We have been able to consider the question of Savonarola’s obedience and excommunication independently of whether he was or was not a prophet, for a very simple reason: because the issue of obedience and excommunication concerns, on one hand, the concrete determinations of authority, according to the science of law and the prudence of command, and on the other hand, the corresponding commitment of the subject, according to the same legal science and moral virtue of submission. The question of prophecy, however, belongs to the realm of charisms—miracles, the gift of tongues, interpretation of Scripture, stigmata, raptures, bilocation, etc.—which are granted by God not directly for the sanctification of the chosen individuals, but for the common good of the Church.
