298 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



Rome had violated. 1 The religion to which he gave 

 his adherence was that which raised the dead, healed 

 the sick, gave to the poor ; not the contrary form to 

 which the Inquisition had brought the Church in 

 Catholic lands. 



Man and With great boldness Bruno drew from his concep- 



tion of the Infinite the consequence that there can be 

 no action of the finite upon the infinite, no change or 

 effect in God produced through man. A practical 

 corollary of this was the argument for freedom ot 

 thought. The virtue of Judgment, in the Spaccio, has 

 entrusted to it the defence of the true law, and the 

 removal of unjust or false laws, dictated by enmity to 

 the peace and happiness of the human commonwealth. 

 It shall kindle and fan the appetite for glory in the 

 human breast, as the only sure stimulus for inciting 

 men to the heroic deeds that increase, maintain, or 

 strengthen republics. But it shall not pay heed to 

 what men imagine or think, provided their words and 

 deeds do not corrupt the peace of the realm. Deeds 

 are its only concern, and it has to judge the tree, not 

 by the fineness, but by the goodness of its fruits. 

 Heaven is not interested in any way in what does not 

 interest man ; it is moved and angered, not by any- 

 thing done, said, or thought by men, except in so far as 

 the welfare of republics is endangered. Gods would 

 not be gods if they were either pleased or displeased, 

 grieved or delighted, by what men did or thought ; 

 they would be more needy than men, would be as 

 dependent on men as men are on themselves for 

 utility and profit. 2 The gods are beyond all passion : 

 they have active anger and pleasure only, not passive. 



1 Orat. Consol. Op. Lat. i. i. 51 j cf. i. 3. 4. 



2 Cf. Lucretius, ii. 646 : " Omnh enim per se divom natura necessest," etc. 



