"The whole world knows that His glory has not been spread by force and weapons, but by poor fishermen"
About this Quote
Savonarola is pulling off a neat piece of rhetorical jiu-jitsu: praising Christianity by stripping it of the very tools late-medieval Christianity routinely used. “The whole world knows” is a pressure tactic disguised as common sense, a way of making dissent sound not just wrong but socially illiterate. Then he pivots to the punchline: not “kings,” not “armies,” not “law,” but “poor fishermen.” The point isn’t quaint piety; it’s a critique of power.
The “glory” here is Christ’s, but the indictment lands on the church that claims to represent Him. If the faith’s original credibility came from people with no institutional leverage, Savonarola implies, then a church leaning on weapons and coercion is advertising its own spiritual bankruptcy. The fishermen aren’t merely humble; they’re evidence. Their poverty functions like a controlled experiment: if the message traveled without force, it must have been persuasive in a different register - moral authority, charisma, conviction, maybe even miracle.
Context matters. Savonarola preached in Florence at a moment when Italy was roiled by war, papal politics, and conspicuous clerical corruption. His reform program targeted luxury, patronage, and the church’s entanglement with worldly violence. So this line doubles as self-justification: he casts his movement as a return to an origin story that can shame princes and prelates alike.
Subtext: Christianity wins when it looks weak. The church loses when it tries to look strong. Savonarola is betting that the most effective critique of a militarized, gilded institution is its own founding myth.
The “glory” here is Christ’s, but the indictment lands on the church that claims to represent Him. If the faith’s original credibility came from people with no institutional leverage, Savonarola implies, then a church leaning on weapons and coercion is advertising its own spiritual bankruptcy. The fishermen aren’t merely humble; they’re evidence. Their poverty functions like a controlled experiment: if the message traveled without force, it must have been persuasive in a different register - moral authority, charisma, conviction, maybe even miracle.
Context matters. Savonarola preached in Florence at a moment when Italy was roiled by war, papal politics, and conspicuous clerical corruption. His reform program targeted luxury, patronage, and the church’s entanglement with worldly violence. So this line doubles as self-justification: he casts his movement as a return to an origin story that can shame princes and prelates alike.
Subtext: Christianity wins when it looks weak. The church loses when it tries to look strong. Savonarola is betting that the most effective critique of a militarized, gilded institution is its own founding myth.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|
More Quotes by Girolamo
Add to List
