Savonarola Makes Last Stand: Jan-Feb 1498

The Feast of Epiphany, the celebrations marking the appearance of the divine Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi, is the chief Catholic Festival in January. In Florence, Italy, in the year 1498, there was a private ceremony held at San Marco where friar Savonarola received visitors from the city's Signoria who came to kiss his hand. But Savonarola had been excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI, and all who heard or worked with him were putting themselves at risk of such ostracism as well. He had been forbidden from preaching, but, the little friar himself said he answered to God's will, not the Pope's. His critics were outraged by the performance at San Marco but his followers patiently worked for a motion by the Great Council for word that the friar could preach again.

By the first of February, Savonarola himself was telling Manfredi, the Ambassador to Ferrara, that he was ready to preach, if he could only get a sign. He told others he was waiting for a reprieve from the Papal See. But, when it became clear in those first couple weeks there would be no absolution or reparation with the Church without the matter of Pisa being resolved, Savonarola once again took to the podium.

This matter of Pisa, of course, was Florence's recent alliance with France and Charles VIII, for control of interests over Pisa. The Pope and Venice had created a League trying to secure Pisa against its control by France or Florence. The war had not been trivial and would continue to rage. Born from the disaster when Piero de' Medici had given Pisa away to the French King in his 1494 march down the length of Italy, the French had quickly assumed control and Florence then, quickly threw Piero and all his family (and several of his closest allies) out of the city. Savonarola had been the one then preaching that  the French incursion was God's agent of 'scourge and renewal', and the King was a New Cyrus, a Second Charlemagne.  Everyone in Italy had taken sides or could be paid to do so, and now, the Pope's minions were saying flatly "that Florence had to abandon its alliance with Charles VIII and join the League to keep him out of Italy." [p.249] But Savonarola said in the new year that his followers were dying of spiritual hunger.

On the morning of February 11, Savonarola and his men returned.

"From San Marco he and his friars walked in stately procession but without his usual armed escort, through streets bordered by the devout, the curious, and the hostile, to the Cathedral. Entering he made his way along the enormous nave, less crowded than in former times, and mounted to the pulpit. When the congregation had finished singing the Te Deum Laudamus he recited the Third Psalm, "O Lord, why are my foes so many?" then took up his text." [p.249]

His sermon was on Exodus and the story of Hebrew liberation from their captivity in Egypt. So too, would the present-day Florentines be liberated from their current enemies. He would be their Moses and lead them across the Red Sea. Pharoah had ordered him to be silent, but he could not. He instead would be their prophet, lawgiver, protector, and champion. He could accept Pharoah's authority, His Holiness in Rome, but the Pope's pronouncements did not apply to him, as his orders came from God. If his detractors denied his message then they should should come and see him hold the sacrament and hear his sermon. If he was not telling the word of God then, may the fire of God come down and consume him. [p.252]

The following Sunday, 18 February he continued his sermon on Exodus. By the following Sunday, he announced plans for a return to the great bonfires over Carneval as in previous years. Clearly, the 'little' Dominican friar, Savonarola was not backing down. So fiery were his words, that many believed he would perform a miracle by the following Shrove Tueday. It didn't happen, and he wasn't struck down, so his followers would defend him anyway. The bonfire this year included copies of Pulci's Il Morgante, nude sculptures, and even looking glasses. Twelve boys dressed in white carrying crosses made their way to the Piazza to start the blaze. And then they danced and the fervent crowd joined in. [p.253] An independent writer said the friar watched from a distance.

Meanwhile, in a letter to his friend Ricciardo Becchi, Nicolo Macchiavelli reported that a new Signoria and Gonfaolniere had been selected on 26 February, and which Savonarola feared was nearly two-thirds hostile to him. So, in a change Macchiavelli notes, the friar was instead warning about tyranny from Rome and that the time had come for Florentines to unite against the hostile forces that were then trying to undermine him from within the city. [p.258]

Almost immediately, the new government began to act. By the 14th of March another pratica had been assembled to finally, after numerous attempts, to settle what should be done. By the end of the month the mob would decide it needed proof, in order to confirm their faith, one way or another.
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quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011