education in the republic of venice 685
based on aristotle, plus mathematics and theology, to boys in their late
teens. in 1582 the Jesuits added a boarding school for noble boys. in 1589
the paduan school had 450 students, including 70 noble boarders.30
the success of the Jesuit school angered some university professors and
students, because it competed effectively with the university of padua in
the humanities and philosophy. the campaign against the Jesuits began
with student protests and culminated with a fiery oration to the Venetian
Senate by cesare cremonini (1550–1631), second position ordinary profes-
sor of natural philosophy. he charged that the Jesuits had deliberately
and stealthily founded a rival university that drew students away from the
university of padua, an act contrary to Venetian law that made padua the
sole university of the Venetian state. on 23 december 1591, the Venetian
Senate ordered the Jesuits at padua to teach Jesuit students only. While the
local Jesuits, with the support of prominent citizens of padua and many
senators, wanted the Senate to permit the Jesuits to continue to oper-
ate a lower school open to lay students, the Jesuit father-general decided
against this. the Jesuits closed their paduan school, drastically reduced
the size of the Jesuit community there, and deployed their members else-
where. the 1591 battle attracted considerable attention at the time and
subsequently. the last scholarly word may not have been written.31
Venetian hostility against the Jesuits peaked at the interdict. after a
series of church-state jurisdictional disputes, pope paul V laid the Repub-
lic of Venice under interdict in april 1606. he forbade clergymen from
exercising almost all sacerdotal functions, including celebrating Mass and
administering the sacraments. the Venetian government ordered all cler-
gymen in the state to ignore the interdict under pain of death, and most
obeyed. but the Jesuits refused; so the Venetian government ordered the
30 John patrick donnelly, “the Jesuit college at padua: Growth, Suppression, attempts
at Restoration: 1552–1606,” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 51 (1982), 48.
31 antonio favaro, Lo Studio di Padova e la Compagnia di Gesù sul finire del secolo
decimosesto (Venice, 1878), is the initial account and still valuable for the documents
printed. See also antonio favaro, “nuovi documenti sulla vertenza tra lo Studio di padova
e la compagnia di Gesù sul finire del secolo decimosesto,” Nuovo Archivio Veneto, serie 3,
vol. 21 (1911), 89–100; and Roberto cessi, “l’università giurista di padova ed i Gesuiti alla
fine del cinquecento,” Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti 81 (1921–22),
part 2, pp. 585–601. donnelly, “the Jesuit college at padua,” gives the best short account
of the story. Maurizio Sangalli, Cultura, politica e religione nella Repubblica di Venezia tra
Cinque e Seicento. Gesuiti e Somaschi a Venezia (Venice, 1999); and Sangalli, Università
accademie Gesuiti. Cultura e religione a Padova tra Cinque e Seicento (padua, 2001) add
new information including Jesuit documents. paul f. Grendler, The University of Mantua,
the Gonzaga, and the Jesuits, 1584–1630 (baltimore/london, 2009), pp. 218–23, focuses on
cremonini’s objections to Jesuit pedagogy and Jesuit responses.