ABSTRACT
In this chapter, by selecting as random examples three figures, John Hus, San Bernardino of Siena and Girolamo Savonarola, the authors examine the impact of preachers on social criticism and also the way in which preachers both adopted and added to the assumptions present amongst their auditors. One recurrent set of ideas emphasized by the major popular preachers, the author have selected was anticlerical criticism. In studying Hus, it is helpful to be aware of two streams of influence working on an individual like him who, in common with so many 'professional' medieval preachers, was deeply grounded in the intellectual culture of his Church. It echoed an important element in popular culture important because, as, the people saw in the case of Tabor, messianic prophecy brings a message of hope for the despairing. For the Florentines, the recovery of territory came to be a condition of Savonarola’s continued ascendancy.
