DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 159 



time many thousands of people were employed in 

 this art. 



Venice in its turn became famous for silks, the 

 manufacture of which was considered a fitting employ- 

 ment for nobility, who thought it no disgrace to 

 assist in producing this elegant article of dress. This 

 policy is quite at variance with the modern ideas of 

 the European aristocracy, who consider all employ- 

 ments, save war, the church, and law, as degrading to 

 their rank. 



About this time the whole of the Christians were 

 expelled from Syria, by which the Egyptian rulers 

 contrived to make that country the medium through 

 which all the silk imported westward must pass. By 

 this means they added a great revenue to the state, by 

 the exaction of heavy duties, which were severely felt 

 by the Italians and other nations who used foreign 

 silk. This excited the indignation of a learned and 

 noble Venetian named Marino Sanuto, who wrote a 

 book on the subject in the year 1321, and addressed 

 it to the Pope. It bore the fanciful title of " Secrets 

 of the Faithful," in which he wished to instigate the 

 holy father to suppress these grievous exactions, by 

 hostile measures, and recommended, as a prudent 

 step, that his countrymen should forbear using 

 Chinese silks, averring that the quantity produced in 

 Crete, Sicily, Romania, Apulia, and Cyprus, would be 

 sufficient, if attention were directed to the extended 

 propagation of the worms. He implores all true 

 Christians to abstain from the purchase of any silk 

 merely suspected to have come through the hands of 



