[Illustration: RIO AND PONTE DI SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE.]
The festivities which celebrated the elevation of Michel Steno in 1400, now an experienced and upright officer of the State, are said to have lasted nearly a year. A significant change, however, had been made by the correctors of the Coronation Oath--the Doge was no longer to be addressed as _domine mi_, but plain _Messer lo Doge_.
On a midsummer day in 1405 a great platform was erected outside St Mark's, where the Doge sat supported by his chief officers of State to receive the homage of Verona. The twenty-one Veronese ambassadors rode, clothed in white, on chargers caparisoned with white taffeta. They alighted in front of the Doge and bowed three times. High mass was then sung, after which the chief orator presented his credentials, and read an address beginning--"Glory to God in the highest." He then handed to the Doge the official seals and surrendered the keys of the Porta S. Giorgio, the Porta Vescovo and the Porta Calzoni, the first representing the knights and doctors, the second the merchants and citizens, the third the common people. Two banners, one with a white cross on a red field, another with gold cross on a blue field were then presented to the Doge, and a white wand, emblematic of purity and perpetual dominion. The Doge rose and made a speech beginning, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light," and applied the text to the good fortune of the Veronese in coming under the dominion of Venice. The orator began his reply with, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," at the end of which the Doge gave him the golden banner of St Mark, and all cried, "Viva Messer S. Marco." The two banners of Verona were then placed on either side the high altar at St Mark's. The same ceremony was used at the homage of Padua.