Sarpi

/ ˈsarpi /

noun

1. Paolo (ˈpaolo), real name Pietro Soave Polano . 1552–1623, Italian scholar, theologian, and patriot, who championed the Venetian republic in its dispute with Pope Paul V, arguing against papal absolutism and for the separation of church and state

Example Sentences

Sarpi was so unorthodox a Catholic that some of his opponents would later suspect him of being a closet Protestant, while Bellarmine was a leading establishment figure, a theologian and intellectual who would play a major part in the prosecution of Giordano Bruno for heresy.

Read more on Literature

Venice was a particular thorn in his flesh, not least because Paolo Sarpi, by now a theological adviser to the Doge, openly argued that the road to Heaven lay through spiritual works alone and denied the so-called ‘divine right’ of kings and popes to exercise political power in the name of God.

Read more on Literature

The result was that in 1606, the Pope excommunicated the Doge of Venice and all his officials, including Sarpi.

Read more on Literature

But Sarpi had not passed the news on to Galileo—their correspondence had lapsed, partly due to Sarpi’s time-consuming duties as adviser to the Senate and partly as a result of the tiredness Sarpi felt after his recovery from the assassination attempt.

Read more on Literature

Although Sarpi may have been slow to realize its importance, Galileo immediately realized that an instrument that could make distant objects visible would be of enormous military and trade importance to Venice, where fortunes often depended on being first to identify which ships were approaching the port.

Read more on Literature