The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

I. Savonarola Burned for Interpretation of Apocalypse

GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA (1452-1498), most imposing preacher of the century, and moral and religious reformer, was regarded by Luther as a precursor of the Reformation. ¹ Born of the nobility at Ferrara, Italy, he was reared in honor and wealth, receiving every educational advantage. His parents desired him to study medicine, but a deepening sense of the corruption of church and state led him to leave home secretly for Bologna, where he became a Dominican monk in 1475. Lecturing for a brief time on physics and philosophy, he turned to the study of Holy Scripture in the Hebrew and Greek. Fifteen years of usual monastic life and laborious study followed. His first attempts to preach proved a failure, but he persevered until he became the greatest spiritual force in Italy since Joachim of Floris, nearly three centuries prior. PFF2 142.2

1. EXPOUNDS APOCALYPSE TO IMMENSE AUDIENCES

While still in his novitiate, Savonarola wrote burning poems against the corruptions of the church, and pointed to the impending judgments of God. In 1481 he moved to Florence, which was wracked with political factions, and soon became professor, or “reader,” of Holy Scripture at the Convent of San Marco (St. Mark’s). ² By 1483 he began to preach on prophecy, and in 1486 launched into the soul-stirring scenes of the Apocalypse. In this year he preached a bold sermon that shook men’s souls by his portrayal of the wrath to come, and moved them to tears by the tender pathos of his pleadings to seek God’s mercy. He aspired to reform the church, and was a fearless preacher of righteousness. He contended that a revival must come without further delay, otherwise one would be led to believe that God had irrevocably rejected the Bride, as He rejected the Synagogue of old, a conclusion that was untenable for a Catholic. ³ From 1490 onward, throngs came to hear him. In 1491 he was chosen prior of the Convent of St. Mark. As the head of its theological school he effected important reforms. PFF2 142.3

Savonarola preached first at St. Mark’s church, connected with the convent, and then in the Duomo, or Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore). Immense audiences came to hear him expound the book of Revelation ⁴—throngs numbering into the thousands waited for hours to hear the Word. Few of these sermons have been preserved, however. His preaching was likened to “flashes of lightning and reverberations of thunder.” It was pictorial, eruptive, and startling, as he laid the ax at the root of sin. He won the hearts of his auditors, who often wept aloud with him. His messages were addressed to the clergy, as well as the laity—though so many of the latter attended there was scarcely room for the monks. ⁵ He declared: PFF2 143.1

“See, how in these days prelates and preachers are chained to the earth by love of earthly things; the cure of souls is no longer their concern; they are content with the receipt of revenue; the preachers preach for the pleasure of princes, to be praised and magnified by them.... And they have done even worse than this, inasmuch as they have not only destroyed the Church of God, but built up another after their own fashion. This is the new Church, no longer built of living rock, namely, of Christians steadfast in the living faith and in the mould of charity; but built of sticks, namely, of Christians dry as tinder for the fires of hell.... Go thou to Rome and throughout Christendom; in the mansions of the great prelates and great lords, there is no concern save for poetry and the oratorical art. Go thither and see, thou shalt find them all with books of the humanities in their hands, and telling one another that they can guide men’s souls by means of Virgil, Horace, and Cicero.... In the primitive Church the chalices were of wood, the prelates of gold; in these days the Church hath chalices of gold and prelates of wood.” ⁶ PFF2 143.2

Savonarola preached reformation and repentance ere the tempest of divine vengeance, already impending over Italy, should descend and overwhelm it, ⁷ and multitudes renounced the follies of the world. He was the unofficial leader of Florence, inspiring the populace to form a republic and establish an extreme form of theocracy. People read the Bible and Savonarola. Ill—gotten gains were returned, hymns took the place of ribald songs. Women cast aside their jewels and finery. He won the young people especially to his reforms. A club, or band, was formed to collect pernicious books and voluptuous articles of luxury, which they solicited from the populace and burned publicly in 1497. ⁸ PFF2 144.1

2. TOOK SCRIPTURES AS SOLE GUIDE AND AUTHORITY

The wisdom of Greece was preached from the pulpits of Rome, whereas Savonarola based his preaching on the Bible. Although he used rather extreme allegorical interpretations, he made the exposition of Scripture his main theme. ⁹ He insisted on “taking the Scriptures as my sole guide, ¹⁰ committing great portions to memory. “People of Florence,” he admonished, “give yourselves to Bible study.” He often invited men to challenge him if they found him preaching anything contrary thereto. ¹¹ In fact, the only book he read during the last eight years of his life was the Bible, which gave him the blessed assurance of being justified and accepted by grace, ¹² a truth he desired to proclaim to his fellow men—not merits of our own; only those inwrought by the Holy Spirit. And the love manifested on the cross was the basis upon which Savonarola built his message. Lorenzo de Medici tried to silence him with gifts in the convent’s offering box, but to no avail. ¹³ PFF2 144.2

3. PROCLAIMED DIRE WOES TO COME

In 1492 he began his “prophetic testimony,” as he predicted what his soul longed for—an approaching theocracy under the Lord Jesus, in place of a corrupt ecclesiastical government. It was more or less generally believed that he had the gift of prophecy. ¹⁴ His vision of the sword called forth his declaration, “Behold the sword of the Lord will descend quickly and suddenly upon the earth. ¹⁵ Savonarola saw what appeared to be a black cross in the midst of Rome, with its head touching heaven and its arms stretched forth over the earth. This scene was accompanied by destruction. After this he saw another cross, similar to the first, but of gold, lifted up over Jerusalem, so resplendent that it illuminated the world. Likewise in 1492, after the election of Roderigo Borgia to the Papacy as Alexander VI, Savonarola said he saw a hand in heaven with a sword, and a succession of dire declarations of doom were written in the heavens. ¹⁶ PFF2 145.1

The French army of Charles VIII entered Italy in 1494, sacking and massacring. Savonarola, who had foretold the invasion, induced Charles to be lenient with Florence. The city banished the Medicis, and reorganized under Savonarola’s influence, as a theocracy. ¹⁷ In February, 1496, preaching in the Duomo from Amos and Zechariah, he denounced the shameless corruption of Pope Alexander and his court, which had made Rome the sink of Christendom. Here in the presence of his vastest audience he uttered his most terrible declaration: Catastrophe was to come upon Rome; she was to be banded with steel, put to the sword, and consumed with fire. Italy was to be ravaged with pestilence and famine. Let men fly from corrupted Rome, the Babylon of confusion, he urged, and come to repentance. The echoes reverberated throughout Europe. In May a new course of sermons on Ruth and Micah was no less severe. Fear of excommunication did not deter Savonarola’s denunciations. If the pope gave commands contrary to Christian charity, he was not an instrument of the Lord but a broken tool. PFF2 145.2

4. ANATHEMATIZED AND CONDEMNED AFTER REJECTING PAPAL AUTHORITY

In the latter part of his career Savonarola was pitted against Pope Alexander VI, whose intrigue, bribery, extortion, simony, immorality, and judicial murder wrote probably the blackest page in the papal record; and who determined to silence Savonarola by diplomacy, bribery, or force. The offer of a cardinal’s red hat in return for a change in the content of his preaching was indignantly spurned, as Savonarola declared, “I want no hat, nor mitre, great or small: I wish for nothing more than that which has been given to thy saints—death;—a red hat, a hat of blood.” ¹⁸ This gave him proof of Rome’s unholy traffic in holy things. PFF2 146.1

In July, 1495, he received a papal summons to Rome, which he courteously declined on the grounds of ill-health and dangers en route. In October he was forbidden to preach in public or private. He ceased preaching to avoid arousing scandal in the church, although he knew the reasons were political and personal. In February lie re-entered the pulpit, possibly following the offer of the hat, and more vigorously denounced the corruptions of the Papacy. So, refusing to submit to papal authority, he was excommunicated in May, 1497. ¹⁹ But Savonarola publicly declared that Alexander’s unjust sentence, which he regarded as invalid, was not binding upon him. He held his peace until the end of the year. On Christmas Day, and on into 1498, Savonarola thundered again from the pulpit of the Duomo and from the Piazza of San Marco. There were hints of a future general council, held to be superior to the pope. The pope threatened an interdict, which would ruin Florence. Savonarola must be forbidden to preach. Yet he preached to greater crowds than ever, and became more intense in his arraignments of the Papacy. ²⁰ PFF2 146.2

His enemies took counsel against him; he was cited before the city council and declared guilty of heresy. A conspiracy was framed against him, his enemies charging that the reason for his coming forward in Florence as a reformer was to make himself the Papa Angelicus. His popular support cooled, reaction set in, and he clearly foresaw his fate. In March, 1498, he declared: PFF2 147.1

“Rome will not quench this fire, and if this were quenched, God would kindle another, and it is already kindled everywhere, only they do not know it.” ²¹ PFF2 147.2

5. DEGRADED, HANGED, AND BURNED

At last the government of Florence forbade Savonarola to preach. His last sermon was delivered on March 18. It was a tense, moving appeal—a solemn warning to Rome. Then, in the silence of his cell, Savonarola prepared his last move. He would appeal to the princes of Christendom to summon a general council to depose the simoniacal usurper, who was no true pope. But the letters were never sent. A preliminary message to each court was forwarded. The dispatch to France was intercepted, and sent to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza in Rome. Soon after, the famous ordeal by fire was demanded by the Franciscans to prove the truth of his doctrines. When this failed to be carried out, the populace turned against him and raged in the streets. The convent was attacked; he surrendered to his enemies, and was imprisoned with two companions in the dark inquisitional prison. The tribunal was composed of his bitterest foes, and he was tortured to secure confession ²² Savonarola declared under torture that he had preached, not for ecclesiastical preferments, but to bring about a general council for the purifying of the clergy ²³ He was sentenced to be hanged and then burned as a heretic In a cell he spent his last weeks setting forth his positions through a commentary on the Psalms ²⁴ PFF2 147.3

Picture 1: SAVONAROLA MARTYRED FOR IDENTIFYING ANTICHRIST
Interior of St. Mark’s church at florence, where savonarola was preacher (upper left); savonarola’s mark’s convent, with his desk, chair, and books, where he wrote his indictments of papal corruption (upper right); exterior of florence cathedral, where he also preached occasionally (center left); well-known profile of savonarola by fra bartolommeo (center right); historic painting of the burning of bavonarola at florence (lower)
Page 149

According to Foxe, fourteen articles were gathered out of Savonarola’s writings, the first nine of which, in summary, were as follows (1)Free justification by faith in Christ, (2)communion in both kinds, (3)papal pardons and indulgences of no effect, (4)preaching against the wicked lives of cardinals, (5)denial of pope s supremacy, (6)keys not given to Peter but to universal church, (7)pope is Antichrist,(8)pope’s excommunication invalid, and (9)auricular confession not necessary These were read to Savonarola and his companions, and their recantation demanded But the) steadfastly maintained their position ²⁵ Such according to Foxe, was the platform on which Savonarola stood. PFF2 149.1

The sentence was executed on May 23 in the square in front of the old palace Savonarola was stripped of his robes, and stood barefoot and with hands bound, as the bishop of Vasona pronounced deposition from the priesthood upon him The death sentence was declared upon Savonarola and two companions, Domenico and Silvestro, as the bishop made the pronouncement I separate thee from the Church militant and the Church triumphant “Not from the church triumphant,” replied Savonarola, that is not thine to do” ²⁶ PFF2 149.2

With his two companions preceding him, Savonarola was first hanged on the gallows, and then burned As the smoke was whisked away, through the flames could be seen the erect figure of Savonarola, who had been placed in the center, between his two disciples. A shower of stones fell on the half-consumed bodies. ²⁷ Savonarola had delivered his message, and he died as a witness to truth. His ashes were cast into the near-by river Arno. ²⁸ PFF2 149.3

Only a few years later Raphael painted the portrait of this “flaming religious luminary, ²⁹ now strangely among the revered doctors of the church. And the bronze plaque, placed in the square at Florence in 1901, reads, “By Unrighteous Sentence.” Savonarola’s martyrdom convinced Luther that it was useless to hope for the reform of Rome. ³⁰ PFF2 150.1