Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 1.djvu/57

Rh the Duke, "he is far more terrible than you imagine. Well were it for him if he were a little less so, for then he would have possessed much which he now lacks." Cellini reports this speech with satisfaction; he is proud to be called terrible—a word which then denoted formidable vehemence. On another occasion he tells us how Pope Paul III. was willing to pardon him for an outrageous murder committed in the streets of Rome. One of the Pope's gentlemen submitted that this was showing unseasonable clemency. "You do not understand the matter as well as I do," replied his Holiness. "I must inform you that men like Benvenuto, unique in their profession, are not bound by the laws." That sentence precisely paints Cellini's own conception of himself; and I believe that something to the like effect may really have been spoken by Pope Paul. Certainly our artist's frequent homicides and acts of violence were condoned by great princes, who wished to avail themselves of his exceptional ability. Italian society admired the bravo almost as much as Imperial Rome admired the gladiator; it also assumed that genius combined with force of character released men from the shackles of ordinary morality. These points are so clear to any student of the sixteenth century that I need not here enlarge upon them. It is only