i BRUNO'S ORTHODOXY 87 



to his denials before the tribunal, and his wonderful 

 memory could not have allowed them to slip from his 

 mind. However, there is this to be said, that Bruno 

 had never regarded himself as anything but a Catholic ; 

 that his criticisms of that Church were suggestions of 

 reform from within rather than attacks from without ; 

 that he had always retained an instinctive dislike both 

 of Calvinism and of Lutheranism, in spite of his 

 exaggerated but conventional praises of Luther at 

 Wittenberg ; that he had never formally compared his 

 philosophy with his traditional faith, but rather laid that 

 faith aside and worked as a philosopher merely : hence 

 his reputation in Germany as a man of no religion. 

 When he first became aware that he was in danger of 

 losing life or at least liberty, and his dream of a quiet 

 retirement with freedom of work in Italy began to fade, 

 he must have lost his centre of judgment, and had 

 difficulty in estimating his own past doings and sayings 

 from the new standpoint. It would be unjust to say 

 there was the smallest element of hypocrisy in his 

 submission, or of deceit in his denial of guilt. And in 

 any case, whatever errors he committed before the 

 Venetian tribunal were amply amended by his behaviour 

 before the Roman. 1 One thing is certain : he never 

 either then or afterwards recanted or in any sense with- 

 drew a single proposition belonging to his philosophical 

 creed. 



To Rome there went with him, in all probability, 

 copies of the denunciations and evidence given at 

 Venice, the works which Mocenigo had marked, and 

 lists of all his works, including that given by himself, 



1 It must not be left out of mind that documents have occasionally been tampered 

 with, and statements put into the mouths of witnesses which are in substance false, 

 as Fiorentino hints concerning these reports of Bruno's trial. But there is no special 

 reason for doubt here. 



