t Oxford, as he spoke before the
Sorbonne, as he might be speaking now. There is no air of literary
effort, no tincture of antiquated style, in these masculine utterances.

CHAPTER X.

FRA PAOLO SARPI.

Sarpi's Position in the History of Venice--Parents and
Boyhood--Entrance into the Order of the Servites--His Personal
Qualities--Achievements as a Scholar and Man of Science--His Life
among the Servites--In Bad Odor at Rome--Paul V. places Venice
under Interdict--Sarpi elected Theologian and Counselor of the
Republic--His Polemical Writings--Views on Church and State--The
Interdict Removed--Roman Vengeance--Sarpi attacked by Bravi--His
Wounds, Illness, Recovery--Subsequent History of the
Assassins--Further Attempts on Sarpi's Life--Sarpi's Political and
Historical Works--History of the Council of Trent--Sarpi's Attitude
toward Protestantism--His Judgment of the Jesuits--Sarpi's
Death--The Christian Stoic.

Fra Paolo was the son of Francesco Sarpi and Isabella Morelli, Venetians
of the humbler middle class. He was born in 1552, christened Pietro, and
nicknamed Pierino because of his diminutive stature. On entering the
Order of the Servites he adopted the religious name of Paolo, which he
subsequently rendered famous throughout Europe. Since he died in 1623,
Sarpi's life coincided with a period of supreme interest and manifold
vicissitudes in the decline of Venice. After the battle of Lepanto in
1571, he saw the nobles of S. Mark welcome their victorious admiral
Sebastiano Veniero and confer on him the honors of the Dogeship. In
1606, he aided the Republic to withstand the thunders of the Vatican
and defy the excommunication of a Pope. Eight years later he attended at
those councils of state which unmasked the conspiracy, known as
Bedmar's, to destroy Venice. In his early manhood Cyprus had been
wrested from the hands of S. Mark; and inasmuch as the Venetians alone
sustained the cause of Christian civilization against Turk and pirate in
the Eastern seas, he was able before his death to anticipate the ruin
which the war of Candia subsequently brought upon his country. During
the last eighteen years of his existence Sarpi was the intellect of the
Republic; the man of will and mind who gave voice and vigor to her
policy of independence; the statesman who most clearly penetrated the
conditions of her strength and weakness. This friar incarnated the
Venetian