Europe in the Renaissance was full of superstition. Though they didn't see it that way and, maybe, we shouldn't either. But what else should we call the close associations that many people had between certain signs, portents, natural wonders and divine intervention? After all, their world was full of such stuff that people couldn't explain through normal means. Like ours. We seem to both want to belive in the 'authorities' and also need to question them. Sometimes, we just discount what they say when they articulate something we hadn't quite thought of in that way, or, simply said in an unexpected way. They, like us, too often, have to explain and put their ignorance to use somewhere. People then, the Editors of Sanudo tell us, saw saints with candles in the sky, or battles of armies there, or the figure of the cross on the moon. Or, like Steven Runciman tells us, they saw the devout in prayer, literally, pass through the walls of the Hagia Sophia, (shortly before the city was taken in 1453) and then, simply disappeared. Comets were interpreted as a divine blessing, or reminders for people to pray for universal peace. The heavens seemed as confusing a place as it was on dry land. Venice was no different on the water. And this is the same point in time that Moctezuma, half a world away was wanting to use magicians and wizards to somehow counter the arrival of the Spaniards. Venice remained,
Editor's note: "... a society in which religion and superstition, credence and skepticism, respect for the clergy and anticlericalism coexisted, as the following tale about "spirits" in Chioggia illustrates."
Editor's footnote: "Chioggia was the site of the southernmost mouth between the lagoon and the Adriatic, an important strategic city of the Veneto." p. 399
Sanudo Diaries: May 12, 1519 (27:267-68); "Thursday. In the morning, the reverend don Bernardin Venier de Pyran [sic], bishop of Chioza, came to the Collegio. Seated next to the doge, he talked about a certain spirit who had appeared there in Chioza. For several days the news of this has already been bruited about in the city. But I did not want to record it until I better understood the matter...." [p. 399]
The bishop explained there had been a visiting Observant Franciscan friar who strongly warned people to 'amend their sinful lives.' Then, after the priests went to bed, there occurred a knocking sound in the bishop's residence, under a bed where a number of priests slept. This went on for several days and they couldn't figure out what it was. But after praying about it a good while they decided to try asking it questions. When they seized on asking if it were coming with good news, and it did not knock, they thought they were learning something. But when asked if it brought bad news, it knocked. Then after a process of elimination, they learned that there would be high water in Chioggia, in May, enough to flood, but not Venice. Further questions and knocking even told them that the flood would come on the fifteenth of that month and at the eighth hour, following a storm that was to come on Monday. [p. 400]
Sanudo Diaries: May 12, 1519 (27:267-68); "This story was heard by many persons - the chancellor of the city government, the doctor, and others. But the bishop himself did not wish to go....".
The priests asked the knocking spirit if they should tell the bishop and then asked the spirit to make some sign to convince the bishop of its existence. It did by squeezing the bishop's nose which gave him quite a scare. They tried to see if it was all a trick, taking apart the bed where the knocking came from. But it knocked again in the night.
Sanudo Diaries: May 12, 1519 (27:267-68); "And so all of Chioza was in a panic. And it seems that Our Lord God is doing this because of four sins: blasphemy, incest, sacrilege, and sodomy.
Twice each morning, the bishop has led procesions intoning the litanies. Many women in Chioza have miscarried from fright. Prayers and fasts have been ordered. The bishop has asked the nuns of San Francesco di la Croxe, here in Venice, to pray. In this convent the bishop has a sister, who has let him know that God revealed to her that this event will take place, and she asked him to leave Chioza. Therefore, it seemed best to him to come to relate such an important matter to the Signoria in the full Collegio."
The podesta said he would go to test the spirit and that they would try to hear the spirit but 'doubtless will hear nothing.' But there was concern that the city of Chioggia would empty out which would cause other problems (27:271-2). There was an effort to get the bishop to return to Chioggia and calm his flock, but he refused from fear. [p. 401]
Sanudo himself (May 13, 1519; 27:278-79) questioned the bishop who had come to answer for himself at the Council of Ten. It was again told that Chioggia would be flooded with 'twenty-four feet of water for its sins' but still, only ten people had come forward to confess. The bishop said they could put him in prison but he would not return to Chioggia until after Sunday. [p. 402]
By May 14, the entire thing turned out to be a hoax as "... a priest, under threat of torture confessed." The city, the Ten, even the bishop was happy to hear it was all resolved but he would not return to Chioggia, "afraid of the people".
Editor's note: ""A very ridiculous affair...," concluded Sanudo, "and one hears nothing more about that thing which was so much discussed" (May 14, 23, 1519; (27:298-99, 320)." [p. 402]
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries or Editor's notes or Editor's Footnotes from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll, editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008
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