Venice

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

Bridge of the Rialto.

Not only the inhabitants of the Republic, but all who aided them in any way, were placed outside the pale of the Church; their property, wherever found, was declared sequestrated; their treaties were null; it was made unlawful to trade or eat or converse with them; every one was at liberty to take them and sell them into slavery; all sacraments were refused them; even the rites of burial were denied, and the clergy left Venice. A new Crusade was published, and papal indulgence given to all attacks upon Venetians or their property. In several parts of Italy Venetians were put to death; and at Genoa many of the prisoners of Curzola were sold as slaves.

"In England, in France, in Italy, in the East, the merchants were robbed. From Southampton to Pera the Venetian counting-houses, banks, and factories were forced, sacked, and destroyed. The commerce of Venice trembled on the verge of extinction; and all these evils were laid at the door of the Doge and the new aristocracy. But the party in power never wavered; their determination was the result and the proof of their youth, their confidence, their real capacity for governing. Though they were surrounded by a people suffering intensely from physical and spiritual want, as well as by a nobility who openly declared their hatred of the new policy and of its authors, yet they never deviated for a single moment from the predetermined line. Everything was done to win the regard and support of the people. The Doge instituted a yearly banquet to the poor, and the picturesque ceremony of washing and kissing twelve fishermen from the lagoons."

At the same time everything possible was done to humble and insult the opposing party. The noble Marco Quirini was refused a seat in the Privy Council, and his place given to a Dalmatian, who, according to the statute, was not eligible to this Council. It was attempted to strictly enforce the law against carrying arms in the street, which occasioned grave troubles. A watchman, called a "Signior of the Night," met Pietro Quirini in the Piazza one evening, and insisted on examining him; Quirini knocked the man down, and was heavily fined.

Meetings of the Opposition were held at the house of Marco Quirini, near the Rialto, and an organization was made. They determined to make Bajamonte Tiepolo their leader; he was a son-in-law of Quirini, and was greatly beloved by the people, who called him il gran Cavaliero. He had inherited all the popularity of his father, the Tiepolo who had been elected Doge by acclamation. Quirini had been the head of the Opposition. He was of exalted rank and personal character; and his relation to Bajamonte Tiepolo had increased his consideration by the union of two great families, so that he was now the most influential man in the Great Council. He had been sent as Podestà to Ferrara, doubtless in the hope that he would never return; but he escaped pestilence and all other dangers, and was at home in time to engage in the insurrection with all his heart.

Bajamonte had been for several years at his Villa Marocco in the March of Treviso; but when, in 1310, his brother nobles invited his return, he readily assented, and his arrival in Venice was the signal for greater excitement and determination. He urged immediate action; and so many of his party agreed with him that the more cautious counsel of their elders was set aside, and on June 14, ten years after the execution of Bocconio, the fires of revolution were again kindled in Venice.

It was arranged that the conspirators should gather at night in the house of Quirini, and with the dawn rush to the Piazza, gain possession of the centre of the city, and kill Gradenigo. The night was terrific; thunder and lightning, and torrents of rain raised a tempest in which the cries "Death to the Doge!" and "Freedom to the People!" could not be heard; and under the cover of this terrible storm the insurrectionists went forth. One division, under Bajamonte, proceeded by the Calle of the Merceria; a second, under Quirini, took the nearer way by the bridge of Malpasso (now di Dai) and the Fondamenta; and all were to meet in the Piazza.

Up to this time the meetings of the revolutionists had escaped observation; but now a traitor, Marco Donato, gave such information to Gradenigo as led him to send three officers to ascertain the truth. At the Rialto they were met by drawn swords, and fled for their lives. The Doge at once apprehended the situation, and sent to the governors of the neighboring islands for a speedy supply of troops. He arranged his soldiers with great care, by the aid of the flashes of lightning; posted guards at every entrance to the Piazza; the main body being massed in the centre, awaiting the rebels in silence. No more dramatic scene is described in history.