conspiracy against
Michelagnolo, whereby the Pope was to hold an assembly in S. Pietro,
and to summon together the superintendents and all those who had the
charge of the work, in order to show to the Pope, by means of false
calumnies, that Michelagnolo had ruined that fabric, because, he
having already built the apse of the King, where there are the three
chapels, and having executed these with the three windows above, they,
not knowing what was to be done with the vaulting, with feeble
judgment had given the elder Cardinal Salviati and Marcello Cervini,
who afterwards became Pope, to understand that S. Pietro was being
left with little light. Whereupon, all being assembled, the Pope said
to Michelagnolo that the deputies declared that the apse would give
little light, and he answered: "I would like to hear these deputies
speak in person." Cardinal Marcello replied: "We are here." Then
Michelagnolo said to him: "Monsignore, above these windows, in the
vaulting, which is to be made of travertine, there are to be three
others." "You have never told us that," said the Cardinal. And
Michelagnolo answered: "I am not obliged, nor do I intend to be
obliged, to say either to your Highness or to any other person what I
am bound or desirous to do. Your office is to obtain the money and to
guard it from thieves, and the charge of the design for the building
you must leave to me." And then, turning to the Pope, he said: "Holy
Father, you see what my gains are, and that if these fatigues that I
endure do not profit me in my mind, I am wasting my time and my work."
The Pope, who loved him, laid his hands on his shoulders, and said:
"You shall profit both in mind and in body; do not doubt it."
Michelagnolo having thus been able to get rid of those persons, the
Pope came to love him even more; and he commanded him and Vasari that
on the day following they should both present themselves at the Vigna
Julia, in which place his Holiness had many discussions with him, and
they carried that work almost to the condition of perfect beauty in
which it now is; nor did the Pope discuss or do anything in the matter
of design without Michelagnolo's advice and judgment. And, among other
things, since Michelagnolo went often with Vasari to visit him, the
Pope insisted, once when he was at the fountain of the Acqua Vergine
with twelve Cardinals, after Buonarroti had come up; the Pope, I say,
insisted very strongly that he should sit beside him, althou