DOGE, the title of the chief magistrate in the republics of Venice and Genoa. The word properly signifies duke, being formed from the Latin dux ; as dogate and dogado are formed from ducatus, a duchy.

The dogate, or office and dignity of doge, was elective; at Venice the doge being elected for life, and at Genoa only for two years. He was addressed under the title of Serenity, which among the Venetians was accounted superior to that of highness.

The doge was the chief of the council, and the mouth of the republic; yet the Venetians did not go into mourning at his death, because lie was not their sovereign, but only their first minister. In effect, the doge of Venice was merely the phantom or shadow of the majesty of a prince, all the authority being reserved to the republic. He only lent his name to the senate; and the power was diffused throughout the whole body, though the answers were all made in his name. If he gave any answers on his own account, they required to be very cautiously expressed, and in general terms, otherwise he was certain to meet with a reprimand.

Anciently the doges were sovereigns; but afterwards things were much altered; and latterly the prerogatives reserved to the quality of doge were, to give audience to ambassadors, but not to make any answer as from himself in matters of importance; to answer according to his own pleasure to the compliments made to the signory, such answers being of no consequence; and, as first magistrate, to preside at all the councils. The credentials with which the senate furnished its ministers in foreign courts were written in his name, but not signed by him; this was usually done by a secretary of state, who also sealed them with the arms of the republic. The ambassadors directed their dispatches to the doge, and yet he durst not open them except in presence of the counsellors. The money was struck in the doge’s name, but not with his stamp or arms. All the magistrates rose and saluted the doge when he came into council; but the doge rose to none except foreign ambassadors. In short, he was a mere pageant of state, and, politically speaking, a nonentity.

The doge nominated to all the benefices in the church of St Mark; he was protector of the Monastery delle Virgine; and bestowed certain petty offices of ushers of the household, called commanders of the palace. His family was not under the jurisdiction of the master of the ceremonies; and his children might have staff officers, and gondoliers in livery.

At the same time his state was tempered with a variety of circumstances, which rendered it exceedingly burdensome. He might not go out of Venice without leave of the council; and if he did, he was liable to receive affronts, without being entitled to demand satisfaction; and should [7:8:91]any disorder happen where he was, it belonged not to him, but to the podestà, as being invested with the public authority, to put it down.

The children and brothers of the doge were excluded from all the chief offices of state. They could not receive any benefice from the court of Rome, but were allowed to accept of the cardinalate, as being no benefice, nor including any jurisdiction. The doge could not divest himself of his dignity for his ease; and after his death his conduct was examined by three inquisitors and five correctors, who sifted it with great severity. The office of iļoge ceased even to have a nominal existence when Venice, “sunk in its glory, decayed in its worth,” yielded, almost without a struggle, to the ascendency of republican France.