Papal Breve Sent Marking Savonarola As Excommunicated: later May 1497

There was a delay in the spring of 1497 between the issuance of the papal breve marking friar Girolamo Savonarola of the Dominican Congregation at San Marco in Florence as an excommunicant, and its public reception there. The brief was signed by the Borgia Pope on May 12/13 that year but was read out from the pulpits of the five most important churches in Florence only as late as June 18. There were several reasons for such a delay about such an important declaration. While his enemies in other congregations would begin circulating the story, the central figures of Florentine government would find other ways to delay the reading in order to dampen the already out of bounds strains and tensions revolving around 'the little friar'.

The pope had chosen Giovanvittorio da Camerino to deliver this breve to the major churches in Florence. This was the same man who earlier that year, in March, after thunderously preaching against Savonarola there, the city chose to imprison him and then officially throw him out of the city as an exile. Now, while anxious to get back and deliver this supreme opinion from his superior Holiness in Rome, when Giovanvittorio arrived as near as Siena, he stopped. There he decided to draft letters to the Eight and the Signory in Florence requesting safe conduct. For people exiled from the City this was a regular practice. He didn't want to be imprisoned in Florence again for delivering even this message (this time of excommunication), but was duty bound to fulfill his charge from the Most Holy See. He could explain to the Signoria he had a duty to fulfill and as such should be given this opportunity to deliver his message without any harm coming to him. Giovanvittorio sat and waited for a month in Siena instead.  [p. 168] It is Weinstein that claims Camerino waited in Siena for a month before even these letters asking for safe conduct were sent.

The City leaders heard the news anyway as did many of the congregations there in Florence. The leaders debated what to do and Savonarola's enemies fanned the flames of incitement. Savonarola, after the Ascension Day upset wrote, crafting letters for his brethren, to the pope and for his defense. But the Signoria gave no promise of safe-conduct for Giovanvittorio da Camerino.

from Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006