s, and that he would receive from
that lord all that he might desire, without doing anything with his
own hand. Again, there were carried to him by M. Leonardo Marinozzi,
the private Chamberlain of Duke Cosimo, letters written by his
Excellency; and so also by Vasari. But then, Marcellus being dead, and
Paul IV having been elected, by whom once again numerous offers had
been made to him from the very beginning, when he went to kiss his
feet, the desire to finish the fabric of S. Pietro, and the obligation
by which he thought himself bound to that task, kept him back; and,
employing certain excuses, he wrote to the Duke that for the time
being he was not able to serve him, and to Vasari a letter in these
very words:

"MESSER GIORGIO, MY DEAR FRIEND,

"I call God to witness how it was against my will and under the
strongest compulsion that I was set to the building of S. Pietro in
Rome by Pope Paul III, ten years ago. Had they continued to work at
that fabric up to the present day, as they were doing then, I would
now have reached such a point in the undertaking that I might be
thinking of returning home; but for want of money it has been much
retarded, and is still being retarded at the time when it has reached
the most laborious and difficult stage, insomuch that to abandon it
now would be nothing short of the greatest possible disgrace and sin,
losing the reward of the labours that I have endured in those ten
years for the love of God. I have made you this discourse in answer to
your letter, and also because I have a letter from the Duke that has
made me marvel much that his Excellency should have deigned to write
so graciously; for which I thank God and his Excellency to the best of
my power and knowledge. I wander from the subject, because I have lost
my memory and my wits, and writing is a great affliction to me, for it
is not my art. The conclusion is this: to make you understand what
would be the result if I were to abandon the fabric and depart from
Rome; firstly, I would please a number of thieves, and secondly, I
would be the cause of its ruin, and perhaps, also, of its being
suspended for ever."

Continuing to write to Giorgio, Michelagnolo said to him, to excuse
himself with the Duke, that he had a house and many convenient things
at his disposal in Rome, which were worth thousands of crowns, in
addition to being in danger of his life from disease of the kidneys,
colic, and the stone, as happens to every