SAVONAROLA, Jerome, a famous Italian monk, was born at Ferrara in 1452, being descended of a noble family. At the age of twenty-two he assumed the habit of a Dominican friar, without the knowledge of his parents, and distinguished himself in that order by his piety and ability as a preacher. Florence was the theatre where he chose to appear, and where he preached, confessed, and wrote. He had address enough to place himself at the head of the faction which opposed the family of the Medici. He explained the Apocalypse, and there found a prophecy which foretold the destruction of his opponents. He predicted a renovation of the church, and declaimed with much severity against the clergy and the court of Rome. Alexander VI. excommunicated him, and prohibited him from preaching. He derided the anathemas of the pope; yet he forbore for some time from preaching, and then resumed his employment with more applause than before. The pope and the Medici family then thought of attacking him with his own weapons. Savonarola having posted up a thesis as a subject of disputation, a Franciscan, at their instigation, offered to prove it heretical. The Franciscan was seconded by his brother friars, and Savonarola by his; and thus the two orders were at open war with each other. To settle the dispute, and to convince their antagonists of the superior sanctity of Savonarola, one of the Dominicans offered to walk through a fire; and in order to prove his wickedness, a Franciscan agreed to the same experiment. The multitude, eager to witness so extraordinary a spectacle, urged both parties to come to a decision; and the magistrates were constrained to give their consent. Accordingly, Saturday the 7th of April 1498 was fixed for the trial. On that day the champions appeared; but when they saw one another in cold blood, and beheld the wood in flames, they were seized with fear, and very anxious to escape, by any subterfuge, the imminent danger into which they had rashly thrown themselves. The Dominican pretended he could not enter the flames without the host in his hand. This the magistrates obstinately refused to allow; and the Dominican’s fortitude was not put to the test The Franciscans incited the multitude against their opponents, who accordingly assaulted their monastery, broke open the gates, which were shut against them, and entered by force. Upon this, the magistrates thought it necessary to bring Savonarola to trial as an impostor. He was put to the torture and examined, and the answers which he gave fully evinced that he was both a cheat and a fanatic. He boasted of having frequent conversations with God, and he found his brother friars credulous enough to believe him. One of the Dominicans who had shared in his sufferings, affirmed that he saw the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove, with feathers of gold and silver, twice in one day alight on the shoulder of Savonarola and peck his ear; and he pretended also that he had violent combats with demons. John Francis Picus, count of Mirandola, who wrote his life, assures us that the devils which infested the convent of the Dominicans trembled at the sight of Friar Jerome, and that out of vexation they always suppressed some letters of his name in pronouncing it He expelled them from all the cells of the monastery. When he went round the convent sprinkling holy water to defend the friars from the insults of the demons, it is said that the evil spirits spread thick clouds before him to prevent his passage. At length, the Pope Alexander VI. sent the chief of the Dominicans, with Bishop Romolino, to degrade him from holy orders, and to deliver him up to the secular judges with his two fanatical associates. They were condemned to be hanged and burned on the 23d of May 1498. Savonarola submitted to the execution of the sentence with great firmness and devotion, and without uttering a word respecting his guilt or his innocence. He was in the forty-sixth year of his age. His works have been published at Leyden in six vols, 12mo.