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He was a heretic, first of all, he believed unbaptized babies went to heaven.  In general he had a weird, Spielberg-like sentimentality about children.  He was like some kind of hellfire-and-brimstone Pied Piper -- a dangerous idealist and dreamer, as you can see from his preaching about a utopian republic.


In my opinion he was a narcissist.  He took the desire to be like Christ too far.  It is a very fine line -- St. Francis did similar things to Savonarola, made a spectacle of himself like Savonarola, while somehow not crossing the line.  Savonarola, it seems to me, almost wanted to bring heaven to Earth, and he wanted to be the angel who led people there.  Towards the end of his life I believe he was completely consumed by narcissism, with no more restraints.  

God gives the saints a certain amount of freedom and license, knowing they will use it properly.  You can see this with St. Catherine of Siena.  In most cases, it is not a woman's place to rebuke the Pope, but God gave her that license, to be used cautiously.  She had the charm and the diplomacy and the sense of truth to do what she did.  

But that's why Savonarola will almost surely never be a saint.  He had no discretion; he stepped out of bounds.  He didn't do God's will but his own.  I read once about how he gave up even his treasured illuminated Biblical manuscripts -- why?  Who asked him to?  Is this renunciation of the world, or extremist pride?  What is wrong with a monk having illuminated manuscripts?  Like a Jansenist, he gave himself more rules than really existed; while breaking those that did exist.

He was a heretic, first of all, he believed unbaptized babies went to heaven.  In general he had a weird, Spielberg-like sentimentality about children.  He was like some kind of hellfire-and-brimstone Pied Piper -- a dangerous idealist and dreamer, as you can see from his preaching about a utopian republic.


In my opinion he was a narcissist.  He took the desire to be like Christ too far.  It is a very fine line -- St. Francis did similar things to Savonarola, made a spectacle of himself like Savonarola, while somehow not crossing the line.  Savonarola, it seems to me, almost wanted to bring heaven to Earth, and he wanted to be the angel who led people there.  Towards the end of his life I believe he was completely consumed by narcissism, with no more restraints.  

God gives the saints a certain amount of freedom and license, knowing they will use it properly.  You can see this with St. Catherine of Siena.  In most cases, it is not a woman's place to rebuke the Pope, but God gave her that license, to be used cautiously.  She had the charm and the diplomacy and the sense of truth to do what she did.  

But that's why Savonarola will almost surely never be a saint.  He had no discretion; he stepped out of bounds.  He didn't do God's will but his own.  I read once about how he gave up even his treasured illuminated Biblical manuscripts -- why?  Who asked him to?  Is this renunciation of the world, or extremist pride?  What is wrong with a monk having illuminated manuscripts?  Like a Jansenist, he gave himself more rules than really existed; while breaking those that did exist.

several things wrong with this:
-first, he did have personality isues and true, he at times had his issues
-to say he "stepped out of bounds" and then complain about his lack of respecting authority is odd, Mike, as you yoursefl have decided we have no valid Pope and despite 99.9% of world, you do not recognize B15,P11,p12 as Popes..
-he ws no Jansenist, but live a rigourous life, not uncommon for most monks of the time, no matter what order
-He felt, as had many, evenprior to Julius II Bull declaring Simony a sin that invalidated holy office, that Alexander VI was a simoniac and hence, very possibly not a Pope and hence, no obediance to his office, as he had none...
-no idea wher your "he gave his bible up" came from as he studied the bible rigourously and always, he insisted his students and thsoe under him did as well....kinda hard to do if one had no bible....
-Utopian republics and states..where did he say he wanted to "bring heaven to earth" or establish a utopia? can you cite sources? He helped setup a governing council for Florence made of of regualr, old men with human faults..he declared Christ the king of Florence......yikes, bad no? Actually, fully in line with Catholic thought then and now....Christ is King and rulers rule justly in His name...

Finally, to the charge of heresy...what heresy, his writings were fond devoid of heresy, both by Alexander VI, Cardinal Caraffa, the future Pope, Pius X, Pius V,etc...his "confession" was extracted under violent, multi-days torture.If we tortured you, day after day, you would too admit to anything...hence torture is not admissible under law in any sane court, especially those pre-Patriot Act (Jack Bauer excluded).....he, as soon as the tortures were over, recanted and stated he only stated what he did do to intense pain, deprevation,etc....many at the time and later noted that the scribes of the time were told, bribed or both to write down as his "confession" wrods he enver spoke...in other words, they forged and lied about what he said....

Recall, Liberius was under pain, torture and duress not fully in his right mind either and was convinced to attack Athanasisu...so too, he acted under lies from others....

Now, to TIA just casually-and you as well-just saying "he was a heretic" and examining the facts no further, just vommitting hte same old tired charges-is part of the problem....

Savonarola a saint? unlikely, due to his character faults and his political involvment...a martyr? maybe...but the guy derserves to be at least rehabilitated and exonarated in proper Church protocol....

To anyone that care and wants to look into it, again, wil lrecommend Davies talk as I think he was fair and gave some good facts, not just off handed, drive by comments....the type and tripe of TIA.....