Judging from some poems, articles and letters written by savonarola in his early days, there are obviously two contradictory thoughts: on the one hand, he did not understand the progress of the Italian Renaissance, and even hated humanists, treating them as pagans and thinking that they had corrupted social life style, literature, art and religious teachings; On the other hand, he was very indignant at the evil deeds of the Catholic Church. He believes that the general degeneration of society is mainly caused by the corruption of priests, especially the corruption of the highest class itself. In a letter to his father, he said that he could not stand "the blind evil behavior of Italians".
On April 24th, 1475, savonarola left Ferrara for another city, Bologna. There, he joined the Domingo Association and became a faithful follower of Thomas Aquinas. With great religious enthusiasm, he devoted a lot of energy to studying and propagating the Bible, The Complete Theology of Thomas Aquinas and anti-heresy.
1479, savonarola returned to Ferrara to teach the Bible in a monastery. 1482 was sent to the monastery of St. Kyle in Domingo, Florence to preach. His profound knowledge and strict asceticism won him a great reputation there. At this time, the Vatican and the church became more and more decadent. They colluded with secular feudal lords and used all kinds of deception and coercion against the broad masses of the people, which made the people unbearable. For example, Pope pope innocent viii, who was in power from 1484 to 1492, seized millions of gold coins by selling the clergy of the church. His clergy are also dissolute and evil. As a Catholic dedicated to God, savonarola believes that all this fundamentally violates the purity of Christian doctrine. Therefore, from 1482, when he preached, he lashed out at the corrupt practices of the Pope and the church, exposed medici family's tyrannical politics in Florence at the same time, opposed the arrogance and extravagance of the rich, and warned in prophetic language that if he did not repent in time,
Savonarola has eloquent and powerful speech skills. He preached enthusiastically, which attracted the general public and influenced the whole of central Italy. On the Christian Lent (forty days before Easter) in 1485 and 1486, he made a famous sermon, pointing out that the church would be condemned by God and must be reformed and updated. His missionary activities, mixed with religious superstitions, objectively reflected the anger and desire of the people, so they were warmly supported by the people. His prestige in people's hearts is increasing day by day. 1487, he went to a Dominican seminary in Bologna as a missionary and studied theology. Since the second year, he has been sent to many cities in Italy to preach. 1490, "luxury" Lorenzo de' Medici used his influence to urge savonarola to be transferred back to Florence. Lorenzo Medici tried to win him over, but it backfired. After he returned to Florence, he boldly exposed the violence of the regime under medici family's control in his sermon.
149 1 year, savonarola became the abbot of St. Kyle monastery. Lorenzo Medici tried to silence him with threats and flattery, but to no avail. Encouraged by savonarola's sermon, the people's resistance enthusiasm is rising, and medici family's tyrant politics is in jeopardy. 1492, Lorenzo Medici died, and the eldest son Piero II de Medici succeeded as the ruler of Florence. He is a dissolute son who only cares about pleasure and doesn't care about politics. His wife is an overbearing and disgusting aristocratic lady. During the two years of Petro's rule, medici family's reputation was ruined. At that time, Italy was divided, small countries were intrigued and fighting endlessly, and they often colluded with foreign countries to attract wolves into the room. 1492, Florence and Naples secretly signed a treaty to divide Milan. Soon Naples attacked Milan. Ludovic sforza, Duke of Milan, turned to the French for help. 1September 494, French king Charles VIII, who had long coveted Italy, took the opportunity to lead an army to invade Italy. The Italian war, which lasted for more than 60 years, broke out. When the French army arrived at the gates of Florence, the people rose up to resist, while Pietro Medici and his brother Giovanni Medici publicly surrendered to the French barracks. At this time, the people of Florence who were angry and dissatisfied with the tyranny of medici family, under the leadership of savonarola, shouted the slogan of "people and freedom" and held an open uprising. When Pietro Medici and his team came back, people closed their doors and refused to enter the city. Medici family was deported and fled abroad.
After the success of the uprising, savonarola relied on people from all walks of life to restore the * * * Republic established at the end of 13 in Florence. He took full power and began to reform the political system. 1495, he expressed his views on the way to establish a new regime. He asked all 16 guilds in the city to put forward plans, and the mayor selected four best plans from 16 plan and submitted them to * * * and the China municipal government, and then the consul selected the best plan to implement. He also wrote a famous book "On the Government of Florence", which was devoted to the reform of the government. Florence listened to his suggestion, followed Venice's example, revised the Constitution, and established many new state administrative organs, such as the highest authority, the Great Council and the 80-member meeting, stipulating that all important resolutions must be passed at the plenary session of plenipotentiaries before they can take effect.
In addition, he also implemented a series of other democratic reform measures, such as imposing a progressive tax on real estate income, canceling the debts of the poor, setting up a loan office to issue small low-interest loans, expelling usurers and so on. These are undoubtedly beneficial to the people. Therefore, it was welcomed by the public.
However, the reform in savonarola is not complete. He did not and could not put forward a political program to fundamentally transform society and an economic plan to change the economic base of feudal nobles. Although he lashed out at the rich, pointing out that "the rich take the wages of ordinary people for themselves, and if they can, they will not give them money and throw them shabby rags", but they have not touched their land private rights and confiscated their gold and silver wealth; All indirect taxes are retained; Only members of the 16 guild can enjoy political rights, and a large number of helpers and employees are still excluded. His moderate reform mainly satisfied many interests of the industrial and commercial middle class.
Savonarola's success in reform and his high prestige in the public aroused the jealousy, panic and hatred of his political opponents, supporters of medici family and nobles who lost power. They formed an opposition faction "Nu Party" in Florence and plotted to unite with foreign forces to overthrow savonarola.
Savonarola is a very devout Catholic and insists on asceticism. His goal is to reform the church, revive religion, establish a theocracy centered on Florence, and promote the reform of Italy and the church. He has illusions about the French king Charles VIII. 1492, he preached in a prophetic tone, saying that Charles VIII was an angel sent by God to "destroy the evil in the world" and would soon come to Italy to win easily and help realize the church reform. According to records, in 1494, he tried to persuade Charles VIII to enter Italy as soon as possible; He accused Charles VIII of delaying the sacred mission of Florence reform and crusade; After hearing this, the king burst into tears and immediately led his army south and set foot on the journey. Savonarola fancied the establishment of theocracy, and pinned the hope of reform on the foreign invader Charles VIII, which made the uprising unsustainable and made him gradually lose the support of the people. This is an important reason for his later failure.
Savonarola's blind fantasy about Charles VIII was soon shattered. 1495 At the beginning of this year, Charles VIII captured Nablus. Germany, Aragon, Venice and the Papal States formed a grand alliance against France, and Milan joined in. At the same time, the Spanish army in Sicily began to gather. Charles VIII was forced to withdraw his troops from Naples and return to France. Pope Alexander VI once mobilized Florence to join the anti-French grand coalition, but savonarola refused, and he still hoped to keep the alliance with France.
On July 2nd1495 and 2nd1,the insidious Alexander VI sent a letter to savonarola, falsely praising his achievements and asking him to go to Rome with ulterior motives to state his reform intention. Alexander VI is one of the most dissolute and shameless popes in history. Savonarola knows his character and quality very well, so he is expected to run away. In order to avoid falling into the trap, he politely declined the call.
On September 8th, 1495, Alexander VI sent him a second letter. This time, without false praise, the whole article is full of insults and curses, ordering him to leave Florence for Bologna immediately, or he will be excommunicated. He replied firmly, pointing out that there were as many as 18 mistakes in the Pope's edict. 1495, 10 year10.6, the pope issued another decree prohibiting him from preaching, but the ban was quickly lifted.
1496 Lenten, savonarola preached the Book of Amos in the Old Testament. In this famous sermon, he vehemently attacked the Vatican's ugliness with eloquent words, and exposed Alexander VI's dissolute and lewd private life. This, of course, offended Alexander VI even more. The wily pope did not dare to use tough measures rashly, so he offered to wear the crown of cardinal for him to win over. But savonarola replied sarcastically, "Wear me a red hat? No, I want to wear a blood hat! " Rejected Alexander VI's inducements.
So, egged on by the anti-French Grand Alliance and the "Angry Party" in Florence, Alexander VI launched a new attack on him. 1October 7th, 1496, 165438+ issued another decree, ordering savonarola's St. Kyle monastery to merge with another monastery that boycotted him, in order to weaken his influence and reduce his prestige, and threatening to be excommunicated if he refused to implement it. Savonarola accepted the order after a strong protest, because he was convinced. From 65438 to 0497, he focused on religious reform and set out to establish his ideal theocracy. He believed that Florence was the location of God's earthly kingdom, and ordered the inscription he wrote on the "City Hall Building": "According to the decision of the Senate and the people, Jesus Christ was elected as the monarch of the people of Florence". He used a particularly strange way to "clarify the custom". On the last day of the carnival in 1497 and the same day in 1498, he piled up firewood in the square opposite the ruling hall, burning spices, veils, wigs, cards, gorgeous clothes and jewels and other luxuries he denounced as "the temptation of worldly glitz" and "immoral", and even classical and humanistic works, including Bugattio's. Secular music, singing and dancing, and entertainment are all prohibited. Only chants, pious prayers, charity and religious demonstrations are allowed. He strictly restricts and monitors people's private lives,
Use servants to spy on the master's daily actions and severely punish those who violate the rules. To some extent, his measures reflect the hatred of the lower class for the extremely luxurious and corrupt life of the nobility. At the same time, it is obvious that his reform did not put forward much new things, and it was still limited to the reformists of the medieval Roman church. He regarded the whole science as harmful and only agreed to a few people to study it to avoid the interruption of human knowledge tradition; Others just need to learn grammar, ethics and religious teachings. He said, "If many books that look useful are destroyed, it will be good for religion. Without so many books and so many arguments ('natural reasoning') and arguments, religion will develop faster than before. " This is actually preaching religious obscurantism, reflecting his narrow and conservative side as a Dominican priest.
In the same year, Alexander VI excommunicated him. He thought he was directly inspired and instructed by God. So he refused to recognize this decision of the Vatican and refused to obey the Pope. However, even at the moment of tension with the Pope and the ruling class of monks, he still didn't want to cut off contact with Catholicism, but earnestly appealed to the powerful Italian people to hold a religious meeting, recall Alexander VI and further implement the church reform. This reflects his historical, class and ideological limitations.
During this period, the French army allied with savonarola, because of wanton harassment and looting, aroused the strong resistance of the Italian people and was forced to give up the occupied area and leave Italy in a hurry. At the same time, Florence's economy was depressed, many factories closed down, and hunger and unemployment appeared; Many farmers who suffered from the disaster of war also fled to cities to take refuge. People's taxes are still very heavy, and low-interest loans can't fundamentally improve the poverty situation of civilians. These conditions gradually reduced savonarola's prestige and prestige among the people.
Religious opponents such as Pope Alexander VI, savonarola and the Anger Party in Florence took advantage of this situation and violently launched a political struggle against him. They incited the masses to be dissatisfied with him and organized internal riots. 1498 In May, Angry Party provoked a large-scale riot, broke into his monastery in St. Kyle, arrested him and two companions, and tortured him to extract confessions. Alexander VI sent commissioners from Rome to Florence to announce the charges against savonarola and his two companions. On May 23rd, savonarola was hanged and burned to death on charges of false prophet, religious separatist and heresy, and two of his companions were also killed.