Maggie's Farm

Savonarola, Erasmus, and the pre-Reformation

I found a piece (actually, part of a lecture series by Kreis) which nicely and succinctly addresses what was going on in Italy, and in Europe, during the 1400s and early 1500s. Specifically, the differences in trends between northern and southern Europe; the power of Savonarola and his Bonfires of the Vanities; and the poor reputation of the Church at that time leading up to Luther.

To view Savonarola as a "bad guy" is to make the error of viewing history through our present point of view. He was a reformer, an evangelist, and a true believer with many intellectuals and artists as followers (including Lorenzo the Magnificent and Botticelli), and it was the Church's fear and distrust of him which led to his execution at the spot below, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where I took this photo 12 days ago.