136 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



One. 1 Of Algazel's Makacid a resume of the chief 

 philosophical systems, which were criticised in a 

 second part of the work a translation was published 

 in 1506. Although an orthodox theologian, he taught 

 Bruno that the Sacred Books had as their end not so 

 much truth or knowledge about reality " as goodness 

 of custom, the advantage of the civil body, harmonious 

 living together of peoples, and practice for the benefit 

 of human intercourse, maintenance of peace, increase of 

 republics " ; 2 in other words, that the Bible claimed no 

 authority in regard to matters of historical fact or of 

 natural science, but contained a revelation of moral 

 or practical rather than of speculative or theoretical 

 -^ truth. 3 For Averroes, Bruno has the highest respect : 4 

 ibn koschd he constantly speaks of him as " the most subtle and 

 1198)." weighty of the Peripatetics" ; Ci Averroes, though an 

 Arab and ignorant of Greek (!), is more at home in the 

 Peripatetic doctrine than any Greek I have read : and 

 he would have understood it better, had he not been so 

 devoted to his deity Aristotle." 5 This blind faith in 

 Aristotle was the weak spot in Averroes' armour, and 

 the cause of many of his subtleties. " He could not 

 believe that Aristotle, whose knowledge was co-extensive 

 with creation, could have erred ; rather than deny 

 Aristotle, he refused to believe his own senses." Q In 

 philosophical theory there were at least two points of 



1 Cf. Wittman, loc. cit. 2 Ccr.a, Lag. 170. 



3 Her. Fur. Lag. 742. Algazel is connected with Averroes by Bruno in another 

 argument against authority, that the mere habit of and familiarity with a given 

 belief does not authorise its truth, for " those who from boyhood and youth are 

 accustomed to eat poison, come to such a state that it is transformed into a sweet 

 and good nourishment for them, and on the contrary they come to abhor what is 

 really good and pleasant according to common nature." 



4 A Latin translation of Averroes' Commentaries was published in 1472, and one of 

 his criticisms of Algazel (Destructio destructionli] in 1497 and in 1527. 



