ed with a dignity which disdained to show the
least outward trace of irritation or forgetfulness, in a presence so
exasperating as that of the Papal Nuncio, Orazio Mattei.

Day after day the Senate sat, in solemn state, to hear its delinquencies
rehearsed in the words of Paul V, by the graphic pen of his Excellency
Agostino Nani, Ambassador from the Republic to the Holy See, with
ceaseless repetitions of demand on the part of the Sovereign Pontiff;
with ceaseless repetitions of refusal, most deferently couched, from the
courtly representative of the offending power; with threats of that most
dread compeller of obedience which none but a sovereign pontiff may
wield; and very clearly phrased, that all might understand, the
declaration in the words of his Holiness himself, that he had determined
to "mortify the over-weening audacity of the secular rulers of the
world."

With a patience which bore its fruit in a more rigid determination to
conquer, they listened, also, to many violent speeches from the Nuncio,
explanatory of papal authority, founded upon the dicta of a Gregory,
"_That none may judge the Pope. That all princes should kiss the feet of
the Pope_," and invariably sustained by this axiom of Mattei, delivered
as a refrain--so sure were the college of its repetition, "I am Pope
here; I want no replies, only obedience," and the reiterated assertion
that "Christianity depends upon the acceptance in its entirety of the
doctrine of papal supremacy, and that he has heard much of the vaunted
piety of the Venetian Republic, of which he fails to find evidence."

In vain the Senate pleaded that on such a point there might be differing
views, and that men should be known for Christians by their faithfulness
in duty, by their practice of almsgiving and of the sacraments and of
all other good and Christian works; but the answer came swiftly, "Naught
else availeth."

It was a relief to the stately and grim Giustinian to lose his temper in
the sanctity of his home, since that freedom was beneath the dignity of
a Venetian ruler in the company of others who were chafing like himself
from insults they would have rejoiced to hurl back in the face of the
speaker; and he was the less inclined to view favorably the efforts
toward conciliation of the embassy to the Holy See, because it would
have pleased him to have been named among those six of this Ambassade
Extraordinary, on a mission so important, as an honor due to his ancient