LITTLE listen to anything in which they do not believe, and 

 JOURNEYS decline to pay for preaching that is not done to their 

 own dictation. The business then of the Church is to 

 study carefully the ignorance of the people and con- 

 form to it. On this one thing does its stability depend. 

 Therefore it must as a matter of self-preservation sup- 

 press any chance intellect that is ahead of its time, 

 lest this man honeycomb the whole structure of 

 Churchly dogma. 



Bruno said that just as the world seemed to stand 

 still and the stars move around us, so did the Church 

 seem to most people a fixed fact. But exactly the op- 

 posite was true the Church moves as the people 

 move, and unless men outside of the Church educate 

 the people, or the people educate themselves, they 

 will forever remain in darkness. 



Bruno offered to publicly debate the question with the 

 Bishop of Paris. That worthy was no match for Bruno 

 in point of oratory, but when we cannot answer a 

 man's reasons, all is not lost, for we can at least call 

 him vile names, and this is often quite as effectual as 

 logic J> J> 



The Bishop launched a fusillade of theological lyddite 

 at Bruno, declaring that any Churchman who would 

 so much as hold converse with such a wretch was 

 disgraced forever, and that the propositions Bruno 

 wished to argue were unthinkable to a self-respecting 

 man. He declared that it was only the mercy of God 

 that kept the lightning from striking Bruno dead as he 

 wrote his heresies. 

 36 



