Savonarola’s adversaries had failed in their attempt to have him condemned, but as Florence was firm in her refusal to break the alliance with Charles VIII, and as this attitude was attributed to Savonarola’s exhortations, in all probability another effort would be made to have him silenced. One of the strongest opponents of the Alliance was Alexander VI. He knew that Cardinal della Rovere had urged Charles to have him deposed and that this same Cardinal, a refugee in France, was pressing the King to have a Council summoned for the reformation of the Church. The fear of a Council was therefore a very real one for Alexander, and in order to paralyse Charles VIII, it was necessary to cripple Savonarola.

On October 16th, 1495, Alexander VI issued another Brief, Licet uberius, by which the former Brief Quia divini consilii of September 8th was annulled. The Pope had received Savonarola’s letter of September 29th and the copy of the letter of July 31st, and accepted Savonarola’s reasons for not having gone to Rome. By ‘some hitherto unexplained cause,’ Pastor tells us, this Brief ‘did not arrive till after the 26th of October.’