BIO:Girolamo Savonarola 1452-1498 Italian reformer. Girolamo Savonarola

was in a Dominican mon- astery for seven years. He began to preach the
Bible in Florence, Italy, in 1481. This city became a republic due to
Savonarola's preaching and his immense popularity with the common
people. They elected him to be the city manager. Pope Alexander VI
offered him a cardinal's position if he would quit preaching the Bible
and exposing the sins of the Vatican. Savonarola refused the "red hat"
of the cardinal and replied, "I'll take a red hat of blood." He was
excommu- nicated, imprisoned, tortured, then burned at the stake.
Before dying, he said, "Rome will not quench this fire." Nineteen years
after Savonarola's death, Martin Luther began the Reformation.

   ARTIST'S NOTE: The color motif is that of blood and gloom.
Alexander's offer is suspended over Savonarola's head, with its real
import pictured clearly: the price of blood.

   Ruckman '66
