Savonarola Burned Florence's Corrupt Luxury

In the 1490s, Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola became a powerful preacher in Renaissance Florence by denouncing clerical corruption, despotic rule, aristocratic luxury, and the exploitation of the poor. After King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in 1494, Florentines expelled the ruling Medici and set up a republic that operated largely under Savonarola’s influence. He pushed an extreme moral reform campaign, using youth processions and the “Bonfires of the Vanities” to destroy secular art, luxury goods, games, and other objects he condemned as corrupting the city. His power collapsed in 1498, when Church and civil authorities arrested, hanged, and burned him in Florence’s main square.

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