s passing that way and
heard the noise and the reason of it. He resolved to touch upon it the
following day in his sermon, and did so. Turning his discourse to the
subject of marriage and the affection which ought to subsist in it, he
greatly extolled that condition, at the same time censuring those that
offended against it, and comparing wedded to parental love. Among other
things, he said that a husband who beat his wife was in more danger, and
would have a heavier punishment, than if he had beaten his father or his
mother.

"For," said he, "if you beat your father or your mother you will be sent
for penance to Rome; but if you beat your wife, she and all the women of
the neighbourhood will send you to the devil, that is, to hell. Now look
you what a difference there is between these two penances. From Rome a
man commonly returns again, but from hell, oh! from that place, there is
no return: _nulla est redemptio_" (3)

After preaching this sermon, he was informed that the women were making
a triumph of it, (4) and that their husbands could no longer control
them. He therefore resolved to set the husbands right just as he had
previously assisted their wives.

3 This was the Pope's expression apropos of Messer Biagio,
whom Michael Angelo had introduced into his "Last
Judgment."--M.

4 The French expression is _faisaient leur Achilles_, the
nearest equivalent to which in English would probably be
"Hectoring" It is curious that the French should have taken
the name of Achilles and we that of Hector to express the
same idea of arrogance and bluster.--Ed.

With this intent, in one of his sermons he compared women and devil
together, saying that these were the greatest enemies that man had, that
they tempted him without ceasing, and that he could not rid himself of
them, especially of women.

"For," said he, "as far as devils are concerned, if you show them the
cross they flee away, whereas women, on the contrary, are tamed by
it, and are made to run hither and thither and cause their husbands
countless torments. But, good people, know you what you must do? When
you find your wives afflicting you thus continually, as is their wont,
take off the handle of the cross and with it drive them away. You will
not have made this experiment briskly three or four times before you
will find yourselves the better for it, and see that, even as the devil
is driven off by the virtue of the c