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THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE 581 boards and councils of the government ; but he now had al- most no opportunity for independent action. Further de- His six councilors were supposed to be in constant velopment attendance upon him and without their presence Venetian he was not allowed to open a letter or grant an constitution interview. Then there was the College of Experts or Sages, a sort of cabinet of sixteen members, subdivided into three sections; namely, a board of five for maritime matters, an- other board of five for the Venetian possessions on the main- land, and the six grand sages for city or home affairs. These sixteen specialists, together with the doge and his councilors and the three heads of another body known as "The Forty," constituted the "Full College," or chief executive council. The Forty by the time of the later Middle Ages were chiefly important as the supreme court of Venice, and their other functions passed to the Senate of one hundred and sixty members, which had developed out of the earlier custom of the doge of occasionally inviting groups of leading citizens {pregadi — "the invited") to give him their advice. The Senate was the chief legislative body and also considered questions of foreign policy and received the ambassadors of other states. While the Venetians had thus limited the power of their doge, they by no means had a democratic government. In the later Middle Ages all the above-named mag- The Great istracies were elected by the Great Council and Counci1 filled from its membership, which varied from one thousand to fifteen hundred. In 1297 membership in this Great Council had been limited to certain families. Venice was thus ruled by an oligarchy of nobles who represented but a small fraction of its total population. They were, however, for the most part merchant princes and not a feudal or landed nobility. In Venice, although to a less extent than in most Italian cities, since its constitution was far more stable than the average, first one magistracy and then another The Council would come to the front and then drop to a sec- of Ten ondary place in the constitution. After 1310 the Council