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Updated: May 5, 2025
Another proof of the persecuting spirit of Rome is furnished by the "Narrative of Raffaele Ciocci, formerly a Benedictine Monk, but who now 'comes forth from Inquisitorial search and torture, and tells us what he has seen, heard and felt." We can make but a few extracts from this interesting little volume, published by the American and Foreign Christian Union, who, to use their own language "send it forth as a voice of instruction and warning to the American people.
And presently Madonna Gemma, peering from her chamber window, saw her husband, with a ghastly pretense of care, lead young Raffaele Muti down the hill into the darkness from which there came never a sound. It was midnight when Lapo Cercamorte rëentered the castle, and called for food and drink. Now the shadow over the Big Hornets' Nest obscured even the glare of the summer sun.
The King himself was an excellent mechanic, and boasted that he could earn his living at almost any trade save the making of hangings. His father had established the tapestry works at Mortlake; he himself had bought the Raffaele Cartoons to encourage the work and much was to be hoped from a monarch who had the judgment to induce a Vandyke to settle in England.
Had Aeschylus followed Sophocles, it would equally have existed it was the natural consequence of the distinctions in their genius the one more sublime, the other more impassioned the one exalting the imagination, the other appealing to the heart. Aeschylus is the Michael Angelo of the drama, Sophocles the Raffaele.
And Stanislaus was one of the cleverest and strongest artists of the lot. He began early, just as the musician Mozart did, just as the painter Raffaele did; and he studied hard at his art, just as all great artists have done. He began by saying his prayers well, not mere lip prayers, but heart prayers.
Raffaele Muti sang of a woman exalted far above him by her womanhood, which rivalled Godhood in containing all the virtues requisite for his redemption. Man could no longer sin when once she had thought pityingly of him. Every deed must be noble if rooted in love of her. All that one asked was to worship her ineffable superiority.
Guilio Romano, who had assisted Raffaele to paint the loggie of the Vatican, exercised an influence in France, which was transmitted by his pupils for generations. The marriage of Henry II. with Catherine de Medici increased the influence of Italian art, and later that of Marie de Medici with Henri Quatre continued that influence.
If we discover him at either, perhaps he has caught that new green-sickness from the north, and thinks himself a singing-bird." A singing-bird was what Raffaele Muti proved to be. In the Mediterranean lands a new idea was beginning to alter the conduct of society.
A few years after this date, Pope Julius II. commenced to build the present magnificent Church of St. Peter's, designed by Bramante d'Urbino, kinsman and friend of Raffaele, to whose superintendence Pope Leo X. confided the work on the death of the architect in 1514, Michael Angelo having the charge committed to him some years after Raffaele's death.
When he halted before those two they seemed to feel the heat that seethed in his steel-bound breast. His disfigured face still insolvable, Lapo Cercamorte plunged his stare into Madonna Gemma's eyes, then looked into the eyes of Raffaele. His hoarse voice broke the hush; he said to the young man: "So you are the sister of my friend Count Nicolloto?"
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