350 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



believed to be the author. He had visited Lacroze 

 at Berlin in 1706, and had defended the Nolan against 

 that virulent searcher-out of atheists, deists, pantheists, 

 and the like " miscreants and libertines." To a fellow- 

 enthusiast in Germany (Baron Hohendorf) Toland 

 wrote three years later, giving the proofs of Bruno's 

 punishment, with a translation of Schopp's account, and 

 stating his belief as to Bruno's real doctrine (viz. free- 

 thinking). 1 " The author," he wrote, " gives full play 

 to his spirit, which is always diverting, but at the same 

 time very powerful ; he is often diffuse, but never 

 wearisome. In a very small space he has expounded 

 a complete system of natural religion, the theory of 

 ancient cosmography, history, comparison and refutation 

 of different opinions, besides many curious observations 

 on diverse subjects. But the author abounds in pleasan- 

 tries, and in satirical traits : he is impious in a sovereign 

 degree, and does not always keep himself within the 

 limits of allegory." And so Bruno, like Spinoza in 

 this also, went down to posterity as a worthless, impious 

 atheist, one of the reputed authors of the mythical work 

 De Tribus Impostoribus^ which no one had ever seen, 

 but in which the three founders of the great religions of 

 the world were attacked as conscious cheats ! So far 

 was the world as yet from understanding the martyr 

 for truth and for " the religion of thought." 



It was from Germany that the reaction came. 

 The story of the restoration of Bruno's name (his 

 Ehrenrettung) has been told by Bartholmess, and needs 

 but a very brief sketch here. Heumann 2 repudiated 



history of this title and its various interpretations may be added a modern instance 

 from the Dictionary of National Biography, sub Vautrollier : " Bruno's Last Tromp " ! 



1 Vide Tolantfs Miscellaneous Works, London (1747), vol. i. 



2 Acta P hilosophorum (1715 ff.), parts iii. ix. xi. xv., cf. Zimmermann in Mus. 

 Helvet. T. v. 



