The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-17
SAVONAR0LA.
BY REV. L. J. DINsMoRE.
Columbus. Wis.,


derful of shapes that appear in the back
ground of Protestant history, is the
gigantic character knownEas SavOnarola,
the priest, the agitator, the reformer, of
Florence. He sprang from obscurity,
rose into worldwide prominence, and
was soon overpowered by an irresisti-
BILE flood of hate, slander and angry
passions. For long years he was ex-
alted as saint, or villified as a hypo-
crite. Even now lis character is scarcely
understood. But it isYooming to be
generally thought that he was a plain,
honest man, of noble spirit and high
intentions, and was carried on not only
by the intensity of his own convictions,
but by the fevered society about him.
The world was in commotion, old things
were passing away, and the new ard
better world of modern thought was
rising from the waste Of medieval big
otry and ignorance. Social life, scholas-
tic learning, art, music, poetry, war and
government were in the ferment of
transformation. The middle ages had
come to an end, and The world was
waking to better life under the inspi-
ration of the charmed Renaissance.
Here is the wonder spot of modern his
tory. In learning it was the return to
classic simplicity in art it was the
restoration of Greek fidelity to nature,
and in religion it was the re-discovery
of conscience, and the Teassertion of
individuality. More justly speaking it
was not so much revolt against any
dogma of the church, as It was the pas
sage of the human mind over into new
fields of thought and action. Men were
+ hardly aware that their new ideas were
antagonistic to their old ones; they
supposed they could both at once be
good Catholics and devout pagans. One
great immediate cause Of this was the
fall of Constantinople in 1853, and the
consequent wide dispersion of Greek
scholars into western Europe, especially
into Italy. This migration produced
immense results. 1t opened up all the
wonders of Greek literature to the eye
of the student. And Homer and Plato,
and the-tragie poets cafdsyso occupy the
western mind
Upon Italy the effects of this new
birth were marked and immediate. A
great crowd of mighty geniuses arose
in all the chief cities of the northern
portion of the peninsula, masters of art
and song, skilled in the sciences, deeply
read in classic learning. There were
Dante, and Petrarch, and Boccaccio.
Dante lifted the curtains and disclosed
at once the deep blackness of the habi-
tations of guilt, aud the transcendent
glory of the home of the righteous.
And he sung to the common people in
their own tongue. Petrarch called up
the wonders of the old classic world for
the delight of the scholar, aud the edu-
cation of the race. And Boccaccio sang
of the world, not as the abode of sorrow,
but as a scene of mirth and sunshine.
And there were Michael Angelo, and
MirandOla, and Polezeano-what long
list of illustrious names might be gath
cred from the records of the opening
years of the Renaissance!
Into this strange struggling world,
feeling its way blindly to the future,
but with every sense awake, and every
nerve throbbing with the keenest life,
Jerome SavonarOla was born in the city
of Ferrara, Sept. 2l, 1852. He was of
honorable family, and his grandfather
a distinguished physician. In his foot
steps the family desired the young man
to follow but he elected otherwise.
The splendor and the shame of the
Renaissance eliminated as he approach
ed maturity, and corruption reached
the flood tide of evil in the reign of
Pope Alexander VI. The purest learn
ing, the most exalted art, were often
joined to the most mOnstrous moral de-
pravity, and there seemed decreed at
once the death of faith and the utter
decay of morals. OF sensitive dispo-
sition, and keenly alive to the profound
misery of hearts empty at once of faith
and morals, all the thoughts of the
young man turned to the priesthood as
his only hope of comfort and peace.
There he thought he could withdraw
from the world, and far from it's sin
and shame, could dwell in a spiritual
world of prayer, fasting and meditation.
Accordingly, in his oath year, he en-
tered a monastery, that he might es-
cape from himself, and in utter seclu-
sion from the great and busy scenes of
human activity, he might dwell with
God alone. But his superiOrs soon de-
tected the wonderful genius of the lad,
and could not consent that the world
/ should lose him. They set him to the
study of theology. For seven years he
was learning how to preach. Some of
his library labors of this time remain,
among them a poem on 1.-The Ruin of
the World" closing with the refrain,
"Weep, and be silent" Well might he
weep. Over the fair Italian cities had
flowed a great wave of corruption, and
poisoned society at its very center.
And the church was deliled in its inner