spirit at a moment when, upon the verge of decadence, it had
attained self-consciousness; and so instinctively devoted are Venetians
to their State that in his lifetime he was recognized by them as hero,
and after his death venerated as saint.

No sooner had the dispute with Paul V. been compromised, than Sarpi
noticed how the aristocracy of Venice yielded themselves to sloth and
political indifference. The religious obsequiousness to Rome and the
'peace or rather cowardice of slaves,' which were gradually immersing
Italy in mental torpor and luxurious idleness, invaded this last
stronghold of freedom. Though Sarpi's Christian Stoicism and practical
sagacity saved him from playing the then futile part of public agitator,
his private correspondence shows how low his hope had sunk for Italy.
Nothing but a general war could free her from the yoke of arrogant Rome
and foreign despotism. Meanwhile the Papal Court, Spain and the House of
Austria, having everything to lose by contest, preserved the peace of
Italy at any cost. Princes whose petty thrones depended on Spanish and
Papal good-will, dreaded to disturb the equilibrium of servitude; the
population, dulled by superstition, emasculated by Jesuitical corruption
and intimidated by Church tyranny, slumbered in the gross mud-honey of
slavish pleasures. From his cell in the convent of the Servites Sarpi
swept the whole political horizon, eagerly anticipating some dawn-star
of deliverance. At one time his eyes rested on the Duke of Savoy, but
that unquiet spirit failed to steer his course clear between Spanish and
French interests, Roman jealousies, and the ill-concealed hostilities of
Italian potentates. At another time, like all lovers of freedom
throughout Europe, he looked with confidence to Henri IV. But a
fanatic's dagger, sharpened by the Jesuits, cut short the monarch's life
and gave up France to the government of astute Florentine adventurers.
Germany was too distracted by internal dissensions, Holland too distant
and preoccupied with her own struggle for existence, to offer immediate
aid. It was in vain that Sarpi told his foreign correspondents that the
war of liberty in Europe must be carried into the stronghold of
absolutism. To secure a victory over the triple forces of Spain, the
Papal Court and Jesuitry, Rome had to be attacked in Italy. His
reasoning was correct. But peoples fighting for freedom on their native
soil could not risk an adventure which only some