THE

UNITED SECESSION MAGAZINE,

FOR MAY, 1844.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

LIFE OF GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA.*

PART FIRST.

LUTHER, on his way to the famous diet of Worms, was shown, by a priest at Naumberg, the portrait of a distinguished martyr who had suffered death by the cruelty of Rome some years before.† The bold reformer looked for a while at the painting in silence, and cherishing increased faith in God from the lesson of patience unto death it taught him, he fearlessly proceeded on his memorable journey. The portrait shown him was that of the Italian reformer whose life we propose now briefly to trace. GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA was born at Ferrara, in the year 1452, of parents descended from a noble family of Padua. He received his early education mostly from his father and grandfather, under whose care he soon gave indications of those great talents for which he became in after life so distinguished. As was then the custom in the training of youth, his attention was directed to the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, but his active inquiring mind sought for itself a better rest than their teachings can yield. His observing eye was open to the flagrant wickedness of the world around him, his tender conscience testified to the sins within him, and he early began to seek the true refuge which religion affords. But in that age saving truth was buried under the rubbish of incumbent superstitions, so that the youthful inquirer was for a season doomed to great labour and conflict ere he found the safe resting-place. At first the church, of whose glaring corruptions he was yet in great measure ignorant, seemed to be the safeguard of the soul's interests. With her, therefore, he promised himself repose, and chose the life of a monk, that he might give himself up to the service of God. Knowing that his father would oppose him in carrying his resolution into effect, he waited an opportunity for leaving home unobserved, which he accomplished in April 1475, when he entered the Dominican monastery at Bologna.

He had now, at twenty-three years of age, when the heart is so full of hope, come to the place of expected repose; but his soul was not satisfied. He had taken refuge here hoping to find religion all around him, in the pious lives of the so-called sacred brotherhood; but he saw hypocrites under the mask, "transacting villanies that common sinners

* Life and Times of Savonarola, illustrating the progress of the Reformation in Italy. London: Whittaker and Co. 1844. A work of interest, from the character it delineates; but to be read with caution, especially where the biographer indulges much in the exhibition of his own religious sentiments, some of which are not only misty, but extremely questionable.

+ D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation. Part 2d, page 197. Whittaker's Edition. 2 D

NO. V. VOL. I.

durst not meddle with ;" and instead of realizing the promised seclusion for divine contemplation, he was employed, many weary years, in teaching Aristotle and the Schoolmen, from whose barren pages he had just

Here, however, he became acquainted with the writings of Augustine, to whom he gave long nights of deep study in his solitary cell, and derived from him that saving knowledge of divine truth which gave rest to his troubled heart. In this part of their history, there is a striking agreement between Savonarola at Bologna, and Luther at Erfurth. Both entered the monastery pressed by the burden of sin, and seeking relief, but in vain, from spiritual sorrows by the bodily services of the cloister, and both agree in their passionate admiration of Augustine, from whose works they received new lights on the deep corruptions of the human heart, and the freeness of divine grace.

Savonarola's observation of the church's corruptions made him hesitate as to his entering into priest's orders. "The chaste time of the first church," he would say," has departed. Rome, polluted with all vices, rushes on to a second fall. Would you wish your son a wicked man, make him a priest. Oh, how much poison will he swallow." Afterwards, however, he surmounted these practical difficulties, and became a preacher in 1483, the year of Luther's birth. In the capacity of a preacher of righteousness he went to Florence, with high character for learning, and glowing hopes of success; but in his first attempts at pulpit eloquence he entirely failed, and retired desponding from the scene of his labours. "I had," says he, "neither voice nor lungs, nor style. My preaching disgusted every one. I could not have moved so much as a chicken." Yet, though disappointed, the youth feels a spirit of power within him which must do great things. He does not despair, but retires to prepare for future efforts and success. While, then, he is in retirement, striving, by severe application, to unseal the fountain of eloquence which afterwards poured forth so copious and healing waters, and before we trace the effects of his powerful preaching, we shall take a rapid glance at the state of religion in Italy when Savonarola appeared as the reformer of the church.

*

The pure sanctifying truths of primitive christianity, as preached by Paul at Rome, seem to have taken a firm hold of the Italian mind, and it is remarkable that ages after the supremacy of the pope was acknowledged in other lands, his arrogant claims were resisted by the churches in Italy. It was not till the eleventh century that the Roman pontiff succeeded in having his sovereign authority acknowledged in the diocese of Milan, which had till then continued independent of his sway, and conducted its worship according to the ritual of the Ambrosian liturgy. The yoke thus submitted to with reluctance and indignation, was grievous to be borne. In the ninth century, Claude of Turin distinguished himself, not less by his vigorous opposition to the image, worship, and mummeries of Romanism, than by his excellent commentaries on scripture. The evangelical dissenters of the middle ages, under the different names of Vaudois, Waldenses, and Albigenses, who lifted up their noble testimony to the truth of God, having passed the Alps, were found in various parts of Italy, examples of primitive" believers in faith, and

See Dr M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Italy in the 16th century,—a work whose great merits as a clear and classic record of noble actions and characters have not yet been sufficiently appreciated by the British churches.

love, and purity." Early in the thirteenth century, and subsequently, furious bulls were fulminated against them, delivering them over to the fires of the inquisition; but they were the worthy representatives of that cause which is indestructible, and, though changing place, they still lived to speak the truth. One settlement of these " peculiar people,” in Calabria, where they were established in the year 1370, was especially remarkable, not only for its lowing herds, and valleys covered with corn, and smiling villages, but especially for its being the scene on which first dawned the hallowed light of reviving literature in Italy -the welcome harbinger of the coming reformation. It was from Barlaam, a monk of Calabria, that the celebrated Petrarch obtained his knowledge of the Greek language, and Bocaccio was taught it by a native of the same place. By means of these, and others famous in the annals of literature, the cause of letters advanced in Italy with rapid steps. The mind of man was roused from the torpor induced by the slumber of centuries,-the spell of superstition, on which popish rites rested, was broken-men's eyes were opened, and they were amazed to witness the prodigious delusions in which they had been held, and the numberless corruptions in the church with which they were surrounded. Hence, in the literature of the day, the vices of the clergy were fearlessly exposed, the abuses of the church were denounced,―poetry and wit, stirring eloquence, and powerful remonstrance, were all employed to effect reform in the affairs of the church. Yet one thing was wanting in these struggles of the men of letters towards the desired regeneration-it was the life of God, infusing new sap into the root, and sending healthful influence to the topmost bough of the tree of holiness, by which it flourishes "like a green olive tree in the house of God." Such men as Danté, and Petrarch, and Bocaccio, were great in the walks of this world's literature, but their works are mournfully barren in that great principle which raises men to God. Lorenzo de Medici, the lauded patron of letters, was almost delirious with joy when his son, at seven years of age, was chosen a cardinal; and afterwards, when practical truth trenched on his despotic sway, he turned her most bitter foe. Bembo, of whom it has been said that he "opened a new Augustan age, and emulated Cicero and Virgil with equal success,"-affixed his name to the detestable bull, justifying the sale of indulgences-and the polite scholar Sadolet disgraced his elegant pen by composing and signing the decree which branded Luther as a heretic, and by affixing his name to a paper which prohibited the colloquies of Erasmus from being read in seminaries of learning. Something more divine and heavenly, then, was needed than these efforts of present literature to raise the church to sit with her living head; however useful as auxiliaries, they wanted that life which clothes the earth with the beauties of the new creation.

To the honoured work of advancing his cause by means of gospel truth, God raised up, in the early part of the fifteenth century, Laurentius Valla, of whom Erasmus has said that he "rescued literature from her grave, and restored Italy to the splendour of her ancient eloquence." From such a judge this is great praise. He did still more than this, however, in his numerous critical remarks on scripture, and his enlightened works on theology, for which he was condemned to the flames, but was

saved from a martyr's death by the timely aid of Alphonsus of Arragon. It is not without reason that he is called by Bellarmine the precursor of all the Lutherans. Thus Italy, which had been among the last to come under the darkness of the Roman anti-Christ, was of the first to receive the cheering rays of truth in the rise of the better sun. And with the light of literature before him, yet with ignorance, superstition, and corruption prevailing every where in the church, Savonarola commenced his fervent career as a preacher of "the gospel which is according to godliness." He was far from being a perfect man, either in his views of scripture truth, or in the manner in which he used the weapons of our warfare against the enemy; but considering the times and circumstances in which he was placed, his life is invested with no common interest.

After his failure, on his first appearance as a preacher at Florence, Savonarola withdrew to places of less note, where, benefiting by his recent discipline, he exercised in quietness his preaching powers, till, by degrees, his defects were corrected, and his impassioned eloquence was listened to with universal admiration. In the year 1485, he proceeded to Brescia, where his spirit was moved within him at the corruptions which he beheld; and in his expositions of the visions of the book of Revelation, he boldly and eloquently denounced the sins of the Church. The people, knowing well as they did that the dark picture he drew of abounding iniquities was according to truth, responded to his appeals for reformation, and warmly applauded the fearless manner with which he preached the truth of scripture. With Savonarola, however, it was only the dawn of fitness for proclaiming the grace of God's holy gospel. In his own heart, we believe, he held, at this period, the truth in love, and he spake this truth which he felt with great boldness; but he was ever prone to mistake violence for energy, and he required a season for calm preparation, to inform his mind better on the doctrines of the gospel and to soften the asperities of his spirit and his speech. Feeling, apparently, his need of this, after his successful and stirring preaching at Brescia, he retired again in great measure from public labour, and devoted himself to the study of the scriptures and his favourite Augustine. It is not till 1489 that we find him again acting prominently as a preacher, and then, prepared by deep meditation, and admired for powers of no ordinary eloquence, he entered on his eventful course as a reformer at Florence, with which his name is henceforth to be associated. To this famous city he was invited by the head of the celebrated house of the Medici, who had been hitherto regarded as the fathers of this state. Lorenzo de Medici, at this time the representative of this distinguished family, was following the same tactics as had regulated his immediate predecessors. While affecting to be only the servant of the republic, and in many things really encouraging freedom of inquiry by his love of letters, he ruled the citizens with a near approach to despotic sway. Proud of the accession of such a man as Savonarola, to add higher influence and honour to Florence, Lorenzo made him prior of the Dominican monastery of San Marco. Here, changed in position from an humble priest to an honoured prior, and from an ineffective preacher to a thrilling, applauded, orator, Savonarola commenced his lectures to crowded audiences, composed of the

most distinguished men of the state. The preacher had to fight a doubtful battle in his struggle for reformation. The policy of the Medici was necessarily selfish; the taste of the men of letters who had been attracted hither by the patronage of Lorenzo, was in favour of the beautiful rather than the true; and hence a preacher, whose great aim was the exhibition of truth, simple and sanctifying, was likely soon to be suspected and opposed. Savonarola speedily saw this, and wrote thus, mourning over the state of religion around him :- "In our days, when all Christians have come to such a pass that they communicate only once a year, and that with a very sorry preparation, they are worse than the heathen were, and are every day becoming more depraved. Every year they confess their sins and yet return to the same sins, promising God every time to live better, but never performing their promises; and our priests are yet worse than the laity. Thus Christians have forsaken the true service of Christ, they occupy themselves with outward ceremonies, and know nothing of the inner service of God. Seldom or never do they read the scriptures, or if they read them, they have no taste for them. Who will give us,' say they, 'to hear Cicero's eloquence or the soft diction of Plato, for the scriptures are far too simple, and contain food only for women. Preach to us the refined and sublime.' Alas, the princes and heads of the people will not hear the truth, but say, 'preach to us what pleases us-preach to us flatteries, and tell us something good.' And thus the Christian people now wander in great darkness.”—P. 128.

On the 1st of August 1489, as the chapel of San Marco was too small to contain the crowds which thronged to hear the earnest preacher, he commenced to address them in the garden of the cloister, under a shrubbery of Damascus roses. His theme was the judgments predicted in the Apocalypse as coming on Babylon for her great wickedness, and he poured forth such a stream of powerful eloquence in denouncing the sins of the day, that the effect on his audience was overpowering. Those who were waiting for the salvation of Israel hailed him as a messenger from God, while others murmured that "he depended on false and foolish visions." Lorenzo's keen eye soon observed that the preacher whom he had invited to the city to please him and his associates by his eloquence, was much too plain and practical, alike with prince and people, to be pleasing, and he seems to have shown to Savonarola no dubious indications of his growing displeasure at him for his impartial rebukes. The latter, however, felt that he was entrusted with a mission whose dignity forbade him to crouch in servility to the highest of the princes of the earth; and an opportunity soon occurred for his showing Lorenzo that he who had been bold in words of reproof would be independent in action. About a year after his entering on the duties of prior of San Marco, the ceremony of instalment into the office took place, on which occasion, according to previous custom, he expected to make a formal visit to the head of the house of the Medici, and commend the convent to his protection. This custom, which seemed to him to savour of servility and to encourage the strong ambition of that house for supreme power, Savonarola refused to observe, and when implored by the timid brotherhood to refrain from giving offence, he demanded, "Who has raised me to this dignity,

was