"An impudent set," murmured Pigavetta.
"Not so," answered the Kurfürst, "we will have in the Palatinate no watch-dogs around God's house who cannot bark. Even our predecessor caused his monument to be removed from the Holy Ghost, because Deacon Klebitz told him, he could not permit naked figures, together with the wise Virgins of the Gospels cut in marble, in his church. I will not be more obstinate than my noble cousin. The affair was thus," continued he turning towards the architect: "The Theologians in Jena are now very eagerly exposing the errors of Master Philip Melanchthon, and justly complain, that this pious man laid too much importance on Astrology, a heathen and Jewish science as well as a blasphemous inquisitiveness. Both Luther and Master Calvin reproached him for this very reason. Our great Genevese teacher does not hold images in any esteem, and thus the statues of the planets which you see there, are doubly objectionable to my Church Council."
Felice impatiently shrugged his shoulders, and for a moment it seemed as if the wrath of the hot-blooded Neapolitan must explode.
"I do not mean," said the Kurfürst kindly, "that we must remove all the statues. The male deities and ancient heroes below there can possibly disturb no one, and even if the heathen Hercules looks rather remarkable standing between Samson and King David, he has such a kind genial expression that I cannot help every morning being amused at him. He is also a fitting companion to Samson, who holds the jaw-bone of the ass in his right hand, and has the dead lion at his left side, and was himself the Hercules of the people of Israel. Above them you see the five virtues: strength breaking pillars, justice with sword and balance, faith, hope and charity; charity is the best of them, therefore is she placed over the portal. Against these even Olevianus can say nothing. In the third row higher up are the planetary deities: Saturn, wishing to eat up the child. Mars, Venus, Mercury and Diana, the goddess of the moon, but above them all, there where dwells my physician Erastus and his daughter, who has just withdrawn her pretty fair head from the window, is Jupiter and the Sun-God Serapis with his radiant crown. Against these the spiritual gentlemen are especially spiteful."
"I also," said Erastus for the first time joining in the conversation, "am no friend of astrology, and have, as Your Highness knows, written a book against it. That which makes me however especially take offence at the opinion of my colleagues, is the way in which the gentlemen composing the Church Council, go about Your Highness' Land, spying about with a telescope seeking for some ground of complaint. The figures are so high, that they can scarce be plainly seen with the naked eye, and no straightforward Christian knows that they represent sun, moon and planets, from which constellations the deceased Count Palatine traced all the good or evil fortunes of man, and therefore placed his home under their protection. Were it not known, that Master Philip advised the deceased Count in his choice of the figures, it would never have occurred to the theologians to trouble their heads about the matter. Thus they wish to offer a sacrifice to their hatred of images, and render themselves of importance to their brethren in Geneva and Scotland, as they rule over their princely sovereign and introduce their church regimen even in his household."
Master Felix had not only listened to the speaker with sympathy, but had also taken the opportunity to examine more closely the statesman so well known in the Palatinate. He saw a tall stately man of an energetic commanding appearance. Even outwardly the scholar formed a wonderful contrast to the true-hearted, undersized, strong-built Kurfürst, and this contrast would have been entirely in Erastus' favour, had not nature herself spoilt this her masterpiece of mankind. Erastus' right arm hung dead and stiff at his side. He had been thus crippled from birth, and still more remarkable and singular was the fact that the physician's hair was lighter than the swarthy face which it surrounded, so that he resembled a black man turned gray. His friends called him the Moor, his opponents, of whom he had many, the black devil. "The Almighty writes a plain hand," said his enemy Olevianus, if he even saw him from afar. "Yes, yes," replied the more gentle Ursinus, "he has been marked by God."
The Prince heard smilingly his friend's speech, then said good-naturedly: "You are angry with the Church Council, Erastus, because you lay under the ban. I have however always heard Otto Heinrich praised for altering his tomb-stone, when it became a rock of offence, as he did not wish these theological gentlemen to fight over his grave. I will not be behind him in forbearance for weaknesses. Let us take away the figures, Master Felix," turning towards Laurenzano. "Methought we could insert in the empty niches our heraldic quartering, the Lion of the Palatinate." The young Italian crossed himself and murmured something between his teeth which sounded like "Gesummaria." The stout gentleman however continued quite unconcerned. "I meant something in this style, you stick in the first niche the Lion of the Palatinate holding a sword, as protector of the land, in the second the same animal as if reading an open book, as it is very necessary that the inhabitants of the Pfalz should study their Catechism more, which is so richly supplied with arguments taken from Holy Scripture that no sophistry of the papists has been able to prove any error in its contents." Again the catholic artist crossed himself. "In the third niche he might be holding a tumbler as a remembrance of the most noble production of this land." "Dio mio!" shrieked the Italian in dire indignation. "It is all the same to me should Your Highness wish to set fire to the Otto Heinrich Castle, but I will rather hack off my own hand than thus disgrace the creations of Michel Angelo and Colins."
"Respect, young man," said the Kurfürst knitting his brows, "you speak to a Prince."
"Oh! most gracious Prince," said the Italian, "respect for a Prince, when speaking of the realm of the Beautiful. Do you know why I left Rome? The Pope had been told that the naked figures carved on the great Altar in his private chapel shocked all pious women, and the Pope believing this caused all the beautiful bodies in Michel Angelo's great picture to be fitted out with aprons and breeches. The man who gave himself up to this is known to the present day in Italy as il bracatore, the breeches painter. I turned my back at the time in a rage with the Holy city, therefore all the less do I thirst for the fame to be known as the cat-painter of the Palatinate."
"The young man is right," said Erastus. "I warn Your Highness most earnestly not to give way to these theological gentlemen. They begin with the outside wall of the house, as they cannot permit what they term 'a public scandal,' then come the private scandals within the house, and finally they will stick their noses in every pot or kettle as did the gentlemen of the Consistorium at Geneva, so as to prescribe what people should eat or drink. This pretended scandal has no other object. These images are no idols, no one worships them, no one has ever taken offence at them. They stand within the enclosed court of my most gracious Lord, and only Olevianus' parson's love of meddling dictated the unseemly representation on the part of the Church Council, so that he might essay the Church regimen on the sovereign's own household."