“To continue my history of the tomb of Julius:  I say that when he changed his mind about building it in his lifetime, some ship-loads of marble came to the Ripa, which I had ordered a short while before from Carrara; and as I could not get money from the Pope to pay the freightage, I had to borrow 150 or 200 ducats from Baldassare Balducci, that is, from the bank of Jacopo Gallo.  At the same time workmen came from Florence, some of whom are still alive; and I furnished the house which Julius gave me behind S. Caterina with beds and other furniture for the men, and what was wanted for the work of the tomb.  All this being done without money, I was greatly embarrassed.  Accordingly, I urged the Pope with all my power to go forward with the business, and he had me turned away by a groom one morning when I came to speak upon the matter.  A Lucchese bishop, seeing this, said to the groom:  ‘Do you not know who that man is?’ The groom replied to me:  ‘Excuse me, gentleman; I have orders to do this.’  I went home, and wrote as follows to the Pope:  ’Most blessed Father, I have been turned out of the palace to-day by your orders; wherefore I give you notice that from this time forward, if you want me, you must look for me elsewhere than at Rome.’  I sent this letter to Messer Agostino, the steward, to give it to the Pope.  Then I sent for Cosimo, a carpenter, who lived with me and looked after household matters, and a stone-heaver, who is still alive, and said to them:  ’Go for a Jew, and sell everything in the house, and come to Florence.’  I went, took the post, and travelled towards Florence.  The Pope, when he had read my letter, sent five horsemen after me, who reached me at Poggibonsi about three hours after nightfall, and gave me a letter from the Pope to this effect:  ’When you have seen these present, come back at once to Rome, under penalty of our displeasure.’  The horsemen were anxious I should answer, in order to prove that they had overtaken me.  I replied then to the Pope, that if he would perform the conditions he was under with regard to me, I would return; but otherwise he must not expect to have me again.  Later on, while I was at Florence, Julius sent three briefs to the Signory.  At last the latter sent for me and said:  ’We do not want to go to war with Pope Julius because of you.  You must return; and if you do so, we will write you letters of such authority that, should he do you harm, he will be doing it to this Signory.’  Accordingly I took the letters, and went back to the Pope, and what followed would be long to tell.”

These passages from Michelangelo’s correspondence confirm Condivi’s narrative of the flight from Rome, showing that he had gathered his information from the sculptor’s lips.  Condivi differs only in making Michelangelo send a verbal message, and not a written letter, to the Pope.  “Enraged by this repulse, he exclaimed to the groom:  ’Tell the Pope that if henceforth he wants me, he must look for me elsewhere.’”