Editing Girolamo Savonarola (section)

== Excommunication and death ==
[[File:– Processo di fra Girolamo Savonarola, 1498 – BEIC 2493965.jpg|thumb|"The trial of friar Girolamo Savonarola" (''Processo di fra Girolamo Savonarola''), 1498]]
[[File:Girolamo Savonarola and His Two Companions.jpg|thumb|The execution of Fra Girolamo, Fra Domenico, and Fra Silvestro Maruffi]]
[[File:Filippo Dolciati (1443 - 1519) Execution of Girolamo Savonarola. 1498, Florence, Museo di San Marco.jpg|thumb|Savonarola's execution in the [[Piazza della Signoria]], painting by Filippo Dolciati (1498)]]
On 12 May 1497, [[Borgia]] [[Pope Alexander VI]] excommunicated Savonarola,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_35oAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Brief+of+Pope+Alexander+VI+excommunicating+Savonarola%22&pg=PA392 Brief of Pope Alexander VI excommunicating Savonarola]: ''The History of Girolamo Savonarola and of His Times'', [[Pasquale Villari]], Leonard Horner, trans., London, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1863, Volume 2, pp. 392–394.</ref> and also threatened the Florentines with an [[interdict]] if they persisted in harbouring him. After describing the contemporary Church leadership as a pockmarked whore sitting on Solomon's throne,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Daniel-Rops |first1=Henri |title=Savonarola, Preacher and Prophet |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/savonarola-preacher-and-prophet-10872 |website=EWTN Global Catholic Television Network |access-date=21 February 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Savonarola was excommunicated for heresy and sedition. On 18 March 1498, after much debate and steady pressure from a worried government, Savonarola withdrew from public preaching. Under the stress of excommunication, he composed his spiritual masterpiece, the ''[[Triumph of the Cross (Girolamo Savonarola)|Triumph of the Cross]]'', a celebration of the victory of the Cross over sin and death and an exploration of what it means to be a [[Christians|Christian]]. This he summed up in the [[Theological virtues|theological virtue]] of ''caritas'', or love. In loving their neighbours, Christians return the love which they have received from their Creator and Savior.<ref>Girolamo Savonarola, ''Triumphus Crucis'' Latin and Italian texts ed. Mario Ferrara (Rome, 1961)</ref> Savonarola hinted at performing miracles to prove his divine mission, but when a rival Franciscan preacher proposed to test that mission by [[Ordeal by fire|walking through fire]], he lost control of public discourse. Without consulting him, his confidant [[Friar|Fra]] Domenico da Pescia offered himself as his surrogate and Savonarola felt he could not afford to refuse. The first trial by fire in Florence in over four hundred years was set for 7 April.<ref>Lauro Martines, ''Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence'' (Princeton, 1968) pp. 202–203</ref>

A crowd filled the central square, eager to see if God would intervene, and if so, on which side. The nervous contestants and their delegations delayed the start of the contest for hours. A sudden rain drenched the spectators and government officials cancelled the proceedings. The crowd disbanded angrily; the burden of proof had been on Savonarola, and he was blamed for the fiasco. A mob assaulted the convent of San Marco. Fra Girolamo, Fra Domenico, and Fra Silvestro Maruffi were arrested and imprisoned. Under torture Savonarola confessed to having invented his prophecies and visions, then recanted, then confessed again.<ref>Complete interrogation records in ''I processi di Girolamo Savonarola'' (1498) ed. I.G. Rao, P. Viti, R.M. Zaccaria (Florence, 2001); French translation and commentary, Robert Klein, ''Le proces de Savonarole'' (Paris, 1957)</ref> In his prison cell in the tower of the government palace he composed meditations on [[Psalm 51|Psalms 51]] (''[[Infelix ego]]'') and [[Psalm 31|31]] (''Tristitia obsedit me'').<ref>Girolamo Savonarola, ''Prison Meditations on Psalms 51 and 31'' Tr., ed. John Patrick Donnelly S.J. (Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1994).</ref> On the morning of 23 May 1498, the three friars were led out into the main square where, before a tribunal of high clerics and government officials, they were condemned as heretics and schismatics, and sentenced to die forthwith. Stripped of their Dominican garments in ritual degradation, they mounted the scaffold in their thin white shirts. Each on separate gallows, they were hanged, while fires were ignited below them to consume their bodies. To prevent devotees from searching for relics, their ashes were carted away and scattered in the [[Arno]].<ref>An eyewitness account by the Piagnone [[Luca Landucci]] in ''A Florentine Diary from 1460 to 1516'' trans. Alice De Rosen Jervis (London, 1927) pp. 142–143.</ref>