 Penitential Psalm 51 (50 in the Septuagint numbering), the "Miserere", provided the inspiration for his long and impassioned cry for mercy, a document which was to become highly influential in the years before the Reformation, especially in music history.On 23 May, 1498, Savonarola and two other friars who were his supporters were led out of their cells to the public square beside the Palazzo della Signoria.After their crimes were read to them, they were hanged in chains, and then burned, with the ashes being hurled into the Arno so that no relics would be recoverable by the crowds of the fanatical reformer's former supporters.