88 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



which would be valuable could it now be found. From 

 January 16, 1593 to January 14, 1599 there is 

 absolute silence concerning Bruno, so far as discovered 

 documents go. In 1 849 an opportunity was obtained 

 of studying the archives of the Vatican, but the student 

 did not pass beyond November 1598 (beginning from 

 February 1600), before the opportunity was over. 1 The 

 earliest of these records of Bruno is, as stated above, 

 of January 14, 1599. To the congregation (of the 

 Holy Office) " there were read eight heretical pro- 

 positions, taken from the works of Fra Giordano 

 Bruno of Nola, apostate of the order of Preaching 

 Friars, imprisoned in the prison of the Holy Office, and 

 from the process against him, by the Reverend Fathers 

 Commissario and Bellarmino. It was decided that 

 selected propositions be read to him, in order to 

 determine whether he was willing to abjure them as 

 heretical. Other heretical propositions are to be looked 

 for in the process and in the books. 



What had happened all these years ? Why was 

 Bruno's life spared so long ? This unusual clemency 

 on the part of the Inquisition points to a great difference 

 in their estimate of Bruno's importance from their view 

 of that of other heretics. In a list of twenty-one prisoners 

 of the Inquisition made on the 5th of April 1599, only 

 one besides Bruno had been for more than a year in 

 their hands ; the duration of imprisonment for the 

 others could be counted by months or days. As a 

 general rule they were not slow in striking. Among 

 the reasons that have been suggested is the time 

 required to go over the four processes which had already 

 been drawn up against Bruno, if the documents were 

 -extant, and to obtain and read his books and manu- 



1 It is officially stated that there are no further documents. 



