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Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar who tried to use his influence from Florence, Italy to reform the Roman Catholic Church in the late 15^th century. Though he attracted a great deal of followers, his attempts at reformation ended instead in his excommunication in 1497 and execution in 1498. Savonarola was not unlike Martin Luther, who wrote 95 theses that challenged the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church in 1517. However, the actions of these two men just twenty years apart yielded very different results. Martin Luther is credited as the inspiration of the Reformation, and lived a long life. Why did Girolamo Savonarola’s cause end in execution and not reformation?

In 1489, Savonarola was sent to Florence to preach to the people, and after his arrival, he quickly began to gain a following. Contemporary accounts state that upon witnessing the works of the friar, people fell to their knees in ecstasy (Kreis, 2002). Under the Medicean rule, the city had experienced a revival of humanism, and the arrival of a charismatic prophet preaching medieval morality disquieted the ruling family. He specifically railed against those who were in power, as Bouwsma (1965) records in one of the sermons of Savonarola:

Above all, you must take care lest anyone make himself head and dominate others in the city. Such men are deprived of God’s grace and other special providence, and they are generally the worst men, lacking in understanding and faithless. (p. 166)

Nonetheless, his sermons and prophecies had found their mark in the people’s Millenarianism – the fear that God would cause radical changes to occur to coincide with the coming of the year 1500. He promised the people that God would take back his church and cleanse their corrupt city with “the sword of tribulation” (Bouwsma, 1965). So powerful was his message and charisma that Lorenzo de Medici was eventually turned to his cause. Lying on his deathbed, Lorenzo summoned the friar and begged him to perform the last rites. Savonarola’s presence is still as strong today with the faithful as it was in the 15^th century. His personal effects along with various monuments have been on display in his cells in the Monastery of San Marco since 1873 (Scudieri, 1999, p. 63).

Not content with his religious influence, Girolamo Savonarola translated it into real power over Florence. Savonarola did go to Lorenzo de Medici on his deathbed and agreed to perform the last rites, so long as Lorenzo would repent of his sins, relinquish all his wealth and renounce the claim of the Medici family to rule Florence. This final condition was unacceptable to Lorenzo and it is said that Girolamo Savonarola withheld the last sacraments from the dying man (Kreis, 2002). Clearly, he was concerned with more than his ministry. After the death of Lorenzo de Medici in 1492, his son Piero succeeded him. In late 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and through inadvisable political strategies, Piero had lost much of Florence’s outposts and strongholds. Later that year, he and his allies were ousted from the city (Turner, 1997). In the vacuum of power that followed, Girolamo Savonarola took control of the city by way of the pulpit of Santa Maria del Fiore. Preaching his fire and brimstone, the fanatical friar welcomed the French king as the sword of God whose coming he had long foretold (Chamberlin, 1993). The lack of debate and disagreement in the Signoria was a sign of the populace’s total submission. In 1495, because of his claims to be God’s prophet, he was summoned by the church authority to answer a charge of heresy. “The Friar himself protested to the Pope in 1495 that he could not obey the call to Rome because the new government needed his daily care” (Armstrong, p. 441). Because of his failure to appear, he was forbidden from preaching, but this directive was ignored. Savonarola was convinced that the city’s sins had to be purged. The homes of the wealthiest citizens of Florence contained magnificent examples of humanist art, but few dared to flaunt it. Savonarola’s was the voice of a budding theocratic government, and he denounced the excesses and immorality of the period. Groups of boys were sent door-to-door, collecting items of dubious moral value to be destroyed in the public square, the Piazza della Signoria. According to Turner (1997), “The bonfires of the vanities that flared up in 1497 and 1498 consumed paintings, sculptures, cosmetics, books, musical instruments, and games, and many of the artifacts and assumptions of a brilliant age were reduced to ashes” (p. 140).

Girolamo Savonarola found it increasingly difficult to manipulate Florence, after all of the remedies he proscribed did not seem to create his prophesied chosen city of the Lord. The catalyst for the ousting of the de Medicis, the invasion of Italy by France, had lost its value by 1495. In that year, the combined forces of Venice and the Pope had forced Charles VIII to retreat from Naples back across the peninsula after the loss of many of his men and all of his seized treasure. “In Tuscany, Savonarola came out to nag and upbraid him. ‘You have incurred the wrath of God by neglecting that work of reforming the Church which, by my mouth, He had charged you to undertake’” (Chamberlin, 1993, p. 185). He faced conspiracies for the recall of the Medici family, and though he overcame them, his popularity suffered. His complete disregard and provocation of the Pope increased the hostility from Rome. In June 1497, Savonarola was excommunicated, and thereby prohibited from performing the sacraments. Undaunted by this, he continued to tend to the sick monks during the plague and by doing so, alienated much of the rest of the clergy in Florence. His purging of the political and economic system in Florence was intense; he had called for the end of the Florentine Parliament, had worked at changing the city’s constitution and created a new budget with new taxes (Armstrong, 1889). The dispossessed noble class of the city grew angrier and angrier at Savonarola’s increasing power and dismantlement of their democratic government and inherent way of life. The second bonfire of the vanities in 1498 caused widespread rioting and forced new elections. Through these elections, the Medici were brought back to power. The Roman Catholic Church continued to require that Savonarola desist from preaching, and the local clergy obstreperously denounced his actions, calling for him to be tried by divine providence in an ordeal of fire. His trial for heresy was finally accomplished, and having been found guilty, he was sentenced to be hanged and then burned in the public square in front of the government building – the very square where he had coerced the wealthy to burn their possessions.

Had Girolamo Savonarola confined his efforts to religious reformation, the task may have been accomplished. Instead, his assault on the church and Florence itself took the form of not only a religious protest, but also a political protest and a protest against wealth and splendor. He was successful in tapping the religious malaise of the Florentine people of the time (S. Kreis, personal communication, October 18, 2006). His downfall was his thorough fanaticism and his inability to maintain the followers he won over the enemies he made.

Armstrong, E. (1889). English Historical Review 4, Recent Criticism upon the Life of Savonarola (p. 441). Oxford University Press.

Bouwsma, W. J., trans. (1965). Major Crises in Western Civilization, Volume 1. New York: Harcourt Brace and World.

Chamberlin, E. R. (1993). The Bad Popes. New York: Barnes & Noble. (Original work published 1969)

Kreis, S. (2002). The Medieval Synthesis Under Attack: Savonarola and the Protestant Reformation.

Scudieri, M. (1999). Museum of San Marco. Florence: Giunti Editore S.p.A.

Turner, A. (1997). Renaissance Florence: The Invention of a New Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams.