Girolamo Savonarola, the Dominican friar, and prophetic preacher and reformer (above), was executed today in 1498. Already a powerful preacher when he came to Florence in the 1480s, he used his pulpit to attack the city’s rulers, the rich and corrupt Medici family, whom he eventually succeeded in driving out. Florence then became a religiously charged republic, where the law of Christ governed politics, bands of monks policed the morals of the citizens, and giant bonfires burned up all the books, pictures, games and fripperies condemned by Savonarola. It all came to a bad end when he took on the Pope, who at first summoned him to Rome, then excommunicated him. He was hanged, his body was burned, and his ashes were scattered in the River Arno.
The defenestration of Prague happened today in 1618. The Protestant nobles of Bohemia believed their Catholic king was trying to impose his faith on the country, so they defenestrated his representatives (which is a posh way of saying that they threw them out of a high window) and chose a Protestant king. This revolution plunged Europe into the Thirty Years War, which eventually returned Bohemia to Catholicism and destroyed the whole of Germany in the process.
The scientists Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, who developed the view of the planets in motion around the Sun, are honoured today in the liturgical calendar of The Episcopal Church (in the USA). Galileo Galilei, who also lent a hand, which got him into difficulties with the church, must be a bit miffed to be left out.
As the heavens declare your glory, O God, and the firmament shows your handiwork, we bless your Name for the gifts of knowledge and insight you bestowed upon Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler; and we pray that you would continue to advance our understanding of your cosmos, for our good and for your glory; through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.’ Collect for the feast of Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler
Joan of Arc was knocked of her horse and captured by troops serving Duke Philip of Burgundy today in 1430. Imprisoned by the Duke in a high tower, she jumped 70 feet into the soft mud of a moat in a failed bid to escape. The following January, Joan was handed over to the English, who put her to death.
Image: Wikimedia