This evening they brought back to me the volume of my Essays, castigated and brought into harmony with the opinions of the monkish doctors. The _Maestro del Sacro Palazzo_ could only pronounce judgment on them from the report of a certain French monk, for he himself was ignorant of our language; but he was so fully satisfied with the explanations I gave him of all those passages to which exception had been taken by the Frenchman, that he left to me the task of correcting, according to my conscience, everything which might appear wanting in good taste. In return I begged him to follow the advice of the censor of my book, and I avowed that in certain matters--for instance, in my use of the word Fortune[113] in discoursing on heretical poets; in my apology for Julian;[114] in my remark that when a man prays he ought for the time to be free of all vicious inclinations; in certain statements that it is cruelty to inflict upon men greater pain than is necessary to kill them; that children should be brought up to examine all sides of a question;[115] and in many others--I did not admit I was in error. Moreover, in certain additional instances, I denied that my critic had caught my meaning. The aforesaid Maestro, who was a man of parts, completely exonerated me, and was anxious to let me see that he set small value on these emendations; moreover, he argued very ingeniously on my behalf against another man, an Italian, who was opposed to me. They kept back my copy of “The History of the Swiss,” translated into French,[116] simply because they had found out that the translator was a heretic, though his name did not appear anywhere in the volume. It is wonderful what a wide knowledge they have of men and foreign lands, and the most singular part of it was they told me the preface of the aforesaid book was condemned. This same day at the church of Saint John Lateran, in place of the ordinary penitancers who may be seen doing their office in most of the churches, Monsignore the Cardinal of Saint Sixtus[117] sat in a corner, and with a long rod, which he held in his hand, touched the heads of all the men who went by, and of the women also, but these he regarded with a smile and a courtesy of manner apportioned to their consequence and beauty.