ault, which is
to be built of travertine.' 'You never told us anything about this,'
said the Cardinal. Michelangelo responded: 'I am not, nor do I mean to
be obliged to tell your lordship or anybody what I ought or wish to
do. It is your business to provide money, and to see that it is not
stolen. As regards the plans of the building, you have to leave those
to me.' Then he turned to the Pope and said: 'Holy Father, behold what
gains are mine! Unless the hardships I endure prove beneficial to my
soul, I am losing time and labour.' The Pope, who loved him, laid his
hands upon his shoulders and exclaimed: 'You are gaining both for soul
and body, have no fear!' Michelangelo's spirited self-defence
increased the Pope's love, and he ordered him to repair next day with
Vasari to the Vigna Giulia, where they held long discourses upon art."
It is here that Vasari relates how Julius III. was in the habit of
seating Michelangelo by his side while they talked together.

Julius then maintained the cause of Michelangelo against the deputies.
It was during his pontificate that a piece of engineering work
committed to Buonarroti's charge by Paul III. fell into the hands of
Nanni di Baccio Bigio. The old bridge of Santa Maria had long shown
signs of giving way, and materials had been collected for rebuilding
it. Nanni's friends managed to transfer the execution of this work to
him from Michelangelo. The man laid bad foundations, and Buonarroti
riding over the new bridge one day with Vasari, cried out: "George,
the bridge is quivering beneath us; let us spur on, before it gives
way with us upon it." Eventually, the bridge did fall to pieces, at
the time of a great inundation. Its ruins have long been known as the
Ponte Rotto.

On the death of Julius III. in 1555, Cardinal Cervini was made Pope,
with the title of Marcellus II. This event revived the hopes of the
sect, who once more began to machinate against Michelangelo. The Duke
of Tuscany at this time was exceedingly anxious that he should take up
his final abode at Florence; and Buonarroti, feeling he had now no
strong support in Rome, seems to have entertained these proposals with
alacrity. The death of Marcellus after a few weeks, and the election
of Paul IV., who besought the great architect not to desert S.
Peter's, made him change his mind. Several letters written to Vasari
and the Grand Duke in this and the next two years show that his heart
was set on finishing S. Peter's, h