A few disciples dragged their beloved master to the inner library and urged him to escape by the window. ”

“ Girolamo Savonarola, who came to Florence in 1489, arose to fight against the literary and social movement of the Renaissance. Some have tried to make out that Savonarola was an apostle of liberty, others that he was a precursor Religious reaction. Savonarola. of the Reformation. In truth, however, he was neither the one nor the other. In his struggle with Lorenzo de’ Medici, he directed his attack against the promoter of classical studies, the patron of pagan literature, rather than against the political tyrant. ”

“ The rude world of the Middle Ages went on its way, unaffected in the main either by mysticism or by the movements which set up self-centred societies within society. It needed a more human spirit to affect humanity in mass.
Such a human spirit, indeed, may be held to have shown itself in the movement set up in Florence by Girolamo Savonarola near the end of the fifteenth century. Savonarola was moved by a high concern for individual conduct; and his [213] gospel was substantially that of an Ebionite Christian, wroth with all luxury as well as with all levity of life. ”

“ Though physically unable to resist torture, Savonarola’s clearness of mind returned whenever he was at peace in his cell. So long as writing materials were allowed him he employed himself in making a commentary on the Psalms, in which he restated all his doctrines. Alexander was frantically eager to see his enemy die in Rome. But the signory insisted that the false prophet should suffer death before the Florentines whom he had so long led astray. The matter was finally compromised. A second mock trial was held by two apostolic commissioners specially appointed by the pope. ”

“ Men may kill the body of their victim, but they cannot kill the spirit he has roused by his influence and example. That lives on when all his persecutors are dead and forgotten.
Girolamo Savonarola was born in Ferrara, a town in Northern Italy, in the year 1452. He was the5 third of five brothers and he had two sisters. His grandfather was a physician and a man of learning, and his father was a courtier of no great importance. Girolamo was devoted to his mother, and he corresponded with her all through his eventful life. ”

“ And, although Rondinelli had not come, the signory sent angry messages to ask why the Dominicans delayed the trial. It was now late in the day, and a storm shower gave the authorities a pretext for declaring that heaven was against the ordeal. The Franciscans slipped away unobserved, but Savonarola raising the host attempted to lead his monks across the piazza in the same solemn order as before. On this the popular fury burst forth. Defrauded of their bloody diversion, the people were wild with rage. ”

“ He organized the boys of Florence in a species of sacred militia, an inner republic, with its own magistrates and officials charged with the enforcement of his rules for the holy life. It was with the aid of these youthful enthusiasts that Savonarola arranged the religious carnival of 1496, when the citizens gave their costliest possessions in alms to the poor, and tonsured monks, crowned with flowers, sang lauds and performed wild dances for the glory of God. ”

“ After seventy years' subjection to the Medici Florence had forgotten the art of self-government, and 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 ”

“ Since He is Infinite Power and Infinite Wisdom, it is vain to say that He cannot care for man, or knows not how to do so. To say that He will not do so, is to derogate from His Infinite Goodness; for none that is good spurns his own work, and no cause despises its own effect. Neither would it be a righteous work to care for imperfect things, and not for perfect ones. When even every good and wise man cares diligently for human affairs, how shall we say that the God of Infinite Goodness takes no heed of them? ”

“ In 1491 he was invited to preach in the cathedral, Sta Maria del Fiore, and his rule over Florence may be said to begin from that date.Prior of St Mark’s Lorenzo sent leading citizens to him to urge him to show more respect to the head of the state. Savonarola rejected their advice and foretold the impending deaths of Lorenzo, of the pope and of the king of Naples. In the 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 bounty of the Medici, it was considered the duty of the new superior to present his homage to Lorenzo. ”

“ Have done! To the fire at once! Fra Girolamo! We will have the miracle! We will have the miracle!'
At this cry Savonarola, who had been kneeling in prayer, rose, shook himself, approached the parapet of the Loggia, and with imposing gesture commanded silence. But the people refused to be silent. And then some one from under the Tettoia de' Pisani cried:—
'He's afraid!'
And this cry was taken up and passed along.
219 A company of horsemen of the Arrabbiati tried to push their way to the Loggia to fall upon Savonarola and seize him, making their profit of the confusion.
'Kill him! Kill him! ”

“ But Savonarola 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 blood.” So long as King Charles remained in Italy Alexander’s concern for his own safety prevented vigorous measures against the friar. But no Borgia ever forgot an enemy. He bided his time, and the transformation of sceptical Florence into an austerely Christian republic claiming the Saviour as its head only increased his resolve to crush the man who had wrought this marvel. ”

“ Pico della Mirandola moved his pale lips slowly.
“I hope Piero Capponi will know how to–deal with–these French–I hope–Frà Girolamo will save Florence–I wish Lorenzo had lived—”
He lifted the yellow ring to his cheek and fell, as they thought, asleep.
But when Frà Girolamo returned with the humble robe of a brother of St. Mark’s, Pico della Mirandola was dead amid his vanities, with the rare intaglio on his finger.
And Savonarola used no word of reproach, but permitted him to be buried in the friar’s habit [319] and in the Church of St. Mark. ”

“ Thence he was dispatched to St 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 cloister, sanctified by memories of St Antonine and adorned with the inspired paintings of Fra Angelico, seemed to him a fore-court of heaven. But his content speedily changed to horror. The Florence streets rang with Lorenzo's ribald songs (the “canti carnascialeschi”) ; the smooth, cultured citizens were dead to all sense of religion or morality ”

“ Biography.
Life & Times of Girolamo Savonarola. By Pasquale Villari. Translated by Linda Villari. Portraits and Illusts. Two vols. Demy 8vo., cloth, 32s.
This new translation of Villari’s “Savonarola” by Madame Villari contains much additional matter, and is fuller and completer than the last published Italian edition. The biography is illustrated with many portraits of famous men of the times.
Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) : A Critical Review of his Life and Character, with Selections from his Writings. By B. G. Lovejoy, A.M., LL.B. Crown 8vo., half-bound cloth, gilt top, 6s. ”

“ But the people still believed in him, though he turned the whole life of the city into a sort of religious carnival. Now, if Lorenzo had kept the people quiet with songs, Savonarola was equally successful with hymns. "Viva Cristo e la Vergine Maria, nostra regina," shouted the people,—merchants, friars, women, and children dancing before the crucifix with olive boughs in their hands. "On 27th March 1496, which was Palm Sunday, Fra Girolamo made a procession of children with olive branches in their hands and crowns of olive on their 217heads and all bore, too, a red cross. ”

“ Savonarola must be wrong; he must be “sectarian”. Then leave out the sectarianism; omit the chapters in which he treats of subjects which are distinctly and essentially Catholic. It is the old story. They will make Savonarola a Protestant, or, at least, a herald of Protestantism, a precursor of Luther and Calvin, a harbinger of the Reformation, whether he will or no. Whereas, as every reader of his history and writings must know, he was of Catholics the most Catholic—Catholic [xviii] in life, Catholic in death, Catholic to the heart’s core. ”

“ The signory tried to conciliate the pope by relating the wonderful spiritual effects of their preacher’s words, but Alexander was obdurate. The Florentines must either silence the man themselves, or send him to be judged by a Roman tribunal.
Undismayed by personal danger, Savonarola resolved to appeal to all Christendom against the unrighteous pontiff, and dispatched letters to the rulers of Europe adjuring them to assemble a council to condemn this antipope. The council of Constance, and the deposition of John XXIII., were satisfactory precedents still remembered by the world. ”

“ The next morning, the signory having decreed the prior’s banishment, Francesco Valori and other leading Piagnoni hurried to him to concert measures for his safety. Meanwhile the government decided on his arrest, and no sooner was this made public than the populace rushed to the attack of the convent. The doors of Arrest and trial. St Mark’s were hastily secured, and Savonarola discovered that his adherents had secretly prepared arms and munitions and were ready to stand a siege The signory sent to order all laymen to quit the cloister, and a special summons to Valori. ”

“ His eflorts were successful; religion and learning made equal progress; St Mark's became the most popular monastery in Florence, and many citizens of noble birth flocked thither to take the vows. Meanwhile Savonarola continued to denounce the abuses of the church and the guilt and corruption of mankind, and thundered forth predictions of heavenly wrath. In I4Q4 the duke of Milan demanded the aid of France, and King Charles VIII. brought an army across the Alps. Piero de' Medici, made alliance with the Neapolitan sovereign whose kingdom was claimed by Charles. ”

“ Were the cause a perfection, the God that had it not, would, for the same reason, not be God. Thus there cannot be more gods than one.
A third proof of the unity of God lies in the fact, that all things in the universe are most excellently ordered. This perfect order could not be the work of many; it [23] must proceed from one. Among animals, such as bees and cranes, we see one ruler directing a multitude of subjects. And since art imitates nature, in the best human governments we, likewise, see power vested in one head, otherwise the government could not stand. ”

“ Every man must believe that there exists another life, into which all must pass; that each one of us must stand before the awful Judge who will place on His left hand the wicked condemned to eternal punishment, and, on His right, the good who will enter into everlasting bliss. In this glory unutterable they shall gaze for ever on God in Trinity unspeakable, infinite. They shall rejoice in the grace of our all-conquering and triumphant Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom be power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, for ever and ever. ”

“ A man who has no claim to an imperial crown, does not grieve because he is not an Emperor. Neither does such a soul suffer any sensible pain. On the contrary, it is endowed with all perfection proper to human nature—such as the knowledge of all natural things, and even the contemplation, by means of creatures, of such as are Divine. It enjoys all the happiness which human nature can enjoy. Furthermore, God confers upon these souls certain supernatural gifts—such as immortality, and impassibility of body—so that they are not subject to human infirmity ”

“ For, if the externals of religion did not depend on God, and were not the instruments of Divine virtue and truth, they could not produce an effect so excellent as to give birth to the Christian life, and to nourish and perfect it. For as this life is wholly spiritual and Divine, it cannot proceed from any physical power. Who is there that believes that baptism with water, anointing with chrism, smoke of incense, oblation of bread and wine upon the altar, and other rites and ceremonies of the same description, could of themselves, without any other power, suffice to render a soul perfect? ”

“ No true philosopher entertains the slightest doubt that God is not a body, nor the form of a body, nor a complex substance. It would be impossible that God should be a body, seeing that He is the immovable Mover of all things; for one body, unless it first move itself, cannot set another in motion. Again, as spirit is more noble than body, God, were He a body, would not be the noblest of all beings, neither would He be the Supreme Ruler, since the body is governed by the spirit.
We must further hold, that God is not the form of a body, as the soul is the form of the human body ”