In 1605, the Republic of Venice arrested two clerics accused of sexual violence and murder. During those same years, Venice had enacted laws restricting the Church’s right to establish churches and hospitals, purchase land, and receive testamentary donations. Pope Paul V reacted by demanding that the clerics be judged by ecclesiastical authorities and that the laws, deemed harmful to the rights and freedoms of the Church, be repealed. When Venice refused, in 1606 Paul V issued a collective excommunication against the Serenissima.

Venice, however, refused to enforce the papal interdict, threatening to expel any clergy who refused to provide for the spiritual needs of the population. Almost all clerics complied, with the exception of a few priests who were arrested, as well as the Jesuits, Capuchins, and Theatines, who were expelled. The clash between Venice and Rome drew significant attention across Europe, provoking widespread debate. The University of Padua sided with Venice, while the University of Bologna supported the Pope. The Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs backed Rome, while England supported Venice.

Not coincidentally, the Doge at the time was Leonardo Donà, a leader of the “Giovani” faction, the anti-papal patricians who looked toward France and Protestant powers such as the Netherlands and England. On the ideological front, while the Jesuit Robert Bellarmine defended Rome, Venice’s position was championed by Paolo Sarpi, a Servite friar. Sarpi, a sharp critic of the Roman Church and pursued by the Inquisition, even envisioned a Venetian break from Catholicism and the creation of a kind of autonomous national church. Indeed, due to the strong anti-papal sentiment among Venetians at the time, the Republic came close to a true schism.

Ultimately, however, the conflict was resolved through the mediation of a French cardinal. Venice agreed to hand over the two clerics to the French, who in turn delivered them to papal authorities, while the anti-clerical laws were temporarily suspended. In return, the Pope lifted the interdict. Venice did not apologize, and the Jesuits remained banned from Venetian territory for more than 50 years.

Six months later, Paolo Sarpi survived an assassination attempt, almost certainly orchestrated by the Pope. Sarpi himself remarked: “In the dagger that shattered against my cheek, I recognize the style of the Roman Curia.”