In the Inner Councils of Venice
The five years following the return from the embassy to Clement VII are the least-known portion of Contarini's career. In Franz Dittrich's 880-page biography, the period from March 1530 to May 1535 receives only a single short paragraph, and for his compilation of Contarini's Regesten comprising 407 pages the same scholar found only material enough from these five years to fill not quite two pages.[284] Several factors help to explain the neglect of this crucial epoch in Contarini's career. One is the scattered nature of the documentation, almost all of it archival, which his biographer did not know or to which he did not have access. Even more significant is the perspective of most scholars writing on Contarini after Dittrich. For them he was primarily the cardinal and advocate of church reform, not the Venetian statesman.[285] But the two cannot be separated, for a remarkable continuity ran through Contarini's life. As churchman he regularly drew on
[282] For a thorough study, see Paolo Preto, Venezia e i Turchi (Florence: Sansoni, 1975).
[283] See, for example, the eloquent response given to Gian Matteo Giberti, sent to Venice by Pope Clement VII to ascertain the Venetian attitude toward the Turks. Giberti was given to understand the need for extreme caution, since Venice had the Turks as her neighbors; ASV, Senato, Delib. Secreta, Reg. 54 (1530/31), fol. 105r-v. However, some Venetians saw the Turks as a useful counterpoise to the power of Charles V in Italy; see Contarini's dispatch from Bologna, 17 Feb. 1530, in ASV, Capi del Consiglio dei X, Lettere di ambasciatori, busta 22 (Roma, 1515-38) (incorrectly dated in Reg ., 48 [no. 143]). Through an ambassador the Turks applied pressure on Venice in 1529 not to sign a peace or enter into a league with the emperor; see G. Romano, Cronaca del soggiorno di Carlo V in Italia (Milan, 1892), 158-59.
[284] Even in the one paragraph he devotes to this five-year period Dittrich confuses our Contarini with a namesake, Gasparo Contarini qu. Francesco Alvise, despite Cicogna's note in Inscrizioni 2:227. Rawdon Brown also confuses the careers of the two men, in CSPV 3:xiv.
[285] Important exceptions are the discussions of Contarini's secular thought by Felix Gilbert, both in "Religion and Politics" and in "Gasparo Contarini as a Venetian Gendeman," paper delivered at the XVIII International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 1983; and the essays by Gigliola Fragnito in Gasparo Contarini: un magistrato veneziano .
the experience he had acquired in Venetian politics, and in his theoretical considerations he united the secular and ecclesiastical spheres.
The period of Contarini's participation in the highest levels of the Venetian government began with his assumption of the office of savio grande on 1 April 1530.[286] A term of office in the Council of Ten, which began in September 1530 and continued through August 1531,[287] followed by another from September 1533 to August 1534,[288] showed that he had entered the inner circle of the political elite. Until his elevation to the cardinalate in 1535 he continued to hold important offices both successively and simultaneously. He was one of the three capi , or heads, of the Council of Ten for October and December 1530, March and June 1531, October and December 1533, and March 1534,[289] and he also served five times as one of the council's inquisitors.[290] Two yearlong terms as one of the doge's six councillors
[286] See note 277 above. Contarini held that office twice more, in 1532 and 1534; see Sanuto, Diarii 55:308; and ASV, Segretario alle voci, Elezioni dei Pregadi, Reg. 1531-54, fols. lv, 26v.
[287] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1530, fol. 78; and Sanuto, Diarii 53:483.
[288] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Reg. 1533, fol. 109v. Between his two terms on the Council of Ten, Contarini was a substitute for members in cases where they could not vote because of a conflict of interest: thus in September 1531 (ASV, Capi del Consiglio dei X, Criminali, busta 7 [1531-34]), in August 1532 (ibid., Reg. 4 [1525-34], fol. 128v), in October and December 1532 (ibid., fols. 131v, 133r). In July 1533 he was elected to a replacement position on the Council often until the next regular election; see Sanuto, Diarii 57:520.
[289] For October 1530, see ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 3 (1529-32), fols. 73v-74r; Capi del Consiglio dei X, Lettere, filza no. 30; and Sanuto, Diarii 54:5. For December 1530: ibid., 143; Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1530, fol. 103r; Consiglio dei X, Criminali, Reg. 4 (1525-34), fol. 88r. For March 1531: ibid., fol. 95v; Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1531, repeatedly in entries for that month; Sanuto, Diarii 54:318. For June 1531: ibid., 454; Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1531, repeatedly listed. For October 1533: Capi del Consiglio dei X, Criminali, busta 7 (1531-34); Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 4 (1533-39), fol. 21v; Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1533, fol. 109v. For December 1533: ibid., fol. 135r and ff.; Consiglio dei X, Criminali, Reg. 4 (15251-34), fol. 154r. For March 1534: ibid., fol. 159v; Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1534, fol. 2v and ff.
[290] For Contarini's terms as inquisitor of the Council often for January 1531, see ASV, Capi del Consiglio dei X, Criminali, busta 6 (1525-30); Consiglio dei X, Criminali, Reg. 4 (1525-34), fol. 90v. For April 1531: ibid., fol. 97r; Capi del Consiglio dei X, Criminali, busta 7 (1531-34). For July 1531: ibid.; Consiglio dei X, Criminali, Reg. 4 (1525-34), fol. 101v. For November 1533: ibid., fol. 153r; Capi del Consiglio dei X, Criminali, busta 7 (1531-34), repeated entries. For January 1534: Consiglio dei X, Criminali, Reg. 4 (1525-34), fol. 155v. The inquisitor concerned himself in the broadest sense with the welfare of the state, and his charge remained different from that of officials of the later inquisition into religious matters; see Grendler, Roman Inquisition , chap. 1; Rinaldo Fulin, "Gl'inquisitori dei Dieci," Archivio veneto 1 (1871): 1-64, 298-313; 2 (1871): 357-91.
increased his prestige further.[291] He continued to be elected to divers other posts as well: he was one of the supervisors of finances;[292] one of the three officials in charge of the University of Padua;[293] deputy public prosecutor (vice avogador di comun );[294] member of the collegio delle acque , the board that planned and supervised Venice's perennial war against the sea;[295] and supervisor of artillery supplies and distribution.[296] Nor was the diplomatic ability, he had shown at the imperial and papal courts forgotten by his peers. When Charles V passed through Friuli in the fall of 1532, Contarini was elected to be one of the four ceremonial orators who met the emperor in the name of Venice and paid him the customary respects.[297] Likewise, following the election of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to the papacy in the fall of 1534, Contarini was chosen as one of eight Venetian orators to congratulate the new Pope Paul III.[298]
Contarini had now risen through almost all the stages of the Venetian cursus honorum , and between 1530 and 1535 was part of "an elite which, in practice, held the reins of government in its hands."[299] But while it is possible to list the offices he held, it is much more diffi-
[291] ASV, Segretario alle voci, Elezioni del Maggior Consiglio, Reg. 1529-40, fols. lv-2r. The terms to which he was elected ran from 1 June 1532 to 31 May 1533, and 1 February 1535 to 31 January 1536. After he became cardinal in May 1535, and therefore could not complete his second term, a successor was chosen; see ibid., fol. 2r.
[292] Revisore delle casse ; see ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1530, fol. 78r. Sanuto liked Contarini personally and obviously felt at ease with him (see, for example, his account of how the two of them went together in a boat to watch the palace of Giorgio Corner burn [Diarii 56:753]). Yet this did not prevent him from making a biting comment after Contarini and Andrea Trevisan were elected to the above positions: "They are not going to do anything, since neither of them is capable of examining accounts or books" (54:12).
[293] From March 1531 until September 1533 Contarini was one of the riformatori dello Studio di Padova ; see ASV, Senato Terra, Reg. 26 (1530-31) and 27 (1532-33), passim; Sanuto, Diarii 54:178.
[294] Sanuto, Diarii 55:380 .
[295] Ibid, 341.
[296] Provveditore sopra le artellarie ; see ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1533, fol. 109v. He held the office from November 1533 until 22 April 1534; see ibid., Reg. 1534, fol. 20v.
[297] Contarini could not go on this mission because Marc'Antonio Contarini was ambassador to Charles V and the law forbade more than one man from any one family on the same legation; see Sanuto, Diarii 57:39.
[298] ASV, Segretario alle voci, Elezioni dei Pregadi, Reg. 1, fol. 26v. Contarini was elected on 19 October but did not go on the embassy.
[299] Gactano Cozzi, "Authority and Law in Renaissance Venice," in Hale (ed.), Renaissance Venice , 298. Felix Gilbert's essay in the same volume, "Venice in the Crisis of the League of Cambrai" (reprinted in his History: Choice and Commitment [Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977], 269-91), argues that the War of the League of Cambrai completed the formation of a bloc of rich nobles who held high office: "The institutions of Venice were not changed by the war but in these critical years the final step was made in establishing as rulers of Venice a small, closely united group, which kept in its hands all decisions about the life of the inhabitants and the policy of the Republic" (290).
cult to determine his political stance, for he acted through and within committees and groups. Still, the policies with which he agreed, the measures for which he voted, and his few recorded personal statements enable us to get at least a sense of his views.
Most important is his support of the growing power of the Council of Ten in the years following the Peace of Bologna, an evolution that was to culminate in the 1570s.[300] During Contarini's first term as a member of the council, indeed while he was one of its three heads in March 1531, the Council of Ten took a remarkable step to extend its power over the Venetian noble class by passing a law that prohibited more than eight of its male members, unless related, from meeting together in a private house.[301] While the prevention of political plots was no doubt its main motive, the council acted here as a legislative body that arrogated sweeping authority to itself. It tightened its own internal discipline as well by decreeing that any member absent for three weeks or any head absent for one week would be replaced; Contarini himself had to receive permission to go to his country villa for two weeks.[302]
As a capo , in December 1530 Contarini supported prior censorship by the Council of Ten of letters to be shown to the Senate,[303] thus agreeing that at times the council should be a decision-making body superior to the Senate, virtually exercising the functions of a princeps .[304] "The Council of Ten has supreme authority among Venetians,"[305] Contarini wrote in his treatise on the Venetian government, completed during these years of his political service.[306] While affirming that "the entire task of governing the Republic belongs to the Senate,"[307] he was realistic enough to see that the Council of Ten had extended its
[300] For the Council of Ten in this period, see the magisterial pages of Cozzi, "Authority and Law," 305-9, and especially the section entitled "Il Consiglio dei X e l'autorità suprema' (1530-83)" in his Repubblica di Venezia e stati italiani: politica e giustizia dal secolo XVI al secolo XVIII (Turin: Einaudi, 1982), 145-73.
[301] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1531, fol. 13r.
[302] Cozzi, "Il Consiglio dei X," in Repubblica di Venezia , 151; and Sanuto, Diarii 54:372.
[303] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 3, fols. 79r, 104v, 106r.
[304] Cozzi, "Authority and the Law," 306, quoting Domenico Morosini.
[305] "De magistratibus et republica Venetorum," in Opera , 295.
[306] Felix Gilbert, "The Date of the Composition of Contarini's and Giannotti's Books on Venice," Studies in the Renaissance 14 (1967): 172-84.
[307] "De magistratibus et republica Venetorum," in Opera , 292.
authority in recent years, a development for which he, too, was partly responsible. During his first term as a member the council decreed that it would resume its authority over the elections of the savii alle acque after having delegated it to the Senate sixteen years earlier. Thus it reasserted control over a most important magistracy, of which Contarini was a member in 1532, a magistracy empowered to issue broad regulations to protect the city against the ever-encroaching water. Soon the council added another key office to its competence by taking over the elections of the magistrates in charge of grain supplies.[308] Also while Contarini was one of its capi the council tangled with the Quarantia criminal , a law court that sought to reclaim from the Ten its traditional prerogative concerning appointments to lesser bureaucratic posts, something akin to what we should now call patronage. From this controversy it became clear that the Council of Ten aspired to control of the entire bureaucracy.[309]
Contarini's support for the council's growing power meant that despite his description of the Senate as the heart of Venetian government he actually endorsed a strict hierarchy that confined supreme executive authority to a small elite of thirty-two men: the Council of Ten, its advisory board (zonta ) of fifteen, the doge, and his six councillors. Contarini's stand shows that he prized efficiency and order in the day-to-day workings of the government and did not fear that the Council of Ten might become tyrannical. In practice, therefore, he supported a ruling group of thirty-two at the expense of the two hundred and more senators, and therefore a marked tilt in the constitutional balance.
The theoretical picture of a static harmony between the Senate and the Council often that he painted in his treatise must be set alongside the much more dynamic conception he actually held—and put into practice—as a member of the inner circle of Venetian statesmen. A significant example of his real view occurred in December 1533 when the council, with Contarini as one of its heads, declared that only it, in association with its zonta , could interpret, alter, or grant exemptions from its own laws. The reason was clearly stated: "to prevent problems that ensue as a result of interpretations of the laws of this council, so that no oversubtle ingenuity will find new forms or means to break
[308] On the election of three savii sopra le ague , see Cozzi, "Il Consiglio dei X," in Repubblica di Venezia , 150; and ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1530, fols. 108v-109v.
[309] Cozzi, "Il Consiglio dei X," in Repubblica di Venezia , 151.
these laws in indirect ways."[310] Similarly, the Ten set themselves above the avogadori di comun , the public prosecutors and attorneys, by forbidding them under any circumstances to propose measures to the Quarantia criminal for remitting or abbreviating sentences of banishment.[311] Further examples were the council's creation of new magistracies in 1537 and 1539, as well as the conclusion of a peace with the Turks in 1540 following secret negotiations of which the Senate was not informed.[312] Although these measures date from the time after Contarini became a cardinal, nevertheless, the evidence suggests that had he continued to exercise his political offices he would have approved these developments.
His years as a member of the Venetian ruling elite exposed Contarini to a wide variety of issues and problems. In dealing with them daily he not only gained insight into almost all aspects of the government, but he also gathered formidable political experience. As one examines the routine business of the Council of Ten during Contarini's years in its service, one notices the large number of letters directed to Venetian rectors and podestà in the mainland cities. The majority deal with economic matters, commerce, and directives to Venetian officials; others deal with benefices, individual petitions, or licenses and permits of all sorts, ranging from permission to cut wood in certain forests to granting Pietro Bembo access to official documents in order to prepare for his task as official historiographer of the Republic.[313] Contarini came into contact with criminal cases of the most varied kind, involving murder, violence, rape, peculation, theft, counterfeiting, and bearing concealed arms.[314] He had to deal with regulating confraternities and, more important, the problems of convents, where disorders repeatedly occurred. As a head of the Ten in December 1530 he
[310] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1533, fol. 135r: "Inconvenienti che seguono in le interpretacione de le parte prese per questo cons.o che per sotilitia de inzegni non vengino ritrovate nove forme, et modi per vie indirette de contravenire a ditto parte."
[311] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1553, fol. 143v. See also Cozzi, "Authority and Law," 306-9, for a discussion of the conflicts between the Council of Ten and the Avogaria di Comun.
[312] Cozzi, "Authority and Law," 153, 155.
[313] ASV, Capi del Consiglio dei X, Lettere, Filza 30, includes a large number of letters on these subjects. The grant of access for Bembo is dated 18 December 1530, a month when Contarini was one of the heads. On Bembo as historian of Venice, see Franco Gaeta, "Storiografia, coscienza nazionale e politica culturale nella Venezia del Rinascimento," in Arnaldi and Stocchi (eds.), Storia della cultura veneta 3(1):85ff.
[314] Contarini's two terms on the Council often are within the time frame of the cases in ASV, Consiglio dei X, Criminali, Reg. 4.
supported the election of three nobles to supervise convents and assure their good order.[315] Ironically, one of the chief troublemakers in the convent of Corpus Domini was a sister Felicita Contarini, and Contarini himself with two other officials was sent to investigate her convent in February 1533.[316] They apparently did not succeed in settling the controversies, for Sister Felicita and her convent continue to appear in the documents of the Council of Ten for the remainder of that year and into the next,[317] providing a vivid illustration of the difficulties that faced officials trying to regulate religious houses, or control their own refractory relatives.
Another recurring problem confronting the Council of Ten was how to ensure adequate supplies of wheat in Venetian territories. Contarini participated in the efforts to prevent speculation and hoarding and in the many attempts to supervise the grain trade. His name appears, for example, as a head of the council in a letter to the podestà of Verona, ordering that anyone caught exporting wheat from the Venetian state should be hanged.[318] Since shortages of grain could lead to popular unrest, the Council often closely monitored the commodity's supply and distribution in the interests of maintaining good order, and its documents show the great importance attached to this matter.
These same documents also now and then give us a glimpse of seemingly trivial incidents that nevertheless could have serious consequences for Venice. One such incident occurred in December 1530, when it came to the council's attention that a certain Florentine merchant, one Francesco Corboli, had made a bet that Charles V would
[315] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1530, fols. 82v-83r. This measure was reiterated in 1533; see ibid., Reg. 1533, fols. 116v-117r, again during a month when Contarini was one of the heads. For conditions in convents of nuns during the earlier decades of the sixteenth century, see Pio Paschini, "I monasteri femminili in Italia nel Cinquecento," in Problemi di vita religiosa in Italia nel Cinquecento , 42-60; Gabriella Zarri, "Monasteri femminili e città (secoli XV-XVIII)," in Storia d'Italia, Annali 9: La chiesa e il potere politico dal medioevo all'età contemporanea , ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli (Turin: Einaudi, 1986), 357-429. Innocenzo Giuliani, "Genesi e primo secolo di vita del Magistrato sopra monasteri (Venezia, 1519-1620)," Venezie francescane 28 (1961): 42-68, 106-69, thinks that the committee of three to supervise convents became a permanent magistracy already in 1528.
[316] Sanuto, Diarii 57:494.
[317] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 4, fols. 22r, 25v-26r, 27r, 29v, 49r.
[318] This letter reaffirmed a law of the Council often of 18 July 1501; see ASV, Consiglio dei X, Comuni, Reg. 1534, fol. 6r-v. In the same source there is frequent mention of the wheat supply and related matters while Contarini was on the council; ibid., Reg. 1530 and 1533. For wheat prices, see Gigi Corazzol, Fitti e livelli di grano: un'aspetto del credito rurale nel Veneto del '500 (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1980).
not be alive one year hence. The emperor's ambassador to Venice was furious and insisted on speaking to the doge. Contarini's diplomatic skill was called upon to soothe the ambassador. The Venetian government was anxious to preserve good relations with Charles V and certainly did not want to seem to condone conspiracies against his life. Even though it turned out that Corboli was merely betting with another Florentine according to their habit and that the matter had no political implications, Corboli was apprehended and had to post high bail. The Venetian ambassador to the Spanish court was instructed to explain the whole affair to the emperor in order to clear the Republic of any suspicion of harboring his enemies.[319]
On certain issues the records enable us to see clearly Contarini's personal position. He was, for instance, consistent in advocating a cautious and moderate attitude toward the Turks, giving them no grounds for complaint against Venice[320] but also careful not to bend too far in their direction.[321] Similarly, his experience of European rulers had made him chary of Venetian involvement in their affairs or plans. He steadily advocated peace as a necessity for Venice, and in 1533 he strenuously opposed a possible new league for the defense of Italy; he made "a wise speech that changed [the minds of] many senators," according to Sanuto, whereas his opponent Sebastiano Giustiniani "spoke badly."[322]
The conception of peace as an absolute good was the cornerstone of Contarini's generally dovish position in foreign policy. At the same time, he never favored surrendering what he considered legitimate Venetian rights for the sake of peace, as can be seen from the stand he took on matters involving the relations of Venice with the papacy. His branch of the Contarini did not belong to the papalisti , the families who because their members held important ecclesiastical benefices supported policies favorable to the Roman court. He was not programmatically either pro-papal or anti-papal but sought to judge issues on their merits. At the very beginning of his term as savio del consiglio , in
[319] Sanuto, Diarii 54:183, 184; ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 3, fols. 81r-v, 82r.
[320] While Contarini was a head of the Council often, in March 1531, instructions were issued that in Venetian territories the pope's orders to bishops and heads of orders to preach against the Turks should not be carried out; ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 3, fol. 86r-v. Contarini agreed to the sending of presents to the Turkish governor of Bosnia in order to keep the Turks on the borders of Dalmatia well disposed toward Venice: ibid., fols. 75v-76r.
[321] Sanuto, Diarii 53:150, 159; 55:373; 56:667.
[322] Ibid., 57:430.
April 1530, he crossed swords with the consistently anti-papal Alvise Mocenigo over Pope Clement VII's right to make appointments to benefices in Venetian territory. At issue was Clement VII's appointment of an admittedly good prelate from a Venetian family, Jacomo Coco, to the bishopric of Corfu. When Mocenigo objected, Contarini replied that Venice should not irritate the pope, whom he had persuaded not to insert a clause insisting formally on his rights of appointment by the assurance that the Signoria would take account of the pope's wishes. This provoked an outburst from Mocenigo, who maintained that Contarini had no fight to promise anything and turned on him with the sarcastic question, "Messer Gasparo, perhaps you would like to be pope and nobleman, like Pope Clement?"[323] To Mocenigo a jurisdictional principle was involved, whereas Contarini in this case was primarily the practical diplomat interested in good relations with the pope and willing to compromise in a matter where a suitable Venetian had been appointed and Venice stood to lose nothing by acceding to the pope's choice.
In instances involving significant change in the relations between church and state, however, Contarini was not at all willing to compromise. In October 1530, for example, when he was one of its heads, the Council of Ten had to deal with a jurisdictional issue involving the patriarch of Venice, Girolamo Querini. The latter had obtained a papal brief excommunicating members of the clergy who appealed to the government to support the old custom of election of parish priests. The Council of Ten instructed Venice's ambassador in Rome, Antonio Soriano, to explain carefully the Venetian custom to the pope and to obtain a revocation of the papal brief.[324] Simultaneously, Contarini was deputed together With a colleague to speak with the patriarch, who proved adamant.[325] Contarini was equally so, presenting the views of the Venetian government. On this occasion Clement VII did issue a bull recognizing the Venetian system of election of the parish clergy, as the government had requested. But in June 1531, again at a time when Contarini was a head of the Council often, the patriarch refused to recognize the election of the prior of the hospital of San Lorenzo,
[323] Ibid., 53:125-26. For Coco's career, see Anna Foa, DBI 22:537-39; Giuseppe Alberigo, I vescovi italiani al Concilio di Trento (1545-1547 ) (Florence: Sansoni, 1959), 54-56, 71-72,351-52,438.
[324] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 3, fols. 73v-74r, 83v-84v. See also the brief summary of the issues in Prodi, "Structure and Organization," 419-20, and pertinent bibliography in 428nn.59, 62.
[325] Sanuto, Diarii 54:36.
appointing his own man instead. This time the council firmly ordered the patriarch's appointee to renounce his post immediately and instructed the Venetian ambassador to report events to the pope. Furthermore, all priorates of hospitals were declared to be lay matters, and on 10 June the Council of Ten confirmed that no one might accept appointment to a Venetian church unless elected by its chapter, specifically referring to the papal bull approving this practice.[326] In this dispute over jurisdictional rights attached to the Venetian church Contarini unequivocally supported the government's defense of tradition against the encroachments of the patriarch.
But he never espoused the position of those who championed Venetian jurisdictional fights at all costs, as can be seen in the 1534 Senate debate concerning a forced loan from the clergy. Sebastiano Foscarini argued that imposing such a burden without any consultation was entirely within the sphere of the state's jurisdiction. His supporters in the Senate agreed that the pope need not be consulted, since he was to be obeyed only "in materia fidei et sacramentorum." Girolamo Aleandro, the papal nuncio in Venice, ascribed to Contarini's influence the eventual decision to petition the pope first.[327] Here again Contarini's diplomatic skills were brought into play to make the loan, which was inevitable anyway, more acceptable to the touchy Clement VII by not seeming to slight his authority. Contarini had a clear sense of when to take a stand and when to compromise, as well as a grasp of what each issue involved for the Venetian government. He was fair-minded and moderate, intent whenever possible on securing peace.
Different kinds of issues confronted Contarini in yet another of his offices, as one of the three riformatori dello studio di Padova . In this office, which he held from early 1531 to September 1533, he shared responsibility for the supervision and regulation of the only university in Venetian territory.[328] He participated in numerous decisions regarding
[326] ASV, Consiglio dei X, Secreta, Reg. 3, fol. 89r-v.
[327] Franco Gaeta, ed., Nunziature di Venezia , vol. 1:12 marzo 1533-14 agosto 1535 (Rome: Istituto Storico per l'Etá Moderna e Contemporanea, 1958), 210 (letter 77). Contarini was on the Council often at the time of this dispute.
[328] See Desroussilles, "L'Università di Padova," 634-39, for a succinct account of the role played by the riformatori in university affairs during the 1530s. His statement that after 1519 "no trace of new elections [of the riformatori ] can be found until 1532" (634-35) should be corrected. Contarini was elected on 15 December 1530, together with Marino Zorzi; see Sanuto, Diarii 54:178. From this entry it is clear that there had been a previous election and that the terms of two members of the committee were completed: "Fu fatto scrutinio di do Riformatori dil Studio di Padoa, in luogo di sier Sebastian Foscarini el dottor et sier Lorenzo Bragadin, hanno compido li soi anni." The third member, whose term had not yet expired, was Marco Minio. Contarini's name appears for the first time as a riformatore dello Studio di Padova on 3 May 1531 in ASV, Senato Terra, Reg. 26, fol. 109v. Desroussille's erroneous citation to Sanuto at 635n.249 should also be corrected. It refers to an entry of 29 September 1530 in "vol. XLIX, col. 577," whereas that volume goes only from 1 October 1528 to 28 February 1529.
faculty appointments and salaries, which showed a remarkable range from a low of fifty florins a year to a high of one thousand florins for the illustrious law professor Mariano Sozzini, whom the riformatori were anxious to keep at Padua.[329] In general they were working toward reestablishing good order at the university, where enrollment had declined because of the wars in the second and third decades of the sixteenth century.[330] Restoration of order involved curbing violence among students, an issue of particular concern to the Council of Ten, and a prohibition against carrying arms, which the podestà at Padua was expected to enforce. Rowdiness could be a prelude to sedition, and the Ten were determined to nip such displays in the bud. Thus they handed down a sentence of five years' banishment to Capodistria for a student from Vicenza who had publicly deplored that "so many noble gentlemen of Padua, Vicenza, and Treviso are subject to these [Venetian] boatmen."[331] Contarini favored tightening discipline regarding student dress, behavior, and institutional organization, as seen in the revision of the statutes first of the arts faculty and later of the law faculty, which came before the riformatori in 1531 and 1532, respectively.[332] During these years the Council of Ten strengthened its authority over the university, but the government remained careful not to alienate the students from other parts of Europe and continued to listen to their concerns and complaints.[333] Contarini's combination of diplomatic ability and concern for Venetian institutions stood him in good stead while he was one of the riformatori .
He certainly was not a programmatic conservative who unquestioningly supported whatever already existed. At times he was willing to bend the law, as in the case of one Angelo Gabriel, elected as an avogador di comun but unable to take up the office because of illness. Contarini joined several senators in moving that the position be reserved for Gabriel notwithstanding laws of 1471 and 1481 prohibiting that
[329] ASV, Senato Terra, Reg. 26, fol. 110.
[330] For figures see Desroussilles, "L'Università di Padova," 631.
[331] Ibid., 637.
[332] ASV, Senato Terra, Reg. 26, fols. 195r, 223r; Sanuto, Diarii 55:106,433-34.
[333] For example, when French students complained that the Piedmontese had preempted their nation (or organization), the two groups were separated: ASV, Senato Terra, Reg. 26, fol. 110r.
practice. However, Zuan Francesco Mocenigo, one of the avogadori and a strict constructionist, demanded that the text of the old laws be read, and the vote in the Great Council went overwhelmingly against the motion Contarini had supported.[334] In this instance he ranged himself with those taking the liberal view, being willing to adapt the law to circumstances. In other instances, though, he espoused a conservative position. While a ducal councillor, for example, he supported a long motion requiting strict and harsh punishment for theft or misuse of public money. Sanuto, among others, spoke against the motion, although he admired Contarini. When the motion did not come to a vote but was sent back to committee for further study, Sanuto expressed great personal satisfaction.[335]
A little vignette recounted by Sanuto aptly summarizes Contarini's conception of a Venetian noble's obligations in the political service of the state. After a night and morning of continuous snowfall, only three ducal councillors appeared for a scheduled meeting; one of them was Contarini.[336] Undaunted by the unusual weather that kept even the doge away, Contarini put his duties first with the sort of devotion ideally expected of his class. His career from 1530 to 1535 was that of a securely established member of the governing elite, who dealt confidently with the many and varied issues that came before the councils and committees on which he sat. He had sought public office avidly and was an ambitious man who regarded such service an honor for himself and his family. His brothers supported his efforts from the time he first tried to win a post, and they continued their financial subsidies through two costly embassies. Several eventually held government offices themselves,[337] as did his brothers-in-law Matteo Dandolo and Matteo Vitturi.
Contarini was above all a pragmatic politician whose aim was to resolve conflict, keep peace, and contribute to the proper functioning of the form of government he considered best: that of a well-run republic. His admiration for Venice was genuine. Not only his treatise
[334] Sanuto, Diarii 57:411.
[335] Sanuto took the whole matter much to heart, considering the motion too sweeping and himself as defender of his class. When the motion was not voted on he wrote, "Et fo grandissimo honor mio" (ibid., 395).
[336] Ibid., 301.
[337] Notably his younger brother Tommaso, who had a long and distinguished government career; see Derosas, "Contarini, Tommaso," in DBI 28:300-5. Sec also ASV, Segretario alle voci, Elezioni del Maggior Consiglio, Reg. 1529-40, fols. 17v, 18r, 21v, 22r-v, 23r, 24v, 25r, 58v, 59r, for offices held by his brothers Vincenzo and Federigo.
on the state but also his private letters and dispatches show the depth of his devotion to the state. But he was also a realistic observer of European politics on whom the "lesson of events" was not lost. By the time of the peace negotiations at Bologna he knew how little scope for maneuver Venice had in actuality, and he adapted himself to the changed circumstances. His vast experience of day-to-day government affairs in the years following, his understanding of the internal and external problems Venice faced, and his ability to deal with men all made him a seasoned statesman.
When the news of his appointment to the college of cardinals reached Venice on a Sunday in May 1535, he was standing by the ballot box in the hall of the Great Council. Even amid the commotion and excitement that followed, Alvise Mocenigo, who had so often opposed Contarini, was heard to call loudly from his seat, which he could not easily leave because of his gout: "These priests have robbed us of the foremost gentleman our city has."[338] Friends and opponents alike knew that it was no inexperienced outsider who now entered the court of Rome, but a highly finished diplomat, a statesman, and above all, a Venetian gentleman.
[338] Beccadelli, "Vita," 21.