The storm was now gathering.  The fury of the factions increased, as also did the wrath of the Pope.  At length, on May 13, the excommunicatory brief was despatched from Rome, directed against a “certain Fra Girolamo Savonarola who had disseminated pernicious doctrines to the scandal and grief of simple souls.”  The event threw all Florence into confusion.  The Arrabbiati were triumphant.  But the city was filled with lamentation and disorder.  The rabble rejoiced.  The churches were quickly deserted; the taverns were filled; immorality returned as if magically; and again women attired in dazzling finery paraded the streets.  In less than a month, so rapid was the transformation, Florence seemed to have relapsed into the days of the Magnificent, and piety and patriotism were alike forgotten.

Meantime, the Prior was calm and composed and took measures for his defence.  He wrote an Epistle against surreptitious excommunication, addressed to all Christians beloved of God.  He followed it by a second letter, also breathing courage and defiance.  A conflict ensued.  The Arrabbiati sent accusations against the Prior to Rome, while the Seigniory sought to vindicate him, most of the members, newly elected, being his friends.  The plague grew so terrible that on some days there were a hundred deaths.  In the autumn it abated, and gradually disappeared.  Savonarola’s energy in fighting the pestilence was unwearied throughout.

The Prior soon commenced to preach again.  On Christmas Day he put an end to all suspense as to his policy by thrice performing high mass, afterwards leading his monks in solemn procession through St. Mark’s Square.  He continued to issue new tracts and to preach regularly.  But on February 26 the Pope announced that Savonarola’s preaching should be tolerated no longer.  The Prior was conscious that the end was near.  His last sermon was delivered, after he had preached in Florence for eight years, on March 18, 1498.  His adherents were terrified, and seemed to vanish.

On April 8, Palm Sunday, the Arrabbiati attacked St. Mark’s Convent.  Savonarola was seized and bound by a brutal rabble, and he and two of his monks were lodged in prison.  Cruel proceedings followed.  For a whole month he was brought day after day to examination and he was repeatedly subjected to torture.  The Pope’s Commissioners were never able to extract from him any confession of guilt.  Savonarola was from first to last unflinchingly consistent with himself.

On May 22 sentence of death was passed on Savonarola, on Fra Silvestro, and on Fra Domenico.  They prepared to face death firmly and well.  The tragedy was enacted next morning.  Three platforms had been erected on the steps of the Ringhiera, on which sat the Bishop of Vasona, the Apostolic Commissioners, and the Gonfaliero with the Council of Eight.  On a gibbet in the form of a cross hung three chains, and combustibles were piled beneath.  Sad and solemn was the silence of the vast throng assembled in the Piazza, excepting where members of the factions were raging like wild beasts and venting indecent blasphemies.