In the 15th century, an important figure for Florence was Girolamo Savonarola - a Dominican, religious and political reformer, who was considered a heretic and schismatic by the Catholic Church.

Savonarola was an Italian Dominican from Ferrara, a preacher who called for Christian renewal and condemned clerical corruption, despotic rule, and exploitation of the poor. He contributed to the establishment of the Florentine Republic (after the expulsion of the Medici).