Girolamo Savonarola

Savonarola, Girolamo (1452–98), Italian religious reformer. A friar of the Dominican order living in Florence, he was a powerful and outspoken critic of the Church, preaching against the corruption of the court of Pope Alexander VI and predicting that the Church would be punished. When he refused the pope's order to present himself in Rome, he was forbidden to preach (1495), the violation of which order led to his excommunication (1496). Savonarola remained unrepentant, and he was tried by an ecclesiastical court and executed by civil authorities.