before Daniel of Volterra had acquired his well-known nickname of
_braghettone_ complained to the Pope, that the naked figures of
the last judgment were unworthy of a house of prayer. The artist
introduced his censor in his painting as Minos judge of the infernal
regions, with long ears like those of the other devils, and a
serpent's tail. Paul III when appealed to is said to have answered,
that if his Ceremoniere had been in Purgatory, he might have helped
him out, but out of hell there was no redemption. This Papal witticism
Platner could not find in any writer earlier than Richardson (See
Beschreibung der Stadt Rom) but _se non è vero, è ben trovato_.
Dante was not more scrupulous than Michelangelo about thrusting his
opponents into his _inferno_.

Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.
]

[Footnote 77: The mosaics with which it was adorned by Pope Leo III
are preserved in the great niche adjoining the _scala santa_.]

[Footnote 78: The Portuguese, Spanish and some other churches
are generally distinguished on this day by the brilliancy of the
illumination of their _sepulchres_.]

[Footnote 79: In the eighth century Pope Hadrian I, according to
Anastasius, suspended under the principal or _triumphal_ arch, as it
was called, a silver cross with 1365 or 1380 small lamps, which where
lighted at Easter and other great festivals. This was perhaps the
origin of the cross which used to be suspended in S. Peter's at this
season.]