venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 177
hesitate to arrest Seviros on the charge of preparing a revolt in the colony
intended to allow an Ottoman occupation of the island. It also forbade
Margounios to return to his own diocese in Cerigo, on the basis of reports
on his predecessor’s behavior,187 but probably also because of Cerigo’s
vicinity to Crete. When information about the presence in Crete of the
Orthodox bishop of Chios reached Venice, orders were issued in 1588 to
expel him without delay.188 As Alberto Tenenti has emphasized, the main
characteristic of Venice’s religious policy in her overseas empire was a
consistent effort to curb the autonomy of both the Catholic and the Ortho-
dox Church, so as to reserve for itself decisions in the sphere as well.189
However, the reality was sometimes much different from the legal
norms that Venice was trying to impose on its dominions. Archbishop
Seviros noted in a document presented to the Venetian authorities early
in 1588, that the bishop of Scarpanto ordained about 100 Cretans to the
priesthood within a short time on Cretan soil.190 Andrea Bragadin, an out-
going Venetian bailo of Corfu, observed in 1621 that Greek priests let them-
selves be ordained in Ottoman territories, transgressing Venetian laws in
this respect. Toward the end of the 18th century, an Orthodox bishop from
Negroponte was able to act freely on Corfu, ordaining priests and con-
ducting a campaign to convert local subject to the Greek rite.191 One is
tempted to believe that such disorder resulted from the general weaken-
ing of the Venetian state system, what is often described as Venice’s “deca-
dence.” But there is no way of ascertaining that this is really the case.
The Interdict and Its Colonial Aftermath
In 1605, the continuous disagreements between Venice and the papacy ended
up by creating the major crisis known as the Interdict. Without entering into
the details of this affair, suffice it to say that although the immediate reasons
for the crisis concerned the State’s handling of ecclesiastical property and its
insistence on bringing criminal churchmen to trial before state courts, the
187 Fedalto, Ricerche, pp. 100–101. He remained in Venice as a public teacher of Latin
and Greek.
188 Tea, “Saggio sulla storia religiosa,” pp. 1372–73; Peri, “L’incredibile risguardo,”
p. 610; Kostas T. Tsiknakis, “Gabriele Seviros a Creta negli anni 1586–1587,” in Dimitris G.
Apostolopulos, ed., Gavriil Seviros, Arcivescovo di Filadelfia a Venezia e la sua epoca (Venice,
2004), pp. 93–94; Maltezou, “Gavrill Seviros imprigionato.” Archbishop Seviros spent five
months in jail.
189 Tenenti, “Le Isole Ionie,” p. 14.
190 Maltezou, “Gavrill Seviros imprigionato,” p. 108.
191 Lunzi, Della condizione, pp. 391–92.