Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola, (1452-98). Italian preacher and reformer. Having joined the Dominican order in 1474, he gained considerable influence in Florence with his prophetic sermons and denunciation of corrupt clergy. He ruled Florence as a virtual dictator following the expulsion of the Medici family (1494), introducing a theocratic government. Pope Alexander VI, one of those denounced, summoned him to Rome but he politely refused. He also ignored orders to stop preaching and was finally excommunicated (1497). He was arrested, tortured, found guilty of heresy, and finally hanged and burned.
