Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/162

Rh 144 VENICE [HISTORY. to describe exactly the functions of the council of the ten. Appointed merely provisionally in 1 300 at the time of the conspiracy, to act as an inquisition, it was made a perma nent body in 1335. Twenty years later the importance of the process against Marino Faliero led to an increase in the number of its members (la zonta), and thencefor ward the ten, under the presidency of the doge (il con- siylio), took cognizance of all matters, and their action extended over every department of government. It is a mistake to suppose that the council was merely an exten sion of the power of the aristocracy. It acted, on the contrary, as a check on the encroachments of the latter ; and, if it occasionally fell into culpable excesses, if some times it employed what might be called &quot; stage &quot; machin ery, allying itself with informers, rewarding traitors, sur rounding its deliberations with an air of mystery only too favourable to private revenge and too threatening to public security, and in fact becoming at one time plainly the instrument of tyranny, nevertheless its constant watchful ness over the interests of the state was not without advan tages and compensations. Contest As invariably happens, the threatenings of danger from with without gave pause to internal sedition and served to unite Genoa. more closely together the aristocracy, the people, and the middle classes. The Genoese could but ill endure the supremacy of their rivals in the Adriatic. Leaving out of account a few years of truce, from 1298, the year of the defeat of the Venetians by their rivals at Curzola, to 1379, when after various changes of fortune the complete destruc tion of their fleet by the Genoese at Pola allowed the latter to force a passage to the very heart of the lagoons, the struggle between the two maritime republics had gone on uninterruptedly. Never had Venice been nearer total destruction than after the disaster at Pola, but never also had the patriotism of her citizens expressed itself more clearly and unmistakably. The community of interest be tween all classes was fully realized : old men, women, and children flew to arms ; all classes liberally contributed to the replenishment of the empty treasury ; the precious things that had been brought from the East found their way into the melting pot, and even the altars were stripped. Doge Andrea Contarini, an old man of eighty, claimed the honour of leading an improvised fleet against the enemy, and Victor Pisani, a distinguished captain who had fallen under the suspicions of the ten, was brought up from his dungeon amid the acclamations of the whole people, who sacrificed every resentment to the ardour of their patriot ism. Along with Carlo Zeno, just returned from the wars in the East, he gave spirit to the combatants, and drove the Genoese from Chioggia (on which they had seized). Venice was saved, and, grateful for the services rendered by certain families of the middle class who had ably assisted Pisani and Zeno, the great council added to its numbers thirty new members selected from those who had most distinguished themselves in the struggle. Con- The large extension of its territory on the mainland in ^ ie 1 ^h century marks an important stage in the history of Venice. From being essentially a naval power, the republic now began to be an important continental one ; and henceforward down to the 17th century it threw its sword into the balance on every occasion on which Italy was made the battle-ground of Europe. The fall of the Lombard kingdom, the struggles of the Ghibellines and Guelphs, and the personal exploits of the condottieri all urged Venice to take her part in the great movement, to widen her sphere of action, while fortifying herself against the dangers of her immediate neighbourhood, and to issue from her lagoons and establish herself as a state on terra firma. Venice made herself mistress of Vicenza, Feltre, and Bassano in 1388; and with the help of Carmagnola, the main land. Gattamelata, and afterwards Alviano and Colleoni, Padua and Verona were added in 1405, Udine and Friuli in 1420, Brescia in 1426, Bergamo in 1427, Crema in 1449, Rovigo in 1484, and Cremona in 1499, and podestas were set over each of these provinces. Meanwhile a new danger was arising to Venice out of Dang&amp;lt; the Turkish advance in Europe. The republic was com- fr m pelled to live continually, so to speak, on the qui vive, Tur * s perpetually on the defensive. Mohammed II. became master of Constantinople in 1453; in the following year the Venetians attempted to exorcise the plague by means of a commercial treaty ; but not many years passed before hostilities broke out. The Turks were destined to become the hereditary and implacable enemies of the republic, and their attitude of hostility to cease only with the fall of the latter. And, except for one united effort towards the end of the 16th century by Spain, Venice, and the pope, which resulted in the victory of Lepanto (1571), the banner of St Mark was almost invariably unsupported in its contest with the crescent. At Negropont (1470), Smyrna, and Scutari (1474) Erizzo, Mocenigo, and Loredano valiantly main tained the honour of their flag ; but after a struggle of several years the Venetian possessions in the archipelago were lost and the proud city was compelled to cede Scutari (1479), Negropont, and Modone. Nor was this all; the geographical discoveries of the Portuguese and the Span iards were about to inflict an irreparable blow on the mari time supremacy of Venice. Although the bold feats of Columbus and Vasco da Gama deeply stirred her enthu siasm, yet times had changed. New cares and new duties called her attention elsewhere ; Venice could no longer concentrate all her energies upon her navy ; having now become a territorial power, she had to watch her frontiers on every side, threatened by troublesome neighbours, now by the Malatestas, now by the Estes, the Bentivoglios, and the Borgias. Having entered into treaty relations with Florence, Conti- Milan, and the Vatican, she found herself continually in- Cental volved in ceaseless struggles, which demanded the presence s rug ^ of her mercenaries now in the plains of Lombardy, now in the Romagna, sometimes even in the kingdom of Naples. At the close of the 15th century, after a forty years dispute over the fragments of the Lombard kingdom, which had fallen into the hands of the condottieri, the Italians saw the Alps twice crossed by the French and their country turned into a European battlefield. The efforts of the Venetians to extend their possessions on terra firma along the Italian shore of the Adriatic and inwards towards Bergamo provoked the Italian captains who had founded hereditary dynasties to unite with the pope and the king of France in opposing their further progress. Thus arose the League of Cambrai, which brought the republic to the League verge of extinction. Defeated at Gera D Aclda (Agnadello) Cambr in 1509, she was compelled to withdraw her armies, not only from the recently conquered territories, but also from those in which she had been established for more than a century, and she had even to release her own subjects from their oath of allegiance. She had passed through no such peril since the day of Chioggia in the struggle with Genoa, for she was now face to face with three formidable enemies, the king of France, the emperor Maximilian, and the pope, not to speak of numerous petty powers, her Mantuan and Ferrarese neighbours, who hoped for a share in the spoil. At this juncture the senate displayed all its adroit suppleness and all its energy ; it recognized how necessary it was on such an occasion to show pliancy, to temporize, and be humble. A new league, formed against the very power which had initiated the first, proved the salvation of Venice : the king of France fell under the suspicion of his allies, who accordingly turned against him. The battle