Rendering Unto Caesar: Scoping Out the Medieval Dungeon (part 4)
[Video under the cut]
A pivotal character in Church history was an Italian monk of the Dominican Order by the name of Girolamo Savonarola. He was a contemporary of another Italian who made a name for himself by enslaving Native Americans and stealing their land. Savonarola advocated in favor of Church reform before it became a fashionable endeavor. His fans have given him credit for inspiring subsequent activists in the field such as Martin Luther and Jean Calvin. Savonarola's detractors considered him to be a political conspirator with ambitions for worldly power.
Savonarola recounted his personal visual experiences in public sermons. He related those visions to actual events. Many of his contemporaries considered him to be a lunatic. He spoke in a way that would result in psychiatric incarceration if done today. For example he claimed to be in direct communication with the material Creator of the flat and immobile Earth. His critique of the sex lives and economic injustices of political and clerical leaders earned him a martyrdom of hanging and burning in a public square in Florence along with two co-conspirators.
Some of his reforms had a rational appeal. He advocated a more just tax structure to replace the one that benefited the affluent at the expense of merchants and laborers. He opposed the despotism of the Medici family which had driven Florentine politics into the closet. He favored the inclusion of middle class people in government offices at the disfavor of the landed gentry. Marx would have seen him as a bourgeois revolutionary for such advocacy. Freemasons may recognize one of their own in his use of symbols and secret gatherings.
Like most medieval thinkers Savonarola did a grave injustice to philosophy by exploiting its rich fruits then slapping it in the face. He imitated Plato with a dialog style and used Peripatetic shadowcraft to prove that darkness is light and light, darkness. He denied any eternal merit in the ancient thinkers as he employed their style in the eternal practice of personal aggrandizement. In an effort to deflect attention from his own vanity by claiming divine inspiration he attacked the vanity of the idle rich. He attempted to replace festive pagan bonfires with "Christian" bonfires of the vanities that served as archetypes for future book burnings.
Would you consider Savonarola to be a prophet or does he better qualify as a demagogue? What lessons can we take from his story in order to understand the medieval aspects of modern politics?
Links: Lauro Martines on the history of Savonarola An excellent collection of Savonarola's written work. (Part 3 of the series)
Click to viewA pivotal character in Church history was an Italian monk of the Dominican Order by the name of Girolamo Savonarola. He was a contemporary of another Italian who made a name for himself by enslaving Native Americans and stealing their land. Savonarola advocated in favor of Church reform before it became a fashionable endeavor. His fans have given him credit for inspiring subsequent activists in the field such as Martin Luther and Jean Calvin. Savonarola's detractors considered him to be a political conspirator with ambitions for worldly power.
Savonarola recounted his personal visual experiences in public sermons. He related those visions to actual events. Many of his contemporaries considered him to be a lunatic. He spoke in a way that would result in psychiatric incarceration if done today. For example he claimed to be in direct communication with the material Creator of the flat and immobile Earth. His critique of the sex lives and economic injustices of political and clerical leaders earned him a martyrdom of hanging and burning in a public square in Florence along with two co-conspirators.
Some of his reforms had a rational appeal. He advocated a more just tax structure to replace the one that benefited the affluent at the expense of merchants and laborers. He opposed the despotism of the Medici family which had driven Florentine politics into the closet. He favored the inclusion of middle class people in government offices at the disfavor of the landed gentry. Marx would have seen him as a bourgeois revolutionary for such advocacy. Freemasons may recognize one of their own in his use of symbols and secret gatherings.
Like most medieval thinkers Savonarola did a grave injustice to philosophy by exploiting its rich fruits then slapping it in the face. He imitated Plato with a dialog style and used Peripatetic shadowcraft to prove that darkness is light and light, darkness. He denied any eternal merit in the ancient thinkers as he employed their style in the eternal practice of personal aggrandizement. In an effort to deflect attention from his own vanity by claiming divine inspiration he attacked the vanity of the idle rich. He attempted to replace festive pagan bonfires with "Christian" bonfires of the vanities that served as archetypes for future book burnings.
Would you consider Savonarola to be a prophet or does he better qualify as a demagogue? What lessons can we take from his story in order to understand the medieval aspects of modern politics?
Links: Lauro Martines on the history of Savonarola An excellent collection of Savonarola's written work. (Part 3 of the series)