Now let the whole world and all mankind witness how powerful adverse fortune and the malignant stars are in acting against us human beings! In all my life I had not addressed more than a couple of words to that wretched little idiot of a Cardinal; and this presumption of his was not meant to do me any harm, but was merely the consequence of his soft-headed ignorance, as he wanted to show that he too, like the Cardinal of Ferrara, had dealings with the great artists whose services were wanted by the King. But then, having done that, he was so stupid that he didn’t say a word to me; for certainly, for love of our native place, in order to let the idiotic simpleton escape blame I would have found some excuse to cover up his brainless conceit.
As soon as I received the letter from his Eminence the Cardinal of Ferrara, I replied that I had heard nothing at all from Cardinal de’ Gaddi, and that even if he had written to me about the matter I would not have left Italy without his Eminence’s knowing, especially as I had far more business on hand in Rome than I had ever had before. But, I added, a word from his most Christian Majesty, sent me through such a lord as his Eminence, would make me move off at once, and I would abandon everything to look after itself.
After I had sent this letter that treacherous Perugian workman of mine hit on a piece of malice that succeeded at once, partly because of the avarice of Pope Paul Farnese, but mainly because of his bastard son, who was then called the Duke of Castro.190 The workman gave one of Pier Luigi’s secretaries to understand that, as he had been employed by me for several years, he knew all my business: so he could swear to Signor Pier Luigi that I was worth more than eighty thousand ducats, and that most of this wealth consisted in precious stones which were the property of the Church. He said that I had stolen these in Castel Sant’Angelo, at the time of the sack of Rome; and he urged that I should be arrested swiftly and secretly.
One morning I had been working since three hours before dawn on the ornaments for that bride191 whom I mentioned; and then, while the shop was being opened and cleaned out, I had put on my cloak to go out for a short walk. I went along Strada Julia and came out at the corner of the Chiavica. Then Crespino, the chief constable, with all his men came up to me and said:
‘You’re the Pope’s prisoner!’
I replied: ‘But Crespino, you’ve arrested the wrong man.’
‘No,’ he answered, ‘you’re the artist, Benvenuto, and I know you only too well: and it’s my duty to take you along to Castel Sant’ Angelo – that’s where noblemen and artists of your kind go.’
Then four of his men flung themselves on me and tried to seize by force the dagger I had at my side and some rings I wore on my finger.
But Crespino said to them: ‘None of you touch him! You must just do your duty and see that he doesn’t escape.’
Then he came up to me and asked me politely to surrender my weapons. While I was doing so the thought struck me that I was standing exactly on the spot where I had killed Pompeo. They led me away to the castle, and locked me up as a prisoner in a room at the top of the keep. This was the first time, in all my thirty-seven years, that I had ever had a taste of prison.
When Signor Pier Luigi, the Pope’s son, reflected what a great sum it was that I had been accused of stealing, he at once asked his father to let him have the money as a gift. The Pope readily agreed, and added that he would help recover it himself. So after I had been kept in prison for a whole week, to get the affair over and done with they sent for me to be examined. I was summoned into one of the great halls of the Papal castle, a very impressive place. The examiners were the Governor of Rome, a Pistoian called Benedetto Conversini,192 who afterwards became Bishop of Jesi; the Procurator Fiscal, whose name I forget; and, thirdly, the judge of the criminal court, who was called Benedetto da Cagli.
The three men began the examination very gently, but then they started threatening me brutally because I said to them:
‘My lords, for more than half an hour you’ve not stopped questioning me about some fantastic story or other; one could in fact say that you’re babbling, or rambling.193 By babbling, I mean, that you’re talking nonsense; by rambling, that you’re saying nothing at all. So please tell me what you want from me and let me hear you talk sense instead of all this fantastic babbling.’
In reply to this the Governor, who was from Pistoia and could no longer conceal his violent nature, cried out:
‘You’re very sure of yourself, in fact you’re too presumptuous altogether: I’ll have you crawling like a puppy when you hear what I have to say. And it won’t be a question of babbling nonsense, as you call it, but a chain of reasoning that’ll force you to try and explain yourself.’
Then he started as follows:
‘We know for certain that you were in Rome at the time when that unfortunate city was sacked; and you were then in Castel Sant’ Angelo, employed as a gunner. Since you’re a goldsmith and jeweller, Pope Clement, because he had known you before and because there was no one else of your trade available, took you into his confidence and got you to remove from their settings all the jewels out of his tiaras, and his mitres, and his rings. Then, as he trusted you, he asked you to sew them into his clothes; and while you were doing so, without his Holiness knowing you helped yourself to some of them, to the value of eighty thousand crowns. You gave this away to one of your workmen and boasted about it, and it was he who told us what had happened. Now, we order you plainly – find the jewels or bring what they’re worth, and then we shall let you go free.’
When I heard this all I could do was roar with laughter. Then, when I managed to control myself, I said:
‘I thank God for the fact that now, when for the first time the Almighty has seen fit to have me imprisoned, it hasn’t been the result of some indiscretion such as usually gets young men into trouble. If what you said were true then there’d be no risk of my being given corporal punishment for it, since at that time the laws were suspended: and I could therefore have excused myself by saying that, as an official, I might guard the treasure for the Sacred and Holy Apostolic Church till the time came for me to return it to a good pope – or as a matter of fact to the man who asked me for it, who if there were any truth in the story would be you.’
Then, refusing to let me finish my defence, that raving Pistoian Governor broke in angrily:
‘Dress it up how you like, Benvenuto, all we want is what belongs to us. So be quick about it or we’ll give you something more than words.’
They prepared to stand up and leave, but I said:
‘My lords, I’m still being examined; so please finish the business, and then go where you please.’
They at once resumed their seats, but they were furiously angry with me and they made it seem that they had heard enough and were almost convinced that they had found out all they wanted to know. Then I began talking to them.
‘My lords,’ I said, ‘you must know that I’ve lived in Rome for about twenty years, and neither here nor anywhere else have I ever been imprisoned…’
At this that police hound of a Governor called out: ‘But you’ve got some murders to your credit.’
‘You say so, not I,’ I retorted. ‘And anyway, if someone tried to kill you, priest as you are you’d defend yourself: and if you killed him, God’s laws would justify you. So – if you want to let the Pope hear your report and to give me a fair hearing – let me go on with my defence. I repeat, I’ve been living in this wonderful city of Rome for nearly twenty years, and during that time I’ve produced some very great works of art: and as I know that this is the seat of Christ, I have always assured myself that if a temporal prince meant to harm me unjustly, I could go for protection to the Sacred Throne and to the Vicar of Christ, who would defend my cause. Now, heaven help me, where can I go now? What prince will defend me from such a treacherous attack? Before you arrested me shouldn’t you have found out where I had disposed of those eighty thousand ducats? And shouldn’t you have inspected the record of jewels that has been so carefully kept by the Apos
tolic Camera for the past five hundred years?
‘And if, after that, you had found something missing, you ought to have seized my accounts as well as me. I can tell you that the books which contain a list of all the jewels of the Pope and all the regalia are quite in order; and you won’t find any that belong to Pope Clement missing, unless the fact is carefully noted. There is just one thing: when that unhappy man, Pope Clement, wanted to make peace with those thievish Imperialists, who had despoiled Rome and spat at the Church, a mancalled Cesare Iscatinaro194 came, if I rememberrightly, to negotiate the treaty; and when he had almost finished his discussions with that maltreated Pope, to show him a mark of affection the Pope let fall from his finger a diamond ring that was worth about four thousand crowns; and as Iscatinaro bent down to pick it up the Pope told him to keep it for his sake. I was present when that happened: and if the diamond is missing I’ve told you where it went. But I’m perfectly certain you’ll find even that has been noted.
‘So you can go off and blush at the unjust way you’ve attacked a man of my sort, a man who has done such great things for the Papal throne. I can tell you that, if I weren’t the man I am, the morning when the Imperial troops entered the Borgo they would have penetrated the castle without any opposition. It was me – and I got no reward for what I did – who rushed up without hesitation to the guns which had been abandoned by the bombardiers and the garrison soldiers; and I inspired one of my comrades, Raffaello da Montelupo,195 a sculptor, who had also deserted his post and gone to hide in a corner, where I found him useless and terrified. I pulled him together, and we two by ourselves killed so many of the enemy that eventually their troops had to go by another road.
‘I was the man who let fire at Iscatinaro, for talking disrespectfully to the Pope, with brutal insolence, like the Lutheran and infidel that he was. When this happened Pope Clement had the castle searched, to discover and hang the man who did it. I was the man who shot and wounded the Prince of Orange in the head, there down below the castle’s trenches. Besides this, how many gold and silver and jewelled ornaments, how many beautiful, famous medals and coins haven’t I made for the Holy Church! And now, is this the outrageous reward that you priests give to a man who has served and loved them so well and faithfully? All right then, go and tell everything I’ve said to the Pope, and add that, as for his jewels, he has got every one of them, and that I’ve never had anything from the Church except the wounds and stonings that I suffered when Rome was sacked; and say that I never built my hopes on anything, except a small reward that Pope Paul had promised me. Now I’m quite clear both about his Holiness and about you, his servants.’
They had been waiting for me to finish, thunderstruck at what they heard; and then, exchanging glances, they left in astonishment. All three of them went along together to let the Pope know all I had said. Feeling ashamed of himself the Pope ordered a very careful scrutiny of the records. Then, when it was found that not one of the jewels was missing, they let me linger on in the castle, without saying a word. Even Signor Pier Luigi reckoned that he had made a bad mistake; and then everything possible was done to bring about my death.
These things had been going on only a short while, but King Francis had already been given a detailed account of the grossly unjust way the Pope was holding me prisoner. He had sent one of his noblemen, Monsignor di Morluc,196 as ambassador to the Pope, and so he wrote telling him to ask the Pope to hand me over, as I was one of his Majesty’s men. The Pope was a wonderfully able man, but as far as I was concerned he behaved like a petty fool, and he replied to the ambassador that his Majesty shouldn’t worry about me since I was always provoking armed fights; and so he advised his Majesty to ignore me, seeing that I was held a prisoner because of the murders and the other devilish crimes I had committed.
The King sent back word that in his kingdom he dispensed perfect justice, and that in the same way as he heaped magnificent rewards and favours on talented well-behaved men, so, on the contrary, he chastised the unruly. He added that as his Holiness had not cared a jot about Benvenuto’s service and had let him leave, when he saw him in his kingdom he, the King, had been only too glad to take him into his service. And so he demanded that I should be handed over, as one of his men.
All this caused me a great deal of harm and a great deal of trouble, for all that it reflected the most notable favour that a man of my sort could possibly desire. The Pope was thrown into such a rage because of his worry that I might go off and tell how wickedly and brutally he had treated me that he started thinking up all the methods he could use to ensure my death without injuring his own reputation.
The castellan of Castel Sant’Angelo was one of our Florentines, called Messer Giorgio, and he was a knight of the Ugolini family.197 This excellent man was courteous beyond belief; he let me go about the place freely and the only restraint put on me was my own word of honour. As he knew how shamefully I had been wronged, when I wanted to give him some security for my being able to come and go as I liked he refused to accept, since, he said, the Pope took my case far too seriously; but he added that he would be only too glad to accept my word, as everyone told him that I was an honest man. So I pledged my word; and he made it possible for me to keep my hand in at my trade.
At this, in the belief that, because of my innocence as much as because of the good offices of the King, the Pope’s anger would blow over, I kept the shop open; and my apprentice, Ascanio, used to visit the castle and bring me things to work on. Although there was little I could do, seeing the way I was imprisoned so unjustly, all the same I made a virtue of necessity and put up with my misfortunes as cheerfully as I could. I had won the friendship of all the warders and many of the soldiers in the castle. Now and then the Pope used to have supper there, and on these occasions there were no guards on duty and the place remained open to the world like an ordinary palace. For as long as he was there, all the prisoners used to be confined with greater strictness than usual: but nothing of this sort was done to me, and in fact I used to walk about the castle as I liked. More than once some of the soldiers advised me to make my escape, and knowing how greatly I had been wronged offered to give me a hand. I told them that I had pledged my word to the castellan, who was an admirable man and had done a great deal to help me. Among them there was a very bold, intelligent soldier, who said to me:
‘My dear Benvenuto, don’t you know that anyone who’s a prisoner needn’t and can’t be forced to keep his word, or anything else. Do as I tell you: make your escape from this villain of a pope and his bastard son, who are set on having your life.’
But my mind was made up that I would rather lose my life than break faith with that admirable castellan; and so I endured my suffering, along with a friar who belonged to the Pallavicini family198 and was a very great preacher.
This man had been seized as a Lutheran; as a friend and companion he was first-rate, but as a friar he was the wickedest rogue in the world, and he practised every kind of vice. I admired his fine virtues but I detested his bestial vices and openly reproached him about them. He never did anything except remind me that, since I was a prisoner, I wasn’t bound to keep faith with the castellan. My reply to this was that it was true enough for a friar, but that it didn’t apply to a man; anyone who was a man rather than a friar, I said, had to keep his word no matter what circumstances he found himself in; and therefore, seeing that I was a man and not a friar, I would never go back on my simple word of honour.
When the friar realized that he could never succeed in corrupting me by means of the subtle sophistries he employed so skilfully, he thought of tempting me some other way. He waited till a few days had passed, and during that time he read me the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola: his splendid commentary on these was more impressive than the sermons themselves. I was utterly spellbound, and in fact except, as I said, for breaking my word there was nothing in the world I would not have done for him. When he saw how amazed I was at his ability, he thought up another approach. In a very sp
ecious way he began to ask me what I would have done, supposing I had the desire, if they had locked me up and I wanted to break out and escape.
At this, as I wanted to show this brilliant friar that I too was sharp-witted, I told him that I would certainly find no trouble in opening the most complicated locks, especially those of the prison, which would be as easy as eating a piece of new cheese.
Then the friar, in an attempt to worm the secret out of me, started jeering: he said men who had established a reputation for being intelligent had often said things of that sort, but that if they had to put their boasting into effect they’d lose their reputation and never recover it. He added that the things I had said were so incredible that if I were put to the test I’d survive with very little credit. When this devil of a friar had put my back up in this way, I told him that I was in the habit of claiming in words much less than I could do in fact, and that what I had claimed with regard to the keys was the easiest thing in the world. It would only take me a few words, I went on, to make him fully realize how right I was. Then without thinking I showed him how easy it was to do everything I had said. The friar pretended that he wasn’t taking any interest; but in less than no time, very cunningly, he had a thorough grasp of the matter.
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Page 25
