398 cecilia cristellon and silvana seidel menchi
generally remain phenomena of aristocratic devotion with little impact
on a popular level.42
ii. Piety, Impiety, Repression- Venice and Rome
Venetian culture knew no boundaries between the religious and politi-
cal spheres. While the aspiration to surround themselves with a sacred
aura was common to european powers in the medieval and early modern
periods, only political realities of the first order, such as the Holy Roman
empire or the kingdom of france, pursued this objective with comparable
effects to those which can be found in a minor state of the italian pen-
insula—in Venice. in no other political reality was the osmosis between
the spiritual and secular spheres as pervasive as in the Serenissima Repub-
lic. The doge was princeps in ecclesia, princeps in republica [head of the
church, head of the state], the basilica of st Mark was the doge’s chapel—
exempt from both patriarchal and episcopal jurisdiction—and as such was
invested with the function of a state church. The Republic controlled the
elite of the Venetian secular clergy through its power of appointment to
the most important benefices throughout its territory. The ritual of state
had a solemnity that competed with that of the feast days of the ecclesi-
astical calendar and a capacity to involve the populus that was probably
even greater.43
The Republic had no need for a privileged relationship with the Holy
see, because it was itself the Church; its citizens went unharmed by the
storms of history because they had god on their side (Rafaino Caresini,
c.1314–90). The doges had to obey god, not the pope. from the 14th cen-
tury, we find documents attesting the fact that Venice considered itself
invested with a mission conferred upon it directly by Providence: those
who opposed the elect city and the supernatural destiny it incarnated
were guilty of opposing the divine plan. A consciousness of this mission
deeply permeated the city’s habitants, and not only those responsible for
running the state.44
42 Antonio Niero, “spiritualità popolare e dotta,” in Bertoli, ed., La Chiesa di Venezia nel
Seicento, pp. 253–90; and Antonio Niero, Spiritualità popolare e dotta, in La Chiesa di Venezia
nel Settecento, ed. Bruno Bertoli (Venice, 1993), pp. 127–57, with a lengthy bibliography.
43 Muir, Civic Ritual, pp. 103–34, 185–211.
44 gaetano Cozzi, “i rapporti tra stato e Chiesa,” in giuseppe gullino, ed., La Chiesa
di Venezia tra Riforma protestante e Riforma cattolica (Venice, 1990), pp. 11–36; giorgio