382 cecilia cristellon and silvana seidel menchi
patriarchal see. This attitude would only start to change with the onset of
the War of Candia (1644–69), during which time, given the Serenissima’s
grave difficulties, ecclesiastics often played an important role in negotia-
tions between Rome and Venice, at which time the latter not only ceased
blocking their career advancement within the Church but also supported
their rise to the College of Cardinals and even to the threshold of the
papal throne.6
The Republic had relegated the episcopal and later patriarchal see to
the marginal Castello neighborhood, while the palatine church of st Mark’s
soared majestically in the political heart of the city on the lagoon, symbol-
izing that union between religion and the Serenissima which contributed
so much to the construction and endurance of the myth of Venice.
The peripheral dislocation of the patriarchal see was unsuitable for the
demands of diocesan government, as was noted on the occasion of a 1581
apostolic visit. in order to carry out its own judiciary functions and fulfill
its pastoral mission, the patriarch, his vicar, and his secretaries were at
times forced to leave Castello and go as far as the Rialto, for example, to
question witnesses in a marriage case7 or grant a hearing to the faithful, as
did federico Corner (1631–44) in his regular, bi-weekly trip to his family’s
ancestral palace in the centrally located san Polo district.8
- Parish Configuration and the Organization of the Secular Clergy
The Venetian diocese was divided into nearly 70 dioceses, most of which
were collegial in nature—provided, that is, with a chapter in which three
or four priests, various deacons and sub-deacons, and even some acolytes
assisted the parish priest; some were joined to female monasteries and
one in particular (the parish of san salvatore) to the regular canons of the
santissimo salvatore. even in these latter examples the role of the parish
priest was retained by a secular clergyman.9
6 Antonio Menniti ippolito, “ ‘sudditi d’un atro stato’? gli ecclesiastici veneziani,”
in gino Benzoni and Antonio Menniti ippolito, Storia di Venezia. Dalle origini alla
caduta della Serenissima, 14 vols (Rome, 1992–2002), vol. 7 (1997): La Venezia barocca, eds.
gino Benzoni and gaetano Cozzi (1997), pp. 325–65, p. 336.
7 Archivio Storico del Patriarcato di Venezia, Curia II, Causarum matrimoniorum (from
here on, ASPV, CM), vol. 12: Iohannis Dominicis Ceti vs Camilla e Angelica, 1512–1513.
8 Antonio Niero, “la diocesi dal seicento alla caduta della Repubblica,” in silvio Tra-
montin, ed., Storia religiosa del Veneto, vol. 1: Patriarcato di Venezia (Padua, 1991), pp. 131–
85, p. 149.
9 We have accurate knowledge of the dates relative to the 17th century: 72 parishes,
including the cathedral, 11 of them non-collegial, five linked to female monasteries, and