Venetian Discourses Drawn From The History, Art And Customs Of Venice (Paperback, illustrated edition)

VENETIAN SERMONS Drawn from the History, Art Customs of Venice By D. D, Cawliere of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, Italy JT Author of The Bible of St. Mark, c. With Seventy-three Illustrations JT New York Charles Scribners Sons London George Allen, Buskin House 1907 TO MY WIFE PREFACE VENICE was the most stable, the most peace ful, the most prosperous, and the longest lived Republic the world has ever seen. Through many an age in the mid-sea she dwelt, From her retreat calmly contemplating The changes of the Earth, herself unchanged. A scene of light and glory, a dominion That has endured rhe longest among men. Such being the case, nothing, I think, could be more opposed to reason and to probability than the notion, too commonly entertained, that she owed her superlative greatness to a policy and to practices that savoured of piracy and pillage, of tyranny and injustice, of cruelty and oppression. And, from my own study of Venice and Venetian history, I am prepared to say that no notion could be more opposed to truth and to fact. The more I know of the old Venetians, the more I feel called upon to admire not only their marvel lous energy and industry, their perseverance, VI11 PREFACE Intelligence, and wisdom, but also their justice and humanity, their healthy morality, and their manly piety. On the gable of the Church of San Giacomo, at the Rialto, the old commercial centre of the city, Venice carved, for the guidance of her merchants, who trafficked around it, the following inscription as legible to-day as when cut a thousand years ago, and which Mr. Ruskin says it was the pride of his life to discover Around this temple, let the merchants law be just Let not their weightsbe false, nor their covenants unfaithful And at St. Marks, the old judicial centre of the city, above the door that connects Church and Palace the Doges chapel and the Doges home Venice carved also in that far-back time, for the guidance of her Prince, these significant words Love justice, render to all their rights Let the poor, the widow, the ward, and the orphan, O Doge Hope in thee as their protector. Be gentle to all. Let not fear, nor hate, nor love, nor gold bias thee. Thou art Doge but as a flower thou wilt perish and become dust And as thy deeds have been, so, after death, thy fate will be. PREFACE ix Moreover, In the speeches of the Doges, in the mosaics of her churches, in the pictures of her palaces, as well as in the books she printed and in the education she gave her sons, we have evidence of how genuine was her love, and how wide spread was her knowledge, of the Holy Scriptures. In this Biblical knowledge possessed by the Venetians, and in the spirit of righteousness which animated them, as shown by the in scriptions I have given above, we have, I think, a key to the explanation of the pros perity and longevity of the Republic. It was because her rulers and her people practised in daily life a lofty morality, the outcome of a vital religious faith, that she Rose, like an exhalation from the deep, and gained, and maintained, her proud pre eminence amongst the nations. Venice, therefore, cannot but be full of lessons for the preacher and for the hearer. It lends itself, as perhaps no other European city does, to Biblical illustration. During the years I have lived and worked in it, I have found this to be the case and I have been accustomed, from time to time, thus to useit in my pulpit ministrations. In doing x PREFACE so I know that travellers always appreciated my efforts, and that they found It much more profitable to think of Venice as fitted to afford them wholesome and Christian teaching, and to stimulate them to live nobly, than as being only, what at the close of her career she did become, The pleasant place of all festivity. The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy...