Is it possible to govern according to the word of God? Not just via the interpretation of religious texts but in direct communication with the Almighty? One man was willing to try, and that man was, Girolamo Savonarola.

Born in the Italian City State of Ferrara on 21 September, 1452, he was of noble blood and had a comfortable, if somewhat cossetted upbringing. He may well have witnessed the indignities of poverty but he certainly never had to endure them. Educated at the University of Ferrara, where he studied art and theology, various careers were open to him, but he opted for a career in the Church, some say because of the pain of unrequited love. From a fairly early age he was a vocal and outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church which he frequently referred to as a harlot and a whore, vain and proud. This brought him a great deal of attention but it by no means impressed everyone. Always a political man he spurned the opportunity to become a Franciscan Monk to join the more secular Dominican Order which he believed maintained a firmer grasp on the realities of life, joining the Monastery at San Domenico, Bologna, in 1475. Here he remained until 1482, when he was transferred to Florence, the city where he would make his mark on history. His initial stay in Florence, however, impressed few. A physically unattractive man, ungainly in bearing, with large dark eyes, a hooked nose, and totally lacking in charisma, his dull oratory made little impact and he was considered something of a bore. He did though remain true to the core principles of the message he preached, that apostasy and sinfulness were rife and failure to adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ would bring the Wrath of God down upon those who shunned Him. His conviction and determination to be heard did at least bring him to the attention of the Medici, in particular, Lorenzo the Magnificent, de facto ruler of Florence, who for a time became his patron. Even so, the Dominican’s were so disappointed by Savonarola’s performance that he was called away in 1487.

Believing that Savonarola’s firmness of character would help shore up his wavering authority, Lorenzo the Magnificent invited him back to Florence in 1490. Savonarola, in the meantime, had undergone a transformation. His oratory had become impassioned and shrill, his rhetoric scathing, and his message apocalyptic. He also repaid the Medici for their generosity by becoming their severest and most vocal critic. He had long despised the corruption in the Church and vehemently opposed the Renaissance, and the one he equated with the other. The Medici and their supporters were great patrons of the arts and spent lavishly on object d’art and in engaging artists on ever grander artistic projects at a time when poverty in Florence was rife and on the increase. Savonarola preached passionately against such vanities. He had visions, he said, and what he saw was the coming of The Last Days. He had spoken directly to God and what God had told him was that the people of Florence were in imminent danger of Hell and that only a vigorous morality could save them, and he was increasingly believed.

Savonarola’s reputation as a prophet had earlier been enhanced when in 1490, he had predicted that both Pope Innocent VIII and Lorenzo the Magnificent would die in 1492, when both did just that people began to believe that perhaps he was in direct communication with God after all. Lorenzo’s successor in Florence, his son Piero, was a weak and unstable young man whose inability to cope under increasing pressure saw the Medici grip on power loosen. The continued opulence of the few and their ever more ostentatious displays of wealth, which was part and parcel of the Renaissance, was causing ever increasing resentment and alienating the people. Meanwhile the French invasion of Italy in 1492, and their demand that Florence sign a favourable treaty of alliance, which would have been a deeply unpopular move in the city, left the Medici unsure how to respond. Worse was to follow, in the summer of 1493, an outbreak of syphilis (the French Pox) struck the city. It was God’s Judgement.

Savonarola now stepped up his campaign against the Medici and his speeches were littered with references to their association with the Devil, and the people flocked to his Church at San Marco to hear him. In his preaching of the Apocalypse and in his vision of The Last Days the people increasingly saw their own salvation. A witness to Savonarola’s preaching described how, ” people’s faces glazed with terror, tears fell from their eyes, and they beat their breasts and cried for mercy.” He was voice of the Righteous, and with French backing and the support of the poor, he was the obvious choice to replace the Medici, and when the incompetent Piero was forced to flee the city in fear of his life, that is exactly what happened.

From the outset Savonarola made it clear that Florence would be a Christian Republic. God was the law and Savonarola his mouthpiece. The people were to be virtuous and moral for that was their only way to salvation. All vice and revelry was now to cease, all nocturnal activities were suppressed, gambling, music, dance and theatre were all banned. Homosexuality, and in particular the act of sodomy, previously tolerated, was now to be punishable by death. Hundreds fled the city, many hundreds more were burned at the stake for acting in defiance of God’s Will.

In 1497, Savonarola initiated the Bonfire of the Vanities. Vice was to be materially as well as morally expunged from the city of Florence. Young boys and girls (supported by more menacing types) were sent to every house in the city to remove those items that led to lax morality: dice, playing cards, musical instruments, mirrors, cosmetics, fine clothes and heretical literature were all removed and taken to the Piazza della Signoria in the centre of the city, and burned in pyres 60ft high. This was carried out with the enthusiastic support of the poor who saw the elimination of luxury as the final step to their salvation. It was said that Savonarola himself threw the works of Sandro Botticelli into the flames. Though one opportunistic Venetian merchant did make the City Council an offer for the pile of discarded loot, the Council remained pure to the deed, and the offer was declined.

However, as time wore on and The Last Days failed to materialise it became increasingly clear that Savonarola had no solutions to the city’s problems. The plague was by this time taking its toll on the city’s population and everyday more and more corpses were being taken and burned in the funeral pyres. Unemployment was high, poverty was on the increase, and starvation a common sight on the streets. Savonarola refused to enact policies to stimulate trade because he believed the making of money to be a sin. In 1497, an interdict issued by Pope Alexander VI, banning the Christian World from any commercial activity with Florence whatsoever, stifled what trade there was even further.

The first sign of dissention to Savonarola’s rule came during his Ascension Day speech given at the Church of San Marco on 4 May, 1497, when he was heckled from the audience. All Savonarola could do in response was preach the apocalypse ever more vigorously. He sent his close associates Friars Silvestro and Da Pescia onto the streets to preach that the Flames of Hell awaited those who opposed The Last Days. But where were these Last Days? And if Savonarola was in direct communication with God then why didn’t he ask God to come to the city’s aid? Instead Savonarola inaugurated another Bonfire of the Vanities with the exclamation, ” We must remove those things, those earthly luxuries that turn people from God.” But this time there was little enthusiasm for it, doors were locked and access to streets barred. This renewed attempt at moral cleansing simply caused resentment. Savonarola continued to preach the apocalypse but people were no longer frightened, they wanted rid of him.

The Vatican, which had never quite known how to deal with Savonarola, indeed they had one time appointed him Vicar-General, now turned decidedly against him. Though they were certainly tired of his constant preachings against the iniquities of the Roman Church, it was politics not religion that was to seal his fate. The Papal State supported the Medici in their fight against the French and when an alliance of Italian City States defeated the French and chased them from Italian soil, Savonarola was shorn of his political support. He now had nothing but rhetoric to fall back upon. In early, 1498, he was excommunicated by the Pope and barred from preaching. Savonarola had no choice but to ignore the ban and he increased his public appearances. He was now making more speeches than ever but no one was any longer listening. In early, 1498, he was challenged by a Franciscan Friar Francesco da Puglia to a Trial by Fire, and allow Divine Providence to decide upon the veracity of his teachings. At first, Savonarola appeared to agree but later changed his mind choosing instead to hide behind the law. His prestige was destroyed and his support disintegrated. On 8 April, 1498, his Church at San Marco was attacked by a mob, a number of his guards were killed, and he and a number of his close associates were besieged inside. What had started as a riot soon developed into a full-scale revolt. On 13 May, Savonarola was forced to surrender. Taken into custody the Vatican immediately demanded that he be put on trial to face charges of sedition and heresy.

Savonarola was put to the torture and racked, not surprisingly he confessed. His confession he later recanted but it made no difference to his fate. On 23 May, 1498, Savonarola, Silvestro, and Da Puglia were all tied to the same post and set alight. The burning took place in the Piazza della Signoria, the same place where he had tried to burn the Renaissance, and the crowds there to witness it were enormous. Jacob Nardi, writing later stated that the executioner as he lit the fire remarked, ” The one who wanted to burn me is himself put to the flames.”

It has been suggested that Savonarola was a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation. That his emphasis on the Word of God rather than the sacred spectacle of the Catholic Church pre-emptied the teachings of Martin Luther. But nothing could be further from the truth. Despite all his criticisms of the Roman Church he was never a schismatic, he never envisaged leaving the Catholic Church or denying its authority. He was, despite everything, a faithful, devoted, and devout Catholic.