Proclamations do assume the Title of Eccelso to shew the Grandure and Puissance of their Dignity Of the Quaranties THere are Three Courts in Venice called Quaranties because each of them consists of Forty Members The first is the New quarentie-Quarentie-Civil to which an Appeal lies in all Civil Causes from the Sentence of all Magistrates abroad The Second is the old quarantie-Quarantie-Civil that Judges in all Appeals from the inferiour Magistrates in the City The Third is the Quarantie-Criminel which Judges in all Criminal matters except Treason which belongs properly to the Council of Ten. These Three Courts are each of them considerable but the last is of greater reputation than the other two because all its Members have deliberative Voices in the Senat. Because their Capi have place in the Colledg among the Councellors di Sopra and because it is called the Serenissimo Seignoria like the Assembly of the Colledg their three Councellors presiding there in the name of the Seigniory Besides this Court is the Parliament of all the Subjects of that State as the Council of Ten is of the Nobles Eight Months is the time they remain in either of these Quaranties and the first step being to the New Quarantie the next is to the Old and the third to the Criminel The two Quaranties-Civil consist only of the poorer Nobility for the richer sort will not have patience to attend sixteen Months to gain a Ducat by their Place and therefore they aspire to enter at first into the Quarantie-Criminel at least into the Old Quarantie one or perhaps two Months before it concludes to the end they may pass presently to the Quarantie-Criminel and have Voices in the Pregadi To each of these Courts there being two Contradictors or Advocates who undertake the Causes of the Defendants and manage them against the Avogadors especially in Criminal matters where all their Art and Rhetorick is shewn in the behalf of the Person accused And here it is to be observed that inferior Judges cannot be called to the Old Quarantie-Civil without the advice and consent of three Auditori Vecchi nor to the New Quarantie-Civil but by permission of the Auditori Novi For if these Auditors confirm the Sentence of the inferiour Magistrate the business cannot be carried up into a higher Court without deposing a certain Sum of Money besides paying the Fees There have been admitted into the Senat forty of the Judges Criminel who are commonly Gentlemen of the second and third Form to balance the ancient Nobility against whom they usually unite by reason of the animosity they bear them But many times that is an impediment to their affairs The Chiefs of these Quaranties change every two Months It belongs to them to appoint the time for hearing a Cause which they call dar il pendere or dar il Consiglio alle Cause But in the two quaranties-Quaranties-Civil Priviledg'd Causes are first to be dispatched and those next who are brought in by the Auditors in order according to the Roll. Those Causes are called Priviledg'd which are betwixt Father and Son Mother and Daughter or Brother and Brother as also the Causes of the Avogadori which are called Cause Avogadoresche The Causes of Prisoners and Pupils under the Tutilage of the Procurators of St. Mark 'T is not lawful to solicit these Judges either in Person or by Proxy All that can lawfully be done in the Quaranties-Civil is to Petition those Chiefs to bring the business to a speedy Hearing But in the Quarantie-Criminel it is lawful to employ all the interest and importunity of ones Friends Let us now pass to the inferior Magistrates of the City Of the three Avogadors THE Avogadors were instituted under Duke Orie Malipierre about the year 1180 and are in France called Avocats General but with this difference in France they speak finally after the Counsel for the Plaintiff has spoken and at Venice the Avogadors speak first and open the Accusation after which the Counsel for the Defendant replies The principal duty of an Avogador is to see the Laws observed and to proceed rigorously against those who transgress them as also to oppose the Deliberations of all the other Magistrates In which they resemble the ancient Tribunes of the People in Rome who as Aulus Gellius reports had not the power of Judging but of interposing their Authority in defence of the Rights and Priviledges of the People against the Authority of the Magistrates not excepting even the Dictators Gaspar Contarin tells us they may be called Tribunes of the Law because they are the Conservators of that as the Roman Tribunes were of the Liberties of the People The difference betwixt the Tribunes and the Avogadors is this that the Tribunes were Creatures only of the People the Avogadors of the Commonwealth in general and are therefore called Avogadori di Commune They remove all Process whether they please those which are of no great consequence to the Quarantie Criminel others to the Senat or Grand Council according to the quality of the Cause The Quarantie Criminel cannot refuse them when they desire to be heard by reason of a peculiar Priviledg and therefore when an Avogador presses all other business must be laid aside Sometimes they carry their Civil Affairs before the Colledg as when Controversy is about Fiefs or Lands depending upon any Manor which they would reunite to the Demeasns as it hapned in the year 1670 about Lands which the Avogadors of Brescia alledged belonged in Propriety to them In all Debates and Deliberations either of the Grand Council or Senat it is necessary at least one Avogador be present if not their Resolutions are void and of none effect The good or ill Administration of Justice depends upon these Avogadors it being their work to frame and prepare all Processes brought into Court and if they be ill men as happens too oft 't is in their power to do a great deal of mischief There are always grave and austere men chosen into these Offices to give the People greater awe and veneration for the Laws and to oblige them to greater severity the Law gives these Avogadors a considerable share in all Confiscations One Theodore Balbi who had narrowly escaped the Accusations of his enemies in the Council of Ten was made an Avogador not long after his discharge meerly out of an opinion that he would use the same severity towards other People that he had experimented himself and he answered their expectation When the Quarantie-Criminel judges a Person the Avogador who brings in the Process has no deliberative Voice in respect that he is the Accuser but he has power to propose the ridgest punishment he pleases after which the three Presidents of the Assembly propose another more moderate and both opinions being put to the Balot plurality of Voices carry it When the Grand Council makes any new Order that the Avogadors judg prejudicial to the Publick or any ways incompatible with the Laws of the
the Nobles which Law agrees very well with the Form of that Government and prevents disorders that quickly would happen If younger Brothers who have equal share in the Civil Administration should find themselves inferior to their Elder Brothers in respect of their Estates many of them would turn Enemies to their Country and as occasion offer'd stir up and agitate ill humours in the State Besides that particular persons would in time become too considerable and potent For this Cause the Seigniory at one time obliged three Brothers of the House of Cornaro to marry under penalty of Banishment and confiscation of their Estates which was computed at more than 100000 Crowns per ann which in those days was a prodigious Revenue And last of all this Equality of division renders them all capable of serving the Publick whereas if the Eldest went away with the whole the State would be depriv'd of the service of the Nobility who being Younger Brothers would be useless by reason of their poverty Nor does this way of partage or division hinder the Greatness of their Families seeing for the most part all the Brothers live together and but one of them marries and that is commonly the youngest for whom the other are contented to scrape and to spare especially if he be a man of Compliance XIII All the Noblemen without excepting the Duke himself are liable to Publick Charge during the War and each of them pays according to his Revenue as anciently in Sparta where the Kings and Senat were tax'd as the People who thereby were made more obedient to the Nobility and the Nobility more moderate and just XIV The Magistrates who judg in Civil Causes are not allow'd to receive Visits from either of the Parties nor any Recommendation from their Friends under penalty of Degradation and a Fine But in Criminal Affairs solicitations are allow'd unless in matters of State Their reason is because in Civil Affairs it would endanger the justice of a Cause to allow such application to the Judges But in Criminal Causes all ways are left open for the defence of the Accused and for the compassion of their Friends so that at Venice if a man's Cause be not bad indeed he may easily get off XV. A Nobleman may Plead at the Bar like an Advocate without diminution to his Quality About 200 years since all their Advocates were Noblemen appointed by the Grand Council to the number of 24 and had all of them allowance from the Publick being forbidden to take Presents or Mony that the nobleness of the Profession might not be sullied by so ignoble a Custom and that in all Processes it might be their interest to give a dispatch But this is now quite laid aside there being scarce any of the Nobility that will give themselves that trouble any more than to read Law publickly at Padua as formerly was done by the Patricians who were so far from thinking it derogatory that they made it their principal glory But since this virtuous Emulation ceased among them we have found debauchery and ignorance succeed to the great prejudice of that State XVI The Noblemen are oblig'd in the Councils to make use of the Venetian Language to avoid the envy of such of the Nobility as understanding no other cannot endure a better and therefore there has many times been clapping of hands and crying out to hold in full Council when any of them has but begun to speak Latin so wild are they in Commonwealths and so odious is Novelty 'T is true in Venice it is necessary all Gentlemen speak the same Language especially in Council lest otherwise many of them might be discouraged from speaking their minds out of a modest diffidence they should not deliver themselves as well as others But if a man be Eloquent his best way is to dissemble it as a Swiss Deputy did when sent to Cecinna otherwise the aversion of his Auditors will work more upon them than the Orator's Arguments XVII All sort of Correspondence with Embassadors or Forreign Ministers is forbidden to the Noblemen upon pain of Death by which means the transactions of the Senat are conceal'd which otherwise would be no hard matter among so many Gentlemen to pick out by Conversation and Presents witness the Example of Cornaro whose fidelity was corrupted by the Marquess de la Fuente's Bills of Exchange For this reason the Emperor Claudius forbid such of the Patricians to enter the Senat as had not wherewithal to maintain their Dignity But the form of an Aristocracy suffers not such an Exclusion which would destroy the Equality of the Nobles and by the poorer sort who are always in greater number be look'd upon as Contempt a thing absolutely insupportable among Republicans and which would certainly make the Government odious For this reason the Seigniory has been forc'd to take other Measures and prohibit in the Nobility all manner of Commerce either by Letters or Converse with forreign Ministers or any of their Retinue And this is so rigorously observ'd that if a Nobleman should be discovered in discourse with any Person in relation to any forreign Agent or Embassador and it should come to the knowledg of the Inquisitors of State before he discovered it himself he would not be suffered to live two hours One day a Senator of the House of Tron finding me at the House of the Curate de Santa Maria Mater Domini started and ran away as if the Plague had been there Twice I was met by one of the Procurators who with an hardiness that would have been fatal to many others staid some time with me in a Stationer's-shop and though I offer'd it would not let me depart This Prohibition beginning to be neglected was reviv'd in the year 1618 upon the discovery of the Conspiracy by the Spanish Triumvirate against their Commonwealth from which time they have look'd upon forreign Embassadors as so many conceal'd Enemies and to make them the more dreadful to the Nobility the Senat very cunningly gave it out that the Marquess de la Fuentes himself had betrayed Cornaro that the Sum he had consign'd for him might be stop'd But though all sort of Communication with forreign Embassadors be forbidden to the Noblemen nevertheless there are Priviledg'd places where they may meet in disguise as at their ordinary Gaming-houses which they call Ridotti in Balls in particular Houses during the Carneval at Weddings and several other Feasts and Solemnities But here they are not suffered to converse especially at the Ordinaries where silence is kept as strict as at a Sermon and men are seen sometimes to lose their whole stock without loosening their teeth upon which score the Venetians are counted very good Gamesters As to the Rules the State of Venice has prescrib'd for its own Embassadors in the Forreign Courts they are well worth our knowledg and I will give you some of them here XVIII The Venetian Embassadors cannot depart from the place
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
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
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
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
more properly to the Civil Magistrate to whom God has recommended it If the Ecclesiasticks be sufferers in it they must apply themselves to the Magistrate and he will do them Justice If any man writes against their Immunities the Prince only has Right to punish it because 't is from his Grace and Liberality they hold them and 't is he only can preserve them nor indeed is it agreeable that priviledg'd Persons should have the defence of their own Priviledges or be Judges in their own Cases But there are few such Libels in Italy to be seen though new ones are dispersed every day by the Romans against the Power of the Seculars for zealous are they in the diminution of the secular Authority and so furious in augmentation of their own Moreover the Ecclesiasticks are not competent Judges of Books relating to Civil Government it belongs to Princes who have States to govern to approve or reject the Maxims contained in such Books seeing such matters fall not under the cognizance of Ecclesiasticks to whom God has forbid the medling in secular Affairs Neither are they to be admitted Judges in Causes where they concern themselves with so much passion as to call Tyranny and humane Invention the power which God has given to secular Magistrates and Heresy and Blasphemy that Doctrine which impugns their Opinions Thus Cardinal Bellarmin in one of his Books has the confidence to pronounce those Hereticks who affirm Kings and Soveraign Princes to have no Superior in Temporal things but God Insomuch that to follow his Doctrine and the Doctrine of the Romans we must believe there is no Soveraign Power but in the Pope Again the Venetian suffers not the Inquisitors to censure Books of Love or Gallantry though they contain many things of Honour and good Manners First because the Inquisitors are instituted to judg of Heresy but not to censure Manners Secondly according to St. Paul's Doctrine the publick Honour and Tranquility are entrusted with the Civil Magistrate Thirdly because offences committed either by word or deed against the reputation of another man or against civil decency or decorum or things indisputably belonging to the secular Judg and by consequence the same offences in writing belong to the same Judges And here it is worth observation that the Court of Rome pretends not to Jurisdiction over Books that treat not of matter of Faith but since the year 1550 and that this Usurpation is turned into Custom and Right by the negligence of the Princes of Italy and their Ministers who shifting that care upon the Monks insensibly devested themselves of that part of their Authority which they never perceived till it was too late to recover There has been no State but the Republick of Venice that has always discerned the importance of this caution and by consequence not suffered diminution in their ancient Rights but the Venetian Ministers continue to peruse all the Books that are Printed to the end that nothing may slip in of erroneous Doctrine hindering likewise such Books as have been Printed formerly from being Reprinted or exposed to sale to prevent the increase of that mischief which otherwise they might do Again the Cardinal Baronius magnifies exceedingly the Enterprizes of Jurisdiction made formerly by the Court of Rome affirming boldly in a Letter of the 13th of June 1605 to the King of Spain to complain of his Ministers for stopping the sale of the Eleventh Tome of his Annals in the States of Naples and Milan That the Pope was the sole lawful Judg of Books and that therefore neither Princes nor any of their Ministers could condemn such Works as his Holiness had approved To which the King replying not by words but deeds and suffering the Prohibitions published by his Ministers to proceed the said Cardinal in his 12th Tome printed 1607 added a Discourse to this purpose That it was an horrid and impious thing for Kings or their Ministers to censure such Books as had been approved by the Pope or to forbid the Stationers to sell them That it was to rob St. Peter of one of the Keys that Jesus Christ had given him that is to say the knowledg that is to discern betwixt good and evil And at length that the Ministers of Spain had prohibited his Book because it reprehended the injustice of their Masters Which evidently discovers the passion of the Romanists who think it lawful to speak irreverently of Kings and to decry their Government by invectives under the Cloke of Religion whilst Princes are not allowed Power to hinder the reading of such Books in their own proper Dominions What disorder would it produce in the World if the approbation that Popes for their own interest have given to Books written against the Secular Power should oblige all Princes to receive them What could be more unreasonable than to require a Book wherein the King is called Tyrant and Usurper his Ancestors defamed and his Subjects excited to Rebellion should be printed read and sold publickly even in the Territory of the said Prince And yet this is no more than Baronius pretended to who after he had spake dishonourably of several Kings of Aragon and particularly of Ferdinand in his Discourse of the Sicilian Monarchy believed that Philip III had done him great injury not to permit the sale of his Book though full of acrimony and invective against his Predecessors and Parents As it is undoubtedly true a Book treating of matter of Faith and licensed by the Pope cannot be condemned by any secular Power so 't is as certain a Book treating of History or Civil Government may as justly be prohibited by Princes or their Ministers though licensed by all the Prelats in Europe For the Expedient Baronius proposes of repairing with humility to the Bishops for suppression of such Books as the secular Magistrate shall judg pernicious or scandalous I have said already the Remedy is worse than the Disease seeing thereby the Ecclesiasticks would make themselves in a thousand things that belong not to their Jurisdiction Besides that Government would be very imperfect that had not in it self power to provide what was necessary for its subsistance but must attend till remedy be applied by those whose interest it is to have the mischief continued and who will never address themselves to reform it but as their own interest prompts them And therefore in my judgment Princes are not to rely upon the diligence of other People in things that concern the good of their State God Almighty having given them Authority to secure themselves In short 't is only the Prince understands what is proper for his State and therefore no reason he should be beholding to the Pope for what he has of his own which made John de Monluc Bishop of Valentia say upon occasion That it would be madness to see Paris on fire and to expect till water could be fetch'd from the Tyber to quench it when the Seine was so near The Venetian