When, however, he returned to S.Marco seven years later it was to be instantly hailed both as a powerful preacher and reformer.

His eloquent and burning declarations were hurled both at Florence and Rome: at the apathy and greed of the Church as a whole, and at the sinfulness and luxury of this city, while Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was then at the height of his influence, surrounded by accomplished and witty hedonists, and happiest when adding to his collection of pictures, jewels, and sculpture, in particular did the priest rebuke.

Savonarola stood for the spiritual ideals and asceticism of the Baptist, Christ, and S.Paul; Lorenzo, in his eyes, made only for sensuality and decadence.
The two men, however, recognized each other's genius, and Lorenzo, with the tolerance which was as much a mark of the first three Medici rulers as its absence was notable in most of the later ones, rather encouraged Savonarola in his crusade than not.

He visited him in the monastery and did not resent being kept waiting; and he went to hear him preach.

In 1492 Lorenzo died, sending for Savonarola on his death-bed, which was watched by the two closest of his scholarly friends, Pico della Mirandola and Politian.