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* SAVONA. 599 SAVONAROLA. houses. The sixtecntlippiitiiiy Renaissance cathe- dral contains soiiie good paintinj^s. Savona has a handsome theatre, an episcopal palace, a tech- nical institute, and a school of navipition. There are also a library and a small picture -lallery. The city has important iron and steel foundries and extensive potteries. Other manufactures are cloth, glass, leather, firearms, chemicals, and perfumery. Ship-building and fisheries are also carried on. Population (commune), in 1881, 29,614; in 1001, 38,355. Savona was known as iSioro under the Romans. In the iliddle Ages it was a prospcroiis maritime republic, but finally succumbed to (icnoa. SAVONAROLA, sii'viVna-ro'la, OiroijVMO (1452-98). A noted Italian [ueacher and re- former. He xas born at Kerrara September 21, 1452. He received a good education and entered the Dominican Order at Bologna in 1475. Fif- teen years passed before he came prominently into public notice, and during that period he went through the usual routine of monastie life. In 1490 he went to the Jlonastery of San JIarco in Florence and began to preach sermons of such boldness and fervor that he immediately drew man.y hearers. Savonarola was then nearly forty years old. but his religious zeal had in it all the quality and fire of a younger man's temperament. Savonarola's nature was em- inently one-sided; he was a religious enthu- siast, who, seeing about him corruption and ill- doing, foimd the courage to raise his voice in reproach and in so doing suddenly discovered the secret of pojjular ajiproval and success. From the pulpit in the Church of San Marco, or of the Duomo near by. he would improvise, in hasty, emphatic fashion, vivid denunciations of the abuses of the day, of the licentiousness of the great, of the worldliness of the dignitaries of the Church ; much of his preaching was mystical, prophetic, and ajiocalyptic. These denunciations possess one special feature that appeals particu- larly to the many for whom the history of Flor- ence is chieHy the history of Italian art. Sa- vonarola's brief period of infiuence came just as the earlier inspiration of the religious painters was dying out, just as the great Ciytquecento period was dawning. His voice was raised loudly against the corrupting influences that were paganizing art, and it may be recalled that his influence was all-powerful" with Botticelli, while the grief-stricken Fra Bartolommeo practically ceased to paint after the death of one he loved and looked on as a prophet. Unfortunately, Savonarola's rapid rise coin- cided with a period of great political disturbance. Florence, long a democratic republic, had passed under the sway of the Medici. Lorenzo the Magnificent, who died in 1492, had tried, but unsuccessfully, to win over Savonarola, whose denunciations were openly directed at the reign- ing house and its supporters. But two years after the accession of Lorenzo's son and suc- cessor, Piero, in 1494, Charles VIII. of France invaded Italy at the head of a powerful army to assert a claim to the throne of Naples. Piero at first opposed the French, then treated, but dis- played such weakness that his opponents took courage and rose, driving him from Florence. The Piagnoni (weepers) then came into power, and this puritanical democratic party was that in which Savonarola had found his most fer- vent supporters. His influence now dominated the government of the city and, unfortunately for him, some of his eloquent appeals of former years were construed into a ijropliccy of the coming of the French. Events ha<I ])roved him a true prophet, and the faith of the people in their preacher accordingly increased, llis voice rose louder and still louder in denunciation of men and things. He aimed, in fact, at establish- ing an ideal Christian ciunmonwealth. So great was his hold on those who listened to his preach- ing that for some months I'lorcnce was pro- foundly moved by religious enthusiasm and ap- peared a new city. The preacher's sway did not last long; he had set his standard too "high and the Florentines soon wearied of virtue. Reaction set in. The party of the Medici, known as the Arrahbiali (maddened), began to recover ground. Savonarola had extended the field of his attacks to the Pope, Alexander VI., who, inspired per- haps more by political than by religious motives, became hostile to the Dominican pn'acher. In 1495 Savonarola was forbidden to appear in the pulpit for some months. Internal dis- serision in Florence provoked severe nu'asures on the part of the Piayiioni against the Arrabbiati, and the popularity of the democratic party rapidly declined, as did that of Savonarola. In 149" the Pope appears to have cxcomnuinicated him, but Savonarola declined to accept the Papal command and openly rebelled from the authority of the Pope. Shortly afterwards the Arrahliidti won some measure of success in the city elec- tions, and Savonarola was ordered to disci'intinue his preaching. A Franciscan friar was then put up to accomplish the Dominican's complete <lown- fall, and proposed as a test of their respective merits the ordeal by fire: the two champions were to pass down a long and narrow lane of fire between two lofty jiiles of blazing logs. Savonarola's enthusiastic disciples accepted the Franciscan's challenge without hesitation and offered to follow their prophet into the llames. He, however, was apparently already losing faith. He allowed another Dominican to take his place, but on April 7, 1498, when all Florence assembled to witness the trial, endless delays and difficulties resulted in a fruitless adjourn- ment. It was evident that the popular enthu- siasm was dead, that Savonarola had lost his hold on the Florentines. The Arrabbiati now felt they could push their attack home. The Convent of San Marco was attacked; Savonarola was im- prisoned and tried for heresy and sedition. The trials, secular and religious, were long and ac- companied by nuich torture, under which he broke down. On May 23, 1498. he was hanged and two other Dominicans with him, and their bodies were burned. Pastor declares in his His- tory of the Popes that from the letter of the Papal commissioners. May 23, 1498, it is evident that the charge of heresy in Savonarola's case is to be understood in the constructive, not in the strict, sense. His writings were numerous, an excellent selection from them being that by Vil- lari and Casanova, Scelta di prediehe e seritti (Florence, 1898). For bibliographies of works on and by Savonarola, see.Gherardi, Nuovi docu- menti e studj (ib., 1888) ; Olschki, Ribliotheca Savonaroliana (ib., 1898). The standard history of his life is by Villari (Eng. transl., London, 1899), in addition to which the following may