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Handout #147 |
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A Church to Reform |
| Imprecations of the Dominican Savonarola against the
sinful Church
With his fiery preaching, Girolamo Savonarola set about reforming the morals of the people of Florence and violently attacked the abuses of the papacy (we are in the time of Alexander VI). The people were won over to begin with, but political circumstances and religious rivalries turned them against him and he was burned at the stake on 23 May 1498 A.D. Come here, infamous church, and listen to what the Lord tells you: I have given you this fine raiment and you have made yourselves idols with it. You have nourished your pride with your precious vessels. You have profaned the sacraments by simony. Your luxury has made you a disfigured harlot. You are worse than a beast; you are an abominable monster. At other times you would at least have blushed for you sins, but now you do not even have this shame. At other times, if priests had sons they called them their nephews; now they no longer have nephews -just sons. You have built a house of debauchery, you have transformed yourselves from top to toe into a house of infamy. What does she do, this public woman? Sitting on the throne of Solomon she makes signs of all who pass by; anyone who has the money enters and does whatever he pleases. But anyone who desires the good is thrown out. So it is, prostituted church, that have uncovered your shame in the eyes of all the universe, and your poisoned breath rises up to heaven. On all sides you have exposed your immodesty. |
