The triumph of the cross

by Girolamo Savonarola

FOOTNOTES

[1] A translation has recently been published by the Catholic Truth Society.

[2] Life of St. Philip Neri, translated by Father Pope, vol. i., p. 278.

[3] Tome i., p. 885. Edit. Paris, 1719.

[4] This will account for some few slight and unimportant verbal variations from the original Latin edition in the present English translation, which, though it has been compared with the Latin, has been made from the Italian version.

[5] Many other editions were afterwards printed in Italy and elsewhere, which are not mentioned by Echard.

[6] Page 339. Edit. Paris, 1879.

[7] An imperfect edition in English appeared in 1661. A copy is to be found in the Cambridge University Library. It was “printed by John Field, printer to the University, Cambridge,” under the title, “The Truth of the Christian Faith; or, The Triumph of the Cross, by Hieronymus Savonarola, done into English out of the author’s own Italian copy”; and it was dedicated “To the much honoured Francis S. John, Esq.”.

[8] The alphabetical Index at the end of this translation is not found in either the Latin or the Italian edition. It is added for the convenience of the English reader.

[9] Page 235.

[10] Heb. xiii. 8.

[11] Isa. lix. 21.

[12] In addition to the instances which I shall give later on, the reader will look in vain in Mr. Travers Hill’s translation for the reference to “the blessed Mother of God, the Virgin Mary,” the “Host,” “Chalice,” “Mary,” and “Relics,” which will be found in chapter ii. of the First Book in this translation (and in the original, which Mr. Hill professes to reproduce in English). In the following chapter he will also fail to find Savonarola’s words about “Virgins,” “the Eucharist,” “the Veneration of the Cross,” and “the reverence due to Mary and the Saints”. In the eleventh chapter of the Second Book the subjects of cloistral-life, fasting and watching, and the three vows of religious, which are found in the original, are suppressed in the “translation”. In the thirteenth chapter of the same Book, after the words “born of the Virgin Mary,” the author adds, “Whom He wishes to be reverenced (quam vult adorari) as the true Mother of God”; the translator omits the words. Later on, in the same chapter, Savonarola, writing of the Blessed Sacrament—“My Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine”—says: “They shall most devoutly venerate It”. (In the Italian edition Savonarola expresses it “they shall adore It as God”), not so the “translator”; nor does he insert Savonarola’s words: “My Virgin Mother shall be honoured,” which immediately follow the reference to the Blessed Sacrament. The profession of faith in the Roman Catholic Church, which the reader of this volume will find at the end of the tenth chapter of the Third Book, and which begins: “Therefore, the Catholic faith most fittingly,” etc. ([see page 127]), is ignored completely by Mr. Hill, but is found word for word in Savonarola’s original work. In one place ([Book ii., chap. xiii.]) the words, relating to the Eucharist: “In Ipsius Corpus et Sanguinem transmutari” are rendered “represent His body and blood”!

[13] See Savonarola and the Reformation—a Reply to Dean Farrar, by the present writer (Catholic Truth Society).

[14] First Epistle of St. Peter iii. 15.

[15] Given by Quetif, Annales O. P., vol. ii., p. 125. An English translation of the letter is to be found in Savonarola and the Reformation, before referred to, at page 114.

[16] “When we look up to the sky and contemplate the heavenly bodies, what can be so evident and so clear, as the existence of a Deity, with a most marvellous mind, by whom all these bodies are governed?” (Cicero, De Natura Deorum, lib. ii.)—Editor.

[17] E.g., St. Ignatius the Martyr, St. Polycarp, St. Clement of Alexandria, etc.—Editor.

[18] As this expression occurs frequently in the following pages, it may be well, for the uninitiated in scholastic phraseology, to explain its meaning. Savonarola, in the 10th chapter of this 1st Book, defines Pure Act as being “superior to all matter and possibility” and in the 2nd chapter of the following Book, he writes: “God is not a body, but Pure Act”. The term Pure Act is applied to the Most High by theologians, to exclude all imperfection, and all possibility of change, or of any further acquisition. St. Thomas in his Summa Theologica (Pars prima, Quaest. xxv. art. 1) distinguishes between that which is in actu, and that which is in potentia. To say of anything that it is in potentia (or possibility) implies that it may still receive something, or become something which it has not or is not, something which it lacks; and that, therefore, it is wanting and imperfect (deficiens et imperfectum)—e.g., a child is in potentia to become a man—he may some day be a man; or an ignorant man is in potentia to learning—he may become a learned man; there is a possibility of it—therefore, as yet, he is imperfect. In actu, on the other hand, means that it actually possesses some special gift or perfection. God has everything that He possibly can have, He is everything that He possibly can be in the scale of perfection—nothing is wanting to Him, nothing further is possible to Him. Hence St. Thomas concludes: “God is Pure Act simply and universally perfect; nor is there any imperfection in Him” (ibid.). No creature can be called Pure Act; because every creature is in potentia—he may receive or become something which he has not or is not. The term is applied to God alone.—Editor.

[19] De Simplicitate Vitæ Christianæ. This little work consists of five short treatises, or, as the author calls them, “Books”. It is from the pen of Savonarola himself. It was first published in Italian at Florence in the year 1496, and afterwards, in Latin, at Venice, and at the Ascension Press in Paris. As the title suggests, it treats of certain practical and simple rules, which help souls to attain to the perfection of the Christian life. I do not know of any existing English translation of this booklet.—Editor.

[20] The author, probably, had in his mind the dream of Nabuchadonosor, interpreted by the prophet Daniel (Dan. ii.).—Editor.

[21] [See Introduction, p. x.]

[22] The reader will, naturally, recall the words of St. Thomas, in the Lauda Sion:—

“Fracto demum Sacramento,

Ne vacilles, sed memento,

Tantum esse sub fragmento,

Quantum toto tegitur,” etc.,

of which the late Father Aylward, O.P., has left the following translation:—

“When the priest the Victim breaketh,

See thy faith it nowise shaketh;

Know that every fragment taketh

All that ’neath the whole there lies;

This in Him no fracture maketh,

’Tis the figure only breaketh,

Form or state, no change there taketh

Place, in what it signifies.”—Editor.

[23] i.e., in Italian. It was published in Florence in the year 1495. Afterwards a Latin edition, Contra Astrologiam Divinatricem lib. iii., was printed.—Editor.

[24] i.e., angels, or else disembodied spirits, or souls which have left this world; to some of which pagans gave Divine worship.—Editor.

[25] i.e., Divine worship.—Editor.

[26] The author, quoting the Book of Leviticus, has already said ([p. 183]), that the “week” of Daniel’s prophecy is to be interpreted as being a week of years. He here reminds his readers that in the middle of the week our Lord was crucified, i.e., after three years and a half (or half of seven years) preaching. “He shall confirm His covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and sacrifice shall fail” (Dan. ix. 27).—Editor.

[27] Probably a reference to St. Paul’s words: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: there shall come out of Sion, He that shall deliver, and shall turn away impiety from Jacob.... According to the Gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake: but according to election they are most dear for the sake of the fathers” (Rom. xi. 25, 26, 28).—Editor.