Venetian priest Domenego Zon was expelled from his chaplaincy at the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli on the island of Murano in 1614, on grounds of 'inappropriate relations' with the nuns there. Despite his expulsion, it was alleged in 1619 by another priest, Nicolo Baruzzi, that Domenego had continued to visit “more than one of the nuns, scaling the walls of the nunnery several times at night”.*
Domenego apparently had close relationships with four nuns from Santa Maria; Suor Gaspara, Suor Gieronima, Suor Elena Bragadin and Suor Tecla. Gaspara, Gieronima and Tecla were all converse, or nuns who did not take final vows and therefore were not obliged to remain enclosed in the convent. Gaspara and Gieronima, both aged about fifty, were allowed enough freedom to make trips into the city, and they allegedly used this privilege to visit Domenego at the house he had taken in Venice after his expulsion from the convent.
Suor Elena, also in her fifties, was a professed nun and could not freely leave Santa Maria degli Angeli, but she was a rich woman of noble birth, with far more considerable family funds at her disposal. She sent Domenego “beds, mattresses, sheets, blankets … clothes, shirts, handkerchiefs … 50 or 60 ducats at a time, and every edible delicacy”,* while Gaspara and Gieronima were accused of embezzling convent funds for the priest.
Suor Tecla was described as “the younger and more beautiful” by Domenego, who admitted he preferred her to Elena, though he actually went as far as styling both of them as his “wives” (although none of the women knew about each other). This was not uncommon between the clerical sexes; many priests or monks and nuns saw each other as close “spiritual friends”, and often their relationships closely mirrored platonic love affairs. The most famous example is probably that of Heloise and Abelard, whose letters are still in print, and who were also thought to have crossed the boundaries of spiritual and earthly love.
However, all was not as it seemed in Venice. While Domenego had clearly exploited the nuns for his personal gain, Baruzzi, the chief witness against him, had committed perjury, fabricating many of his lurid sexual accusations. So, while there had been misconduct, it seems that, from the Church's point of view, the worse crime was Domenego's exploitation of the nuns for his own financial gain, and the embezzlement of convent money, than any perceived or alleged sex scandal. Perhaps more telling – and more disturbing – were the malicious fantasies that took hold in some of the enclosed religious institutions of Renaissance Italy.
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*Sources: quoted in Virgins of Venice – Mary Laven (2002), Viking Books
