The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

3l6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Inquisitor there was not doing his duty.^ In such cases,
and more especially when the said tribunals found themselves
opposed by apparent^ insuperable difficulties, he was wont
to intervene directly ; more than one of the haughty princes
and nobles of Italy had in the end to yield to the undaunted
resolution and persistence of this man, who was universally
venerated as a saint.
Venice in particular was looked upon as the starting point
and refuge of heresy in northern Italy. The Venetian am-
bassador in Rome exerted himself to convince the Pope that
in spite of isolated cases of heres)^ in his native place all was
well in Venice, and that Rome could rely upon the vigilance
of the Council of Ten,^ but Pius V., who had had distressing
experiences as Inquisitor in Venetian territory, did not trust
the Republic.^ During the first months of his pontificate
he sent as nuncio to the city of the lagoons Giovanni Antonio
Facchinetti, the future Innocent IX., to labour there for the
reform of the clergy and the convents of nuns, and against
the new religionists.^ However unwillingly the Venetians
accepted this supervision of their own Inquisition, and how-
ever much they disliked the zeal of Facchinetti,^ they did
not quite dare to oppose the will of the Pope ;
while, during
the pontificate of Pius IV. only forty-one trials concerning
questions of faith had taken place in Venice, we have record
of eight)^-two during the reign of his successor.^ It caused
^ Tiepolo in Alberi, II., 4, 172.
^Tiepolo, March 2 and 9, and April 27, 1566, in Mutinelli, I.,
35. 37. 41 s^l- / ^/- CANxtj, Eretici, III., 140.
* Cf. the report of Tiepolo for 1569, in Albert, II., 4, 191.
*Tiepolo, March 2, 1566, in Mutinelli, I., 35.
* *The Florentine ambassador to Venice, Cosimo Bartoli, to
Cosimo I., August 2, 1567, State Archives, Florence, Medic. 2978.
^ Cf. CoMBA, Elenco generale degli accusati di eresia dinanzi il
Sant' Uffizio della inquisizione di Venczia A. 1 541 -1600, in
Rivista Crisiiana, III. (1875), 28 seqq., 71, 100 seq., 158, 207, 235,
297, 326, 366 seq., 411 seq., 447. The list is arranged according
to the native places of the accused. Vicenza heads the list with
23 names. Particulars in Benrath, Gesch. der Reformation in