1452 – 1498

Girolamo Savonarola

Worth knowing

A Dominican friar in Florence whose preaching against corruption made him the city's leading figure in the 1490s.
In 1497 he held a bonfire of the vanities, burning luxuries in the city square. The pope excommunicated him the same year.
His Triumph of the Cross (1497) is a defence of the faith: what reason can know about God, where reason stops, and why the Christian faith is still credible.
He was hanged and burned in the Piazza della Signoria in 1498.

In Scholar’s Dream, Girolamo Savonarola has one book

The Triumph of the CrossGirolamo Savonarola, Triumphus Crucis (1497)RationalityFaith

Words Girolamo Savonarola’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 10)

“We hold that there is One God, of most pure nature; and our belief is in no wise contrary to philosophy.”
Savonarola, The Triumph of the Cross III.3 (trans. ed. Fr John Procter, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move In No Wise Contrary

Theology ProperArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe Trinity is above reason and not against it, and the difference is the whole argument. He states the doctrine by ruling out the two ways of getting it wrong.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 10)

“The very beauty of our own figure especially confesses God to be its artificer: our upright stature, our uplooking countenance, our eyes placed at the top, as it were, for outlook; and all the rest of our senses as if arranged in a citadel.”
Minucius Felix, Octavius 18 (trans. Wallis, ANF 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Argument from Design

Natural TheologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameA made thing argues for its maker. The body stands upright with its senses set high like a garrison; the world goes on being worth looking at long after the workman has gone. Either one is evidence, and neither had to be that way.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 18)

Strong against

×2.5Nein!an argument · why?

Paul did not preach to Athens from the Word alone. He started with their altar and their poets. If Barth is right, Acts 17 should not have been written.

“Since therefore grace does not destroy nature but perfects it, natural reason should minister to faith as the natural bent of the will ministers to charity.”
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q.1, a.8 (trans. English Dominican Fathers, public domain). Close to a thesis statement for the whole faith-and-reason tradition.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Grace Perfects Nature

RationalityArgument · power 68 · 100% accurate

In the gameReason is not faith’s rival and not its replacement — it is the thing faith takes up and uses. The book’s own Defend may rise as it says so.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 26)

Strong against

×2.5Platoa book · why?

Nobody here says Plato was wrong. The claim is that he was unfinished, and that what he was reaching for came down and finished it.

“But, although we cannot prove these truths by natural effects or human arguments, we may, nevertheless, make ourselves very sure of them by their supernatural effects.”
Savonarola, The Triumph of the Cross I.5 (trans. ed. Fr John Procter, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move By Their Effects

RationalityArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameReason walks you to the door and stops. Savonarola grants that plainly, and then argues from what the faith has actually done in the world instead of pretending reason went further.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 34)

“For, should we not be convinced by one of His miracles or arguments, we cannot (unless we be obstinate) fail to be persuaded when we consider His works and teaching collectively.”
Savonarola, The Triumph of the Cross I.2 (trans. ed. Fr John Procter, 1901, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Considered Collectively

RationalityArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameSavonarola will not let the evidence be judged one piece at a time, because nobody weighs a person that way. Any one work can be shrugged off. Set them side by side, he says, and see what is left.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 42)

Strong against

×2.5The Ethics of Beliefan argument · why?

Clifford wants sufficient evidence for each belief, taken one at a time, and a duty to withhold otherwise. Savonarola answers that nobody weighs a PERSON that way: the works are dependent on each other, and the honest question is what they come to together.

“Had Christ not been God, He would have been the most proud and the most foolish of men. And if (as some hold) the assertion of His Divinity was not made by Himself but by His disciples, how can a religion of such goodness, wisdom, and power, be the outcome of such a falsehood?”
Savonarola, The Triumph of the Cross II.16 (trans. ed. Fr John Procter, 1901, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Proud Or Foolish

ChristologyArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the gameSavonarola’s version of a famous choice, four centuries early. If Christ never claimed to be God and his disciples added it later, then a faith this good grew from a lie told by its first teachers. Savonarola asks how that could happen.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 56)

Strong against

×2.5The Tübingen Thesisan argument · why?

Baur has the divinity constructed by the early church out of its own party conflict. Savonarola takes that seriously enough to follow it: a religion of this quality then has to be the outcome of a falsehood told by the very men who taught it, and he asks how that works.

“No religion has endured the constant and cruel persecution inflicted on Christianity… other religions which persecuted Christianity, have died out, of themselves, without being persecuted. Christianity has only flourished, and waxed stronger, by means of its conflicts.”
Savonarola, The Triumph of the Cross II.16 (trans. ed. Fr John Procter, 1901, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Waxed Stronger By Its Conflicts

HistoryArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameSavonarola compares Christianity with the religions of the empire. The persecuting religions faded without being persecuted. Christianity was persecuted and grew. He asks for an explanation.

Learned byThe Triumph of the Cross (Lv 64)

Strong against

×2.5The History of Religionsan argument · why?

Set beside the mystery cults, Christianity becomes one of a class. Savonarola asks the class to behave alike under pressure and it does not: the religions doing the persecuting died out unpersecuted, and the persecuted one grew.

Who else was alive

Girolamo Savonarola against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window