MEDICAL BACKGROUND OF A DOMINICAN PREACHER
MEDICAL BACKGROUND OF A DOMINICAN PREACHER

Summary/Abstract: The Italian Renaissance was a complex phenomenon and the unleashing factor of change throughout Europe. Beginning with Scuola medica salernitana, this period of artistic, scientific, and knowledge-based development would have as outstanding polymath representatives. The young Girolamo Savonarola, who was meant to become a doctor, would choose monastic life instead. A controversial figure of Renaissance, he was the perfect example of a full scholar of that period who would bring about major changes in society. With a modest beginning among the ecclesiastical representatives, Savonarola criticized virulently the institution whose representative he was. Having reached an oratorical speech that raised the poor population against social, religious and political structure of the time, the cleric came to hold political power in Florence and to defy the papacy. We cannot know how much of the movement he initiated had the purpose of acquiring power and satisfying his own vanity and how much was a rebellion he represented against corruption and immorality, but it is certain that he represented an important figure of the Renaissance through his influence. The Dominican preacher propagated an anti-ecclesiastical movement that would earthquake the foundations of the entire edifice meant to defend religious hegemony on the population.

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