DECLINE IN VENICE. 27.3 cuting heretics, while praising his pulpit labors in many of the Italian cities.* In Venice, as we have seen, the Inquisition never succeeded in shaking off the trammels of state supervision and interference In what spirit the State regarded its relations with the Holv Office was exhibited in 1356, when Fra Michele da Pisa, the Inquisitor of Tre viso, imprisoned some Jewish converts who had apostatized This was strictly within his functions, but the secular officials inter- posed, forbade his proceeding to try his prisoners, seized his fa- miliars, and tortured them on the charge of pilfering the property of the accused. These high-handed measures provoked the liveliest indignation on the part of Innocent VI., but the republic stood firm, and nothing seems to have been gained. In the correspond- ence which ensued, moreover, there are allusions to former trou- bles which show that this was by no means the first time that Fra Michele s labors had been impeded by the secular power. Some- nnes, indeed, the Signoria completely ignored the Inquisition. In 1365 a case m which a prisoner had blasphemed the Virgin was brought before the Great Council, which ordered him to be tried by the vicar of the Bishop of CasteUo, and on convicii^on to be banished, thus prescribing the punishment, and recognizing only the episcopal jurisdiction.! In 1373 Venice was honored with the appointment of a sDecial mquisitor, Fra Ludovico da San-Martino, wMe Fra Niccolo E of Venice was made Inquisitor of Treviso. This led to some de bate about their partition of the great Patriarchate of Iqdleia which extended from the province of Spalatro to that o7 MiTan t^ll iS^iT 'i' f ^'"'^^ ("^^'^^ "-^^ »°* transferred to VenLe t^ll 145 was adjudged to Ludovico, together with the see of Jesol This latter place, though close to Venice, was then, we are told ir rmns with a roofless cathedral serving as a plac; of refu'f C heretics, who there felt safe from persecution. This part tion did no improve the position of the inquisitor, whose imp^ortlte .^ reduced to a mmimum. He seems, in fact, to be regarded o„lj^ as 001,*. S.' vl LT' "^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 0..a. P..aic, (Martene ^ ^t_ Wadding, ann. 1356, No. 12-19.-Arch. di. Venez. Misti, Cone. X. Vol. VI. II.— 18
