State but that in all Europe which has excluded their Clergy from participation of the Civil Government or neglected to have Pensioners in Rome they having made it a Maxim to themselves not to meddle in the Election of the Popes To which may be added their detention of the Polesin an ancient Member of the Dutchy of Ferrara that is like to be a perpetual occasion of Difference and Contestation betwixt them In the mean time the Venetian courts and caresses the Pope by the Magnificence of their Embassies and by conferring their Nobility upon the Nephews a Custom introduc'd since the time of Alexander VI Son of Caesar Borgia In recompence the Pope has granted them Tenths upon the Clergy and suppression of Abbeys in case of War with the Turk permits them sometimes to supply themselves with Corn out of the Ecclesiastical Lands and always comprehends them in the Promotions made for the Crowns In short the vicinity of their Countries which are conterminous both by Land and by Sea and their mutual jealousy of the King of Spain in Italy unites them by the common ligament of Interest and therefore the Spaniard who well understood the importance of that Union employed all his Cunning with Paul V to engage him in a War against the State of Venice when he interdicted it as knowing that they alone should go away with the profit With Spain AND therefore the Venetian has no reason and indeed do not heartily bear good-will to the Spaniard whose ill Offices and Violence they have so often resented And though they seem to improve their Amity and render it sincere by continual Embassies one from the other yet 't is but a Copy of their Countenance and nothing is more clear than that the Animosity is immortal and that the Spaniards can never forgive them the dismembring of Bressia Bergamo and Crema from the Dutchy of Milan and the Venetians are in continual fear they should attempt to recover them So that they hate not the Spaniards only by Habit and Custom as the Marquess de Castle-Roderiguo told the Venetian Embassador Peter Bazadonne but from certain and experimental knowledg of their ill inclinations toward them Furthermore the Senat keeps constantly a Resident in Milan which is the Shop where all the Spanish designs against Italy are forged and from whence they understand all their Negotiations with the Princes the Posture of their Affairs and several other particularities which being faithfully transmitted are very Essential to the benefit and safety of their Common-wealth and to succeed the more effectually they do court and caress the Governor of that Province with all possible Industry in respect that their Amity and good Intelligence with the King of Spain depends much upon the favourable impressions he receives of them from that Minister as appeared by the transactions in the time of Don Pedro de Toledo and the Duke de Feria both Governors of Milan and both holding the State of Venice in continual Agitation as being their particular Enemies And there wanted but little of falling into a dangerous War for a small Pass called Strada dello sticcato that joyns the Territories of Crema and Bergamo together by which Pass the Duke de Feria pretended to march his Troops without permission from the Senat. Again the Venetian hates the Spaniard as having found them more dangerous Enemies in time of Peace than in War as was manifest in the Excommunication of Paul V and not many years after in the Conspiracy of Don Alonso la Queva their Embassador which occasioned that saying of Trajano Bocalini that in time of War it was sufficient only to lock their door but in time of Peace he who would be safe against them must bolt and double-lock and barricado and all little enough to keep them out And the Venetians had good reason to be alarm'd when the Princess Mary of Mantua had thoughts of Marrying the Cardinal Infant of Spain according to a secret Engagement she had given the Emperor to that purpose for if that Match had gone forward the Commonwealth of Venice had been hedg'd in on all sides by the House of Austria With the Emperor THE Senat of Venice is the better inclin'd to the Emperor because it fears nothing from him in Italy where he has neither Reputation nor Estate Their greatest pique to him is only for being descended from a Family whose Eldest Branch is their greatest Enemy Yet the Emperor has his pretences to Friuli that his Predecessors engaged formerly to the State of Venice for 400000 Crowns But there is Prescription now in the case and the Senat has fortify'd their Title of Forfeiture by the Right of Conquest having recovered that Province by their Arms after they had been explus'd by the Emperor Maximilian I. Vdina the capital City having neither ground nor scituation proper to be fortify'd they have fortify'd Palma Nova according to the new way of Fortification with nine Bulwarks in a Circle which has made it equally strong on all sides and capable of resisting any enterprize either from the House of Austria or the Turk which last has many times ravaged and over-run the whole Country the poor Inhabitants being glad to leave all and retire with their Families into this place as their only Sanctuary and Asylum Upon his pretension to Friuli it is that the Emperor pretends to the Nomination of the Patriarch of Aquilea which in truth remain'd in his Predecessors after the said Province was engaged But to prevent all manner of Controversie the Senat has found out a way never to let it be vacant by giving him who has the Title power of chusing a Coadjutor which he never fails to do out of his own Family and by that means keeping it constantly in being the Emperor is defeated and becomes utterly excluded from that Nomination But the Emperor as he is King of Hungary retains a right in Dalmatia which King Lad slaus engaged to the Venetians for 100000 Ducats though the Venetians pretend he sold it out-right However that seems nor probable for King Wincelaus demanded restitution of it during the Wars of Cambray threatning Peter Pasqualigne their Embassador to do himself justice with his Sword if they would not do it without But he wanted Money and lost a favourable opportunity of entring that Province whilst the Venetian hands were full in defending themselves against the Emperor and the King of France How the Venetians stand with the Electors of the Empire THis Commonwealth holds no Correspondence with the Electors of the Empire either because they have no business with them or by reason of an old Controversie betwixt them about Precedence which the Electoral Colledg has always disputed upon an Arrest of the Golden Bull in these words Sacri Rom. Imperii Electores digniores habentur caeteris Principibus praeter Reges and the Example of one of the Embassadors of the Palatinat who as they pretend had the precedence of Vincent Grandenigue
the Domesticks whose Jurisdiction lies wholly in the Town as those in Rome who were called Magistratus Vrbani the Provincial Magistrates whose administration is abroad and the Military Officers as the Generalissimo the Proveditor General of the Sea the General of the Gulf and others The first are of two sorts one manages the Affairs of Government as the Duke the six Councellors the Sage-Grands and the Senators like those in Rome called the Magistratus Majores The others meddle only in matters of Judicature and are so numerous a third part of them are sufficient But the Seigniory has thought fit it should be so that all their Nobility may be employed especially the young Gentlemen who are much delighted with the very name of a Magistrate I do not pretend to set down the precise number of their Magistrates which would be troublesome and useless I shall only speak of those who have the chiefest share in the administration And because the Doge or Duke is the most considerable both for Dignity and Office I shall begin with him and his Predecessors to make their condition the more perspicuous by comparing it with what they were formerly Of the Doge THE Isles under the Venetian Jurisdiction were govern'd at first by Consuls and then by Tribunes annually chosen as I have hinted before But the People growing weary of their delays and particular quarrels resolution was taken to create a Head to whom the Tribunes should be obliged to be accountable To this end all the Isles sent their Deputies to Heraclea to proceed in the Election of a Prince and it was Lucius Anafestus that was chosen to whom the People transferr'd their Soveraign power but the Venetians refused to agree alledging that since the Foundation of their Republick they had always preserv'd their Liberty and never submitted to any Authority but the Authority of their Laws Bodni Jannoti John Botetus and some other eminent Writers have spoken of the old Soveraignty of the Dukes of Venice as of an unquestionable thing The Reader may judg of it by the following Arguments which I have extracted out of their own proper Annals 1. The Investiture that all the Prelates and Officers chosen by the People were obliged to demand of the Duke before they could have possession seems to me an Argument of the Soveraign Authority the Dukes exercised at that time Besides it belonged to him to call the Clergy and the People together to proceed to their Elections and if at any time they assembled without his Convocation all the Elections were actually void 2. The Princes who sent Embassadors to Venice address'd their Letters of Credence to the Duke only as the King and Patriarch of Jerusalem and Pope Calixtus did to Duke Dominique Michieli So that it was the opinion of all the Princes of that time that the Dukes of Venice were absolute The said Dominick Michieli refus'd the Crown of Sicily that was offered him only because being Soveraign of Venice and of several Provinces in the Levant he feared to lose the possession of a State at that time more considerable almost as to Title than Sicily Whereas had his power been only precarious and dependant upon the People 't is not probable he would have pretermitted so fair an occasion of making himself a King Besides what he did in Syria is a strong Argument of his Soveraignty for Money being short and his Soldiers mutining against him he caused boiled Leather to be coined called it by his own Name Michielette commanded by a promulged Edict all the Sutlers and Victuallers of his Army to receive it upon pain of death and promised to pay the value in Silver at his return and they obey'd From whence it may be well presum'd they owned him for their Sovereign because they trusted to his promise which they never would have done had they not thought him able to have kept it and how could he have been able had he not been their King 3. 'T is a mark of Sovereignty to apply confiscated Goods to his own use but this the Dukes of Venice did as appears by an Edict of Duke Peter Candian in the year 972 by which he prohibits all the Subjects of that State to carry or convey unto the Turks any sort of Arms offensive or defensive under penalty of 100 Livres of Gold to be applied to the use of him and his Successors 4. The Dukes of Venice have associated in their Dukeship with their Children and Brothers and by that means keeping it to their Families have in a manner made it hereditary Witness the three great Families of the Badoers Candiens and Orseoles who kept the Government successively among them for more than 200 years as it happens to several Royal Families in Elective Kingdoms This it was that made Dominick Flabanicus who in probability had neither Children nor Brothers to publish an Edict ordaining that the succeeding Dukes should not have any Colleagues in their Dukeship for the future and thereby declaring the House of Orseole degraded and lapsed from all the Honours Rights Priviledges and Preheminences that formerly they enjoyed and banished out of that State for ever and this Flabanicus did not upon any impulse or necessity from the People but from an old Pique he bore to the Orseoles with whom his Family had had great Quarrels 5. The Doges marry with Forreign Princesses as Peter Candien the fourth of that Name did with the Daughter of Albert Lord of Ravenna Otho Orseole with a Daughter of Stephen King of Hungary Dominick Silvius with a Sister of Nicephorus Emperor of Constantinople Ordelase Falier with the Princess Matilda descended from the first Kings of Jerusalem and Peter Ziani with a Daughter of Tancrede King of Sicily And in like manner they married their Daughters to Sovereign Princes as Peter Orseole married one of his Daughters to Stephen Eldest Son to the King of Croatia all which infer that the Doges in those days passed for Sovereign Princes Though in the Archives of their Acts the Clergy and People are mentioned with the Doge as in these Nos Petrus Candianus c. cum Vitale Patriarcha Clero Populo Venetiae Nos Tribunus Memus c. hortantibus consentientibus nobis D. Vitale Patriarcha simul cum Episcopis nostris cum Primatibus Venetiae Nos Vitalis Michael c. cum Judicibus sapientibus atque Populi Veneti collaudatione confirmatione concedimus c. Nothing can be concluded from thence but that the Doge of Venice might have a particular Councel composed of persons selected according to his fancy to deliberate with him as the Kings of Rome did anciently with their Senat and this is so clear that those Assemblies in the Annals of Venice are called the Duke's Councel expresly Dux cum suo Consilio armare decrevit Ipse cum suo Consilio suis Judicibus constituit From whence it follows that these Councellors which Vitale Michaeli calls Consiliorum suorum participes
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
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
of their Residence till their Successor be arrived and by them presented to the Prince if they do they are look'd upon as Desertors of their Embassy which is to be deliver'd over by his own hand and the new Comer put into possession of his Charge and instructed viva voce in whatever is requisite for him to know towards the discharging himself worthily of his Employment And this they do with great formality one to the other not only in obedience to the express Orders of the Senat but in honour to themselves by causing their Successors to take the same Measures and follow the same Methods as they had done before They are obliged to Present the Senat with a Relation in writing of their Embassies at their return for though 't is to be suppos'd they gave Account in retail before in their weekly Dispatches yet it is esteem'd for the interest of the Publick to have a Breviate of them that may save them the labour of rummaging among their Letters and Memorials to find out a thing that this way may be found in a moment Besides all those several pieces which asunder are like so many shreds being stitch'd together and compacted by the Author himself give a better Prospect of the Affairs and of the Minister who manages them And by these Relations it is the Senat understands the whole Strength of their Neighbours the Condition of their Territories their Armies their Revenues and their Expence and this Manuscript is a kind of a Journal like that Augustus made of the Affairs of his Empire and 't is according to that Model the Seigniory regulates and the Noblemen that go Embassadors do draw their best Lessons and their most refin'd Policies They are obliged likewise to produce the common Presents that are made them at the end of their Embassaries to be disposed of as the Senat thinks fit testifying thereby that they are content with the Honour of having serv'd their Country faithfully and that if they have merited any thing they will not receive it from any but the Senat. But yet they are never defeated of those marks of Honour unless they have done something dishonourable and contrary to their duty If a Nobleman carries his Wife along with him he is answerable for her faults according to the practice in Rome with the Governors or other Magistrates in their Provinces The Sons of the Duke cannot be Embassadors whilst their Fathers are living not so much to spare their purses but for fear the Duke should employ them with private Instructions for the particular interest of their Family XIX No man can be made a Nobleman of Venice but he must be a Catholick not so much to prevent that the body of the Nobility be divided in Religion but that their Honour might be continued Eminent and Illustrious to that Common-wealth which has the advantage of all States and Princes of Europe to have been born and continued constantly in that Church Upon which score she has been honoured like France with the glorious Title of Most Christian by several Popes and several Councils XX. Forreign Gentlemen that are Noble Venetians either by merit or favour as the Pope's Nephews and others being personally in Venice have liberty of coming into the Grand Council and Baloting as the rest But they cannot execute any Office in the State unless their constant Residence be there and to enter into the Council they must put on the Robe the Stole and the Woollen Bonnet Nevertheless in my time Prince Borgia was admitted by particular favour with his Sword yet not without great difficulty I shall not mention the other Laws which relate to the particular Magistrates because I shall have occasion to touch upon some of them in my Second Part. Furthermore in Venice new Laws are created every day but being too frequent they are seldom observ'd From whence proceeds that saying among them Parte Venetiana dura una settimana But the Seigniory swallows this abuse to cajole the People with a false appearance of liberty and to render their Government more gentle In short the Grand Council has made all Offices annual or for sixteen months to keep their Nobles in expectation and to enure them to Moderation by the continual vicissitude of Obedience and Command For if they grow proud and insolent in annual employments what would they do were they to enjoy them for life And if those excluded in the Balotation be discontent though they have hopes of succeeding in the next how would they be displeased at a refusal that should make them desperate during the whole life of the Possessor By this changing it is the industry of their Nobles is exercised Plato would have his Officers perpetual that long use and conversation in their places might make them more dextrous and beget more esteem and respect from the People But the Venetians find this change to be a better way of continuing them in their duty by keeping them in constant decorum in order to their Election to greater Offices afterward Besides thereby their Dependance is greater and their Authority less especially among the Provincial Officers who are but transient as I may say being scarce suffered to settle before they are called back to Venice to give an account of their Administration and therefore the Towns endure their Governors the more patiently because the advantages of the one does many times recompence the defects of the other and if any of them be ill they are not troubled with them long So much for the Grand Council We will come next to the Colledg Of the Colledg THE Colledg is composed of 26 Nobles that is to say of the Duke and six Councellors called the Most Serene Seigniory because when together they represent the Publick Majesty of the State of three Deputies from the Quarantie Criminelle who are chang'd every two months of six Sages-Grans who represent the Senat of five Sages from the Terra-firma whose Affairs pass through their hands and last of all of five Sages des Orders who formerly had absolute direction in all things relating to the Sea For these reasons this Chamber is called the Colledg that is to say an Assembly of all the Principal Members of State whose Hand it may be call'd because by it all Affairs are handed and distributed to the rest of the Councils especially to the Senat to which all disorders are addressed In the Colledg it is that all Embassadors of Princes all Deputies of Towns Generals of Armies and all other Officers have Audience there it is all Requests all Memorials are presented that are brought first to the Pregadi after which the Colledg returns them the Answer of the Senat in Writing which Answer is called by them Parte At their Audiences Embassadors do use this Apostrophe Serenissime Prince Tres Illustres tres Excellens Seigneurs Whereas in former times their Addresses was only to the Duke as they had
short The Senat entertains a certain number of Vltramontane Officers with Pensions call'd Conduites The number of these Officers is commonly 50 but they are augmented as occasion requires These Gentlemen have sometimes Governments in Dalmatia sometimes the command of Gross Companies as their Service recommends them besides other Priviledges as not to be arrested for debt to have a seat in the Colledg when Affairs are in debate and to take place in the Towns where their Commands lye immediately next the Podesta and the Captain at Arms. But the Venetians chief Strength consists in their Naval Force and their thoughts are most employ'd upon that in respect of the Scituation of their Town which is wholly in the Sea and for defence of their Golf and preservation of those Islands which they hold in the Mediterranean In my time there were only 25 Galleys and four Galleasses with a few Barks and Brigantins Armed to secure their Coasts but they were able to set out twice the number were their Arsenal supplied with Slaves Sea-men and Souldiers as well as other necessaries Their Arsenal is one of the finest things in Europe and the best kept It is a place of about three miles in compass in the form of an Island at one end of the Town and on that side next the Main-Sea It is wall'd about and enclosed with Canals that serve for so many Ditches Within it there are three great Fountains or Reservatories which receive the water from the Sea and communicate one with another upon occasion About them all three are an infinite number of little Houses full of materials for Galleys some made some half made others to be refitted and all in their particular Magazins For Example one is full of Nails another of all manner of Iron-work necessary for a Galley Two are full of Small-shot and Cannon-bullet one of Planks one with Rudders one with Oars ready made and two where they make them There are two places for Cordage of 400 paces long one for Hemp another for Sailes with a large Room full of Women to sow them one for Masts one for Pitch one for Salt-Peter and several for Powder There are in it twelve Forges or Smiths-shops in which 100 men are continually working Three Fonderies or Rooms for running of their Lead A great Hall for weighing their Cannon a large Court full of Timber Anchors and Artillery with about 800 Peeces of Cannon of all sizes ranged in several Rooms In a word there are always Arms ready for 50000 men The number of their constant Workmen is 1200 and all these Artificers have a Superior Officer called Amiraglio who commands the Bucentaure on Ascension-day when the Duke goes in State to marry the Sea And here we cannot but take notice that by a ridiculous Custom this Admiral makes himself Responsible to the Senat for the inconstancy of the Sea and engages his Life there shall be no Tempest that day 'T is this Admiral who has the Guard of the Palais St. Mark with his Arsenalotti during the interregnum He carries the Red-Standard before the Prince when he makes his Entry by virtue of which Office he has his Cloak and the two Basons out of which the Duke throws the Money to the People for his fee. This Arsenal contains all that is necessary for defence of their State and had the Spaniard succeeded in his design to burn it they had been lost beyond all hopes of recovery For as to the two Armories in the Palais of St. Mark they are not considerable being only to Arm part of the Nobility if any Tumult should happen during the Session of the Grand Council 'T is said the Turk would not be troubled with Venice if it were not for the Arsenal that he esteems the Arsenal more than the Town which if it were in his Power he would willingly restore upon payment of a Tribute and this is reported by an English Author who affirms he heard it from one of the Principal Ministers in the Grand Signior's Court. The Charge of this Arsenal amounts to 500000 Ducats The Workmen are paid every saturday without fail No man is received to work there under 20 years of age and no man can be a Master till he has serv'd eight years 'T is Governed by three Noblemen called Padroni all Arsenale who are changed every three years and by three Proveditors whose Office it is to choose the Workmen and to see them paid But because Money is the Nerves of all States and gives motion to all its Members it will not be amiss to say something in general of the ordinary Revenue of this Commonwealth from whence we may better judg of their real Strength The Dutchy of Venice that comprehends the City and all the Islands and Ports about it pays yearly three Millions of Ducats besides the Duty upon Salt which amounts to more than another Million all amounting by Computation to little less than a Million Sterling if you reckon every Ducat at 50 Sols French but I will not pretend to be too punctual in my Arithmetick The Marquisate of Trevisan being a good Country pays 28000 Ducats Padua and the Territory about it pays 40000 Ducats Vicenza and the Country about it 200000 Ducats Verona and the Veranois 360000 Ducats Bergamo and its District 300000 Ducats at least Crema 160000 Ducats perhaps more Bressia and the Country belonging to it 1200000 half of which is assign'd to the payment of the Arsenal at Venice The Polesin called il Contado di Rovigo a miserable Country pays 140000 Ducats Friul a large Province pays 400000 Ducats The Countreys upon the Sea as Istria Dalmatia and part of Albania with the Isles of Corfu Zante Zephalonica Cerigo and others pay by report 800000 Ducats if not more All which amounts to more than two Millions Sterling besides new Impositions that multiply every day the Tythes of the Clergy the Sale of Offices Confiscations and several other Incomes very considerable So that in time of Peace the Senat lays up vast Sums their Form of Government exempting them from the Expences of Monarchies where all things are more Noble and Magnificent 'T is true the State of Venice has more reason to lay up in time of Peace than any other Prince there being none of them to whom their Wars are so Chargeable as to it who for the most part is serv'd altogether for Money with little or no affection from those they employ Besides their ordinary Revenue is not sufficient to maintain their Wars but when once they are Engaged they find out ways to supply themselves by new Taxes extraordinary Impositions upon the Nobility Citizens Ecclesiasticks and Mechanicks by selling Nobility to the Populace the Vest of Procurator the Golden-Stole and all the great Offices to such Lords as are ambitious which ways during the Wars of Cambray brought into the Exchequer 500000 Ducats in eight months time The Senat sells likewise la Cittadinanza or the Freedom of their
the Venetian Embassador in the Ceremonies at the Wedding of the Emperor with the Princess Maria Anna de Bavaria celebrated at Gratz in the year 1600. As to the Bull the Venetian replies that he is comprehended under the exception praeter Reges being treated like Kings in all the Courts of Europe And if the Count d' Ognate the Spanish Embassador refused it to Peter Gritti the Venetian Embassador at Vienna * as was done since at Madrid by the Emperors Embassador the Count de Chesniller to Leonardo Moro Embassador from that Senat yet this Novelty which they would introduce to revenge their quarrel about the Valtoline could not prejudice the known Right of this Republick nor strengthen the Right of the Electors In a word a Cardinal refusing Letters from the Senat because they were writ with the Title of Illustrissimo and not Eminentissimo Vrban VIII declared in the Sacred Colledg that he comprehended the State of Venice in the clause Exceptis Regibus and requir'd all the Cardinals to treat them as formerly It is clear likewise if the Duke of Venice should go to Rome he would be received as a King as Christopherus Morus was received at Ancona by the Sacred Colledg during the vacancy of the See For though he has but the Title of a Duke that Title being personal would cease by representation of the Body of the Commonwealth which is a kind of Royalty or King And this is so true that in the Pontificat of Clem. VIII certain Cardinals advising with the Master of the Ceremonies how they should treat Duke Marin Grimani if he came to Ferrara as his Holiness had invited him it was told them by the said Master of the Ceremonies that they must treat him like a King that Commonwealth having for a long time been possess'd of the Soveraignty Their Condition with France IF the Senat has an aversion to the Spaniard it has no great kindness for the French whose Power they look upon with an evil eye as fearing their Neighbourhood and retaining the the memory of their Wars with Lewis XII The French acquisition of Pignerol increases their fear though it be as a Port open'd to the Supplies sent to the Italian Princes against the oppression of the Spaniard who were grown insupportable to them since the Exchange for the Marquisat of Saluzzes The Venetian makes it it his business to stand Neuter betwixt the Spaniard and the French either to preserve the Friendship of both or so to balance their Power as to keep both in an Equilibrium And how great soever their jealousie be against the Spaniard they would never help to drive them out of Italy to bring the French in their places For which cause the Count de la Roque Embassador from Spain at Venice found no great difficulty in gaining his cause against Messieurs de Bellieure and de la Tuillerie the French Embassadors who solicited the Senat to a League with their King against the King of Spain that by a conjunction of their Forces they might wrest the Dutchy of Milan out of his hand And the Marquis of Fuentes prevail'd as easily with that State not to suffer the French to pass the River Adda demanding that liberty for the King his Master by that artifice to oblige the Senat to a refusal of France that they should not be able to excuse and by so doing they sav'd Milan which otherwise had been certainly lost as the Marquis of Caracene confess'd if the French had gain'd passage there Besides the Spanish humour is more agreeable to the Venetians than the French and doubtless they would love the Spaniards much the better of the two had they no Dominions in Italy or if those they have were in our possession But to say truth the Venetian loves neither the one nor the other and how great soever their outward appearance and correspondence may be they will never trust either of them more than of necessity they are oblig'd And 't is a common saying That the Venetians know how to hate the Spaniard without favouring the French However it must be confess'd they are more inclinable to the French than the Spaniard especially in what relates to their Embassadors who are more desir'd there and are more consider'd than the Spanish Besides the Senat upon particular occasions sides always with the French as in the vacancy of the Holy See at which time they give Orders to such Cardinals as depend upon them to join with the French Faction in the Conclave and to their Embassador at Rome to act in that affair by consent of the French Embassador Which is a great advantage to the French when the Venetian Embassadors proceeds franckly according to Orders from his Masters who are no less concern'd in point of interest to oppose the Spaniards than the French Yet sometimes they steer quite contrary as Sorance betray'd the French party in the Conclave in the year 1621 in hopes he should have got a Cap. Moreover the Venetian Cardinals depend not absolutely upon the Senat which contributes nothing to their promotion but their single recommendation to the Pope but they serve in their own way without considering any thing but their own interest Their Condition with the Duke of Savoy THE Venetians and Duke of Savoy do not live in the same good intelligence as formerly Charles Emanuel I. began the breach by sending home their Embassador Vincent Gussoni upon occasion of succours they sent to the Cardinal Duke of Mantoua for the defense of Montferrat Victor Amideus offended them likewise by taking upon him the Title of King of Cyprus And Duke Charles Emanuel II. has been all his time at a distance or rather in dispute with them upon the same subject and the superscription of the Letters from the Senat. The Count de Bigliore the Duke of Savoys Embassador having caus'd the Arms of Savoy quartered with the Arms of Cyprus to be set up over his Gate the Senat sent him word if he caus'd them not immediately to be taken down he should see them taken down for him and torn before his face And the Embassador was glad to submit One day Count Philip d'Aglie a Knight of the Annonciade raking too far into that ingrateful Matter drew upon himself an unhappy Answer from Catarin Belegne the Venetian Embassador who told him that his Masters the State of Venice would be very glad if the Kingdom of Cyprus were in the Hands of his Highness the Duke of Savoy and not in the Hands of the Turk because if in his Highness's Hands he was sure his Masters would be able by Force of Arms to recover it in two Months These alterations and several others of a later date by degrees broke all their Correspondence so that in the year 1670 the Senat called home their Embassador Francis Michieli with which the Duke was offended and more particularly with the said Embassadors refusal to send him one of his Pages who had drawn
his Sword against one of the Duke's Pages in his Anti-Chamber and the said Duke recalling in like manner his Embassador the Count de Bigliore from Venice he departed the next morning after his Audience of Congy that he might not receive the usual Presents of that Republick and thereby signify his Resentment Besides all these Considerations the Duke of Savoy's intimacy and adherence to the French disgusts the Venetians exceedingly who without that could not conceal their displeasure at the delivery of Pignirol So jealous are they of the King of France's farther Progress in Italy Temendo ugualimente says Nani il giogo e il soccoroso Fearing equally their Yoke and their Assistance Their Posture with the Great Duke of Florence THis Republick on the other side maintains all possible Correspondence with the Great Duke of Tuscany whom she looks upon as a Prince of much Reputation in Italy and one whose Predecessors have always shewed themselves well-Affected to the interest of the Venetians And their partiality appeared in the business betwixt the Count de Bigliore and the Marquess Ricardi both Embassadors of Obedience one from the Duke of Savoy the other from the Duke of Florence spreading abroad Reports among the People to the advantage of the Florentines and contriv'd on purpose to debase and tarnish the glory of the Savoyards And it troubles the Venetians much to see the said Prince as it were Beleaguer'd on all sides by Spaniards who are in possession of Piombino Portolongone Orbitille and Porto-Hercole with Garrisons in several places in his Territory However it is with an ill-eye they behold Ligorn enriching the whole Country to the prejudice of the Venetian Trade yet that does not hinder them from sending Workmen from their Arsenal to build Galleys for the Great Duke and the said Duke in Honour to the said State has given to the new Town of Ligorn the name of Venetia-Nuova The Resident of the Duke of Florence is admitted to his first Audience by the Colledg with open doors as an Embassador whereas the Residents of all other Princes of Italy are received with the doors shut and without any Ceremony With the Duke of Mantua THE Dukes of Mantua have always held a strict Correspondence with the Common-wealth of Venice whose Councels and Assistance have never been wanting to them upon occasion Ferdinand Cardinal and Duke of Mantua found the effects of their protection against Duke Charles Emanael of Savoy who would have seized upon Montiferrat and against the Marquess of Innoiosa Governor of Milan who favoured his designs Vincent II having succeeded his Brother Ferdinand the Senat seeing the said Prince without Children or hopes of having any or living long by reason of his indisposition employed all their interest with him to cause him to declare in favour of Charles Duke of Nevers set up by the French but opposed as vigorously by the Spaniard who prompted the interest of Ferdinand de Gonrague Prince of Guastalle who as descended from Ferdinand third Son of Francis the last Marquess of Mantua was farther off in his Alliance from the Reigning Branch than Charles of Nevers who was descended from Lewis third Son of Frederick first Duke of Mantua So that the Branch of Nevers is in a manner indebted for its advancement to the Venetian who not only procured them the Dutchy of Milan by their industry and the Cooperation of the French but have preserv'd to him the Possession by force of their Arms in despight of the Emperor the King of Spain and the Duke of Savoy Charles II had so great an inclination to the Venetians that he came in person almost every year to keep his Carnival and Ascension at Venice And this he did as well for his Interest as Recreation thereby negotiating his own Affairs with the Principal Senators who were as his Council of State Yet this good Intelligence had like to have been interrupted under Ferdinand Charles his Son upon a Difference that arose betwixt them touching the Propriety of the River Tartare in the Territory of Verona the Venetians pretending the said River belonged to them as being in their Dominions and that the Duke of Mantua had usurped his Fishing and Toll which the said Prince as peremptorily denied affirming that he had been in peaceable possession of it since the year 1404. That his Right had been often acknowledged by the Venetians particularly in the year 1405 by an Act pass'd betwixt the Doge Michel Sten and the Marquess Francis de Gonzague in the year 1517 by Daniel Renier Governor of Verona for the Venetians and in the year 1598 the Magistracy of Mantua having caused a Verbal Process to be form'd upon that occasion the State of Venice remained content with their Reasons and the Veronois continued to pay their usual Duties at the Fort of Ponte Molino built for that purpose by the Predecessors of the Marquess of Mantua But the Senat not enduring this Expostulation from the Duke threatned him with War instead of a Reply The Prince unable to contend submitted to their Force and sent the Marquess Horace Canossa incognito to Venice who in three days time compos'd the difference privately to the satisfaction of the Venetian whose Subject he was born There are two Fortresses on the Confines of the Territory of Verona which are as a Bridg to the said Duke One is call'd Pischicra upon the Menzo built by the Lords della Scala and usurp'd by the Venetians from the Marquess of Mautua It was taken by the French after the Battel of Aignadel contrary to the opinion of the Senat who believ'd that single place would have been able to have stop'd the Career of the Conquerour The other is call'd Legnago upon the Banks of the River Adige a place of very great importance Two places famous by the Exile of several Senatots sent thither for their Mortification The Intelligence betwixt the Dukes of Mantua and the Emperor is very unpleasing to the Venetians who had much rather it had been with the French But that which troubles them more is to see him environed so close by the Spaniard without all hopes of extrication whilst they are Masters of Sabioneda and have a Garrison in Casal When the Duke of Mantua married the Senat expected an Embassador at least an Envoy Extraordinary according to the Custom of Princes but none coming they interpreted it as a disgust With the Duke of Modena THE Duke of Modena is very solicitous of Friendship with the Venetian and keeps commonly a Resident in Venice The Senat being reciprocally well-disposed to the said Prince would willingly contribute to the restoring him to the Dutchy of Ferrara so long in the possession of his Ancestors if occasion offer'd For the Senat had much rather have the Duke of Modena their Neighbour than the Pope who some time or other may have a fancy to reunite the Polesin with the Demeasns of Ferrara from which it was dismembred under the
Dukes of that Name And Clement VIII had a great desire to have done it When the House of Este was in possession of this Dutchy the Venetians had in Ferrara a Magistrate call'd Bisdomino or Visdomino who alone administred Justice to all Subjects of that Republick with the interposition of any of the Duke's Officers according to agreement betwixt the said State and Duke By the said agreement the Duke was oblig'd to make no Fortifications upon the River Po by reason of the Polesin which being an open Countrey betwixt the Adige and the Po would be exposed to inroads and devastation The Pope has many times oppos'd it and particularly in War of Parma when he built Forts upon the Confines of this Province For these reasons the Venetian desires seriously the Dutchy of Ferrara were again in the hands of the Duke of Modena and if during the said War they would not grant him permission to make use of the Troops they had sent him to stop the Barbarini in their passage into that Country and to make an irruption into the Country of Ferrara to reprize himself for the losses of his Family it was because they foresaw it would beget a cruel and dangerous War in Italy the blame of which would result upon them And therefore the said Duke could not prevail with the Senat to procure that his pretensions upon Ferrara and Commachio might be comprehended in the Treaty of Peace because that proposition being insisted upon must necessarily have interrupted the whole Negotiation about the business of Parma upon the accommodation of which depended the quiet and tranquility of all Italy Furthermore though the Venetian is not much troubled to see this Prince in the interests and under the protection of the King of France they would have been better content he had stood Neuter as fearing his Ambition to be great may some time or other involve all Italy as it happen'd in the time of Duke Francis who join'd his Forces with the King of France for the Conquest of the Dutchy of Milan hoping that Crown would afterwards have given him all necessary assistance for the recovery of Ferrara And this gives great Umbrage to the Venetians for fear the French should come to be their Neighbours With the Duke of Parma THough the Duke of Parma has no particular Alliance with the Venetians yet he is well esteemed by the Senat to whom he professes great obligation for their assistance to his Family in the Barberine War which ended at length by the restitution of the Dutchy of Castro * And 't is thought the Venetians were not at all pleas'd to see that Country fall into the Pope's hands after they had endeavoured so much to wrest it out of the Clutches of Vrban VIII With the Republick of Genoa IF the Republicks of Rome and Carthage of Athens and Sparta made themselves famous by their Emulations and Wars The Common-wealths of Venice and Genoa contending for dominion 300 years have made themselves as famous by their long animosities and conflicts And though at present they be at Peace yet they retain still the old heart-burning which will last as long as the memory of the mischiefs that either of them has brought upon the other The Genoeses cannot with patience behold the Venetians Masters of the Adriatick Sea having disputed it with them so long and worsted them so often and the Venetian looks upon Genoa as jealous of his glory and power Nine times have they been at Wars together but the last so cruel and lasted so long that the memory of it is still fresh in Venice and there are a sort of Noblemen call'd Nobili della guerra di Genova as being taken into the Nobility at that time Never was Venice so near ruine as then when Peter Doria the Genoa General look'd upon it so sure that when the Venetian Envoy presented him certain Genoeses Prisoners from the Senat he told him that in a short time he would be in Venice himself and deliver the rest Upon which Answer the Senat dispatch'd with all diligence Frier Benoist General of the Cordeliers to the King of Hungary to beg Peace of him out of pure Commiseration and to beseech him that he would employ his Interest with the Genoeses in their favour and with the Lord of Padua But though the importunity of this Minister was very great and the humility of his Address had melted the King delivering himself still upon the knee yet the Embassador from Genoa Gaspar de l'Orbe and Baltazar Spinola being present at all his Audience diverted the good inclinations of his Majesty by perswading him the time was now come when he might have all he desired and that within a Month he would infallibly be Master of Venice Such was the miserable condition of the Venetian when being deserted by all People there was nothing left to them but a generous resolution to vanquish or die and this they resolv'd with so good success that advancing against the Genoa Navy with the shattered remainders of their own Fleet under the Conduct of Andreas Contarini their Duke in a few days time they retook Chiozza and return'd to Venice laden with good Prize and several of the Genoa Nobility who being Prisoners paid the best part of the Charge of the War for their liberty since which famous Victory the Genoese has been quiet and given over Rivalling the Venetian So that the Genoese are as much too blame for not having made an advantageous Peace when it was begg'd with such submission as Asilius Regulus was of old for not having done the same with the Carthaginians after he had defeated them which omission brought a long chain of inconveniences upon the Romans But the Venetians were brought so low the Genoeses would have been rather reproach'd for not knowing how to have conquered them had they made Peace with them at a time when their destruction in the opinion of the whole World was inevitable At the beginning of their War in Candia the Genosses offered the Venetians a considerable supply of Men and Money upon condition they might be treated as Equals but their Offer was rejected with contempt which netled the Genoese exceedingly who cannot easily brook being thought their Inferiors after they had so long contended for Precedence Besides the Venetian frustrated the design the Genoese had upon Sala Regia which Donna Olimpia had almost perswaded Pope Innocent to grant them From whence it may be presum'd the Animosity betwixt these two Rival States is not yet extinguished on the contrary both one side and the other do many times revive and exasperate them by their Railleries and Sarcasmes which being many times true leave a greater sting upon their spirits With the Republick of Lucca VEnice has but little Correspondence with the Republick of Lucea but the Conformity of their Government being Aristocratical makes them reciprocally favourable one to the other so that should the
Great Duke of Tuscany design any thing against the liberty of that State 't is probable the Venetians would not refuse their assistance With the Grisons THE Senat of Venice bear an Affection to the Grisons as a People whose Interest it is equally to hinder the Spaniards from entring the Valtolin and encreasing their Power in Italy where already they have several Princes under their dependance And therefore the Grisons no sooner understood the designs of the Duke of Feria Governor of Milan upon the Valtolin but they repair'd immediately to the Venetian for relief against the Valtolins who were Revolted at the instigation of the Spaniard and indeed that Affair alarm'd the Republick of Venice more than any other Prince of Italy by reason of the situation of that Valley which bordering on one side upon Tirol and on the other upon Milan serv'd as a kind of Gallery to the Spaniards to join their Dominions with the Emperors and to stop up the passage for forreign supplies against all Italy and particularly against their own Countrey which the Emperor and his Catholick Majesty kept block'd up as in a Circle This was the design of the Count de Fuentes not long since when he advised his Master to seize upon Monaco and Final and the Valtolin which was the ready way to reduce the Princes of Italy into servitude But because the execution of his design requir'd time he laid the first Stone by building the Fort of his Name at the mouth of the River Adda which since has produc'd that long and mischievous War to the Grisons But were it not for their interest the Venetian regards them but little as looking upon them as poor people and savage With the Swisses THE Senat on the other side courts the Swiss very much as knowing their fidelity and valour It raises Soldiers among them in time of War and takes of their Officers into their Armies paying them Pensions for their lives They have moreover a Resident constantly either at Zurick or Berne which are two of the best Towns in Switzerland where all the chiefest of their Affairs are transacted With Holland THE Commonwealth of Venice and Holland are under a strict obligation of Amity and Interest They are both at the same defiance with the King of Spain The Hollander withdrew himself from his obedience to that Crown and the other favoured the Revolt by Councels Money and Solicitations with Queen Elizabeth to engage her in the defence of their new Companion And though they be separated by a long tract of Land yet upon occasion they can easily unite by their communication at Sea where both of them are very powerful With England THE Senat maintains a perfect Correspondence with the King of Great Britain considering him as a Prince whose Amity may much import that State in their necessities by his great interest and reputation with other Kings King James had a great respect for the Commonwealth of Venice and in their difference with Paul V. he no sooner understood the King of Spain had declar'd in favour of the Pope but he declared for the Venetian promising their Embassador George Justiniani that he would not only assist him with all the force of his Kingdom but oblige all his Allies in their defence And if the quarrel had broke out into a War 't is believ'd he would have been as good as his word as well as the Hollander who upon his recommendation offer'd them a considerable number of Ships and of Men. King Charles I. continued the esteem and affection of his Father and by a just return they preserv'd for him in his misfortunes and even after his death all the Kindness and Veneration they shew'd to him during his life For they were the lást that sent Embassadors to the Protector and their forbearance was look'd upon by him as a silent reproach of his Government and a contempt of his Authority so many great Princes having as it were contended who by their Embassadors should honour him first And Cromwell having complain'd of their backwardness the Senat fearing his displeasure at a time when they were at War with the Turk was oblig'd to cause John Sagrede their Embassador in France to pass over to London to appease him At length Charles II. being restor'd they renewed their ancient Alliance with him which was answered by his Majesty in the solemn Embassy of the Lord Falconbridge who after he had staid two months himself in Venice left Mr. Dorington as Resident for his Majesty of Great Britain But how great soever the Intelligence is betwixt England and this State there is no probability that that King will ever send any Ships into the Venetian service against the Turk lest the Grand Seignior should seize upon the Goods and Effects of the Turky-Company of London which amounts to more than five millions of money Which would ruine the best branch of the English Trade and be a great diminution to his Revenue With Denmark THE Senat has no Correspondence at all with the King of Denmark their Countries lying so remote that they can neither expect relief from one another upon occasion nor apprehend any detriment With the Swede and the Pole IF Resemblance of Government or Interest be one of the principal causes of Amity there are no two States in all Europe obliged to stricter Alliance than Venice and Poland they being the only two Crown'd Commonwealths both of them govern'd by a Senat and an Elective Prince both Neighbours to the Turk and both famous for their Wars against that cruel and formidable Enemy For though Poland carries the name of a Kingdom 't is nothing but an Aristocracy mix'd with a Monarchy according to the old Model of Sparta Upon these considerations the State of Venice is much concern'd for all accidents in Poland whether they be good or bad And if the Progress made by Gustavus Adolphus in the Empire pleas'd them very well the Success of Charles Gustavus in Poland afflicted them as much because the impoverishment of that Kingdom would be an advantage to the Turk as it prov'd afterward 'T is not to be doubted then but the interest of the Pole is dearer to the Venetian than the interest of the Swede whose prodigious increase both at Land and at Sea it began to apprehend That King having taken the Northern Liconia from the Pole and all one side of the Baltick from the King of Denmark With the Great Duke of Muscovy THough the Senat has no particular affair with the Czar of Moscovy yet it puts a great value upon his friendship that King being very potent and of great reputation with the King of Persia whose Alliance is necessary for the Venetian thereby to give diversion to the Turk For whenever the Sophy of Persia invades him on that side the Venetian finds it no hard matter to repel him on the other and these Negotiations with the Persian are managed by the Mediation of the Czar So that if upon
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
the Judges to administer Justice and receiving the Complaints of such as have been wrong'd in which case he rebukes the Judges severely Formerly this Visitation was made every Wednesday and possibly the custom may come from thence of paying the Duke his 100 Sequins every Wednesday as an acknowledgment of his care But now the day is uncertain the better to surprize the Judges and prevent their usual preparation All the Ecclesiastical Benefices are in the Dukes Nomination that is to say 26 Canons and a Dean who is always a Noble Venetian and called Primocirio di S. Marco This Dean depends not upon the Patriarch of Venice and enjoys Episcopal Prerogatives by vertue of a Bull from Pope Innocent IV. granted to Duke Marin Morosini about the year 1250. This Deanery is worth 5000 Ducats per ann besides the Abbey of S. Gal which commonly goes with it and is valued at 4 or 5000 Livres per ann more The Church of S. Mark acknowledges no Jurisdiction but the Dukes who takes possession of it as the Pope does of that at S. John de Latran The Primicier or his Grand Vicar taking a solemn Oath to preserve the dignity of that Church and the three old Procurators swearing likewise for the good management of the Treasure The Duke is Patron and Protector of the Monastery delle Vergini built and founded by Duke Peter Ziani and the Dutchess his Wife for young Gentlemen of Venice The Abbess calls him Father and has no Judg but him not so much as the Patriarch of Venice much less the three Sopra-Proveditori of the Monasteries so that if any disorder happens among the Nuns the Duke alone rectifies as if he were their Bishop He disposes of the little Offices about the Palace as the Ushers and others who are call'd Comandadori del Palazo lodging in the Palace and being paid by the Publick He has jurisdiction over the Gondeliers a sort of people that ply upon the sides of the Canals for the convenience of Passengers He makes Knights at his promotion and commonly they are Deputies of Towns sent to him to congratulate or Virtuosi and men of Learning He has a kind of Introducer of Embassadors call'd il Cavalier del Doge who from him invites them to his Ceremonies and conducts them to his Apartments in the Palace This Officer is always in red The Duke has another Officer called Il Gastaldo del Doge who is always present in a Purple Robe at the Execution of Criminals and gives the signal by shaking his Handkerchief in the Air which is as much as to say No mercy is to be expected In short his Family is not subject to the Magistrat des Pompes His Children are suffered to have their Footmen and Gondeliers in their own Livery to attend them in the Town and to wear Girdles with gold Buckles So the Elder Sons of the Kings of Sparta as Sons of Lacedemon were excused from the common Discipline and Education Thus have I shewn precisely in what the Grandeur of the Duke of Venice consists Let us now turn the Medal and see where lies his Inferiority and Subjection The Duke cannot stir out of Venice but by permission of the Councel otherwise he incurs the displeasure of the Senat and exposes himself to a thousand insolencies against which he can look for no reparation there being an express Law that gives liberty to any one to throw stones at him in that case Out of Venice he is no more than another Senator he receives no publick honour it not being with him as it was with Pompey who said Vbi Pompeius ibi Roma where he was there was the Common-wealth of Rome On the contrary the Doge is always where the Seigniory is but the Seigniory is not always with the Doge If any disorder should happen where he was abroad he could not take cognizance of it nor apply any remedy it would belong to the Podesta as being a publick Officer invested with Authority to that purpose whereas the Duke would be wholly devested and as a member cut off from the body quite incapable of any Function or Office By this means they take from the Duke all desire of absenting from Venice which being as it were the Helm of that Government his Presence is always necessary to manage it and give Example to the rest of the Nobles His Children and Brothers are excluded all the principal Offices of State during his life they can neither be of the Colledg of the Council of Ten Chiefs of the Quarenty Criminal Avogadors Generals Proveditors General at Sea thereby making a just counterpoise of his Power by debasing his Family they cannot make Addresses for any Bishoprick Abby or other Benefice to the Court of Rome nor accept them though freely offered by the Pope In the year 1622 Cardinal Matthew Priuli refused the Bishoprick of Bergamo to which he was named by Gregory XV because his Father Duke Anthony was living Cardinal Frederick Cornaro did the same when the rich Bishoprick of Padua was given him by Vrban VIII who was highly disobliged thereby and would have had him taken it in spight of the Laws of his Countrey and opposition of the Senat. For the Cardinalship there is particular exception and the Senat declared it was not comprehended under the word Benefices at the promotion of the said Cornaro So that the Duke of Venice may say with Antonius Pius though in a different sense Postquam ad imperium transivimus etiam quae prius habuimus perdidimus Capit. in Anton. Hence it is that many of the Nobility who have had Dukes of their Family avoid nothing more than that Honour and yet they are forced to accept it unless they have a mind to be banished and forfeit their Estates In this manner they forced the Dukeship upon Andreas Contarini during their Wars with Genoa upon Marc-Anthony Trevisan in the last age and upon Francis Cornaro since who died of pure anger eight days after his Election That which is more strange is that this Republick after the constant good service of their Dukes make no scruple to depose them upon any sickness or infirmity as if their age or indispositions were sufficient to extinguish the memory of their former deportment though never so good With this ingratitude they recompenced the merits of Francis Foscaro to whom they would not allow him to die though he was 84 years of age and in his Dukeship had acquir'd to his Countrey the Towns of Bressia Bergamo Crema and Ravenna as is to be seen in his Epitaph Yet this severity has one good effect upon the Dukes that in stead of pretending themselves ill to avoid the fatigues of their Office they will assist at all publick Ceremonies though they be ready to die And if he fails at certain Feasts and appears not with the Senat 't is immediately supposed he is dead and many times they have no news of his death till they hear of his Funeral Formerly
violence And yet this Custom hinders not but that great Honors are paid to them after their death Their Funerals are solemnized with great Pomp at the charge of the State Their Funeral Orations pronounced formally in the Church of St. Mark an Honor the Law did not formerly allow and which began but since the death of Andreas Contarin They fix upon their Vaults a Scutcheon with their Armes in memory of their Dukeship which was introduced at the Obsequies of Duke Marin Morosini And last of all it is permitted to set up noble and rich Tombes for them But that which is singular in their Funerals is that the Senat attends the Corps in their Robes of Scarlet a colour far enough from mourning but they do it to shew that though their Duke be Mortal their Commonwealth is not That the perpetuity of their Empire consists in the Body of the Senat upon which only depends the Safety of the People Aeternitas rerum meacum vestra salus incolumitate Senatus firmatur Tac. Hist 1. And that it belongs to private not publick persons to lament in which they choose rather to satisfy a punctilio of Honour than to discharge the common duties of Piety and Compassion for the Dead And here it is remarkable that the Hall where the Dukes Corps is exposed is the same where he receives his first Complements of Congratulation from the Forreign Ambassadors the day he was Crown'd that the joy of his Advancement might be tempered by considerations of Death and that he might look upon the Magnificence and Ornaments of his Dukeship as the beginning of his Funeral Pomp and as if like a Victim he was Crown'd but for a Sacrifice To this end the Grand Chancellor alwayes reflects upon Death in his Complement when he is put the first day into possession of the Palace of St. Mark Admonishing That his Government is not over Subjects but Fellow-Citizens and Companions to be Commanded only by his Example That the Nobility have made him Duke not to do as he pleases but to labour and charge himself with all the Cares and Troubles of the State That his Dignity is but an Honourable Servitude as Antigonus said formerly to his Son And that his Crown was not a thing of Parade and Authority but of Obligation to his Countrey and Obedience to their Laws When the Doge is sick or absent he is represented by one of the Council called the Vice-Doge that the Council might never be without a Head But this Vice-Doge sits not in the Ducal Chair wears not the Bonnet nor is treated with the Title of Serenissimo yet Embassadors directing their speech to him in the Colledg do give him that Title but 't is interpreted to the Table This Representative replies like the Duke to Forreign Ministers but puts not off his Bonnet and keeps the middle-place when he walks The Grand Council in the year 1553 made a Decree that in the Audience of Embassadors the Vice-Doge should take his place betwixt the Dean of the Council and the Embassador who accordingly was removed from the first place on the right hand of the Throne to a third which was an injury to the Embassadors it being clear that the Representative of a Prince ought in Justice to pay them more respects than the Prince himself But this Decree was rectified the next year gave the Embassadors their ancient place and put the Vice-Doge beneath them yet he was not allowed to salute them with his Bonnet The Councellors of the Seigniory THE present Councellors of State in Venice are those who formerly were Tribunes of the Isles and as every Isle had then its Tribune to administer Justice so now the six Quarters of the City called Contrade or Sestieri have each their Councellor who according to an Ordinance of Duke Orie Malipierre is to reside personally in his Quarter So that a Nobleman whose common Residence is in the Country of St. Mark cannot be chosen Councellor of the Castle St. Paul c. These Lords are called Councellors of the Seigniory because with the Doge they represent the Body of the Commonwealth They are called likewise Consiglieri di Sopra to distinguish them from the Consiglieri d' Abasso who Preside in the Quaranty Criminel in stead of the Seigniory which sate formerly there And here it is to be understood that the Office of Councellor that is annual is differently exercised during that time the Councellors sitting only eight months in the Colledg the other four they go down into the Quaranty Criminel and Preside there whereas if they begin in the Chamber as Consiglieri d' Abasso they are advanc'd alla Banca di Sopra or the Colledg The Councellors of the Seigniory have two Offices one publick the other private The last is to Consult with the Duke and three Heads of the Quaranty Criminel such matters as are to be proposed in the Councils And this they do in the presence of a Secretary called alle Voci who marks their Votes To open all Letters directed to the Seigniory whether the Duke be present or not To receive all Petitions Cognoscible in the Grand Council to examine them among themselves and to tear them in pieces if they do not like them To grant Priviledges and Exemptions To appoint Judges to both Parties when the Controversy is about Jurisdiction and in short to resolve when the Council is to be called extraordinarily The first that is to say their Publick Office is to Preside in all Councils to dispatch all necessary Orders during the Interregnum to the Podestats General of their Armies Proveditors at Land or at Sea and in a word to all the Officers of State When Relations have any Contest among them and desire extraordinary Judges 't is in the power of the Duke and the Councellors of the Seigniory to appoint them and the said deputed Judges by vertue of a Commission confirmed by the Grand Council determine definitively This in Venice is called dellegar una Causa but this favour that prevents a great deal of Charge especially li Caratti or Fees is not vouchsafed but to Persons of principal Quality and upon Causes of great importance to the Publick such remissions giving just occasion to the Magistrates to complain These Delegates are commonly chosen out of the Senat for the better Authority of their Judgment and are called Savii del Corpo del Senato The Councellors both di Sapra and d' Abasso are always habited in red both sitting in Council and walking in the Streets under penalty of 25 Ducats of Gold for every time they offend In Winter they wear a Scarlet-Robe with Ducal-Sleeves and in Summer a Red Watered-Camlet with a Cloth-bonnet of the same colour unless their Fathers or Brothers be lately dead in which case they are permitted to mourn for a month and during the Holy-week they are in Black also It is forbidden to the Councellors Heads of the Quaranty Criminel Sages of
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
betwixt their Subjects and Strangers betwixt Stranger and Stranger as also to the letting of Houses Ships or Boats to hire The three Cattaveri THey judg of all goods found either at Land or at Sea determining to whom they belong The word Cattaveri is as much as Searcher of the truth Cattar in the Lombard Language signifying to Search They appropriate to the Publick and put it in possession of all the Goods of such as dye Intestate or without Heirs They punish such of the Jews as wear the Black Cap without permission from them a liberty they sell for Money but never for above a Month that they may have always a way of squeezing those People who would not be distinguished by a Red Cap. The three Seigniori alli Banchi THeir Jurisdiction extends only to three places where the Jews are obliged to lend their Money upon Security a way the Publick has found out to supply the poor People who had rather pawn their Goods to them and redeem them again at moderate Interest that to sell them for half the worth as they would be constrained by their necessities These Banks are not unlike those in Italy called Monti di Pieta Not to trouble my Reader with an unnecessary ennumeration of particulars I pass by an Hundred other Judges But must not as I conceive leave Venice and make a visit to the Provincial Magistrates till I have said something of their Chancellor and Secretaries as bearing part in the Government as also of the Patriarch of that City and the Venetian Cardinals a matter that carries great connection with the Subject I intend Of the Chancellor and Secretaries THE Grand Chancellor is Head of the second Order that is of Citizens amongst whom he is a kind of a Doge Cancellarius Ducem quasi ex populo refert He is present at all Councils without exception He is privy to all Intrigues and Secrets of the Commonwealth which writes nor receives no Letters of which he has not a sight He has the keeping of the Seal and it cannot be taken from him without deposing him quite He is as it were a Chevalier born by virtue of his Place which gives him the title of Excellence and precedence before all the Senators and Magistrates of the City except the Councellors of the Seigniory and the Procurators of St. Mark He is chief of all the Secretaries who with him represent the Body of the Citizens as the Doge and Councellors of the Colledg do the Body of the Nobles and therefore in Latine Instruments he is called Magnus-Scriba Scribarum Princeps And it is to be observed the Office of Grand Chancellor is affected by all the Secretaries as the end of their hopes and desires to which when they arrive they will have no cause to lament any pains they have taken or any Service they have done to the Commonwealth there being no Nobleman with proportion so well recompenced as they no not the Doge himself nor the Procurators par merite The Chancellors Office is for life he wears Purple like the Duke and the six Councellors of the Colledg enjoys all the priviledges of a Nobleman and has some peculiar to himself The State allows him a Pension of 3000 Ducats besides the common Perquisits of his place which amount to 9 or 10000 Ducats more without obliging him to any expence In short he wants nothing but a deliberative Voice in the Councils where he sits only as an Instrument and in that he is inferior to the meanest of the Nobility When the Seigniory marches upon any publick occasion the Chancellor is preceded by the Secretaries the Doge by the Chancellor and the Senat by the Doge where we may take notice of two different Customs one of the Nobles which is preceded by their Chief the otber of the Cittadinance or Body of Citizens which proceds their Chief the first to shew that the Nobility and the Citizens are not to take equal measures the other to intimate that the Chancellor is not the Creature of the People but the Agent and Officer of the Nobles by whom he is chosen and of whom by consequence he holds his Charge and Authority and last of all to signify the concord and harmony of all parts in the Government The Chancellor after his election makes a publick entry and passes to the Colledg accompanied by several Procurators the ancientest of whom assisting commonly that day gives him the upper hand as the Senators and the rest of the Nobles do to the Citizens who in that Ceremony march like Noblemen in their Red Gowns so that it is not altogether unlike the Saturnals of old where the Servants were attended by their Masters In Publick Ceremonies if it be Winter the Chancellor appears in a Crimson Velvet Robe if Summer in Red Damask with his Stole of Gold but his common habit is Scarlet or Purple Cloth In a word when the Chancellor dyes he has the same Honours as the Doge when he dies his Funerals are kept in the Church of St Mark and his Elogy pronounced in presence of the Senat who upon that occasion are in Mourning thereby shewing greater regrate for the loss of their Chancellor than for the loss of their Duke whose Obsequies are Celebrated by them in Scarlet Robes as I observed before Having so many Priviledges 't is no wonder that the Chancellor Augustin Vianole bought Nobility for his Sons without mentioning himself the reason is plain not being like to be Chancellor and Noble Venetian together a thing that never happened but once in favour to Mark Ottobon Father to the Cardinal of that name he chose rather to keep his place and continue in the Populatc than to quit it and make himself Noble The Chancellor Ballarin was of the same mind and preferred his Chancellorship before the Honour of being Noble par Merite that is to say gratis which the Seigniory put to his choice The Chancellor is chosen by the Grand Council as all the Magistrates of the City are As to the Secretaries there are three sorts The first are called Secretaries of the Council of Ten and are most considerable because of the Preheminence of that Court The second are called Secretaries of the Senat and the third Notaries or Ducal Clerks from Ducal Clerks they rise to be Secretaries of the Senat and from thence they are preferred to the First according to their respective Capacities The Secretaries of the Council of Ten are but four and their places are much sought after and very hard to be got The Secretaries of the Senat are twenty four of which five or six are imployed as Residents in Naples Milan Florence and Zurich in Switzerland with Pensions of 2000 Ducats five or six others are imployed as Secretaries to their Embassies in the Courts of Kings where the Senat continues them for several years that at their leisure they may imbibe all that is necessary for the instruction of those who succeed them and
Court in which nothing passes whereof the Prince is not thorowly advertised The Ecclesiastick cannot bear Witness nor Cite nor Examine a Delinquent but with the participation and assistance of these three Senators For which reason the Secretary begins all Acts with this form Cum assistentia praesentia Illustriss Excellentiss D. D. N. according to the agreement of Pope Julius III with the Republick of Venice And if the Inquisitors presume to do the least thing without the knowledg of the Assistants 't is actually void so that if in their absence process be framed it suffices not that the Articles or particularities were communicated to them before Judgment nor that they were present when Sentence was pronounced for the Senat will not trust to the integrity of the Ecclesiasticks but new Process must be made from the beginning to the ending otherwise they cannot proceed to execution by which means the Senat prevents disputes with the Court of Rome which turnes every thing into President though but once done And if the Inquisitors should desire of the Assistants permission to make any Process without them it is expresly forbidden them to grant it because condescension belongs to the Prince not to the persons who represent him Besides this permission is not equivalent to the presence of the Magistrate who knows not afterwards whether the Inquisitors have done well or ill a thing of no little importance to the service of the Publick There are also Assistants in all places under the Dominion of the Venetians where there are Inquisitors it being convenient if not necessary that all inferiour Cities should be subject to the Laws and Customs of the Metropolis with safety to their Immunities and particular Priviledges and therefore the Rectors assist in the Sacred Office and perform all the Functions of the Assistants in Venice But because the other Duties of their imployments may sometimes hinder the Rectors from being present the Vicar of the Podestat or some other Curial Officer is permitted to go in their stead And here it may be observed that the Curial Assistant is not to serve as a Councellor to the Inquisitor though he be so to the Podestat the Office of a Councellor and an Assistant being incompatible because the Councellor is an Officer of the Inquisition and by consequence depends upon it but the Assistants dependance is only upon the Prince whom he represents so that if the Curial should become a Councellor the Assistance which is a thing of Superiority would degenerate into Counsel and render the Person subject to the Inquisitor which would be a great prejudice to the Secular Assistances that the Court of Rome would willingly abolish This Assistance was an infinite trouble to Pope Paul V who had an inconceivable desire to increase the power of the Ecclesiasticks For the Inquisition being the principal Nerve and chief Prerogative of the Papacy as was pretended by Paul IV it was very unpleasant to Paul V who boasted That God had made him Pope to mortify the presumption of the Seculars to see the Venetians humble the Pride of the Ecclesiasticks and hold the Inquisitor in dependance upon the Assistants Pope Julius III thought he had gained a great point when in his agreement with the Republick he hedged in this Clause Cum assistentia praesentia imagining it would evidently appear that the three Deputies from the Senat were not Judges in matters relating to the Inquisition but only Assistants Nevertheless the Court have since owned how much that Assistance is prejudicial to their Authority and that which before they interpreted a Victory upon the Venetians they have since found to be a considerable loss Wherefore they have applied the utmost of their endeavours to abolish that Custom as injurious to their Authority but the Senat has so well defended it that the Popes have given over all further thoughts of contesting The care the Assistants took to suffer no Act to pass without the form Cum assistentia c. which pleased the Romans so well has proved an advantage to the Venetians who have since made use of that Clause to shew the Custom of their Assistance The Popes would willingly deny it notwithstanding their Agreement in 1551 pretending that they were ignorant of the nature of an Agreement which implying the consent of both parties concerned could not be revoked or cancelled by one It being little less than a contradiction to affirm that a thing concluded betwixt two Princes under reciprocal Obligations should notwithstanding remain at the disposition of one of them These Assistants take no Oath of Fidelity to the Inquisitors seeing they are neither Officers of the Inquisition nor called thither by the Ecclesiasticks On the contrary they are sent thither by the Doge to observe the proceedings of the Inquisitors and inform the Senat of what passes in persuance of an Oath they take to conceal nothing from him nor to do any thing without his Order And by this it is the Inquisition at Venice seems to be mixed both of Ecclesiasticks and Seculars For where it is purely Ecclesiastical all the Seculars swear Secrecy and Fidelity to the Inquisitors But here the Assistants have power to suspend the Decrees of the Inquisitors and to stop the Execution of their Sentences not only when they are contrary to the Laws and Customs of their Countrey but when they interfere with their private Instructions from the Senat or the particular Rules of their Government And if anciently the Dukes of Venice swore at their Election to punish Hereticks it was to God and the Commonwealth as the Kings of Spain do at this day not to the Inquisitors But there is great difference betwixt swearing indefinitely and swearing to another person the first Oath being an Act that binds him only to himself and his own Conscience whereas the other ownes a Subjection and Obligation to him to whom he swears And to prove that the Doges never took any such Oath we need no more than the Declaration of Duke Peter Gradenique given in Writing to Frier Anthony an Inquisitor who would have had the said Duke sworn to have preserved the Papal and Imperial Constitutions against Hereticks To which the Duke replied that after the Oath he had taken at his Election by the Contract betwixt the State of Venice and Pope Nicholas IV he the said Duke was not to take another or oblige himself to other Ecclesiastical or Imperial Orders than what were specified in the said Contract In the mean time the Inquisitors despairing to bring the Assistants to any such Oath they endeavoured to oblige them to Secrecy in some things relating to Censures and Excommunications but the Assistants were inflexible being satisfied they were under no Obligation to the Inquisitors because they were none of their Ministers and that the Doge ought to be acquainted with all passages among them for the convenience of his Government it being more his interest to maintain Religion than it
who were dull and the Spartans who understood nothing but Obedience and the Mysteries of War were better Governours than the Athenians with all their Eloquence and Learning The Athenians studied nothing but fine speeches and plausible Orations without bringing any thing to Action as if their Senat had been only a School for Orators or Sceptick Philosophers But the Thebans and Spartans executed what they debated and when they had bandied Arguments at home they went to fight their Enemies abroad But the Venetians are not arrived at this perfection they are slow in Councel and slow in in execution and we see that many times that is taken for wisdom and great caution which is nothing but heaviness or diffidence And though they are not so fine and polite as the Romans and Florentines yet they know their own Interest and can manage it as well as the best All Treaties and transactions with them are fair and smooth ar first but their end is not always so as the Comoedian said of the Lacedemonians That they did like Vintners bring good Wine at first and then dash it with Vinegar And indeed we see men are apt to promise any thing in danger and to perform nothing when out of it according to the Proverb of their Countrey Scampato ' l pericolo gabbato il Santo When the danger 's past the Saint may go whistle Possibly Commonwealths are the more inclined to equivocate and falsify in Treaties because every man may hide himself in the throng and can be no more discovered than the Elements in the Body of a man a shelter which Princes have not To which may be added that the Venetians having no Commerce or Conversation with Forreign Embassadors they do not fear discovery from their Companions nor by consequence the Clamours of Embassadors nor the Malice of their Masters which is an advantage they have above all other Commonwealths And indeed if the Historians of the last age do not wrong them their manner of observing Treaties with Sixtus IV. the Pisans Hercules d'Este Duke of Ferrara and some other States is not much to the commendation of their fidelity They are generally very frank and open in their Countenances gay and complasant outwardly but close and reserved at the heart This was manifest in their Carriage to Francis Morosini on the day of his entrance into the Procuratorship all the Nobility flocked to him in throngs contending with one another who should Caress and flatter him most and three Months after the same persons who magnified him so extravagantly before cried out bitterly against him upbrading him for his Conduct as General and promoted his Process with such fury that one would not have thought it had been the same Senat or the same Nobility And indeed in Venice any troublesom Person may raise a tempest among the Nobility among whom every one waits for an opportunity till his partner declares for 't is the Custom there to follow the motion of other People in things where they are unwilling to be reckoned the first Author themselves They are accounted Enemies of those whom they have offended as if there could be no such thing as a hearty reconciliation and usually fear of revenge begets perpetual distrust which is the source of eternal Enmity On the contrary In Commonwealths good deeds or benefits make little impression especially what are received on the publick score in which to the ordinary Estimate in such Governments Private Persons are but little concerned Revenge is natural to the Climate of Italy and therefore it is no wonder if this State hath afforded Examples of it as well as others and the less needful to mention any I shall only adde by way of advice to those who are concerned with the People of these Parts That their silence is much to be apprehended when they are offended because their Anger is the more irreconcilable as it is more concealed and secret for they conceal it to revenge themselves upon occasion with more violence 'T is to no purpose to think to mitigate them by submission their humour perverts all applications and time it self cannot heal up the Wounds of an Injury though sometimes it may moderate the smart for as the Proverb of that Country says they keep la Memoria in Cuore They visit one another but seldom even those who are related but they meet every day in the Broglio where they discourse of their affairs publickly before all the World by which means 't is hard for any to Cabal or Plot against the State They suffer themselves to be rarely visited by Strangers and they think thereby to keep up their Majesty and Grandeur as also to avoid the expence of their Table and therefore if they treat any of their Friends by accident 't is always out of their Houses as if it were to let them know at what charge they do it and to oblige them to come no more They are sober whether out of Conscience or Frugality let others judg and do eat well at a good Meal when it is at another man's cost At the Duke's four great Feasts not one man invited will be absent no more than the Pregadi at the Anniversary Treat of Cardinal Zell and all is because there is a distribution of a Ducat a Head So that Embassadors would always have the Barnabotes at their Tables if it were lawful to hold Conversation with them In short Strangers that keep Tables have always as in other Places some of the indigent Gentlemen to keep them company under pretence of shewing the curiosity of their Town and explaining their Antiquities Feasts and the Mysterious Symbols of Abbot Joachim to be seen in the Church of St. Mark which they shew with most magnificent Paraphrases most of them of their own invention to make the things more wonderful Thus they tell us the Foundation of their City was laid the same day the World was Created that it might appear more august and venerable to Strangers Thus they shew Relicks and Monuments of several Victories which many people believe they never obtained among the rest the Canal Orphano which they call by that name instead of del Arco upon pretence of a defeat they gave the French there in which those who were present left all their Children Orphans though all Historians Ancient and Modern agree that Pepin was Victor and received Tribute and Homage of the Venetians as King of Italy The account they give likewise of their Victory at Sea gained against the Mareschal Boucicaut in the Levant is of the same nature as also the great advantage that Melchior Trevisan got over Charles VIII at the Battle of Fornoué to which they might have added the defeat of the French at the Battle of Aignadel to triumph at least over the Credulity of the ignorant They are much given to their pleasures and their Mistresses are much more chargeable to them than their Wives whom
where the Eagle with two heads is to be found The Lion has in its Paw an open Book with this Inscription Pax tibi Marce Evangelista meus to declare that the State of Venice prefers Peace before War and according to the Emperour Justinian's Precept is armed with good Laws which are the true Arms of Peace But in time of War the Book is shut because then the Laws are without Authority and silent Inter Arma silent Leges And the Lion in the other Paw holds a naked Sword as the Simbole of War Maria de Gonzague The Chevalier Ange Corraro in his M. S. of France speaks thus of this Princess Tengono per indubitabile tutti i ministri che la Principessa fissa nell ' impressione che ' l Duchino non debba vivere lungamente habbi procurato dall Imperatore il nome di Duchessa per far passo all Conseguimento dell investitura in se de' feudi etiandio ad Esclusione di Guastalla ma con segreta promissa venendo il caso della morte del Duca d'accasarsi coll ' Infante Ferdinando Negotio che se travesse effecto all' Italia tutta ma piu alla serenita vostra riuscerebbe di pregiudicio ben grave per li stati di essa trala Germania e Mantoua ininterposte Onde sara effetto della prudenza inseperabile di questo Augustissimo Senat l'applicar ben fisso l'occhio e col riflesso il remedio alle novita che potissero andar insurgendo It is unquestionably believed by all the Ministers that the Princess taking a fancy the young Duke could not live long had obtained of the Emperour the Title of Dutchess in order to investiture afterwards even to the Exclusion of Guastalo But with private ingagement if the said Duke died to marry the Infante Ferdinando A thing of great consequence to all Italy if it had succeeded but of more than ordinary prejudice to your serenity in respect of your Territories betwixt Germany and Mantua wherefore it will be an effect of the Wisdom inseparable from this August Senat to apply such solemn remedy as may prevent the ill Consequences which are like to ensue Marin Falier This Duke being unable to obtain Justice against Michael Sten who had Debauched his Wife or at least one of his Daughters resolved to revenge himself by Murdering the Principal Nobles and oppressing the Common Liberty But one of the Conspirators named Bertrand Pelizare discovered his design to the Inquisitors of State who the same day caused his Head to be chopt off in the very first year of his Regency Every year there is a General Procession made about the Place Saint Mark the 16 of April being St. Isidor's-day in memory of their deliverance In the Hall of the Grand Council where hang all the Pictures of the Dukes with their Names there is only a Black Board for this Duke with these four words Locus Marini Falieri Decapitati He was the third Duke of his Family the other two were Vital and Ordelafe the first of which received Investure of the Provinces of Dalmatia and Croatia from Alexis the Emperour of Constantinople the other was killed with a Lance in a Fight at Zara in Dalmatia Since the said Marin they have alvvays depressed that Family vvhich before vvas one of the most Illustrious not only in Venice but in all Italy where it was allied to most of the Princes Monarchy is a Government by a single Person as in France Spain Portugal c. Oligarchy is a Form of Government in the possession of a few The Commonwealth of Sparta vvas Oligarchick because the Senat consisted but of thirty men viz. two Kings and twenty eight Senators to whom afterwards were added five Ephori Aristotle Isocrates and Plutarch confound often times the names of Aristocracy and Oligarchy Isocrates ad Nicod calls the Lacedemonians Oligarchical whereas Aristotle and Plutarch say they were Aristocratical and Plato says Negare eam esse Optimatum administrationem omnino absurdum lib. 4. de leg But in strictness an Oligarchy is an imperfect Aristocracy so that when an Aristocracy is reduced to a small number 't is a sign of its corruption and defect and is a step to Monarchy as Tacitus observes Ann. 5. Paucorum dominatio Regiae libidini proprior est Orso participatio Grand Escuier of Constantinople This Office has been injoyed by five Dukes of Venice who in that quality were the second Persons in the Eastern Empire Peter Gradenigue the twelfth Duke was the first of them who received that Honour from the Emperour Michel Classe 60 triremium says Leander Albertus in his description of Venice Michaelem Imp. Constantinop adversus Saracenos Apuleam infestantes juvit eoque Proto-spatarius ab eo dictus qui tum temporis secundus ab Imperatore Grecae censebatur honor With a Fleet of 60 Galleys says Leander he assisted Michael Emperour of Constantinople against the Saracens who infested Apulia and was therefore by the said Emperour called Proto-spatharcus which in those days was esteemed the next Honour to the Emperour of Greece His Successor Orso Participatio was continued in his place by the Emperour Basil as the same Author reports The three other Dukes honoured with this Dignity were Peter Tribun Vrse Badoer and Peter Candien the second of that name Parte The Venetians call Parte the Arrests and Decrees of their Councils Thus they say Parte del Gran Consiglio Parte del Senato Parte del Consiglio Dieci And to say a thing was resolved in Council we must say Fu presa la Parte Pipin King of Italy Pope Leo in his Elogies of the Dukes of Venice ingeniously acknowledges the Victory King Pipin had over the Venetians how partial soever he be for their Glory speaking of Obclere Duke of Venice and his Brothers Ab his Caroli Pipinique agmina ad Patriae sunt vocata excidia ...... Heraclea obruta Matamancum Albiola dedita populata Clodia nisi Mumina obstitissent ipsa foret deleta Civitas that is Venice Acerrimae pugnae locum Orphanum appellant Rivum quasi patre se liberisque viduatam tunc Patria By these were the Troops of Charles and of Pipin called in even to the destruction of their own Country ..... Heraclea was demolished Matamancum and Albiola lost Clodia plundered and had not the Gods opposed Venice it self had been ruined The place of this unhappy Battle was upon the River Orphanus called so because the Venetians seemed at that time to be left like Orphans without either Parents or Children By which it appears that Venice remained as an Orphan after the great losses it sustained in that War which the People revenged afterwards upon the Duke and his Family Sabellicus has not spoke his opinion thereupon lest he should have displeased the Venetians had he said what he knew His words are Adeo varie res traditur a Venetarum scriptoribus ut quid potissimum sequar difficile se discernere So variously is this Action imparted
for they lost three several Kingdoms by them The first was the War of Negropont under Duke Christopher Morus and their General Nicholas Canal upon whom the loss of that Island was charged because he brought no Succour to Paul Erizze in time This Paul Erizze the Governor of the said Isle was the Person whom Mahomet caused to be sawed a-pieces in the middle with this pretence That though he promised not to meddle with his Head he did not promise not to meddle with his Wast This War lasted sixteen years The second was the War with Cyprus under the Dukes Peter Loredan and Lewis Moccenigue This whole Island was taken by Mustapha Bassa General to Selymus who caused the Valiant Marc-Antonio Bragadin to be flea'd alive and the Head of Seignior Astor de Baillon to be cut off The third War was that of Candia the most Famous of all that ever the Venetians maintain'd It continued from the year 1645 to 1669 when the Capital City was surrendred by General Francis Morosini under the Dogeship of Dominick Contarino Victor Amedee The Procurator Nani in his 9th Book speaks of him thus Il Duca Vittorio Amedeo di Savoia per non condescendere nelle forme di fresco introdotte co ' Cardinali assunse titelo di Redi Cipro con poca approvatione del Mondo Ch' Egli doppo ceduto con Pignarolo il decoro which words shew how much the surrendting of Pignerolo went to their heart che gli portava la Cura di custodire l' Porta d' Italia si fregiasse di titoli di quel Regno con grave disgusto de Venetiani che l'avevano per molti anni legitamente goduto e che porlandone querele alle Corti de Principi dell ' Europa si di chiarono disobligati da qualcunque corrispondenza co Savoiardi Victor Amedeus Duke of Savoy not to condescend in certain forms lately introduced with the Cardinals took upon him the Title of King of Cyprus with little approbation of the World That having lost with the Town of Pignerol the Honour he bore by having the Key of all Italy in his custody to reprize himself he assumed the Title of that Kingdom to the great disgust and prejudice of the Venetians who had for many years peaceably enjoyed it and carrying their Complaints to the Courts of most Princes of Europe the Venetian declared themselves free and disoblig'd from all further Correspondence with the said Duke Upon which occasion it will not be amiss if we a little consider the Title of both Parties to the Kingdom of Cyprus The Venetian derives his Title from a Concession and Renunciation made to him by Katherine Cornaro Wife to King James and Heir to James his Son And again from an investiture obtained by the Senat from the Sultan of Egypt and they held it from the year 1510 when Katherine died to rhe year 1570 when the Turk took it from them The Duke of Savoy on the other side grounds his Title from the donation of Charlot only Daughter of John King of Cyprus to the Nephew Charles Duke of Savoy alledging That Lewis of Savoy Husband to Charlot had been owned as Heir apparent to the Crown and in that capacity had received an Oath of Fidelity from all the great Officers of that Kingdom at the Celebration of his Marriage That the Vsurpation of James who was a Bastard could not prejudice the Title of Charlot the lawful Heir and that by Consequence the Title of the Venetian subsisting upon a violent Vsurpation and which is worse a Parricide it being certain the said Bastard poisoned his Father they could not nor ought not to be in better condition than the Vsurper from whom they pretended But when the Duke of Savoy published his Manifesto the Venetians Sword being the longer they returned only this Verse of Scripture in answer Coelum Coeli Domino Terram autem dedit filiis hominum By which Argument all Usurpations would stand good and the weakest be always oppressed In a word 't is one of their old Tenents That God has left the Earth in such manner to the Sons of Men that all Countreys belong to him vvho can catch them Sicut Coelum diis ita Terras Generi mortalium datas Tac. Ann. 13. And that all Princes ought to accommodate their Justice to their povver Id in sumrâ—a fortura aequus quod validius Tac. Ann. 15. A 〈…〉 vvhich the Turk has taken out at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again the course they took to invest themselves vvith the Kingdom of Cyprus vvas singular and odd The Senat first Adopted James Son of Queen Katherine making him a Noble Venetian and after his death they caused themselves to be reciprocally Adopted by Queen Katherine to qualify them to inherit from both from the one as a Son of St. Marc and from the other as a Daughter and Mother of their State Daughter by Birth and Mother by Adopting the Senat her Son A neat invention to entitle themselves to a Kingdom But to return to Victor Amedeus Mal consigliato says Catarin Belegne in a M. S. of his Embassy into Savoy ne suoi consigli Vittorio Amadeo in rilapar Pinarolo alla Francia in fingere clandestinamente l'accordo di Chierasco imporre a se stesso all' Italia tutta nuove catene Vittor Amedeus was very ill-advised to deliver Pignerol to the French to make that Claudestine Capitulation at Chierasca and to put new Chains upon all Italy and himself And a fevv leaves after In Concambio di Pinarolo e suo finaggio del passaggio libera della Riviera di Cluson assiene con tutti le valli che danno mano alla Provincia di Delfinato impongono all' Italia un durissimo giogo From vvhence it may easily be gathered hovv glad the Venetians are of the Neighbourhood of the French who as the Venetians themselves say will either be Masters or Enemies to every body that is near them Vital Michaeli II. Duke of Venice vvas assassinated in his passage to St. Zechariah a Monastery of Venetian Gentlevvomen in visiting of vvhich Monastery Peter Gradenigue I. vvas killed before Jannot speaks of the assassination of Vital in these vvords Publicum aerarium ob assidua bella gesta contra Graecorum Imp. Emanuelem cum exhaustum esset ea quae dicuntur a nobis Impraestita primus excogitavit ...... Quae res tantam invidiam Duci apud multos conflavit ut ipso resurrectionis Dominicae die confossus fuerit in itinere ad D. Zachariae The Publick Treasury by reason of their long Wars against Emanuel Emperor of Greece being utterly exhaust to supply it he was the first who invented the way of Loans which Created him so much envy that even on an Easter-day he was slain as he was going to the Monastery of St. Zecharies From vvhence some people conclude the Sovereignty of the said Duke as the same Author observes Ipse says he totam invidiam Culpamque sustinuit ex commodatis
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