Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/40

32 a friend of the poor, and one who feared God: on this man he considered that the proposed dignity would he much more appropriately conferred than on himself. The Pope hearing this, and remembering that what he said of this brother of his order was true, freely granted him the favour he desired, and thus was the Prate Antonino of the order of Friars-Preachers made archbishop of Florence. And the new prelate was in truth most illustrious, whether for learning or sanctity; he was of such a character, in fine, that he fully merited the honour of canonization bestowed on him in our own days by Pope Adrian VI.

A great proof of excellence was this act of Fra Giovanni’s, and, without doubt, a very rare thing. The resignation of a dignity so eminent, of an honour and ofi^ice so important, offered to himself by the supreme pontiff, but yielded by him to the man whom he, with unbiassed judgment and in the sincerity of his heart, considered much more worthy of it than himself. The churchmen of our times might learn from this holy man to refrain from taking upon them those offices, the duties of which they cannot duly fulfil, and to resign them to those who are more worthy of them. And would to God, that all ecclesiastics (be it said without offence to the good among them) would employ their time, as did this excellent father, to return to Fra Giovanni, so truly named Angelico, seeing that he continued the whole course of his life in the service of God, or in labouring for the benefit of the world and of his neighbour. And what more can or ought to be desired, than by thug living righteously, to secure the kingdom of heaven, and by labouring virtuously, to obtain everlasting fame in this world? And, of a truth, so extraordinary and sublime a gift as that possessed by Fra Giovanni, should scarcely be conferred on any but a man of most holy life, since it is certain that all who take upon them to meddle with sacred and ecclesiastical subjects, should be men of holy and spiritual minds; for we cannot but have seen that when such works are attempted by persons of little faith, and who do but lightly esteem religion, they frequently cause light thoughts and unworthy inclinations to awaken in the beholder; whence it follows that these works are censured for their offences in this kind, even while praised for the ability displayed in them as