"The Sword of the Lord upon the earth soon and speedily."

These words rang in the ears of the Dominican friar who was about to eclipse the Medicean rulers of Florence.

Girolamo Savonarola, grandson of a famous Paduan physician who had settled at the court of Ferrara, entered the Order of St. Dominic in Bologna in 1474, moved by the great misery of the world and the wickedness of men. In 1481, he was sent to the convent of San Marco in Florence.

The corruption of the Church, the vicious lives of her chief pastors, the growing immorality of the people, and the tyranny of their rulers had entered his very soul. He expressed it through allegorical poetry:

• De Ruina Mundi, written while still in the world,
• De Ruina Ecclesiae, composed in the silence of his Bolognese cloister, which in better days had been hallowed by the presence of St. Dominic and the Angelic Doctor, Thomas Aquinas.

Savonarola believed himself set by God as a watchman in the center of Italy to announce to the people and princes that the sword was to fall upon them:

"If the sword come, and thou hast not announced it, and they perish unwarned, I will require their blood at thy hands and thou shalt bear the penalty."

The Beginning of Preaching in Florence

At first, the Florentines would not hear him; the festive dances and wild carnival songs drowned his voice. Courtly preachers, like Fra Mariano da Gennazano, offered more flattering words.

Other cities were more receptive; San Gemignano first heard the prophetic word, which would soon resound beneath the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, just as Dante Alighieri had spoken two centuries before.

At the beginning of 1490, the friar returned to Florence and San Marco. On Sunday, August 1, while expounding the Apocalypse in the Church of San Marco, he presented the Florentines with the three cardinal points of his doctrine:

1. The Church was to be renewed;
2. Before this renewal, God would send a great scourge upon all Italy;
3. These things would come swiftly.

He preached the following Lent in the Duomo, beginning his great work of reforming Florence and announcing God’s impending judgments.

"Go to Lorenzo de' Medici and bid him do penance for his sins, for God intends to punish him and his house."

Prophetic Visions of Savonarola

While preaching Lent in San Lorenzo, Savonarola had a marvelous vision, recorded in his Compendium Revelationum:

"In 1492, while preaching in San Lorenzo, I saw on Good Friday night two crosses. The first, black, in the midst of Rome, with the head touching heaven and arms stretching across the earth; above it were the words Crux irae Dei. After I beheld it, suddenly the sky darkened, and winds, lightning, thunder, hail, fire, and swords rained down, slaying a vast multitude. Then the sky cleared, and I saw another cross, golden, over Jerusalem, shining over the world with flowers and joy; above it were the words Crux misericordiae Dei."

In August, came the simoniacal election of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope, Alexander VI, and Savonarola received another vision:

"I saw a hand in Heaven with a sword, upon which was written: The sword of the Lord upon the earth, soon and speedily; and above the hand: True and just are the judgments of the Lord."

The vision details angels distributing white robes and crosses, and the choice to accept or reject God’s mercy.

The Arrival of the French Army

The French army, terrible beyond any Italy had seen, entered Italy. On September 9, 1494, Charles VIII arrived at Asti, received by Ludovico and his court.

Savonarola declared:

"Behold, the sword has descended, the scourge has fallen, the prophecies are being fulfilled; it is the Lord who leads these armies."

Centuries of bloodless mercenary conflicts had left Italy defenseless; cities yielded to the French, and Florence regained its liberty, but lost its empire. Savonarola warned the king, preserving his words in the Compendium Revelationum, as Christ’s minister, cautioning that any abuse of power would be punished by God.

“Son, if sinners had eyes, they would surely see how grievous and hard is this pestilence, and how sharp the sword.”