Fire in the City: Savonarola

Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence by: Lauro Martines

Martines, Lauro. Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Understanding the religious fervor of a bygone era can be difficult. However, in the book Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence Lauro Martines attempts to provide insight into the life of a zealous religious reformer of the Renaissance. Because of the images we possess of the Renaissance, such as the paintings of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's statue of "David," it is tempting to think of this era as more religious than our own. However, the Renaissance was marked, despite such iconography, by increasing secularization and focus on the glorification of humanity and the arts, rather than God. Politics as much as piety marked the machinations of the papacy, and in Florence, the infamously wealthy (and corrupt) Medici family controlled political power and stifled republican dissent.

In the 1490s, power was in the hands of Piero de Medici, only a shadow of his domineering father Lorenzo. The city-state was also embroiled in a war against Pisa, which further demoralized the populace. "We cannot be said to have 'empire' over others if we have no liberty amongst ourselves'" said one of the war's opponents (Martines 41). Thus, the relationship between faith and the city's leadership was quite complex, as was the shifting power relationships in a society with an emerging middle class. Into the fray stepped the protagonist of Martines' biography. "In the 1490s, at the summit of the High Renaissance, the most remarkable man in Florence was not the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici, nor even Michelangelo or Machiavelli, but as he occasionally called himself a 'little friar' from Ferarra, Girolama Savonarola" (Martines 2).

The Dominican friar Savonarola condemned what he saw as the corruption of the priesthood. People in Florence were disgusted with the corruption of the papacy and the government. Those who followed Savonarola followed his command to make bonfires of and playing cards and dice as well as mirrors and other things of vanity. Ornamentation on women lead to vanity and sexual transgressions, and a gambler was apt to utter 'Bless Christ's soul' after losing, rather than in piety, according to Savonarola (Martines 102). In perhaps his most infamous historical act, on a day that later became known as the 'Bonfire of the Vanities,' his followers went door-to-door collecting secular objects of human vanity and immorality, including a number of noteworthy artworks of the period that are now forever lost (Martines 167).

Savonarola campaigned against all displays of "superfluities" or gaudy wealth that took money away from what could be used to feed the poor, an open dig against the artistic sensibility and the displays of patronage and largess of the Medici clan (Martines 283). He spoke out against sexual and political corruption, particularly sodomy. For this reason, along with his book-burning, historical opinion of Savonarola has been mixed. Some historians have had an aversion to his fundamentalist ideology, others have celebrated his republicanism while still others like Lauro Martines, believe that in his political context that some of his attitudes were understandable, even though his intolerance should not be overlooked. While Savonarola contemned immorality in his fiery sermons, he also spoke out against the "careerism" of many priests and the selling of indulgences, which he saw, much like Martin Luther, as a pure exercise in profit-gathering for the church (Martines 121).

Savonarola advocated an early republicanism for the city government, but republicanism tempered with piety. He was one of the few people to speak out early on against Medici corruption and the Medici's subversion of democratic institutions like the Great Council. When the ruling Medicis fell from power, Savonarola actually led the movement to empower the parliament, called the Great Council, which led the city under the oversight of the emerging Florentine middle-class for almost twenty years until the restoration of the monarchy. "Savonarola's followers often referred to the new hall of the Great Council as 'the Hall of Christ' (sala di Cristo), and they occasionally spoke of 'holy liberty' even when serving in office" (Martines 141).

Martines stresses that, for all of his flaws, the friar was more interested in enforcing what he saw as the truth, rather than gaining power for his own use. In this age, republicanism and religious fundamentalism were not at odds, as they are often seen in the contemporary political scene. Rather it was the more secular Medicis that had taken the teeth out of the people's voice in government. "Hurrah for Christ our King" along with "Jesus King of Florence" became the watchwords of the day, when Savonarola was at his most popular (Martines 141).

Florence, in a word, was haunted by rising taxes, famine, war, unemployment, disease, and severe political strains...Savonarola's solution was to call for repentance, for more prayer, faith, charity, generosity from the rich, and commitment to the Great Council," and more controversially, for the French king Charles VIII to become another Cyrus and establish a moral empire, of which Florence would be a critical part (Martines 148).

Savonarola thus praised what the cleansing force of the invading French Charles VIII, which he thought would expunge the influence of the corrupt papacy.

Savonarola eventually fell afoul of Pope Alexander VI, which combined with his advocacy of republicanism, lead to his excommunication, trial and immolation at the stake. Still, when he still commanded the respect of most Florentines, Savonarola was considered a powerful preacher and inspired great devotion amongst a diversity of followers, as well hatred in the heart of his many detractors. Others were frightened to speak out as he did, Martines implies, with good reason -- there were plots to blow up the cathedrals where he spoke, left dead animals in his pulpit and even drove nails where he spoke (Martines 1-2). He had, if nothing else, the courage of his convictions.