Episode 39: Bonfire of the Vanities

I Take History With My Coffee Podcast
Episode 39
Title: Bonfire of the Vanities

     Earth is so pulled down by every vice
     That it will never stand again
     And Rome, the capital, slips into the muck,
     Never more to rise again

Girolamo Savonarola, On the Ruin of the World, 1472

Welcome back to the I Take History With My Coffee podcast, where we explore history in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee.

History is replete with examples of great men having less than adequate offspring.  Such was the case of Lorenzo de Medici.  His son Piero lacked the character and sufficient talents to handle the coming crisis.  Yet it can be argued that even if he had inherited his father’s skills, it would not have been enough to ward off the coming storm.  A French invasion was inevitable; it was just a matter of time.  Given the political fragmentation of Italy, even Lorenzo the Magnificent would have struggled to keep control of the situation.  Piero’s problems were not only with the French but also with his inability to build a connection with the citizens of Florence.

Stylized as Piero II, he assumed control of the family’s unofficial rule in Florence at age twenty-two upon his father’s death in 1492.  His leadership marked a departure from Lorenzo's strategic and diplomatic acumen.  While Piero had received the customary Medici education and shared his father's interests in poetry and manuscript collecting, he lacked Lorenzo's intense focus and ability to anticipate and address opposition. Piero's assumption of power was marked by a sense of entitlement and a belief that early success exempted him from continuous effort.

His short-lived reign was marked by inexperience and an uncontrollable temper.  His downfall is often attributed to haughtiness, political ineptitude, and the overall precarious situation in Italy.  Piero faced challenges inherited from his father, including a banking company on the verge of bankruptcy. Unlike Lorenzo, Piero lacked the financial resources to employ lavish displays or bribery as tools of statecraft. His lack of imagination in foreign policy became evident when he unwittingly destabilized the delicate balance between Milan and Florence, prompting Ludovico Sforza to seek help from the French.  His trust in the alliance between Florence, the Papacy, and Naples proved ineffective as Charles VIII’s forces crossed into Tuscany without resistance.

Piero's misguided alignment with Naples partly led to the invasion of Charles VIII of France in 1494. Charles's army advanced into Tuscany, besieging its frontier fortresses defended by Piero's mercenary troops. Sarzana fell to French forces, prompting Piero to face two choices: endure a siege of Florence or negotiate a partial surrender to persuade the French King to pass through Tuscany without attacking the capital. Piero opted for the latter, perhaps thinking about his father’s trip to Naples, and he sought a personal interview with Charles VIII.

Upon encountering the organized French army for the first time, Piero realized the futility of opposing such a force and understood the necessity of preventing Florence from falling under foreign assault. Negotiations ensued, resulting in Charles agreeing to pass peacefully through Tuscany but insisting on holding certain fortresses until the conquest of Naples was complete. In a hasty and impulsive move, Piero sought to appease Charles and agreed to the French terms. This decision, made without consulting the Signoria in Florence, sparked resentment.

The Signoria, alarmed by Piero's concessions, acted independently of the Medici ruler.  They sent embassies to Charles to assert that an agreement with Piero did not equate to a treaty with Florence. However, Charles occupied Pisa and moved towards Florence along the Arno.
 
Pietro returned to Florence at the beginning of November 1494, expecting gratitude for sparing the city from potential devastation. However, the citizens, uninformed about the strength of Charles's army, reacted angrily at the surrender of fortresses. Piero had misjudged the political climate in Florence and had not recognized the longstanding resentment of the Medici.  Sensing a shift in the political situation, the citizens stormed the Medici palace, forcing Piero and his two brothers to flee the city.  A decree of banishment followed this on November 9. 1494.  This would effectively end Medici rule in Florence for nearly two decades.  

Charles VIII entered the city triumphantly on November 17th. Accompanied by approximately 10,000 troops, he arrived in Florence as a conqueror. In a symbolic gesture, the Florentines removed the gates for his entry and created a breach in the city walls nearby. The king's army paraded through the city, with many soldiers displaying their weapons as if advancing into action.

Charles VIII appeared in bejeweled armor beneath velvet robes and gold cloth. He carried a lance despite wearing a crowned hat instead of a helmet. While putting on a show of joyous greeting, the Florentines remained cautious throughout Charles' stay, vigilant for any signs of potential pillaging by his soldiers. But Charles recognized that Florence held significant value as an ally rather than as a looted and hostile city.  He had to consider the need to maintain open routes through Italy for his army from the south. Additionally, he sought the military and financial support that Florence could potentially provide.

After the departure of Charles VIII, the city’s citizens engaged in a brief debate to frame a new constitution.  The ruling regime closed ranks, and a formal Parlamento was convened in December. On the surface, the proposals seemed sweeping, promising a return to the 'open' constitution before Cosimo de Medici’s exile in 1434. However, the mechanisms appeared to consolidate power in the hands of those who had been part of the old regime, albeit purged of outright Medici supporters.

Amidst the political debates, disillusionment spread among the population, questioning whether the expulsion of the Medici indeed served the people or merely preserved the existing ruling elite. The desire for broader representation in government gained momentum, drawing inspiration from past ideals and even looking to the example of the Venetian Great Council.  With one significant modification, the resulting constitution resembled a return to the republic of the past. It allowed for the re-establishment of the beloved signory of eight priors, led by a gonfalonier of Justice with the short two-month term.  The key feature of this constitutional reform was the citizens' commitment to preventing the return of the Medici. To achieve this, they made a crucial change by shifting the ultimate sovereign authority from the parliament, which the Medici had manipulated for their benefit, to a new institution known as the Grand Council.

Membership in the Grand Council was granted to all citizens with ancestors who had held significant offices for three generations. This inclusive approach resulted in a sizable body of three thousand members. To address the challenge of effectiveness due to their large number, the Grand Council was divided into three groups, each serving in rotation for three-month periods.

As the highest authority, the Grand Council held legislative power, symbolizing Florence's rejection of the Medici. It marked a stark contrast to the oligarchical dominance of the recent past, allowing a significant portion of the male population to participate in decision-making processes.  Yet, while theoretically allowing widespread representation, the constitution faced challenges in practice. Issues such as non-attendance, tax arrears, and voting tendencies towards well-known individuals highlighted the complexities of implementing a truly representative democracy in Florence.

The events took a stark turn in the wake of the banishment of the Medici family from Florence, contrasting with the more composed banishments of Cosimo's time. Instead of a dispassionate exile, the Medici were forced to flee. The Signoria, in response, offered substantial rewards for the heads of Piero and his brother Giovanni.  The Medici Palace became a target for enraged mobs. The government allowed the plundering of the palace, described as being "sacked from roof to cellar." Art treasures gathered painstakingly by Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo were now robbed and scattered.

The destruction of this unparalleled collection of art treasures encompassed manuscripts in various languages and valuable pieces of ancient sculpture. The loss included paintings, statues, gems, cameos, vases, and other works of art. The destruction of this invaluable collection was a lamentable event, reducing a once-admired palace to a state akin to that of being sacked by enemy troops.

A mainly symbolic act was using Donatello’s bronze statue of Judith Slaying Holofernes from the Medici Palace to serve as a monument. It was placed in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, with an inscription around its base declaring it was set up "as a warning to all who should think to tyrannize over Florence." This inscription, while sounding noble, aimed to justify the expulsion of Piero and his family. 

At this point, the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola played an influential role in the events in Florence over the next few years.  We first were introduced to Savonarola at Lorenzo de Medici’s deathbed rites.  Born in September 1452 in Ferrara, Italy, Savonarola grew up in a wealthy and influential family connected to the princely Este court of Ferrara. His grandfather served as the court physician to the Este lords.

The Savonarola family gradually lost its wealth after the death of his grandfather, and his father faced financial struggles.  Savonarola's intellectual talents had been nurtured by his grandfather. His primary education included Latin, guided by his grandfather, and he later developed a strong interest in early Church fathers, medieval scholars, and religious texts.

He witnessed luxury and raw power at the Este court, which he would later denounce. This early exposure to the Este court contributed to his disdain for materialistic worldliness.  The influence of his grandfather's religious sentiments and an aversion toward worldly pleasures shaped Savonarola's religious and mystical inclination. 

As he matured, he turned away from classical literature and developed a moral voice. His poem "On the Ruin of the World,” written at age twenty, reflects his despair about the world’s moral decay, criticizing the corruption within Rome and the clergy, particularly Pope Sixtus IV.  While not revolutionary for his time, his anticlerical stance expressed strong criticism of the upper clergy. His poem "On the ruin of the Church," written in 1475, further emphasized his concerns about the decline of Christian heroism, ardor, love, and piety within the Church.

In 1475, Savonarola joined the Dominican Order in Bologna. At the time, the order was split into two factions.  The Conventuals believed in the communal and individual possession of property.  The Observants, on the other hand, elected to strictly observe the rule of St. Dominic, the founder of the order.  Savonarola chose the Observants faction within the Dominican Order and opposed the collective possession of property apart from what was required to carry out the Order’s mission.  

Bologna, renowned for hosting Italy's premier university, held an international allure as European students flocked there, particularly for civil and canon law studies. Savonarola, positioned on the outskirts of this vibrant academic scene at San Domenico, made remarkable progress over the next four years, which can be attributed to his unwavering commitment, intellectual insight, and deep engagement in theological studies. He exhibited a prodigious memory, approaching the point of memorizing significant portions of the Bible. In 1479, Savonarola was transferred to Ferrara, where he assumed the role of teaching master for novices. 

Reflecting on his time in Bologna and Ferrara, Savonarola considered these years as preparation for the pivotal phase of his life—the destiny-bound city of Florence. In May 1482, the Order dispatched him to Florence, specifically to the convent of San Marco, the Medici family church. His new role as chief instructor in theology and Scripture lecturer marked the beginning of his influential journey in Florence, where he would soon make a lasting impact with his eloquent and persuasive words.

But his first sojourn in Florence began poorly.  He found the citizens of Florence to be very different from Bologna and Ferrara, where princely courts had forced citizens out of public life.  Hampered by his Lombard accent, weak voice, ungainly gestures, and unpolished delivery, he left many Florentines unimpressed, and he was reduced, in his words, to deliver sermons to “a few simple men” and “some poor women.”  He stayed in Florence for five years before being recalled back to Bologna.  His departure from the city in 1487 went unnoticed.  

In the late spring of 1490, Savonarola's return to Florence was orchestrated by Lorenzo de Medici at the urging of his friend, the humanist and philosopher Pico della Mirandola. It is not clear what Lorenzo’s motivations were.   Did he seek to please Mirandola or facing his declining health, he was emotionally prepared to embrace a strong religious figure? Once an obscure monk, Savonarola returned fully formed as a teacher and theologian, becoming Prior of the San Marco convent.  Savoranola had found his voice and honed his delivery in the intervening years.

Savonarola observed the Florentine upper classes engaged in relaxed religious practices, business, and a love for worldly pursuits.  His sermons, starting in 1490, gained popularity, especially when he criticized the clergy, usury, and the vices of the rich. His attacks on the Church's corruption, simony, and the buying of Masses stirred controversy.  Savonarola intensified his sermons the following year, addressing social and economic abuses. He confronted the heads of government in a powerful sermon, criticizing their defects and calling for justice and renewal. 

At the time of the Medici expulsion in 1494, he had gained significant influence through his preaching . The precarious situation in Florence during Charles's occupation was marked by robberies, fights, and the city teetering on the brink of disaster.  Savonarola positioned Charles as an instrument of God's punishment for the sins of Italy and Rome. He advised Charles to be merciful, especially towards Florence and emphasized the need to protect the innocent, particularly women in convents.   His influence in negotiating with the King eventually led to Charles leaving Florence, much to the relief of its inhabitants.

In the 1490s, Florence experienced a tumultuous period marked by the plague and famine. Ruling families, longstanding and more recent, grappled with defining their positions in politics and society. Caught between allegiance to an elitist republic and the prospect of resigning to a princely state, these families faced a precarious path. Hope and illusions were clouded by the influence of Savonarola's vision of a New Jerusalem on many of the ruling families.  Savonarola's sermons during this period called upon Florentines to repent and seek salvation. He criticized the clergy, lords, usurers, and those lukewarm in their faith. He presented himself as a prophet, foretelling the punishment for the sins of the people.  His sermons characterized recent events as a 'revolution' and offered moral guidance to the citizens. He aimed to turn Florence into a spiritual hub and saw himself as a key player in directing the city towards a divine renewal.  He even foretold his martyrdom, expressing a deep identification with Christ. 

Savonarola, driven by the public outcry against the prevailing luxury and profligacy, made rigorous efforts to curb these behaviors. The unique movement he initiated had an unparalleled impact. The artist Botticelli, for instance, became an enthusiastic follower of Savonarola, creating artworks inspired by his sermons rather than classical allegories. Throughout his life, even Michelangelo vividly remembered Savonarola's powerful oratory and impassioned gestures, reflecting on his sermons in old age.

This Savonarolan movement mobilized children from across the city to form religious companies.  The boys were called to action, urged to purify the countryside by confronting the extravagances of the well-off. The boys' power, it was believed, came as emissaries of God, capable of warding off evil influences through their purity and faith.  These groups were tasked with carrying out a moral and spiritual cleansing, targeting vices such as gambling, blasphemy, sodomy, and luxury.  

 And Carnival was the epitome of such decadence.  Perceived as the kingdom of the devil, Carnival typically involved street revelry, obscene antics, lewd songs, mask-wearing, rock fights, and the creation of local bonfires. Lorenzo de Medici had contributed scurrilous rhymes and songs to the festivities in the 1470s.  The boys from San Marco, aged twelve to nineteen or twenty, introduced a Christian reinterpretation of Carnival. They erected altars with crucifixes and candles at street corners, replacing the traditional practices with a focus on collecting alms for the "shame-faced" poor. Instead of the lethal rock fights among lower-class boys, the adolescents targeted objects of pleasure or evil, referred to as "vanities," which would fuel a grand bonfire held on Carnival day (16 February). This transformed the local bonfire tradition into a massive fire, a “bonfire of the vanities,”  in the central government square, the Piazza della Signoria.

The collected items for the bonfire included playing cards, dice, gaming tables, chess sets, wigs, mirrors, dolls, cosmetic items, jars of scent, musical instruments, "dirty" books in Latin and the vernacular, pictures and figurines of nude women, masks, luxury cloth, and jewelry. The event’s culmination involved carefully guarding the collected items, crowning them with a devil figure, and setting them ablaze. The children even composed and recited scornful verses attacking Carnival and the devil, countering the lewd street songs of tradition.

The underlying theology behind burning "the instruments of vanity" was straightforward. It aimed at dismantling items associated with pride, the cardinal Christian sin that turned individuals away from God. In a time of widespread corruption, particularly in high places, these instruments were seen as leading Christians astray and necessitated demolition. This included mirrors, wigs, lecherous books, games of chance, and other items fostering blasphemy and lechery, contributing to the ruin of families and the deviation from God. 

Savonarola asserted his authority in the city by proclaiming it as belonging to God. He positioned himself as God's spokesperson and considered himself Christ's representative in Florence. This declaration underscored Savonarola's significance in the highly cultured European city, suggesting a parallel authority to that of the Pope, who was regarded as the vicar of Christ on earth. 

From November 1494 to the spring or summer of 1497, Savonarola held an unparalleled stature in Florence. His popularity, built on persuasive preaching and a unique blend of gentle words and fervent admonitions, made him a figure beyond challenge in the city.   His influence extended to key achievements, including defending the Great Council, securing a pardon for collaborators of the ousted Medici regime, and advocating for the participation of ordinary citizens in public life.  However, his enemies accused his followers of forming an illegal political 'sect,' giving them undue influence in governing councils.

As Savonarola's fame spread, curiosity about him grew, attracting foreign travelers and locals seeking to witness his presence. The route for his sermons became a crowded path. Yet, his notoriety fueled hatred and threats, prompting supporters' concern. By 1495, he was accompanied by armed volunteers, a force that grew to a significant number by March 1496 despite his claims against having such protection. 

The Savonarolan movement faced increasing resistance, especially from political and religious opponents.  And much of that opposition came from the Papacy.  In the next episode, we will examine Savonarola’s downfall and consider whether or not he was a precursor to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.


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