May 4, 2017
Devotions – Personalities of the Reformation – Precursors
Savonarola

“Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar and puritan. He was the moral dictator of the city of Florence, and he made a reputation for austerity and learning, and became prior of the convent of St Mark. A visionary, prophet and hellfire preacher, he was obsessed with human wickedness. He preached that the wrath of God was about to fall upon the earth, and he detested practically every form of pleasure and relaxation.

His opponents called Savonarola and his followers ‘Snivellers’ and he grimly disapproved of jokes and frivolity, of poetry and inns, of sex (especially the homosexual variety), of gambling, of fine clothes and jewellery and luxury of every sort. He denounced the works of Boccaccio, nude paintings, pictures of pagan deities and the whole humanistic culture of the Italian Renaissance. He called for laws against vice and laxity. He put an end to the carnivals and festivals the Florentines traditionally enjoyed, substituting religious festivals instead, and employed street urchins as a junior Gestapo to sniff out luxurious and suspect items. In the famous ‘bonfire of the vanities’ in 1497 he had gaming tables and packs of cards, carnival masks, mirrors, ornaments, nude statues and supposedly indecent books and pictures burned in the street. The friar also disapproved of profiteering financiers and businessmen.

Not surprisingly, Savonarola made many powerful enemies. Among them was the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, who had good reason to feel uncomfortable with the Dominican’s denunciation of the laxity and luxury of the Church and its leaders, and who eventually excommunicated the rigorous friar. On Palm Sunday in 1498 St Mark’s was attacked by a screaming mob and Savonarola was arrested by the Florentine authorities with two friars who were among his most ardent followers, Fra Dominico and Fra Salvestro. All three were cruelly tortured before being condemned as heretics and handed over to the secular arm by two papal commissioners, who came hot foot from Rome for the purpose on May 19th. ‘We shall have a fine bonfire,’ the senior commissioner remarked genially on arrival, ‘for I have the sentence of condemnation with me.’

On the morning of May 23rd a crowd of Florentines gathered in the Piazza della Signoria, where a scaffold had been erected on a platform (a plaque marks the spot today). From the heavy beam dangled three halters, to hang the friars, and three chains, to support their bodies while they were subsequently burned to ashes. Wood for the burning was heaped up below. Some of the crowd screamed abuse at Savonarola and his two companions, who were formally unfrocked and left in their under-tunics with bare feet and their hands tied, before their faces were shaved, as was the custom. It is said that a priest standing near asked Savonarola what he felt about this approaching martyrdom. He answered, ‘The Lord has suffered as much for me,’ and these were his last recorded words.” (Execution of Florentine Friar Savonarola, historytoday.com)

“The Lord has suffered as much for me”….were the last recorded words of Savonarola. These words should make us pause and catch our breath when we hear them. We are not people who like to think about our own suffering – in fact we try as hard as we can to avoid suffering – at least the day to day aches and pains that we have to endure. But to suffer our own martyrdom, that is another level of faith few will face in their lives. However, a Christian is martyred in the world every five minutes. Christians are the most martyred religion in the world. That again should catch our breath, and appreciate the freedom we have to express our faith. So, shouldn’t we take and cherish every opportunity when presented to us?

Pastor Dave

* Collect bottles of shampoo and conditioner this week for Trinity’s Table.