Girolamo Savonarola

Girolamo Savonarola

Girolamo Savonarola
1452-1498
Italian reformer. Girolamo Savonarola was in a Dominican monastery for seven years. He began to preach the Bible in Florence, Italy, in 1481. This city became a republic due to Savonarola’s preaching and his immense popularity with the common people. They elected him to be the city manager.

Pope Alexander VI offered him a cardinal’s position if he would quit preaching the Bible and exposing the sins of the Vatican. Savonarola refused the “red hat” of the cardinal and replied, “I’ll take a red hat of blood.” He was excommunicated, imprisoned, tortured, then burned at the stake.

Before dying, he said, “Rome will not quench this fire.” Nineteen years after Savonarola’s death, Martin Luther began the Reformation.

ARTIST’S NOTE: The color motif is that of blood and gloom. Alexander’s offer is suspended over Savonarola’s head, with its real import pictured clearly: the price of blood.

Ruckman ’66