DOGE

(Probably a corruption of the Lat. dux, a Wider.) The title of the supreme executive magistrate in the republic of Venice. The origin of this office dates as far back as 697; when, owing partly to the di ensions and intrigues that resulted from the annual election of the seven tribunes by whom the affairs of Venice had been previously administered, and partly to so divided an authority being found inadequate to the conduct of the rapidly increasing powers of the state, the Venetians resolTOd to replace the tribunes by a single chief magistrate, who should hold office for fife. This magistrate, whom they called the Doge, was clothed with almost regal authority. In him was vested the power of convoking a emblies, of declaring war or concluding treaties; of commanding the armies of the state; of appointing the military tribunes and the judges; of hearing appeals and deciding definitively on all matters at i ue; of collecting the citizens in their different islands, and in the quarters or districts of Venice, for the purpose of choosing their parish priests or bishops; of judging all matters coneenimg the clergy in all causes, both civil and criminal; and of awarding ecclesiastical punishments, investing the bishops, and installing them in their churches. {And. Dnndolo apvd Gallicioli. Chron. i.) But notwithstanding these apparently vast powers which were vested in the doge at the first institution of the office, the slightest glance at the history of Venice, which for more than eleven centuries, with a few interruptions, continued to be governed by doges, will abundantly prove that though the Venetians allowed four centuries to elapse before they attempted to fix the bounds or control the exercise of the sovereign authority by any legal enactments, they never ceased to regard with jealousy the chief magistrate of their own appointment and approval, and at last succeeded in limiting andl-estricting his power,80 as to render him a mere state pageant of the grand council, in which resided the supreme executive authority. The history of the doges is so incorporated with that of the Venetian republic as to be wholly inseparable from it; and a bare outline of the various phases which they exhibited during a career unrivalled for duration and brilliancy in the annals of human society, would be incompatible at once with our limits and the design of this work. The raider will find ample information on this subject in Daru^s His to ire de la Ripitblique de Venise (8 vols. 8vo. Paris); the Quarterly Review, vol.31.; and Edinburgh Review, xol.i!^. (See Bucentaur.) Doge was also the title given to the chief magistrates of Genoa, who were elected from the senatorial body. The doges of Genoa held office originally for life, as at Venice; but from 1.528 down to 1797, when that form of government was abolished by the French, they remained in office only two years, and their authority was exceedingly circumscribed. [s. 371]