sular church the character of a national church, with
the king at the head as pontiff, and the inquisitor by his side
as chief prelate."[616] The peculiar character of the Spanish
Inquisition as a state institution and a civil engine should
never be forgotten. It was very different from the papal
Inquisition. The creature also ruled its creator, for it
controlled the state in the direction of its own institutional
character and purposes. The Spanish Inquisition, therefore,
offers us the extreme development of the movement which started
in the popular tastes, ideas, and wishes of the twelfth century,
when it was employed for the selfish purposes of rulers. It
presents the extreme case of a positive institution, born from
the mores and winning independent power and authority over all
interests. It very deeply affected Spanish mores. It had no great
effect of societal selection.

+267. Inquisition in Venice.+ The Inquisition in Venice took on a
form which was to some extent peculiar. The Venetian political
system was secret, suspicious, and despotic. It would not admit
any interference from outside. Venice always pretended to hold
off church authority. In fact, however, she could not maintain
this attitude. The Inquisition won control of many subjects
beyond heresy or only constructively heresy.[617] Fra Paolo
Sarpi[618] made a collection of Venetian laws which show the
jealousy of ecclesiastical interference, or which nullified the
ordinances made in Rome. "The position of the republic was
indefensible under the public law of the period. It was so
administering its own laws as to afford an asylum to a class
universally proscribed, and refusing to allow the church to apply
the only remedy deemed appropriate to this crying evil. It
therefore yielded to the inevitable, but in a manner to preserve
its own autonomy and independence."[619] "The truth is that, in
regard both to the Holy Office and the index, Venice was never
strong enough to maintain the independence which she voted."[620]
In 1573 Paolo Veronese was summoned by the Holy Office to explain
and justify his picture of the Supper, now in the Louvre. He had
put in a man at arms, a greyhound, and other figures which the
inquisitors thought irrelevant and unfit. He was ordered to
change the picture within three months. He put Magdalen in the
place of the g