Guest Author - Christine MacNeil Sweet

Although there were many characters who lived during the Renaissance, none struck me as more memorable, albeit in a bad way, than Girolamo Savonarola. The young monk took charge of Florence after the invasion by Charles the VIII of France in 1494 overthrew the existing Medici rule. Overzealous would be a colossal understatement where this ruler was concerned.

He and his followers systematically went through households in Florence collecting vanity items: makeup, ”offensive” statuary, paintings – including many by Sandro Botticelli, ladies hats, and all other items that he deemed inappropriate. These things he placed in the Piazza della Signoria and burnt them in a “bonfire of the vanities.” Many Renaissance works were lost forever in this fire set by a zealot who truly believed that he was saving the world and bringing it back to God clean.

What makes Savonarola so interesting a character is his total commitment to his cause. Like Hitler or Mussolini – he possessed a terrifying amount of tunnel-vision in his view of the way he believed that his world should look. He stopped at nothing to get it.

To look at his life, nothing seemed out of the ordinary that could possibly explain why Savonarola became the overzealous preacher known far and wide during the Renaissance. He grew up the son of a well-known physician and grandson of a professor at the University of Ferrara the town in which he was born. A quiet child who kept to himself, Girolamo seemed content to be a loner. He did have one incident whereby he had asked his neighbor Roberto Strozzi’s daughter for her hand in marriage. She refused. But it doesn’t seem to have altered him greatly. He still was a loner – perhaps all the more determined to follow the life path of a monk that he had originally set out to become.

After a time in the monastery – he was sent out as a missionary to teach in different cities. Always traveling, he began to have a following that boosted his confidence tremendously. At last Savonarola felt he had the confidence and lifestyle befitting a virtuous young man of his position. Settling in Florence to preach he walked a fine line between preaching and agitating the populace.

His sermons became directed at the Medici, particularly Lorenzo, as well as the papacy. Riding high on his popularity, he became an almost unstoppable force. Meanwhile in France Charles VIII was taking on his role as the ruler of France. Ultimately, he invaded Italy and overthrew the Medici in Florence. Savonarola saw this as his chance to rule the city he had railed against for so long.

His rule was short-lived however. In 1498, four years after taking power, Florentines tired of the monk and his bombastic rhetoric. Savonarola was arrested, tortured and burned alive. His reign of terror was over at last and Florence returned to the happy vice-ridden city it had been in the past.