If Paul V had surrendered with reluctance his hope of a sumptuous
ceremony in San Pietro, where delegates of penitent Venetians should
kneel in public and confess and be graciously absolved--if the Cardinal
di Gioiosa had indulged flattering visions of a procession of priests
and people to the patriarchal church in the Piazza, with paeans of
joy-bells and shouts of gladness that Venice was again free to resume
her worship, and that her penitent people were pardoned sons of the
Church--he was doomed to disappointment. The cardinals of Spain and
France, attended only by their households, celebrated Mass in the ducal
chapel of San Marco; and the people came and went--as they did before
and after, through that day and all the days since the interdict had
been pronounced, in this and all the churches of Venice--and scarcely
knew that their doom was lifted, as they had hardly realized that the
curse had ever penetrated from those distant doors of San Pietro to the
sanctuary of San Marco!
But the world knew and never forgot how that stately court of Venice had
met the thunder of the Vatican and lessened its power forever.
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