Jacksonville High School - Crimson J Yearbook (Jacksonville, IL)

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T h e N a u t i 1 U S The Career of Savonarola ETHEL KIMBALL EDITOR’S NOTE—This oration won first place in the preliminary oratorical contest held at Petersburg Illinois, May 11, and second place at the State Oratorical Contest, at Champaign, May 18. The thought and composition has been highly spoken of by the best University men in the State. There are few names more deserving of honor than that of the Florentine monk, Savonarola, whose career as an energetic, enthusiastic reformer entitles him to a place among the world’s greatest heroes. It may be of interest to note the character of his reforms and the value of his influence upon some of the great movements in history. In order to understand and appreciate his reforms, it is necessary first to observe the tendencies and characteristics of the age in which he lived. It was pre-eminently an age of progress, a time when all things seemed to be assuming new life and energy. Men were emerging from the apathy into which they had fallen during the Mediaeval era, and everywhere was manifested an ardent desire for learning and a growing enthusiasm for classic literature and art. But, though marked by such activity, the age was full of corruption in both church and state. Princes were usurping great cities, refusing to grant the popular demand for liberty; people were reigning like emperors instead of ecclesiastical rulers, and monks were degrading their sacred office by luxurious, licentious living; the majority of the people were infidels, not because their reason taught them to disbelieve the teachings of the Bible, but, for the most part, because of sheer recklessness and stupid indifference to all save their own pleasure and personal interests. Savonarola, living as he did in one of the most progressive and beautiful, yet most wicked and worst oppressed cities in Italy, saw all this corruption aud determined to remedy it. Through his eloquent preaching he gained a wonderful power over the people of Florence, and by means of this he was enabled to bring about great political reforms in his city. He sympathized with the masses in their efforts to win greater liberty and to free themselves from their oppressor, Lorenzo de Medici; he urged them on and fired them with enthusiasm. They listened breathlessly to his every word and drank in his message as with one will. Lorenzo’s followers, numerous and strong, were doing all in their power to bring about his downfall; all Italy was ablaze with indignation at his audacious persistency; the church and the whole aristocracy of Europe were inflamed against him; yet he rushed on boldly, fearing no power, trembling at no threat; disregarding