y replied that it could not be done
any other way. The matter came before the Pope, and Bramante replied again
to the same effect. The Pope turned to Michael Angelo and said: _"As it is
not satisfactory go and do it yourself."_ Michael Angelo took down the
platform, and took away so much rope from it, that having given it to a
poor man that assisted him, it enabled him to dower and marry two
daughters. Michael Angelo erected his scaffold without ropes, so well
devised and arranged that the more weight it had to bear the firmer it
became. This opened Bramante's eyes, and gave him a lesson in the building
of a platform, which was very useful to him in the works of St. Peter's.
For all that, Michael Angelo, although he had no equal in all these
things, would not make a profession of architecture. On the contrary, when
at last Antonio da San Gallo, the architect of St. Peter's, died, and Pope
Paul wished to put Michael Angelo in his place, he refused the post,
saying that architecture was not his art. He refused it so earnestly that
the Pope had to command him to take it, and issue an ample _moto proprio_,
which was afterwards confirmed by Pope Julius III., now, as I have said,
by the grace of God, our Pontiff. For these, his services, Michael Angelo
received no payment; so he wished it to be stated in the _moto proprio_.
One day, when Pope Paul sent him a hundred scudi of gold by Messer Pier
Giovanni, then Gentleman of the Wardrobe to his Holiness, now Bishop of
Forli, as his month's salary on account of the building, Michael Angelo
would not accept it, saying it was not in the agreement they had between
them, and he sent them back. The Pope was very angry, as I have been told
by Messer Alessandro Ruffini, a gentleman of Rome, then Groom to the
Chambers and Carver before his Holiness; but this did not move Michael
Angelo from his resolution. When he had accepted this charge he made a new
model, both because certain parts of the old one did not please him in
many respects, and, besides, if it was followed one would sooner expect to
see the end of the world than St. Peter's finished. This model, praised
and approved by the Pope, is now being followed to the great satisfaction
of those who have judgment, although there be certain persons who do not
approve of it.

LXII. Michael Angelo gave himself, then, whilst still young, not only to
sculpture and painting, but to all the kindred arts, with such devotion
that for a time he a