Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-09-12

1t is now more than 400 years since
mankind saw the example of great
churchman standing up unaided and
alone to voice the will of his masters
and to rebuke as he did, vice and self
ishness and lust of power. That man
was Savonarola. Savonarola was not
canonized. His name does not grace
the calendar of the saints, but he was
the nearest churchman to the type OF
Christ that appeared since the cruel.
fixion, and UNNECESSARILY the greatest
since his own day.
Sayonarola lived in Florence when
Florence was the first city of the world
and when it was ruled by a man to
whom time serving writer's have given
the name of Lorenzo the magnificent,
but whose proper designation ought to
have been the corrupt Podesta of the
Italian Renaissance
The Medici were extensive mer-
chants in Florence and held power by
packing the primaries They held
Florence in their grasp by first select
ing its rulers inside the walls of the
palace and then condescending to call
the people together to announce the
names of those upon whom the choice
had fallen. The last lusty praetor of
this line, but one, was this Lorenzo
and he had exhausted the spice of life
at the age of forty-four years. His
motto was to encourage cheerful
llxy hn oil
rupt as to call for the censure of
Savonarola; but he was the papal
treasurer as well as dictator of the
republic. He had sufficient pull" to
remove the monk to a parish on the
top of neighboring mountain where
Savonarola could appreciate the plight
of Tantalus by looking down upon the
Florentine city while too far away to
make his voice heard at the lecher-
GUS court in the streets.
There were no extras" or tele-
graphs in those days and Punishment
from the great city was equivalent to
complete isolation. However, from
his isolation Savonarola preached al
ternately against both church and
state, or to be more accurate, against
the rival despots who then repre-
scented both institutions in Italy. A
time came when Lorenzo fell out with
the vatican. Lorenzo who felt tired
of ruling a republic whose people gave
him so much his way, resolved upon
forming dynasty by grasping the
neighboring states of Naples and
Milan. He and his family had robbed
the Florentines but the Medici had
compounded for other crimes by
richly endowed libraries and had
freely given money thus wrung from
want for the erection of churches.
In carrying out his dynastic schemes
1t struck Lorenzo the magnificent that
1t would give him more prestige If he
now recalled Savonarola from his
seclusion in the mountains, particu-
larry as the bent of Savonarola's
preaching had been minatory of the
vatican which was secretly DESTROYS
of baking Lorenzos plan of unifying
Florence. Naples and Milan in one
dynasty as it was later that of Garri-
baldi and of Victor Emmanuel.
Savonarola was now accordingly
brought back to Florence and installed
in the church of St Mark. He again
denounced all the vices and hypocrisy
of the joint despots of Italy with re-
newed zeal and was promptly sum
moned to Rome. He refused to go
was summoned again and
again declined. AS Lorenzo had richly
endowed this church of st. Mark he
the successive pastors to call
at the palace and pay their respects
on every anniversary of his birth.
positively declined to rec
ognize any such arrangement. He
refused to pay any heed whatever to
the summons of Lorenzo. He was an
man who meant TO keen
his life and sacred character in strong
contrast to the sluggish and salacious
tendencies of his times. This exam
pie will illustrate the mans character
One day the princess of a burgher