Editing Girolamo Savonarola (section)

== Reformer ==
[[File:Italian Renaissance Medal by Fiorentino Electrotype, obverse.jpg|thumb|Italian Renaissance [[Medal]] of Savonarola by [[Fiorentino]]. [[Electrotype]], obverse.]]
With Savonarola's advice and support (as a non-citizen and cleric he was ineligible to hold office), a Savonarolan political "party", dubbed "the Frateschi", took shape and steered the friar's program through the councils. The oligarchs most compromised by their service to the Medici were barred from office. A new constitution enfranchised the artisan class, opened minor civic offices to [[selection by lot]], and granted every citizen in good standing the right to a vote in a new parliament, the Consiglio Maggiore, or Great Council. At Savonarola's urging, the Frateschi government, after months of debate, passed a "Law of Appeal" to limit the longtime practice of using exile and capital punishment as factional weapons.<ref>On Savonarola and Florentine constitutional reform see Felix Gilbert, "Florentine Political Assumptions in the Period of Savonarola and Soderini," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes XII (1957) 187–214, and Nicolai Rubinstein, "Politics and Constitution in Florence at the End of the Fifteenth Century," Italian Renaissance Studies ed. E.F. Jacob (London, 1963). The Frateschi's success in blocking patricians from holding office has been questioned, most notably by Roslyn Cooper, "The Florentine Ruling Group under the 'Governo Popolare', 1494–1512," Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History (1984/5) 71–181.</ref> Savonarola declared a new era of "universal peace". On 13 January 1495 he preached his great Renovation Sermon to a huge audience in the cathedral, recalling that he had begun prophesying in Florence four years earlier, although the divine light had come to him "more than fifteen, maybe twenty years ago". He now claimed that he had predicted the deaths of Lorenzo de' Medici and of [[Pope Innocent VIII]] in 1492 and the coming of the sword to Italy—the invasion of King Charles of France. As he had foreseen, God had chosen Florence, "the navel of Italy", as his favourite and he repeated: if the city continued to do penance and began the work of renewal it would have riches, glory and power.<ref>English translation in Borelli, Passaro, Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola 59–76.</ref>

If the Florentines had any doubt that the promise of worldly power and glory had heavenly sanction, Savonarola emphasised this in a sermon of 1 April 1495, in which he described his mystical journey to the Virgin Mary in heaven. At the celestial throne Savonarola presents the Holy Mother a crown made by the Florentine people and presses her to reveal their future. Mary warns that the way will be hard both for the city and for him, but she assures him that God will fulfil his promises: Florence will be "more glorious, more powerful and richer than ever, extending its wings farther than anyone can imagine". She and her heavenly minions will protect the city against its enemies and support its alliance with the French. In the New Jerusalem that is Florence peace and unity will reign.<ref>Mark J. Zucker, "Savonarola Designs a Work of Art: the Crown of The Virgin in the Compendium of Revelations," Machiavelli Studies 5 (1966) eds Vincenzo De Nardo, Christopher Fulton pp. 119–145 ; Rab Hatfield, "Botticelli's Mystic Nativity, Savonarola and the Millennium," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 58 (1995) 89–114.</ref> Based on such visions, Savonarola promoted theocracy, and declared [[Christ]] the king of Florence.<ref>"Political reform was only a part of the great task which Savonarola had set himself; his scheme embraced the renovation of social life, as well as science, literature, and art. Christianity was to reassert its sovereignty over the paganism of the false renaissance in every department of life. His 'Evviva Christo' was to echo from lip to lip. Politics, society, science and art, were to have the commandments of God for their basis. Christ was to be proclaimed King of Florence and protector of her liberties." – [[Ludwig von Pastor]], ''History of the Popes'', Vol. 5, p. 192, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofthepope05pastuoft#page/192/mode/2up]</ref><ref>"He aimed at establishing a theocracy in Florence, resembling that by which the Jews were ruled in the time of the Judges. Thus the religious idea took form in politics, and a monarchy was to be erected by the democracy, under the immediate guidance of God; Savonarola, as the Daniel of the Florentines, was to be the medium of the Divine answers and commands." – [[Ludwig von Pastor]], ''History of the Popes'', Vol. 5, p. 210, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofthepope05pastuoft#page/210/mode/2up]</ref> He saw sacred art as a tool to promote this worldview, and he was therefore only opposed to secular art, which he saw as worthless and potentially damaging.<ref>"'It was not Art itself which he condemned, but its desecration, the introduction of earthly and even immodest sentiments and dress into sacred pictures. On the contrary, pious and genuinely religious art would have been an efficacious support in building up that ideal State which he dreamt of, and for a while even made a reality.' Again and again Savonarola explains what he finds fault with in contemporary Art, and what he desires to put in place of it. For him edification is the main object of Art; he will tolerate none which does not tend to the service of religion." – [[Ludwig von Pastor]], ''History of the Popes'', Vol. 5, p. 195, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofthepope05pastuoft#page/194/mode/2up]</ref>

Buoyed by liberation and prophetic promise, the Florentines embraced Savonarola's campaign to rid the city of "vice". At his repeated insistence, new laws were passed against "sodomy" (which included male and female same-sex relations), adultery, public drunkenness, and other moral transgressions, while his lieutenant Fra Silvestro Maruffi organised boys and young men to patrol the streets to curb immodest dress and behaviour.<ref>On homoeroticism in Florence and Savonarola's campaign against it, Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (New York, 1996). More generally, on youth culture, see Richard Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York, 1980).</ref> For a time, [[Pope Alexander VI]] (1492–1503) tolerated friar Girolamo's strictures against the Church, but he was moved to anger when Florence declined to join his new Holy League against the French invader, and blamed it on Savonarola's pernicious influence. An exchange of letters between the pope and the friar ended in an impasse which Savonarola tried to break by sending the pope "a little book" recounting his prophetic career and describing some of his more dramatic visions. This was the Compendium of Revelations, a self-dramatisation which was one of the farthest-reaching and most popular of his writings.<ref>"Compendium of Revelations," translated in Apocalyptic Spirituality: Treatises and Letters of Lactantius, Adso of Montier-en-Der, Joachim of Fiore, the Franciscan Spirituals, Savonarola ed. Bernard McGinn (New York, 1970) 211–270.</ref>

The pope was not mollified. He summoned the friar to appear before him in Rome, and when Savonarola refused, pleading ill health and confessing that he was afraid of being attacked on the journey, Alexander banned him from further preaching. For some months Savonarola obeyed, but when he saw his influence slipping he defied the pope and resumed his sermons, which became more violent in tone. He not only attacked secret enemies at home whom he rightly suspected of being in league with the papal Curia, he condemned the conventional, or "tepid", Christians who were slow to respond to his calls. He dramatised his moral campaign with special Masses for the youth, processions, [[Bonfire of the Vanities|bonfires of the vanities]] and religious theatre in San Marco. He and his close friend, the humanist poet [[Girolamo Benivieni]], composed lauds and other devotional songs for the Carnival processions of 1496, 1497 and 1498, replacing the bawdy Carnival songs of the era of Lorenzo de' Medici.<ref>English translation of a Benivieni laud in Borelli, Passaro, Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola 231–233.</ref> These continued to be copied and performed after his death, along with songs composed by Piagnoni in his memory. A number of them have survived.<ref>Patrick Macey, Bonfire Songs Savonarola's Musical Legacy (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998). Published with a CD of performances of Carnival Songs, Laude and Motets by the Eastman Capella Antiqua.</ref>
[[File:Monument to Girolamo Savonarola, Ferrara 4.jpg|thumb|Monument of Savonarola]]