venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 171
At the request of the Greeks in Venice, Pope Clement VII created in 1526 a
commission of Catholic prelates who were ordered to ensure that Greeks
would be able to enjoy the privileges granted by Leo X without hindrance.
In 1540 Pope Paul III intervened to guarantee that these privileges, con-
ceded to the Greek Orthodox in Venetian Corfu, were actually respected,
and he reiterated the direct subordination of the Greeks of Venice to
papal jurisdiction.164 Such repeated initiatives by three Renaissance popes
may reflect difficulties in carrying out this policy, but they express all the
same an exceptionally liberal attitude. This policy was soon to be radically
reversed, creating new challenges to relations between Greek Orthodox
and Roman Catholics in Venice and its maritime provinces.
The Challenge of the Catholic Reformation
The danger inherent in the new spirit of the Counter Reformation was
already perceived by the Venetian government during the sessions of
the Council of Trent (1545–63), which reformulated the Catholic dogma.
Venetian representatives in Trent were active in trying to prevent any
formulation of Catholic doctrine that could hamper the Republic’s
relations with its non-Catholic subjects.165
Coping with the Counter-Reformation papacy was a more complicated
matter. Paul III, who in 1540 still confirmed the liberal policy of his prede-
cessors with respect to the Greek Orthodox believers, revoked in 1542 the
privileges that had been granted to the Greek community in Venice and
required that all Orthodox priests should make a profession of (Catholic)
faith.166 In 1564, his successor, Pius IV, in his bull Romanus Pontifex, abol-
ished all exemptions from dependency to Roman bishops and even seri-
ously considered suppressing all Orthodox worship on Italian soil. In the
same year he issued a bull requiring university students to make a profes-
sion of faith as a condition of receiving their laurea.167 The following pope,
Pius V, prohibited in August 1566 the performance of Greek and Roman
rites by priests who did not belong to the respective Churches. In 1568, the
164 Augliera, Libri, politica, religione, pp. 101–02.
165 Fedalto, Ricerche, p. 83.
166 Augliera, Libri, Politica Religione, p. 102 n.
167 Vittorio Peri, “L’incredibile risguardo e l’incredibile destrezza. La resistenza di
Venezia alle iniziative postridentine della Santa Sede per i Greci dei suoi domini,” in
Hans Georg Beck, Manoussos Manoussakas, and Agostino Pertusi, eds., Venezia centro di
mediazione tra Oriente e Occidente, secoli XV–XVI. Aspetti e problemi, 2 vols (Florence, 1977),
2:600; Fedalto, Ricerche, pp. 88–89.