How can the Holy Father yield a point which touches the honor of the
Church?"
"Verily, my lady, I believe thou art not responsible for thine own
foolishness!" her husband exclaimed angrily. "If that prelate cousin of
Saraceni comes again to thy salon, let him be refused! He shall not
prate to thee of 'law' and 'supremacy,' who hath sought for this
occasion to embroil us with the Holy See. For the Senate hath learned
to-day, through the trustworthy open mouth of our watchful Lion, with
evidence irrefragable, that it is this reverend father who hath carried
the tale to Rome."
"Tell me the right of it," she said again. "How may the honor of the
Church be saved, yet the dignity of Venice be maintained? If there be a
way, we women should speak for it."
"Is the honor of the Church maintained by standing as a shield to crime?
It is Venice who would save the Church; the civil ruler shall purge her
sacred courts of such iniquities and leave her the purer for her sons to
love. Such is the law--ancient and just--and a right Venice cannot
yield.
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