What was the role of papal commissioners in Girolamo Savonarola’s trial?

The papal commissioners played a decisive role in the trial of Girolamo Savonarola, arriving from Rome with a predetermined outcome. As one of the commissioners remarked, they came "with the verdict in their bosom," indicating that the friar's condemnation had been settled before the proceedings began.1

Following an initial inquiry conducted by his enemies—which involved torture and the falsification of records to secure charges—Savonarola underwent an ecclesiastical trial. This process was described as perfunctory, serving merely to formalize the judgment already established by the papacy. Once this trial concluded, Savonarola and his two companions were handed over to the secular authorities to be hanged and burned.1