The difficulty in the accounts seems to have arisen from the fact that payments for the Sistine Chapel and the tomb had been mixed up.  The letter to Spina runs as follows:  “There is no reason for sending a power of attorney about the tomb of Pope Julius, because I do not want to plead.  They cannot bring a suit if I admit that I am in the wrong; so I assume that I have sued and lost, and have to pay; and this I am disposed to do, if I am able.  Therefore, if the Pope will help me in the matter—­and this would be the greatest satisfaction to me, seeing I am too old and ill to finish the work—­he might, as intermediary, express his pleasure that I should repay what I have received for its performance, so as to release me from this burden, and to enable the relatives of Pope Julius to carry out the undertaking by any master whom they may choose to employ.  In this way his Holiness could be of very great assistance to me.  Of course I desire to reimburse as little as possible, always consistently with justice.  His Holiness might employ some of my arguments, as, for instance, the time spent for the Pope at Bologna, and other times wasted without any compensation, according to the statements I have made in full to Ser Giovan Francesco (Fattucci).  Directly the terms of restitution have been settled, I will engage my property, sell, and put myself in a position to repay the money.  I shall then be able to think of the Pope’s orders and to work; as it is, I can hardly be said to live, far less to work.  There is no other way of putting an end to the affair more safe for myself, nor more agreeable, nor more certain to ease my mind.  It can be done amicably without a lawsuit.  I pray to God that the Pope may be willing to accept the mediation, for I cannot see that any one else is fit to do it.”

Giorgio Vasari says that he came in the year 1525 for a short time as pupil to Michelangelo.  In his own biography he gives the date, more correctly, 1524.  At any rate, the period of Vasari’s brief apprenticeship was closed by a journey which the master made to Rome, and Buonarroti placed the lad in Andrea del Sarto’s workshop.  “He left for Rome in haste.  Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, was again molesting him, asserting that he had received 16,000 ducats to complete the tomb, while he stayed idling at Florence for his own amusement.  He threatened that, if he did not attend to the work, he would make him suffer.  So, when he arrived there, Pope Clement, who wanted to command his services, advised him to reckon with the Duke’s agents, believing that, for what he had already done, he was rather creditor than debtor.  The matter remained thus.”  We do not know when this journey to Rome took place.  From a hint in the letter of December 24, 1524, to Fattucci, where Michelangelo observes that only he in person would be able to arrange matters, it is possible that we may refer it to the beginning of 1525.  Probably he was able to convince, not only the Pope, but also the Duke’s agents that he had acted with scrupulous honesty, and that his neglect of the tomb was due to circumstances over which he had no control, and which he regretted as acutely as anybody.  There is no shadow of doubt that this was really the case.  Every word written by Michelangelo upon the subject shows that he was heart-broken at having to abandon the long-cherished project.