

i ELIZABETH: MENDOgA 31 



feminine, Elizabeth is given as a crowning example : 

 " than whom no man is more worthy in the whole 

 kingdom, among the nobles no one more heroic, 

 among the long robed no one more learned, among 

 the councillors no one more wise." l Exaggerated as 

 the language is, it is not more so than was common 

 with the writers who adorned Elizabeth's Court ; and 

 it was one of his errors which Bruno could easily regret 

 before his judges. " In my book on * the Cause, Principle, 

 and One/ I praise the Queen of England and call her 

 ' divine/ not as a term of worship, but as an epithet 

 such as the ancients used to apply to their princes, 

 and in England where I then was, and where I com- 

 posed this book, the title ' divine ' is usually given to 

 the Queen. I was the more inclined to call her so, 

 that she knew me, as I went continually with the 

 Ambassador to Court ; but I know I erred in praising 

 this lady, she being a heretic, and in calling her 

 4 divine/ ' Through Mauvissiere, Bruno made acquaint- 

 ance with Bernardino di Mendo^a, Spanish Ambassador 

 to England from 1578 to 1584, a much stronger man 

 as well as a more unscrupulous servant of his king 

 than Mauvissiere could be. Bruno says definitely that 

 Mendo^a was known by him at the English Court. 

 So well was he known that Bruno approached the 

 Ambassador in Paris on the delicate subject of his own 

 relations with the Catholic Church, and was introduced 

 by him to the Papal Nuncio. There is absolutely no 

 reason for doubting these statements, and if true, they 

 are quite compatible with acquaintance, if not friend- 

 ship, between Bruno and Sir Philip Sidney, or the 

 others whom he mentions. Mendo^a was not, how- 

 ever a persona grata at Court : he was a thorough-going 



1 L. 226. 25 ff. 



