Savonarola may be enjoying the peak of his influence over Florence, but he’s made a relentless enemy who just so happens to be a pope and, worse, a Borgia. Meanwhile, Piero and his supporters spin plots for a Medici restoration.
Transcript
So my only excuse for being late this week is that honestly I caught Savonarola fever. Seriously, my script for this episode just kept getting longer and longer and I kept finding new tidbits of research that I felt like I had to include. I really, really wanted to wrap up Savonarola’s story in this episode, but I had to split it. I just like to think there is something special about the fact that, centuries after his death, Savonarola is still big enough of a figure that he took over a podcast that’s supposed to be about the Medici.
But first, there’s something I wasn’t able to fit into the narrative in previous episodes, but it’s still something I should probably address since it’s one of the few times if not the only time our boy Piero de’ Medici gets mentioned in the wider world outside the realm of historians and Renaissance buffs.
There’s an article for the British newspaper The Telegraph by Malcolm Moore with the headline “Medici philosopher’s mystery death solved.” Both the philosopher Pico della Mirandola and Piero’s former tutor the poet and scholar Poliziano both died in their early 30s at around the same time, the fall of 1494, after the fall and flight of Piero de’ Medici. The news article describes a group of forensic scientists who examined the remains of Mirandola and Poliziano and found they died of arsenic poisoning. Silvano Vinceti, the cultural committee member who was behind the research project, interpreted the results as suggesting that Mirandola and Poliziano were both poisoned. Vincenti went on to suggest that Piero de’ Medici ordered the hit, possibly with the help of his former secretary, Cristoforo da Calamaggiore. Vincenti speculates this was because Mirandola and Poliziano ended up becoming supporters of Savonarola.
Now I’m not going to delve into all the details because I really don’t want this entire episode to end up being about it. I’m already giving Savonarola more minutes than I originally intended for. For starters, though, there was another scientific paper published by a team of forensic scientists led by Gianni Gallelo and Elisabetta Citti titled “Poisoning histories in the Italian renaissance” that disputed the conclusion that Poliziano had also been poisoned. But the point I want to stress is it’s just really unlikely that Piero would have had anyone killed for being supporters of Savonarola. If you’ve been following the narrative you probably know Savonarola was at least neutral toward the Medici even for a couple of months after Piero fled the city, and it was even longer before he truly became a major force in Florentine politics. More importantly, he had nothing to do with the collapse of the Medici regime in 1494. If Piero did have the means to have someone poisoned from all the way in Venice, it wouldn’t have been some philosopher who was a client of his dad’s and who had a weird religious awakening recently that made him a Savonarola fanboy but never did anything to hurt the interests of the family. It would have been someone like Piero Capponi or Francesco Valori who were members of the Medici party and would turn against Piero and play important roles in the new regime.
So what did happen? I honestly wish I could say. One theory I read was that Mirandola and Poliziano were lovers and committed suicide out of some kind of pact, but the author admitted it was speculation. Nonetheless I do think suicide for some motive is plausible. Or Mirandola died from an accidental overdose since arsenic was used as an ingredient in some medicines and Cristoforo da Calamaggiore is said to have given him some medicine because he was very ill. It’s even possible someone did deliberately poison Mirandola, but that person and their motive have been lost to history. But I really don’t see why Piero de’ Medici or even just someone fanatically loyal to the family would even bother killing Mirandola.
Now let’s talk about someone who was definitely in the crosshairs: Savonarola. I ended last episode talking about how by February of 1497 Savonarola was at the height of his popularity and political influence. Some historians intentionally or not write about this period as if Savonarola was basically the dictator of Florence, but this wasn’t the case. He was still very much dependent on Francesco Valori and the Great Council. Also from almost the start he had to deal with a fierce opposition from within. Like with the old Florentine republic, different fierce factions emerged. These were still very little like the political parties of today, but unlike the old factions who largely broke down according to family alliances, social classes, and economic interests, these new factions were for the most part defined by whose side they were on: the new republic, the Medici, or Savonarola. I mentioned the wailers, the Piagnone, who were signed on to Savonarola’s program. Then there were the Arrabbiati, “the enraged”, who hated the Medici but also wanted to rid the new republic of Savonarola and return to the humanist spirit of Lorenzo the Magnificent’s times. And then we had the Bigi, “the greys”, who wanted to revive the Medici regime.
It didn’t help that Savoronola had by that point had not only lost but turned against his most powerful protector, King Charles VIII of France. After enjoying himself and settling administrative affairs in his new kingdom to his satisfaction and knowing that the Pope’s new Holy League was rallying forces against him, Charles VIII had marched northward in the spring of 1495 to return to France. Along the way he hoped to pressure the Pope into crowning him King of Naples, but he found that the papal court had fled to the heavily fortified city of Orvieto. Barely having enough funds to make it across the Alps with his army, much less go to war against the Pope, Charles marched on. He didn’t have much luck in Tuscany either. Ambassadors from Tuscany begged him to make the new Republic of Pisa a French protectorate and supply them with enough soldiers to defend themselves from a Florentine invasion, while ambassadors from Florence demanded he make good on his promise to return Pisa and Livorno to Florentine control. Charles only made empty promises to both sides and kept going, not knowing what was waiting for him.
Duke Ludovico of Milan had been rightfully afraid that Charles was secretly plotting to replace him with Charles’ own cousin, Louis d’Orleans, who you might remember had a claim to the duchy of Milan through his ancestor, Valentina Visconti. It didn’t help that Charles had a regiment lead by Louis d’Orleans stationed in Asti, a town in the Piedmont region right on the border with Milan. When Charles received word that Ludovico switched sides, he ordered Louis to keep Asti defended. But Louis, clearly eager to get his hands on the duchy, defied Charles’ orders and attacked the city of Novara on the Milanese border, an assault that ended in disaster for the French.
So Charles was even less prepared when a joint Milanese, Venetian, and papal army confronted him near the town of Fornovo in the Romagna. The battle was fought in the midst of a raging thunderstorm, with significant losses on both sides. Depending on who you asked, it ended with either a stalemate or a narrow French victory. Even if it was a victory for the French, though, all they won for their blood and tears was the breathing room to make their way safely across the Alps. Charles lacked the funds to return to Italy anytime soon and he soon learned that a Spanish naval expedition had already occupied his precious Naples with barely a fight and put the extremely popular King Fernando II back on his throne. Charles VIII signed a treaty with Pope Alexander’s Holy League, at least to buy himself time. Florence was completely left to fend for itself. In a sermon soon after the treaty, Savonarola blasted a certain person as “stupid and idle” and, in an incredibly low blow, he prophesized this person would die just like he predicted the death of his son. No one doubted that this person Savonarola declined to name was his former friend and champion Charles VIII, whose infant son had indeed recently died. But Savonarola’s anger must have been driven by fear. His prophesized savior had abandoned him, leaving him completely dependent on the good graces of Florence’s notoriously faction-ridden government. Sure, he was still popular and influential, but would that last?
Meanwhile, all the way in Venice, Piero had been keeping up with the news, particularly both of Charles VIII retreating to France and being too in debt to reclaim Naples and Florence having tense relations with the Pope. It was not a good sign when on January 25 the Great Council tried to stamp out the Bigi by passing a law exiling anyone who had worked directly for the Medici. But then, after Francesco Valori’s term on gonfaloniere ended, a government dominated by the very party that law was designed to target came to power. Also Pope Alexander signaled that he would welcome Piero’s return to power, although of course this did not translate into much money or direct support. Nonetheless, Piero saw his chance. Still, he insisted that he would not return to Florence unless the gonfaloniere and the Signoria invited him, although some of the coded letters between Piero and the papal court suggest he did not completely rule out being restored to power through a mercenary-backed coup.
Indeed, when the Bigi were stalled in the Great Council by the other factions, Piero decided to roll the dice. Not learning anything from the time he practically handed the keys to his kingdom over to King Charles VIII of France, Piero struck a deal with Florence’s great rival, the Republic of Siena. In exchange for a promise to hand over a key fortress on the Sienese border if he got his family’s invisible throne back, Siena would supply Piero with a small military regiment that would accompany him to the walls of Florence. Piero hoped this would be enough of a spark to inspire a revolt his family could ride back to power. Unfortunately, time was not on his side. Heavy rains delayed Piero, giving the anti-Medici members of the Signoria of Florence enough time to rally support and have prominent citizens known to still be staunch Medici supporters arrested and detained on trumped-up charges. While they were kept imprisoned in the palace of the Signoria, an executioner and his assistants walked among them holding axes, chains and ropes for hanging to keep them cowed. And the city militias were called up and ordered to patrol the city in case a revolt still did break out.
On April 28, Piero and his retinue arrived at the city walls. Piero probably did expect that like his ancestor Cosimo he would be welcomed into the city by his supporters. Instead an armed force larger than his own were at the gates, headed by a group of staunch anti-Medici politicians, who shouted to him that the Signoria had approved of a 4,000 florin bounty on him. Without a single battle, the countercoup was completely beaten. Piero slunk back to Siena.
As for Savonarola himself, he had enemies too. Some people in the pro-Medici camp did see him as an obstacle, but I think it’s important to remember that there were those in the Church who bitterly hated Savonarola. Also the generation just young enough to remember Lorenzo the Magnificent yearned less puritanical and more open-minded times, even though Savonarola hasn’t exactly been successful at remolding Florence into an Old Testament theocracy. One anti-Savonarola poem reads, “I say there comes a wind from Rome / That will soon blow out your name and light.” Meanwhile a monk from a monastery out in the Tuscan countryside, Angelo da Vallombrosa, offered to kill Savonarola with his own hands and called upon the children of Florence to stone him to death. Sometime in the middle of night before one of his sermons, a gang broke into the cathedral, smeared fasces all over the pulpit Savonarola was supposed to use, covered it with the decaying skin of a donkey, and then drove nails up below the lectern, hoping Savonarola who was known to bang his hands against the lectern during his sermons would stab his hands on the nails. Savonarola even had a rival prophet, a nun named Maddalena. She claimed God told her that Savonarola was a fraud and she demanded that the Signoria to confront Savonarola so they could have what I think would have been a prophet competition. Her fame became widespread enough that Duke Ercole of Ferrara and King Charles VIII of France sent agents to talk with her. Tellingly the Signoria didn’t dare to move against her, and instead just pressured her convent into keeping her from speaking with the general public.
The real threat to Savonarola wasn’t from within, but from without. Pope Alexander always had a tense relationship with Savonarola. A preacher like Savonarola was actually on safe ground for occasionally calling out church corruption, as long as he didn’t blame the Pope by name. But it was far riskier to claim to be receiving prophetic visions directly from God, especially because the Church had rules – the Catholic Church always has rules – that cast doubt on prophecies about worldly affairs like, say, whether or not a certain French king would invade Italy.
Even then, Pope Alexander probably would have left Savonarola alone…if not for the fact that Savonarola had sided with Alexander’s enemy, Charles VIII. This along with Savonarola’s real influence over Florence made him a genuine threat, and not just a nuisance. But Alexander was clever and approached the Savonarola problem cautiously. First, he wrote directly to Savonarola, gently but firmly asking him to come to Rome so that they may talk about his prophecies. To his credit, Savonarola sensed the trap, and wrote back, “…he has always wanted to see Rome, to venerate the holy places and pay reverence to His Holiness, especially now that the pope has summoned him, worm that he is. But he regrets that he is unable to comply. For one thing, he has been in poor health.” Around this same time, Savonarola wrote a friend just saying he was struggling with his “usual” stomach problems.
Savonarola must have known that his claims to be a modern-day prophet made him vulnerable to any attack from the Pope, but if anything he doubled-down. Savonarola even published a book, the “Compendium of Revelations,”that collected together all the prophecies he made during his lifetime along with an essay defending the authenticity of his predictions. Savonarola argued he knew his prophecies were true and were not lies from the Devil because all his predictions had come true, especially his prophecy that a new Cyrus would come over the mountain. This prophecy, referring to the Persian emperor who liberated the Israelites from Babylonian rule, was vague enough it really covered Savonarola’s bases, but of course he interpreted it as a prediction of Charles VIII’s invasion of Naples. He even referred to a vision he spoke about in a sermon in which he visited the Virgin Mary in Heaven, accompanied by four embodiments of Faith, Patience, Prayer, and Simplicity. Addressing his critics, Savonarola snippily wrote, “They know I do not mean to claim that my mortal body has visited Paradise, only that I experienced this in a mental vision. For certain, the trees, streams, doors and thrones that I describe do not exist in Paradise. If these skeptical critics had not been so blinded by their own malice, they would understand how such scenes were placed before my mind’s eye by the angels.” In this vision, the Virgin Mary told Savonarola that Florence will be wealthier than ever before and its borders will reach further than any point in history. She also confirmed his prediction that the Ottoman Sultan will convert to Christianity. This book went through no fewer than four printings and copies were sold in Paris and southern Germany. It was said that even the Ottoman Sultan had a copy translated into Turkish, although unfortunately we don’t know what his reaction to the prediction that he would become a Christian was.
Also in the book Savonarola threatened that if anyone did not believe in his prophecies, they risked damnation. This is probably what led Alexander VI to fire off these words: “We have heard that a certain Girolamo Savonarola from Ferrara, of the Order of Preachers, is delighted with the novelty of a perverse dogma and in this same insanity of mind is misled by the shift of affairs of Italy, so that without any canonical authority he attests among the people that he has been sent by God and speaks with God, against the canonical decrees.” Now it is true that Alexander had an ax to grind, so to speak, against Savonarola for political reasons. But I don’t think most popes would have been okay with a random friar saying he knew some of the people who would spend an eternity in Hell and those damned people would just so happen to be the same folks who disagree with his predictions. Savonarola would receive a letter from Bartolomeo Floridi, a bishop, papal secretary, and someone who would some years down the road die in a dungeon because he had a penchant for forging papal documents. Possibly at the behest of the Medici, he wrote a fiery letter to Savonarola, accusing him of heresy and again meddling in the politics of the Fransiscan orders of northern Italy and ordering him to stop preaching until a full papal investigation into his words and practices could take place.
Savonarola immediately fired back, claiming he’d always been submissive to the Church and committed no heresy. As for claiming that he was a prophet whom people had to believe or else they would face the wrath of God, he wrote, “With regards to prophecy, I have absolutely never made any claim to be a prophet. However, it would not be heresy were I to do so, for I have foretold things that have already come to pass, and the other things I have foretold will be proven when they come to pass in the future.” This is exactly why I wish I was a millionaire so I could fund a biographical film of Savonarola, starring Jason Alexander playing George Costanza.
Was that wrong?
Of course, Savonarola kept preaching despite the ban and refused to cooperate with the papal investigation. But once again fate was on Savonarola’s side. At the time, Pope Alexander was anxious that Charles might march over the Alps yet again, and if that happened again no amount of papal majesty would save Alexander from Charles’ wrath. Never one to let his personal grudges get in the way, Alexander eased up on Savonarola in case he could use the friar as an intermediary between himself and Charles. This did not mean Alexander was willing to let Savonarola completely off his leash. He only lifted the ban temporarily so Savonarola could preach sermons for Lent.
By August of 1497, there was another attempt to bring back the Medici, this time from the inside. Five leading Florentines like Bernardo del Nero, Niccolo Ridolfi, Giannozzo Pucci, Giovanni di Bernardo Cambi, and Piero’s cousin Lorenzo Tornabuoni were all implicated in a plot and accused of being in contact with the Medici. The odds the conspiracy would have succeeded were slim, especially because Giovanni di Bernardo actually wanted to put Piero’s cousins Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pierfrancesco into power instead. Nor did their plans actually get off the ground in any way. Still, a plague was raging across Tuscany and the economic crisis was only getting worse, so tensions were high. They were condemned to death for treason. Immediately, under a law encouraged by Savonarola, they appealed the sentence. This caused a heated debate in the Grand Council during which shouted arguments and even a fist fight broke out.
Also implicated in the investigation was Lorenzo the Magnificent’s oldest daughter, Lucrezia, who had stayed behind in Florence with her husband Jacopo Salviati. Lucrezia confessed she had been in contact with the exiled Medici, but she bravely refused even under the pressure of an official interrogation to implicate her husband. Not only that, it was known that she had given financial support to efforts to restore the Medici. Yet she was not only spared, but not exiled from Florence. Likely enough, even the most rabidly anti-Medici voices in the Great Council like Francesco Valori didn’t dare to bring the full weight of the law down on a woman, even one who was pretty much openly plotting to bring her family back in power. It’s an interesting example of how women could take advantage even of a system that saw them as total political non-entities. The men involved in the plot were not nearly as successful. Their appeal was barely voted down, and all five men were beheaded.
Savonarola actually seems to have stayed out of the controversy, although later writers spread the rumor that Savonarola personally asked for their deaths. Regardless, Machiavelli who did live in Florence during the height of Savonarola’s prominence would make the case that the executions of the five was a turning point toward the Medici and away from Savonarola and the new republic. After all, the anti-Medici factions gave the Bici something they needed: actual martyrs.
And speaking of martyrs, let’s conclude our plucky friar Savonarola’s story. Alexander had extended Savonarola an olive branch in his own way, and Savonarola refused it. In his continued sermons held in defiance of Alexander’s ban, Savonarola compared Rome to Babylon and predicted, “The light will vanish and amidst the darkness the sky will rain fire and brimstone, while flames and great boulders will smite the earth because Rome has been polluted with an infernal mixture of scripture and all manner of vice.” He also denounced a certain “you” who spent his nights with his mistress and then conduct Mass the next morning. That “you” had to have been Pope Alexander.
The Signoria finally talked Savonarola down, afraid of Alexander’s reaction. At their insistence, Savonarola wrote to the Pope, “Information has been relayed to His Holiness, both by letter and by word of mouth, that I have been criticizing him for sinful behaviour. This is not true. As it is written in the Bible: ‘Thou shalt not curse thy ruler.’ I have never done such a thing, and I have definitely never referred to anyone by name whilst preaching from this pulpit.”
It’s not a lie if you believe it
But it was obvious to everyone that Savonarola was flaunting his defiance of the Pope. Alexander may have hoped that the situation would have sorted itself out by the Bigi or the Arrabiati coming to power in Florence and doing something. But with Charles still in France and showing no signs of spearheading another expedition, the risks were being outweighed by the personal slights Savonarola kept raining on the papacy. Worse, Alexander learned an Arrabiati government did gain a majority of seats in the Great Council, but they still did not left a finger against Savonarola. So Alexander decided to act himself. So, in May of 1497, Pope Alexander excommunicated Savonarola on suspicion of heresy.
If you expected that this would cause Savonarola to finally go to Rome and throw himself on the Pope’s mercy, or at least back down and hope Pope Alexander would turn his attention elsewhere…well, you don’t know Girolamo Savonarola.
Join us next week for the exciting conclusion of the Savonarola podcast, and buona note.
The Medici Podcast 