The 16th Century was also a period of tension between Venice and the Papal States, which were perhaps the inevitable consequences of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) had established certain rules that Catholic countries were expected to observe.
Venice, however, did not agree with certain specific points, despite having accepted the new rules. For example, the rule that the Patriarch of Venice, who had always been appointed by the Venetian Senate, should sit a theology exam in Rome and the rule that “Marrano” Jews of Iberian origin should be forced to convert to Catholicism. Other matters of disagreement were the Papal State’s ban on many books, several of which were already being published by the flourishing Venetian publishing industry, and its attempts to move various assets from the secular sphere to the ecclesiastical one without the approval of the Senate.

The most serious dispute and of a more political nature arose from Pope Paul V’s injunction under interdict that the Council of Ten hand over to the ecclesiastical courts two priests accused of crimes.
The Venetian government refused to do so, declaring the papal document null and void as being contrary to the sacred scriptures. This became an international dispute with the European states either siding with or against Venice.
It ended with a compromise, by handing the two priests first to the French and then to Pope Paul V.

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