'Strange,' observed Cesare, 'that he can reverence the sun, but appears not to recognise Him who, dying, was the vanquisher of death.'
He turned the page. 'Let us try this.'
'In all parts of Europe, by great peoples, will be bewailed this day the death of a man who died in Asia—'
'You don't understand, Giovanni. I will explain: he treats of Good Friday. Shall I go on?'
'O mathematicians, throw light upon this error! Spirit exists not without body, and where is no flesh, nor blood, nerves, tongue, bone, and muscle, can be neither voice nor movement.'
'I can't make it out; the next lines are erased. We will pass to the end.'
'Other definitions of spirit I leave to the Holy Fathers, who know the secrets of Nature by revelation from above.'
'H'm, I would not be Messer Leonardo if these lucubrations should fall into the hands of the Holy Fathers! Here we have another of his prophecies.'
'Enough shall there be, who, leaving the ascesis of labour and poverty, think to serve God by living luxuriously in buildings like palaces, and in amassing visible wealth at the expense of the wealth invisible.'
'I conclude he here treats of Indulgences. Quite in Savonarola's vein! A stone slung at the pope.'