many wicked citizens who were in the palace and the councils wanted to lay hands on them. Among them was Franceschino degli Albizzi, who, the day Francesco Valori was killed, came to the Signoria and said: `Your Worships have heard what has happened to Francesco Valori; what do you desire should be done now with Giovan Batista Ridolfi and Paolantonio?' As if to say; if you wish, we will go and kill them. On the other hand Messer Guido, Bernardo Rucellai, the Nerli and those who in fact were the leaders, were strongly in favour of preserving their lives – mainly because, as many thought, they had believed that by overthrowing the friar the great council would be destroyed, and that was why they had worked so vigorously against him. But they were later disillusioned in this, for they saw that many of their followers – the Compagnacci in particular – and all the people wanted to keep the council. So they did not want to lay hands on those citizens without any profit or increase of power, especially as Messer Guido and Bernardo had had the proof in the elections to the Ten of how much reliance they could place on popular favour. It was Bernardo's phrase that all the wrongs in this affair should be taken off the citizens and loaded on the friar. It was therefore decided after some argument and disagreement that they should be spared; although, to satisfy the people, Giovan Batista, Paolantonio and a few other leaders were condemned to make a loan of certain sums of money. In this way the faction was quieted and Giovan Batista and Paolantonio, who had gone away on their friends' advice to allow popular hostility to die down, returned to Florence.

After that the new Signoria was elected with Vieri de' Medici as gonfalonier; and the Signoria included Messer Ormannozzo Deti, Pippo Giugni, Tommasi Gianni and others. During this time the commissioners from Rome arrived, and having re-examined Fra Girolamo and the others, all three were condemned to be burned at the stake. On the 23 day of May they were first degraded in the Piazza de Signori, and then hanged and burned before a greater crowd than used to come to their sermons. It was thought an astonishing thing that none of them, particularly Fra Girolamo, should have said anything publicly on that occasion to accuse or excuse themselves.

Thus Girolamo Savonarola came to a shameful end; and perhaps it will not be out of place here to speak at greater length about his qualities, for we have not seen in our times – nor did our fathers and grandfathers in theirs – a monk so full of many virtues or with so much credit and authority as he enjoyed. Even his enemies admit that he was extremely learned in several branches of knowledge, especially philosophy, which he possessed so thoroughly and could use so aptly for all his own purposes as if he had invented it himself – but more particularly in Holy Scripture in which it is believed there had not been anyone to compare with him for several centuries. He had wonderfully sound judgment not only in scholarship but also in worldly affairs, in the principles of which he had great understanding, as in my opinion his sermons show. In this art of preaching he far excelled all others of his time with these qualities of his; for he also possessed an eloquence neither artificial nor forced, but natural and easy. In this he had a quite remarkable reputation and following, for he had preached not only the Lenten sermons but also for many feast days of the year for so many years on end, in a city full of most subtle and fastidious minds, where even excellent preachers tend to bore after a Lenten season or two at most. These qualities of his were so clear and manifest that his adversaries as well as his supporters and followers agree in their recognition of them.

[...]

When Piero was driven out and the `parliament' called, the city was badly shaken and the friends of the former government were in such disrepute and danger that it seemed impossible to save a great number of them from violence, Francesco Valori and Piero Capponi being powerless to defend them. This would have been a great disaster for the city, as there were among them many good, wise and rich men of great families and connections. If that had happened, there would have been violent divisions among those who ruled the city – as was seen in the example of the Twenty – and they would have been divided because there were many of almost equal reputation who desired to be leader; innovations and `parliaments' would follow, expulsions of citizens, and several changes of government, and perhaps in the end the violent return of Piero with infinite destruction and slaughter. Fra Girolamo alone stopped these tendencies and impulses, introduced the great council, and so put a bridle on all those with ambitions; he