Death in Florence: the Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City

by Paul Strathern

  He even went so far as to argue that the Church was infallible with regard to dogma.

  However, although the Church itself was infallible here, this did not mean that churchmen and the faithful were compelled to obey each and every order from clerical superiors, even if such a command came from the pope himself. Savonarola insisted: ‘The pope cannot command me to do something which contradicts the teaching of the Gospels.’ This was to be a continuing theme of his entire Lenten sermons. He insisted, ‘We must obey God rather than man.’ He reserved his particular contempt for ‘the high priests of Rome … you whose lust, love of luxury and pride have been the ruin of the world, violating men and women alike with your lasciviousness, turning children to sodomy and prostitution … you who spend the night with your concubine and in the morning conduct the sacraments’.19

  Crucially, it seems that Savonarola had now realised that if he confined himself to the Tuscan Congregation over which he ruled, he would inevitably be isolated by the Church hierarchy, and then moves would begin to declare his teachings a heresy. Rome would summon Florence’s enemies, the city would be attacked and defeated, whereupon all his reforms would come to nothing. Thus he was left with no alternative but to extend his ambitions and seek to reform the entire Church. As a consequence, his rhetoric hardened. Those who inhabited the city of Rome must be prepared to suffer the fates of hell: ‘You will be clapped in irons, hacked to pieces with swords, burned with fire and eaten up by flames.’ In a later Lenten sermon he would describe his apocalyptic visions comparing the fate of Rome to that of Babylon:

  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.20

  The Arrabbiati and Savonarola’s enemies within the Church in Florence were gleefully reporting his every word to Rome. His call to defy any pope who contradicted the gospel was bad enough, but his reference to ‘you’ who spend the night with a concubine and next morning conduct Mass was immediately recognisable to all who heard it, whether they were listening in the congregation or received reports of it amongst the hierarchy in Rome: this was an unmistakable allusion to the behaviour of Alexander VI.

  With each ensuing sermon, the authorities in Florence became increasingly worried. The Signoria knew that they could not restrain Savonarola for fear of antagonising the Piagnoni, yet they were well aware that the growing anger amongst the Arrabbiati might boil over, and were fearful of what measures Alexander VI might take against the city. There is evidence that the authorities deputed Piero Capponi to speak with Savonarola, warning him of the dangers he was inviting. Surprisingly, this seems to have given Savonarola cause for thought, as can be seen from his last sermon of the series, delivered after Easter on 10 April. He opened with his customary defiance, insisting that he would never obey orders to do anything wrong, whether they came from his religious superiors or even the pope himself. Addressing any such an enemy, he insisted: ‘It is you who are wrong. You are not the Church, you are simply a man and a sinner.’21 Yet something that Capponi had passed on to him must have had a chastening effect, for he then alluded to what lay ahead in his struggles. ‘Do you wish to know how all this will end for me? I can tell you that it will end with my death, when I shall be cut to pieces.’ As if attempting to forestall this fate, he now incongruously sought to argue his innocence of any transgression against Alexander VI:

  Information has been relayed to His Holiness, both by letter and by word of mouth, that I have been criticising 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.

  This was disingenuous to say the least. Savonarola had certainly taken the precaution of never mentioning Alexander VI by name, but all in the congregation had known to whom he was referring.

  News of Savonarola’s sermons had angered rulers throughout Italy. They would never have allowed a priest to preach such inflammatory sermons within their own states, and knew that the very airing of such views could only lead to trouble amongst their own citizens. This subversive priest had to be stopped. Just as Savonarola knew that he could only succeed if his message spread out into the world and succeeded in conquering Rome, so the rulers of Italy realised that their leadership was open to question as long as Savonarola continued to preach his fundamentalist religion, with its dangerous political connotations. He had to be silenced, once and for all, and the person who had to do this was the pope. Yet Alexander VI was still aware that if he made any serious attempt to punish Savonarola, he would only outrage the citizens of Florence, who would in turn call upon Charles VIII to hasten his plans to invade Italy and dethrone him. Playing for time, Alexander VI appointed an ecclesiastical committee of senior theologians to investigate Savonarola’s behaviour, and his preaching, for evidence of heresy.

  One of the reasons why people had been turning to Savonarola in such numbers was the persisting desperate situation that was now unfolding in Florence. The Pisans continued to resist all attempts by the Florentine mercenary army to retake their city, which meant that by now much trade in Florence had almost ground to a standstill. This situation had only been made worse by the exceptional weather, which had blighted much of Italy for almost a year now. According to Landucci on 4 May 1496, ‘Throughout this time it never stopped raining, and the rainstorms had gone on for about eleven months, there never once being a whole week with no rain.’22 Things got so bad that on 18 May he reported, ‘There came such a great flood that it washed away the young corn planted in the fields, even as far down in the plains as here; while at Rovizzanofn3 it swept through two walls on the roadside.’

  With the failure of the coming harvest inevitable, the peasants began streaming in from the countryside for the protection of the city, where entire families were soon camping out on the streets and begging for food. The prevailing air of Christian compassion amongst the citizenry meant that none starved, and Savonarola organised the monks of San Marco to distribute food and suitable clothing collected during Lent. Even so, these vermin-ridden families living on the pavements soon began to present a public health hazard. Worrying gossip spread, and as early as 14 May Landucci had heard that ‘The plague has returned in several districts of Florence.’ Two weeks later, he recorded, ‘Many people began suffering from a certain complaint called “French boils”. This looked like smallpox; but it went on increasing, and no one knew a cure for it.’ This was almost certainly syphilis, rather than the buboes (boils) that are symptomatic of the bubonic plaguefn4. After paying for the upkeep of the mercenary army fighting at Pisa, there was little left in the public coffers, leaving the Signoria powerless to deal with the growing number of refugeees from the countryside or the spread of disease.

  Meanwhile in Rome the committee of theologians reported back to Alexander VI that they could find no evidence of heresy amongst Savonarola’s teachings. This unexpected finding was almost certainly due to the presence of Cardinal Caraffa on the committee. If anyone was to discipline a Dominican friar it should be the Vicar General of his order, not the pope. Leaders of other orders expressed similar sentiments. No one wished for any unwelcome precedent that extended the power of the pope at their expense. Besides, all were agreed that Savonarola could hardly be accused of heresy when all that he had preached was backed up by his exceptional biblical scholarship.

  Alexander VI then decided upon a different tactic. Some time during the first weeks of August he summoned to audience Fra Ludovico da Ferrara, who was not only the Provost General of the Dominican order,fn5 but also happened to come from Savonarola’s home city. Ludovico da Ferrara was instructed to undertake a confidential mission to Savonarola at San Marco, to ask his advice on how to persuade the city of Florence to become the pope’s ally.

  Fra Ludovico duly travel
led to Florence, where he conferred with Savonarola, revealing to him that if he cooperated with Alexander VI’s plans, the pope promised that – to the great honour of Florence – he would make him a cardinal. Savonarola was unwilling to give any immediate response to Fra Ludovico, and merely told him, ‘Come to my next sermon and you’ll hear my reply.’23

  Savonarola had been invited by the Signoria to deliver a sermon the following Saturday 20 August in the recently completed hall of the Great Council.fn6 This sermon was not expected to confine itself to religious matters, and was a semi-official means by which the Signoria and senior members of the administration were informed of his ideas on political matters and foreign policy. Unlike his passionate sermons in the cathedral, here Savonarola spoke in more sober terms, addressing a number of questions that he knew were uppermost in the minds of several senior officials. He explained why he had taken it upon himself to stay in correspondence with Charles VIII: this was to remind the king of his duty to fulfil his role as the ‘scourge of God’. At the same time he denied the accusation that he opposed Alexander VI’s Holy League. He had remained against Florence joining the League only because the city had given its word to Charles VIII that it would remain his ally. After dealing with various other matters, such as aid for those living in the streets, he turned to the rumour that was now sweeping Florence that he was about to be made a cardinal. At this point his manner changed abruptly. Once again, it was as if he was delivering a sermon with all the ire and conviction of an Old Testament prophet. He denied vehemently that he had any wish to receive a cardinal’s crimson hat:

  If I coveted such a thing would I be standing before you in this threadbare habit? … On the contrary, the only gift I seek is the one God gives to his saints – death, a crimson hat of blood, that is all I wish for.24

  In his Lenten sermons Savonarola had foretold his own death (‘I shall be cut to pieces’); now he more explicitly revealed his longing to become a martyr. He appeared to regard such an end as inevitable, and it is worth bearing this in mind during the ensuing events, for it must have informed his every decision.

  Meanwhile the heavy rains continued, wreaking their effect across the countryside, leaving a desolate scene: ‘In many places the corn had not yet been harvested. The entire season is late and neither the corn, nor the grapes, nor the figs have yet ripened.’25 Food stocks were now dangerously low in Florence, and the city faced the prospect of a possible famine.

  At the same time, the war against Pisa continued to go badly. The besieged Pisans were being supported by ships from Venice and Milan. These would soon be aided by a number of troops sent by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, who had been called in by Ludovico ‘il Moro’ Sforza of Milan.fn7 Florence could ill afford to pay the wages of its mercenaries, and some simply decamped to the other side, where they felt they would be better paid.

  Piero Capponi had been placed in charge of the Florentine forces and did his best to rally the unenthusiastic mercenaries nominally under his command. When the Pisan forces broke out and sought to cut the Florentine line of supply to the port of Livorno, on the coast fifteen miles to the south, Capponi moved to repulse them. A brave man, he led his men from the front, encouraging the mercenaries into effective action. However, in the course of leading an attack on the castle at Solana, in the hills above Livorno, he was struck by a shot from an arquebus (an early form of musket). His wound proved fatal, and he died on the field of battle.

  News of Capponi’s death caused great grief amongst the people of Florence, for he was still regarded as a hero for publicly standing up to Charles VIII. Capponi’s body was transported back to his home city on a barge up the Arno, and on 27 September he was given a public funeral, which attracted large crowds.fn8

  Just over a month later, Landucci recorded how news arrived from the Florentine allies in Livorno:

  that twelve ships bearing cargoes of corn had arrived there, but this turned out to be a false report. Instead this was the fleet of the King of France, and the Livornese went out and routed the camp of the Emperor Maximilian I, slaying about forty men and capturing their artillery26

  The siege of Pisa was hardly ended by this ‘rout’, but at least the Florentines knew that they could now rely upon French aid, and that their dwindling supplies of corn would soon be replenished.

  All such hopes were dashed when news came through that Charles VIII’s son and heir, the dauphin, whose birth in September had been greeted with such great joy by the king, had died just twenty-five days later on 2 October. Charles VIII was overcome with grief, and put off his planned invasion of Italy. Savonarola had of course warned Charles VIII that God would chastise him if he did not act as ‘God’s scourge’ and invade Italy once more. Now another of his prophecies had come true, but no one in Florence rejoiced at this fulfilment of his word: Florence was left alone, facing enemies on all sides, and some of its citizens were beginning to tire of these ‘prophecies’.

  Savonarola’s enemies amongst the Arrabbiati and the Medici supporters immediately seized upon this opportunity to try and stir up feeling against the ‘little friar’. Had he not written just a year ago in his ‘Compendium of Revelations’ that the Virgin Mary had told him how ‘The City of Florence shall become more glorious, more powerful and more wealthy than it has ever been. All the territory that it has lost shall be restored, and its borders will be extended further than ever before.’ What of this prophecy? Florentine commerce was all but at a standstill, and the city could not even retake Pisa.

  Savonarola replied to such criticisms in the sermon that he preached in the cathedral on 28 October. Far from being repentant about the lack of fulfilment of these prophecies, instead he berated his congregation. Florence was not worthy of such fortune until the city was purified. The citizens of Florence were being punished for their lack of repentance. There was still too much evil in the ‘City of God’. The congregation listened, fearfully, but for how much longer would they be willing to place their faith in the Holy Spirit?

  Alexander VI was overjoyed when he heard that the French reinvasion had been cancelled, and immediately ordered the papal troops to march north and take Florence. These troops were joined by a contingent from Siena. As this combined force moved towards Florence, the Florentine mercenaries abandoned the siege of Pisa and marched to cut them off. The two forces met at Cascina, in the Po valley east of Pisa. The Florentine mercenaries soon put the papal troops to flight, and then ran amok, raping and pillaging their way through a number of hillside villages before returning to besiege the city of Pisa. Yet this only brought temporary relief for the Florentines. The Venetian fleet now began a concerted blockade of Livorno, causing a French fleet bringing grain from Marseilles to turn back. At the same time the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I disembarked with further troops at Pisa.

  Ranged up against Florence were the combined forces of Venice, Milan and the imperial troops of Maximilian I, with Alexander VI and Naples remaining in the background as declared aggressors. At the same time Piero de’ Medici and his brother Cardinal Giovanni were making plans to raise a mercenary army to march on Florence. Ironically, it was the arrival of Maximilian I in Pisa that soon led to a division amongst the allies, when it became clear that he had in mind retaining Pisa for himself. This antagonised both the Venetians and the Milanese, who both had similar secret plans of their own; while Piero de’ Medici was adamant that Pisa should remain a Florentine possession.

  Even so, Florence now effectively had no allies, and internally the situation was no better. The administration had run up a huge public debt in continuing to finance its mercenary army; and regardless of the Savonarolan reforms, the government was becoming increasingly unpopular, especially amongst the moneyed classes, who were required to continue propping up the increasingly desperate military situation. Despite the victory at Cascina, the prospects looked grim.

  fn1 Two years later Floridi would be arrested by Alexander VI on a charge of forging papal Briefs. As a result,
he would be stripped of office and flung into the papal dungeons of Castel Sant’ Angelo on a starvation diet of bread and water, which would soon bring about his death.

  fn2 The movingly named early-Renaissance building (literally ‘Hospital for the Innocents’) was in fact the city orphanage, where unwanted babies and abandoned children were taken in and taught a trade.

  fn3 A weavers’ village two miles east of the city walls up the Arno valley. Landucci’s ‘corn’ is, of course, wheat and other types of grain, rather than maize.

  fn4 The plague that recurred in many Italian and European cities several times during this period was not as virulent as the Black Death (or bubonic plague) that had swept through Europe around 150 years previously, killing as much as one-third of the entire population. These later plague outbreaks in Florence (and other cities) usually proved fatal for those who caught the disease, but seldom spread much beyond several cases in the immediate vicinity. After some months the disease was liable to vanish as suddenly and mysteriously as it had arrived. All this suggests that these later plagues may have been the less common septicaemic (blood infection) or pneumonic (attacking the lungs) variant of the disease. Significantly, as Landucci seems to indicate, the plague at that time in Florence, and the ‘French boils’, were widely regarded as two distinct diseases.

  fn5 The titular head of the order. Cardinal Caraffa, as Vicar General, was the executive head in charge of the everyday running of the order.

  fn6 In some aspects, however, the hall would remain incomplete for some time, at least partly owing to economic reasons. Not until eight years later would Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo be commissioned to cover the two great side walls with murals depicting historic Florentine victories.

  fn7 Maximilian I, who ruled over territories in Austria, Germany and Burgundy, was opposed to France. He was also keen to be seen supporting Alexander VI, and had joined the Holy League. His ambition was to be officially crowned as emperor by the pope, a tradition dating back to Charlemagne’s time, which had fallen into abeyance.