Following Sarpi's advice, the Venetian clergy largely disregarded the interdict and discharged their functions as usual, the major exception being the Jesuits, who left and were simultaneously expelled officially. The Catholic powers France and Spain refused to be drawn into the quarrel and resorted to diplomacy. At length (April 1607), a compromise was arranged through the mediation of King Henry IV of France which salvaged the pope's dignity but conceded the points at issue. The two priests were returned to Rome but with Venice reserving the right to try clergy in civil courts. The outcome proved not so much the defeat of papal pretensions as the recognition that interdicts and excommunication had lost their force. "The Republic,” said Sarpi, “has given a shake to papal claims. For whoever heard till now of a papal interdict, published with all solemnity, ending in smoke?”