This is such a twisty turny tale!

Why did the POPE in Rome excommunicate the Venetian Republic?

For several reasons but this might be the main one…

The Venetian government only made a point of remaining Master of their own place: “The Venetians do not have their Pope in Rome, but in Saint-Mark, in Papa Marco.”

There was, also, a huge flirtation between Venice and the Protestants. Henri IV, King of France and Navarre had been born a Protestant but converted to Catholicism only to gain the French throne…“Paris is worth a Mass.”

Henri IV supported Venice and offered to help them in their times of trouble.

The Republic were also supported by England!

The thing was – whilst being perfectly happy to embrace citizens of both faiths, Venice had no intention of converting from Catholic to Protestant. Their faith lay in Saint Mark.

The timing of all this is interesting. Especially when we know that James I Stuart of England was looking for a husband for his only daughter, Elizabeth and that, 6 years later, she would marry the Elector Palatine and become Queen of Bohemia…for a short while and because of the religious conflicts that are now called The Thirty Years War.

And, then…AND then, we have a Shakespeare play – The Winter’s Tale written around 1610.

Confused?

It gets worse :o)

P.S. The quote in the image above – “It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in’t.” – sounded VERY familiar to me. So I checked my own posts and sure enough. From the 18th of March 2019. See below.