many Younger Brothers violating the rights of Nature and invading their Elder Brothers who were no Counts like them In the mean time the Exchequer grew rich by the confiscations of these Gentlemen Murderers and the Senat extinguished by the continual effusion of Blood that Fire which they so lately had kindled But of all the Subjects of this Commonwealth none were so ill-treated as the Paduans for the Senat considering them as the ancient Masters of Venice supposed their subjection but forc'd and that looking upon the felicity of the Venetians as their misery they held them for Tyrants And indeed in their private Conferences they spake of it with inexpressible resentment for they had dispeopled the Town by substracting the best of their Families some of which they had constrain'd to settle in Venice to secure their fidelity and to encrease their misery so much liberty was given to the Students of that University that the Townsmen were grown to be their Slaves which made them incessantly regrate their Lords de l'Escalle and the Carrares under whose Authority the said City had flourished As to the People in Venice the Senat apprehending their Unity and Power by design have kept the City divided into two contrary Parties one called the Castellans the other the Nicolates among whom the Emulation was so great that they apply'd themselves mutually to cross one another and the Animosity was so high the very Children of the respective Factions never met in the Streets if they knew one another without blows nor could they be parted till one had drawn blood that the conquered might be provoked to revenge himself another time upon the Conqueror The Youth in Sparta fought in the same sort if you will believe that Excellent Historian But the design of the Lacedemonians was to enure their Youth to the dangers of War whereas the design of the Venetians was to divide and weaken the People who would be very formidable were they sensible of their Number and Power as Manlius remonstrated to the Senat of Rome Quousque ignorabitis vires vestras Numerate saltem quot ipsi sitis quot adversarios habeatis Quot enim Clientes circa singulos fuistis Patronos tot nunc adversus unum hostes eritis For this cause it is the Venetians suffer their Citizens to wear the same Vestment with their Nobility for fear lest the distinction of habit might discover to the People the small number of their Governors Si separentur libertini manifestam fore penuriam ingenuorum for which new Families are frequently aggregated to the Body of the Nobles in place of the Ancient which are daily extinguisht So it is not to be imagined the publick and familiar Conflicts betwixt the Castellans and the Nicolates are made for entertainment of the People or Strangers but to prevent the cooling of the Heat and Animosity in both Parties which insensibly fortifies the Authority of the Senat whom it would be no hard matter to ruine by their Union And the Nicolates having a Duke of their own ridiculous to the Castellans it is a perpetual occasion of Quarrel betwixt them But with the Citizens or Burgoise the Senat proceeds in such a manner as without that they are or at least seem very well contented It distinguishes them from the Plebs by priviledges exemptions and considerable employments making use of them for Residents and Secretaries of all their Councils and Embassies by which they seem to be equal in some measure to the Nobles and superiour to the Gentlemen of the Terra firma who are utterly excluded Besides they have their share of the Bishopricks belonging to this State unless it be of seven or eight reserved only for the Nobility with whom they have this likewise in common That they are never condemned to the Gallies whatever crime they commit The Merchant of Venice who is also of the Body of Citizens thinks his condition very happy in respect the Nobility is contented to associate with him in order to Trade For though all kind of Traffick be prohibited to the Nobles yet underhand they are many times ingaged in partnership without being known and the Senat swallows it discreetly because of the benefit it receives thereby by sending the said Noblemen on Embassies where they spend good part of what they gain'd whereas there would otherwise be want of rich men to sustain those chargeable Employments if their Nobility were restrain'd from that way of enriching themselves and by those ways of entertaining their minds they are hindered from contriving against the State And now one would think the Ecclesiasticks had great subject to complain of this Government in which at this day they have not the least part which caused Cardinal Zapata to say that at Venice their condition was much worse than the condition of the Israelites under Pharaoh But the Senat makes them ample amends for their exclusion by the liberty it gives them to live as they please without any notice of their irregularities Insomuch that they are so far from repining that they believe themselves in Paradise As to the Nobility the Senat takes particular care to maintain them in unity knowing well that Animosity is dangerous in a free State and that division among the Governours has been the ruine of many a Commonwealth witness the Revolutions at Florence and Verona which happened only upon the quarrels and factions betwixt their principal Citizens To prevent these ill consequences the Senat takes notice of the least difference betwixt the Nobility and without expecting till the fire be kindled it choaks it in its embers and stops its progress by their vigilance and authority for the Nobles are obliged to an immediate acquiescence otherwise they run themselves into the displeasure of the Senat let their provocation be never so great Some years since the Vidmans being in suit with the Family of Naue in which the Vidmans Grandfather had served as a Packer and being reproached by the means of their Extraction in a full Assembly the Senat interpos'd commanded them silence and ordered the Judges to take up the business as reflecting upon the whole body of their Nobility A Gentleman of the Family Da Ponte threatning another call'd Canale that he would prove the Pontes were above the Canals the other replying but the Canals were before the Pontes and the Pontes had never been but for the Canals The Senat sent them word That they could choak up the Canals and pull down the Bridges when they pleas'd and these sort of reflections are the more odious because they grate upon their Equality which is the very Soul of their Commonwealth And if in some things the new Nobility seem inferiour to the ancient as not being so soon admitted into the great Offices it is done only to improve them to experiment their industry in smaller Employments and as Sylla says to enure them to the Oar before they be trusted with the Helm without which
the Colledg and Avogadors to be present at any Weddings unless it be of their Children Brothers Nephews Unckles Fathers in Law c. And this Law is founded upon two Reasons one is lest those Magistrates should seem to encourage by their presence the luxury of the Table and Habits which are expresly forbidden by the Laws The other is because these Lords having direction of the principal Affairs and the whole care of the Government upon them the publick Service would be retarded or neglected by such kind of Festivities and they hindred in their attendance at the Palace which might be of dangerous consequence When one of these Councellors time is expiring he swears his Successor a month before he enters into his Charge to the observation of his Capitulair which he reads over to him for his instruction in the duties of his place shewing him that all Decrees revokable since five years or that past only for a certain time are of no obligation and if by any impediment the new Councellor has not taken his Oath from his Predecessor he takes it before the Seigniory in this form J. N. ..... Councellor of Venice of the Quarter of N. ... do swear and engage in the presence of God that during the time of my Office I shall councel and advise sincerely and without fraud whatever I think for the Honour and Interest of the Commonwealth That I shall not be guilty of jugling or collusion either to revenge my self upon my Enemies or advantage my Friend That when-ever it shall please the most Screne Doge to call me to the Palace I shall obey him immediately unless some lawful impediment hinders and lastly that I shall observe punctually and faithfully all the Articles contained in my Capitulair which I shall read or cause to be read to me every month In the Election of Councellors who are chosen but three at a time there are two sort of Competitors one proposed by the Senat the other by the Mains Electoral of the Grand Council The first do commonly carry it against the second either out of the esteem the Nobles have for the choice of the Senat who do always recommend Persons of worth or else because of the great number of Senators who in the Balotation of the Grand Council do always maintain by their suffrages those whom they have Elected in the Scrutiny The three Heads of the Quarantie Criminel THese three Gentlemen are present in the Colledg to see what is past as the three Councellors d'Abasso are in the Quarantie Criminel to observe what is done in that Chamber And this Order is kept to keep the Colledg and Quarantie within the bounds prescribed them by the Laws These Heads are in the Office but two months during which time they are called Excellence and are habited in Purple The Authority of the Councellors is much greater than the Authority of these Heads For any one Councellor may propose any thing to be debated by the Grand Council or Senat which the Heads of the Quarantie cannot do but all three together so that if two of them be disposed to present any business to the Council and the third dissents it cannot be proposed These Heads are obliged to accuse and prosecute the Avogadoxs if they find them negligent in holding the Councellors of the Colledg to the observation of their Capitulair and the Decrees of the Grand Council If at the meeting of the Council these three Heads be all of them absent the business is to be put off till another day for all the Deliberations and Elections of that day would be void the Law requiring that nothing pass in the Grand Council but with the participation and presence of one of those Heads When the three Chiefs of the Council of Ten enter into the Colledg the Heads of the Quarantie retire by reason of the Emulation betwixt those two Criminal Chambers In the Grand Council these three Counsellors have their place above the Knights of the Golden-Stole upon another Bench. Of the Sage-Grans THere are six Sages called Grans because they manage the grand Affairs of the State of which they are properly the Ministers and as so ought to have more sagacity and experience than the common sort of the Nobility Besides these Sages being much above those of the Terra-firma or Sea who together with these do make up the Colledg are called Grans by way of Excellence and not without reason These six Noblemen do meet among themselves to consult and prepare such things as are to be presented to the Senat which are delivered to the Senat when the Sages have framed and digested them In this they resemble the Councellors called by Aristotle Praeconsultores But though they sit and consult promiscuously together there is one of them appointed every week and called for that reason Savio di Settimana who receives all the Memorials Addresses and Requests presented to the Colledg to be carried to the Senat. 'T is to this Savio di Settimana it belongs to propose to his Colleagues what is to be debated and to be determined afterward by the Senat to answer the Letters of Princes and the Offices of all Embassadors and Forreign Ministers but not of his own head but according as is resolved in the Pregadi When an Embassador desires a favour for himself or any of his friends he addresses to these Sages either by his Secretary or the Consul of his Nation without troubling himself to go in Person which he never does but about his Masters Affairs if these Sages approve his demand they present it to the Senat who commonly encline much to their opinion but if the Sages think it unreasonable they excuse themselves for proposing it to the Senat in the best terms they can Thus they proceeded with the French Embassador in favour of Count Pirro Gratiani Resident of Modena who had a Boat of Wine seized as it entred into the Town Though the opinion of these Sages is of as great weight in the Senat as the opinion of the Councellors of the Colledg is in the Grand Council yet 't is very lawful not only for every Senator but for every Nobleman present in the Senat to speak against their advice for 't is Reason not Person that is of Authority there These Sages are in Office but six months in which time each of them is four times Savio di Settimana the Law not suffering them to hold it a month together to moderate their Power by continual change which interrupts all the measures they might take if the Office di Settimana was continued for a month When their time is expired they cannot be continued for the next six months but after the next six months they may be chosen again and come in by a new Election that is to say a Nobleman may be a Sage-Grand once every year yet that happens but seldom though Duke Francis Donatus and John Pesaro have been Sage-Grans 24 times No man can be
State they can hinder the Registring and publication of it till it be more deliberately debated in another Assembly like the Roman Tribunes who could stop the Decrees of all other Magistrates and this is called in Venice Intromittero answering to Intercederi in Latin which is as much as to Withstand or to Oppose in English Upon this Consideration it was that Don Innego de Gardenas Embassador in Ordinary at Venice from the Court of Spain endeavoured at the time of the Jurisdiction to have been made Avogador though but for two hours promising without farther explaining himself that in time he would accommodate the difference betwixt his Holiness and that Common-wealth which in my judgment he proposed only for the suspension of two Decrees of the Senat which were then in dispute a thing the Pope did passionately desire that he might have honourable pretence for the revoking his Censures But the Seigniory discerning the drift of his Proposition and of what consequence it would be to suffer Suspension of the Laws they returned no Answer to the Embassadors motion that they might not disgust him by a refusal They have Power likewise to hinder their Possession of those places or the Execution of them if in till they purge themselves of the Accusations against them Thus the Avogador Corrare would have suspended the Vest of the Procuratorship from Francis Morosini who had been in possession of the said Dignity 14 months which doubtless would have had its effect had not Corrare abandoned his Accusation 'T is the Office of the Avogadors to exact and receive all Fines and Mulcts charged upon any Magistrate for transgressing the Laws and out of every Fine they have a certain allowance which with their other Fees and ordinary Assignments upon confiscated Goods amounts and makes their Revenue very considerable Being Guardians of the Laws they are obliged at certain times to read in the Grand Council the ancient Laws to rub up the memory of the Noblemen and keep them to a stricter observation of them For good Laws are not sufficient without good Men to assert them and see them put in execution And as the Nomophylaces of the Athenians kept the Register of their publick Deliberations to which they had recourse when it was in question what was to be done or what had been formerly done in that case in like manner the Venetian Avogadors keep the Originals of all Orders of the Grand Council and all the Decrees of the Senat as also a Register of all Noble Families in which they set down daily the Birth Estate Name and Surname of every Gentleman and Gentlewoman that no false Nobility might be foisted in among the true which would be easily discerned by comparing their Notes with those who present themselves for Entrance into the Council when their age requires Their Authority formerly was much greater for they had the management of all sorts of Affairs but since the Power of the Council of Ten has been established the Power of the Avogadors has been lessened and yet they can suspend the Decrees of the Grand Council by producing new matter in favour of the Criminal unless his Crime be against the Government for in that Case there is no suspension It is always one of these Avogadors who pronounces Sentence in that Court against the Persons condemned They are Elected by the Senat and Grand Council the first proposes and the second almost constantly accepts but they may reject if they please yet that falls out but seldom by reason of the respect is born to the Senat whose Judgment is reckoned as their Touchstone for Vertue and Esteem During the life of the Doge neither his Children nor Brothers can be Avogadors lest they should encline more to him than the Commonwealth and relax something of the severity of the Laws in favour to him The Avogadors are habited like the three Capi-Dieci in Purple-Robes with Ducal-Sleeves and the Red-Bonnet in Winter but in Summer their Robe is of Black Watered-Camlet with a Bonnet of the same Every Grand Council-day they are clothed in Scarlet and their Office continues for 16 months The two Censors THE Jurisdiction of the Censors extends principally to the Manners of particular Persons to the Designs and Contrivances of the Nobles in the Broglio to obtain Preferment to the Condemnation or Fining of those who violate the Statutes of the Grand Council To the payment of Wages the pilfering of Servants and lastly to the correction of the Gondoliers when they stop up the passage upon the Canal towards the Palace of St. Mark for which offence they have many times given them the Estrapade in some publick place When a Malefactor is interrogated by order of the Quarantie Criminel one of these Censors one of the Judges of the Night al Criminal are present but always with the Avogador who brings in the Process and these three Noblemen assembled are called Il Colleggietto Criminale These Censors are 16 months in Office during which time they have deliberative Voices in the Pregadi and are habited in Purple-Cloth with Ducal-Sleeves in Winter and in Summer with black Watered-Camlet and Chaperons of the same The three Syndics THis Magistrate has Authority over all the inferior Justices of St. Mark and the Rialte with power to revise their Acts and vacate their Decrees He punishes the Notaries Proctors Serjeants and Copistes or Clerks who exact more than is required by the Tax But this is not over-strictly observed for the Syndics do many times dissemble and connive in consideration of the profit accrewing thereby But as the Syndics can null or reform the Sentences delle Corti di San-Marco e Rialto so the Avogadors can correct or vacate the Decrees of the Syndics and when they have done carry the business before one of the Quaranties or the Colledg of XX Sages according to the quality of the Cause There are three Syndics in Extraordinary to ease the other and supply their places when any of them are absent The six Seigniors Criminal de Nuit THese Gentlemen have the Cognizance of all Thefts and Robberies by night Receivers of stollen Goods Incendiaries such as have two Wives Ravishers of Women and Jews taken lying with Christian Women fall under their Jurisdiction the Jews are many times condemned to death for that Crime and if their Sentence be confirmed by the Magistrate dell ' Proprio who notwithstanding is but a Civil Officer there lies no appeal otherwise 't is removable to one of the Quaranties-Civil These Lords Criminal of the Night were instituted at first but two by Duke Marin Morosini one of them with Jurisdiction beyond the Rialto and another on the other side but in the Dogeship of Renier Zen his successor the Grand Council added four more to them Their Office is like the Office of the Chevalier du Guet among the Romans They are annual and their Fee a Ducat every morning they sit and half a Ducat every Afternoon
they stretched their Authority so far as to revoke and null the Decrees of the Grand Council and to negotiate Leagues Offensive and Defensive with Forreign Princes unknown to the Senat which they did upon certain Emergencies and in a juncture of time properer for Execution than Deliberation And in this they resembled the Roman Dictator who in time of publick calamity had all the Power of the State in his hand with Suspension to the Power of the Senat. Nor do we want Instances of several Negotiations undertaken and perfected by the Council of Ten in defiance of the whole Pregadi Witness the Peace they concluded with Antonio Soderini and John Baptista Rodolfi Florence Embassadors who could make no advance with the Senat of Venice And this Peace was a Coup d'Et at Bajazet the Second declared War against them not long after which if the Florentines could have foreseen or if the Conclusion had been protracted but for some few weeks 't is most certain the Florentines would never have complied unless upon better Conditions as knowing the Venetians would have been forced to their own terms lest otherwise they should have been engaged in two Wars at one time But at present the Authority of the Ten is restrained to Criminal Causes and as there is no Court in the World where the Judges proceed with more severity against Persons accused it will not be amiss to say something of their Methods in this place After the three Capi-Dieci who are the monthly Presidents have received the Depositions of the Witnesses in Writing and have perfectly instructed themselves in all the circumstances of the Fact they cause the accused Person to be secured privately and examined by the Chief for that Week whose Answers are taken by a Clerk or Register and by him communicated with his two Colleagues and their advice taken thereupon after which the Cause is carried by them to the Council where they all three do manage the Accusation against the Malefactor urging his Confession against him and this they do whilst the poor Criminal is not allowed to plead his own Cause nor to retain Counsel nor to see any of his Friends or Relations or so much as to receive a Letter from them He has only one remedy and that is one of his Judges sometimes touched with compassion for the Person accused or perhaps convinced of his Innocence will take his Cause into his protection and defend it against the Accusers but though these kind of good Offices happen now and then they are seldom effectual For this Council is so inclinable to severity the least offence in matter of State is unpardonable and very appearance passes for a crime 'T is said that in Athens Draco writ all his Laws in Blood the same may be said as justly of this Council in which Clemency and Mercy are Virtues unknown where jealousy is incurable distrust eternal where great reputation is dangerous great services odious and commonly requited with either banishment or death The Maxims of this Council are these That not only Crimes against the State are never to be pardoned but even appearances are to be punished and that they must proceed to punishment before they examine the offence That in those things shadow is to be taken for substance and possibility for matter of fact that humane Prudence is not to be contented that things are not yet hapned but must order things so as they never may happen that the Publick is to prevent what it fears at their Cost who gave the apprehension without expecting till the mischief occur there being no greater crime than to be suspicious to ones Prince and to disturb his Tranquility That if in other Affairs it be discretion to imagine the ill-consequences less than they will be in matters of State and things relating to its quiet and repose 't is not only prudent but necessary to imagine them greater that injustice to private Persons is not to be considered where advantage accrews to the Publick because say they 't is impossible to Govern without injury to somebody To which we may add another of their Maxims no less pernicious and that is That 't is wisdom to rid themselves of any body they have disobliged by their wrongful suspicions lest his resentment puts him upon revenge and the fear of a second injury tempts him to secure himself though by the subversion of the Government By these Principles this Council is become so odious to the Nobles that they have tried all ways imaginable to supplant them In the year 1628 the Family of the Cornari and their Party push'd it so far in revenge of the Quarrel of George Cornaro the then Duke's Son who had been proscribed and degraded by the Ten that their Court would have been certainly suppressed had it not been prevented by an old Seignior who in the Grand Council remonstrated That the safety of the State depended upon the continuation of that Council which kept the Nobility in their duty by fear of Correction and the People in obedience by the goodness of their Example That to suppress that Tribunal which was the svpport of their Laws the knot of their Concord the foundation of their Equality their defence against Tyranny and the true balance that kept all Parties in a poise would be no less than to introduce Confusion Licentiousness and Impunity That nothing rendred their Government more Excellent and Conspicuous than to see their Nobility obnoxious to the severest of their Courts and their Authority check'd by their fear whilst those in greater Power were in greatest Awe seeing them exposed to the rigour of the Laws as well if not more than particular Persons That those who endeavoured to abolish them were People who designed to be Criminal if they were not so already That they were to be separated frrm the body of the State if they could not submit to a civil life or subject themselves to the Laws which put them upon a happy necessity of doing well and in short That it would be dishonourable to suffer the clamours of a few Citizens to prevail for a Change so much to the prejudice of the State But however the said Council is continued to this day 't is very displeasing to the Nobility who cannot hear it mentioned without trembling In the year 1670 the Grand Council proceeding to the Election of the Ten who are renewed every year in the Month of August all those that were proposed were rejected two Sundays together and in the third there was only Seignior Angelo Emo who passed in the Balotation nay the ill-humour was carried on so far that some of the Electors named either in contempt or despight some of the new Nobility and among the rest a Portugal called Fonseca of Jewish Extraction knowing well those kind of People would never get their just number of Voices For that Court which is as it were the Parliament and la Fournelle of the Nobles has been always supplied by
Character Invested him And here I shall take notice that at Venice their Opera's Comedies and Gaming-houses are inviolable places Consecrated if I may so say to publick Pleasure insomuch as Banished Persons and Criminals resort to them as safely as to the Sanctuaries of old the Council of Ten not reserving to themselves the Cognizance of such Offences as are committed there and all to recommend their frankness to their Subjects and their hospitality to Strangers Coining of False Money is an unpardonable Offence and the rather because Italy is full of little Princes who make use of that way to inrich themselves to the prejudice of their Subjects and Neighbours But as to Sodomy they seem either willing to connive at it as a thing rather contrary to good Manners than inconsistant with the Government or else knowing the nature of the Sin and their propensity to it they think it not convenient to attempt a Remedy lest they should discover their own Shame and Impotency wherefore when-ever this Sin is punished 't is in the person of some poor Creature who has neither Money nor Friends This Council is likewise very severe with Stationers who sell Books reflecting upon the Government and when any is found offending in that kind they are at least condemned to the Gallies and their Estates Confiscated Hence it is that not one of them dares sell Guichardin's History of the Geneva Impression nor the Squitirio della liberta Veneta which proves the subjection of the Venetians to the Roman and Greek Emperours The Ten do proceed likewise against such Ecclesiasticks as procure Bishopricks Abbeys or any other Benefices from Rome by means contrary to the Laws of their Countrey and when they have got Grants of them the Council of Ten opposes their Possession thus they served Charles Quirini who had obtained from Pope Vrban VIII the Bishoprick of Zebenigo in Dalmatia by the mediation of Forreign Embassadors in his Holiness his Court. The Noblemen composing the Council of Ten ought to be of Ten several Families without any Kindred or Proximity of Relation that there may be no prejudice nor partiality in their Votes For if two or three Gentlemen allied either by Birth or Marriage should be admitted into the said Council it might be the occasion of a thousand Iujustices whilst the corrupting of one Member would indanger the corruption of all his Relations Besides three or four Families might easier unite in any enterprize against the State In the mean time the Venetians think it not fit to have more than Ten of that Council lest it should render their Authority less dreadful to have it divided among a greater number of Persons And yet their Court consists commonly of seventeen the Duke presiding these and the Six Councellors of the Colledg assisting Sometimes there is a Giunta or accession of certain Senators who have equal suffrage in the said Council as the rest in which case the Procurators the Sage-Grans and the three Avogadors have right to sit among them by virtue of their Places not as Judges but Assistants without any Votes Every Month three Capi-Dieci are chosen by Lots These Capi-Dieci have Power to open all Letters addressed to the Council and to report them when they have done They receive privately the Depositions of Informers and give out Orders for the seizure of the Person accused They visit the Prisons examine what Prisoners they please and discharge what they think Innocent They assemble the Council not only every eight days according to Custom but as oft as they think fit provided two of them concur in it Each of these three Capi-Dieci has his Week during which he that is chief receives the Letters Interrogates parties and having communicated with his two Colleagues concerts with them what is to be done And he that is in Authority is in the Grand Council with the Avogador de Semaine placed right over against the Doge In short the Dieci of Venice have the same Power as the Ephori had in Sparta The Dieci can Depose Imprison and Condemn to Death all the Magistrates in the City even the Duke himself But the Ephori could not judg either of the Kings of Sparta without concurrence of the Senat and the other King for in that State there were always Two Contemporary Kings and if the Ephori had Power to put all sorts of People to Death without formal Process which gave Plato occasion to call their Authority Tyranical The Council of Ten have often made it appear that they are absolute in Condemning their Fellow-Citizens upon bare suspitions yet in reality they are more moderate than the Ephori The Ephori had Cognizance of all affairs belonging to their Commonwealth and a superinspection upon the Conduct of all Persons who manage it and therefore they were called Ephori The Dieci of Venice have the same Power The Ephori were instituted as a Balance to their Kings and to keep them within the bounds of their Duty the Dieci were instituted to curb and withstand the ambition and insolence of the Nobles and as Theopompus rendered Kingship agreeable to the Lacedemonians by the Creation of this Magistrate to restrain it from extravagance so have the Venetians made their Government more plausible to the People by setting up the Council of Ten as a check to the exorbitance of their Commanders so that these Ten are the defenders of the People as well as the Ephori though their Government be not Popular The Ephori had a care and superintendency over their Sports and publick Combats invented for the exercise of their Youth The Ten have the ordering of publick Feasts and solemn Combats betwixt the Castellans and the Nicolates and the direction of their Regates or Sea-fights The Ephori had the disposing of the Publick Revenue the Dieci have their Treasury where a third of the Publick Moneys is entred with a superintendency of all the Schools and Fraternities of the City which are taxed upon any publick necessity as the Dieci think fit In a word the Dieci are annual like the Ephori and cannot no more than they be continued in their Office but they may be chosen again two years after And this is so exactly observed that a Nobleman who has been but one day in Office if the year be out deposits his Decemviral Robe and is excluded the Council for two years as much as if he had executed the Office his full time The new Nobility cannot pretend to this Charge but after long and considerable service for they must be so many intermediate Offices and gain the friendship of the Ancient Nobility who will otherwise oppose their Elections Besides the ancient Nobility will not equal them so soon by those Honours lest having great Estates generally the addition of such great Dignity should advance them above them The Dieci have place and deliberative Voice in the Senat wearing a Purple-Robe with Ducal-Sleeves This Council in their Orders and
Command the Fleet of the Commonwealth His Power is so absolute over all other Generals and Captains that he seems a Dictator and rather a Sovereign than a Subject for the three years of his Command His Authority extends not only to the Fleet but to all the Ports Isles and Fortresses where his Orders are received without dispute and if he goes to any of them in person the Clergy are obliged to meet him and the Keys are presented him by the Governours and Rectors as if all the Senat came with him and indeed all their Power is in him so that it is no less than Treason to disobey him or contest his Orders Formerly the Senat allowed him not to enterprise any thing without advice of them but the distance many times retarding their affairs and the Resolution of the Senat not arriving till the opportunity was lost it leaves him now to his own liberty to act as he sees occasion only recommending this Caution to him to manage things so that the Commonwealth may receive no detriment thereby And this they do with more Confidence because he has the possession of no Town or Port to which he may retire if he be false and therefore is obliged to keep always at Sea exposed to the mercy of the Wind and the Waves Moreover there is no Prince whatever who at their return uses their Generals worse than the Venetians If any of them have lost a Battle or a Town they are plagued by the Inquisitors of State or rather by as many Judges as there are Nobles in the City the Commonwealth having given them the Conduct of their Armies and the Government of their Towns upon the same condition the famous Lady of Sparta gave the Buckler to her Son Aut in hoc aut cum hoc intending thereby that he should either dye or return with what she had given him If they obtain a Victory they must render an account to those who emulate their success and will be sure if not to procure to encourage their accusers In time of Peace they always debase them and the meanest Nobleman will not only think himself his equal but beard him in the competition of any new Command which renders the Yoak of their Obedience very heavy to the Subject But if a new War be begun and the timidity and incapacity of the others be compared with the Experience and Courage of these then it is that Envy gives place to Desert and their Rivals in time of Peace do Homage to their Valour during the War When the Genoeses were at Chiozza and thought of nothing but Plundering of Venice the Senat was obliged to discharge honourably their General Victor Pisani who was then in Prison for the loss of Pola* a Town in Istria and to joyn him in the Sovereign Command of the Army with Andreas Contarini to the dishonour of all his calumniators Antonio Grimani after he had Conquered the Towns of Monopoli Mola Pulignan Trani Brunduscium and Otranto in Pouelle was degraded from his Procuratorship and Banished into Istria for unhappily losing the Battle of Modon to the Turks But after he had been Banished ten years he was called back again upon an exigence restored to his Dignity and at last Created Duke In the year 1670 the difference betwixt them and the Port about Confines in Dalmatia having caused the Venetians to apprehend a new Rupture the whole World immediately cast their eyes upon Francis Morosini though he was in disgrace and at that time actually under a Charge and not without cause for there was none but he capable of the Command which he had in Candia and had the War gone on the Senat would have been constrained to have begged him to have taken upon him the Generalship again The awe the Captains have of the Council of Ten does not deter them from applying their utmost industry to raise their own fortunes though to the prejudice of the Publick not doubting but to find an Asylum if they have where withall to purchase it providing against the worst out of an opinion they shall certainly be questioned at their return how moderately soever they have behaved themselves and therefore the fear of an inevitable suspition incourages them the more boldly to pillage that they may revenge themselves beforehand for such injury as they are like to meet afterwards And yet they use all imaginable Artifice to conceal the defects of their Administration being desirous to appear as innocent as Gracchus who assured the People of Rome that he went rich to Sardena but returned poor A General of Candia would have perswaded the Venetians to the same thing by borrowing 4000 Ducats of a Merchant to defray the Expence of his entry into his Procuratorship though he had brought back several Barrels of Silver which stood him in good stead For there are but few such persons as the Procurator Nani who imployed all the Money he had received as a Gratuity from the Senat in presents to the Commissioners from the Port by which means the Contest about Limits was brought to a happy accommodation Whereas many others would have applied it to their own proper use as their Comerades do at Constantinople The habit of these Generals is always Scarlet with a Bonnet of the same Colour like the Mertier of the Presidents of Parliament They never lay aside their long Cloak made in the fashion of that which the antients called Chlamys no not even in Fight The Proveditor-General at Sea THis Officer called in their Ducals Classis Legatus as the other is called Classis Imperator is perpetual not as to person who never holds the Command above two years but as to the Office which is constantly supplied contrary to the former which expires with the War His Authority extends to the whole Fleet which he manages as he pleases in the absence of the Captain-General He has Power to Cashier or punish even with Death such Officers as are defective in their Duties as well Noble Venetians as others He disposes of their Commands He pays the Souldiers and Seamen disposes of the Money belonging to the Fleet and is accountable to the Senat at his return The Generalissimo and the Proveditor having served their time lay down their Dictatorship at Capo d'Istria and return to Venice and their former condition of life retaining nothing of all their Grandure but the honour of what is past and the hopes of what is to come They are obliged by a certain Law to deliver themselves up into Custody before they give an account of their administration especially if they have been overcome which is a great cause of Persecution at Venice where nothing but success is considered General Francis Morosini not complying with the said Law incensed the Nobility exceedingly against him insomuch that after he had happily withstood one Attack he was over-powered by a second and forced to do that dishonourably and by necessity that
several Princes the Venetians are always the last who receive it not that they may Regulate by the example of the rest but to have time to sift and discover the subtilties of that Court which are always introduced with pretences of Religion In fine as the Popes apply themselves indústriously to the augmentation of the Ecclesiastical Power and the subjection of the Secular the Senat on their side are as solicitous against it using all possible care at the reception of any Bull that nothing may surprize them and to this end they cannot be presented to the Colledg till they have been canvased and subscribed by two Doctors entertained on purpose by the State to give the Doge notice if they contain any thing of Mystery or Innovation And this difficulty in the Senat at the reception of their Bulls makes the Court of Rome as cautious how they offend them Thus much for the Assistance let us now examine how far the Jurisdiction of the Inquisitors in the State of Venice extends First The Jews living in the Territory of this State are not punishable by the Inquisition for any Crime they commit and this Rule is founded upon St. Paul's Doctrine that Ecclesiastical Authority extends not to those who are not nor never were of the same Church and by a decision of Pope Innocent III it has been Declared that the Jews not being subject to the same Law should not be Judged by the Law and therefore in Poland they are judged by Palatins and not by Ecclesiasticks Moreover it is well known that Sixtus V and Clement VIII granted Safe-conduct to the Maranes to remain and traffick in the Town of Ancona without being molested or disturbed by the Inquisitors contradicting the Bull of Gregory XIII of the year 1581 which subjected Jews and all other Infidels to that Sacred Office Besides the Inquisition being erected only against Hereticks Judaisme being no Heresy falls not under their Jurisdiction If a Jew speaks irreverently of our Religion if he blasphemes our Mysteries prophanes our Sacred things debauches any body to his Religion the Ecclesiasticks and other persons concerned bring their complaints to the Officer on purpose for Blasphemy who fails not to punish him severely according to ancient Custom in the Church by which the Ecclesiasticks concerned themselves no farther than to judg whether the Opinion complained of as Heresy was contrary to our Faith which having determined they committed them to the Secular to be Judged And this was the Practice of the Church under the Roman Empire till the Division in the year 800 and in the Eastern Empire to the last 2. The Inquisition Judges not the Greeks for these following Reasons First Because 't is unreasonable the Ministers of Rome should Judge the Greeks in their own proper Cause the Greeks insisting upon the observation of the Canons which submit every Nation to its own proper Prelats and the Romans pretending to be above the Canons do challenge a right of changing and vacating the ancient Constitutions and Laws of the Councils and Fathers This Doctrine has caused the separation of those two Churches which lived in unity and Christian Charity the space of 800 years before the Greeks acknowledging the Pope to be St. Peters Successor and first of all the Catholick Bishops whilest he contented himself with the Power the Canons allowed him and kept himself within the bounds of his Primacy without pretending to Sovereignty over the rest of the Bishops Secondly Because the Doge permitting the Inquisition to meddle with the Greeks would lessen his own Authority over them and leave it to such as could not exercise it without great trouble and confusion The Power of punishing Offences in matters of Religion has been always invested in the Civil Magistrate quite through the Grecian Church as the Greeks of this age do readily confess as desiring that Custom might be continued and thus Justice is administred to the Greeks by the Civil Power with general satisfaction whereas if the Inquisitors interposed in their affairs the whole Nation would oppose themselves against their Judgments and mutiny against their Soveraignty Thirdly Because the State of Venice receiving the Greeks under the Venetian Protection permitted them to live secondo il Rito loro But their Customs and Statutes would subject them to Princes for punishment of all Temporal Crimes and to Prelates of the Church for Spititual Offences From whence it follows that it belongs not to the Inquisitors either to Judg or Examine what the Greeks do or believe privately but only to inform the Civil Magistrate of such as are scandalous either in their actions or words Besides the Republick of Venice does no prejudice to the Church by permitting the Greeks to live according to the general Custom of their Countrey because that permission was the principal Condition of their Obedience to that State and for the Senat to subject them to the Inquisition would be no less than of good and faithful Subjects to make them Rebels and implacable Enemies from whence no advantage could accrue to the Inquisition For these Reasons the Commonwealth of Venice that Governs its Subjects by peaceable Principles more than any other Prince in Europe have been unwilling to consent that the Greeks should be liable to the Judgment of the Inquisitors let the nature of their Charge be what it would Thirdly The Inquisition of Venice hath no Cognizance of such as have two Wives though they pretend to it alledging that Crime to be an abuse of the Sacrament of Marriage To which it is answered that the first Marriage which is good rendering the second void there is no abuse of the Sacrament and by consequence it belongs not to the Inquisitors to rectify but to the Civil Magistrate who is obliged to punish the injury the Husband does to his Wife because 't is an offence against Civil society as much as Adultery which every body knows is not subject to the Inquisition Bigamy is Judged by the Lords Criminal of the Night as also the Jews who live in Adultery with the Wives of Christians Fourthly The Inquisition meddles not with Blasphemy because it belongs to the Secular Magistrate according to the Civil and Canon Law and Custom of all Christendom But if the Blasphemer gives any suspition of Heresy against the Informer the Inquisition Judges of the suspition and with him the Magistrate for Blasphemy so by that means the accused person is never unpunished there being two sentences against an Offender one of the Sacred Office for Spiritual chastisement the other of the Civil Magistrate for Corporal correction As to what the Inquisitors say that 't is too great severity for a man to have two Sentences alledging an old Aphorisme That one Judg is sufficient for one Offence the Venetians reply It is no inconvenience to have two Judges in the same Cause when the punishments inflicted are of several kinds and the ends of those Judgments are different So in the case of
them and be sure to lose my Cause should I contend with a people who profess to despise and decry every thing that they write not themselves I shall only say to them as Quintilian did of Calvus That my mind was to have done better but my parts and faculties would not answer to the greatness of my Desire My comfort is That being the first Frenchman who has writ of this Government I may hope that reasonable persons will excuse my Work the more readily because the first of every thing is imperfect and it holds in the operations of the mind as well as the productions of Nature Besides who knows but the roughness and unevenness of this Book may provoke some more able and dextrous Pen to exhibit what shall be more regular and exact However the chief object of my Pains and the only recompence I expect being your Approbation I hope you will allow me some little time to recount the order and connexion of this History which I present to your perusal I have begun my Description with the Grand Council which in my own opinion is the unpleasantest part of the Book This Method will make some people say and methinks I hear them already that I am ill skill'd in the Art of Writing to bring the Reader at first dash among Briars and Thorns whereas I should rather have display'd my Roses and Flowers to have invited him farther and inveigled him into an esteem of it To this I answer The Grand Council being the source of all the other Councils and Magistrates I could not proceed otherwise without being preposterous and perverting the natural order of my Subject Besides if the matter be thorny in it self it ought not to be imputed to me who had not the liberty of my choice And if it be objected that I might have omitted the perplexities of their Elections and Ballotings in the Grand Council I reply what I have done was no more than necessary to make my VVork compleat and to satisfie the curiosity of the Reader For as Frenchmen have in their passage through Venice many times desir'd to be admitted into the Grand Council to see their way of Balloting so I doubt not but there are some of them will be glad to read what they have seen but confus'dly and perhaps will commend the pains I have taken to clear them In which I have imitated several great Authors who have vouchsaf'd us whole volumes for explication of the Comitia in the Commonwealth of Rome whereas I have comprehended all Venetian Courts in three or four pages that to read them might not be troublesom But in short if that place displeases any one he may without much trouble skip it over and pass to that which is more delightful I have treated at large of the Senat because being the Noblest and most excellent part of the State I thought it but reasonable to proportion it to its Subject and make it the chief part of my Book On the contrary I have not detain'd my self long upon the Colledg because I look'd upon it as it were an Antichamber to the Senat. Having spoken of their Councils in General I proceed to the Magistrates of which it is Compos'd beginning with the Duke as chief and continuing with the rest according to the dignity and importance of their imployments I have given some little particular touches of the Doge the Procurators of Saint Mark and the Decemviri called by them the Council of Ten. Not so much because they are the Chief Magistrates of the Town as because the Matter however curious and delightful has not hitherto been well handled All that have given us Relations of Venice tell us that the Duke has no more Authority than another Senator and that he is subject to the Laws That the Council of Ten is a great Tribunal where all the Nobility and Malefactors against the State are judged in an extraordinary way This every body knows before and there needs no more Books to convince us But to show how the Venetians comport with their Duke in what his Grandeur his Office his Obligations consist of what Age of what Humour of what Genius he ought to be are things which in my judgment deserve to be writ as compleating our knowledg of their Government For the same reason I have endeavoured to draw the Council of Ten to the life supposing my draft may be the more grateful because in it you may see all the fine strokes all the subtil Maxims all the close and conceal'd Mysteries of their Government And I do not fear that any will accuse me of animosity or bitterness against the Venetians whom I have no reason to hate seeing I have said nothing on them but from every good Memoires their own proper History several Embassadors and the Publick reputation which certainty will be enough to justifie mine Moreover the Commonwealth of Venice like other Nations being made up of good and bad I have not suppress'd or lessen'd the honour of their Actions where they accur'd in my Discourse If I have compar'd somtimes the Magistrates of Venice to the Magistrates of Sparta and Rome it was not by the way of Ornament to my History which perhaps may be wanting but to show what the Republick of Venice has taken from two other eminent Commonwealths and with what good success they have usued it an Argument of their profound Wisdom and Prudence Besides these sort of comparisons instruct and entertain the mind of the Reader especially if he be French whose humour it is to learn many things at a time Moreover in that I have imitated an excellent Historian who in the same manner has made Parallels betwixt the Carthaginians and the Romans and betwixt these and other Nations but with this difference that his Description contains whole Pages and mine except my comparison of the Doge with the King of Sparta and the Ephori with the Council of Ten is compriz'd in three words My language is neither affected nor careless but betwixt both neither great constraint on the one side nor great liberty on the other And if I have not pick'd my words in some places it has been to preserve the efficacy of the Sense which elegant and modish Phrases would not have render'd so entire for I have more respect to a good thought than a good word to the elegancy of things than the elegance of phrases which is the proper work of a Grammarian Again A subject like mine requires more gravity and solidity than pollish and smartness And therefore the Venetians deride those who affect to speak in their Senat either in the Roman or Tuscan Dialect Moreover I should be very glad and think I came off very well if nothing be laid to my charge but ill Choice or ill placing of my words This is all kind Reader I have to say for my self and my hope is your Moderation will make it more effectual than it would otherwise
be The Table of CHAPTERS THè Design of the Author Page 1 The first Part. OF the Grand Council Pa. 7 Principle Laws of the Government of Venice 18 Of the Colledg 32 Of the Senat 35 Of the Correspondency of the State of Venice with several Princes and States and first with the Pope 73 With Spain 75 With the Emperor 77 How the Venetians stand with the Electors of the Empire 78 Their Condition with France 80 Their Condition with the Duke of Savoy 82 Their Posture with the great Duke of Florence 84 With the Duke of Mantua 85 With the Duke of Modena 88 With the Duke of Parma 90 With the Republick of Genoa 90 With the Republick of Lucca 93 With the Grisons 93 With the Swisses 94 With Holland 95 With England 95 With Denmark 97 With the Swede and the Pole 97 With the great Duke of Muscovy 98 With the Ottoman-Court 100 The second Part. OF the Magistrates of Venice Page 108 Of the Doge 109 The Councellors of the Seignory 134 The three heads of the Quaranty Criminal 138 Of the Sages Grands 139 Of the Sages de Terra firma 142 The Sages des Orders 143 The Procurators of St. Mark 146 Of the Council of Ten 154 Of the Quaranties 171 Of the three Avogadors 174 The two Censors 179 The three Syndies 180 The six Seigniors Criminal de Nuit 181 The six Lords Civil of the Night 182 The three Providitors du Commun 182 The three Providitorjalle ragione Vecchie 183 The four Providitorj alla guistitia Vecchia 184 The three SopraProviditorj alle Biave 185 The four SopraProviditorj del Sal 186 The three Sopra Providitorj alla Sanita 186 The three Sopra Providitorj alle pompe 188 The three Genernadorj dell ' Entrate 192 The ten Sages 192 The four Judges della Mesettaria 193 The three Judges al forestier 193 The three Cattaverj 194 The three Seigniorj allj Banchj 194 Of the Chancellor and Secretaries 195 Of the Patriareh of Venice 200 Of the Podestats 205 Of the Captains at Arm 208 Of the other Officers and Provincial Magistrates and first of Friul 210 In Istria and Dalmatia 211 In the Isles upon the Mediterranean Sea 212 The Generalissimo or Captain General at Sea 214 The Providitor at Sea 218 The General or Governor of the Golf 219 The General of the Galeasses 220 Of the Soveraignty of the Venetians upon the Adriatick Sea 222 The third Part. The Holy office of the Inquisition of Venice 227 A discourse concerning the chief causes of the Decay of the Venetian Commonwealth 233 The manners and general Maxims of the Venetians 267 An Elogy on the Venetians 285 Remarks on several passages in this History 288 The END ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately Printed that Excellent History of the Republick of VENICE wherein is related the most considerable Affairs of Europe from the year 1612 to 1644. Written in Italian by the Eminent Battista Nani Procurator of St. Mark and Faithfully Englished by Sir Robert Honywood In Folio Price bound 14 s. Printed for John Starkey at the Miter in Fleetstreet near Temple-Bar THE HISTORY OF The Government OF VENICE I Write the History of the Government of Venice without contradiction in its kind the best in all Europe as being a true Copy of the ancient Republicks in Greece and as it were an Amass or Collection of all their most excellent Laws Some Authors have handled this Subject before me among which Cardinal Contarin Sansovin and Jannotti were the chief But all three of them have given us no more than a bare description of the Magistrates and Tribunals in Venice and so far have they been from sounding the mystery of that Government that they would not so much as touch it by the by in respect of some private interests of their own Wherefore I undertake this Relation out of an opinion it may satisfy sober men by the importance and variety of its matter in which something possibly may be found that being new will have at least its novelty to recommend it To begin with Order It seems to me convenient to premise something about the several States and Conditions through which this Republick has past since its Foundation which will be as it were an Epitome of the whole History and serve as a Scheme or Ground-plot to my Work Venice has often chang'd the form of her Government Her first Government was by Consuls but that lasted not long Her next was by Tribunes annually chosen by the people of each Isle which in those days made a separate Common-wealth not much unlike the Cantons in Switzerland or the Vnited Provinces in the Low-Countreys and to those Tribunes it is that Cassiodorus addresses his Letters with this Superscription Tribunis Maritimorum But because their Magistrates many times disagreed and the Lombards took advantage of their dissentions whilst they lost their time in contesting among themselves The people wearied with their delays took a fancy to make experiment of a single person and to that end creating a Duke they transferr'd upon him their Soveraign Authority which they had enjoyed for 270 years Nevertheless being quickly weary of their Dukes they abolished the very name and dignity in the person of the third Duke who abused his Power and in their place substituted a Military Tribune called in their ancient Annals Magister Militum by corruption Mastromiles whose Office was annual This form was laid aside in the fifth year after its institution Fabricio Ziani the last of that quality having made himself odious to the People who at that time were very hard to be pleased insomuch that these Islanders regrating the deposal of their first Dukes by comparing them with their present Tribunes by common consent reviv'd the Ducal Authority and advanc'd Theodate Son of their last Prince to the Throne From this Election in the year 742 to the year 1173 there were 34 Dukes successively who govern'd the Isles with an Authority so absolute that it is not to be admired if there were so many Revolts and Conspiracies against them some of them having been expuls'd some having had their eyes put out and others most cruelly massacred After the death of Vital Michieli the second of that name slain upon Easter-day 1173 the People being weary of the long Dominion of their Dukes reassum'd the Government yet for more reputation to their affairs they continued to elect a Prince but with such manacles and restrictions that they left him scarce any thing but the Title and Precedence All was managed by the Grand Council which was composed of 470 Citizens nam'd by 12 Electors selected out of the six Quarters of the Town called by them Sestieri These 470 were changed annually every Michaelmas-day that all persons might have their share in their turns This method continued to the time of Duke Peter Grandenique the Second who reform'd the Grand Council in the year 1298 by imposing upon the Quarenty Criminal a new Law to this purpose
voice in the Councils can have no active voice there But when the Procurators are Sage-Grands which is a dignity in the nomination of the Senat they are admitted to the Grand Council as Sage-Grands not as Procurators Some are of opinion the reason of this exclusion is because these Lords are oblig'd to watch as Guards of the Palace and of the place St. Mark during the Session of the Grand Council that if in the mean time any popular Commotion should arise there might be persons of Authority ready to suppress it But though the Grand Council comprehends the whole body of the Nobles it has not the whole authority of the State for the rights of Majesty are divided betwixt the Council and the Senat. The first has Authority to make Laws or abolish them to elect Magistrates and other inferior Councils as formerly that in Rome was inferior to the People according to that ancient saying Auctoritas in Senatu potestas in Populo The second has power of making War and Peace Leagues and Truces to lay Imposts and Taxes upon the People to put the value upon money with the absolute disposition of the Treasury It disposes of all military Commands both at Land and Sea and all temporary Offices called by them Cariche a tempo created only upon emergency It sends Succors to their Allies names Embassadors Residents Secretaries of their Embassies who depend wholly upon it and are recall'd continued corrected or rewarded as it pleases So that the rights of Majesty being equally divided betwixt the Grand Council which consists of all the Nobles and the Senat which is a select party the Republick of Venice may be said to be almost an Aristo-Democracy like that in Sparta after the institution of the Ephori and that in Rome when the Authority was divided betwixt the People and the Senate who made distinct and separate Laws the first the Plebiscita the second the Senatus-consulta though to take it in strictness it is a pure Aristocracy seeing the Duke has no absolute power and the People no part in the publick administration Sometimes there have been contests about Jurisdiction betwixt the Grand Council and the Senat as it hapned in the affair of General Morosini where the Senat nam'd an Inquisitor to inform against the said Gentleman though the Grand Council pretended to name him But besides that these differences are rare they end always without noise or confusion It is the Grand Council the Nobles play all their pranks and exercise all their private animosities to exclude their adversaries from Office without the least regard to their merit There it is they pretend to do all by Lots but it is not with little balls of white stuff but with large presents quite contrary to their promises In a Monarchy 't is sufficient if we please our Prince in a Republick we must please every body which is the more difficult if not impossible because Birth Fortune Honour and even Vertue it self is enough to create a man enemies unless he manage with more than ordinary prudence Nobilitas opes omissi gestique honores pro crimine ob virtutes certissimum exitium Tacit. Hist 1. So that Nobleman was not ill-vers'd in their Policies who said that he made no difference betwixt the Noble Venetians that to him all the Families seemed equal and that there was not one of which he would not be a member For by pretending to know no such odious distinction of Case Vecchie and Case Naoie they assured themselves of the affection and favour of two thirds of the Nobility and were certain of their suffrages upon any occasion Furthermore because it is the Grand Council which makes the Laws in my judgment it is not unnecessary to take notice of such of the principal of them as do more particularly concern the Nobles as the predominant part of that State Principal Laws of the Government of Venice I. THE Ecclesiasticks as well of the Nobles as Populace are excluded from all Office and uncapable of being of any publick Council though the Bishop and Curats of that City were admitted into the Councils before the Reformation 1298. But this Regulation shuts the door upon all Enterprizes from the Court of Rome in temporal matters For the Pope having the nomination of the Bishops and the disposing of almost all the Benefices in that State it would be no hard thing for him to get a party in the Senat that might carry most of their deliberations by the assistance of such of the Nobles as like the Ecclesiasticks depend upon and expect recompence from him The Law excludes also such of the Nobles as have Cardinals to their Brother Unckle or Nephew from all deliberations touching Ecclesiastick affairs It excludes likewise out of that sacred Office those who are pretenders to the Cardinalship or any other dignity at Rome lest their private interest should dispose them to compliance with that Court to promote their designs II. No Nobleman is permitted to trade lest his private affairs should obstruct or delay the proceedings of the Publick Besides Traffick and Merchandize agree not with the majesty of Government Upon which consideration it was that Commerce was forbidden to the Senators of Rome III. All the Noblemen are subject to rules in respect of their age not one of them but must attend the just number of years and begin by inferior Offices rising by degrees Sin dalle ultime mosse as they say that is they must begin at one end of the course and from thence advance gradually to the other so that before one can arrive at the great Offices he must be of a considerable age as it was anciently in Lacedemon where they were to be old men before they could be capable of great honours In sola Sparta expedit seniscere And the same thing is imply'd by the two baskets of Medlars covered with straw which is painted at the foot of the great Stair-case of St. Mark by which we ascend to the Grand Council and to the Pregadi and shews that as the Medlars ripen in straw so the minds of young men must ripen with expectation till they have gain'd experience and qualification that may recommend them to the Government It is moreover no ill policy to conduct their Nobles by degrees and as it were from Tribunal to Tribunal if it were only to keep them in perpetual practice and emulation and to encourage them in the service of their Countrey by the hopes of arriving one day at the highest dignity and preferment Whereas if the young Noblemen should jump into the great Offices at Venice where there is nothing perpetual they would refuse the rest and there would be no body to execute them This has already hapned too often and those who have exercised great Offices thought it beneath them to accept of inferior For this reason the Seigniory has done wisely to prescribe bounds to the acquisition of Honour to prevent the insolence
gradation Preferment would but expose them to the contempt of the People who commonly despise those who have been formerly their equals Moreover the Senat had never permitted the Venetian Ladies to follow the French Modes but by a new luxury to prevent an old distinction which they affected in their habit the Ladies of ancient Families dressing their heads a la Guelfe and the other a la Gibeline from whence grew a certain emulation that brake out some time into quarrels and proceeded often to their Husbands not only to the danger of the Nobility but to the disturbance of the State For in all sorts of Governments nothing is more pernicious than jealousie and misunderstanding betwixt the Governours the offended party desiring always innovation and change So it was that Heracleodorus in Eubea taking a pique against his Colleagues set up a new form of Government by which the Authority that was formerly in the hands of the Nobility was transferr'd to the People as on the contrary Duke Peter Gradenique of Venice transferr'd it from the People to the Nobles to revenge himself of the People who had refus'd to make him their Duke The Senat governing upon Maxims of Peace will not endure dissention either among the Nobility or People for fear if once they came to Arms they should take a fancy to alter the Government The Senat is sensible Ambition and military Gallantry are inseparable and that great Courage cannot endure the obscurity of a private life of which we have a fair example in the Roman Commonwealth who with all her power was not able to master her Generals And this Maxim is so much the better because the Venetians not designing to aggrandize themselves by new Acquisition but only contriving how they may defend what they have got have no need of Generals among them whose Ambition would keep them always in alarm there being but too many of those haughty spirits who believe all things are lawful that conduce to Dominion and that it is meer madness to refuse it in a punctilio of Religion Besides the General for a Commonwealth finding himself adored by his Souldiers favoured by fortune and happy in an opportunity without more than ordinary moderation can hardly bring himself to depose an Authority that he can so easily keep and reduce himself to an Equality when it is in his power to Command Upon which consideration the Senat has laid it down for a Maxim of State Never to put the Command of their Land-Armies into the hands of any of their Nobles seeing that to arrive at any perfection in that Trade they must pass the best part of their time upon the Terra-firma and seek their employment among forreign Princes which would quickly make a breach among their Nobility it being most certain those who had been long absent from their Country and taken up a way of living quite contrary to their old would not accommodate very easily with their Companions brought up in Idleness and Peace by which means it would not be long before their Republick would be perplex'd and embroil'd by its own Citizens Therefore when they have War at Land they invite to their Service some Prince or Forreign Lord to whom they allow a large Pension with the Title of Generalissimo at Land I say the Title because he has neither Authority nor Power the Senat appointing constantly as his Councel or rather as Spies two Senators which they call Proveditors General of the Army who never suffer him to be out of their sight nor take any Resolution or undertake any Enterprize without them On the contrary he is oblig'd to do as they direct and let his Experience in Military Affairs be what it will they seldom comply with his Sentiment the Noblemen of Venice being naturally enemies to any Advice that is not their own as if they design'd their Perversness should shew their Dominion And therefore they will not entertain Generals more brave or of better Conduct than themselves because commonly their Complaisance is but small and that is a Quality with them equivalent to the greatest In the absence of the Generalissimo the General of the Infantry a Stranger too has the Command by a Custom quite different from other Princes which is a great trouble to the General of the Horse as appeared by the Prince of Modena who quitted the Venetian Service upon that Score during the War of Mantua The Senat not only entertains Forreign Generals but all the Forreign Souldiers they can get always retaining a special care of putting Arms into the hands of their Subjects Not that the Senat is ignorant how inconvenient the service of Forreigners is having had such fatal experience many times and particularly in the famous Battel of Ghiarra d'Adda where most part of their Troops deserted them but because they had rather be illserv'd than have their Liberty endangered The pain they find to get Souldiers by reason of the slavery in which they keep them which is such that many of them have chose rather to revolt desperately to the Turk constrains them to have recourse to their Allies for succour but they never do it but in great extremity being as fearful of the Troops which they employ in their defence as of those that invade them and therefore it is they so frequently change the Posts and Quarters of their Auxiliaries separating them with great care and incorporating them with their other Troops to prevent or defeat any design their Commanders may have Sometimes they force their Officers to retire tiring out their patience by a thousand affronts and if they happen to be obstinate and persons that will not easily desert their Party they make no great scruple to remove them other ways witness Don Camillo de Gonzague who died not many years since at Capo d' Istria of which they discharged themselves by a solemn Service and a Funeral Oration delivered in the Senat. Many times they choose rather to make a dishonourable Peace than to continue or entertain Auxiliaries in their Defence so much do they abhor that kind of Cattel which they look upon as little better than Professed Enemies For 't is the Custom of those States who have over-reach'd their Neighbours and Allies to apprehend being circumvented themselves some time or other judging of their enemies by what they themselves would do in their places Wherefore the Senat never engages in a War but upon necessity and after they have tried all ways to prevent it there being no act of Submission that they will refuse to deliver themselves from that Plague and the rather because their Affairs are supported more by their Reputation than Arms. Their bare aversion to War if you will believe Andr. Moccenicus belli Camer who was one of their Senators made them change their old Patron St. Theodore because he was a Souldier and resembled St. George too much who is the Patron of Genoua The Statue of St. Theodore to be
that is properly his Confidents depended upon the Doge and were accomptable only to him But now since the Doges are no more but Masters the Stile of their Chancery runs another way and there is not a Secretary of State dares use this ancient form Dux cum suo Consilio suis judicib For the Magistrates are not now the Doges but the Commonwealths Officers nor will any Doge be so bold either in speaking or writing to say My Council of State My Magistrates because it is the language of a Sovereign Prince that now he cannot pretend Besides I do not see that these words Cum Clero Populo cum Judicibus Sapientibus cum Populi Collaudatione Confirmatione do at all prove the participation of the three Estates in the Civil Government For by the same reason it may be argued the Kings of France are not Absolute there because all Ordonnances concluded with this form By the King and his Council which only shews that that King takes the advice of his Council before he resolves in any matter of State As to the words Collaudatione and Confirmatione they signify nothing but the manner in which the Edicts of their Doges were received by the People that is to say with universal Applause for if the word Confirmation be taken literally and in the same sense it is said the King has Confirm'd the Priviledges granted by his Predecessors to some Abby or Family or that the Parliament has Confirm'd the Sentence of a Presidial it would be no less than to say the Authority of the People was greater than the Authority of either Doge Clergy or Nobility because it belonged to them to confirm all Deliberations which the Venetians who pretend their Government was never Popular will never allow From whence I conclude the Collaudation and Confirmation of the People was nothing but an outward approbation and obediential Concurrence to the Edicts of their Dukes without being required or any necessity of them to the Duke before he could execute any thing that was resolved and this is proved by the aforementioned words hortantibus Consentientibus nobis c. For to exhort is a kind of Prayer or Remonstrance that Subjects use towards their Sovereigns and if the Clergy and Noblemen of Venice gave their consent sometimes it is not to be said the Doge could not act without them but rather that the Doge doing them the Honour to communicate with them in some things their gratitude prompted them to a ready obedience If the Doges at any time caused their Orders or Decrees to be subscribed by the Prelats of the Province and the Judges of the City of Venice it was one of their Artifices to pass with more ease such Edicts as they thought would be offensive to the People whom by that means they desired to perswade that those who sign'd the Edicts were Authors of them and by this means the Doges did now and then shift off the Odium upon others At this day the Authority of the Duke is so limited that he can do nothing without the Senat. For this cause in publick Ceremonies where the Senat marches there is always following the Doge a Nobleman who carries a Sword in the Scabbard before the Senat to signify that the whole Power and Authority of the State is in the hands of the Senat. For as the Connestable or Grand Escuier carries the Sword before the French King whenever he makes his Entry into any considerable Town to shew the absoluteness of his Power over his Subjects so on the contrary 't is an evident mark that the Doge is subject both to the Laws and the Senat that the Sword is carried after him and hangs as it were over his head to admonish him that if he transgress his duty in the least he is not to expect better treatment than was used towards Marin Falier And for the same reason at the Ceremonies of his Coronation this Sword is never put on nor indeed at any time but his Funeral with the Golden Spurs the Emperor Basile sent to Duke Orso Participatio when he Cteated him Grand Escuier of Constantinople When the Forreign Embassadors are received to Audience the Duke replys only in general terms that may keep them in hopes according to the old direction of the Senat Dentur bona verba Florentinis and if he speaks too much he shall not only be disowned but receive a sharp reprimand and perhaps threats as was given one day by the Senator Baradonne since a Cardinal to Duke Dominick Contarin in a full Colledg after the Embassador was gone out His words were these Vostra serenita parla da Principe Sovrano ma si recordi che non chi mancheranno li mezzi di mortificarla quando trascorrera dal dovere Your Serenity speaks like a Sovereign Prince but you may remember that we shall not want ways of chastizing you if you transgress your duty too much So that it may be said of the Doge what a Polander said once of his King that the King was the Mouth of the Commonwealth but that the Mouth could not speak any thing that the publick Judgment had not first prepared and resolved If an Embassador makes any undecent proposition or speaks dishonourably of the Commonwealth the Duke is concern'd to reply a little smartly otherwise he will run himself into the contempt of the Nobility and perhaps be depos'd as pusillanimous and unfit for the Government and in that case the Proposition passes not to the Pregadi as a thing not fit to be received In the year 1671 the Turks having made a descent in the Coasts of Ancona not far from Loretto and carried several Families away with them the Nunt io Pompeius Varesus came to the Colledg complaining in the name of the Pope that the Seigniory had suffered those Corsairs to pass into the Gulfi without fighting them notwithstanding their obligation to do it The Duke replyed That he admired his Holiness should make any complaint of disorders happening in any place under his obedience for if those Infidels entred so boldly into the Territories of the Church it was because they found them ill-guarded not to say deserted whilst the Pope 's Galleys were employed upon particular service when they should have been left in his Harbours for security of his Towns and defence of his Subjects An answer that stop'd the Nunt io's mouth The same Nunt io received another Answer as unpleasing upon his interposition in behalf of the Jesuits the Somasques and the barefooted Carmelites who refused obedience to an Order of the Senat relating to Processions against which they pretended priviledg from the Pope for having represented to the Colledg that it was no less than laying violent hands upon the Sanctuary and enterprizing against the Authority of the Holy See for them to encroach or so much as dispute the Priviledges his Holiness had given by constraining the
admitted to this Office till he be compleat 38 years of age the importance of that Charge upon which the whole Civil Administration depends requiring that the Members be men of more than ordinary accomplishment and well-vers'd in the Mysteries of Government The Procurators of St. Mark desire this Preferment with much earnestness thereby adding Authority to their Dignity which has more of Title than Power Formerly the Sage-Grans managed and reported the Affairs of the Terra-firma as well as the Sages of the Terra-firma but of late that Order has been changed to lessen the Authority of the first and to advance the latter The Ordinary Embassadors sent by this State to the Emperor are always stiled Sage-Grans in their Credentials though perhaps they have not gone thorough that Office nor cannot before their return And this is a distinction the Senat puts betwixt their Embassadors to the Emperor and their Embassadors to Kings which Embassadors have only the Title of Sage-Grans de Terra-firma The Sage-Grans are not chosen like the rest of the Magistrates by the Grand Council but by the Pregadi who elect three at a time every three months To these it belongs to convoke the Senat as it does to the Councellors of the Colledg to assemble the Grand Council In Winter their Habit is a Purple-Robe of Cloth in Summer a Watered-Camlet of the same colour with Ducal-sleeves The Sages de Terra firma THere are five Sages called Sages de terra firma created first about the year 1340 after this Republick had acquir'd la Marca Trevigiana One of them is call'd Sanio alla Scrittura whose business it is to List Soldiers to Muster them and to Continue or Cashier them He is treated with upon all Levies of Men He reports to his Colleagues and with them deliberates what is to be proposed to the Colledg He is Judge in Appeal of all Sentences passed either within the City of Venice or without against any Souldier belonging to that Common-wealth and determines definitively both Civil and Criminal Matters relating to the Souldier There is another of these Sages called Savio Cassiere who orders the payment of the Souldiers and all others who have money to receive of the Commonwealth and nothing is paid without an Order signed by this Sage The three other have neither Title nor Business peculiar only they consult jointly with the said two whose places they supply in case of absence or sickness but with the Title of Vice-Sage Cassiere Vice-Sage Scrittura Their Office continues only for six months like the Sages-Grans In Winter they wear their Robe of Purple Cloth and in Summer a Black watered-Camlet with wide Sleeves They are chosen likewise by the Pregadi but without deliberative voices in which they are much inferior to the Sages-Grans and yet they have the Title of Excellence given them The Sages des Orders THere are likewise Five Sages commonly called Sages des Orders who are young Noblemen of Principal Quality admitted into the Colledg not to deliberate for they have no voices but to hear and adapt themselves to the Government by the example of the other Sages whom they respect as their Masters and therefore when they speak to the Colledg they are obliged to be standing and uncovered 'T is probable upon that account they are called Sages des Orders because they are to obey the Orders of the Sages Grans and Sages de Terra Firma who have Power to exclude them from their respective Assemblies when any affair of importance is before them that requires their Ministry Whereas the Sages des Orders have no priviledg to exclude the other Sages from their Consultations nor to exclude them from their Maritime transactions which are all under their Cognizance and therefore they are called most properly Sages de Mer. When present at the Consultations of the Sages Grans and Sages de Terra firma they may modestly give their advice but their advice not being deliberative nor proposable to the Senat the Secretary does not enter it unless one of the Sages-Grans or Terra firma approving their motion ownes it for his own and then it is Registred in the Secretaries Roll under the name of the said Sage to be Baloted in the Pregadi according to the Custom of the Lacedemonians where the Ephori caused to be pronounced by some person of authority and desert the Advice that another Citizen of less quality proposed when they thought the proposition was for the advantage of their State thereby preventing the rejection of good Counsel upon prejudice to the Author But when Affairs of Sea are before them these Sages have deliberative Voices as the other Sages have This Office was formerly one of the highest and most important in the Commonwealth But since the Venetians extended in Lombardy and began to relish the delights of the Terra firma they neglected their Sea-Affairs so much that the Sages de Mer who before were respected according to the greatness of their Imployment lost all their Credit in a moment In so much that they put into those Places only young Gentlemen who having little experience are received into the Colledg to be indoctrinated and therefore they willingly give place to the Sages de Terra firma whose share in the Government is so great These Sages are chosen likewise for six Moneths by the Senat in which they have their places during their Office Their Robe is Purple with streight Sleeves Though this Office be of no great Power it is mightily sought after by the young Nobility it being a step to greater Preferment if they know how to Conduct Otherwise it is a Rock upon which many miscarry that have not that Aptitude or Propensity to Business for there they are exposed to the Observation of wise and penetrating people who do them good or hurt afterwards according to the Impressions they receiv'd of them One Alexander Contarin a Sage des Orders would needs speak in the Colledg without standing up contrary to common practice in that case desiring to see the Part or Law by which standing was required But he understood afterwards to his cost the Obedience he ought to his Superiours And here let me add by the by That in Venice as well as antiently in Lacedemon there are many Laws unwritten unless it be in the Hearts and Memories of the Citizens upon whom the example of their Ancestors have more effect and influence than all the Writings in the World good Manners being much better than good Laws Besides it is indecency and too much forwardness in young Men to enquire into the Institution of their Laws and demand Reasons for them And in Sparta this Curiosity was expresly forbid lest it should be used as a pretence to their Disobedience Si quaerere singulis liceat pereunte obsequio etiam imperium intercidit Tac. Hist 1. Thus have I shewn all the Magistrates of which the Colledg subsists and I have treated of them together for that reason
The six Lords-Civil of the Night THey are Judges in certain Nocturnal Affairs that are not altogether Criminal as also in cheats and frauds betwixt private persons they lay the Damages appoint the Costs and execute the Sentences of the Magistrate called al Foristerio for regulating and letting of Houses They were instituted under Duke Peter Lando with the Auditori Novissimi and created for the ease of the said Auditori who had too much business upon their hands their judgment goes no higher than fifty Ducats The three Proveditors du Commun THE Office of this Magistrate not unlike the Aedils in Rome is to keep up the neatness and uniformity of the City to see the Pavements and Bridges kept in repair to look to the Ships and see they be not over-laden to preserve the Priviledges of the Citizens to set a Plate upon new-Printed Books to inspect the several Companies of Artists and the Gondoliers They have Vote in the Pregadi and continue in Office sixteen months The three Proveditori alle Ragione Vecchie THeir Office is in the name of the Senat to send the accustomed Presents to Princes Embassadors or other great Lords as come to Venice and to keep an account of all those kind of expences They are Judges of all damage done to the Demeasns of the Seigniory without the Town with Power to inspect the Accounts of the Proveditors all Biave This Magistrate resembles the Questors in Rome who had the care of lodging such Princes and Embassadors as came suddenly to Town and to furnish them with necessary conveniences in the Name of the Publick they continue likewise 16 months and have voice in the Pregadi There are also three Proveditori alle Ragione nuove young Gentlemen appointed to look to the payment of such as are concerned in the Publick Forms and to seize their Estates upon any defect It belongs to them likewise to cause to be coined several little pieces of Silver called Oselle which pieces the Doge presents to all the Noblemen of the Grand Council in lieu of certain River-fowl which were sent them formerly to their Houses from whence the Medals are called Oselle The four Proveditori alla Giustitia Vecchia THeir Office is to judg in cases of false weights or measures and they commonly punish those Offenders severely They set the prises upon Fruit and Sea-fish which the Fishermen are obliged to sell standing with their Hats in their hands by that inconvenience to humble them and take from them the confidence of bartering too sawcily with the Citizens All Mechannicks are under the Jurisdiction of these Proveditors so that if a Citizen has any controversy with an Artificer it belongs to these Proveditors to decide it These kind of Tradesmen cannot change their Signs for their Shops but with permission from them nor take an Apprentice or other Person to work without acquainting them with the Conditions which they cause to be entred into a Register otherwise their Contracts are void There are three other Proveditors called della Giustitia Nuova whose Authority is over Inns and Cabaritts to prevent selling of sophisticated Wines They take care likewise that Taxes be well paid and they continue 16 months in their Office The three Sopra Proveditorialle Biave THese Seigniors like the Aediles Coreris instituted by Julius Caesar have care of providing the City with Corn and all sorts of Grain that by keeping the People in plenty they might keep them obedient and well-affected to the Government upon apprehension of Famine these Officers advise with the Doge and Sages of the Colledg how they may supply themselves from the Neighbouring Provinces and to this purpose they contract with certain wealthy Merchants who engage to bring them in and deliver them at Venice the quantity agreed for at a precise day upon certain Conditions which are always made good by the Seigniory and if the Merchant fails he is condemned in a considerable penalty There are subservient to these Magistrates three other Nobles called Proveditori alle Biave who do the same and two Seigniori al Formento who visit the publick Magazins see them filled up again every year and when any thing wasts or grows unfit to keep them they see it sold and other bought in its place by which means they are continually full The four Sopra Proveditori del Sal. THese Officers see the Salt brought from the Publick Salt-houses into the Granaries of the City where 't is disposed and sold by their direction they have Power to punish such as imbezle it or sell it without permission This Office is of considerable profit but it lasts but ten Months The Senat Creates sometimes three Revisori al Sal to look into the abuses committed in the Gabelle after which their Office ceases The three Sopra Proveditori alla Sanita 'T IS their Office to see that nothing contagious be brought into the City and that nothing putrified or stinking be sold in the Market 'T is their Office to send out of the Town all such as are ill of any Pestilential Disease to hinder any Persons or Commodities from Landing till they know from whence they come and the Captain of the Ship produces a formal Certificate from the Magistrates of the place where he Laded Otherwise they are sent three miles off from Venice to the Lazant to make their Quarantine And these Proveditori are assisisted with three more of the same Name There is no Town in the World where they are more careful of their health than this and not without reason for indeed the Plague has raged strangely among them and continues commonly a long time because of the streightness of the Streets and driness of a great part of their Canals in Summer which sends forth most unfufferable stinks and therefore there are two Offices created expresly for the Water the one called Savii alla Acque consisting of Senators or Procurators the other Esecutori alle Acque composed of three young Noblemen whose business is to see the Regulations and Orders of the first duly executed both of them have Power to punish such as cast any nastiness into the Canals which the Laws require to be cleansed every year to prevent their filling up But the constant cleansing them according to that Law having been neglected during the War in Candia produce great Inconvenience in many places not only for stinks but by making the passage difficult by the heaps of Mud and Sand insomuch that to clear their Canals and their Ponds the Undertakers have asked no less than two Millions whereas had it been taken in time it could not have cost above 100000 Crowns The three Sopra Proveditorialle Pompe THis Officer in Venice is the same the Gineconomo were in Athens The Harmosins in Sparta and the Censors in Rome For like theirs it is the business of these to reform extravagance both in Cloaths and Diet which in the judgement of Seneca is the sign of a declining State And indeed Feasting is so rare a
several Pro-Consuls were at Rome for having under their Administration duo Praetoria duo Tribunalia for though the fault may be in the Wife the scandal lies wholly upon the Husband and 't is he must answer for it In these Commands it is that the Nobles are allowed to exceed in all manner of magnificence because thereby they signify the extraordinary Grandure of the Publick Majesty and imprint love and veneration in the minds of the People The Captains at Arms. THE Office of a Captain at Arms upon the Terra-firma answers to the Military Tribune in Rome and in all Inscriptions upon publick Buildings he is called Praefectus Armorum or Tribunus Militum His Office is to Command the Souldiers of the City and all the Garrisons under his Jurisdiction he judges in all differences betwixt Officer and Souldier without application to the Podesta All the Chastellains of the Town and quite thorow his Territory receive his Orders and submit to his Jurisdiction as well Noble Venetians as others It is his care to look to the reparation of the Walls Gates Ports and Fortifications as he pleases He has the disposing of all the Revenue and Imposts in his Government and in all places belonging to it the Camerlingues who receive it giving an account to him and not daring to disburse a farthing without his Authority to the end the publick Money should be disposed to the publick Use and that those who keep it may not have power to purloin The Roman Praetors had the disposing of their Treasure but the Venetians will not allow that liberty to the Podesta's that by parting equally they might moderate their Authority and bring them to some balance and proportion with the Captains at Arms which are the two Officers that represent the Majesty of their Masters and are therefore called by one common name Rectores like the Provincial Harmostae of the Lacedemonians in their smaller Towns there is only one Rector who is Podesta and Captain at Armes both The Captains at Armes at Padua and Brescia are always Illustrious Senators who for their Services may challenge the Robe of Procurator par Merite when any of those places are vacant The Captain of Bergamo has a deliberative Voice in the Pregadi at his return as also the Chastelaine of Brescia by peculiar Priviledg above all the rest of the Governours of Castles or Forts When great Officers in a Town differ about Jurisdiction which happens very oft they are not allowed to defend their Cause with any thing but the Pen that is to say by humble Remonstrances to the Senat and if they come to Blows both parties are judged Criminal as well he that receives as he that offers the Injury In Friul THE Proveditor General of Palma Nova is the chief Officer of the whole Province and this Office always in the nomination of the Senat is biennial and supplied by a Senator of the first Rank The Governour or Lieutenant of Vdina is the second Officer in the said Province and at his return may be proposed for admission into the Council of Ten. There are under him two Officers one called the Marschal d'Vdina who is a kind of Chastelaine and the other a Treasurer The City of Vdina in the year 1415 came under the Dominion of the Venetians with the whole Province of Friul which before was under the Patriarchs of Aquileia to which the Counts Savorgnanes contributed much and were made Noble Venetians for their pains In Istria CApo d'Istria the chief Town in that Province and a Bishoprick is Governed by a Podestat and three Councellors of the poorer sort of the Nobility Cita-Nuova Parenzo and Pola all three Episcopal Towns have each of them their Podestats as also Piran Rovigno Cherso Osero and Raspo which last has the Priviledg of having a Senator because 't is a place where much is gained with little expence and therefore some of the poorer sort of Senators are sent thither In Dalmatia THE Proveditor General holds the first Rank and Commands all the Governours Proveditors and Chastelanies of Towns and Fortresses in that Province and therefore that Charge is always executed by an Illustrious Senator or Procurator for besides the Authority 't is a place of great Profit He has under him a Forreigner who Commands the Forces as General but can do nothing but by his consent not so much as gratify a Souldier with a Peny nor order him a loaf of bread more than his Comerade The Cities of Zara and Spalatra two Archbishopricks in Dalmatia are Governed each of them by a Count and a Chamberlaine who performs likewise the Office of a Chastelaine These Officers are two years in Office as is the Proveditor of Clessa a Fortress upon an inaccessible Mountain The Chastelains of Traeo and Zebenigo are biennial likewise Cattaro an Episcopal Town has two Magistrates one a Proveditor and the other a Camertingue each of them changed every two years Budoa the last place of the Venetians upon the Coast of Dalmatia has its Podesta whose authority continues but two years 'T is not many years since Dolcingo was under their Dominion but they lost it to Selymus II. In the Isles upon the Mediterranean Sea THE Commonwealth has always a Proveditor and two Councellors at Corfeu which she has possessed ever since the year 1382 in despight of all the efforts of the Turks it being one of the Keys of the Golf Corfeu is an Archbishoprick worth 4000 Ducats per annum always supplied by a Noble Venetian and furnishes Venice with 200000 Minots of Salt every year 't is guarded by Sant Ange a Fort thought to be impregnable The Isles of Zephalonia and Zante are Governed each by a Proveditor and three Councellors renewed every two years These three Islands have a General to whom the respective Proveditors are subservient and accountable He is always a Person of eminent Quality and continues in his Command sixteen Months And to the end all these Officers may be kept in their Duty by the fear of a scrutiny the Senat creats every five years three Syndics to visit all the Towns and Forts depending upon the State to hear the Complaints of their Subjects against the Podestats Captains and Proveditors and to inspect their several Administrations like the Inquisitors of Sparta called Thucydides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Persons sent by the Romans incognito into the Provinces to inquire into the Conduct of their Officers whereby the poorer sort who are not able to come with their Complaints to Venice have a way open to revenge themselves at their ease if their Governours have done them any injury It remains now that I speak something of their Principal Military Commands at Sea all of which are executed by Noble Venetians whereas those at Land are given to Strangers for the reasons above-said The Generalissimo or Captain-General at Sea THis General is always a Noble Venetian and Created by the Senat in time of War to
he might have done before with reputation by giving his enemies an example of Modesty and Obedience The Captain-General and the Proveditor are employed as Spies one upon another which producing a reciprocal distrust keeps both to an exactness in their duty and though the Proveditor be inferior the Power is divided in such sort that the second has Authority without Force and the first Force without Authority That is to say one has Power to propose what is to be done and the other to do or not do it as he pleases not much unlike the practice in Rome where the Senat proposed and the People resolved The ordinary Residence of the Proveditor is at Corfeu The General or Governor of the Golf THE State of Venice keeps constantly in the Golf a Squadron of six Galleys and some few Foists to defend the Mouth of it against Pyrats and all Men of War as also to exact the duties upon all Goods that pass that way This General is the ancientest Officer belonging to this State and in that respect has always the Van upon any Engagement at Sea with this prerogative that when-ever it happens there is no Generalissimo he supplies the place before any other Officer till the Senat orders another so that neither the indisposition nor death of the Generalissimo brings any distraction or delay to their Naval Affairs The Office is perpetual but the Officer continues but three years and is always a Gentleman of principal Quality The General of the Galeasses THE Galeasses are a sort of Castles and Fortresses in the Sea in which are commonly 1000 Men and 1000 peeces of Canon The Captains are called Governors always Noble Venetians and Strangers always excluded These Governors own no body but their General but their General receives orders from the Generalissimo And because Victory depends much upon the Conduct and Courage of this Person his Office is always supplied by a man of more than ordinary Experience and Valour There is also a General of the Galions who superintends all the Stores and Ammunition of the Fleet. These two Generals are created only in time of War as is a third Stranger General called General da Debarc who Commands all Souldiers detach'd from the Fleet to make a descent upon Land and after his Commission is executed he brings them back again on Board where nothing remains to him but the Titles of General and Excellence Besides these Generals the Senat entertains two Captains each of them with the Command of four Galleys one Squadron free and called di Buone-Voglie the other of Slaves and called Condemnati All the Galleys are Commanded by young Noblemen of Venice called Sopra Comiti who have full Power over their Souldiers and Seamen but only of death disposing of all inferior Places as they please and this is allowed them to recompence their Levies of Men which they do commonly at their own charge the Commonwealth providing nothing but the Hulk of the Galleys and the Provisions of War and paying the Souldiers no longer than from their coming on Board These are the principal Sea-Officers the Venetians have in pay and they are always chosen out of the Body of their Noblemen but because the chief Care and Charge of these Generals is to defend their Dominion in the Adriatick-Sea known by the name of the Gulf of Venice the Venetian being Master there it will not be amiss if in this place I speak something of that Sea Of the Soveraignty of the Venetians upon the Adriatick-Sea THE State of Venice has been so long Masters of this Sea it would be ridiculous to question their Title They have had possession of it from the very birth of their State whose very Cradle was in the Lakes of this Sea whilst Fishing was their nourishment and the Isles about them their Demesnes Not that the whole Gulf belonged to them from their infancy for they possessed only a small part of the Sea betwixt Ravenna and Aquileia but as they encreased in age and the Emperors quitted their propriety in the Gulf the Venetians began by little and little to extend their Dominion and having droven out the Corsairs who infested it much and disturbed their Navigation the possession became entirely theirs and has belonged to them ever since First by the Law of Nations which gives the propriety of Derelicts that is to say Lands or Goods forsaken and belonging to no body to the first that can occupy them Secondly by the Right of War which the State of Venice maintained 170 years together against the Narantins who disputed their Title and at last submitted in the year 996. Against the Normans with whom they had several Battels in the Pouille against the Genoeses and Pisans who were their Competitors for more than 300 years to which may be added the consent of the Greek Emperors who were so far from complaining at the Venetians pretence that they were very well pleased to see the Narantins their ancient enemies who infested that Sea and had put it often under Contribution so happily subdued by their ancient friends For by that means the Emperors continued in their obedience Istria Dalmatia Albania Pouille Abrazzo with part of Romania which places being before exposed to the pyracies and depredations of the Narantins as lying upon the Adriatick-Sea mutinied and complained of the weakness or negligence of their Emperors remonstrating that without better protection they would find out other Masters who should be more careful of them and doubtless they had done it had not the Venetians undertaken the Guard of the Gulf and chased away the Corsairs who threatned Italy Hungary and several other Provinces in Germany with universal ruine so that the justice of their possession has for several ages been allowed by all the Princes of Europe whose Embassadors are every year accompanying the States at the Ceremony upon Ascension-day when the Doge marries the Sea by throwing into it a Gold-Ring with these words Desponsamus te Mare in signum veri perpetui Dominii Which is never contradicted by any of the Embassadors Some Historians will have it that Pope Alexan-III gave them their first Jurisdiction in recompence of their services done him during the persecutions of Frederick Barbaroussa and in memory of the Victory obtained at Sea against Otho his Son but it is a vulgar mistake confounding the Ceremony of their marrying the Sea first instituted by the Pope with the donation of their Dominion the People taking a solemn declaration of the Venetian Right and a formal recognition of their Title In re jam de facto possessa for an act of Concession by which the said Pope put them into possession of the Gulf. Which could not be for the Pope neither having nor pretending to any Right in the Adriatick-Sea could not transfer to another a thing in which he had no interest himself And this truth is much confirmed by the words of a Pope to Duke Sebastian Ziani
Policy is quite contrary to the Policy of the Pope What is good for the Ecclesiastical State is otherwise for the Civil and if it were not nothing could oblige the Civil State to conform and therefore a Doctrine may be good at Rome that may be pernicious at Venice Vienna Madrid and every where else Wherefore the Pope's approbation cannot devest Princes of their Authority to condemn such Books as are likely if not intended to breed disturbance in their States But the truth is so far are Popes from being lawful Judges of all manner of Books that they have usurped upon Seculars in the very power of suppressing of Heretical Books In the eight first Centuries all Books were examined and censured by the Councils but prohibited by Princes for reason of State The Council of Nice declared the Doctrine of Arius heretical and then Constantine by an Imperial Proclamation prohibited his Books The second Council of Constantinople pronounc'd Eunomius an Heretick and Arcudius the Emperor published an Edict against his Works The third Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius and the Emperor Theodosius commanded his Books to be burned The fourth Council of Calcedon having condemned the Eutycheans the Emperor Martianus published a Decree against their Books Which shews that the prohibition even of heretical Books belongs not so properly to the Ecclesiastical as to the Secular Power for though the Ecclesiasticks may judge whether there be Heresy in a Book it follows not but a Secular Prince may by his Edict forbid that Book that is censured by the Ecclesiasticks and they have no reason to complain that one of St. Peter's Keys is taken from them seeing the prohibition of a Prince gives more force and vigor to their censure As to the Stationer the Senat consents that those who keep or sell Heretical Books be punished by the Inquisition but it suffers not an Inventory of their Books be taken by the Inquisitors that they receive permission to sell them from the Inquisitors nor that they give them an Oath which the Inquisitors have endeavoured many times to obtain as also to insert into their Edicts Commands beyond their power alledging that they pretend not to give an Oath to a Stationer but for things to which their conscience obliges them that is to say not to sell prohibited Books and that by their Edicts they only intend them advertisement of what they ought not to do but these are but cunning pretences for to give an Oath and advertise by Edict though in things that are just to be done are acts of Superiority and Jurisdiction Besides the Edict and Oath are things of that nature that he who transgresses either against the one or the other is worthy of punishment To these the Inquisitors add another reason that seeing they are Judges of Heresy they ought in consequence to judg every thing that relates to it and therefore they have a right to command the Stationers because Heresies are no way more dangerously disseminated than by Books To this the Venetian answers That for Books which contain Heresy the Inquisitors have right to prohibit them and punish the Stationer who sells them but for all other sort of Books the Stationer is not accountable to the Inquisitors nor to bring their Inventories before them For 't is but ill Logick to infer the Inquisition may extend its Authority to all Books because Heresy is often taught in Books for all Books treat not of Faith which is the only subject belonging to that sacred Office and therefore those that treat not in that way fall not under the Jurisdiction of that Court. If the Inquisitors were Judges of all that had reference to Heresy though never so remotely there would not be any Crime nor Error but might become matter for the Inquisition there would be no need of Civil Magistrates and by degrees the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction would worm out the Secular There is but one point in which the Republick of Venice seems to have over-shot her self and that is in having suffered the Popes to send forreign Inquisitors among them when their own Subjects might execute that Office with as much charity and discretion as they who know nothing of the customs and practices of their Country In Spain the Inquisitors are all Spaniards in the Dutchy of Milan the Natives are not excluded and therefore the Venetian in other things so jealous of their Authority in this seems to be in worse condition than the King of Spain Nevertheless if it be considered that the Inquisitors cannot be received into the Towns to which they are sent unless they first present themselves before the Prince for his Letters Patents directed to the Rectors of the place it will be found the danger is not great seeing that if an Inquisitor be not liked the Prince has the remedy in his hands and that is by delaying if not denying his Patent without which his Patent from the Pope is ineffectual Which is a good way of discouraging forreign Monks by making difficulty to receive them and this is a true secret when they please to oblige the Court of Rome to name their Inquisitors out of the Subjects of that State The Inquisitors of Venice hold their Court in the Palace of St. Mark where they meet twice a week Such of the Assistants as have business with the Court of Rome cannot remain in the sacred Office their intelligence there rendring their fidelity suspicious to the State which puts others into their places So the Inquisitors have no capacity to corrupt any of the Assistants because the Office of these Gentlemen ceases that very moment in which they address for any favour from the Pope This is all I have judged necessary to be known relating to the Inquisition at Venice I shall pass now to the true Causes of the decay of this Magnificent Commonwealth A Discourse containing the Chief Causes of the decay of the Venetian Common-Wealth IT has hapned to the Common-wealth of Venice as it hapned anciently to the Commonwealth of Sparta both the one and the other flourished whilst they contented themselves with the little latitude of their own Countries and both began to decline when they had acquired more than they could manage Sparta was Mistress of all the chief Provinces in Greece and no sooner had two Theban Captains rescued their Country from the Dominion of the Lacedemonians but all the other Towns they had conquered followed the Example and revolted The State of Venice grown to be great and formidable in Italy by its prodigious increase and the detriment of the Princes she had over-reach'd lost by one single Battel as she had usurped upon the Terra-firma because her foundations were not sufficient for the weight of so vast an Edifice Which makes it evident that as the health of the Body proceeds not so much from the meat it takes in as from the digestion that is made so the strength of a State consists not in what it gains but
the Bragadins the Contarins the Cornari the Dandoles the Falier's the Gradenigues the Justinians the Memmes called formerly Monegares the Michiels the Morosins the Sannutes or Candians and the Tiepoles There are other Families put in the rank of the Case Vecchi because they follow them next as the Belegnies the Delfins who reckon themselves a branch of the Gradenigues the Quirins the Sagredes the Sorances and the Zens or Zenon Chevalier or as they will have it Cavalieri is a Title proper to such Noblemen as have been Embassadors with Kings from whom they receive a Chain and this Honour at their Audience of Congé I say with Kings because Embassadors to Dukes have not that Prerogative These Chevaliers in the Town wear a Black Stole edged with a Gold Galoon they have a Girdle about their Wasts with gilt Buckles Upon any great Ceremony their Stole is of Cloth of Gold from whence they are called Chevalieri della Stolo d'Oro and their quality is expressed in all Publick Acts by putting a K after their names as Andrea Contareno K. Christofle More In the year 1469 this Duke arriving at Ancona Pope Pius II. sent five Cardinals three miles into the Sea to meet and receive him The Popes Galleys strook when they approached the Venetian Squadron and saluted them with several peeces of Cannon The Duke was complemented in the name of the Pope and harangued by the Magistrates of the Town where Bonefires were made in all the Publick Places The same Night which was the 12th of August the Pope died and the 15th of the same Month the Duke introduced by two Cardinals and attended by two more was carried to Audience in the Sacred Colledg where he took his place next to the Dean which is the usual Place for Kings Relat. M. S. dell ' andata del Doge Chr. Moro in Ancona Colonnes de la Palace S. Marc. are two great Pillars of Marble betwixt which their Criminals are Executed from hence comes their Proverb Guardarti dall ' inter Columnio The Nobles are so superstitious in this point that for a World they would not pass betwixt those Pillars believing if they did they should certainly die there and this Whimsey of theirs is grounded upon what happened in that case to Duke Marin Falier who coming to Venice after his election because the Waters were high not being able to pass under the Pont du Canal de S. Marc he Landed betwixt those two Columnes and came afterwards to be unfortunate but though it might be a presage it could not be the cause of his misfortunes Corne Ducale is a Bonnet with a point rounded behind Sansovin gives the reason why the Duke pulls it not off in these termes La Republica says he Mostra con questo che e l'autorita del Doge limitata e che non puo disponere del dominio a suo piacere The Commonwealth intimates thereby that the Doges Authority is limited and that he cannot dispose of it as he pleases Democracie is a Popular Government as in Holland and Swizzerland There is a sort of Democracie called Ochlocratie when the meaner sort of People have more Power than the substantial Citizens The Government of Venice under their Consuls and Tribunes was rather an Ochlocratie than a Democratie because the Populace had the greatest share in it and from thence proceeded all those disorders and altercations in their Assemblies in which many times after they had baul'd and huffed a good while one against another they fell at length to Cuffs a common thing among those kind of People so that it might rather have been called Chirocratie all things being managed by Violence and Tumult But from the Election of Duke Sebastian Ziani to the Dukeship of Peter Gradenigue the Government of Venice was Democratical with a mixture of Ochlocratie for the Mechanicks had part in it as appears by the speech of Marc. Quirin speaking to Duke Gradenigue where he has these words Questo dose spento da Spirito Diabolico ha vo-giu serrar el Mazor Consiglio e privar qualunque bon Citadin de poter pervenir alla prerogativa de Nobile Veneto donde che Convien seguir un pessimo fatto che cosi come tutti li Cittadini Grandi Mediocri Infimi sono state sempre prontissimi di metter la vita per la Republica nostra cosi essendo stati esclusi sevedera in loro male contentezza c. This devilish Spirit has prevailed so far as to shut up the Grand Council and deprive the substantial Citizens of capacity to arrive at the Prerogative of Noble Venetians a thing of very ill consequence for by this means the Greatest the Middle sort and the Populace all of them ready to lay down their lives for our Country finding themselves excluded nothing but dissatisfaction and discontent will be found in them By Grandi he means the Nobles by Mediocri the Citizens and by Infimi the Populace In my judgment it is clear but if any desires to be satisfied further let them read 5 Chap. du squitinio della liberta Venetia out of which I have taken those words Doria General for the Genoeses The M. S. History of Venice that I quoted before gives us an Answer of this General 's to a Secretary of Venice in these terms Jo non son stato mandato qui dal mio Commun per aver di voi ne del vostro Commun Misericordia alcuna Anzi jo ho Commission da Quello deprivarvi del tutto della vostra Citta come ho fatto de questa meaning the Town of Chiozza e con piu strage non perdonando ad alcun de voi la vita di tal modo che mai piu per alcuno tempo questo nome Venetian sia per alcuna banda visto ne mentionato Pero ritornate a Venetia con si vostri Prigioni for the Venetian Envoy had brought him six or seven Prisoners from the Senat che jo non li voglio perche non passera troppi Giorni che noi veniremo in Venetia e questi e d'altri a mal vostro grado traremo fuor di Prigion cosi detto voltoli le spalle I am not sent hither to have Compassion either of you or your Government My Commission is rather to dispossess you of your own City as I have done of this and with so much severity am I to proceed against you that I am neither to spare any of your lives nor to suffer the very name of Venice to be mentioned hereafter Return therefore with your Prisoners for the Senat of Venice had sent him six or seven Prisoners I will have none of them being resolved e're many days pass to be in Venice my self and in spight of your teeth to deliver them and all the rest that are there and having said so he turned his back upon him and departed This Answer gives us to understand the greatness of the Animosity betwixt the Venetians and Genoeses and the hopes the Genoeses had
Brixiam Bergamum Ravennam Cremam Imperio adjunxi vestro c. Accept good Citizens this Monument of the General Francisco Foscari Great Wars for your safety and honour both at Land and Sea for above thirty years I not only managed but finished with success Your tottering Liberty I sustained and added to your Empire Bressia Bergamo Ravenna Crema c. Yet all these Services and great Actions did not hinder the Venetians from deposing him and putting another in his place before he died of which he was too passionatly sensible to live many days after so that his Funeral had this extraordinary to be honoured with the presence of another Duke a thing seldom known in Venice Francisco Morosini was accused by the Avogador Antonio Corraro of having surrendered Candia without Order from the Senat and of having made a dishonourable Peace that he called in his speech Pace mostruosa conclusa senz ' autorita sentita con amarezza Pace senza cantare Te Deum An abominable Peace concluded without Authority and received without Joy a Peace uncapable of a Te Deum By virtue of which the said Avogador moved that he might be suspended from the Procuratorship till he had cleared himself of his Charge But Morosini was defended by the Chevalier John Sagredi and the Senator Michael Foscharini Sagrede in an Oration in his behalf said That Corraro imitated the Gentiles who Sacrificed to their Gods innocent Victims for the Graces they received from them for being honoured with the Office of an Avogador he in acknowledgment would Sacrifice an innocent Citizen who with his Sword in his hand had defended his Country for the space of 26 years That it was hard to suspend him his Procuratorship now after he had possessed it peaceably 14 Months That he should have opposed himself against the resolution of the Grand-Council when it was given him But having consented then to his election it was unjust to dispossess him now before he was convicted a Criminal Concluding with the Example of the Jews who never medled with the Garment of Jesus Christ till after he was Crucified Eli Ebrei said he volsero serbare gli ordini della giustitia Lo condussero inanzi a Giudici lo presentacono a Caifus a Pilato e vero che lo spoglianno della Veste e se la divisero ma non gliela levarono si non doppo Crocefisso The Jews observing the due methods of Justice carried him into the Judgment Hall presented him before Caiphas and Pilat and though they stripped him and divided his Garment they did not do it till after he was Crucified Corraro replying in the next Counsil flew out into such invectives against Sagredi that he called him Poisoned-tongue telling him he was like the Roman Orator who was esteemed more Eloquent than Honest Prosperiore Eloquentiae quam Morum fama Tac. Ann. 4. which had like to have put all the great Families into Parties and the whole Commonwealth into a flame had not the Senat with great dexterity nipt their Animosity in the Bud by Commanding the Avogador to desist in his Prosecution For there is nothing the Senat fears more than dissension among the Nobility as being perswaded the Neighbouring Princes would propagate it with design to oppress both parties in the conclusion as it happened to the Seleucians and the Rhodians Vbi dissensore says Tacitus accitus in partem adursus omnes valescit Besides this there is an example of the Veronois now subject to the Venetian who lost their liberty by a Quarrel betwixt the Monticoli and the Crescences who were Gibilnes and against S. Boniface who was a Guelfe Ghiarra d'Adda is a Country in Milan betwixt the Rivers Adda and Serio and the Mountains of Bergamo Paul Merula calls it Insula Fulcheria because it resembles an Isle It was delivered to the Venetians upon a League into which they entred against Lewis XII Gradisque is a place of importance in Sclavonia that was for some time in possession of the Venetians but since returned to the Emperour the Venetians have oft attempted to retake it upon pretence of driving the Corsairs out of the Gulf. Interdicts de Venice The Commonwealth of Venice has been five times Interdicted First upon score of the Church of St. Geminian which they had pulled down without the Popes permission to inlarge the Place Saint Marc. I could not understand the precise time but 't is certain for that reason the Senat goes every year the next Sunday after Easter to visit the said Church which they have rebuilt at the end of the Palace renewing every time their promise to rebuild it in the ancient place but that is only a formality Their next Excommunication was for Invading Ferrara which Pope Clement V. would have had and to take off this Excommunication Francis Dandoli the Venetian Embassador threw himself at the Popes Feet loaden with Chains and Irons like a Thief and a Slave by which means he prevailed for their Absolution This shews how much they formerly apprehended the censures of the Church But the Venetians now-a-days are not so tender since they have considered that the Popes make use of their Spiritual Arms upon Temporal occasions a thing that of late years have rendered their censures very contemptible Haec poena ex quo Romani Pontifices dirarum prodigi fuere minus virium habuit Pap. Masson Besides the Venetian is now better instructed in the force of the Ecclesiastical Laws and of the independance of the Temporal Power Their third Excommunication was by Sixtus IV. who grown jealous of their proceedings was forced to Excommunicate them and joyn with the other Princes of Italy to make them give over the Siege of Ferrara Julius II. Excommunicated them the fourth time to compel them to the restitution of Rimini and Faenza to the Church and it answered his design Their last Excommunication was by Paul V. in the year 1605 upon the Imprisonment of two Ecclesiasticks and for some Edicts of their Senat which he pretended were contrary to the liberty and immunities of the Church but it was done with so little success and satisfaction that since that time the Popes have been very cautious of renewing those kind of quarrels as serving only to insense the Princes against them and lessen their Veneration for the Court of Rome Lion Venetien Venice bears Azure a Lion sedant aile d'Or holding an open Book Argent in his Foot the Lion is Sedant to shew the Venetians are peaceable and deliberative sitting being the posture of Men in Council as also to signify they know how to prevail by address and cunning as well as Fighting like the Romans of whom it was said Romanus sedendo vincit It has Wings to imitate its promptitude and readiness to execute what is maturely deliberated Upon discourse about the Wings of the Lion an Embassador from the Emperour asked Where those Winged-Lions were to be found The Doge replied In the same Countrey