The end of Mantua's golden age
Duke Vincenzo I of Mantua, the source goes on, was brave in battle and bold in politics, but he wore himself out with war and a dissolute life, and died in 1612 at fifty. His three sons ruled in turn. The last of them, Vincenzo II, left no heir, and the rivalry of France, Austria and Spain over his succession turned the duchy into a ruinous battlefield (1628 to 1631) that almost wiped Mantua from the stage of history.
Verona and Vicenza
Verona had no culture of its own in this period and was content with its Renaissance. In Vicenza, Palladio's classical facades gave Christopher Wren a model. Scamozzi completed Palladio's Teatro Olimpico and drew the plan of the Palazzo Trissino-Baston. He had a particular eye for ornament and used it in decorating Palladio's work, so that he may be thought of as a living bridge between the classical and the baroque.
Venice, queen of the Adriatic
The queen of the Adriatic, like ancient Rome, had a long and magnificent decline. Venice lost its trade with India to Portugal and in time met the competition of the Dutch. It also suffered from the sea power of Ottoman Turkey. Its navy and admirals were important in the victory over the Turks at Lepanto (1571), yet within months it gave Cyprus up to them, and from then on Venice's trade with the eastern Mediterranean depended on Turkish permission and terms. Venice fought stubbornly to change that, and by dealing at Aleppo with the caravans that came from Central Asia it made up in part for the loss of its seaborne trade with the East. Its ships still dominated the Adriatic, and it shared in the slave trade, which in this period was a shame to Portugal, Spain and England as well. The lands subject to Venice, Vicenza, Verona, Trieste, Trento, Aquileia and Padua, advanced economically but lost population. Venetian workshops were skilled at glass, silk, lace and luxury art objects. The Rialto Bank, set up in 1587 after the closing of many private banks, put the state's power at the service of finance and inspired similar institutions in Nuremberg, Hamburg and Amsterdam. Travelers marveled at the beauty of its buildings, its women, the cleanliness of its streets and the lasting stability of its government.
Its foreign policy rested on keeping a balance of power between France and Spain, so that if Venice grew weak neither would destroy the republic. That is why Venice, to strengthen a France torn by civil wars, recognized Henry IV's kingship. In 1616 (a date given by the source; the plot is usually placed in 1618) the Spanish viceroy of Naples, the Duke of Osuna, plotted with Spain's ambassador in Venice to overthrow the Venetian Senate and attach the republic to Spain. Philip III, as governments of the day did, approved but ordered Osuna to act so that no one would know it was done with his knowledge, and to pretend he was acting without his government's orders. Venice, which had the best spies in Europe, uncovered the plot and arrested the local conspirators, who were punished so publicly that the city drew the right lesson.
The quarrel with the papacy
This calm and dignified rule of the great families, which gave every sect freedom of worship and traded with all of them, took a strikingly independent line toward the papacy. It taxed the clergy, made them subject to civil law, and ordered that no new shrine or convent be built, and no plot of land be left to the Church, without its consent. A group of statesmen led by Leonardo Donato and Nicolo Contarini opposed in particular the popes' claims in worldly affairs. In 1605 Camillo Borghese became pope as Paul V (the source twice slips and calls him Paul VII). The next year Donato was chosen Doge of Venice. The two had been friends while Donato was Venice's envoy in Rome, but now they became enemies in a struggle between Church and state, reviving after five centuries the memory of the struggle between Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV. When Paul learned that the intellectual leader of the anti-papal party in Venice was a Servite friar named Paolo Sarpi, he was gravely alarmed.
Paolo Sarpi
In Molmenti's words, Sarpi was 'one of the greatest minds Venice ever nurtured.' The son of a merchant, he joined the Servite order at thirteen and threw himself into study with zest. At eighteen, in a public disputation at Mantua, he defended 318 propositions so well that the duke made him court theologian. At twenty-two he took priest's orders and became a professor of philosophy, and at twenty-seven his order chose him as its representative to the Venetian Republic. He also wrote scientific treatises, now lost, and took part in the research and experiments of Fabricius ab Aquapendente and Giambattista della Porta, the latter of whom said he had never met a man greater or keener in knowledge. Perhaps it was these secular studies that shook Sarpi's faith. He took several Protestants as friends. In return, members of the Venetian Inquisition, the body that soon arrested Giordano Bruno, slandered him. The Senate three times named Sarpi for a bishopric, and three times the Vatican refused him. The memory of those insults deepened his hostility toward Rome.
The Interdict of 1606
In 1605 the Senate arrested two priests and convicted them of grave crimes. Pope Paul V ordered them handed over to Church authorities, and he demanded the repeal of the new laws against churches, convents and religious orders, but the Venetian nobles politely refused. The pope told the Doge, the nobles and the Senate to declare their assent to his wishes within twenty-seven days (the book's figure).
The Venetians chose Sarpi as their adviser. Arguing that the pope's power extended only to spiritual matters, he advised them to resist, and the Senate adopted his view. In May 1606 the pope excommunicated Donato and the Venetian nobles and forbade all religious services in the republic. The Doge ordered the priests to ignore the pope's decree and carry on with their duties. All of them obeyed, apart from the Jesuits, Theatines and Capuchins. The Jesuits, who by their rule were bound to obey the popes, left Venice together, though the nobles had told them that if they did so they would never be allowed back. Meanwhile Sarpi published tracts answering Cardinal Bellarmine, reduced the pope's claims, and argued the superiority of general councils over popes.
Paul V appealed to Spain and France. But Spain had often rejected papal decrees, and Henry IV of France was grateful to Venice. Even so, Henry sent a wise cardinal, de Joyeuse, to Venice, and he found ways of saving appearances. The two priests were handed to the French ambassador, who sent them to Rome. The Senate refused to repeal the contested laws but, in the hope of papal help against the Ottoman Turks, promised that 'the republic would live in its customary piety.' The pope gave up his objections, and de Joyeuse asked pardon for those who had been excommunicated. One Catholic historian says that because Paul V's claims were too medieval, they were not accepted. It was the last time a whole people was placed under excommunication.
Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent
On 5 October 1607 some assassins attacked Sarpi and wounded him. They thought they had killed him, but he recovered. He is said to have made a neat joke, remarking that he knew the 'style' of the Roman court. His attackers took refuge in the Papal States and were praised. From then on Sarpi lived quietly in his convent and said Mass every day, but his pen was not idle. In 1619, under a pseudonym and through a London company, he published The History of the Council of Trent, a massive indictment of that council. In it he described the Reformation from the Protestant point of view and criticized the council for yielding to the popes' orders and for blocking reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants. Protestants spoke of the book with great enthusiasm, and Milton called him a great writer who had torn the mask from certain faces. The Jesuits commissioned a learned member of their order, Sforza Pallavicino, to write a history against it (1656 to 1664). In it he pointed out Sarpi's prejudices and errors, though he was himself no less prejudiced. Both books, 'not free of bias' as they are, count as a force in the gathering and use of original sources. Sarpi's detailed narrative has a dangerous charm, because its matter is set out with fiery eloquence. In calling for a complete separation of state and church, he showed himself far ahead of his contemporaries.