28. Alexander didn’t care how corrupt he was, and laughed when Savonarola publically accused him
In the early 1490s, the firebrand Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola whipped Florence into a pious frenzy. His calls for ecclesiastical reform and claims that God was angered by Italy’s debauchery drew additional gravitas from the French invasion of 1494. Unfortunately for Pope Alexander, Savonarola especially hated corruption in the church, and soon the two were on a collision course. First hearing of Savonarola’s public denunciations, Alexander apparently laughed out loud and refused to reform himself or the Church. Alexander excommunicated Savonarola, and gave his permission for him to be burned alive in Florence in 1498.
