Writer, preacher, reformer, martyr. Girolamo Savonarola was an inspiration to Martin Luther and an early martyr for the Protestant Reformation. He’s also a controversial figure – more Old Testament prophet than humble friar. He tried to end the Renaissance, to create a city of God. We can learn a lot from his story today.

Our guest Samantha Morris discusses her book Girolamo Savonarola: The Renaissance Preacher and the history of the “mad preacher of Florence”. Her new book is "The Pope's Greatest Adversary: Girolamo Savonarola".

Think you could end a movement? Destroy some of the best art ever made? Nearly topple the Italian Renaissance? Of course not, but that’s what one man tried to do at the end of the 1400s. He was a righteous man who fought against the evil of Pope Alexander VI. But he went too far—trying to make the world behave in a godly fashion instead of changing the hearts of Florence. In a time before the Bible was readily available in people’s own languages, Girolamo Savonarola was put to death by the very superstition he tried to defeat.

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