The City of Mourners and the Court of Lucifer

Download or read book The City of Mourners and the Court of Lucifer written by George Eliot, Nathan Gallizier, Petya Lehmann and published by Auroralit Edition. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two major Italian cities are introduced here on the verge of the 16th century. The public and social life of Florence was dominated by the powerful personality of a Dominican Friar, named Girolamo Savonarola. Savonarola criticized relentlessly the worldliness and vicious habits of the clergy. He insisted on the duty of Christian men and women not to hide in easy life when wrong was triumphing in public. He urged and taught them not to spend their wealth in outward pomp and riches when their fellow-citizens were suffering from want and sickness. On the other side, Savonarola was a bitter enemy to freethinkers, philosophers and Renaissance. And Savonarola’s mightiest enemy was Pope Alexander VI … Rodrigo Borgia, or Pope Alexander VI, ruled at the same time in Rome. Alexander VI had four children by a long time mistress, one of many. He had a passion for his children and endowed them with honours and wealth at the church’s and his neighbours’ expense. The citizens of Rome lived in unspeakable horrors in the midst of intrigues, murder, tortures in subterranean dungeons. No one’s life was safe. Alexander VI indulged in chase, stage plays, and orgies. He had many enemies amongst the nobles of Italy for wilfully excommunicating them and confiscating their land. But Alexander’s subtlest enemy was his son, Cesare Borgia …