Reformers and Reform Movements can be hard on their adherents. For a variety of reasons—dissent over doctrine, differences over organization, tactics and objectives, even incompatibility between personalities — disagreements arise and with disagreement recrimination, bitterness, and fragmentation. All these elements were present in the quarrel that erupted in 1506 among followers of Savonarola and tore apart the movement of reform he had initiated. On this occasion, however, the additional disruptive and embittering component of gender played a prominent part in the quarrel. There are no villains in the story, only victims, both active and passive, of a traditional system of religious values. Any attempt to alter this system was construed as harmful to the cause by the male leaders of the Savonarolan movement and resisted accordingly.