1452-1498. Italian reformer, a Dominican
friar and an eloquent preacher. His crusade
against political and religious corruption
won him popular support, and in 1494 he led a
revolt in Florence that expelled the ruling
Medici family and established a democratic
republic. His denunciations of Pope Alexander
VI led to his excommunication in 1497, and in
1498 he was arrested, tortured, hanged, and
burned for heresy.