FRA FILIPPO LIPPI AND POPE EUGENIUS THE FOURTH
Eugenius. Filippo! I am informed by my son Cosimo de’ Medici of many things relating to thy life and actions, and among the rest, of thy throwing off the habit of a friar. Speak to me as to a friend. Was that well done?
Filippo. Holy Father! it was done most unadvisedly.
Eugenius. Continue to treat me with the same confidence and ingenuousness; and, beside the remuneration I intend to bestow on thee for the paintings wherewith thou hast adorned my palace, I will remove with my own hand the heavy accumulation of thy sins, and ward off the peril of fresh ones, placing within thy reach every worldly solace and contentment.
Filippo. Infinite thanks, Holy Father! from the innermost heart of your unworthy servant, whose duty and wishes bind him alike and equally to a strict compliance with your paternal commands.
Eugenius. Was it a love of the world and its vanities that induced thee to throw aside the frock?
Filippo. It was indeed, Holy Father! I never had the courage to mention it in confession among my manifold offences.
Eugenius. Bad! bad! Repentance is of little use to the sinner, unless he pour it from a full and overflowing heart into the capacious ear of the confessor. Ye must not go straightforward and bluntly up to your Maker, startling Him with the horrors of your guilty conscience. Order, decency, time, place, opportunity, must be observed.
Filippo. I have observed the greater part of them: time, place, and opportunity.
Eugenius. That is much. In consideration of it, I hereby absolve thee.