Lodovico Sforza, the lord of Mirandola, and Piero de' Medici felt themselves specially aggrieved, and kept urging Alexander to extinguish this source of scandal to established governments.

Against so great and powerful a host one man could not stand alone.

Savonarola's position became daily more dangerous in Florence.

The merchants, excommunicated by the Pope and thus exposed to pillage in foreign markets, grumbled at the friar who spoiled their trade.

The ban of interdiction lay upon the city, where the sacraments could no longer be administered or the dead be buried with the rites of Christians.
Meanwhile a band of high-spirited and profligate young men, called Compagnacci, used every occasion to insult and interrupt him.