FRANCE, ITALY, AND SWITZERLAND -1886-1887 413 



had at the last visit found it just where I had looked for 

 it before. At this he gave me a most interesting account 

 of the opposition of Pope Gregory XVI who, before his 

 elevation to the papacy, had been abbot of the monastery 

 to Sarpi s burial within its sacred precincts, and of the 

 compromise under which his burial was allowed. This 

 compromise was that his bones, which had so long been 

 kept in the ducal library to protect them from clerical ha 

 tred, might be buried in the church on the island, provided 

 Sarpi were, during the ceremonies, honored simply as the 

 discoverer of the circulation of the blood, which he prob 

 ably was not, and not honored as the greatest states 

 man of Venice which he certainly was. This, as I then 

 supposed, closed the subject ; but in the afternoon a ser 

 vant came over, bringing me from Lord Acton a most 

 interesting collection of original manuscripts relating 

 to Sarpi, a large part of them being the correspon 

 dence between the papal authorities and the Venetians 

 who had wished to give Sarpi s bones decent burial, over 

 half a century before. I now found that the reason why 

 I had not discovered the grave was that the monks, as 

 long as they were allowed control, had persisted in break 

 ing up the tablet bearing the inscription ; that they could 

 not disturb the bones for the reason that Sarpi s ad 

 mirers had inclosed them in a large and strong iron box, 

 anchoring it so that it was very difficult to remove; but 

 that since the death of the late patriarch and the abolition 

 of monkish power the inscription over the grave had been 

 allowed to remain undisturbed. 



During another of our morning walks the discussion 

 having fallen on witchcraft persecution, Lord Acton 

 called in the afternoon and brought me an interesting 

 addition to my collection of curious books on that sub 

 jecta volume by Christian Thomasius. 



On another of our excursions I asked him regarding 

 the Congregation of the Index at Rome, and its proce 

 dure. To this he answered that individuals or commis 

 sions are appointed to examine special works and report 



