the death of Duke Francis Erizza ordaining that no Duke should be chosen General at Land nor at Sea nor any of their Brothers or Children during their Dukeship Which serv'd to confirm the report at that time that the Senat having found the danger they had pulled upon themselves by the large Power they had given to Duke Erizza had poisoned him as he was ready to depart The Kings of Sparta had power to dismiss the Embassadors of their Enemies or Allies with positive Answers The Doges cannot resolve any thing upon their own heads nor answer any of the Propositions or Demands of Forreign Ministers as I have said before The Kings of Sparta could by their own Authority commence continue or determine a War reserving to themselves the Soveraign Command whilst it lasted The Doges can neither begin protract nor conclude it The Kings of Sparta could abrogate old Laws and establish new but the Doge of Venice cannot alter a syllable of what is decreed by the Grand Council and the Senat. In a word the Republick of Venice not only detains their Dukes Prisoners in their Palace encompass'd with Spies and Informers destitute of common divertisements and divested of all the Authority of Princes but it daily retrenches their Priviledges to vilifie them the more Formerly the Presents sent them from the Levant or other Countries where it was the Custom to send them by their Embassadors belong'd to the Dukes In the 1668 the Muscovite Embassadors in their return from France passing by Venice where they had something to negotiate for the interest of their Master presented the Doge to the value of Ten or Twelve Thousand Crowns in Sables and other Furrs The Procurator Andreas Contarin a Sage-Grand nearly related to the Duke of that Name but a mortal Enemy to the Procurator his Son who had made himself odious to all the Nobles by his abominable avarice remonstrated to the Grand Council That the Presents of the Muscovites ought not to be appropriated to the Doge for he being no Soveraign neither the Embassadors nor Presents were sent to him any more than he sent their Embassadors Adding That when their Embassadors carried Presents to Constantinople it was not at the charge of the Doge and therefore it was not reasonable that he should have the profit of what belong'd in Justice to the Publick which defrayed the charge of the Embassadors And the business coming to a debate it was solemnly decreed that for the future the Doge and his Successors should be deprived of that ancient advantage When the Doge appears in any publick Procession or Ceremony he is magnificently cloathed sometimes in Cloth of Gold sometimes in Cloth of Silver and sometimes in Scarlet with the Ducal-Corne upon his head the ushers of his houshold marching before him and two of them carrying his Train The Captain-Grand marches likewise before him with his Officers the Secretaries of the Pregadi and Grand-Chancellor with the Golden-Stole and after him follows the Senat. In this Equipage he draws the Eyes and forces Veneration from the People who are always taken with the outward tokens of Grandure But it is to be observed the Senat follows not in addition to his Honor but to participate of what is given him where-ever he goes believing that if the Duke should receive it alone he would appear a Soveraign to the People and to such strangers as were present The Venetians like not that their Duke should have too much parts they believe that would make him less tractable and give him a Confidence in himself They had rather have a person of moderate qualifications who is capable of their affairs but governable by them and easily held to his duty Besides the Senat where he has but a single voice like another Nobleman supplies the defects of his understanding And therefore Duke John Pesaro was no proper man for them because he knew too much himself to be perswaded by other people whom for the most part he drew to his opinion by the strength of his arguments as in the business for the reestablishment of the Jesuites Nor indeed is it necessary a Prince in a Republick having nothing but the bare name and being but the shadow of the Senat should have too large and capacious an Intellect seeing he is to do nothing of himself and therefore it was the Thebans pictured their Prince with his Ears open and his Eyes shut to signifie it was not his Office to see or determine what was to be done but to hear and execute blindly what was concluded by the Senat. They make him Duke for his life to render him more Majestick and like to the Crowned Heads among whom they are willing he should be reckoned as also to coax him for the little Power he has by the Duration of his Dignity but they choose him always antient that other pretenders may have hopes to succeed Besides old age wanting the Vigor of youth is not so bold and undertaking They are very glad when their Dukes are rich that they may adorn their dignity and be an ornament to the Publick which allows them not above 12000 Crowns per annum half of which is spent in his four annual Feasts To which may be added the charge of his entrance which is never well celebrated but by large Gifts to the people thrown among them in Silver in the Palace of St. Mark a Custom first introduced by Duke Sebastian Ziani So that if they have any touch of Generosity and Magnificence they do often incommode if not ruine their Families And that is it the Senat desires having perhaps no other design in exempting their Children from the penalty of their Sumptuary Laws The Administration of their Dukes is looked into after their deaths by three Inquisitors and five Correctors created on purpose who always find that either the Duke has abused his Authority some more some less or neglected the Publick affairs for the advancement of his Private or else that he has not lived according to his quality And this canvasing of his Conduct is commonly followed by the condemnation of his Heir in some Pecuniary Mulct so that their Children cannot enjoy their Inheritance till they have obliged themselves by Oath to pay what Imposition shall be laid upon them Thus was the Family of the Duke Peter Loredan charged with a Fine of 1500 Sequins because the Father had lived too narrowly in his Dukeship In my time they found the like fault with their Duke who besides his own parsimony had a Son who took what-ever he could lay his hands upon as if to make amends for the old age of his Father which appeared the worse because the people had been accustomed to the Magnificence of his Predecessors the Dukes Valier and Pesaro In a word the fear of this Inspection into their Management makes the Dukes and their Children cautions what they do and shuts the door against all their oppression and
and elation of their young men who are naturally ambitious by calling them gravely and in good time to those preferments as Tiberius said to the Senat of Rome IV. The Noblemen cannot hold many Offices at a time how small or inconsiderable soever they be by which means the Publick is better serv'd and more of them are employed But it is lawful to quit one Office for a better if he be chosen to it though in his first Office his time be not expir'd V. Those Noblemen who refuse any Office to which they are chosen are obliged to pay a Fine of 2000 Ducats to the Publick so that even their disobedience in some measure turns to accompt after which they are to absent themselves for two years from the Graud Council and the Broglio which is little better than an Exile VI. 'T is forbidden to joy a new Officer upon his Election to prevent flattery which is too frequent in those occasions and to keep the Noblemen in such a modesty as is convenient for Citizens of that Common-wealth But in this Law there is an exception for the Duke and Procurators of St. Mark in respect of the great merit of such as are advanc'd to those eminent Dignities VII The Magistrates in Venice and upon the Continent cannot lay down their Authority though their time be expir'd till the Grand Council has appointed their Successors They cannot be absent from their Charges without permission from the Seigniory which will hardly be granted but upon very good cause so that the Publick service is seldom interrupted but in case of the sickness of an Officer 't is otherwise for if they see 't is like to be chronical others are immediately substituted in their place And if it happens to any of the Rettori of the Towns the Captain executes for the Podesta or the Podesta for the Captain and in case both be sick some other Noble Venetian in Office upon the place till upon notice the Seigniory supplies them by which means there happens no delay in their Affairs and no contradiction of Orders VIII The Noblemen who are Knights of Malta have no more part of the Government than if they were no Noblemen because that Dignity subjects them to the Laws and Statutes of a Forreign Prince so that ordinarily there are but two Gentlemen Venetians of that Order one of the House of Carnarro and the other of the House of the Lippomade and that to preserve two considerable Commands the first the Government of Trevisa with the Title of Grand Commander of Cyprus and the other of Conillan in the Marches of Trevisan IX It is forbidden to the Nobles to receive Presents or Pensions from Forreign Princes as also to purchase Lands under their Dominions upon penalty of degradation from their Nobility confiscation of their Estates and Banishment which is the true way of obliging them to the common Defence of their Countrey where all their Estates and all their Hopes do lie whereas if they were suffered to have their solid Establishment elsewhere they would many times betray the Publick Interest in Complacency to those Princes in whose Territories their Estates lay which in time might be a prejudice if not subversion to the whole Government And it was by this means the Republick of Genoa subjected it self to the King of Spain who knew well enough to make his advantage of the foolish ambition those Nobles had for Authority and Jurisdiction in the Kingdom of Naples not suffering them to dispose of them but to others of their own Countrey to the end that they might preserve their Dominion over them and oblige them in perpetual Servitude X. The Nobles are not permitted to purchase Fiefs or Lordships upon the Terra-firma that there might be neither superiority nor dependance to destroy the Equality among them Besides it would occasion jealousie and disorder betwixt the ancient Nobility that are poor and the new who being generally rich would in time buy the whole Terra-firma Formerly they were not allowed Houses of Pleasure upon the Continent but of late that has been indulg'd so that in Venice 't is quite otherwise than in Genoa where particular Persons are rich but the Government poor but here private Persons are poor and the Publick wealthy having the Propriety of all the Lands as in the Republick of Rome XI The Noblemen are not suffered to marry with Strangers nor their Daughters to the Subjects of another Prince though they be Gentlemen and the design thereby is to preserve their Riches among themselves which otherwise would be insensibly transported by those Marriages and to stop the ambitious carreer of the ancient Nobility who by Marrying with Forreign Princes would by degrees come to despise all Matches at home and lastly to deprive those Families of a retreat to those Princes with whom they are allied which would render them more bold in Enterprizing against their Country as being not easily contented with the Parity there Moreover it would be almost impossible to keep any thing secret in a Senat Constituted of such Nobles as were under forreign Alliance which would beget new factions and divisions at home But they may marry their Daughters to such Gentlemen of the Terra-firma as thereby become better-affected to the Venetian Nobility whose protection they are willing to purchase The Law suffers the Nobility to marry with Citizens to fortify their Party against the Populace in case they should mutiny against them thereby not so much communicating as corroborating their Power by uniting with the Citizens as with a Body capable with the Nobility to resist any Effort of the multitude By this means likewise the Nobles that are poor do sometimes marry advantageously there being no rich Citizen but is very ready to embrace an Alliance with a Noble Venetian it being an honour and protection to his whole Family And in this the Seigniory is not without a peculiar interest for these sorts of Marriages do put the Nobles into a condition of serving the Publick in Embassies and other expensive employments Not but that sometimes the Nobles who marry these Citizens Daughters grow contemptible to the People who do frequently call their Children Amphibia And yet 't is every day to be seen in Venice Noblemen of the last impression do marry Ladies of the first the first purchasing their Wives the latter their Husbands But when a Nobleman marries a Citizen his Contract must pass the approbation of the Grand Council otherwise their Children cannot pass for Noble Venetians By Citizens are meant the Secretaries of State Advocates Notaries Physicians Mercers Drapers Glass-makers c. And if a Nobleman marries out of this Category his Children are ignoble and degenerate into Citizens As appear'd in the Case of the Procurator John Baptisto Cornero Piscopia who during the War in Candia was glad to purchase Nobility for two of his Children because their Mother was Daughter to a Gondolier XII There is no Eldership or Seniority among
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
Religious to assist at Processions The same Duke replyed immediately that So far were the Senat from Enterprizing any thing against the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that the Pope invaded theirs by concerning himself and disgusting that the said Senat should Command their own Subjects as they pleased That the Senat could not Revoke what they so justly had Ordained that he did not think it an encroachment upon the Priviledges of the Religious who were as much under the Protection of their Government as the rest to oblige them to publick Offices as Processions c. in which Bishops Patriarchs and Cardinals themselves are every day assistant and at last he told him the Pope 's Orders for Priviledg were good in the Lands of the Church but not at Venice where his Holiness had no more right to Command than the Senat had at Rome These two Answers were generally lik'd because they were as they ought to be and the second seemed approv'd even at Rome for the Nunt io not being with the Senat in the first Procession of the Religious upon St. Justin's-day because he would not countenance that Novelty with his presence not long after he received Orders to be present at all the rest to the astonishment of all the World which rather expected from his Holiness some demonstration of displeasure and resentment against that State As to the Offices performed by Embassadors to the Colledg to signify the joy or affection of their Masters the Doge in those cases has liberty to say as he pleases those sort of Answers being only Complemental and draw no ill consequence after them The Answer of Duke Andreas Gritti to the Embassador of the Emperor Charles the Fifth upon the taking Francis I. prisoner is very remarkable The Embassador coming to the Colledg full mouth with the news of his Master's Victory just as the Bishop of Baieux the French Embassor was gone out the Duke who before had to the said Prelate been condoling the misfortune of the King replyed with excellent temper and suitable to a Prince who scorn'd to equivocate That the Republick of Venice being equally in Amity with both the said Crowns could not have an equal concernment for both their interests and according to St. Paul 's counsel rejoyce with those who rejoyce and mourn with those who mourn The Doge being chief in all Councils 't is his right to propose every thing to all the Principal Magistrates he proposes all business of importance to the Grand Council in which he has a double Voice to the Pregadi as the Sages-Grans the Council of Ten as the three Capi-Dieci in which he is something more than the President of the Senat among the Romans who never sate but in the Senat. The Credentials of all Embassadors sent by this State to Forreign Courts are writ in his Name the Senat allowing him that appearance of Sovereignty to render him the more Venerable abroad Yet those Letters are not sign'd by his hand because 't is not he who sends the Embassadors but the Senat which for that reason causes them to be sign'd by one of the Secretaries and seal'd with the Arms of the State And though these Embassadors when they are abroad direct all their Letters and Dispatches to the Duke he cannot open them but in presence of the Council who quite contrary may open them without him All Money is coined in his Name which seems another token of his Soveraignty and they are call'd Ducats as much as to say Money coined by the Duke Yet the Money cannot be properly his Coin as bearing neither his Image nor Arms which are the essential conditions of Coin And if there be the picture of the Duke upon his knees before St. Mark and putting a Standard into his hand the humility of that posture cannot be interpreted to signifie the Regency of the Duke but that is not the Duke only a man in Ducal Ornaments representing only the chief Magistrate of that Commonwealth in general 'T is true Duke Nicholas Iron caus'd pieces of Silver to be stamped with his Image and they were upon that score called Irons But this can be no President for the said Duke did it by consent of the Senat to stop the current of false Money which was then too common in Venice and this appeared by his Epitaph Fraudatam pecuniam viva illius Effigie Resp resignavit And the Dukes Nicolas Marcel and Peter Moccenigo who next succeeded him had not that priviledg though there are pieces of Silver still to be seen inscrib'd with their Names And though Cardinal Contarini and Jannot seem to affirm the contrary in these words Nummi luduntur cum facie ac nomine Principis that may easily be understood a general picture both the said Authors correcting themselves afterwards by leaving out the word facie in every place else I say those Dukes who otherwise have governed Monarchically have not stamped any Money but according to the Coin of that Prince upon whom they depended as appears by the Medal of Lewis le Debonnaire that Monsieur Retan Councellor in Parliament caus'd to be graven where on one side is to be seen H. Ludovicus Imp. and on the reverse Venecia The Name of the Doge is likewise upon all the Medals and Chains of Gold the Senat gives to their Embassadors or chief Officers at War but under his Name are always these two Letters S. C. for Senatus Consulto importing that it is not the Duke but the Senat that gratifies them Nor is it the Duke who Publishes the Edicts though they begin always with this form Il Serenissimo Principe fa sapere for that belongs not to him for if the Publication was by his Authority it would be expresly in his Name as it is in the Name of all Soveraign Princes In short at his entrance into any of the Courts or Counsels all the Magistrates rise and salute him but he never rises nor pulls off his Hat to any man In which he exceeded the Kings of Sparta for whom the Ephori never stirred Omnes e sedibus suis Regibus assuegunt Exceptis Ephoris qui e sellis se Ephoricis non levant Xenoph. de Rep. Laced When forreign Embassadors are admitted to Audience he rises but does not uncover because say the Venetians the Corne-Ducale upon his head is a Symbol of Soveraignty and the absolute Dominion of that State And the Duke being no Soveraign cannot pull it off as he pleases But when he has nothing on but his Red-Gown he may do as he thinks fit The Duke has under his Ducal Bonnet a Coyfe of white Linnen in fashion of a Diadem like the Headband which the Conservators of their Laws wore at Athens during their Office Because 't is the Dukes business to look the Laws be put in execution by doing that first which all the Nobles are obliged particularly to do In this quality it is he goes every month to visit the Courts of S. Mark exhorting
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