Paolo Sarpi

Paolo Sarpi (often known simply as Fra Paolo) (August 14, 1552 - January 15, 1623) was a Venetian patriot, scholar, scientist and church reformer and author of the History of the Council of Trent.

Venice in conflict with the Pope

Clement died in March 1605; and Pope Paul V's attitude was designed to strain papal prerogative to the uttermost. Venice was simultaneously adopting measures to restrict it; the right of the secular tribunals to take cognizance of the offences of ecclesiastics had been asserted in two remarkable cases, and the scope of two ancient laws of the city, forbidding the foundation of churches or ecclesiastical congregations without the consent of the state, and the acquisition of property by priests or religious bodies, had been extended over the entire territory of the republic. In January 1606 the papal nuncio delivered a brief demanding the unconditional submission of the Venetians. The senate having promised protection to all ecclesiastics who should in this emergency aid the republic by their counsel, Sarpi presented a memoir, pointing out that the threatened censures might be met in two ways--de facto, by prohibiting their publication, and de jure, by an appeal to a general council. The document was received with universal applause, and Sarpi was immediately made canonist and theological counsellor to the republic.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The following April the last hopes of compromise were dispelled by Paul's excommunication of the Venetians and his attempt to lay their dominions under an interdict. Sarpi entered energetically into the controversy. He began by republishing the anti-papal opinions of the famous canonist John Gerson. In an anonymous tract published shortly afterwards (Risposta di un Dott ore in Teologia), he laid down principles which struck at the very root of the pope's authority in secular things. This book was promptly included in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and Gerson's work was attacked by Bellarmine with a severity which obliged Sarpi to reply in an Apologia. The Considerazioni sulle censure and the Trattato deli' interdetto, the latter partly prepared under his direction by other theologians, soon followed. Numerous other pamphlets appeared, inspired or controlled by Sarpi, who had received the further appointment of censor of everything written at Venice in defence of the republic.

Related Topics:
Excommunication - John Gerson - Index Librorum Prohibitorum - Bellarmine

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Never before in a religious controversy had the appeal been made so exclusively to reason and history; it was unprecedented for an ecclesiastic of his eminence to argue the subjection of the clergy to the state. The Venetian clergy, a few religious orders excepted, disregarded the interdict, and discharged their functions as usual. The Catholic powers refused to be drawn into the quarrel. At length (April 1607) a compromise was arranged through the mediation of the king of France, which salvaged the pope's dignity but conceded the points at issue. The victory was not so much the defeat of the papal pretensions as the recognition that interdicts and excommunication had lost their force. Sarpi longed for the toleration of Protestant worship in Venice, and had hoped for a separation from Rome and the establishment of a Venetian free church by which the decrees of the council of Trent would have been rejected. The republic rewarded him with the distinction of state counsellor in jurisprudence, and the liberty of access to the state archives. These honours exasperated his adversaries. On October 5 he was attacked by aassassins and left for dead, but recovered. His attackers found a refuge in the papal territories. Their chief, Poma, declared that he had attempted the murder for religious reasons. "Agnosco stylum Curiae Romanae," Sarpi himself said, when his surgeon commented on the ragged and inartistic character of the wounds. The only question is the degree of complicity of Pope Paul V.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The remainder of Sarpi's life was spent peacefully in his cloister, though plots against him continued to be formed, and he occasionally spoke of taking refuge in England. When not engaged in preparing state papers, he devoted himself to scientific studies, and composed several works. A Machiavellian tract on the fundamental maxims of Venetian policy (Opinione come debba governarsi la repubblica di Venezia), used by his adversaries to blacken his memory, is undoubtedly not his. It has been attributed to a certain Gradenigo. Nor did he complete a reply which he had been ordered to prepare tothe Squitinio delia libertà veneta, which he perhaps found unanswerable. In folio appeared his History of Ecclesiastical Benefices, in which, says Matteo Ricci, "he purged the church of the defilement introduced by spurious decretals." In 1611 he assailed another abuse byhis treatise on the right of asylum claimed for churches, which was immediately placed on the Index.

Related Topics:
Machiavelli - Matteo Ricci

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~