THE LIFE OF GIORDANO BRUNO.* [SECOND NOTICE.]
IN July, 1586, Giordano Bruno came to Marburg, and during the next five years he led a wanderer's life about Germany. His first experiences in that country were not pleasant, for his application for permission to lecture in the schools at Marburg was refused by the Rector "oh arduas causes," whereupon Bruno, falling into a violent passion, insulted the Rector in his house, who has drily made record in the Register of the affronts put on him by the hot- headed Neapolitan. Neither in Mayence nor 1Viirzburg was he luckier in meeting "with suitable treatment," but at Wittenberg he met with a kindly reception, and -was allowed to read in his private capacity on Aristotle's Organism and about Astronomical Metaphysics (ever a favourite topic with Bruno). Two years passed happily, until on the advent to power of the Calvinistic party, after the death of the Elector August, Bruno no longer found it advisable to continue at Wittenberg. Before leaving he addressed a valedictory oration to the University Senate, which is interesting for what is said about Luther and for a prophecy of German future greatness in metaphysics, while it is particularly expressive of Bruno's affectionate feelings for his academical colleagues of Wittenberg. Next to Paris, this was his happiest residence. lie now betook himself to Prague, where dwelt Rudolf II., the patron of alchemy and occult sciences, but also the friend of great astronomers. To him Bruno dedicated a collection of mathemati- cal theses, which the Emperor acknowledged by an acceptable gift of money, but after some months' stay in that city he again re- moved to the Protestant University of Hehnstadt, in Brunswick. Here there befell hint the strange lot to undergo excommunication at the hands of Boetius, Superintendent of the Protestant Con- sistory, with whom be had got into a controversy. Bruno pro- tested vehemently against this fulmination from the pulpit, but it may be assumed, without effect, for in April, 1590, he bad gone to Frankfort, the last stage in his wanderings out of Italy. In this city there was then the celebrated printing establishment of the Weichels. They were men, like most of their trade in that age, with fine tastes and a genuine love of letters. Scholars were not merely welcome guests in their banquetting-halls, but when poor they were readily assisted by these truly liberal men. Bruno had experience of their cordial kindness. They not only undertook the publication of his manuscripts, but provided for his main- tenance. The place they selected for an ex-Dominican's abode is singular. Bruno was lodged and boarded at the expense of the Weichels in the Carmelite monastery, where he seems to have been in the enjoyment of entire freedom from constraint, pur- suing studies and seeing friends according to taste. The Prior, as we learn from the depositions on the trial, spoke of Bruno as a fine genius,—an universal man, who spent his days in writ- ing and evolving rare ideas and forecasting,s; though as for religion, he indeed deemed Bruno to have little, if any. Even in our day, the Frankfort fairs, though greatly on the decline, are still visited by dealers front far countries ; but in those times their importance 141t49 absolate, and their return a season when Frank- fort beheld within its walls the representatives not only of every trade, but of every commercial house in Europe of any importance. Amongst those who habitually visited these fairs were several Venetian booksellers, and particularly one Ciotto by name, who himself dabbled in literature, and whose shop in Venice formed a haunt for men who took au interest in the world of letters. In Frankfort this dealer put up in the same Carmelite monastery where Bruno lodged. An acquaintance sprang up between them, and on his return to Venice with the renowned scholar's last work * Vita di Giordano Bruno. Scritta da Domenico Bert'. Torino. 1808. fresh from the Frankfort presses, Ciotto was wont to dilate to the circle round his counter on the wonderful gifts of this astonishing genius. A young patrician, Juan Mocenigo, had his curiosity intensely excited by these accounts. He had looked into the book, which fascinated him by its mysteriousness. Mocenigo's character is perfectly clear from the documents in this volume. His was a weak, shallow, and credulous nature, affected with a febrile and craving curiosity, but quite without elevation of mind, and penetrated all through with the craven- hearted fibre of superstitious dread. For such a man, the notion of cabalistic forces had a fascinating attraction, though the fear of possible consequences dogged too closely his unmanly soul to let it ever feel itself at home in the keen atmosphere of real thought. Mocenigo listened to Ciotto's description of this wonderful master of dialectics, he gazed with credulous interest on the queer Lullyau puzzles in Bruno's pages, and deeming wisdom to consist in tricks that could be taught, and Bruno to be a wizard who if he only wished could impart secrets, he burned with desire to get within his house this wondrous adept in lore, and wring out of him pos- session of its master-key. Through Ciotto he invited Bruno to Venice, with assurances of the warmest friendship, and Bruno, who, as we have said, pined for Italy, rushed thither so abruptly, and so quite unexpectedly, that in an epistle prefixed to the treatise De Triplice Mininw et Mensura, the astonished John Weichel could speak of him only as one mysteriously snatched away, " casu repentino a nobis avulsum !" It was in spring, 1591, Bruno came to Venice, and in May of the year following he was denounced to the Holy Office by the very patrician in whose house he was staying. By aid of the newly-discovered documents, we are now enabled to follow all the details day by day of what befell him in Venice. Here there is not even a gap left for conjecture,—all is before us, as it was before the judges. The pupil and the master soon disagreed. The former deposes that he had made Bruno come "with the intention of learning from him," but that on having found himself disappointed in expectation, and discovered him to be a reprobate in religion, he had denounced his guest. Mocenigo's deposition is throughout characterized by an astoundingly ingenuous meanness. The anger at not having got out of Bruno as much as he had reckoned on is openly shown: and with a singular obtuseness to shame, Mocenigo recounts that, on locking Bruno into a room in his house, he had held out an offer of not denouncing him to the Holy Office, provided Bruno would communicate the knowledge which the patrician firmly believed he had kept back. We learn that Bruno, alive to his pupil's intentions, had resolved to go back to Frankfort ; and that Mocenigo, being informed of this in- tention, during the night of the 22nd May entered with half-a-dozen waiting-men the room where Bruno was sleeping, and on finding him not wiliing to abandon his intention, carried him by force into a garret, into which he was locked. Next morning Bruno was delivered over to the keeping of a familiar of 'the Holy Office, and at night lodged in its dungeons. On the 29th of the same month be was brought before the tribunal, which previously had received the deposition of Mocenigo, and examined several witnesses.
The last examination we have, and it has all the appearance of being final, is of the 30th July ; so that the trial was neither unduly protracted nor unfairly hurried. Indeed, we must allow that, so far as this process before the Venetian Inquisition goes, the prisoner seems to have been dealt with fairly. He was allowed to defend himself fully, and the impression left on us by the manner in which questions were put to the prisoner, and by the tone of all the witnesses called, with the one exception of Mocenigo, is that there was a disposition to treat Bruno leniently. No one but Mocenigo deposes to having known him bear himself in an impious manner. "When I spoke and dealt with Giordano," says Ciotto, "he never broke into saying aught for which I could have questioned his being a Catholic and good Christian." "Never," says another bookseller in Venice, Bertano, of Antwerp, "did Giordano utter a word, nor did I dyer become aware of anything in him that was not of a Christian." The historian Andrea Morosini, whose house he had frequented, was summoned, and spoke :—"Never was I able to infer from his reasoning that he entertained any opinion contrary to Faith, and for my own part, I always considered him a Catholic." Bruno's own replies seem to us clear and straightforward. They are free from the prevarications of a mind trying to wriggle itself by sophistries out of doctrines it is conscious of having advanced. "I believe," says Bruno, "that in my works many things will be found contrary to the Catholic Faith, and in my argumentations I may have said things that can cause scandal; but they were never spoken by me ex professo, to impugn the Catholic Faith, but only in reference to philosophic arguments or in illustration of here- tical opinions." Mocenigo having brought astring of definitecharges, as of his having ridiculed the Apostles, of his having spoken in ribald terms of Christ, &c., Bruno distinctly denies them ; though be admits (and that he does this before such a tribunal redounds greatly to his credit for honesty) that he holds in regard to the Trinity metaphysical views certainly not in harmony with current ortho- doxy. "I know not that I have ever argued about the Incarnation of the Second Person, though in my own belief I have inwardly doubted how the Word could become flesh." And on being further questioned, Bruno continued, "I held and believed that there was one God, distinguished into Father, Word, and Love which is the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one God in essence, but I could not comprehend and have doubted how these three could acquire the name of persons." Bruno is repeatedly questioned on this point, and he replies with distinct- ness in explanation of his metaphysical interpretation of this mystery. "Inasmuch as I understand in the Divinity all attri- butes to be one substance, along with the greatest divines and philosophers I comprehend three attributes,—Power, Wisdom and Goodness or Mind, Intellect and Love I have, indeed, doubted as to the word 'person' used of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, not understanding these persons distinct from the Father otherwise than as I have expressed myself philosophically in ascribing the Father's Intellect to the Son and His Love to the Holy Ghost." Bruno, however, explicitly restricts this exposi- tion to a merely metaphysical value, and distinctly submits in dogmatic theology to the teaching of the Church. He defies anyone to show that he has in any writing or discourse impugned its articles and unequivocally professes, his readiness to bow to its judgment. He does not hide that he has lived for many years without taking part in the observances of the Church, but besides pleading the excommunication from which he had vainly sought to be relieved, he affirms (and his statements on this head are confirmed by witnesses, especially the friar applied to) that a very few days after his arrival in Venice he had consulted a Dominican, with the view of being reconciled to the Church, and that he was then engaged on a book which it had been his intention to present to the Pope, in order to obtain absolution. On the 30th of July Bruno was heard for the last time, his final word being one of humble deference to the Holy Tribunal. After more than a month there came from Rome (whither the case, as a spiritual one, had been referred) a request for Bruno's extradition. Had he been a Venetian, this demand would never have been granted. Unfortunately for him, he was not a subject of the Republic, while the Republic had special reasons for just then wishing to win the Pope's favour. Even so, it was not till after much debate and repeated interchange of despatches that the Nuncio's request was conceded, and we read with astonishment in the précis of the deliberation in which the most excellent College came to its resolution that Giordano Bruno himself was not averse to being transferred to Rome. On the 16th January, 1593, the Venetian Ambassador in Rome, informs the Doge of the intense delight with which his Holiness had received the notification of Bruno's extradition. And here ends, for the present, our knowledge of what befell Giordano Bruno, until seven years later we catch the glimpse of him burning in Campo di Fiori. From the moment he leaves Venice light ceases. It is perplexing to surmise why he should have been kept so long in durance, and why after so long a respite it should have been suddenly deemed expedient to give Rome the spectacle of his execution. The procedures at the Holy Office, as a rule, were not dilatory. Galileo's trial was over in four months, and Carnesecchi was executed after twelve months' process. We are not likely to know why Bruno was dealt with differently until the Vatican Archives are unlocked. Signor Berti says that he caused search to be made in that quarter through a friend in a position to have access, and the information received was "that the records of the Holy Office show Bruno to have been prosecuted, but present no data for declaring what sentence was pronounced." At the same time, the ink in several parts of the "reserved volumes" is affirmed to be so obliterated that the writing could not be made out. It is positive that on transfer of his case to Rome all Bruno's papers, which were delivered by Mocenigo, must have gone there, and it is equally positive that if no records are now existing in Rome of his trial, this must be because they have been deliberately destroyed.
We cannot here discuss the intrinsic value of Bruno's writings. There is much in them which is very obscure and terribly in- volved, but which read by the light of his interrogatories assumes a clearer aspect. It is to us plain that Bruno at
the time of his catastrophe was just arriving at maturity of mind. The grotesqueness of imagination and licentiousness of tongue so prevalent in his writings are but the literary wild oats of an overboiling temperament in youth. Neither Pantheism nor Materialism (as has often been said) were the real characteristics of his nature. Bruno was essentially a Freethinker of the Italian type, irresistibly quick with his stinging tongue about priest and pope, while at heart cherished feelings which demanded some- thing less dry and rigid than a merely metaphysical system. The cardinal article in his speculation was the Copernican system ; and it was the ardent profession of it which furnished the real indict- ment of heresy against him. As for Protestantism in either of its principal shapes—the Lutheran or the Calvinistic—it was utterly unsympathetic to Bruno ; and for the due appreciation of his character, it is very noteworthy how he never chose to conform outwardly with creeds when to have done so would have been of material benefit to his interests.
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