perii ac majestas esset:
cui jus concilium cogendi quoties de republica aliquid referri
oporteret; qui tribunos annuos in singulas insulas legeret, a quibus ad
Ducem esset provocatio. Caeterum, si quis dignitatem, ecclesiam,
sacerdotumve cleri populique suffragio esset adeptus, ita demum id ratum
haberetur si dux ipse auctor factus esset." (Lib. I.) The last clause is
very important, indicating the subjection of the ecclesiastical to the
popular and ducal (or patrician) powers, which, throughout her career,
was one of the most remarkable features in the policy of Venice. The
appeal from the tribunes to the doge is also important; and the
expression "decus omne imperii," if of somewhat doubtful force, is at
least as energetic as could have been expected from an historian under
the influence of the Council of Ten.

3. SERRAR DEL CONSIGLIO.

The date of the decree which made the right of sitting in the grand
council hereditary, is variously given; the Venetian historians
themselves saying as little as they can about it. The thing was
evidently not accomplished at once, several decrees following in
successive years: the Council of Ten was established without any doubt
in 1310, in consequence of the conspiracy of Tiepolo. The Venetian
verse, quoted by Mutinelli (Annali Urbani di Venezia, p. 153), is worth
remembering.

"Del mille tresento e diese
A mezzo el mese delle ceriese
Bagiamonte passo el ponte
E per esso fo fatto el Consegio di diese."

The reader cannot do better than take 1297 as the date of the beginning
of the change of government, and this will enable him exactly to divide
the 1100 years from the election of the first doge into 600 of monarchy
and 500 of aristocracy. The coincidence of the numbers is somewhat
curious; 697 the date of the establishment of the government, 1297 of
its change, and 1797 of its fall.

4. S. PIETRO DI CASTELLO.

It is credibly reported to have been founded in the seventh century, and
(with somewhat less of credibility) in a place where the Trojans,
conducted by Antenor, had, after the destruction of Troy, built "un
castello, chiamato prima Troja, poscia Olivolo, interpretato, luogo
pieno." It seems that St. Peter appeared in person to the Bishop of
Heraclea, and commanded him to found in his honor, a church in that spot
of the rising city on the Rialto: "ove avesse veduto una mandra di buoi
e di pecore pascolare unitamente. Questa fu la prodigiosa origine de