The result was that Leoni's main defense of the Republic fell flat; and the war was waged for a while upon side issues.
Sarpi drew a treatise by Gerson, the learned French champion of Catholic independence, forth from the dust of libraries, translated it into Italian, and gave it to the press accompanied by an introductory letter which he signed.[134] Cardinal Bellarmino responded from Rome with an attack on Sarpi's orthodoxy and Gerson's authority.

Sarpi replied in an Apology for Gerson.

Then, finding that Leoni's narrative had missed its mark, he poured forth pamphlet upon pamphlet, penning his own _Considerations on the Censures_, inspiring Fra Fulgenzio Micanzi with a work styled _Confirmations_, and finally reducing the whole matter of the controversy into a book entitled a _Treatise on the Interdict_, which he signed together with six brother theologians of the Venetian party.

It is not needful in this place to institute a minute investigation into the merits of this pamphlet warfare.

In its details, whether we regard the haughty claims of delegated omnipotence advanced by Rome, or the carefully studied historical and canonistic arguments built up by Sarpi, the quarrel has lost actuality.