94 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



only putting off his judges, and the duration of his 

 imprisonment is given (officially ?) at " about two 

 years." It is clear that on the occasion of the sentence 

 being read the denouncements of Mocenigo, as well as 

 all later evidences dragged from Bruno's own lips, or 

 picked up from his books, were recited for the benefit, 

 presumably, of the visitors present. When the sentence 

 was pronounced Bruno was degraded, excommunicated, 

 and handed over to the secular magistrates, as we have 

 seen. The whole letter is redeemed by the reply of 

 Bruno to his judges " Greater perhaps is your fear in 

 pronouncing my sentence than mine in hearing it." 

 These strong words are almost the last we have of 

 Bruno. At the stake he turned his eyes angrily away 

 from the crucifix held before him. And so, adds 

 Schopp, " he was burned and perished miserably, and is 

 gone to tell, I suppose, in those other worlds of his 

 fancy, how the blasphemous and impious are dealt with 

 by the Romans ! " It is pleasant to know that when 

 Lord Digby was English ambassador to Spain he 

 caused Gaspard Schopp to be horse-whipped. 1 For the 

 degradation of Bruno, as we learn from the Register 

 of the Depository - General of the Pontificate, two 

 scudi of gold were paid to the Bishop of Sidonia. 

 The memorable words he uttered at the time were 

 reported by another than Schopp, the Count of Venti- 

 miglia, who was a pupil of Bruno, and present at his 

 death (perhaps at the sentence also) " You who 

 sentence me are in greater fear than I who am con- 

 demned " ; and before his death Bruno recommended 



1 The letter was translated into English by La Roche, Memoirs of Literature, vol. 

 ii., and by Toland, Misc. Works, vol. i. Schopp refers to Bruno's death in a work 

 published in 1611 (i.e. several years before the letter itself was published) as having 

 occurred ten years earlier (Berti, p. 10). 



