ii RATIONALISM IN BRUNO 301 



sanction required ; the latter pursue the true good 

 without this stimulus, by virtue of reason. But for the 

 sake of the many, the few must conform in outward 

 practice with the religion of their state. 1 Brunnhofer 

 goes so far as to see in this the idea of Lessing, that 

 religion is a means whereby men are gradually educated 

 upwards to a true knowledge of God, leading them 

 from the state of darkness and savagery to that of 

 moral behaviour, at which point only the full light of 

 science and philosophy takes the place of religion. 2 

 There was a religion, however, for the few as well as 

 for the many, for the wholly civilised as well as for the 

 semi-barbarians of Europe, the philosophical religion 

 of the Heroici Furori. Another reason for his con- 

 formity was that Bruno regarded the historical religions 

 as allegories, or metaphors, of truth. Not that it was 

 for every one to say what was metaphorical merely, 

 what truth or fact : in the hands of Jews, Christians, 

 and Mahomedans, and the many sects of each, the 

 same Scripture met with as many interpretations as the 

 number of the sects. 3 The interpretation of the divine 

 words, uttered by inspired prophet or poet, for the 

 divine inspiration was not given at one place or one 

 time only, was again the work of the wise few. 



Bruno's own leaning was towards Rationalism, as 

 in his interpretation of the Trinity, of Creation, of the 

 Incarnation, of Immortality, of Providence. 4 In this he 

 was only following Lully and Nicolaus of Cusa, who 

 also " demonstrated " some of the deepest of Christian 

 doctrines, interpreted in their own way. Yet Bruno 

 was by no means a thorough Rationalist : there remained 



1 Cf. what is said of the danger of preaching determinism to the many, in Inf., 

 Lag., 317. n, and Her. Fur., Lag. 619. 20. 



Giordano Bruno's, Weltanschauung, etc., pp. 23, 24. 

 3 Cena, Lag. 171, 172. 4 fide Berti, Docs. xi. and xii. 



