Drew Williams

3/8/2014

Team 3

In his Sermon, Savonarola sets the tone of his rhetorical and theological credibility early on. He presents himself as an ordained speaker and advocate of God that has come to present the discrepancies of the current state of the church. He makes this argument multiple times throughout the sermon and continually draws upon God as the source of his logic and reasoning. This statement of authority is seen most openly when he states, “I too in the past would ridicule these things, but God permitted this in me, so that I may be compassionate towards you when you do not believe them” (Loyola 4). Here Savonarola is making the claim that God “permitted” compassion in him to tolerate the insolence of the lay people and to not quickly pass judgement on them even though they disobey what he says. This connection Savonarola makes between himself and God is something that sets the tone of the rest of the sermon towards  one of patriarchal prestige and legitimacy. He continual tells the people of Florence that that the words he speaks are not his own but God’s and that this is the reason the people of Italy must heed his words with haste.

Throughout the sermon, he is making the argument that the church needs “renovation”. This renovation of the church must arise soon as to prevent the wrath of God coming down upon the whole of the church. The church at this time was suffering from simony and misguidance by its leadership and this corruption was making its way through the church leadership into the lives of the lay people. He states this fact when saying, “Therefore, when you see the that God  permits the heads of the church to be weighed down by the evil and simonies, say that the flagellation of the people is near.” (Loyola 5). Here is the outright statement that the church is weighed down by the ills of simony and other evils and that this corruption is going to lead to the flagellation of the people who allow this corrupt leadership to head the church. This claim that God’s judgement is coming down upon Florence and its people, provides him with the rhetorical urgency he needs to for action within the church community. The diagnosis he gives of the state of the church is seen in ten chapters that he writes that each describe the state of the church and the ills that is suffering. In the chapters he backs up his argument with allusions to parables and other scriptural references that are meant to remind the people of God’s judgement on these matters. He sees the church, especially its leadership in the city of Florence, in a special position as he states that, “But you, Florence, heard with your with your ears not me but God…” (Layola 5). This statement makes the city of Florence more accountable to their decisions and their choice to heed the words of Savonarola or suffer the consequences. He wants to see the  renovation of the church in a way that will ultimately shift its leadership from the ills of nepotism and simony towards the pious organization he wished to see.

As a Florentine hearing this sermon, one must imagine that one would be moved immensely by the words of Savonarola. He is arguing for the salvation of the city and is calling into question the leadership of the church that  was so intertwined with the Florentine aristocracy. The admixture of political and theological rhetoric adds to his overall stance that employers those of the city both its leadership and lay people, to renovate the church before the wrath of God is administered. His rhetoric obviously moved many in the city from all social statuses to heed his words and attempt to rid the city and the church of the evils that plagued them for some time. This affect his sermon had on the Florentines is most clearly seen in the bonfire of the vanities. In the bonfire, Florentines burnt and destroyed several items that brought them into sin. This large scale iconoclasm like event shows the success Savonarola[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/rel322w16drreis/files/2016/03/Renovation-of-the-Church-1ptcp8q.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”] had on the people of Florence at the time. His rhetoric and claims to divine will allowed him to create tangible action that shifted the mindset of the people of Florence and ultimately achieved his goals of renovating the church by removing several ills.