GIORDANO BRUNO 



It was not so much the heretical theistic doctrines 

 of the unity of "All in One " that armed the fearful 

 severity of the Inquisition against him, as it was the 

 assertion that the Earth moved around the Sun the 

 same conviction that brought so much suffering to 

 Galileo. Besides this, the open attack upon the 

 Aristotelian Philosophy, the many expressions against 

 the Monks and the prominent doctrines of the Church, 

 added to the animosity of his judges. Bruno was 

 urged to recant. Up to the last moment, it is said, 

 he might have saved his life by a simple recantation. 

 He disdained to do so, or to disown his convictions, 

 and thrust the crucifix away when held before him 

 as the emblem of repentance. 



Bruno had no sympathizers to support or strengthen 

 him. " No saintly halo, no echo of future renown was 

 there, no admiring disciple kept his teaching, to rise 

 in the future like a phoenix from his ashes. His 

 contemporaries, almost without exception, called him 

 a fanatic in life and in doctrine, thoughtless, unsteady, 

 quarrelsome, rude to his opponents, headstrong, arro- 

 gant, obscure, confused in his doctrines and inclined 

 to dissipation. It is not to be believed that a man 

 who was inspired so strongly by the ideal more 

 ardently even than any other living man could be 

 thus wrongly constituted in his life. They did not 

 understand his doctrine. The wisest and most honest 



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