SAVONAROLA, GIROLAMO (1452-1498), Italian monk and reformer, born at Ferrara on Sept. 21, 1452, was the third child of Michele Savonarola and his wife Elena Bonaccossi of Mantua. Elena was tenderly loved by her famous son, and his letters prove that she retained his fullest confidence through all the vicissitudes of his career. Girolamo was intended for the medical profession, but even as a boy he had intense pleasure in reading St. Thomas Aquinas and the Arab commentators of Aristotle, was skilled in the subtleties of the schools, wrote verses and studied music and design. To the mystic young student all festivities were repulsive, and although reared in a courtier-house hold he early asserted his individuality by his contempt for court life. At the age of 19 he was passionately in love with the daugh ter of a neighbour, a Strozzi exiled from Florence, but his suit was repulsed with disdain and this probably decided his career. He was full of doubt and self-distrust, but in 1474 his doubts were dispelled by a sermon heard at Faenza and he entered the monas tery of St. Domenico at Bologna, where his novitiate was marked by a fervour of humility. He passed six quiet years in the con vent, but his poems written during that period are expressive of burning indignation against the corruptions of the church.
In 1482 he reluctantly accepted a mission to Ferrara, and later he was sent to the convent of St. Mark in Florence. In 1483 he was Lenten preacher in the church of St. Lorenzo, but his plain, earnest exhortations attracted few hearers. His first success as a preacher was gained at San Gimignano (1484-85), but it was only at Brescia in the following year that his power as an orator was fully revealed. In a sermon on the Apocalypse he shook men's souls by his terrible threats of the wrath to come, and drew tears from their eyes by the tender pathos of his assurances of divine mercy. Soon, at a Dominican council at Reggio, Savonarola had occasion to display his theological learning and subtlety. The famous Pico della Mirandola was particularly impressed by the friar's attainments, and is said to have urged Lorenzo de' Medici to recall him from Lombardy. When Savonarola returned to Florence in 149o, his fame as an orator had gone there before him, and on Aug. I, 149o, he first preached in the church of St. Mark.
Savonarola's influence now rapidly increased. The same year
Innocent VIII. died (July 1492) and men's minds were full of anxiety, an anxiety increased by the scandalous election of Car dinal Borgia to the papal chair. During the delivery of one of his Advent sermons, Savonarola beheld the vision, recorded in contemporary medals and engravings, that is almost a symbol of his doctrine. A hand appeared to him bearing a flaming sword inscribed with the words : "Gladius Domini supra terram cito et velociter." He heard supernatural voices proclaiming mercy to the faithful, vengeance on the guilty, and mighty cries that the wrath of God was at hand. Then the sword bent towards the earth, the sky darkened, thunder pealed, lightning flashed, and the whole world was wasted by famine, bloodshed and pestilence. He was presently addressing enthusiastic congregations at Prato and Bologna whence he returned to Florence. He was rapturously welcomed by the community of St. Mark's, and at once proceeded to re-establish the discipline of the order. For this purpose he obtained, after much difficulty, a papal brief emancipating the Dominicans of St. Mark from the rule of the Lombard vicars of that order. He thus became an independent authority, no longer at the command of distant superiors. He relegated many of the brethren to a quieter retreat outside the city, only retaining in Florence those best fitted to aid in intellectual labour. Meanwhile he thundered forth predictions of heavenly wrath. In 1494 the duke of Milan demanded the aid of France, and King Charles VIII. brought an army across the Alps. The incompetent policy of Piero de' Medici, Lorenzo's successor, towards Charles drove Florence to revolt. But even at this crisis Savonarola's influence was all-powerful, and a bloodless revolution was effected. The resuscitated republic sent a fresh embassy to the French king, to arrange the terms of his reception in Florence. Savonarola was one of the envoys, Charles being known to entertain the greatest ven eration for the friar who had so long predicted his coming and declared it to be divinely ordained. Charles entered Florence on Nov. 17, but the exorbitance of his demands soon showed that he came as a foe. The signory resolved to be rid of their dangerous guest ; and, when Charles threatened to sound his trumpets unless the sums exacted were paid, Capponi tore up the treaty in his face and made the memorable reply : "Then we will ring our bells." The monarch, alarmed at the dangerous possi bilities of fighting in the narrow streets of the city, accepted mod erate terms, and, yielding to Savonarola's remonstrances, left Florence on Nov. The citizens turned to the patriot monk whose words had freed them of King Charles, and Savonarola became the law-giver of Florence. The first thing done at his instance was to relieve the starving populace within and without the walls ; shops were opened to give work to the unemployed ; all taxes, especially those weigh ing on the lower classes, were reduced ; the strictest administra tion of justice was enforced, and all men were exhorted to place their trust in the Lord. And, after much debate as to the con stitution of the new republic, Savonarola's influence carried the day in favour of Soderini's proposal of a universal or general government, with a great council on the Venetian plan. Savo narola's programme of the new government was comprised in the following formula : ( ) fear of God and purification of manners; (2) promotion of the public welfare in preference to private in terests; (3) a general amnesty to political offenders; (4) a council on the Venetian model, but with no doge. At first the new ma chinery acted well ; the public mind was tranquil.