i BRUNO'S ABJURATION AT VENICE 81 



in peace for a time. This interview took place in the 

 prison of the Inquisition. 



On the following day in the same place the exam- 

 ination was continued his neglect of Holy Days and 

 Fastings in England and Germany ; his attendance at 

 heretic preachings (although he emphatically denied 

 that he ever partook of the communion in any 

 Protestant church) ; his doubts concerning the Incarna- 

 tion, the Miracles, the Sacraments ; his familiarity with 

 magical arts ; his praise of heretics and heretic Princes, 

 these were some of the many points of indictment 

 which he had to face. The Book of Conjurations, 

 and others like it, he professed to have had only out of 

 curiosity, although he despised and discredited sorcery ; 

 but he had wished to study the divining art, and 

 especially the divinatory (prophetic) side of astrology, 

 merely out of scientific interest, and therefore had 

 such books by him.' Heretics he had praised, only for 

 the moral virtuesThey had showed, or from convention 

 (as in the case of Queen Elizabeth). The course of his 

 examination was making clear to Bruno at last in how 

 great danger he really stood ; and on this day he made, 

 probably in hope of immediate release, a formal and 

 solemn abjuration of all the errors he had ever 

 committed pertaining to the Catholic life and profession, 

 all the heresies he had believed and the doubts he had 

 permitted himself to hold about the Catholic Faith or the 

 decrees of the Church ; and prayed that the Holy Tribunal 

 would receive him into the bosom of the Holy Church, 

 provide him with remedies proper to his salvation, and 

 show mercy upon him. 



The earlier processes against him at Naples and at 

 Rome were, however, recalled to mind ; and on the 

 following day he was again questioned as to his 



nit. 



