Hieronymus Savanarola. Characteristics of his personality, teachings and activities

This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the execution of Savonarola, the famous Florentine preacher. Despite the fact that centuries have passed since this sad event, there is still hardly any such mysterious person in history about whom there would be such contradictory opinions. No wonder Pope Pius VII said that in heaven “he would like to find an explanation of the three great mysteries - the Immaculate Conception, the closure of the Jesuit Order and the death of Savonarola.” The struggle of opinions took place around Savonarola throughout his life, and it never ceased after his death. He was considered a saint, a schismatic, a heretic, an ignorant vandal, a Christian artist, a prophet, a charlatan, a champion of the Roman Church, a herald of a liberated Italy, and no one could yet decide who Savonarola really was. Savonarola was burned, says Petavius, 1 “for persistent and treacherous speeches”; Poggio 2 wrote a treatise against the “madmen” who denied that this Dominican was condemned ritè et justè; Polito Caterini claims that he deserved to die; Rastrelli 3 attacked him with almost fanatical fury: Bruchet, 4 trying to whitewash the personality of Pope Alexander VI, claims that Savonarola was punished fairly. Protestant theologians, from Luther 5 to Reuss, 6 considered him a pioneer of the Reformation, and Germany 7 gave him a place on the statue erected to Luther at Worms. On the other hand, he had many supporters. Dominicans like Benivieni, 8 Benedetto, 9 Burlamacchi, 10 Bartoli, 11 Ketif, 12 Turon, 13 Marchese, 14 Bayonne 15 - all proved the piety and correctness of this "Domini canis". Pico della Mirandola wrote his Life, Apology and Defense, which can all be found in Qetif's Collections. St. Philip Neri constantly prayed before the image of this Campione ammirabile, St. Catherine Ricci 16 attributed her miraculous healing to him, and Papebruck 17 ranks him among the most famous persons who appear in the Acta Sanctorum. Pope Alexander VI himself said that he would not hesitate to include the great Dominican among the Roman saints; Paul IV published 19 in 1556. a decree declaring that Savonarola’s works contained “nothing heretical, schismatic or erroneous”; Benedict XIV, in 1751, in his discourse “On the Pleasure of the Servants of God” includes him among the servants of God. Around the name of Savonarola there was another controversy, namely, whether he was, as Frank, 20 Roscoe 21 and to some extent Muntz, 22 a medieval obscurantist, or vice versa, as Rio, 23 Cartier, 24 Montalembert 25 and Garford 26 thought - he can be considered a restorer of Christian art, under whose beneficial influence painting received a new meaning, and in the hands of Francia, Perugino and Raphael entered a new and glorious field. Then writers like Godwin, 27 Naudet 28 and Bayle, 29 look at Savonarola as a charlatan who, for his own purposes, deceived the people by proclaiming himself a divinely inspired prophet, while others look at him as really a “prophet sent from God.” Finally, Professor Villari portrays him as the herald of modern liberalism; Italian exiles considered him the forerunner of the liberation and unification of Italy (in which sense they even published a special newspaper in London called “Echo of Savonarola”), and Garibaldi recommended his life to the work of his friend Victor Hugo. In the same spirit, then the Roman people, erecting a monument to Mazzini in 1882, placed on it, next to Giordano Bruno, Companella and Cusano, and the name of Savonarola; in the same spirit, in his honor, a monument was erected to him in his hometown of Ferrara, as an enlightened champion of Italian freedom and unity: This diversity of opinions prompted one of Savonarola’s best life writers, Perrin, 30 to portray him as almost a moral monster, a living contradiction of irreconcilable traits, from which it is impossible to form a more or less integral view. And yet, in the end, Lacordaire 31 may be right in his opinion that although Savonarola’s life is written from many points of view, a real biography of him remains to be expected. When scientists disagree so strongly among themselves, it would be absurd to dwell dogmatically on any definite opinion. This article presents a view that is mainly based on the writings of Savonarola himself. Many interesting features from his life must necessarily be omitted, since this article is aimed more at characterizing a personality than at presenting his life. For details, the reader can refer to the superbly presented and processed work of Professor Villari, considered one of the best biographers of Savonarola. 32 Although we present a view contrary to that adopted by Professor Villari, we cannot fail to give full credit to the thoroughness found in this large two-volume work. On the actual side of Savonarola's life, Villari probably had the last word. 33 Savonarola was born in Ferrara in 1452. His position as a moral and religious reformer was so dependent on external reasons that it is necessary to pay attention to some outstanding features in the state of the church and society at the critical moment of the Italian Renaissance. It is difficult to point out a period in the history of the church that would be more filled with the deepest interest than the era in which the new world was born. Nowhere else has the Renaissance been reflected so richly in its political, social, artistic and moral aspects as in Italy, and most importantly in Florence. Everywhere we see how the feudal and ecclesiastical influences which impeded the free flow of life in the Middle Ages were overthrown by a more powerful force, a growing energy, which in the free political and commercial life of Italy soon reached its free expression - that mental freedom which found expression in art, literature, science, politics and in all fields of human activity. This is the first period about the internal character or characteristics of whose figures we know; the first, in which we move confidently, because in the mood of thought, in the way of life and in general views, this was the first period, which, although still in unclear outlines, but in its essence was already a period of a new world. Considering this movement as a whole, we can trace how the necessary conditions and external circumstances were gradually prepared for it, trace the various trends in which its birth took place, which influenced the formation of its spirit, gave direction to its course, delayed or intensified its development. By his boundless hopes, by his inexhaustible energy, by his lofty talents, by his fresh enjoyment of the beauties of nature, by his boundless passion for mental freedom, he may well be called the spring of national life. He rises before us in all the insatiable impulses and stormy curiosity of youth, magnificently reaches brilliant manhood and, among the strange anomalies of good and evil, prosperity and decline, civilization and chaos, passes into the visible, vicious decrepitude of old age. All the people belonging to this period constitute in some respects a mystery to biographers. Savonarola is no exception. At the same time a child of the multifaceted period of the Renaissance and a true son of the narrow Middle Ages, his character represents a problem that for the nineteenth century might seem insoluble. The church was in extreme decline. The salt of the earth had lost its taste: the hierarchy was corrupted from head to toe. Pope Sixtus IV traded in the shrines of the church, spent the sums obtained in this way on dissolute favorites and did not pay attention to the general demands of the ecumenical council. “What is for sale here,” wrote a modern poet, “are churches, priests, altars, shrines, crowns, lights, incense, prayers; heaven itself and God himself are for sale.” 34 Nepotism drained the Vatican's treasury, and all the authority of the apostolic seat was concentrated on the desire to found principalities for the so-called papal nephews. The authority of the pope had obviously already fallen very low if the clergy of Florence, irritated by Sixtus’ interdict, distributed among the people a poem whose apostrophe read that the Vicar of Christ is “leno matris suae, adulterorum minister, diaboli vicarius.” The evil increased even more under Pope Innocent VIII. This pope publicly recognized his sons, and one of them, Franceschetto Cibo, was married to the daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici. Pope Sixtus filled his coffers with the help of simony; Innocent opened auctions for the sale of pardons for murder. On the occasion of his death, the Bishop of Concordia addressed the conclave of cardinals with the following statement: “The Roman Church, the mother and root of the universal Catholic Church, is sinking lower and lower day by day. The sorrow of the daughter of Zion is as wide as the sea. To heal these deplorable evils, we must choose a high priest who is learned and pious. The eyes of the entire church are on us. She awaits the head who, with the sweet and pious sound of his name, would attract all people to the path of salvation. She awaits a head as faithful as St. James, as Orthodox as the Apostle Paul, a head who would lead the church from Babylon, spoken of in the Apocalypse, into the bright kingdom of eternity.” The cardinals listened to him and sold the papacy to a certain Rodrigo Borgia, who ascended the papal throne under the name of Alexander VI. The new pope was a man with great talents and business abilities. He restored public order in the papal dominions and brought finances into proper order. But his life and the life of his son Caesar Borgia were dangerous to the very existence of the papacy. Persistent, cunning, shameless, he bought the tiara and used it to accumulate wealth for his personal pleasures or for his side children. “Alexander sells,” the same poet sang, “keys, altars, Christ. First he takes possession so that he can sell later.” 35 Greed, sensuality, simony have reached their highest degree. The shameless use of poison and the shameful trade in indulgences brought upon Rome the moral indignation of the entire Christian world. Removed by his son Caesar from all other influences, the pope became an instrument in the hands of a man who probably had the intention of secularizing the possessions of the church and justifying the proud motto of his house: "Aut Caesar, aut nihil" 36). The hatred that the pope and his son aroused in everyone spread to the entire family and created a popular legend regarding Lucrezia Borgia, who was considered the Messalina of her age. 37 When Alexander died from the poison he intended for Cardinal Corneto, all of Rome came running “to pour out their malice over the corpse of this serpent, who, with his boundless ambition, pernicious treachery, monstrous lust, terrible cruelty and unparalleled greed, selling indiscriminately sacred and simple things, destroyed so many with poison, and now himself has become its victim.” 38 Never at any time in the history of the church has religion had such a terrible representative as it had in the person of the pope, who condemned Savonarola to be burned. The same corruption permeated all levels of the church and society. “All the roads were dirty during this storm,” 39 – Savonarola directly stated. The educated classes regarded the church with a feeling that consisted of a strange mixture of disgust, indifference and servility. Except in rare cases, neither the bishops nor the Benedictines were attacked by novelists and satirists. Their ridicule was poured out on the holders of benefices, on the canons and especially on the monks. They are portrayed as leading the most shameful lives, deceiving and robbing the people through imaginary miracles. “No one,” says Gicciardini, 40 himself for several years in the service of the popes of the house of Medici, “experiences greater disgust than I do for the ambition, greed, and licentiousness of the priests, not only because each of these vices is disgusting in itself, but also because each and all together are especially shameful for people who declare themselves dedicated to the service of God.” The decline of the clergy and monks necessarily undermined the very faith in Italy. And yet, from time to time, individual preachers appeared who, with their pious lives and moral zeal, awakened the conscience of the people, triumphed over prejudice against mendicant fraters, silenced the ridicule of humanists and made a wonderful, albeit temporary, impression. These were Bernardino da Siena, Jacopo della Marco, Giovanni Capistrano, Roberto da Lecce, Vincent Ferrier - the Spanish missionary and Girolamo Savonarola. All these moral reformers were people of the same type - exalted and influential personalities, whose very natures apparently burned with fire, and who aroused the conscience of their contemporaries with moral exhortation, full of practical application, and awakened the feeling of even the most stubborn people by pointing out those earthly disasters which were for everyone the result of an ungodly life. The decline of the church had a disastrous effect on the morality of the country. “We Italians,” said Machiavelli, 41 “are irreligious and corrupted more than all others.” The people had little faith in the Divine government of the world and everyone indulged in all kinds of immorality; heresy and atheism were rampant everywhere. No deception, no lawlessness was considered shameful, as long as it served as a convenient means to achieve the goal; Gambling of all kinds was the dominant passion of that age; The “Roman court” was a lottery where all sorts of intrigues reigned, and everything depended on luck. Marriage and all its rights were deliberately trampled under foot. Hired killers were on the payroll of agents at every palace or noble house. Luxury and excess of all kinds reached an incredible degree. Savonarola was not the only person who attributed all these evils of his time to the predominance of paganism. A special merit of the Renaissance was considered to be the elevation of the importance of the individual. Individualism, as opposed to discipline, community of effort, national or religious union, was the outstanding feature of that movement. Education was not given in one particular one-sided specialty; to be a "uomo universale" (universal man), to achieve encyclopedic knowledge, to develop a universal artistic genius - this was the ambition of such people as Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, Pico della Mirandola or Andrea Verrocchio. But in the moral world, the triumphant egoism of outstanding people produced monsters of wickedness, like Braccio di Montoni or Sigismund Malatesta - people who delighted in boundless wickedness, despised all the requirements of religion, and violated all human laws. And if ordinary mortals did not reach the same height of reckless evil, they still considered themselves independent of all laws and restrictions, and when impulses collided, they determined their course of action in accordance only with the demands of passion, hatred, personal interest or calculation. Never before had Italy so much needed the coming of some formidable Elijah. And when the hour of need came, the necessary person also appeared. Savonarola was born in 1452. In 1475 he entered the Dominican monastery of Bologna and remained there until 1483. In this last year, the very year of Luther's birth, he went as a preacher to Ferrara, Florence, Brescia and other Italian cities. In 1489, he remained permanently resident in Florence in the monastery of St. Mark, of which he became rector in 1491. He made a deep impression on Florence with the eloquence of his formidable speeches, in which he denounced the vices that desecrated this city and in which he warned the townspeople against the disasters that threatened them. In 1494, he finally emerges as a prophet, and appears on the stage of political life as the founder of the Republic of Florence. From 1493 to 1498 he was the undisputed ruler of the city, although his power was undermined by discontent within, the machinations of the Medici and, above all, his struggle with Pope Alexander VI, who banned him from preaching, excommunicated him and threatened Florence with an interdict if he was not punished. On May 23, 1498, he was first hanged and then burned in Florence. This is, in brief, the life of Savonarola, which, as is immediately clear, falls into two large periods: the first includes his life until 1494, and the second embraces the time of his reign in Florence and his death. All the most important and difficult questions of his mysterious life belong to the second period. The first half of Savonarola's life (1452–1494) presents almost no difficulties for the biography writer. Ferrara at the time of his birth was under the administration of the House of Este. Nowhere else in all of Italy were the anomalies that distinguished this period more strikingly revealed. Nowhere else have the brilliance and debauchery, cruelty and culture, violence and treachery that distinguished Italian society of that time been shown in a brighter light. Savonarola's father was one of the residents of the palace, and his son, of course, was familiar with many of the affairs that were constantly taking place inside this gloomy palace, which even now occupies a prominent position in the grassy streets of this city. There the princess was beheaded for committing adultery with her stepson; there children, legitimate and illegitimate, were killed or imprisoned for life; there the illegitimate son of an illegitimate father tried to take the throne from the legitimate heir; there the husband poisoned his wife because he found out that she was ready to poison him at the instigation of her brother. And outside the walls of this castle, spectacles, exhibitions, processions, games followed one after another in continuous succession. The people were overwhelmed by an immoderate thirst for mental and sensual pleasure and, torn from excessive passion for pleasure, fell into that emaciated state which makes a degenerate generation fit only for slavery. Huge taxes dried up the vital juices of the state; all vital supplies were the subject of a monopoly; all public positions were sold to those who gave the most. At the same time, the Duke of Ferrara was proud that his city was impregnable, that its houses were well built, that military violence was unknown, and that the salaries of the university professors were paid accurately. Ferrara was a true paradise for the muses, for, as a modern poet said, “there are as many speakers in Ferrara as there are frogs on Ferrara soil.” 42. The tragic story of Tasso does not mar the splendor of the patronage enjoyed by Ariosto, Bogliardo and Guarini; the university enjoyed great fame and Ferrara painters stood at the head of many other smaller schools. It was in this strange center of vice and mental enlightenment that Savonarola reached manhood. The abominations that surrounded him in life inspired him with such disgust for everything in life. that he decided to find refuge from the sin-stricken world in a monastery. The fight was fierce. “Before becoming a monk,” he says, “I declared thousands of times that I would never join a monastery. But from the moment it pleased God to make me such, I had an irresistible desire to join some religious order." 43 In one touching letter, addressed from the Dominican monastery in Bologna to "the noble and excellent man Nicholas and the kindest father of Ferrari," he explains to his father why he hid his intention from his parents. “Don’t be surprised,” he writes, “that I didn’t tell you anything about this. I left a note behind the books on the windowsill in my room that will explain my behavior to you.” The note he meant was a short Latin discourse on “Flight from the World.” This reasoning is little known. It was first published in 1868 by Count Capponi from a manuscript found in the papers of the House of Gondi. This reasoning is extremely interesting in some respects. It introduces the feelings that the social condition of Italy inspired in Savonarola, and contains the germs of that interpretation of biblical prophecies, which reached its highest degree in predictions of threatening disasters. The Savonarola of 1494 is the Savonarola of this very reasoning; but his feelings gained depth and strength in the twenty-year period that had passed during this time. Here is the reasoning: “What are you thinking about, my soul, and why do you hesitate, continuing this useless struggle? See how many rude and ignorant people, how many poor women rise up and take the sky by force. And we, with all our knowledge, are going to hell; we are proud of our wisdom and fall into stupidity. Look how these village men and simple women teach us better by example than by words to despise the world and cling to Christ only. And we, who madly fight for the worthless blessings of this world, exhort others to flee from them; we proclaim that virtue is eternal, and yet we seek only transitory things. Children, young men and girls, convinced of the futility of earthly treasures, flee from the world and its delights, and we strive for these very things with such jealousy that if anyone saw us, they would certainly say that we have become the pigs of Epicurus. Before people we talk about virtues, but in the depths of our hearts we think, along with the cynics, that physical pleasure is the highest good. “Oh, what a miserable creature I am! What am I doing here? Why am I still procrastinating and procrastinating? Do you not see that the world is filled with uncleanness, wickedness, and every kind of iniquity? Do you not see that the eyes of the nations are blinded and the hearts of the people are hardened? Don't you see that cities and villages have been given over to robbers and marauders? Why do you still hesitate, my soul? Rise up! Don't be ashamed to learn from children and women! Don't be ashamed to follow in their footsteps! Rise up, I say, and run with them! Oh! flee from these barbaric shores, flee from this inhospitable shore, flee from the land of Sodom and Gomorrah! Flee from Egypt and from Pharaoh! Flee from this country, where vice is praised and virtue is ridiculed, where a person who studies art and philosophy is called a dreamer, where a person who lives modestly and honestly is called a madman, where a virtuous person and a believer in the greatness of God is treated as a fool, where anyone who trusts in Christ becomes the subject of mockery, and those who love humanity are mocked by everyone - like a woman! Flee from this land, where he is called prudent, who robs the poor, the widow and the orphan; he is considered wise who thinks only about the accumulation of wealth; He is the pious one who robs another with the greatest skill! Nothing is visible anywhere except wickedness, usury, robbery, gross blasphemy, predation, sodomy and debauchery; envy and murder, pride and ambition, hypocrisy and lies, wickedness and lawlessness reign everywhere. In this world, vice is virtue, and virtue is vice. “What should I say next? There is not a single one who does good - not a single one. Showers, earthquakes, hail and storms call the people of this world to repentance, but they do not want to listen; floods, epidemics, terrible plagues, famine - all this in turn calls out: “repent”! - however, the people of this world do not listen. The sacrilegious invasions of the daring Turks loudly raise their terrible voices, and yet the people of this world still remain mute. Preachers and servants of God knock on their ears with meek voices, but the people of this world do not open them. In a word, in vain does the voice of nature speak to their hearts, in vain do they prick themselves with the sting of remorse. “O you blind sons of this world! pronounce your own judgment upon yourselves, and judge whether the end of all things is near. Why, my soul, do you still hesitate? Get up and run. Flee from Egypt and from Pharaoh, for his heart is hardened against the Lord! Glorify God by singing with Israel: “We sing to the Lord: gloriously he was glorified, he cast horse and rider into the sea,” and so on. (Exod. XV, 1–4). “Therefore, now, O Master, you release Your servant, according to Your word, in peace: for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people, Light for the revelation of tongues, and the glory of Your people Israel. – Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, from Whom all grace flows. Amen!" This brief discourse, written when Savonarola was only twenty-two years old, on the eve of his flight to the Dominican monastery, serves as the expression of his mental life for the next nineteen years, is a proclamation of the principles that guided him throughout the rest of his life. Constant study of the Bible, especially prophetic and apocalyptic books, strengthened in him the consciousness of the sinfulness of this world and strengthened his desire to deliver his people from the coming wrath. At first he sought peace and personal holiness. But his vivid awareness of the evils depressing Italian society, his conviction that only repentance could avert the threatening punishment, his gentle, warm-hearted nature, at the same time frightened by the inevitable verdict and at the same time horrified by the apathy of his contemporaries - all this together made him a moral reformer. The sincerity and intensity of these feelings transformed him from a subtle interpreter of biblical warnings or a sensitive observer of the signs of the times into an inspired prophet who believed that he had received the sublime right of direct communication with God, whose chosen vessel he was to proclaim His Divine decrees. And already in this small argument he strikes the main note of his sermon. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” this is the main meaning of all his outpourings - that flame which imparts burning heat to his ardent denunciations of vice, that conviction which gives astonishing force to his appeals to virtue - the point on which he concentrates all the wealth of his allegorical interpretation - a subject which he explains by all kinds of visions, dreams and mysterious conversations with God. Guided by this reasoning, we can go through the entire period from 1475 to 1494 without difficulty. The young monk was now an experienced polemicist, a powerful preacher, abbot of the monastery of St. Mark, vicar general of the Tuscan Congregation of the Dominican Order, and, since the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, the most prominent man in Florence. With his fiery piety, his personal purity, his mental strength, his passionate eloquence, his menacing announcements of the coming wrath of God, he attracted the attention of the entire city. He has not yet become a politician and has not yet taken on the mantle of a prophet. In March 1491, he wrote to Fra Dominic da Pescio: “I preach the renewal of the church and the future punishment, although not unconditionally, but always relying on Holy Scripture, so that no one can blame me, except those who do not want to live like a Christian.” 44 He threatens Italy with scourge after scourge as punishment for her sins - wars, famines and plagues, “And there will not be enough people to bury the dead; the dead will be so numerous in the houses that the grave-diggers will walk through the streets, shouting: “bring out your dead,” and they will put them in carts, on horses, and take them to the mountains for burial. They will march through the streets shouting: “Who has the dead? who has the dead? And those inside will come out and say: “Here is my son, my brother, my husband.” Oh Florence! Oh Rome! Oh Italy! The days of song and celebration are over for you! He obviously plays on the chords of horror, hope and pity, and with an experienced hand touches the corresponding chords in the hearts of his listeners. Faithful to him, Violi 45 often interrupts the recording of Savonarola’s sermons with the words: “Here feelings and tears prevented me from writing”... Until now, none of the difficulties that plagued Savonarola's subsequent life had arisen. He was not now, and never was, the stern fanatic that he is sometimes portrayed as. But the more carefully you study his writings, the more attractive his personality becomes. His face, as depicted in the best known portraits of him, is stern and ugly, and yet extremely striking. His eyes sparkle from under thick eyebrows; cheeks worn by anxiety and asceticism; the nose is large, long, with a high hump; the mouth is large, the lips are thick and compressed. The whole facial expression is energetic and, however, bears the imprint of deep melancholy. It was the face of a preacher whose inspired eloquence had achieved unparalleled triumphs: it was the kind of face that could arouse in his disciples intense devotion and love for the teacher. To all his followers, men and women, rich and poor, he was alike a true spiritual father, constantly trying to smooth out their path in life. Being himself always cheerful and calm, he tried to instill in them that joy and that inner peace that constitute the reward for Christian believers. His edifying writings prove that he was a man of deep and ardent faith, who bore a strong stamp of poetic mysticism, although under the control of common sense and broad mental sympathies. In the midst of the most tedious labors, he never ceased to be a loving son and brother. “Do you think,” he writes to his father from Bologna, “that it didn’t cost me anything to leave you?” Never, since the day of my birth, have I experienced more acute pain, more piercing melancholy, than at that moment when I left my family to go among strangers.” His letter to his mother also sounds with deep tenderness: “I intended to write you only a few words, and now, love irresistibly attracted my pen, and I opened my heart to you in a way I had never thought about it.” 46 Another letter to her, dating back to a later time, is distinguished by the same spirit: “Do not be afraid that you may ever bore me with your letters, although it is difficult for me to write to you every time such a long letter as this. I was so busy that I was interrupted five times before I could finish it. But this should not prevent you from writing to me often, in the name of God, and I, for my part, will always try to send you an answer, short or long.” 47 He found time to express sympathy and console his friends in their earthly trials, to encourage them not to weaken in their aspirations for a moral life, to explain in simple language the deepest mysteries of faith. And yet, in the busiest moments of his continuously active life, he never forgot to devote himself to ordinary prayers and reflections, which were the hidden source of his strength and courage. As vicar general of the Dominicans, the first use he made of his power was to reform that order in Tuscania. Among the luxury and vices of that time, the Dominicans did not escape the general moral decline. Ambrose of Camaldole, commissioned by Pope Eugene IV to revise the mendicant orders, found them in such disgusting disorder that he could describe them only in Greek. 48 Savonarola himself undertook to restore extreme simplicity in his order. He himself led by example in everything. His goal was not to introduce new rules of stricter asceticism, but to restore the “old rule”, as he explains it to the abbess of the monastery of San Dominica in Pisa, 49 - “worked out by our fathers, who in knowledge and piety were infinitely superior to the monks of our time, and in this transformative spirit to build simple monasteries, to wear clothes from coarse material - old, if necessary, and obtained through alms, to eat and drink moderately, in accordance with the rules holy fathers, keep cells empty without unnecessary decorations, observe silence, appoint special hours for contemplation, seek solitude and avoid the world.” In the same spirit, he writes in 1494 to Magdalene della Mirandola, who intended to enter monasticism, exhorting her to observe a vow of poverty and not to buy finely woven clothes, richly illustrated books, or a magnificent breviary. 50 He also exhorts his brethren to love poverty, to be so faithful to the vows of chastity as to avoid even permissible amusements, to be humble, to refrain from speaking in relation to superiors and even to equals and inferiors, to love solitude, to frequently indulge in prayer, communion and contemplation. At the same time, common sense left a strong imprint on his attitude towards scientific pursuits and asceticism. He admonishes the avoidance of extremes in fasting and abstinence, and yet refuses to lay down uniform rules that can be applied to everyone regardless of their different temperaments. Every now and then he exhorts the brethren to indulge in scientific studies, as a great remedy against evil thoughts and pride. 51 With such a charter, the Domicans should not have remained a community of ignorant monks. About the nature of inner life in the monastery of St. The brand may indicate the following description. 52. Often the monks went in a crowd to some secluded place. After the service, they had a meal, rested and then gathered around their abbot, who explained to them some text from Holy Scripture. Then, after a short walk, they sat down under the trees; there the abbot selected some beautiful thought from Holy Scripture and gave it to them for reflection or asked the novices questions. At other times he gathered his brethren to sing hymns in praise of our Lord, and to read some passages from the lives of the saints, from which he himself drew useful instructions. One day the brethren were passing under a fig tree, and the abbot plucked several small branches that grew on the lower part of the trunk. From the core, he made small figures like doves, which he distributed to his joyfully disposed companions, forcing them to count the customs and properties of the dove, and he himself explained its spiritual meaning. Such descriptions of Savonarola's home life enable us to imagine the deep simplicity of his character - that simplicity that is not incompatible with a subtle and powerful mind. From the transformation of his monastery, Savonarola moved on to the moral renewal of Florence. This matter was most on his heart; this was the goal on which he concentrated all his efforts. Both his policies and his prophecies were subordinate to this main goal. A politician without personal ambition, a prophet without thoughts of self-glorification, considering himself the chosen messenger of God and the instrument of the renewal of Florence, he spoke and acted with all the irrepressible force of his enthusiastic nature. The popular constitution was for him an instrument for the improvement of the city and therefore a form of government established by God Himself. Strong in the consciousness of the sublimity of his motives, he, unfortunately, did not understand what kind of opposition he aroused against himself, and what prompted the religious and political intriguers to rally among themselves, who, imitating his example of identifying religion and politics, achieved his death. There is no reason to suppose that Savonarola was not absolutely sincere both in his claim to the highest inspiration and in his defense of the republic as the cause of Christ. His belief in this was sincere, his delusion was the same. And this is precisely what gives such a pathetic character to his entire struggle. “If Rome,” he wrote to his brother Albert in August 1497, “is against me, know that it is not against me, but against Christ. He is the one who opposes God.” 53 In all the districts of Tuscania, monasteries and individual men and women placed themselves under the leadership of Savonarola. The number of brethren in the monastery of St. The mark increased from 50 to 230, and among them there were many persons from the noblest families. The penitents gathered in crowds into the monasteries, and when the abbot went out into the street, crowds of his disciples followed him. Imperceptibly and unconsciously he formed a party which, like the Piagnons, was the support of his political position. But with all the changes in his life, Savonarola was first and foremost a priest and a monk. Whether in the confessional, in the pulpit, or in the chamber of the city council, his main goal was always and everywhere to strengthen the triumph of religion and to establish the kingdom of Christ in Florence. In the struggle that followed, he came into violent conflict with representatives of the Renaissance and with the papacy. This is where the four great questions about his personality arose. Was he a medieval obscurantist, or a Christian artist? A devoted son of the church, or a schismatic, heretic? an inspired or self-deluded prophet, or a charlatan? A medieval man, or a herald of modern liberalism? His accusation of vandalism is based most of all on the famous “burning of vanities” he carried out in 1497 and 1498. Such bonfires were a common accompaniment of periods of religious revival in Italy. In a public square divided into three parts, a tall talamo was erected. At the bottom of it were masks, false beards, carnival costumes, masquerade clothes, lutes, boxes of dice, magic charms and song books, then there were masses of false hair made of white or yellow silk, all kinds of jewelry, veils, cosmetic liquids, stickers, paints and incense; then there were piles of volumes, printed or manuscript, of the romantic and erotic poets, both of Italy and of the ancient world, and on top of them all was placed the figure of the devil. All these materials were outward signs of the most dominant vices of Italian society. Savonarola added to this many paintings with naked figures, mostly fantastic portraits with classical names or portraits of public women of that time. It is very possible that several precious works of art and several valuable manuscripts ended up on this fire. But even if we admit all this, the conviction remains unshakable that Savonarola was a man of high nature, distinguished by great responsiveness and that stock of common sense that is often found among monastic hermits. Before he entered the monastery, Virgil’s verse constantly sounded in his soul: “Hey, flee cruel countries, flee from the greedy shores.” 54. It was on his advice that Camilla Rucelai founded her famous school of painting in the monastery of St. Catherine of Siena. In his own monastery of St. Mark, he founded schools for the study of sculpture, painting, architecture, as well as for the study of oriental languages. In the Middle Ages no other translation of Holy Scripture was accepted except the Vulgate; and Savonarola not only encouraged the study of Hebrew and Arabic, but, through his brother Albert, 55 ordered six Hebrew Bibles, apparently for use in his monastery. It was to his enlightened generosity that Florence owed the preservation of the Medici library. He wanted to expel Ovid, Catullus, Propertius and Terence from the schools; but at the same time he was ready to give Horace, Virgil and Cicero into the hands of the boys under the condition that what they lacked would be replenished from the writings of St. Jerome and Augustine. In his youth he prepared an extract from Plato, although he burned it when he became convinced that in matters of faith any old woman knew more about Christ than this Attic Moses knew. Under the influence of the same feeling, he wrote: “Whatever can be said in praise of the masters and princes of philosophy, of whom the pagans so loudly boasted—Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and all those in whom nature, as they say, made her highest effort to achieve human perfection—the same can be said of our little children.” 56 Paying exclusive attention to the moral and religious tendencies of art and literature, he found in the aspirations of the Renaissance more that which needed to be condemned than that which could be approved. And he was not alone or unfounded in his opinion. Battisto Mantovano 57 classified the humanists as one of the seven monsters of the world called “Superbia”. Fra Giovannpi San Minrato attacked the study of the classics on the grounds that the pagan poets were very dangerous for youth. Even Pope Pius II thought the movement had gone too far when Sigismund Malatesta introduced pagan symbols into the church at Rimini. Nor was his opinion entirely unfounded that Italy at that time owed its moral decline to the introduction of the pagan spirit. Morality, ideas, language, art, religion - all this was inundated and, as he thought, corrupted by paganism. For a solution to any question, people turned not to the Middle Ages, but to antiquity. Scholasticism was rejected with contempt; Moses and Thomas Aquinas fell into oblivion; Plato was elevated to the same level as Christ. Savonarola saw that Rome enjoyed the honor of Italy not as the seat of the church, but as the former throne of the Roman emperors. He heard how one bishop preferred a date with his beloved to the joy of his election, called the Holy Mysteries ambrosia and nectar, the Mass - sacra Deorum, cardinals - senators, their dean - princeps senatus. Philosophers celebrated Plato's birthday, ignoring the Nativity of Christ, and talked not about the Creator of the universe, but about the eternity of matter and the world soul. If poets invoked the Blessed Virgin, they ended their lines with an appeal to Venus. The painters, in their imitations of antiquity, betrayed, as he thought, the best traditions of their art. If the preachers had Christ on their lips, then, in the words of Erasmus, they had Jupiter and Romulus in their hearts. Scholars lectured on the beauties of erotic poets, or competed in licentious poetry with the most indecent of the classics. The people were infected with the same tastes. In his legends he placed the birthplace of Christ in a magnificent palace, and not in a stable or a cave, and flocked to see the dug-out corpse of Julia, daughter of Claudius, as if antiquity made her more beautiful than the sublime type of modern beauty. Church pulpits were crowded with married laymen, who gave public lectures on the subject of scenes of celebration or mourning. He heard children being baptized with Latin names, and all the customs of public life and official titles being Latinized. He saw how artists and painters depicted love only as sensual pleasure, and not as a deep spiritual passion of the most sublime kind. He heard how the mistresses of princes were sung by poets, or saw how they were depicted by artists, and in society they took the place of the hetaeras of classical Athens. He saw how the worship of historical greatness was preferred to the Christian ideal of piety: the vices, despite which the heroes became great, were treated with indifference; and even the best of the highest minds acted rather under the influence of a passion for glory than from a spirit of faith, hope and love. Captivated by one idea - the moral and religious transformation of Florence, Savonarola inevitably had to come face to face with this excessive passion for antiquity. Even from an artistic point of view, it was difficult to say that he was wrong. The impetus given by Giotto to painting waned until the fifteenth century. The artists turned his original observations into conditional callousness. Types, positions, expressions - all this has become stereotypical. A fresh burst of artistic work begins with the rivalry over the gates of the Baptistery of St. John in Florence, a rivalry that brings together such artists as Ghiberti, Brunelleschi and Donatello. Both the composition and the model of these gates - “so wonderfully made that they could, in the words of the poet, become the gates to heaven” - constituted a school of painting in which such artists as Paolo Uccello, Masolino and especially Masaccio worked. The only source of inspiration at first was the study of nature, because art was not strong enough to comprehend the highest beauty of ancient models. Science came to his aid. Noticeable progress has been made in perspective, distance, relief, roundness, proportion, distribution of light and shadow, and color. The figures become more full of movement, the drapery is more flexible, the positions are more natural, the expressions are more individual. All these characteristic features appear in the painting of Masaccio, and in the sculpture of Donatello and Ghiberti. In their works, art entered into a fruitful alliance with nature and antiquity. Pagan civilization was combined with Christian tradition, the desire to imitate nature with the desire to express an ideal. The artists were enthusiastic admirers of classical art and, however, were distinguished by their strength and independence in their originality. Although both these arts remained equal in their strength, painting, however, achieved its highest triumphs. Pagan anthropomorphism idolized man and nature; medieval art banished matter and refused to recognize the natural nobility of the human form. The Renaissance in its first stage combined these two principles of spiritual and physical realism. Masaccio depicted both the soul and the body. Others, led by Fra Angelico, kept aloof from the newest improvements and clung to the old schools. Dreamy in his landscape, mystic in the harmonious softness of his forms, deeply pious in his feelings, he is a representative of the school of Giotto in all its sincerity, simplicity and faith. The saints themselves were his models, because his own life was pious. But under Lorenzo de' Medici, art begins to decline in Florence. The pedantry of later artists at the same time constitutes both a betrayal of the classical tradition and a deviation from Christianity. Artists, depicting Venus or Madonna, depicted her as a charming woman, but without the stately calm of one or the deepest humility of the other. The energy of concept and vividness of image that characterized the golden age disappears. In decoration, the style of the architectural setting, and the choice of subject, antiquity captivated Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and Botticelli. Painting began to be distinguished by the sophistication and artificiality of the manners of the imitative age. Technical art takes the place of inspiration. Under the influence of blind admiration for antiquity, ideas and symbols come to life that have no basis in the life of Italy, and everyone applauded when artists depicted the customs of the inhabitants of Olympus. It was against this decline in painting that Savonarola rebelled. Some think that the Italian genius would have achieved great prosperity and brought abundant fruit without the study of antiquity. Therefore, a wide field opens up for speculation regarding the possible direction that the most ardent minds of the time would have taken if Savonarola had managed to stem the flow of classicism. Without going into this subject, we will only say that the aesthetic principles of Savonarola can be briefly defined as a counteraction to this descent of art to a purely humanistic level, and represented the ideal of Christian feeling combined with natural expression. Ideal beauty, imitation of nature, simplicity of style, sublimity of the subject - these are his aesthetic principles, and it is difficult to say that Savonarola's instinct was mistaken when he condemned contemporary shortcomings and proposed a remedy for the healing of contemporary art. His views are expressed in his sermons and writings. Here are a few extracts that could be expanded indefinitely: “Beauty is not just about coloring. This is a quality that comes from the proportion and harmony of the limbs and other parts of the body. You call a woman beautiful not because she has a beautiful nose and beautiful hands, but because every feature and every member of her is completely proportionate. What is the source of this beauty? Look into it well and you will see that it flows from the soul. And truly, the moment the soul disappears, the body becomes pale and despicable: its beauty flees. 58 “You see, therefore, that the more incorporeal something is, the more beautiful it is. “How much more beautiful should the soul be than the body if we see that the body borrows its beauty from the soul, and if the soul is beautiful in itself, how much more beautiful should it be when it also possesses divine grace! How much more beautiful must the souls of the elect be! But even their beauty is surpassed by the beauty of the holy spirits and seraphim. And finally, consider how beyond all this the beauty of God is! 59 “Look at a godly person, man or woman, one in whom the spirit rules over the senses; look at them when they pray or when they rise from their knees, and you will see with what a bright light of divine beauty their faces are illuminated; you will see how the beauty of God shines on their faces; you will see the beauty of an angel. All those who partake of the Holy Mysteries in reverent humility are so united with God that the presence of divine light appears on their faces. “In the perfect Christian, the main virtues that produce righteous life and beauty of form are ardent faith and love for our Crucified Savior. As faith and love deepen, outward comeliness and beauty also increase until they become capable of captivating the hearts of people. 60 “Take two women, equally remarkable for their physical beauty, one of whom leads a holy life, and the other an evil one. The first is loved more than the second, and the eyes of all men, even the most carnal men, follow a virtuous woman. Take a godly man whose appearance is ugly: everyone likes to look at him; his piety, despite his homeliness, illuminates his face and gives him beauty. 61 “The soul that is loved by God becomes more beautiful as it perceives more and more divine grace. They say that at the sight of the Blessed Virgin, in the presence of her wonderful beauty, all the men stood in mute stupor. But so great was the holiness that shone on her face that she never aroused any evil thought. There was no person who did not feel the deepest reverence for her.” 62 But although he was an idealist, Savonarola by no means excluded the study of nature. “The beauty of works of art lies in their imitation of nature; and the proof of this is that the highest praise we give to a painting consists of the following expressions: “these animals are as if they were alive,” “these flowers are completely natural.” 63 Would you imitate God, whom you cannot see? How can you do this? Looking at the drawings, samples, images that came out of His hands; that is, you must imitate natural objects, just as a painter takes a person or a tree and traces his image from it.” 64 Searching for the ideal and studying nature are two of Savonarola’s aesthetic principles. The third is simplicity. “Ask a painter what is most pleasing: the image in a tense or free, natural position? He will tell you that the best and most pleasant is the freest and most natural.” 65 The same thing, adds Savonarola, is with preaching. And finally, in order to become a master in Christian art, the artist himself must obey the laws of God. “Every artist depicts himself. No matter how diverse his subjects may be, his works bear the clear imprint of his thoughts.” 66 Savonarola was condemned for rejecting and condemning the study of nudity. There is no trace of this in his writings. All he denounced was an exhibition of nudity for the public. He never tired of encouraging artists to depict scenes that breathe only virtuous feelings, and, most importantly, to protect the innocence of childhood. As for the images placed in churches, he reminds artists that paintings or icons are books for the illiterate; he insists that no extraneous details should be introduced into them that would contradict the simplicity of the Gospel, and that the sacredness of the building for which they work, and the true purpose of Christian art, must always be kept in mind. “You painters are acting in a bad direction. You bring all kinds of vanity into the church. If you knew what follows from this and what I know, then you would not do this. You would do well to destroy all indiscreet images. You give the Blessed Virgin Mary the costume of a courtesan. See how the divine service is profaned by this.” 67 In this regard, he only anticipates the decree of the Council of Trent: “all excess must be avoided, so that icons are not painted or decorated with excessive luxury.” 68 Whatever our opinion about these sayings, in any case this is by no means the aesthetic unscrupulousness of some vandal. Savonarola's protests had an enormous impact. The field he left open was quite wide. Within its boundaries, medieval painters achieved immortality; Fra Angelico and Luca della Robbia dedicated their genius to him. Many artists left the world and entered monasteries. Miniaturists Benedetto, Lapaccini, Eustachio; architects Francesco del Prato and Domenico di Paolo; the painters Agostino del Mugello and Bartolomeo della Porto, and, finally, two of the della Robbia family became Dominicans. 69 Another proof of his influence can be seen in the multitude of his edifying creations, which were illustrated by first-class artists of the time. Sancta Dei plebs, as Savonarola called the people, always remained dear to his heart, and one of the reasons for his dislike of classicism was the anti-popular character of the latter. After all, classicism, with a sharp demarcation line, separated the educated from the uneducated, and broke the connection between art and the people. We dwelled at length on Savonarola's attitude to painting in order to answer his accusation of vandalism. Another refutation of this accusation is his friendship with the leading humanists, historians, poets, artists, sculptors, architects and engravers of his time. He was a friend of Pico della Mirandola, who could not live without him and is buried in the Church of St. Mark. Poliziano is buried in the same church, who speaks of him as “a famous man for his teaching and holy life and a glorious preacher of heavenly teaching.” 70 He was praised and admired by the Platonist Fecino, who calls him a man distinguished for his piety and wisdom, and before his death, thanks to the teachings of Savonarola, he again learned the path of eternal life. Benivieni, a Platonic poet, composed several words and psalms in his honor, which were sung by children in processions during the carnival. Ugolino Verini dedicated Latin poems to him about monastic life, and in one interesting letter of gratitude Savonarola expresses his views on poetry. He condemned not the poetic art itself, but the abuses of which individual poets were guilty. He also says that he himself has recently written a treatise on the art of poetry, 71 although he has neglected the study of fiction for the last twenty-two years. 72 Sandro Botticelli wrote his life, which, unfortunately, is lost. 73 Lorenzo di Credi 74 was one of his most ardent adherents and considered Savonarola's breastplate (scapularium) one of his most precious treasures. Fra Benedetto begged to die with his superior, and assuaged his grief with poems in his memory. Baccio della Porto, better known as Fra Bartolomeo, mourned his death so deeply that for four years he did not touch a brush; neither art nor the world had any charm for him, and in 1500 he retired to a monastery. The sculptor Baccio da Montelipo was expelled from Florence for remaining faithful to the memory of his teacher. The architect Kronako 75 could not talk about anything except his death. For the entire family of della Robbia 76 he was a prophet and teacher. Andrea decorated the altar in the church of St. Mark with the image of the Virgin, crowned with lilies and adoring the Child Christ; two of his sons became monks and received the Dominican vestment from the hands of Savonarola himself. Among the defenders of the monastery during the night attack of 1498 were three of the della Robbia family, and the best account of the scenes that followed is given by Fra Luca, known to the world as Marco Della Robbia. After Savonarola's death they immortalized his name and the most famous of his visions with medals bearing on one side the image of a monk's head, and on the other an image of a fortified city with the sword of the Lord descending upon it. The most perfect work of Giovanni della Carniole is his precious stone (intaglio) with a carved image of Savonarola. Finally, Michelangelo Buonarotti read and re-read his sermons to refresh his spirit while he was busy decorating the Sistine Chapel, and was inspired by their religious fervor, boldness of concept and pure Dantean imagination. Savonarola, therefore, was by no means an ignorant vandal in art. It is equally certain that he was not, as Protestant historians claim, a kind of Luther of Italy, the scourge of the new Babylon, the sworn enemy of the Roman Antichrist. In 1521, Luther was on his way to Worms. A priest met him in Naumburg and showed him an image of Savonarola. Luther fully understood the meaning of this action, but his courage did not waver. 77 Two years later he published a translation of Savonarola's commentary on the "Miserere mei" and on "In te, Domine, speravi", and in the preface 78 he speaks of him as a pure example of evangelical faith and Christian piety, who did not rely on good works, but only trusted in Divine mercy. Savonarola's opposition to Pope Alexander VI, his exposure of the vices of Rome and his tragic death, together with Luther's authority, won him the sympathy of Protestants. They included his name in their martyrology with a special couplet, which is given by Bayle. 79 Theodore Beza 80 asks, who would not be amazed at the sight of such piety and zeal, combined under the hood of a monk and a Dominican? In the present century, many writers have tried to record Savonarola as a Protestant, especially Rudelbach, 81 Meyer, 82 Paul 83 and Gase. 84 Lenau's dramatic poem was written in the same spirit. 85 Savonarola is depicted in the large painting "The Age of the Reformation", in the Berlin Museum, among the predecessors of Luther, and Ritschel gave him a place with Hus, Waldo and Wycliffe on the pedestal of his statue of Luther at Worms. But one has only to read the edifying works of Savonarola, and most importantly his “Triumph of the Cross,” to leave no doubt that he lived and died a faithful son of the Roman Catholic Church. He demanded nothing other than a transformation of morality; he did not at all attack dogma or the teachings of the church in general. In his position he resembled Gerson, not Luther. His transformative ideal was what the Council of Constance demanded and what the Council of Trent partially achieved. In his treatise “On the Simplicity of Christian Life” (in the preface), he expresses the hope that “the reader will not find in him anything contrary to the instructions of the holy teachers and the teaching of the holy Roman Catholic Church, to whose judgment I always submit.” And the Roman Catholic Church, as we have seen, solemnly recognized that his writings contained nothing “heretical, schismatic or erroneous.” What Savonarola attacks is the life, not the teaching of Rome, and he desired an Ecumenical Council to eliminate those vices that desecrated the purity of the Church. It is true that in his essay “On the Simplicity of the Christian Life” he bases his arguments more on reason than on Holy Scripture. But he used this method of reasoning in view of the humanists, who mocked the Bible as outdated and Christianity as having lost its meaning. He boldly accepted the challenge of those who, like Dante, 86 pointed to reason as the distinctive gift of people, or, like Petrarch, 87 argued that there is no authority that stands above reason. And his very argumentation is in complete agreement with Roman teaching. It is also true that Savonarola attaches unlimited importance to the study of Holy Scripture. But it must be remembered that he fought against the thinly disguised paganism of his contemporaries and that he could refer to the example of Gerson and Peter d'Ailly, 88 who sought simple apostolic teaching in the study of Holy Scripture. His direction was essentially practical and, one might add, strictly Italian. The Italian mind is more ethical than metaphysical, deals with more concrete realities than abstract questions, dwells on behavior rather than on scholastic reasoning. He considers moral philosophy to be the mother of sciences. The main subject of his study in the Middle Ages was law; the main subject of discussion was the relationship between spiritual and temporal power, between the papacy and the empire, between a universal monarchy and civil autonomy. Major heresies were therefore rare in Italy. Bonfires were rarely lit to exterminate errors of faith; in 1327 Cecco d'Ascoli was burned for evoking the dead, and in 1452 Nicholas of Verona was convicted of witchcraft. This is precisely where the transformative movements with which the names of Savonarola and Luther are associated differ significantly. At the sight of the deep moral depravity of the church and society, he was tormented in his soul and devoted his entire life to the fight against evil. To warn Italy and her church, to achieve the moral and disciplinary reform of one, to induce the other to a purer life, and to save both from the destruction that threatened them - that was his only goal. Savonarola never had in mind any other project of transformation than that which the councils of Pisa, Constance and Basel tried in vain to accomplish, and which was the ideal of Gerson’s treatise “On the transformation of the church at the Ecumenical Council”, or Peter d’Ailly in “Discourse on the necessity of reforming the church in the head and in the members.” His words are reminiscent of the language of Nicholas Clemangis 89 who exhorts the Roman Church to awaken from its apathy and its errors and recognize in the prophetic denunciations of its sins a warning for itself, and in the Apocalypse an image of the fate that threatened it. In his attitude to the papacy, he distinguished the personality of the pope from the vicar of Christ. Gerson 90 adopted the same argument when he said that obedience to higher authorities is not unlimited, and that the obligation in this regard ceases “when their actions obviously constitute an evil and temptation for the church.” So in the same way, Peter d'Ailly, 91 responding to the arguments of the canonists, said that Apostle Peter on earth is not infallible, and that therefore it is a mistake to speak of the pope as a saint simply because he is a pope. Also Pico della Mirandola 92 explains in the same spirit the true meaning of the rule: Sententia pastoris, sive justa sive injusta, timenda. Finally, Savonarola’s opinion that a simonically elected pope is not the true pope received, so to speak, retrospective confirmation when Pope Julius III ruled that any election of a pope defamed by simony is not truly ab initio. Hieronymus Savonarola was not at all a fanatical opponent of the revival, nor a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation. So, in this case, was he simply a charlatan and a deceiver? Or was he, as the inscription on his most famous portrait says, a prophet sent from God? No, Savonarola was simply a man of sublime faith, who, in the raptures of ecstatic mysticism, lost consciousness and became the subject of hallucinations that made his feverish excitement in life chronic. He heard voices whispering in his ear; he saw angels ascending from earth to heaven, or descending from heaven to earth; naked swords piercing the sky, fiery crosses burning at night, hands extended to bless or threaten. He thought that the entire history of peoples was written in the Bible, and that it was given to him to reveal the mysterious meaning of its pages. But he did not limit himself to interpretation: he recognized his direct inspiration, and there was nothing special in this claim. It was in agreement with the traditions of the Roman Church, with the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, with fashionable Platonic philosophy. The prophetic predictions of St. Hildegarde 93 were examined and approved by the Council of Treves (1147) and enjoyed great authority in the Middle Ages. The prophetic predictions of Abbot Joachim 94 were also widely known throughout Italy. St. Brigid, who died in Italy in 1373, left behind a collection of revelations for which she received canonization. St. Catherine of Siena heard voices that revealed to her the secrets of political life, and Pope Urban VI acted on these revelations during the great Western Schism. In his Compendium of Revelations and in his treatise On Prophetic Truth, Savonarola affirms and defends his gift of prophecy. In the strange interview that he conducts with the tempter in the first of these works, the tempter sarcastically remarks that Savonarola borrowed his prophetic predictions from St. Brigid or Joachim. Savonarola indignantly rejects this criticism, saying: “I solemnly protest that I have never enjoyed this kind of reading, never read the revelations of St. Brigid, and read very little or almost none of the revelations of Abbot Joachim.” 96 He himself defines a prophet as a person who “has special divine inspiration.” But when he was asked on what grounds he made the distinction between a true and a false prophet, he answered this with the question: “How does the eye distinguish colors and feel confident that what it sees is white, black, green? The eye borrows this confidence from its nature, from the very ability of vision.” 97 Then one of his seven interlocutors in the treatise “On Prophetic Truth” asks him whether he is deceiving the people or himself? But in the entire treatise, despite all the evidence of the writer’s conviction and sincerity, there is absolutely no evidence. Not being able to prove to others what was undoubted only for himself, he limits himself to simply asserting this gift for himself: “If I am deceived, then God Himself is deceiving me.” 98 “If an angel of God came and began to contradict what I said, do not believe him, because God Himself said it. 99 “For me personally, my prophecies are as certain as the Holy Scriptures.” 100 And with the help of these prophecies he founded his Florentine Republic, as well as carried out a moral and religious transformation in it. And thus, every day he came closer and closer to his inevitable fate. “Bishop Helen of Iliopolis,” he said, “having met a heretic who stubbornly insisted on his opinions, and, having no other means of persuasion, cried out: “Let us light a fire and enter it; fire will burn the one who is mistaken!” The fire was lit, the bishop entered it without the slightest hesitation, sat down in the middle of it and sang praises to God for half an hour. When faith cannot be defended in any other way, we must resort to such methods." 101 His enemies did not fail to catch him at this word: the miracle he expected did not happen, and the adamant, brave reformer suffered a fate that he himself had brought upon himself. We have seen that in the name of Christian morality, Christian religion, Christian art, Savonarola opposed the exclusive dominance of paganism, that, animated by fiery religious zeal, he devoted his life to the transformation of the teachings of the Roman Church and the eradication of the vices of Italian society, that, completely absorbed in this goal, he ascribed to himself the special gifts of a divinely inspired prophet and was convinced of his possession of them. It remains only to examine the very essence of his character, which Professor Villari, like the founders of modern Italy, apparently sees in the fact that he was the forerunner of modern liberalism. We say that Professor Villari apparently accepts this view, because the meaning of the passage referred to here is rather obscure. “Savonarola,” he writes, “was the first in his time to encourage humanity to achieve a goal that even in our time has not been achieved, but to which we strive with redoubled effort. He tried to reconcile reason with faith, religion with freedom. His work can be put on the same level as that of the Council of Constance, Dante Allighieri, and Arnold of Brescia. He strove for the reformation of Christianity and Roman Catholicism, which was the constant ideal of the greatest minds of Italy and of famous leaders of thought in other parts of the civilized world." 102 This view, it seems to us, is based on a misunderstanding of Savonarola’s character. Neither in what he sought, nor in what he accomplished, was he really a man of the latest ideas. His ideal of government is outlined in his Treatise on the Government of the City of Florence. Like Dante's treatise, it constitutes a reproduction of that heavenly theocracy which serves as the prototype of earthly governments. His treatise is based on Aristotle's Politics, on Thomas Aquinas's On the Government of Princes, and probably on Dante's On Monarchy. It is by no means a small proof of the independence of Savonarola’s mind that he, based on the principles of Aristotle and translating many of his provisions, comes to completely different conclusions. In theory, the rule of one person is the best, because it comes closest to the heavenly prototype. But you cannot look for perfection among people. The greatest evil of Florence was tyranny, and oligarchy was scarcely more tolerable. The form of democracy is the most convenient form of government. But although Savonarola was the founder of the republic, he was neither a democrat nor a demagogue. He was afraid of the turmoil and whims of popular assemblies. Out of a population of 80,000 souls, only 3,200 so-called benefiziati were eligible for election to its great council, and even these members never met together, but were divided into three alternating assemblies. As a further precaution against the excesses of popular law, the power of enacting laws belonged to the signoria, and the deliberation of them to the assembly of eighty, the gonfaloniere having to be elected for life. Thus liberalism, as it was expressed in the government system of Savonarola, was of a very special character. Likewise, in his plans he cannot be considered a herald of either the revolutionary principle or Italian unity. He was not an enemy of the pope's temporal power; He never considered the papacy to be an accomplice of foreign oppressors or the main obstacle to the unification of liberated Italy. Nor was he an advocate of separation of church and state. 103 Not the slightest trace of such ideas can be found in his writings. The thought of achieving the political unity of Italy by limiting the power of Rome to spiritual affairs never appeared in his head. It is unlikely that he was carried away by Dante’s dream of a world monarchy, the less he approved of the revolutionary projects of Arnold of Brescia. In other respects, too, it shows little sign of new ideas. He adhered to the traditional, fatal policy of calling on the aid of foreign sovereigns, and from a national point of view his support for Charles VIII could be called unpatriotic. He never had in mind a project that alone could give external strength to Florence, namely the confederation of Tuscan cities. On the contrary, his attitude towards Pisa was like the attitude of a conqueror towards the vanquished: the rebel in any case must be crushed. As a moral reformer, he tried to unite morality with religion, from which it was separated by the disastrous example of the clergy. But he rebelled against the introduction of new elements into religious life, and his ideal of reform was the revival of medieval piety. He had no idea that the very expansion of the spheres of human thought and the treasures of newly discovered antiquity could be used for the benefit of religion and brilliantly establish the kingdom of Christianity. In view of the licentiousness of morals and religious torpor, his transformations took on a shade of monastic severity. He wanted people to do only what was necessary for salvation. The true key to understanding his character, it seems to us, lies in the fact that he was a man absorbed in one comprehensive idea, the implementation of which he pursued with inflexible perseverance. First of all, most importantly and completely, he was a transformer of religion and morality. He established his republic on the basis of the fear of God; his edifying works were composed with the goal of making the Florentine a citizen of the theocracy. “Restore all things in Christ” was the motto of his thoughts, his actions, his entire existence. His whole soul was expressed in the inscription displayed in Piazza della Signoria. This inscription reads: “Jesus Christ, proclaimed King of the people of Florence.” In order to promote this religious transformation, he prophesied and led his crusade against paganism, and exposed moral disorders in the church and in society. With this same goal, and this alone, he entered the field of political life, and all his political transformations were directed towards this very goal. On December 12, 1494, when, after the expulsion of the Medici, the Republic of Florence was created through his efforts, he prefaced his outline of the new government with these words: “Oh, my people, you know that I never had the intention of interfering in the affairs of the state. Don't you believe that I would not have intervened even now if I had not been forced to do so for the salvation of your souls? Our transformation must begin with things that concern the spirit. They are above earthly things - yes, they alone constitute their very rule and life.” Those who, having this key in their hands, will not introduce into the simple pious character, cast in a medieval form, an admixture of modern motives, will find that Savonarola ceases to be a mystery. This explains the influence that he had on his contemporaries, the attitude in which he became towards the Renaissance movement, the opposition that he had to the papacy, the soil on which he based his prophecies. And finally, it overthrows the theory that he wrote, preached, prayed, and suffered for the triumph of principles which included the destruction of much of what he considered most sacred. One should not talk about him as a heretic, as a vandal, as a charlatan, as the latest liberal. He was none of them. The spirit by which he lived is fully expressed in the following passage of one of his sermons: “Finally, you, my friends who are chosen by God, you, for whom I cry day and night, have pity on me! Give me flowers, as the Song of Songs says, quia amore langueo, because I long for the love of flowers, that is, good deeds. I demand nothing more than that you please God and save your souls. But what, O Lord, will be the reward for him who emerges victorious from such a struggle as mine? The eye cannot see this, the ear cannot hear legends about her: this will be eternal bliss. What about the reward in this life? “A servant cannot be greater than his master,” says the Lord. “You know that I preached and was crucified: your destiny is also martyrdom.” Oh, Lord, I beg You to send me this martyrdom! Oh, Lord, make me worthy to quickly die for You, as You died for me! Here one can truly hear the cry of a soul, strained by an overwhelming struggle with the manifestations of evil surrounding him. Taking all this into account, in conclusion it is impossible not to repeat those significant words with which Rev. Maxim the Greek described Savonarola and his associates. Even in his youth, having become acquainted during his stay in Florence with the preaching activities and martyrdom of the Florentine prophet and his followers, Maximus the Greek, struck by all the untruths of the malice of his contemporaries that befell them, said: “I would gladly rank them among the ancient defenders of piety, even if there was no Latin faith.” 104 This is the secret of the apparent contradictions in the life and work of not only Savonarola, but also many other outstanding minds in the Roman church. Feeling all the untruths of Latinism, their souls were eager to throw off the heavy bonds of spiritual oppression from themselves and from the church itself in order to breathe the fresh air of ancient piety. But the bonds turned out to be too strong even for the giants of the spirit, and they fell and died in an impossible struggle, and only in the depths of their souls did they find the source of that true spiritual joy, which until the end supported them in good spirits, but which they sought in vain in the present life of the world around them. Rationarium Temporis, I, IX, 497. Paris, 1652; Contra Delirantes, 1498. Refutatorium Errorum F.H.S. 1498, F.H.S. Spiritum Sanioris Consilii, 1498. Vita del padre Girolamo Savonarola. Ginevra, 1781. Anonymous publication. Etudes religieuses. Paris, 1874. Meditatio supra Psalmos. Vitemberga, 1523, 4-to See preface. Conférence faite à Strasbourg (Revue Chrétienne, 5 Mars, 1876). Jérôme Savonarole et la Statue de Luther à Worms, par le R.P.Rouard ‘de Card. Paris 1867. Trattato di Maestro D. Benivieni, An extract from it is given in the note appended by Ketif to Pico della Mirandola's Apologia, vol.II, 46 (1674). Vulnera Diligentis and Cedrus Libani. Printed by Marchese, Archivio Storico, app.23. Vita. Numerous publications. Lucca, 1764, and Venice, 1829, the best. Istoria dell'arcivescovo S.Antoninocoll'apologia di P.G.S.E.c. Livorno, 1789 Collections. Paris, 1674. L'Histoire des Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de Saint Dominique. Paris, 1746. Scrittivarii (Firenze, I860), and other works. Etude sur J. Savonarole Paris, 1879. Vie de Sainte Catharine de Ricci, par le R.P. Bayonne, I. CVI. Quétif. Collections, II, 48. Réformateurs et Publicistes de l'Europe. Paris, 1864. Life of Lorenzo dé Medici. Les Précurseurs de la Renaissance. Paris, 1882. La Renaissance en Italie. Paris, 1885. L'Art Chrétien, II, ch.XII, XIII. Esthétique de Savonarole (Aunales Archéologiques, Nov.1847). Du Vandalisme et Catholicisme dans l’Art (p.114). Fragmens, Paris, 1839. See also Université Catholique. Août, 1837. The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, I, CVIII, London, 1857. Lives of the Necromancers. London, (?) 1834. Apologie pour tous etc., qui ont esté faussement soupçonnez de Magie. Paris, 1625. Dictionnaire historique et critique, s.v. "Savonarole". Jerome Savonarole. Paris, 1856, 2nd edit See the letter to Abbot Alix, appended to the latter's translation of the Triumphus Crucis (Triomphe de la Croix). Paris, 1859. This work was published in English under the title Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola. By Prof. Pasquale Villari. Translated by Linda Villari. 2 vols (London, 1889). See this excellent feature in The Church Quat. Review, July. “Venalia nobis templa, sacerdotes, altaria, sacra, coronae, ignes, thnra, preces, coelum est venale Deusqne,” Of. Battista Mantovano, De Calamitatibus Temporum, I. III. “Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum: Emeratille prius, vendere jure potest.” Zeller, Entretiens sur l’Histoire: Italie et Renaissance. It was probably these goals of Caesar Borgia that earned him Machiavelli's support. “He alone could remove the knife from the wound” and establish the unity of Italy. Her character was taken under the protection of a learned historian of medieval Rome. See Lucrezia Borgia, nach Urkunden und Correspondenzen ihrer eigenen Zeit, von F. Gregorovius (Stuttgart, 1874). Conversations on Genesis VI, on the text: “the earth was corrupt before the Lord.” “Ricordi“, n.28, In the Opere inedite, I. Quot ranas tellus Ferrariensis alphabet“ Sermon on the Prophet Amos, April 13, 1496. Cherardi, Nuovi Documenti, etc. (Firenze, 1878), p.178. Prediche raccolte per Ser Lorenzo Violi da la viva voce del Rev.P.F. Hieronymo da Farrara giorno per giorno. See also Quètif, Collections, II, 613 et seq. Appendice all' Archivio Store. Ital., no. 35. See Cantu, Les Hérétiques d'Itale, I, 393–397. Letter dated September 10, 1493. Mansi, Additions to Baluse I, 586. Capponi, Alcune Lettere, no. 66, Firenze, 1858. Regulae quae ad omnes religiosos pertinent. Venetiis, 1494. Burlamacchi, Vita, Lucea, 1764, p.39. Marchese, Appendice all'Archivio Stor. Ital. “Ne fuge crudeles terras, fuge litus avarum.” July 21, 1497. Marchese, Appendice all'Archivio Stor. Ital., p.56. De Simplicitate Vitae Christianae. De Calamitatibus Temporum. Sermons on the Prophet Ezekiple, Great Lent 1497, No. XXVIII. Triumphus Crucis, II, p.X. Sermon on Amos Avenue on the 3rd Sunday of Great Lent, 1496. Sermons on the prophet Haggai (3rd sermon), delivered in November and December 1494. De Simplicitate Vitae Christianae, 3rd book, first truth. Venice, 1547. Sermons on the Psalms: “Quam bonus”, Nativity Fast, 1493. Sermons on holidays, May 20, 1496. Sermons on Ezekiel Avenue, Great Lent 1497, No. XXVI. Sermon on Amos Avenue in Lent 1496, on the Saturday after the second Sunday. “Omnis denique lascivia vitetur, ita ut procaci venustate imagines non pingantur nec ornentur.” Sess. XXV, p.I. “De invocatione veneratione, et reliquiis sanctorum, et sacris imaginibus.” Cm. “ Marchese, Artisti Domenicani, I, 434. See also Canones et Décréta Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Tridentini, Ratisbonae, 1869, p.164. Marchese, Memorie dei pù insigni Pittori, Scultori, ed. Architetti Domenicani, I, 512 et. seqq. (ed.4). Published in Vienna in 1534, but probably written in 1492. (Opus perutile de divisione scientiarum, in poeticen apologeticus. 1492r. Cm. Cherardi, Nuovi Documenti, p.184. Vasari, Vita di S. V., V, 117 (ed. Le Monnier). Audin, Histoire de Luther, II, 87; Paris, 1850. D’Aubignè, Histoire de la Reformation, vk.VIII. p.7. Meditatio pia et erudita Hier. Savonarolae a papa exusti supra Psalmos "Miserere mei·* et "In te, Domine, speravi 11, cum praefatione Lutheri, 1523. Dictionnaire, s.v.”Savonarola“. “En monachus solers rerum scrutator acutus. Martyrio ornatus Savonarola pius“. lcones, ets. Geneva, 1580. Hieronymus Savonarola. Von A.G. Rudelbach, Hamburg, 1835. Girolamo Savonarola. Von E.K.Meier, Berlin, 1836. I. Savonarola. Par T.Paul. Geneve 1857. Neue Propheten. Von C.A.Hase, Leipzig, 1861 Savonarola. Ein Gedicht. Von N.Lenau. Zweite Auflage, 1844. Convito, II, 8, 9; III, 14; IV, 7. Petrarchás Leben und Werken. Von G. Koesting, p.517. Recommendatio Sacrae Scripturae. De Rninâ Ecclesiae, p.41. There have been many editions of these prophecies. Some of them were translated into English by The Nunnes Prophesie (London, 1680). Abbot Joachim of Fiore was a medieval “prophet” who predicted political events regarding emperors, kings and religious orders, as well as the coming of the kingdom of the Holy Spirit. Abbas loachim magnus Propheta (Venetiis, 1520). See also Histoire de l'Abbe loachim. (Paris, 1745). This kind of revelation was strongly attacked by Gerson. They, however, were taken under his protection by Cardinal Turrecremata. S. Brigitta Revelationes, olim a Turrecremata, nunc a Durante recognitae (Antwerp. 1611). See Quetif, Comp. Revelat. I 272. Sermon on Job, March 1495. Sermon on the Book of Job, April 9, 1495. Sermon on the book of Ezekiel, February 17, 1497. Sermon on the Prophet Amos, February 18, 1496. Sermon on the Prophet Amos, March 8, 1496. Is this look coming out of Madden? The Life and Martyrdom of Savonarola, Etc., London, 1858. See the works of Rev. Maximus the Greek III, pp. 178–205. Lead. Archpriest V. Levitsky in “Church Bulletin” No. 22 1898 (p. 761).