Editing Girolamo Savonarola (section)

== Preacher ==
For the next several years, Savonarola lived as an itinerant preacher with a message of [[repentance]] and reform in the cities and convents of north Italy. As his letters to his mother and his writings show, his confidence and sense of mission grew along with his widening reputation.<ref>Translation of letter from fra Girolamo to his mother, 25 January 1490, Girolamo Savonarola, A Guide to Righteous Living and Other Works, Konrad Eisenbichler (Toronto, 2003) 38–41.</ref> In 1490, he was reassigned to San Marco. It seems that this was due to the initiative of the humanist philosopher-prince, [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]], who had heard Savonarola in a formal disputation in [[Reggio Emilia]] and been impressed with his learning and piety. Pico was in trouble with the Church for some of his unorthodox philosophical ideas (the famous "900 theses") and was living under the protection of [[Lorenzo de' Medici|Lorenzo the Magnificent]], the Medici ''de facto'' ruler of Florence.<ref>William G. Craven, ''Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Symbol of His Age: Modern Interpretations of a Renaissance Philosopher'' (Geneva, Switzerland, 1981).</ref> To have Savonarola beside him as a spiritual counsellor, he persuaded Lorenzo that the friar would bring prestige to the convent of San Marco and its Medici patrons.<ref>Tavuzzi, "Savonarola and Vincenzo Bandello," 216–217.</ref> After some delay, apparently due to the interference of his former professor fra Vincenzo Bandelli, now Vicar General of the Order, Lorenzo succeeded in bringing Savonarola back to Florence, where he arrived in May or June of that year.