Sarpi, Paolo (pä`ōlō sär`pē), 1552–1623, Venetian councillor, theologian, and historian. In 1565 he became a Servite friar and later theologian and adviser to the republic. In the conflict that developed in 1606 between Venice and Pope Paul V Paul V, 1552–1621, pope (1605–21), a Roman named Camillo Borghese; successor of Leo XI. He was created cardinal (1596) by Clement VIII and was renowned for his knowledge of canon law.
..... Click the link for more information. he staunchly defended in his writings the right of the state to control ecclesiastic matters. In 1607 his prestige was increased when he was wounded in an attempt, said to be sponsored by the pope, to seize him by force. His most important work is his history of the Council of Trent (published in London in 1719), in which he viewed the council as the triumph of papal absolutism and centralization.

Sarpi, Paolo

(born Aug. 14, 1552, Venice—died Jan. 14, 1623, Venice) Italian patriot, scholar, and state theologian. At age 20 Sarpi became court theologian to the duke of Mantua, a post that gave him leisure to study Greek, Hebrew, mathematics, anatomy, and botany. Later, as consultor to the government, he incurred the wrath of Pope Paul V by supporting Venice's right to restrict church construction in the city and to try priests accused of crimes unrelated to religion (e.g., murder) in the state's courts. His History of the Council of Trent (1619), an important work decrying papal absolutism, was published under a pseudonym; though placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum, it went through several editions and five translations in 10 years.