Editing Girolamo Savonarola (section)

== Friar ==
In the convent, Savonarola took the vow of obedience proper to his order, and after a year was ordained to the priesthood. He studied Scripture, logic, Aristotelian philosophy and [[Thomas Aquinas|Thomistic]] theology in the Dominican studium, practised preaching to his fellow friars, and engaged in disputations. He then matriculated in the theological faculty to prepare for an advanced degree. Even as he continued to write devotional works and to deepen his spiritual life, he was openly critical of what he perceived as the decline in convent austerity. In 1478 his studies were interrupted when he was sent to the Dominican priory of Santa Maria degli Angeli in [[Ferrara]] as assistant master of novices. The assignment might have been a normal, temporary break from the academic routine, but in Savonarola's case, it was a turning point. One explanation is that he had alienated certain of his superiors, particularly fra [[Vincenzo Bandello|Vincenzo Bandelli, or Bandello]], a professor at the studium and future master general of the Dominicans, who resented the young friar's opposition to modifying the Order's rules against the ownership of property.<ref>Michael Tavuzzi O.P., "Savonarola and Vincent Bandello," ''Archivum Fratrum'' ''Praedicatorum'' 59 (1999) 199–224.</ref>

In 1482, instead of returning to Bologna to resume his studies, Savonarola was assigned as lector, or teacher, in the [[Convent of San Marco]] in Florence. In San Marco, fra Girolamo (Savonarola) taught logic to the novices, wrote instructional manuals on ethics, logic, philosophy and government, composed devotional works, and prepared his sermons for local congregations.<ref>''Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola Religion and Politics, 1490–1498'' Translated and edited by Anna Borelli and Maria Pastore Passaro (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006).</ref> As he recorded in his notes, his preaching was not altogether successful. Florentines were put off by his foreign-sounding Ferrarese speech, his strident voice and (especially to those who valued humanist rhetoric) his inelegant style.<ref>"He satisfied almost no one either in his gestures or in his manner of speaking, as I who was there for all of Lent recall. At the end there were fewer than twenty-five people, men, women and children." Translated from "Epistola di fra Placido Cinozzi", in P. Villari, E. Casanova, ''Scelta di prediche e scritti di fra Girolamo Savonarola con nuovi documenti intorno alla sua vita'' (Florence, 1898) p. 11.</ref>

While waiting for a friend in the Convent of San Giorgio, he was studying Scripture when he suddenly conceived "about seven reasons" why the Church was about to be scourged and renewed.<ref>Armando F. Verde O.P., {{"'}}Et andando a San Gimignano a predicarvi.' Alle origini della profezia savonaroliana", ''Vivens Homo'' IX (1998) pp. 269–298.</ref> He broached these apocalyptic themes in [[San Gimignano]], where he went as Lenten preacher in 1485 and again in 1486. A year later, when he left San Marco for a new assignment, he had said nothing of his "San Giorgio revelations" in Florence.<ref>Donald Weinstein, Savonarola The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (New Haven, 2011) pp. 36–37</ref>