The tension of this abnormal situation in the city grew to be excessive, and cool thinkers predicted that Savonarola's position would become untenable.

Parties began to form and gather to a head.

The followers of the monk, by far the largest section of the people, received the name of Piagnoni or Frateschi.

The friends of the Medici, few at first and cautious, were called Bigi.

The opponents of Savonarola and of the Medici, who hated his theocracy, but desired to see an oligarchy and not a tyranny in Florence, were known as the Arrabbiati.
The discontent which germinated in Florence displayed itself in Rome.
Alexander found it intolerable to be assailed as Antichrist by a monk who had made himself master of the chief Italian republic.