liturgies of violence 521
the tranquility and security of regions that were geographically and politi-
cally much larger than the ancient territorial subdivisions.28
at the root of this great transformation were deep economic and social
shifts. while these shifts did not affect the formal political and ideological
structure of the class-based social order, they did force it to accommodate
a concept of public order whose priorities included, for example, both con-
trolling the increasing geographical mobility and guaranteeing economic
exchange,29 as well as ensuring greater social and political mobility in a
hierarchy based on values still understood in the language of honor and
friendship.30 this transformation was certainly not painless, particularly
for the privileged classes such as the ancient nobility of blood, who identi-
fied themselves with the traditional political order and the peace-based
order that had always characterized civil and penal justice, as well as the
underlying state of feud, whose cultural reference points were kinship
and honor.31
during the 16th century, the desire for social control and limiting vio-
lence was noticeable everywhere. this expressed itself above all in the
establishment of new secular and ecclesiastical courts and in the diffusion
of inquisitorial trial procedures designed to restrain, if not obstruct, the
active role of the parties and their opportunities to affect the outcome of
a trial.32 this initiative clearly came from the leading sectors of the ruling
classes, who identified themselves with the new role being assigned to
church and state. but it also reflects forces and demands that came more
generally from a society that considered ever more essential such things
as reliable security, seen as vital for economic and social exchange in the
increasingly open 16th-century world.
as in other states, in Venice the new congregation of the holy office
joined episcopal courts in repressing not only religious dissent but also
behavior that was, somewhat questionably, placed in the category of
social deviance. the inquisitors’ activities were limited by the presence
of members of the Venetian patriciate but also worked in collaboration,
28 Povolo, Dall’ordine della pace, pp. 26–27.
29 an overview for italy in christopher f. black, Early Modern Italy: A Social History
(London, 2001), pp. 188–97.
30 Maurice aymard, Amicizia e convivialità, in P. ariès and g. duby, eds., La vita privata
dal Rinascimento all’Illuminismo (rome/bari, 1987), pp. 360–65.
31 James r. farr, Honor, Law and Custom in Renaissance Europe, in guido ruggiero, ed.,
A Companion to the Worlds of Renaissance (Malden, 2007), p. 127.
32 John h. Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance: England, Germany, France
(cambridge, Mass., 1974), passim.