Girolamo Savonarola
14 quotes
Biography
"The reason why I entered into a religious order is this: first, the great misery of the world, the wickedness of men, the rapes, the adulteries, the thefts, the pride, the idolatry, the vile curses, for the world has come to such a state that one can no longer find anyone who does good; so much so that many times every day I would sing this verse with tears in my eyes: Alas, flee from cruel lands, flee from the shores of the greedy. I did this because I could not stand the great wickedness of the blind people of Italy, especially when I saw that virtue had been completely cast down and vice raised up."
"Ecce gladius Domini super terram, cito et velociter."
"Colui che scomunica me scomunica Dio."
"The Pope may err, and that in two ways, either because he is erroneously informed, or from malice. As to the latter cause we leave that to the judgment of God, and believe rather that he has been misinformed. In our own case I can prove that he has been falsely persuaded. Therefore any one who obstinately upholds the excommunication and affirms that I ought not to preach these doctrines is fighting against the kingdom of Christ, and supporting the kingdom of Satan, and is himself a heretic, and deserves to be excluded from the Christian community."
"God is the best helper, but He loves to be helped. Be earnest in prayer, but do not neglect human means. You must help yourself in all manner of ways, and then the Lord will be with you."
"Do you wish to be free? Then above all things, love God, love your neighbor, love one another, love the common weal; then you will have true liberty."
"Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine."
"I am the hailstorm that shall break the heads of those who do not take shelter."
"E fu in quel tempo che io montai quassù, e dissi che io non era mandato a predicarti da uomo del mondo, né da signore alcuno, ma da colui che è signore dei signori e dalla santa Trinità."
"Ee quello che volesse fare Parlamento sarà de' Signori, gli sia tagliato il capo; se è altri, sia ribelle e confiscatigli tutti i beni … che quando i Signori vogliono fare Parlamento … e ognuno li possa tagliare a pezzi senza pena."
"The best, and the worst, that can be said of the tempestuous friar is that he loved God so passionately that he had very little love left for man."
"The terrorism exercised by Savonarola and his adherents grew daily more and more intolerable. The prophet declared that no one could be a good Christian who did not believe in him."
"Savonarola was not merely the expounder of righteousness. He claimed to be a prophet revealing things which, to use his own words, "are beyond the scope of the knowledge which is natural to any creature." This element would have been a sign of weakness, if it had not been associated with a great personality, bent on noble ends. The severity of his warnings was often so fearful that the preacher himself shrank back from delivering them. On one occasion, he spent the entire night in vigils and prayer that he might be released from the duty of making known a message, but in vain. The sermon, he then went forth to preach, he called a terrific sermon."
"The world has come to such a state that one can no longer find anyone who does good."