Editing Pope Alexander VI (section)

=== Savonarola ===
[[File:Girolamo Savonarola.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Girolamo Savonarola]]]]
The debased state of the Curia was a major scandal. Opponents, such as the powerful Florentine friar [[Girolamo Savonarola]], launched invectives against papal corruption and appealed for a general council to confront the papal abuses. Alexander is reported to have been reduced to laughter when Savonarola's denunciations were related to him. Nevertheless, he appointed [[Sebastian Maggi]] to investigate the friar, and he responded on 16 October 1495:
{{Blockquote|text=We are displeased at the disturbed state of affairs in Florence, the more so in that it owes its origin to your preaching. For you predict the future and publicly declare that you do so by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when you should be reprehending vice and praising virtue ... Prophecies like these should not be made when your charge is to forward peace and concord. Moreover, these are not the time for such teachings, calculated as they are to produce discord even in times of peace let alone in times of trouble. ... Since, however, we have been most happy to learn from certain cardinals and from your letter that you are ready to submit yourself to the reproofs of the Church, as becomes a Christian and a religious, we are beginning to think that what you have done has not been done with an evil motive, but from a certain simple-mindedness and a zeal, however misguided, for the Lord's vineyard. Our duty, however, prescribes that we order you, under holy obedience, to cease from public and private preaching until you are able to come to our presence, not under armed escort as is your present habit, but safely, quietly and modestly as becomes a religious, or until we make different arrangements. If you obey, as we hope you will, we for the time being suspend the operation of our former Brief so that you may live in peace in accordance with the dictates of your conscience.<ref>{{harvp|de la Bédoyère|1958|pp=154–155}}</ref>}}

The hostility of Savonarola seems to have been political rather than personal, and the friar sent a letter of condolence to the pope on the death of the [[Duke of Gandía|Duke of Gandia]]; "Faith, most Holy Father, is the one and true source of peace and consolation... Faith alone brings consolation from a far-off country."<ref>{{harvp|de la Bédoyère|1958|p=24}}</ref> But eventually the Florentines tired of the friar's moralising and the Florentine government condemned the reformer to death, executing him on 23 May 1498.<ref>{{harvp|de la Bédoyère|1958|loc=passim}} {{Page needed|date=May 2017}}</ref>