Secret,
swift, relentless, absolute--Venice had work for men who did not court
the sunlight; and such a nucleus drew to its dark centre intriguers from
other courts, and gathered in and strengthened the worthless within its
own borders, until the evil was growing heavy to deal with.
Causes of discontent between Church and State were alarmingly on the
increase; and while in no other dominion, save that of Rome alone, were
ecclesiastical possessions so rich, or their establishments more
splendid than at Venice, nowhere were the lines of power so jealously
defined and guarded as in the government of this Republic from which
ecclesiastics were rigorously excluded,--although no least ceremonial
was held complete without the presence of the Patriarch and priests who
evidenced the devotion of Venice to the Holy Mother Church,--though
every parish kept its festa, and the religion of Venice was an essential
part of the life of its people. But if the priests had no visible seat
in the splendid Council Chambers of the Republic, they boasted at Rome
that their sway over the consciences of these lordly senators was well
established by virtue of the confessional and that, in the event of
contest, there would be many votes for Rome.
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