28 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



respected either by the Court, who, with good grounds, 

 believed him to have no influence with the French 

 King, or by Mary of Scotland and the English 

 Catholics, partly because of his supposed Huguenot 

 leanings, and partly because of their distrust of Henry 

 III., or by the French King himself. Mauvissiere had 

 been sent to England as one who could be trusted not 

 to err by way of undue zeal. Henry had no desire to 

 see the unfortunate Queen of Scots liberated, although 

 he put out all his diplomatic power to save her life ; 

 the status quo in England suited his policy only too 

 well ; there was no need for active interference. It was 

 Mary of Guise that spurred on Mauvissiere to act as 

 energetically as he did for Queen Mary. We may 

 assume then that Bruno, when Oxford rejected him, 

 entered the French Embassy as an unofficial secretary. 

 The words he employed at the Venetian inquiry quite 

 harmonise with this supposition : " In his house I 

 stayed as his gentleman, nothing more," not as friend 

 or guest, but as " his gentleman." l That he went 

 constantly to Court with the Ambassador, and was 

 introduced to Queen Elizabeth, would be natural in the 

 case of a secretary it would be curious in the case of a 

 mere guest, or of any servant lower than a secretary. 

 Finally, in the Infinito* the grateful remark that 

 Mauvissiere entertained Bruno within his family, " not 

 as one who was of service to him (Mauvissiere), but 

 as one whom he could serve on the many occasions 

 in which aid was required by the Nolan," obviously 

 suggests that services were rendered by Bruno to the 

 Ambassador. A man who was prepared to make a 



1 Doc. 9, Berta, p. 305. " Castelnuovo, in casa del qual non faceva altro se non 

 che stava per il suo gentilhomo." 



2 Preface, L. 305. 



