This marshaling of the entire ruling body of the Republic could not fail to exercise a steadying power, and neither fear nor irresolution were revealed to the impressive, penetrating, and commanding gaze of Leonardo, when the Senator Contarini resumed the speech which had been so strangely interrupted.  The enthusiasm and determination of the morning had returned; the words fell upon a receptive and positive atmosphere.  The opinions of the distinguished Senator carried great weight, so loyal and catholic was he known to be; and above the portal of the Contarini many times the Lion of St. Mark had proudly rested.

“We are loyal sons of the Church,” he said, “but no highest ecclesiastical court—­though with authority from Rome itself—­may rule that any decree of this imperial Senate of Venice, bearing upon Church and State alike, can be set aside by Church alone.”

“We have not subjected ourselves to being put out of the body of this Church, which we revere, by any failure of duty on our part—­duty being a rendering of that which is owed.

“As citizens of this Republic, our duty in things temporal is owed to our Prince—­by right divine; as men, our duty to our Church, by right divine, is in things spiritual alone—­which we render; but in things temporal God gave not the Church rule over us.  If, at any point, these two dominions may seem to touch and intersect it is our Prince who disentangles, by his decree, the twisted thread.  For he is Lord over us, who are Venetians and not Romans.”

The words had a ring of victory; enthusiasm spread from face to face, and the house rose in a tumult of approval to express its loyalty, unchecked by any sign of dissent from the dais at a demonstration so unusual.

But the Contarini saw his advantage and broke in upon the wave of feeling, while an imperative motion from the Chief Counsellor restored order for the hearing of an important legal point upon which it was desired that action should be based.

“These laws—­whose abrogation the Holy Father doth demand—­are ancient rights of Venice, acknowledged by many previous popes, and reaffirmed, in these our own days, after wise and learned scrutiny of our chancellors, in the light of modern, civic requirements, as needful to the healthful administration of this realm; as binding upon our Prince, who hath ever in mind the welfare of Venice; and to be upheld by our people who believe in the divine right of princes.  They are by these reverend Councillors also declared non-prejudicial to the spiritual authority of our Most Holy Church, which this Serene Republic of Venice doth ever reverently acknowledge.  The question is of civil and not of spiritual rights.”

An enthusiastic senator made a motion for the casting of the final vote, as an expression of the sense of the chamber.  The speech of the Contarini and the manner of its reception gave pleasing assurance of the general temper of the Senate; the faces of the Doge and of his Savii recorded the sense of security with which it was needful to impress the assembly, and wore, if possible, a more dignified calm.  Nevertheless Leonardo, with his statesman’s eye, detected here and there a face that was set in an opposite opinion or likely to yield from fear, and his pride decreed that the vote, when cast, should be unanimous.