Show LETTER FROM JUNIUS the year of our lord 1600 was one ofa of jubilee abilee in the great city of rome the papal chair was occupied by element clement the eighth the leaders of the proud roman church were unusually serious roman supremacy in western europe was al already subverted in italy herself au an intellectual ferment was in pro gross ess anything but satisfactory to f the arie advocates of established systems france was rent by faction and feud by family jealousies and political intrigues spain was humiliated and chastened chasteney chast ened she had not yet recovered from her terrible disaster of twelve years ago when her IlD invincible armada of ships cannon and men were sacrificed to the god of storms in the english channel but what was still more alarming the copernican system of astronomy was being popularized and the st scholastic philosophy of convents and colleges was being mercilessly assailed aa sailed Ga galillee Gali lilleo lieo was now 36 years of age and was acquiring european renown as a scientist he had already constructed his thermometer and his telescope and his pendulum were in embryonic incubation several beveral of the aristotelian dogmas were rudely shattered by his discoveries co veries and inventions ca campa av te nella inella was now 32 years of age he too with eloquent tongue and vigorous pen assailed the old beliefs and advocated the new numbers of scholars in italy and elsewhere were breaking away from the old ties giordano bruno was now in prison in rome after having made a ten years tour of europe ridiculing aristotle ptolemy and the church and eulogizing heretics perhaps it was to render the j jubilee year of 1600 more impressive and more worthy of commemoration that the dignitaries of the church resolved to celebrate it with an execution under the decrees of the famed inquisition on the morning of february 17 1600 the people of borne were in a state of excitement both eager and expectant the news had bad gone ne around that a heretic would woul that day be burned alive one too who had been a priest and who spurned the dogmas of transubstantiation and immaculate conception in I 1 none one of the public squares the fagot pile was built up from ats centre towered the dreadful stake the people well knew what it meant old and young vulgar and refined rude and gentle male and female all struggled to catch a glance at the terrible pile and stake presently the cry circulated they are co coming yes they come monks priests and soldiers and took up their stations around stake among them was the victim calm cool boo resolute and determined he was a man finy fifty years of age prepossessing in appearance intellectual and interesting in countenance priests of the dominican order approached pro ached him addressed him exhorted him but to all he turned a deaf ear his sentence was read to him but he told the multitude that he received it with more fortitude than his judges pronounced it he was placed on top of the pile chai chained ned to the stake while fire was applied beneath the smoke ascended next the flames burst out A monk thrust a crucifix in the victims victim 8 face through the flame but the victim turned from it in disgust in a few minutes nothing was visible but a little heap of ashes and cinders reports of this execution did not appear in the daily or weekly papers for the simple reason there were none the first newspaper the venice Ocus efte did riot not appear until 30 years later 1630 nevertheless th eless the question is as anxiously asked who was the person who suffered this terrible death and what did he do was he a polygamist did he believe ina in a personal god no but he said the earth moved that god was manifest in aalthe all the works of nature and that life was only a struggle preparatory to a brighter and grander existence beyond he denounced aristotle and eulogized copernicus transubstantiation jie he held to be such a self evident absurdity that beings who believed in it he declared to be devoid of reason and common comdon sense but did he deserve burning at the stake the world at the time said yes lutheran nor calvinist anglican nor romanist raised a wail ot of anguish at this mans fate for ten years after his death his name was barely mentioned his name was obliterated from the archives of the dominican order of monks to which he once belonged etwas it was also expunged irom from college records in other countries than italy where he disputed and lectured and and for a time it was in a fair way of sinking into complete oblivion later on an undue importance was attached to him owing more to the nature of his death than to the worth of his works as a scientist or philosopher phi 10 h er A little book of hi his g entitled sold in holland holg for SW florins florans flor ins at one time and in england for all europe was searched for copies of his works and fabulous prices offered for them I 1 in n 1830 h his is works were collected a and u d published the general verdict is that he behas has been overestimated as a scholar and thinker and that though often elegant and impressive he be is frequently buffoonish and indecent to learn something of this mans biography we must betake ourselves to nola a little town fifteen miles from naples and situated midway between vesuvius and the sea am this little town itself has a history the great hannibal once besieged it it was after the terrible slaughter of candae here were born and died octavius casar and marcus agrippa it was here church bells were first introduced by paulinus one of the bishops in the fifth century and here was born giordano bruno the man who was burnt at the stake in the city of rome borne february 17 1600 bruno was born either in 1548 or 1550 the latter date is the one most usually accepted ten years before copernicus died the man who most influenced brunos bruno Is life luther was dead only four years and calvin were yet alive servetus was not burned until three years later 1553 loyola the founder of the jesuit order was still alive died 1556 charles the first of 0 f spain 8 pai 1 n was w as also alive all v e but a few years later resigned his crown and retired to a monastery mon astry where he died 1558 of brunos youth little is known he joined the dominican order when young he was not long among the monks before his skepticism attracted attention and though he doubted some of the leading dogmas at an early age yet he be was thirty before he be severed his connection the convent but this was an age of controversy and disi dispute and even in the schools school and sand colleges the orthodox varied among themselves in 1580 bruno appeared in geneva he still wore his friars garb but he did so because he be had not money to buy other clothing some italian refugees represented to bruno that among the calvinists a friars garb alone would be sufficient cause for torture if not dot the stake he converted his gown into a kind of smock and with the aid of a tailor turned his roman raiment into calvinistic smalle lothes the inner man did not undergo any such transformation calvin was now dead sixteen years but his spirit still lived poor bruno found that moving from rome borne to geneva was only running from the tiger into the mouth of the tigress in geneva aristotle and ptolemy were as strongly entrenched as in rome bruno soon fled from there making his way to toulouse here he raised another storm about his head and fled to paris where he arrived about 1582 henry the third was king henry was either very liberal or else he secretly disbelieved in many principles held to be orthodox he was not entirely partial to roman supremacy macy however he be took bruno under his protection but bruno would not go to mass and in paris at this time it was wae maw mass or death bruno attacked the paris university and its doctrines he wrote a comedy said to be indecent ha aff had to leave paris and betake himself to foggy london here he arrived some time in 1583 sir philip sidney whom bruno had met before in italy received him warmly queen elizabeth accorded the wondering philosopher a gracious welcome and bruno with ane count de lasco became the lion of the day during two years that bruno sojourned sojourn ed in england 1583 85 he was most moet royally and hospitably treated he published while here several works one of which he dedicated to sir philip sidney ever since it has been a mystery to critics and historians why sir philip accepted the dedication because the work was then in england unorthodox bruno wrote poems in praise of elizabeth e called her diana and venus and placed her at the pinnacle of all womanly beauty and culture she was now advancing in years and was growing stout and coarse still she fancied herself the possessor of beauty flattery from bruno was well received a man who was the talk of all europe and remarkable for anything but soft speech bruno was soon engaged with the sons of oxford university he called them asses and pigs heads and said the university was the widow of sound learning there were great men living in fin those days wa walter I 1 ter raleigh was now about thirty years jears of age and surprising the world both ola old and new by his enterprise and extravagance lord bacon was about twenty four years of age and shakespeare twenty one both yet unknown to fame the latter perhaps poaching in sir lucys bucys preserves or holdi holding horbes outside of druty drury lane wary mary queen of scots was at this time in prison in england and two years later 1587 was executed about this time were born two men who figured largely in european history these were Oren stiern in sweden and grotius in holland but bruno soon found england getting too hot and his friends hinted to him that elizabeth might read something else besides sonnets bruno wandered back again to paris politics and religion in france were badly mixed up the catholic league at the head of which was the duke of guise and his brother the cardinal of lorraine was becoming active henry the third was not a favorite with these his interesting mother catherine de yet alive and though quite old had lost none of her youthful cruelty them the massacre of st Bartholo bartholomew mews ada dal wu not yet forgotten at it having occurred only fourteen years before two years after brunos second visit to paris henry III had the duke of guise and his brother the ear cardinal dinal both assassinated by advice of his venerable mother catherine catherine died a year later 1589 and in the same year a monk stabbed henry III himself so that bruno must have found paris to in 1586 a place for knives and poison rather than for polemics and dialectics bruno brano next turns up a professor of te theology in marbury university he wanted tp to lecture on philosophy but the privilege was denied him whereupon he be tweaked the nose of the president nothing was done to bruno for the insult but it occasioned casio ned considerable discussion bruno next went to wittenburg which place he styled the athens of germany he remained there two years he wrote a defense of satan but treated his sable majesty somewhat different to what robert burns did at a later day bruno was waa asked to become a lutheran and 1 4 though he pronounced a splendid panegyric on luther he could not conscientiously accept luthers religion in fact bruno could accept nothing that would debar him from having a whack at aristotle from the capital of lutheranism to the capital of romanism bruno jumped at one bound from wittenburg b arg to prague from prague he went to helmstadt where he received the papal communication from there he went to frankfort where it appears he kept quiet for a time he next turns up in padua some authorities contend that he was decoyed decayed from frankfort to italy under pretense of becoming tutor to a young nobleman and that this same nobleman afterwards exposed bruno to the inquisition soon after brunos arrival in padua he was placed in prison and kept there for several years deprived of books of writing material and of society to a man of brunos brunai temperament this was a terrible torture in 1698 1598 he was removed to rome borne being in priests orders the papal inquisition could claim him and did from the venetian government several times bruno was called on to recant but he became more firm solitude persecution and confinement strengthen men of enthusiasm and of so there was no retracting in bruno finally it was decided to chasten him without shedding blood as the official document hai it citra san guinis nis effusion em pun iretus 11 this means burning at the stake by this process there was no effusion of blood on the spot where bruno wro barnedin bur burned in 1600 was erected a statue in 1889 pope leo XIII made the erection of this statte the subject of an allocution which was read on sunday nov ad in all countr countries iee and in all languages of the world in it the pope says saya bruno was a rebel to his last breath CHICAGO nov |