The Holy See was not much pleased by the way in which the Republic treated the Bishop of Padua, and constantly complained that the students of the University were allowed too much license to express opinions that ill accorded with Catholic dogma. Like all commercial countries, Venice was Protestant in so far as any direct interference of the Vatican was concerned. Mr. Brooks Adams was, I think, the first to point out the inseparable connection between Protestantism and commercial enterprise, in his extraordinary study, The Law of Civilization and Decay. The peculiarity of Venice’s religious position was that it combined an excessive, if not superstitious, devotion to the rites of the Church with something approaching to contempt of the Pope’s power.
The University of Padua was resorted to by students of all nations, including many English gentlemen. In the Archives of the Ten a petition has been found signed by a number of foreign students in Padua to be allowed to wear arms, and we find that the
Rom. iv. 449, note 5.
necessary permission for this was granted in 1548 to Sir Thomas Wyatt, ‘a Knight of the English Court,’ Sir—— Cotton, Sir John Arundel, Christopher Mayne, Henry Williams, and John Schyer (?).
It is amusing to find that the French students in Padua excelled in fencing, riding, dancing, and music, but apparently not in subjects more generally considered academic.
I cannot close this chapter without saying a few words about Galileo Galilei, who was for some time in the employ of the Republic. I quote from his life, written by his pupil Viviani, but not published till 1826.
After lecturing in Pisa for three years Galileo was appointed by the Venetian government to be professor of mathematics in Padua for a term of six years, during which he invented several
1592.
machines for the service of the Republic. Copies of his writings and lectures of this time were scattered by his pupils throughout Italy, Germany, France, and England, often without his name, for he thought them of such little importance that he did not even protest when impostors claimed to be the authors of them. During this period, says Viviani, he invented ‘the thermometers (sic) ... which wonderful invention was perfected in modern times by the sublime genius of our great Ferdinand II., our most serene reigning sovereign ...,’ the Cardinal Grand Duke who poisoned his brother and Bianca Cappello.
At the end of his term Galileo was re-appointed for six years more, and during this time he observed a comet in the Dragon, and made experiments