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From: Michael Vik
Date: 9/26/2003
Time: 3:58:35 PM
Remote Name: 199.44.215.199
Did we forget about Savonarola? Here we have a man who attacked the aristocracy of Florence and the aristocracy of the Church at the same time, not to amass huge fortunes or fame (though his actions made him very famous, or infamous, anyway) but to expose corruption and institute a republican government in Florence. He had a lot of courage to stand up to these powerful forces, especially when he was just a monk and not a powerful liege. I think his timing was a little early; he sounds like a Martin Luther to me with a political agenda. Am I right in saying that he eventually got what he hoped for (since the Catholic Church has been reformed and the Italian government, which claims Florence, is now a parlimentary democracy) or not? Besides his death at the hands of the Church and the Medici's, of course!