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SARPI, PAOLO (1552-1623)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 222 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SARPI, See also:PAOLO (1552-1623) , Venetian patriot, See also:scholar and See also:church reformer, was See also:born at See also:Venice, on the 14th of See also:August 1552, and was the son of a small trader, who See also:left him an See also:orphan at an See also:early See also:age. Notwithstanding the opposition of his relatives, he entered the See also:order of the Servi di Maria, a See also:minor Augustinian See also:congregation of Florentine origin, at the age of thirteen. He assumed the name of Paolo, by which, with the epithet Servita, he was always known to his contemporaries. In 1570 he sustained no fewer than three See also:hundred and eighteen theses at a disputation in See also:Mantua, with such See also:applause that the See also:duke made him See also:court theologian. Sarpi spent four years at Mantua, applying himself to See also:mathematics and the See also:Oriental See also:languages. After leaving Mantua, he repaired to See also:Milan, where he enjoyed the See also:protection of See also:Cardinal See also:Borromeo, but was soon transferred by his superiors to Venice, as See also:professor of See also:philosophy at the Servite See also:convent. In 1579 he was sent to See also:Rome on business connected with the reform of his order, which occupied him several years, and brought him into intimate relations with three successive popes, as well as the See also:grand inquisitor and other persons of See also:influence. Having successfully terminated the affairs entrusted to him, he returned to Venice in 1588, and passed the next seventeen years in study, occasionally interrupted by the See also:part he was compelled to take in the See also:internal disputes of his community. In 16o1 he was recommended by the Venetian See also:senate for the small bishopric of Caorle, but the papal See also:nuncio, who wished to obtain it for a protege of his own, informed the See also:pope that Sarpi denied the See also:immortality of the soul, and had controverted the authority of See also:Aristotle. An See also:attempt to procure another small bishopric in the following See also:year also failed, See also:Clement VIII. professing to have taken umbrage at Sarpi's•extensive See also:correspondence with learned heretics, but more probably determined to thwart the desires of the liberal rulers of Venice. The sense of injury, no doubt, contributed to exasperate Sarpi's feelings towards the court of Rome. For the See also:time, however, he tranquilly pursued his studies, See also:writing those notes on See also:Vieta which establish his proficiency in mathematics, and a metaphysical See also:treatise now lost, which, if Foscarini's See also:account of it may be relied upon, anticipated the See also:sensationalism of See also:Locke.

His anatomical pursuits probably date from a somewhat earlier See also:

period. They illustrate his versatility and thirst for knowledge, but are far from possessing the importance ascribed to them by his disciples. His claim to have anticipated See also:Harvey's See also:discovery rests on no better authority than a memorandum, probably copied from See also:Caesalpinus or Harvey himself, with whom, as well as with See also:Bacon and See also:Gilbert, hemaintained a correspondence. The only physiological discovery which can be safely attributed to him is that of the contractility of the See also:iris. It must be remembered, however, that his See also:treatises on scientific subjects are lost, and only known from imperfect abstracts. Clement died in See also:March 16o5; and See also:Paul V. assumed the See also:tiara with the See also:resolution to See also:strain papal See also:prerogative to the uttermost. At the same time Venice was adopting See also:measures to restrict it still further. The right of the See also:secular tribunals to take See also:cognizance of the offences of ecclesiastics had been asserted in two remark-able cases; and the See also:scope of two See also:ancient See also:laws of the See also:city of Venice, forbidding the See also:foundation of churches or ecclesiastical congregations without the consent of the See also:state, and the acquisition of See also:property by priests or religious bodies, had been extended over the entire territory of the See also:republic. In See also:January r6o6 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 See also:appeal to a See also:general See also:council. The document was received with universal applause, and Sarpi was immediately made canonist and theological counsellor to the republic. When in the following See also:April the last hopes of See also:accommodation were dispelled by Paul's ex-communication of the Venetians and his attempt to See also:lay their dominions under an See also:interdict, Sarpi entered with the utmost See also:energy into the controversy.

He prudently began by republishing the See also:

anti-papal opinions of the famous canonist See also:Gerson. In an See also:anonymous See also:tract published shortly afterwards (Risposta di un Dottore in Teologia) he laid down principles which struck at the very See also:root of the pope's authority in secular things. This See also:book was promptly put upon the See also:Index, and the republication of Gerson was attacked by See also:Bellarmine with a severity which obliged Sarpi to reply in an Apologia. The Considerazioni sulle censure and the Trattato dell' interdetto, the latter partly prepared under his direction by other theologians, speedily followed. Numerous other See also:pamphlets appeared, inspired or controlled by Sarpi, who had received the further See also:appointment of See also:censor over all that should be written at Venice in See also:defence of the republic. Never before in a religious controversy had the appeal been made so exclusively to See also:reason and See also:history; never before had an ecclesiastic of his See also:eminence maintained the subjection of the See also:clergy to the state, and disputed the pope's right to employ spiritual censures, except under restrictions which virtually abrogated it. Material arguments were no longer at the pope's disposal. The Venetian clergy, a few religious orders excepted, disregarded the interdict, and discharged their functions as usual. The See also:Catholic See also:powers refused to be See also:drawn into the See also:quarrel. At length (April 1607) a See also:compromise was arranged through the See also:mediation of the See also:king of See also:France, which, while salving over the pope's dignity, See also:con-ceded the points at issue. The See also:great victory, however, was not so much the defeat of the papal pretensions as the demonstration that interdicts and excommunications had lost their force. Even this was not wholly satisfactory to Sarpi, who longed for the See also:toleration of See also:Protestant See also:worship in Venice, and had hoped for a separation from Rome and the See also:establishment of a Venetian See also:free church by which the decrees of the council of See also:Trent would have been rejected, and in which the See also:Bible would have been an open book.

The republic rewarded her See also:

champion with the further distinction of state counsellor in See also:jurisprudence, and, a unique See also:mark of confidence, the See also:liberty of See also:access to the state archives. These honours exasperated his adversaries to the uttermost. On the 5th of See also:October he was attacked by a See also:band of assassins and left for dead, but the wounds were not mortal. The bravos found a See also:refuge in the papal territories. Their See also:chief, Poma, declared that he had been moved to attempt the See also:murder by his zeal for See also:religion, a degree of piety and self-See also:sacrifice which seems incredible in a bankrupt oil-See also:merchant. " Agnosco stylum Curiae Romanae," Sarpi himself pleasantly said, when his surgeon commented upon the ragged and inartistic See also:character of the wounds, and the See also:justice of the observation is as incontestable as its wit. The only question can be as to the degree of complicity of Pope Paul V. The See also:remainder of Sarpi's See also:life was spent peacefully in his See also:cloister, though plots against him continued to be formed, and he occasion-ally spoke of taking refuge in See also:England. When not engaged in framing state papers, he devoted himself to scientific studies, and composed several See also:works. A Machiavellian tract on the fundamental See also:maxims of Venetian policy (See also:Opinion 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 See also:complete a reply which he had been ordered to prepare to the Squitinio See also:delta liberta veneta, which he perhaps found unanswerable.

In 1610 appeared his History of Ecclesiastical Benefices, " in which," says See also:

Ricci, " he purged the church of the defilement introduced by See also:spurious See also:decretals." In 1611 he assailed another abuse by his treatise on the right of See also:asylum claimed for churches, which was immediately placed on the Index. In 1615 a dispute between the Venetian See also:government and the See also:Inquisition respecting the See also:prohibition of a book led him to write on the history and See also:procedure of the Venetian Inquisition; and in 1619 his chief See also:literary See also:work, the History of the Council of Trent, was printed at See also:London under the name of Pietro Soave Polano, an See also:anagram of Paolo Sarpi Veneto. The editor, Marco See also:Antonio de See also:Dominis, has been accused of falsifying the See also:text, but a comparison with a MS. corrected by Sarpi himself shows that the alterations are both unnecessary and unimportant. This memorable book, together with the See also:rival and apologetic history by Cardinal Pallavicini, is minutely criticized by See also:Ranke (History of the Popes, appendix No. 3), who tests the veracity of both writers by examining the use they have respectively made of their MS. materials. The result is not highly favourable to either; neither can be taxed with deliberate falsification, but both have coloured and suppressed. They write as See also:advocates rather than historians. Ranke rates the literary qualities of Sarpi's work very highly. Sarpi never acknowledged his authorship, and baffled all the efforts of the See also:prince de See also:Conde to See also:extract the See also:secret from him. He survived the publication four years, dying on the 15th of January 1623, labouring for his See also:country to the last. The See also:day before his See also:death he had dictated three replies to questions on affairs of state, and his last words, were " Esto perpetua." His See also:posthumous History of the Interdict was printed at Venice the year after his death, with the disguised imprint of See also:Lyons. Great See also:light has been thrown upon Sarpi's real belief and the motives of his conduct by the letters of Christoph von Dohna, See also:envoy of See also:Christian, prince of See also:Anhalt, to Venice, published by See also:Moritz See also:Ritter in the Briefe and Acten zur Geschichte See also:des dreissigjdhrigen Krieges, vol. ii.

(See also:

Munich, 1874). Sarpi told Dohna that he greatly disliked saying See also:mass, and celebrated it as seldom as possible, but that he was compelled to do so, as he would otherwise seem to admit the validity of the papal prohibition, and thus betray the cause of Venice. This supplies the See also:key to his whole behaviour; he was a patriot first and a religious reformer afterwards. He was " rooted " in what See also:Diodati described to Dohna as " the most dangerous See also:maxim, that See also:God does not regard externals so See also:long as the mind and See also:heart are right before Him." Sarpi had another maxim, which he thus formulated to Dohna: Le falsita non dico See also:mai mai, ma la verita non a ognuno. It must further be considered that, though Sarpi admired the See also:English See also:prayer-book, he was neither See also:Anglican, Lutheran nor Calvinist, and might have found it difficult to accommodate himself to any Protestant church. On the whole, the opinion of Le See also:Courayer, "qu'il etait Catholique en See also:gros et quelque fois Protestant en detail," seems not altogether groundless, though it can no longer be accepted as a satisfactory summing up of the question. His scientific attainments must have been great. Galileo would not have wasted his time in corresponding with a See also:man from whom he could learn nothing; and, though Sarpi did not, as has been asserted, invent the See also:telescope, he immediately turned it to See also:practical account by constructing a See also:map of the See also:moon. Sarpi's life was written by his enthusiastic See also:disciple, See also:Father Fulgenzio Micanzio, whose work is meagre and uncritical. Bianchi. Giovini's See also:biography (1836) is greatly marred by digressions, and is inferior in some respects to that by Arabella Georgina See also:Campbell (1869), which is enriched by numerous references to See also:MSS. unknown to Bianchi-Giovini. T.

A. See also:

Trollope's Paul the Pope and Paul the See also:Friar (1861) is in the See also:main a See also:mere abstract of Bianchi-Giovini, but adds a spirited account of the See also:conclave of Paul V. The incidents of the Venetian dispute from day to day are related in the con-temporary diaries published by Enrico See also:Cornet (See also:Vienna, 1859). Giusto Fontanini's Storia arcana della vita di Pietro Sarpi (1863), a See also:bitter See also:libel, is nevertheless important for the letters of Sarpi it contains, as Griselini's Memorie e aneddote (176o) is from the author's access to Sarpi's unpublished writings, afterwards unfortunately destroyed by See also:fire. Foscarini's History of Venetian Literature is important on the same account. Sarpi's See also:memoirs on state affairs remain in the Venetian archives. Portions of his correspondence have been printed at various times, and inedited letters from him are of frequent occurrence in public See also:libraries. The King's library in the See also:British Museum has a valuable collection of tracts in the Interdict controversy, formed by See also:Consul See also:Smith. [In addition to the above works see Galan, Fra Paolo Sarpi (Venice, 1887) and Pascolato, Fra Paolo Sarpi (Milan, 1893). Some hitherto unpublished letters of Sarpi were edited by Karl Benrath and published, under the See also:title Paolo Sarpi. Neue Briefe, 16o8–1616 (at See also:Leipzig in 1909).] (R.

End of Article: SARPI, PAOLO (1552-1623)

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