Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them November 26, 1955 Issue

Girolamo Savonarola, 1452–1498

[Mentioned in Science and Health, p. 40]

When the Renaissance was at its height in Florence, Savonarola preached his great sermons on the need for repentance and reformation, mingling predictions of doom with hopes for a golden age in morals. So vital were his sermons that people often waited 3 or 4 hours for the cathedral to open.

Yet he had not been successful in his first assignments. Very early the "misery of the world and iniquities of men" had so depressed him that he decided not to become a physician like his father. Instead he entered a Dominican monastery in Bologna. After 6 years there he was sent home to Ferrara, but his audiences dwindled. His next assignment was at St. Mark's in Florence, where his instruction of the novices was outstanding, but his preaching was not a success. He spent the next 4 years in Lombardy as an itinerant preacher and learned to speak as he had taught—from his heart. His fame became so great that Lorenzo de Medici recalled him to St. Mark's. His success was instant.

The following year Savonarola was made Prior of St. Mark's. When asked why he did not pay a visit to Lorenzo, Savonarola replied, "I recognize my election as coming from God alone, and to Him alone will I profess obedience." They met, however, when Lorenzo sent for him to ask for absolution. Savonarola agreed to absolve him on 3 conditions: 1. that he express a full faith in God's mercy; 2. that he restore his ill-gotten gains; 3. that he restore liberty to Florence. Lorenzo would not accept the third. After Lorenzo's death the Prior did not lessen his attacks against corruption in the city or in the church. His desire to rid Florence of the Medici involved him in politics, and he sent on his own responsibility a letter of welcome to Charles VIII of France. Savonarola effected Charles' peaceful withdrawal when it was plain that his demands were unreasonable. The expulsion of the Medici necessitated a new constitution for Florence and tax reforms. Even while Savonarola was at the head of these reforms, his enemies were plotting his downfall.

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