Venice to Leghorn: Sanctifying the King

Abstract

When on the night of 15 December 1600 the Venetians released the prisoner whom the Spanish called the Calabrian Charlatan, they gave him one day to leave the city and another three days to get out of Venetian territory. They warned him that if he failed to follow this order he would spend the next ten years rowing in the galleys, with iron shackles upon his feet.¹ Exactly who the prisoner was - the long lost King Sebastian of Portugal or a Calabrian adventurer posing as Such - remained a matter of contention between the man’s Portuguese supporters and his Castilian detractors. In any case, the Venetians had tired of being caught in the middle and had ``wisely washed their hands’’ of the whole affair.²

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

John 20:27—9