Barbaro family
Paul's insistence of ecclesiastical jurisdiction led to a number of quarrels between the Church and the secular governments of various states, notably Venice, where patricians, such as Ermolao Barbaro (1548–1622) of the noble Barbaro family, argued in favor of the exemption of the clergy from the jurisdiction of the civil courts. Venice passed two laws obnoxious to Paul, one forbidding the alienation of real estate in favour of the clergy, the second demanding approval of the civil power for the building of new churches (in essence, a Venetian stance that the powers of the church must remain separate from those of the state). Two priests charged by the Venetian state with cruelty, wholesale poisoning, murder and licentiousness, were arrested by the Senate and put in dungeons for trial. Having been found guilty, they were committed to prison.