vi INQUIRY AND INTERPRETATION 147 



besides it another and others infinite ; so that I have declared 

 that there are endless particular worlds similar to this of the 

 Earth ; with Pythagoras I regard it as a star, and similar to it 

 are the moon, the planets, and other stars, which are infinite, 

 and all these bodies are worlds, and without number, constituting 

 the infinite all (universita) in an infinite space ; while the latter 

 is called the infinite universe, in which are innumerable worlds ; 

 so that there are two kinds of infinity, one in the magnitude of 

 the universe, the other in the multitude of worlds, by which 

 indirectly the truth according to the faith may be impugned. 

 In this universe I place a universal providence, in virtue of which 

 everything lives, grows, moves, and comes to and abides in its 

 perfection. Giordano Bruno. 



For teaching these doctrines Bruno was handed over 

 to the governor of Rome in 1600, with the usual recom- 

 mendation that he be punished " with as great clemency 

 as possible, and without effusion of blood" an equivocal 

 form of words which signified burning at the stake. 

 He had been eight years a prisoner of the Inquisition 

 and could have secured his release at any time by for- 

 saking the truth as it had been revealed to him, but an 

 unbending sense of right kept him stedfast to the end. 

 When his sentence was pronounced he uttered the 

 memorable words, " You who sentence me are in greater 

 fear than I who am condemned." 



The fear of death was no part of Bruno's philosophy. 

 "I have fought," he said, "that is much victory is 

 in the hands of fate. Be that as it may with me, this 

 at least future ages will not deny of me, be the victor 

 who may that I did not fear to die. Yielded to none 

 of my fellows in constancy, and preferred a spirited 

 death to a cowardly life." For liberty of thought and 

 freedom of science he perished, and his executioners 

 believed they were preserving Truth from desecration 

 when they burned the body of the man who willingly 

 offered himself up as a living sacrifice to her. 



