SAVONAROLA. 217 was hostile to his designs, but he did not care to push the matter further, provided he could diminish the Frate's power by silencing him.* His voice, however, was too potent a factor in Florentine af- fairs for his friends in power to consent to his silence. Long and earnest efforts were made to obtain permission from the pope that he should resume his exhortations during the coming Lent, and at length the request was granted. The sermons on Amos which he then delivered were not of a character to placate the curia, for, besides lashing its vices with terrible earnestness, he took pains to indicate that there were limits to the obedience which he would render to the papal commands. These sermons produced an im- mense sensation, not only in Florence, but throughout Italy, and on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1496, Alexander assembled fourteen Dominican masters of theology, to whom he denounced their auda- cious comrade as heretical, schismatic, disobedient, and superstitious. It was admitted that he was responsible for the misfortunes of Piero de' Medici, and it was resolved, with but one dissentient voice, that means must be found to silence him.f Notwithstanding this he continued, without interference, to preach at intervals until November 2. Even then it is a signifi- cant tribute to his power that Alexander again had recourse to indirect means to suppress him. On November 7, 1496, a papal brief was issued creating a congregation of Rome and Tuscany and placing it under a Vicar-general who was to serve for two years, and be ineligible to reappointment except after an interval. Although the first Vicar-general was Giacomo di Sicilia, a friend of Savonarola, the measure was ingeniously framed to deprive him of independence, and he might at any moment be transferred from Florence to another post. To this Savonarola replied with open defiance. In a printed "Apologia della Congregazione di San Marco" he declared that the two hundred and fifty friars of his convent would resist to the death, in spite of threats and excom- munication, a measure which would result in the perdition of their souls. This was a declaration of open war, and on November 26
- Villari, I. 402-7. — Landucci, p. 120. — Diar. Johann. Burchardi (Eccard,
Corp. Hist. II. 2151-9). t Villari, I. 417, 441-5.— Landucci, pp. 125-9.— Perrens, p. 361.
