No means were spared, however base; forgery and false witness were as nothing.

The summons arrived on April 8th, 1497, when Savonarola was at S.Marco.The monks, who adored him, refused to let him go, and for a whole day the convent was under siege.

But might, of course, prevailed, and Savonarola was dragged from the church to the Palazzo Vecchio and prosecuted for the offence of claiming to have supernatural power and fomenting political disturbance.

He was imprisoned in a tiny cell in the tower for many days, and under constant torture he no doubt uttered words which would never have passed his lips had he been in control of himself; but we may dismiss, as false, the evidence which makes them into confessions.

Evidence there had to be, and evidence naturally was forthcoming; and sentence of death was passed.
In that cell, when not under torture, he managed to write meditations on the thirteenth psalm, "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped," and a little work entitled "A Rule for Living a Christian Life".