Girolamo Savonarola - 02 |
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In April 1492 the dying ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de Medici, called The Magnifico, sought to undermine Savonarola’s popularity, and Mariano da Genazzano O.S.A. of the Augustinian Church of Santo Spirito, Florence was employed to attack him from the pulpit. But the Augustinian preacher's scandalous accusations missed their mark, and disgusted his hearers without hurting his rival.
Savonarola took up the challenge; his eloquence prevailed, and Mariano desisted. But, even while feigning indifference to this outcome, Mariano was henceforth a rancorous and determined foe towards Savonarola. Mariano became the Augustinian Prior General in 1497, and died in office in 1498 - the same year as Savonarola's life ended.
Images (below). A detail of the painting of Savonarola’s hanging and burning in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, 24th May 1498. Underneath: A copy of Savonarola’s signature.
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Initially, the relations of Savonarola with the Church were not so antagonistic, for example, as in 1493 to deter placing him in charge of the reform of the Dominican Order throughout Tuscany. This role for Savonarola was approved by the pope. Savonarola was not seeking to make war on doctrines of the Church of Rome; rather, he wanted to correct the transgressions of worldly popes and the secularized members of the Papal Curia.
In his gripping sermons, Savonarola without restraint railed against the moral failings of Pope Alexander VI (the Spaniard, Rodrigo Borgia, elected in 1492), who was one of the most corrupt and immoral pontiffs in all papal history. Savonarola also berated the failings of the hierarchy through immorality and their abuse of wealth and power.
His preaching boldly expressed similar concerns about Church and State that many good people were feeling. His words thus fanned an anti-clerical mood in the populace of Florence, who increasingly flocked to hear the truths that Savonarola fearlessly proclaimed.
He included in his severe public criticisms the civil rulers of Florence, including the dissolute Duke Piero de Medici (son and successor to Lorenzo de Medici in 1492), from whom Savonarola scooped up the vacated civil leadership of Florence when Piero fled the city under the threat of an advancing French army.
(Continued on the next page.)
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