The triumph of the cross

by Girolamo Savonarola

The history and object of The Triumph of The Cross, which may be considered the most important of the works, if we may so call them, of the great Florentine Reformer, is given by Echard, the Continuator of Quetif, in his Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum.[3]

The Triumph of the Cross is (he tells us) an accurate work, and one approved by all learned men. Savonarola undertook it for this special reason, namely, that he might clearly show what were his real feelings as regards the Catholic Faith and the Apostolic See; and that he might refute the calumnious accusation of heresy and schism, which had been laid to his charge by his adversaries. It begins thus: “The glorious triumph of the Cross over the worldly wise and over wordy sophists, etc.”. It is divided into four books, of which the first treats of the existence, nature, and providence of God, and proves the immortality of the soul of man. In the second the author shows, by various arguments, how the Christian faith is in accord with truth and reason. He proceeds, in the third, to point out that there is nothing, intrinsically, or extrinsically, impossible in the chief mysteries of the Christian faith, and that they are not, in any way, at variance with reason. The fourth book is mainly devoted to an exposition of the truth of the religion taught by Christ.

It shows that the vagaries of philosophers, astrologers, idolaters, Jews, Mahometans, and heretics are absolutely opposed to reason.

This work Savonarola wrote in Latin, and it was printed at Florence in 1497 in quarto. It was reprinted there, in quarto, in 1524, and afterwards in Paris at the Ascension Press, in octavo, in the same year. Next it was published at Basle by Henrici-Pietri, in 1540, in folio. Then, more accurately, thanks to the zeal of the famous John Balesdens, by John Maire at Lyons (1633), in duodecimo. It was also reproduced at Rome by Cardinal S. Onufrius Antonius Barberini, brother of Urban VIII., at the Propaganda Press, in duodecimo, without any date. Finally, another edition was issued at Grenoble, in 1666, under the care of the famous companion of Stephen Mency.

But since many of Savonarola’s adherents were unable to obtain a copy, and were unacquainted with the Latin language, in which it was written, in accordance with their wishes he translated it into the Etruscan tongue, not indeed (as he warns his readers in his introductory letter), word for word, or line for line, but merely giving the sense and the pith of each chapter, and sometimes (to make a special point the more convincing to his readers), omitting some passages and adding others.[4] He says that he did this advisedly, lest it should be purposely, and maliciously, mis-translated by another. This was edited at Florence in the year 1497, in quarto, and to it a Preface was written by Domenico Benevieni, a Florentine noble, who was Canon Theologian of St. Laurence’s in the same city. In this Preface Benevieni defended the author in a very able manner. This version was reprinted at Venice, by Bernard of Bindoni, in 1531, in octavo, and again, in octavo, in 1547.[5] It must be noticed that the seventh chapter of the Fourth Book of the Latin edition was taken out of its place, and inserted, by Theodore Bibliandrus, in his collection of works written against the Mahometan errors. It is to be found in the second part of the Basle Folio editions of 1543 and 1550, under the title: “Commentatiuncula Savonarolæ Mahumeticam sectam omni ratione carere ostendens”.

In his Etude sur Jérome Savonarole, the Reverend Père Bayonne, O.P.,[6] adds to what we have already said, that the brother of Urban VIII., Cardinal Onufrius Antonius Barberini—a Capuchin—wishing to vindicate his (Savonarola’s) innocence, left by will, dated 23rd of August, 1646, 500 gold crowns to bring out a reprint of The Triumph of the Cross, and his commentary on the Miserere. The heirs of the Cardinal gave this commission, as we have seen, to the Propaganda Press; and these two works accordingly appeared. They were sufficient to dispel all the illusions of those who still suspected the author of heresy and of hostility to the Holy See.

The same writer also quotes M. Perrens as saying that the Society of Jesus printed The Triumph of the Cross in their Annals of the Propagation of the Faith (vol. ii., p. 211). The most recent edition is one which appeared in 1899. It was published, both in Latin and Italian, on parallel pages, at Siena, under the title “Trionfo della Croce di Fra Girolamo Savonarola, edito per la prima volte, nei due teste originali Latino e Volgare, per cura del P. Lodovico Ferretti de’ Predicatori”. I would here acknowledge, with thanks, my indebtedness to the Reverend Editor of this valuable edition. He has kindly put his work at my service in editing the translation which these words introduce to the English reader.

This is the book which is now presented to the reader in an English form. It is the first time, as far as I can ascertain, that it appears, in its entirety, in English.[7] I say in its entirety. In reality, there are two paragraphs omitted in the eighth chapter of the Third Book, the omitted paragraphs being denoted by asterisks. The reason of the omission is, that the author treats of a physical question of some delicacy; and, as, since Savonarola’s day, the views of scientists on the subject have changed, it has been designedly left out. I may add, however, that the omission does not in any way affect the author’s argument.[8] I am fully aware that a work was published, some years ago, purporting to be an English translation of the four books, and that the Rev. Father Lucas, S.J., in his recent biographical study, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, calls his readers’ attention to it as “an English translation of The Triumph of The Cross”.[9] I have the book before me as I write, and I cannot agree with the learned Jesuit in accepting this mutilated and eviscerated English version as a translation of Savonarola’s Triumph of the Cross, nor do I think that the Florentine Dominican would, were he able to do so, give either his Nihil Obstat or his Imprimatur to the work as a reproduction of his own words, or as the full profession of his own creed. The title of the book is “The Triumph of the Cross, by Jerome Savonarola, translated from the Latin ... by O’Dell Travers Hill, F.R.G.S.”; it was published in London in 1868. It is not a translation of The Triumph of the Cross. It is, apparently, only a translation of certain portions of the book which would prove palatable to the class of readers for whom the “translation” was clearly intended. Whole chapters have been dropped out, evidently without the slightest compunction, certainly without the least explanation. In some of the chapters which appear, lengthy passages have been omitted without the shadow of hesitation. Truly, it is Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. It is no more a translation of the great Dominican’s famous defence of his orthodoxy—as The Triumph of the Cross was intended to be—than the garden-fence of a suburban London villa is a reproduction upon English soil of the Wall of China, or than Primrose Hill is an English replica of the Alps. If the books of Catholic Apologists are to be “translated” in this way, what is to prevent a Unitarian from giving us in English an edition of the Bible without any allusion direct or indirect, to the Blessed Trinity? Or what is to hinder an Agnostic from reproducing the Gospels in our mother-tongue, without any reference to the Central Figure, around whom the whole of the sacred writings revolve?

The “translator” tells us in his Preface that “this book is free from all sectarian feeling or prejudice”. No doubt it is. But why? Everything “sectarian” in The Triumph of the Cross has been left out in the “translation”. He speaks of “its freedom from all sectarian spirit, from all scholastic quibblings”; and concludes that “its close consecutive reasoning, its earnestness, convince us that its author was a man far in advance of his age”. If the unbiassed reader will peruse the pages of this translation, from first page to last, from the opening chapter of the First Book to the closing chapter of the Fourth, and compare the doctrine of the four books with the teaching of any book written by any recognised Catholic Apologist, in any tongue, in this twentieth century, he will find that, in a sense, the words of the Preface are true, and that Savonarola, writing in the fifteenth century, was “in advance of his age”; that he was one with the Catholic writers of this twentieth age. If he will pursue his reading still further, and compare the true Triumph of the Cross with the works of the Catholic Apologists of the middle, and earlier, nay the earliest ages, he will find that Savonarola was behind his age, as well as being in advance of it. There are no “ages” in the history of the Catholic Creed of the Catholic Church. Like Jesus Christ, the Church and the Church’s teaching are “yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever”.[10] Savonarola’s teaching in this profession of his creed—the creed in which he lived, in which he died, and which he preached through life and with his dying breath—is the creed of the Catholic Church in all places and in all times. “This is My Covenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is in thee, and the words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.”[11]