"
"I crave pardon of the Cavaliere Donato," Antonio Querini responded
hotly. "May one call the action at Genoa _petty_?--the compulsion of the
entire vote of a free city, the placing of the election of the whole
body of governing officials in the power of the Society of Jesus?"
"And it was under threat of excommunication, which made resistance a
duty from the side of the government," Giustinian Giustiniani asserted
uncompromisingly.
"But impossible from the Church's point of view. It is the eternal
question," Leonardo Donato answered gravely.
"_The solution is only possible by precisely ascertaining the limits
within which each power is absolute_," the friar announced, with quiet
decision.
A momentary hush fell upon the company, for the words were weighty and a
surprise.
"It is well to know the qualities we have to fear," said Andrea
Morosini, "and we have listened in the Senate to letters from our
ambassador at Rome which bespeak his Holiness of a presence and a
dignity--save for over-quickness of temper--which befit a Pope; and that
he hath reserved himself from promises, to the displeasure and surprise
of some of those who created him.
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