tructing two winding staircases at the side, with gently sloping
steps, up which beasts of burden ascend with building material, and
one can ride on horseback to the level above the arches. He carried
the first cornice, made of travertine, round the arches: a wonderful
piece of work, full of grace, and very different from the others; nor
could anything be better done in its kind. He began the two great
apses of the transept; and whereas Bramante Raffaello, and Peruzzi had
designed eight tabernacles toward the Campo Santo, which arrangement
Sangallo adhered to, he reduced them to three, with three chapels
inside. Suffice it to say that he began at once to work with diligence
and accuracy at all points where the edifice required alteration; to
the end that its main features might be fixed, and that no one might
be able to change what he had planned." Vasari adds that this was the
provision of a wise and prudent mind. So it was; but it did not
prevent Michelangelo's successors from defeating his intentions in
almost every detail, except the general effect of the cupola. This
will appear in the sequel.

Antonio da Sangallo had controlled the building of S. Peter's for
nearly thirty years before Michelangelo succeeded to his office.
During that long space of time he formed a body of architects and
workmen who were attached to his person and interested in the
execution of his plans. There is good reason to believe that in
Sangallo's days, as earlier in Bramante's, much money of the Church
had been misappropriated by a gang of fraudulent and mutually
indulgent craftsmen. It was not to be expected that these people
should tamely submit to the intruder who put their master's cherished
model on the shelf, and set about, in his high-handed way, to
refashion the whole building from the bottom to the top. During
Sangallo's lifetime no love had been lost between him and Buonarroti,
and after his death it is probable that the latter dealt severely with
the creatures of his predecessor. The Pope had given him unlimited
powers of appointing and dismissing subordinates, controlling
operations, and regulating expenditure. He was a man who abhorred jobs
and corruption. A letter written near the close of his life, when he
was dealing only with persons nominated by himself, proves this. He
addressed the Superintendents of the Fabric of S. Peter's as follows:
"You know that I told Balduccio not to send his lime unless it were
good. He has se