The Council of Ten (; ), or simply the Ten, was from 1310 to 1797 one of the major governing bodies of the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

. Elections took place annually and the Council of Ten had the power to impose punishments upon

patricians The patricians (from ) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders (494 BC to 287 B ...

. The Council of Ten had a broad jurisdictional mandate over matters of state security. The Council of Ten and the

Full College The Full College () was the main executive body of the Republic of Venice, overseeing day-to-day governance and preparing the agenda for the Venetian Senate. Composition The Full College comprised the Doge of Venice and the rest of the Signor ...

constituted the inner circle of

oligarchical Oligarchy (; ) is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. Members of this group, called oligarchs, generally hold usually hard, but sometimes soft power through nobility, fame, wealth, or education; or through ...

patricians who effectively ruled the Republic of Venice.

Origins

The Council of Ten was created in 1310 by Doge Pietro Gradenigo.David Chambers & Brian Pullan with Jennifer Fletcher (eds.). ''Venice: A Documentary History, 1450-1630'' (2001, reprinted 2004). University of Toronto Press/ Renaissance Society of America. p. 55. Originally created as a temporary body to investigate the

plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the connected story elements of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 ...

Bajamonte Tiepolo Bajamonte Tiepolo (died after 1329) was a Venetian noble, great-grandson of Doge Jacopo Tiepolo, grandson of Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo, son of Giacomo Tiepolo. Bajamonte's wife was the Princess of Rascia. Marco Querini, a fellow conspirator, was ...

and Marco Querini, the powers of the Council were made formally permanent in 1455.Edward Muir (1981). ''Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice''. Princeton University Press p. 20. The Council was composed of ten patrician magistrates elected by the Great Council to one-year terms.David Chambers & Brian Pullan with Jennifer Fletcher (eds.). ''Venice: A Documentary History, 1450-1630'' (2001, reprinted 2004). University of Toronto Press/ Renaissance Society of America. p. 54. Until 1582, an additional '' zonta'' of around 15 to 20 members also served on the Council. No more than one member of the same family could serve on the Council at any one time, and members could not be re-elected to successive terms.

Composition

Elections took place annually in August and others in September. The Council, which met at least weekly, had the power to impose punishments upon nobles, including

banishment Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

and

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

. On the council's orders, Doge

Marino Faliero Marino Faliero (, c. 1274 – 17 April 1355) was the 55th Doge of Venice from 1354 until his execution for attempting a Coup d'état, coup d'etat in 1355. Origin and family Marino Faliero was born the son of Jacopo Faliero and Bettiola of t ...

was executed after the failed Faliero coup in 1355, and the Count of Carmagnola in 1432. The body's deliberations were highly secretive, and members of the Council of Ten took an oath of secrecy. Thomas Madden wrote: "The three capi of the Ten served for a month at a time and, to avoid any opportunity for bribery, were forbidden to leave the Ducal Palace during their tenure of office."

Powers

Historian Edward Wallace Muir Jr. wrote: "The Council of Ten stood somewhat apart from the hierarchy of offices but was proverbially powerful. With its secret funds, system of anonymous informers, police powers, and broad jurisdictional mandate over matters of state security, the members of the Council of Ten, along with those of the Collegio, rotated offices among themselves and constituted the inner circle of oligarchical patricians who, in effect, ruled the republic." During the

War of the League of Cambrai The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and several other names, was fought from February 1508 to December 1516 as part of the Italian Wars of 1494–1559. The main participants of the war, who fough ...

, for example, the Council had responsibility for finding ways to pay for the state's military expenses. From the 1490s through the 1530s, the Council of Ten and other Venetian authorities enacted

sumptuary laws Sumptuary laws (from Latin ) are laws that regulate consumption. '' Black's Law Dictionary'' defines them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expenditures for apparel, food, furnitu ...

. In 1506, the Ten enacted an anti-

banqueting A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes inc ...

law, seeking to prevent ambitious noblemen from engaging in

vote buying Vote buying (also referred to as electoral clientelism and patronage politics) occurs when a political party or candidate distributes money or resources to a voter in an upcoming election with the expectation that the voter votes for the actor h ...

by hosting lavish dinner parties at the ''compaginie della calza'' (exclusive social societies). The law specifically prohibited women other than the wives of members from attending such dinners. The Council was formally tasked with maintaining the security of the Republic and preserving the government from overthrow or corruption. However, its small size and ability to rapidly make decisions led to more mundane business being referred to it, and by 1457 it was enjoying almost unlimited authority over all governmental affairs. In particular, it oversaw Venice's diplomatic and intelligence services, managed its military affairs, and handled legal matters and enforcement. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Council of Ten had become Venice's spy chiefs, overseeing the city's vast intelligence network. The Council utilized ('lion's mouths') placed around the city which allowed Venetians to report suspected illegal activities by placing a written note into the mouth. The lion's mouths were seen by later observers such as

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

to represent an oppressive autocratic government that spied on its citizens, but in reality the reports placed in lion's mouths were examined and only credible reports were investigated.

State Inquisitors

In 1539 the Council established the State Inquisitors, a tribunal of three judges chosen from among its members to deal with threats to state security. The Inquisitors were given equal authority to that of the entire Council of Ten, and could try and convict those accused of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

independently of their parent body. To further these activities, the Inquisitors created a large

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

network of spies and informants, both in Venice and abroad. Inquisitors could conduct

secret trial A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment. S ...

s with a low

standard of proof In a legal dispute, one party has the burden of proof to show that they are correct, while the other party has no such burden and is presumed to be correct. The burden of proof requires a party to produce evidence to establish the truth of facts ...

, and the inquisitors' practices bore strong similarities to those of the

Roman Inquisition The Roman Inquisition, formally , was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according ...

, which was established three years later. From 1624 onward, the Council of Ten was charged with the prosecution of all crimes involving the private lives of Venetian patricians.De Vivo, Filippo (2007) ''Information and Communication in Venice: Rethinking Early Modern Politics''. Oxford University Press. p. 34.

References

Sources

* {{Republic of Venice Government of the Republic of Venice 1310 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in the Republic of Venice 1797 disestablishments in the Republic of Venice Anti-corruption agencies defunct law enforcement agencies of Italy