Girolamo Savonarola had entered the Dominican order at Bologna in 1475 when he was twenty-three, and thirty in 1482 when he was assigned to teach theology at the priory of San Marco in Florence.

The sermons that he preached had been marked by the theme of warning against coming doom.

He had then gone to preach in northern Italy, but had been recalled to Florence in 1490 and become prior of San Marco.

It seems that this was due to the initiative of the humanist philosopher-prince, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who had heard Savonarola in a formal disputation in Reggio Emilia and had been impressed with his learning and piety.

Pico is in trouble with the Church for some of his unorthodox philosophical ideas (the famous "900 theses") and is living under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Medici de facto ruler of Florence.

To have Savonarola beside him as a spiritual counselor, he had persuaded Lorenzo that the friar would bring prestige to the convent of San Marco and its Medici patrons.

After some delay, apparently due to the interference of his former professor, Fra Vincenzo Bandelli, now Vicar General of the Order, Lorenzo had succeeded in bringing Savonarola back to Florence, where he arrived in May or June of that year.

His sermons have grown more popular and more pointed, with direct attacks on the vices and tyrannical abuses of the Medici government.

Savonarola preaches on the First Epistle of John and on the Book of Revelation, drawing such large crowds that he eventually moves to the Cathedral.

Without mentioning names, he makes pointed allusions to tyrants who usurp the freedom of the people, and he excoriates their allies, the rich and powerful who neglect and exploit he poor.

Complaining of the evil lives of a corrupt clergy, he now calls for repentance and renewal before the arrival of a divine scourge.

Scoffers dismiss him as an overexcited zealot and "preacher of the desperate" and sneer at his growing band of followers as Piagioni – "Weepers" or "Wailers", an epithet they adopt.

In 1492, Savonarola had warned of "the Sword of the Lord over the earth quickly and soon" and envisioned terrible tribulations to Rome.

Around 1493 (these sermons have not survived) he begins to prophesy that a New Cyrus is coming over the mountains to begin the renewal of the Church.