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B783.Z7 B85 Giordano Bruno: philosopher and martyr.

3 1924 028 988 967 olln

Giordano Bruno

:

PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR.

TWO

DANIEL

ADDRESSES.

G.

BRINTON,

M.D.,

AND

THOMAS DAVIDSON,

M.A.

PHILADELPHIA:

DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER, No. 23 South Ninth Street.

1890.

As America's jnental courage is

(the

thought comes

so indebted, above all current lands

army of old-world martyrs clear those martyrs' lives

past,

to

and peoples,

how incumbent on

me to-day)

to

the noble

us that

we

and names, and hold them up for

reverent admiration as well as beacons.

And typical

of

this,

and standing for it and all perhaps, Giordano Bruno may well be put, to-day

heart

and

to come, in

our

New

World's thankfulest

and memory.

WALT WHITMAN. February

24ih, l8go.

Camden, N. J.

PREFATORY NOTE.

—

The Contemporary Club, of Philadelphia an association of men and women formed for the discussion of the leading questions of the day ject of Giordano Bruno for

its

— selected the sub-

meeting on January

14, 1890.

The heated

controversies which had attended the

erection of a statue to vious,

Bruno

and the numerous

in

articles

Rome

the year pre-

which had appeared

concerning him in the recent magazines and papers,

both European and American, signalized his individuality

and

thought as manifestly present topics of

his

interest to reflective minds. in this little

The two addresses

printed

volume were read before the Club on the

date mentioned, and are presented without alteration.

Of course,

it

will

be understood that they exhibit the

opinions of the writers, and are not an

official

expres-

sion of the sentiments of the Club as a body.

It

appeared the more desirable to print them in

their present

form on account of the

difficulty

of

PREFATORY NOTE.

VI

obtaining accurate information about Bruno, or access to bis works.

None

of tHese has been translated into

English, and the Italian and Latin originals are extremely, rarely to be

found,

even

in

our largest

libraries.

Of biographies

in English, Frith's " Life of Gior-

dano Bruno," published by Messrs. Triibner

London,

is

much

&

Co.,

the best, and a book to be recom-

mended.

The lines by Walt Whitman will be appreciated by who are in sympathy with his sterling philosophy of life. They were written after reading the first of

all

the addresses here published, his infirmities preventing

him from attending the meeting of the Club, of

which he

is

an honored member.

The engraving on statue

erected to

Rome, and

is

the

title

page represents the

Bruno on the Campo

de'

Fiori,

copied from the medal struck to cele-

brate that event.

D. G. Philadelphia,

March, i8go.

BRINTON.

GIORDANO BRUNO: HIS LIFE

AND

BY DANIEL

HIS PHILOSOPHY,

G.

BRINTON, M.D.

—

:

:

GIORDANO BRUNO HIS LIFE

Mr.

President

AND

HIS

PHILOSOPHY.

and Fellow Members

—

Soraething more than five-and-twenty years

ago

listened to

I

some

on Giordano Bruno, I

remember

lectures at the Sorbonne_

his life

and

his philosophy.

that a fellow student expressed his

opinion that they were a deadly bore

yeuxs a mourir. you

fault

ject

find with

not

shall

I

I

me

fall

ennu-

hope that whatever other in

treating the

under

this

same sub-

worst of con-

demnations.

At

that time

Bruno was but one of a number

of obscure philosophers of the Renaissance with

whom in

the lecturer

Italy

I

was

dealing.

Last winter

found that the name of Giordano

Bruno was a

war-cry, ringing from Sicily to the

9

—

GIORDANO BRUNO:

lO

Alps

—

yes, far

Roman

beyond the Alps,

I

over the

Catholic world, with distinct echoes in

Protestant lands.

logne

all

At

the ancient city of Co-

stood in an assembly of a thousand men,

gathered to celebrate and defend the erection of Bruno's statue in far off

week olics

Rome;

while the

before, at a very large meeting of Cath-

on the upper Rhine, the orator of the day,

a distinguished delegate to the Rdchskammer,

had called Bruno "a hog and an "Schwein

und ein Esel,

—

ass,"

ein

and had been applauded

for the epithets.

When on the epochal ninth of June last (1889), Bruno's statue was unveiled on the spot of his burning, in can,

it

is

full

view of the windows of the Vati-

said that

and spent hours

in

Leo Xlllth refused food an agony of prayer at the

foot of the statue of St. Peter.

Never have

I

read more bitter denunciations than have been

poured forth concerning Catholic pulpit. in

this act

from the

Roman

Many another man was burned

Rome, and some

Florence, and John

at

Geneva; Savonarola

Huss

at

at Constance; but

I

—

HIS LIFE

doubt

if

AND HIS PHILOSOPHY.

II

the statue of any one of these

would

have offended the Catholic church so deeply,

would have rankled so venomously, as

that of

Bruno.

Nor was this of Rome. The

feeling confined to the church

learned dignitaries of the more

conservative Protestant churches,

knew anything about Bruno and

when they

his teachings,

This was perfectly mani-

evidently shared it fest

from the

and

in the official religious

editorials in

the

London Times

press both of Eng-

land and North Germany.

What was in

the secret of this?

Bruno which so

the theologians? others, la. vita

nuova

it

peculiarly excited the ire of

And why

has he, beyond

been chosen to represent the new

—of

are the questions this

What was

independent Italy?

I

shall

all

life

These

endeavor to answer

evening.

And

who was Bruno ?

Fihppo Bruno, known in religion first,

dano Bruno, was born

into

life

as

Gior-

at Nola, near

Naples, in 1548, and burned alive at

Rome

!

GIORDANO BRUNO:

12

A

1600.

in

precocious lad, he assumed the

garb of the Dominicans at fourteen years of

and two years

age,

sion of

vows

later

made

he exercised the

and around the convent

St.

until

Dominic

holy orders

to-

offices of the

profes-

full

Convent of

Soon promoted

Naples.

at

in the

priesthood in In that

1576.

year the Provincial of his order accused him of heresy on one hundred and thirty counts

With a Bruno

just fear of the result of the

cast

aside

vows, and fled

Northern

first

to

Rome and

For three

Italy.

trial;

renounced

frock,

his

his

then to

years he

wan-

dered from Genoa to Noli, to Turin, to Vento

ice,

Padua, gaining a precarious subsist-

ence by teaching and writing.

him

find

in

he

in

for him.

was thrown

libel,

into

Calvinism.

This

In a very few

months

prison

for

defamatory

and prohibited the sacraments

doctrine.

he made

his

we

Geneva, then the stronghold of

most uncompromising

the

was no place

In 1579

Escaping

way

to

from

the

for errors Calvinists,

Toulouse, at that time

3

HIS LIFE

AND

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

1

There

the literary center of southern France.

he spent a year, lecturing on Aristotle, wearied, as he scholastic

by

tells us,

its

"

until

clamors and

he was glad to move on

frenzy,"

to Paris.

The atmosphere under

He

of

that

great

suited

influence,

Italian

city,

him

then

better.

obtained the position of professor extra-

ordinary in the Sorbonne, where he lectured

on the divine

Two

memorizing.

and on the

attributes

years

art

of

later, that is in 1583,

he journeyed to London, apparently at the invitation

court of

of the

Queen

French ambassador to the

Elizabeth.

In the English capital he passed

years.

At

that

the imperial city Its its

streets

were

inhabitants

some three

day London was

far

from

on the Thames of our time. filthy,

its

police

a

jest,

and

numbered only twice as many

as those of

Camden, on the other side of our

Delaware.

But among those inhabitants were

such glorious stars as Shakespeare and Spencer,

Francis Bacon and Sir Philip Sidney, and

GIORDANO BRUNO:

14

the galaxy of the Elizabethan age gathered

around the throne of the virgin queen, herself learned

and a patron of

In this incomparable circle

Sidney, to

whom in the

reflections of ford,

and

the friend of

he dedicated two of of his

influence

recognized

Bruno entered as

He became

a welcome guest.

and the

learning.

his books,

teaching has been

philosophy of Bacon and the

Hamlet.

The

University of Ox-

however, received him worse than coldly, his lectures led to

was forced

such acrimony that he

hastily to depart.

Returning

to the continent in

1586, for five

years he roamed from city to city in Germany, leading that

life

of the vagrant scholar so gen^

eral in his day, but unfortunately always in hot

water.

At Wittenberg,

in spite of delivering

gyric on Luther, he

leave the town

;

a pane-

was warned summarily

to

from Marburg he was obliged

to flee in order to escape the

"malevolence"

of the rector of the University; in Helmstedt he

was excommunicated from the reformed Church

5

HIS LIFE

(October,

1

589)

;

AND in

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

1

Frankfort the authorities

refused to permit him even to lodge within the

gates

and so the story goes.

;

Finally at Zurich he received an invitation

from a noble Venetian, Zuane Mocenigo, to visit

Venice and teach him the higher and secret

learning.

He

complied, with unsuspecting con-

fidence in his patron.

But Mocenigo was noble

nothing but his

in

The two soon quarreled

birth.

with the implacable

thirst for

violently,

and

vengeance of a

mediaeval Italian, Mocenigo quietly collected

from the works of Bruno and

his conversations

a mass of testimony as to his heretical

and turned them over in

to the

beliefs,

Father Inquisitor

Venice, with a formal' denunciation of their

author.

Bruno was promptly

Once his fate, tain.

in the

arrested.

hands of that merciless tribunal

though

it

might be deferred, was

Tried and convicted

in

Venice, he was

delivered to the Inquisition in

seven years spent

in its

cer-

Rome.

After

dungeons, again he was

6

GIORDANO BRUNO:

I

and again convicted.

tried

Eight charges of

heresy were proved against him, and he was called

upon

to recant.

His reply was firm

and

I

not recant

will

"I

:

ought not to recant,

" !

After further delay, the Inquisition pronounced sentence of death, and, as the custom was, turned

him over

to the secular

Bruno heard the in

power

words

fatal

a menacing tone replied, "

fear

more

hear

it."

to*

Ten days was

He

execution.

its

It

may be

later,

on February

1

7th,

1

600,

on the Campo

and

that you

deliver this judgment, than

led to the stake

I

to

Bruno

de' Fiori.

scorned the proffered consolations of the

priests,

and met death with the calmness of a His

truly great mind.

latest

a martyr, and willingly." into the Tiber

and

accursed on the Such, in restless

him

for

unflinchingly,

brief,

man.

tally

his

rolls

words were,

His ashes were cast

name placed among

with his

the

of the Church.

was the history of

The

" I die

descriptions

life

—a

this lonely,

we have

small, thin

of

man, with

7 "

AND

HIS LIFE

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

1

a meagre, dark beard, sovereignly scornful of his attire

"

three buttons off his coat and not a

;

ring on his fingers," says one narrative

hose pieced out from says another

Dominican gown,"

not a presentable

;

and of uncomfortable

society, all

his

day long, or

"

" his

;

man

in fine

habits, writing

walking up and down,

with fantastic meditations upon

new

filled

things,

reported the Prior of the Carmelite Convent in

Frankfort

;

quick in temper, bitter in debate,

violent in language, impatient with ignorance, full

of scorn

for

prejudices

;

not a pleasant,

easy-going fellow by any means to vainglorious boasting,

;

given at times

and perhaps also

to

mystifying intimations of secret knowledge in

Impatient with the pettiness about

his reach.

him,

embittered by persecution, what wonder

that he

ular

fell

and

a long

way

short of being that pop-

affable individual

which the

common

mind admires?

You

will

personal

wish

me

character..

to say It

something about

has been bitterly

tacked, not so much, so far as

B

I

can

find,

his at-

from

8

'

GIORDANO BRUNO:

1

any incidents recorded about his private life, as from the coarseness and ribaldry of some of his dialogues and comedies.

undeniable

;

This coarseness

is

passes sometimes beyond buf-

it

foonery into what to us seems indecency.

But

in

judging

it,

we must and

ation the man's epoch

well

know

take into considernationality.

that his great contemporary Shake-

speare penned

many a scene

which not the lowest theatre

would place unchanged upon

dramas,

in his

in

its

country

this

boards.

Far greater was the admitted license of ian writers.

Church of stories,

of the

who

died

odor of sanctity as a Bishop of the

the

drew

Ital-

Matteo Bandello was a contem-

porary of Bruno's, a Dominican monk, in

You

Rome

;

yet the Novella, or short

which he wrote, from which Shakespeare

his plot of

Shrew and

profligacy,

Romeo and others,

the

Taming

a work of monstrous

and the grossest indecency.

cannot believe that the author,

is

Juliet,

it

who seems

We

reflects the character of

to

have been temperate,

studious and self-respecting.

It

does

reflect the

9

AND

HIS LIFE

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

The whole

literary fashion of the time.

ian sixteenth century literature

some of the

finest of

suggestions.

No

least of all

an

it is

demn Bruno on such In spite of his

Their

life,

Ital-

licentious,

and

critic

in its

therefore,

a Romanist,

evidence as

will con-

this.

vagabondism Bruno published

about twenty-five works his actual

is

of

simply revolting

competent

Italian or

1

and

left

in the fifteen years of

many

others incomplete.

own char"The Book of the

are as eccentric as his

titles

acter; such, for instance, as

Great Key;" "The Explanation of the Thirty

"The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast;" "The Threefold Minimum ;" "The Composition of Images;" "The Innumerable, the Immense and the Unfigurable " and others of the same obscurity.

In these productions, some of which are prose, some poetry, some dialogues, some comSeals;"

;

edies,

he developed

them the heresy.

inquisitors

To

his

philosophy;

and on

based their charges of

them, therefore,

we must

turn to

seek those teachings which on the one hand are

;

GIORDANO BRUNO:

20

asserted to prove him a

venomous

and on the other a glorious martyr

social viper,

to truth.

devoted to

Several of his publications are the Art of

Memory.

In the thirteenth century

Raymond

the Catalan monk,

remarkable treatise on that

by an

power of There

recollection

is

be

maintaining

and the methods of

indefinitely

something

at the base of

composed a

system of mnemonics the

artificial

tigation can

Lully,

this subject,

most

expanded.

in his theory,

later

inves-

and

it

lies

schemes of the kind

but Bruno, Cornelius Agrippa, and other scholars of the sixteenth century, imagined that

could be carried far beyond

and devoted it

to

it

did not merit.

memorizing,

it

its

an amount of attention which Like

all artificial

methods of

does not invigorate the

as a faculty, but merely supplies

schemes

it

possible limits,

for associating facts.

it

It is

whether, like the use of a crutch,

memory

with material

all

a question

such plans

do not perpetuate weakness while they seemingly aid the powers.

As

this portion of

activity neither received the

Bruno's

condemnation of

—

HIS LIFE

AND HIS PHILOSOPHY.

21

the Church nor the applause of posterity,

may

pass

it

merely remarking that

by,

longed attention to

it

how

indicates

had studied the rather

we

his pro-

closely he

rationalistic writings of

the old Catalan.

When

he was at Frankfort, Bruno registered

himself as a student of natural history sophies naturalis studiosus

serve the

There

title.

is

—and well

philo-

did he de-

something marvelous

in

the precocity of his insight into both the methods

and the

results of natural science.

In physics

the theories of the center of gravity of the planets, the orbits of the comets, fect sphericity of the earth are

was one of the

first

and the imper-

due

to him.

to espouse the

He

modern or

Copernican theory of astronomy.

The

doctrine of Evolution, the progressive

development of nature, an idea absolutely un-

known

to

pounded

ancient philosophy, was

in his

but to the

full

works, not vaguely or

pro-

partially,

extent of the most advanced evo-

lutionist of to-day.

says, " differs

first

"The mind

of man," he

from that of lower animals and of

GIORDANO BRUNO

22

not in quality, but only in quantity."

plants,

"

:

Each

individual,"

" is

he adds,

the resultant of

Each

innumerable individuals.

starting point for the next."

species

Change

is

is

the

unceas-

No individual is the same to-day as yesterday."

He extended these laws to the inor"

ing.

ganic as well as the organic world, maintaining

unbroken

that

man which

from matter to

line of evolution

modern

severest studies of

the

science are beginning to recognize.

This eternal change, he taught, poseless. defects,

It is

and the acquisition of higher powers.

Hence, he

laid

down

the doctrine of "optim-

ism," which Leibnitz notoriously

him

;

not pur-

is

ever toward the elimination of

and the theory of the

borrowed from

perfectibility of

man advanced by Herbert Spencer

is

but one

of several prominent ideas defended by that doctrinaire,

which Bruno was the

and did so

clearly.

first

This has been pointed out before is

a remarkable passage

"The Shadows of

in

to express,

;

but there

a work of his called

Ideas," which

seems

to

me

to

HIS LIFE

AND

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

23

forestall

one of the most extraordinary sugges-

tions of

modern

doctrine of

science.

I

refer to Pasteur's

symmetry and non-symmetry (asym-

metry), in things as the fundamental physical

explanation of material changes.

Some

of you

doubtless are aware of the

almost romantic nature of Pasteur's researches

on

this subject,

and

he has not devoted to Well,

it

was

expressed regret that

his it

the whole of his

evidently present

life.

Bruno's

to

thoughts also as the ultimate physical explanation of

phenomena.

"It

is

"that the universe shall in

unequal.

necessary," he says, its

various parts be

Progress toward accord

ceivable through

is

only con-

the cancellation of inequali-

ties."

Such were some of the

results attained in

natural science by this wonderful man.

were

his

What

methods ?

They were

those which to-day govern every

trained scientific mind.

Bruno constantly

re-

peats that the investigation of nature in the unbiased light of reason

is

our only guide

to

truth;

:

GIORDANO BRUNO

24

and

you apply

if

for the criterion of

answer comes with

his

truth,

him

to

no

sound, rather with ceaseless iteration evidence, observation,

though they may not

Trust to

observation.

your own senses; they tell

will

uncertain

— evidence,

not deceive you,

you the whole

truth.

Hold

your mind ever open to new

Never

believe you have attained final certainty.

Doubt

ever,

"

Let us

tion, faith

doubt reject,"

and

all

truths.

things.

he

cries, " antiquity,

authority.

The

truth

is

tradi-

not in

the Past, nor in the Present, but in the Future." "

Let us begin by doubt.

He

we know."

Let us doubt

till

frequently admonished his

hearers not to yield to the habit of

faith,

doubt what others hold as established

but to

truth.

Especially did he apply this to religious dog-

He

mas. the

declared that they blind and stunt

intellect

yond

all else.

and lower the moral nature be"

A

hundred warring

sects,"

he

writes, "claim each for itself the exclusive truth,

and despise the worship of bids

its

votaries to question

others. its

Each

for-

own dogmatic

"

AND

HIS LIFE

fect of

its

25

arraigning and condemning

utterances, while

those of

HIS PHILOSOPHY,

Hence

rivals."

the disastrous

ef-

such religions on the moral nature.

Bruno affirmed ethical progress

that the greatest obstacle to

has been the preference given

to sectarian belief over the practice of disinter"

ested philanthropy. pher," he is

The God

of the philoso-

writes, "is not a jealous

He

God.

and goodness, he reveals himself in

truth

nature, to

all

men, and

all

Hence

in all religions."

the philosopher, he adds, will study the myths,

prayers and hymns of

races and

all

all

religions

with equal reverence.

I

appeal to you

if

consonant with the our day

?

With

which Professor ville in

made

loftiest

that

Max

France, and

ers have

such an expression

"

is

not

moral sense of

this

science

of religion

Miiller in England, Re-

many

other eminent teach-

us acquainted with

?

This breadth of view he extended to jects " to

of thought.

"I have sworn," he

no philosophy, and

of learning. c

I

all

I

despise

subcries,

no means

do despise the ignorant crew

GIORDANO BRUNO:

26

who have

gained, their opinions, not by occu-

with philosophy, but by accepting the

pation

words of others."

Thought,

earnest

clear,

free,

thought,

he

proclaimed, will at last be victorious and will lead to the highest knowledge and the broadest

"A

good.

a

moment

time shall come," he exclaims in of

rapturous

" a

foresight,

and desired age, when the Gods

new

shall lie in

Orcus, and the dread of everlasting punish-

ment

from the world."

shall vanish

Having reached the pure eminence, he

more

is

and the

itself,

he teaches,

is

is

divine,

because

born of the mind's direct relations to

Infinite.

great,

this

lofty

but took a yet

sealed with the seal of an infinite origin,

It

is

forever

the inconceivably small

both

air of this

aerial flight.

Thought it

did not rest,

between illimitable,

the

moving between

and the immeasurably

atom and the

incomprehensible

was no barren

scholastic

but a pregnant truth,

is

;

universe,

and that

theorem to him,

shown by a sentence

HIS LIFE

than which

I

AND

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

know none grander

philosophy.

It

occurs

to Sir Philip Sidney, appropriately

Heroic Rapture," and faculty

intellectual

hensible truth only

as

is

whole of

in the

work he dedicated

the

in

27

named,

follows

" "

:

The The

appeased by compre-

is

when

feels

it

it

thereby

is

advancing nearer to incomprehensible truth."

The

intellectual faculty,

he continues to argue,

thus forever seeks the unsearchable, passionately yearns

for

the

very passion and yearning prove "

noblest destiny.

the

more

But

unattainable.

its

Love," he

this

to

title

" is

cries,

than knowledge, and only the love of

the

Divine can satisfy the

the

soul."

He who

infinite

nature of

drinks of this Elysian

nectar burns with an

ardor that the ocean

cannot quench, nor the cold of the arctic temper.

Elsewhere he writes

finite,

is

to

fixed

behold

know

that

it it

and of a

rising ever

:

"

Love,

if

it

be

certain measure; but

and ever higher

is

to

turns toward the Infinite."

This reasoning led him to the doctrine of personal immortality, which he taught with clear

GIORDANO BRUNO:

28

To

conviction.

"The

of evolution.

he

soul," I

sider

all

tc*

aim of

all

pause and

perhaps you

history,

purpose

final

progress." reflect

this surprising sentence.

well,

it

was the

perfecting of the individual

writes, "is the

would ask you

ment on to

him, this

the

If

will find in

hidden

a mo-

you con-

it

the key

of nature,

secret

the final purpose of the phenomenal world and its

countless changes.

conflict

cess,

of forces

is

Perhaps

endless

all this

a somehow necessary pro-

by which the Individual

is

set over against

the All, the Self against the Other, to the end that each soul shall attain a perfected plenitude

of power, shall acquire infinity without forfeiting individuality.

This, at

any

rate,

was Bruno's

Form, which

is

his doc-

one of the most

difficult

it

further

branches of his philosophy of nature. him.

Form seems

With

to stand for the ultimate

of the objective universe. "

and

by

he undertook to support trine of

opinion,

"

Forms," he

law

writes,

;

are the true objects of knowledge " yet he

adds that matter

is

not complete in

its

forms,

-

HIS LIFE

AND

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

29

Beyond

because these are constantly changing.

and behind

all

these changes

This, in the individual,

the universe,

it is

The

God.

the intangible

them and

abstract energy which incites

them.

is

is

directs

the Soul;

reality of

in

both he

considered demonstrated by rigid naturalistic reasoning.

Yet

this is the

man whom some

theologians

have called an atheist and a materialist that he

would have been the

had he been both. scientious conviction

An is

a zealot through blind

less

Not

!

commendable

atheist through con-

a nobler character than faith;

but Bruno does

not happen to have been an atheist, and

it is

misstatement to apply the term to him.

Noth-

a

ing but wilful ignorance or dishonest prejudice

could have laid such a charge to his account.

Recognizing everywhere manifestation of the divine

around

him

in nature,

the

he ex-

horted his hearers to turn away from creeds

and dogmas, and

to study themselves

and the

world about them.

"The

truth,"

he writes, "like the Kingdom of

GIORDANO BRUNO

30

God,

;

is

within every one of us "

"To

passage,

attain the truth,

who seeks

impede

to

and

another

in

only neces-

it is

He

sary to hold fast to Nature. ous,

:

is

truly impi-

this quest."

Again, with a noble sense of the sure results of a sound science, he writes, is

such, will

will of

show

truth, if

it

conformity with the

itself in

a beneficent

"The

God and

the observed laws

of Nature."

Some

historians of philosophy,

for instance,

in error.

is

a deification of nature.

He

does indeed lay down

the metaphysical thesis that

cognition is

is

same

correct,

fact,

but

this

as the English idealist ;

and therefore those

who, like Professor Carriere,

have classed Bruno among the In

act of divine ;

Bishop Berkeley taught

more

"The

the substance of things "

effectively the

are

Fischer

have called Bruno a pantheist, and

stated that his system

They are

Kuno

however, here, as

he reached the modern,

in

so

idealists.

many directions,

scientific

standpoint,

and regarded matter and form, thought and extension, as

merely different aspects of the same

1

HIS LIFE reality

own

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

—just as Alexander Bain teaches

3 in

our

day.

This

and

AND

is

it is

that philosophic doctrine called monism,

many passages of Thus he says: "The Forms

clearly enunciated in

Bruno's writings.

of Nature cannot exist without matter and a certain subject."

were

The

subject

him convertible terms,

to

presses

and the object or,

as Bain ex-

merely the two sides of the same

it,

arc, altogether

convex, as you look at

it

from

one aspect, altogether concave from the other yet, in fact,

You

one and the same

:

line.

appreciate at once that in this monistic

philosophy, which teaches that matter and spirit -are

but different aspects of the same, and that

their

we

antagonism

is

merely owing to the way

look at them, and does not in reality

the one

is

exist,

as sacred and as true as the other.

The whole

universe

may be

read in terms of

either with equal completeness; the blankest

materialism and the purest idealism are equally correct,

though equally inadequate.

Appreciating

this,

Bruno

occasionally de-

GIORDANO BRUNO:

32 lighted to dwell

on the

nity of matter,

and

matter under

most

indestructibility, the eter-

to

speak of the soul as

sounded

This

forms.

certain

and we are not surprised

materialistic,

as one writer

"

he paralyzed

his

audience at Oxford with astonishment and

in-

that,

tells us,

dignation."

When we

study such elements of Bruno's

philosophy as of

some of

this,

we may

the critical

been passed upon

When,

Bruno's teaching

"

an explanation

by learned

it

for instance,

find

judgments which have

Kuno

historians.

Fischer writes that

belonged to the philosophical

Renaissance, not to modern philosophy,"

we may

accept such words as the dictum of a metaphysician

who

is

not in touch with modern

scientific

thought, nor acquainted with that conception of

the Universe which to our

is

gradually unfolding itself

ken through the

irresistible logic

of the

abstract sciences, a conception which asks no

ex cathedra deliverance to support with the

Neither

cogency of

this

evidential

it,

but comes

proof

itself.

philosopher of the Renaissance, nor

HIS LIFE

AND HIS PHILOSOPHY.

33

any philosopher of modern science asks

his

pupil to believe anything that the enlightened intellect

can help believing.

That alone

is

true

which can bear constant reinvestigation.

As

intelligent belief, belief

ficient evidence, is in

founded upon

Bruno's scheme the only

faith for the philosopher, so morality,

be

really such,

the

action

must

suf-

he taught, to

also be intelligent, that

is,

must be directed by knowledge

toward a clearly understood purpose, greater, nobler,

more enlightening than

the action itself

This, of course, excludes all merely religious rites

and formulas

;

to

Bruno these were not

only non-moral, but immoral, as they are obstacles to ethical

advancement, blind the soul to

higher aims, and satisfy

its

its

longings with

lower standards of excellence, and with mechanical formalisms.

In

many passages he

expresses himself se-

verely on what he considered this demoralizing effect of

dogmatic teaching.

He

fully

ciated the inevitable conflict between

and

evidential truth.

appre-

dogma

There cannot but be con-

_

GIORDANO BRUNO:

34 flict,

and

age.

it

as sharply defined

is

There

is

not, to-day,

now

as in his

a professor in any

sectarian college in this free land,

who

dares to

teach the elementary facts of science in their theological applications.

Let

me

by two points on which

illustrate this

Bruno was emphatic, and modern, science conclusive Sin,

—the nature of

sin

Bruno explains as

and of death. something wholly

good

negative, an incompleteness of

thermophysics, cold

just as in

;

regarded merely as the

is

The

deficiency of heat.

is

dogmatic

Christian

notion of sin as a positive entity he rejected.

In

accord with him in

this

opinion

are

the

noblest thinkers of our century, those great souls

who look

before and

after,

the mighty

bards, Goethe, Browning, Tennyson,

and many another; ethnologists

and

in

Whitman,

accord with him are

scientific

students of

a.11

human

development.

Death he regarded merely as a somewhat greater change than in

is

our bodies, and as

taking place every day in

nowise a cessation or

AND HIS PHILOSOPHY.

HIS LIFE

diminution of

"They

life

—rather

stantly

"who dread

your body

for this

is

it.

the con-

away and being renewed." writes, " The wise man fears not

passing

Elsewhere he

may be

death; yea, there

himself in

boast his

its

way

"

times

and that

;

when he puts

this

was no vain

own end proved.

Dogmatic

world by sin;" that the

Roman, Greek and

Christianity,

Reformed, teaches that

Adam,

an exaltation of

are fools," he exclaims,

menace of death;

35

sin

man

first

is

death came into the

"

a curse inherited from

and

;

that there

no

is

es-

cape from the curse but by believing certain creeds and performing certain

rites.

Yet every

Adam

schoolboy knows or ought to know that

was not the in the

Fn

first

man, and that death has been

world from the earliest geologic ages. with

conflict

the

Churches

on

points, Bruno was not less so on the

of the Trinity.

he

writes, "

the

Son and

assert

that

I

"

From my

these

dogma

eighteenth year,"

doubted within myself regarding the

this,

Holy

Spirit."

dogma

is

Not only

did he

incompatible with

GIORDANO BRUNO

2,6

:

reason, but he pointed out that

mentioned

in

the

either

it

Old or

nowhere

is

New

Testa-

ment, and did not belong, therefore, to Apos-

He

tolic Christianity.

urged that as the theory

of Christ suffering for the sin of

where intimated

in the

Adam

words of Christ

is

no-

himself,

so the theory of the Triune divinity was not

acknowledged by

You

his disciples.

will readily

understand that a

these views in the sixteenth century,

heat,

was no more welcome

to the other.

He was

do not imagine that our

is

to

burned

we

when

the

one camp than at

should

reproaches on the

for that act. tive

with

of theological controversy were at white

fires

all

man

The

;

but

pour forth

Roman Church

Swinburne's recent

out of place.

Rome

fiery invec-

Calvinists of

Geneva

would have burned Bruno just as cheerfully as

they did Servetus only twenty-five years

before

Bruno

visited

their

city;

the bigots

of England would have hanged him quite as readily as their descendants

ers

hanged the Quak-

on Boston Common; and he himself be-

AND

HIS LIFE lieved that

was

it

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

to save his

37

that he fled

life

from the Lutherans of Marburg and Helm-

The

stedt.

of dogmatic belief are

instincts

everywhere the same, and to the

same extremes,

logically force

men

times and in

in all

all

climes.

Flatter not yourselves that the fires of fanati-

cism are extinguished. They smoulder and glow in

every exclusive dogma, only waiting their

chance to re-illume the torch of the Fiori or the pyre of Servetus,

and

eral

art

de'

sweep

into

to

one vast auio da fe the hard-won free thought

Campo

victories of

and untrammelled research, of lib-

and secular

culture.

Rome"

What Bruno

called "the

Wolf

the greater

power and the more frequent op-

of

has merely had

portunity.

Yet there was

deliberate

Italy in the selection of

in its conflict with the

purpose

Bruno as

its

in

new

champion

papacy and with the ad-

vocates of the temporal power.

Not

the bitter-

est Covenanter ever arraigned the head of the

Roman Church

in

more

violent language than

GIORDANO BRUNO:

38

his

"Who

ex-monk.

this

is

Oration on Luther,

he," he exclaims in

"who pretends

the vicar of Christ on earth

of the tyrant of

is

be

the vicar

armed with keys and

hell,

sword, at once fox and

and hypocrisy,

He

?

to

steeped

lion,

fraud

in

crowned with cruelty and

triple

deceit," etc.

What wonder bishops

that

Pope Leo wept and the

when

cursed

this

impenitent philosopher,

Church and

who had jeered came

young

Italy

Startling, indeed,

No

promises free

;

to every

to the

?

Roman

branch of obscurant

;

the intellect

must be

the pursuit of truth

relig-

and wholly

must be unimpeded

the individual

;

free

must answer

conscience and not to a priest;

education which begins with with fanaticism Italy,

be

half-measures, no temporizing, no com-

by any creed his

to

was the admonition, loud

was the warning, thus heralded

ion.

at the

satirized its mysteries,

the chosen ideal of victorious

Church and

monk and

apostate

these the

;

falsities

and ends

these are the mottoes of

maxims of

to

no more

la vita nuova.

young

The

HIS LIFE

AND

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

39

churches have ever cried, " Believe, and ye shall

Bruno

be saved;"

know

shall

modern

;

"

taught, f" Doubt,

young

\and

and ye

along with

Italy

science has chosen the latter teaching.

But you would err

if

you suppose that the

skepticism inculcated by this philosopher of the

Renaissance was the

sterile uncertainty of the

He

rested his teachings on

Greek

sophists.

the broadest principles. losophy, he urged, contraries, the

is

form

the

finite,

good

and

in

the

You

will

phi-

the in-

To accom-

and the nega-

the reconciliation of both

some higher

all

must be considered

in its contraries, the affirmative

in

evil,

vice versa.

plish this, every proposition

tive, until

of

in the matter, the spiritual

in the corporeal, the finite in

The aim

to recognize the unity of

is

discovered

proposition.

recognize in this principle the doc-

trine of antitheses uniting in a synthesis,

which

the basis of the Hegelian logic.

But

is

at

Bruno applied

German there

is

it

more

metaphysician.

no gainsaying

it

practically than did the It

appears to

me

that

as the law of progres-

GIORDANO BRUNO

40

sive thought in the sciences.

:

Every

investiga-

must begin by reviewing the evidence

tor

the facts in his branch, and the the

more

tain

is

belief,

more

skeptical his scrutiny, the

for

critical,

more

cer-

he to turn out good work./ Doubt, not

must be

^

his guide. |

What

is

thus true in the sciences

is

not less

so in religious thought.

Every reformer must

begin by doubting the

faith

Take

army of

the noble

gress,

of

fathers.

his

leaders in ethical pro-

Buddha, Socrates, Christ, Paul, Abelard,

Arnold of Brescia, John Huss, Martin Luther,

—

George Fox

I

cannot

one of them was sceptic

and an

call

in his

infidel

;

the long

roll

—every

own day accounted a every one of them re-

jected the words of authority, spurned the, belief

of the orthodox, denied the claims of dogmatic doctrine. this

What

right

have we to suppose that

unvarying record of history

good

in

this

last

will

decade of the

not hold

nineteenth

century?

The mention

of

mind how strangely

George Fox brings

to

my

similar the religious aspect

1;

AND

HIS LIFE

HIS PHILOSOPHY.

of Bruno's philosophy

They

is

4

to that of the primi-

tive

Quakers.

and

creeds, all edicts of councils

also rejected

all

dogmas

and ancient

writings, finding the sufficient rule of faith in

the heart of every man, be he

Mahometan or

Jew,

for

less

the

heathen.

They looked

Church

Christ or the

or

Christian

without,

than for the resurrection and the light within these they turned for guidance, not to a

to

book nor a man. priests

all

All

rites

and professed teachers of dogma,

they rejected as obstructions truth

and ceremonies,

and genuine

From what

I

in the pursuit of

holiness.

have now told you, you

will

appreciate the significance of the selection of

Giordano Bruno by new tive

man.

It

Italy as its represe"hta-

means an open war on dogmatic

belief of every kind, a declaration of the in-

dependence of the that philanthropic

intellect,

working

is

an announcement better than grossly

beheving, a proclamation that truth as attested by

evidence and virtue as shown by actions are the only sacred things and alone merit reverence.

D

The following brief paper was written without seen or heard that of Dr. Brinton. latter little

had been

was

direction

left

sent to me,

far m.e

to

and from

say by

which I then followed.

Dr. Brinton that

way

my having

A

short synopsis of the

this

Igleaned that what

of supplement lay in the

I was happy

my surmise had not been

wrong.

to

learn from

BRUNO'S THOUGHT. AH

human history men are,

conflicts in

between

ideas, of

which

only the instruments or weapons.

are conflicts so to speak,

The

sacrifice

of a marfyr means the temporary defeat of an idea

;

the canonization of that martyr, the tem-

porary

or,

it

the same.

may

be, the

This idea

is

permanent triumph of the only thing of real

interest about the martyr, the only fact that gives

him

historic significance.

personal

All the rest

is

mere

not differing essentially from

detail,

newspaper gossip.

With respect

to

Giordano Bruno, the only

questions that really concern the serious torian

was

that which

and

1600, 1

and philosopher are:

889

?

(2)

succumbed

triumphed at

How

(i)

What

his-

idea

at his execution in his

canonization

in

did this idea stand related to

-the current thought of the time?

45

(3)

Whence

Bruno's thought:

46 did

Bruno derive the data enabling him

ceive

such an idea?

(4)

How

affected subsequent thought?

to con-

has that idea

(5)

What

is its

permanent value ?

Though every idea may be said to be born at the mind of some one man, yet every new idea has a long prenatal history in the consciousness of the race or some part of it.

We

first in

example, follow with great ease the

can, for

course of every element in Mr. Spencer's Evolutionary,

Aggregational Agnosticism.

These

elements are Kant's Critical Philosophy, Hartley

and

Mill's association theory,

lutionism, of all of which

it

and Darwin's evoeasy enough to

is

trace the_history.

I.

Bruno's idea.

Bruno's philosophy istic

Evolutionism.

guish

it

I

is

Rational Semi-panthe-

say " rational " to

from agnostic evolutionism.

to him, the universe

is

intelligent,

According

the explication

lution) of a single principle.

and includes two

distin-

(i. e.,

evo-

This principle

is

perfectly correlated

ITS SOURCES,

elements

—

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

47

active element capable of doing

'an

and a passive or receptive element

all things,

capable of becoming

Without these

all things.

two elements no action could be conceivable.

Being from

draws out

intelligent, this first principle

passive element

its

which that

all

the endless forms

implicitly contains, and, in

doing

so,

evolves or explicates the universe.

Calling the passive element matter, Bruno

holds that

it is

composed of innumerable monads

(not atoms), every one of which eternal,

either a

Each

minimum

therefore, potentially,

is,

or a

maximum. it is

they are explicated,

is

it

therefore, has the

that the primal

When

minimum a maximum.

forms are unexplicated,

all

necessarily

and every one capable of manifesting all

possible forms.

monad,

is

a

may

even,

power of becoming

monad

is,

though only

by mystic union with

monad, become

identical with

The primal monad Bruno 'i,

when Each

;

succession and by a process of evolution it

its

;

in

nay,

this

primal

the

anima

it.

calls

or world-soul, and this he holds to be

Bruno's thought:

48

at all times completely active in animating the

and

world,

to

be the only

first

sible to science or philosophy.

principle transcending this

on

this subject differed

periods of his

—

life

it

losophy, but only to

does not define.

is

principle accesIf there

be any

—and Bruno's views

somewhat

at different

not accessible to phi-

faith,

a faculty which he

Philosophy arrives at

the

world-soul by retracing the process of evolution

reverse direction.

in the

Monads being eternal;

and the human soul being one of them high state of explication), nal.

Its

end

is

it is

(in

a

necessarily eter-

the realization of the universe

in itself.

In order to

show Bruno's exact view, we may

-quote a few sentences from the Confession of

Faith which he pronounced before the Inquisition,

and which may,

therefore,

be regarded

as an authentic expression of his latest and ripest views.

"

I

believe,"

he

says, " in

an

infinite

universe

as the (necessary) effect of the infinite divine

power.

The reason

of this

is

that

I

have always

ITS SOURCES,

regarded

it

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

as something unworthy of the divine

power and goodness, another world, nay,

that,

being able to produce

infinite

other worlds besides

should produce only a

this one,

it

whence

have maintained that there are

I

49

finite

world

;

infinite

particular worlds, similar to this of the earth,

which, in accordance with Pythagoras,

I

consider

be an orb, similar to the moon, to other

to

planets and other stars, which are that

all

infinite,

and

these bodies are worlds, and innumer-

able, constituting the infinite universeness, in

an

infinite space,

and

this is called infinite uni-

verse, in which are innumerable worlds, so that

there are two sorts of

magnitude multitude

in the

an

infinity

of

and an

infinity

of

infinity,

in the universe,

worlds, a belief understood to be

indirectly hostile to the truth according to faith. "

Moreover,

in this universe

I

place a universal

providence, by virtue whereof everything

grows, moves and remains I

mean

this in

which the soul in the whole,

two senses, is

lives,

in its perfection,

first, in

the

and

mode

in

present in the body, the whole

and the whole

in

each part, and

BRUNO s thought:

50 this

I

Divinity

shadow and vestige of the

nature,

call

second, in the ineffable

;

mode,

God, by essence, presence and power,

and above

all,

not as part, not

as soul,

in

which

is

in

but

all,

in

an

inexplicable way. "

Further,

I

understand that

are one and the

attributes

herein

I

in the Divinity all

same

agree with theologians and several great

philosophers

—

mean

I

three attributes, power,

wisdom and goodness, otherwise mind, whereby things

lect, love,

rn^d

to

being,

;

due

all

and over

;

As

due

and distinguished

third,

This

all.

intel-

\\2m&, first, being,

ordered

second,

to intellect

metry, due to love. in

and

thing,

I

harmony and symunderstand to be

nothing

is

beautiful

without the presence of beauty, so nothing can exist without

the divine presence

;

and

thus,

with respect to reason, and not with respect to substantial truth,

I

attribute distinction to the

Divinity. "

Again, in affirming the world to be caused

and produced, whole being,

it

I

meant is

that, in

respect to

its

dependent upon the First

1

SOURCES, CHARACTER

ITS

Cause, so that 'creation,'

had no objection

I

which

the world and

to the

said that

God is

nature depend

all

that

whence, ac-

;

St.

whether the world be eternal or

in time,

its

Thomas, it

is

whole being dependent on the First

Cause, and nothing

is

in

it

independently."

This passage shows what that Bruno's system is

term

on which

cording to the interpretation of

with

5

beHeve that even Aristotle

I

when he

signified,

AND VALUE.

was

I

meant

in

saying

semi-pantheistic.

God

totally present in the world, but only in one.

mode

;

dent.

in

another

This latter

mode he is totally transcenmode is ineffable, beyond the

reach of knowledge, but not beyond that of

some higher mode of apprehension

human

nature.

It

had no objection tion, since

also

possible for

shows us that Bruno

to calling his evolution crea-

he recognized the absolute depend-

ence of the world upon the First Cause.

He

differed with the Church, however, in regarding it

as a necessary and eternal correlate of divine

power and goodness, and not a temporal product.

And

this

brings us to

:

BRUNO

52 II.

THOUGHT

S

THE RELATION OF BRUNO's IDEA TO THE CURRENT THOUGHT OF HIS TIME.

Bruno's thought stands related to the thought of his time as Evolutionism to Creationism

Gnosticism to Agnosticism

Theology

as

;

as

Theosophy

to

Theism

as

as Semi- Pantheism to

;

;

;

Mysticism to Scholasticism.

According to the Christian teaching of the sixteenth

and previous

centuries, the universe

is

a creation out of nothing, a creation effected

in

time by a

will. is

The

fiat

of God's free and inscrutable

plastic,

passive matter of the world

not an eternal correlate of his

presupposition of

it,

activity,

but a product of

altogether transcends the world

substance enters into

it.

It,

in the physical

human

mind.

God

no part of

his

therefore, reveals

only, so to speak, his footprints

former

;

it.

and a

and image, the

world, the latter in the

Only by being

lifted

above the

world and himself, by an act of divine grace, can

man

in

any way

attain to

the view that underlies the the view set

forth

so

"

God.

This

is

Divine Comedy,"

clearly

in

St.

Bona-

ITS SOURCES,

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

53

"The Soul's ProThe appointed channel and

Ventura's well-known tract,

gress to God."

depositary of this grace

is

thus easily see the reason at all times

have so jealously watched, and

trine maintaining that

Every such doctrine It is

on

condemned

steadily

so,

condemned, any doc-

God was immanent

revealed through,

therefore,

for being.

can

why the Church should

carefully, ,nay, ruthlessly,

and,

We

the Church.

the

in,

world.

strikes at her very reason this

account that she has

all

forms of Gnosticism,

Pantheism, Theosophy,

all

forms of Mysticism

claiming for the soul any inherent power of rising to, or

comprehending, God, and

all

that

portion of Aristotle's doctrine which maintains the eternity of the world, as the necessary correlate of

God.

The Church

is

founded upon

God's transcendence and man's incapacity to reach him through any faculty of his own, upon the entire and essential separation of

God and

man.

The

Jesuits,

who

Church's existence,

are most zealous for the

in their efforts to

exaggerate

BRUNO

54

s

thought:

man's incapacity to reach God, have

been

materialists in philosophy.

usually-

Only a couple

of years ago they caused the condemnation of forty propositions

from the writings of Rosmini,

the greatest thinker of the century, because

they seemed to imply that tained a divine element,

God was immanent

human reason

and

con-

something of

that

in the world.

The

insist-

ance of the Church upon the doctrines of creation

and the transcendence of God

opinion, a pure matter of policy,

is,

in

my

and has noth-

ing whatsoever to do with truth.

THE SOURCES OF BRUNO's PHILOSOPHY.

III.

Alongside the philosophic agnosticism of the Church, there existed at

all

times a species of

gnosticism, regarded as unorthodox, a philoso-'

phy which maintained that the human powers were capable of discovering all divine truth, least,

of comprehending

vealed faith

;

it

fully after

in other words, that the

it

or, at

was

re-

content of

could be fully analyzed in terms of reason.

This doctrine

is

due

to the

Greek element

in

,

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

ITS SOURCES,

Christian

We

thought.

can trace

55

as

it

back as Parmenides and Herakleitos.

far

runs

It

through the whole philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, although in different forms.

God and

In Plato,

the divine ideas are transcendent to

the world, and

man

attains

them by mere remi-

on the contrary, man

niscence.

In

arrives at

them by a simple pious use of

Aristotle,

of his existence so to do. of divine things, vision

is

is

it is

Os^copia,

or the vision

That

his ultimate end.

human

mystical and above

fully admits.

"It would

not,"

element

which shows

in

that,

that

this

nature, he

he says, "be

the expression of man's nature, but of divine

his

the true aim

natural powers, and, indeed,

some

nature," a statement

according to Aristotle,

human

nature contains a divine element.

Here we must

carefully distinguish

between

two kinds of mysticism, that of nature and that of grace.

reach least,

The former

God through

his

claims

that

man

own powers,

or,

can at

through the divine element which forms

the very core of his being

;

the latter holds

Bruno's thought:

56 that

he can reach him only by an act of divine form of mysticism 'the Church has always

latter

approved the former ;

It

The

performed through the Church.

grace,

has always condemned.

it

has had considerable

distinguishing the

difficulty,

two.

It is

however, in

easy enough to

see that the one belongs together with the doc-

transcendence and creation

trine of divine

;

the

other with that of divine immanence and evolu-

God is immanent the human soul, a consciousness of him may be

tion.

in

It is

evolved

must

of

and by ;

under

it,

if

whereas at

all,

that, if

he

if

is

transcendent, he

by an act of grace.

Aristotelian doctrine of the

God

tians

in

enter,

The

enough

clear

in the

certain

but, so

the

immanence

world was shared by the Stoics, sects

among

the early Chris-

long as the Church doctrines were influence

of

Platonism, Aristotle

did not exert any very extensive or enduring influence.

But when,

and fourteenth

in the twelfth, thirteenth

centuries, his philosophy rose

into prominence and became the favorite of the

Church, his doctrine of the eternity of matter

ITS SOURCES,

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

and of the divine immanence came again vogue, and natural mysticism

some good and some

forms,

crop up.

Almost

Church persecuted form, and

all

all

the

57 into

a thousand

in

began

evil,

heresies

to

which the

in those centuries

take

this

make men indeEven some of the

naturally tend to

pendent of the Church.

greatest doctors of the Church failed to keep

themselves entirely free from

this taint,

e.

g., St.

Bonaventura, the Seraphic Doctor, the great light of the Franciscans,

of

all

and the most

attractive

the mediaeval saints.

This tendency assumed two forms, owing to

two well-defined causes, rigor.

Among

infidelity

and dogmatic

the Latin nations, in which the

currency of Arab thought had led to a wide-

spread

infidelity,

there

sprang up, naturally

enough, a tendency to offer purely rational demonstrations of Christian dogmas, and necessarily implied the

this

immanence of God

in

The chief representative of this tendency was Raimondo Lulli, a native of Majorca, a man of strong, fervent character, who reason.

Bruno's thought:

58 led a

most romantic

and died

at the

80, in

131

born

in

1235

being" thus

5,

Thomas Aquinas, Bona-

contemporary with ventura, and

He was

life.

age of

He

Dante.

the

closes

palmy

period of Scholasticism.

Among the Germanic nations, on the contrary, the cold rigidity and externality of dogma caused

a

pioiis reaction of the heart,

mysticism, which claimed for

vision of

To

God.

this

speculative mystics of hardt, Suso,

known

practical

man

"

on the

the direct

movement belong

the

Germany, Meister Eck-

and Tauler, and what

as the

this,

form of an enthusias-

theoretical side, took the tic

and

is

Deutsche Theologie

;

mysticism of Ruysbroek,

familiarly " also the

Geert de

Groot and Thomas a Kempis, the author of the "Imitation of Christ."

The two famous

which did so much for true religious

societies

life in

the

fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Friends

of

God and

both This

the Brothers of

deeply tainted is

the

Common

Life,

were

with natural mysticism.

chief reason

why such desperate

and persistent attempts have been, and

still

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

ITS SOURCES,

are,

made

Thomas a Kempis

to deprive

59

of the

authorship of the Imitation.

The German highest

tendency found

mystical

expression in

philosophical

Cusanus, born near Treves

Roman

dinal of the

eminence, reality, is

Nicholas

in 1401, later

Church, and a

nobility, liberality

and

its

man

a car-

of great

tolerance, in

one of the great men of the Church.

It

a curious enough fact that he received his early

education at Deventer, in the house of the

Brothers of .which

Common

is

system of

immanent

this

world

emphasizing theism,

this,

;

he

a prime article

is

is

man

of which faith

God

is

one.

but the explication or is

not only imma-

also transcendent.

By

Nicholas steers clear of Pan-

one does not always see

although the

that

and can be reached

But God

evolution of God.

is

wonderful

faculties,

Indeed, the universe

in the

It

in the world,

by the human

nent

in

Thomas a Kempis had been educated

but a few years before. in the

very house

Life, the

thing

is

clearly how,

entirely possible.

closes the last great period

He

of Scholasticism,

Bruno's thought:

6o

a system which he combats, paving the the

for

modern world-view.

The the

way

rationalist

Raimondo

Lulli,

who

closes

second period of Scholasticism, and the

who

mystic Nicholas Cusanus,

closes the third,

were the two men who did most

From

mind of Giordano Bruno. the second were borrowed

and expressions tendency and

were able hundred

from the

;

his

method.

to

remain

of

Lulli's

demned), Bruno,

upon these

if

in the

As both

the pagan,

these

men

Church (although a

he had formed

Among

main ideas

first his rationalistic

were his

con-

thought

have done the same.

But other tendencies antagonistic it.

form the

the works of

all his

propositions

alone, might

entered into

to

to the

Church

these were (i) that of

Epicurean, nature-adoring atomist

Lucretius, from

whom

he derived

his doctrine

of atoms and his enthusiasm for Nature; (2) that

of his

own countryman

Telesio,

from whom, ap-

parently, he derived his fondness for observation, his dislike

of Aristotle and the element

which enabled him to convert Lucretius' atoms

1

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

ITS SOURCES,

into

monads, and

(3)

Copernicus, with his helio-

Though

system of astronomy.

centric

6

these

two never broke openly with the church,

last

they carried on their thinking without regard to her,

and arrived

sooner or

at results which she

later, to

Raimondo

was bound,

condemn.

Lulli's acute rationalism

;

Nicholas

Cusanus' genial, anti-scholastic, natural mysticism his

;

Lucretius' fiery love of the material and

atomism

servation

;

Telesio's devotion to natural ob-

and

his

animism

;

and Copernicus'

heliocentric theory (anticipated, indeed,

sanus)

:

by Cu-

take these and add to them Bruno's

fervid, impatient, restless disposition, difficult to

and it is not

account for either his system, his

or his death.

life

Rationalism, naturalism, mysti-

cism, these are the

components of

his thought.

This thought necessarily brought him into conflict is,

with the Church, whose thought was, and

founded on dogmatism, supernaturalism, and

scholasticism.

There

is

very

little

that can be

called original in Bruno.

His great importance consists

in the fact that

Bruno's thought:

62

he united and carried to their proper conclusions time,

the anti-dogmatic tendencies of his

all

broke

definitely with the Church,

and even

with Christianity as a system of thought, and asserted the rights of reason, and

and

attain to all truth

its

capacity to

endure forever.

to

saying that he broke with Christianity, "

to

deep humanity,

is

valu-

its

earn-

able in Christianity,

its

estness,

hope and promise.

infinite

its

ought

I

add that he did not break with what

In

Nay,

despite the reports that have been circulated

respecting his private

broke with

life,

believe he never

I

Christianity's ideal of personal purity.

That, in a coarse age, and in a spirit of reaction

against an exaggerated asceticism, he at times fallen

he

did,

then

below that

let

stone at him;

him that

let

may have

ideal, is possible. is

him that

If

without sin cast a is

ready to face his

death for conviction's sake revile him.

I

can-

in his

Whatever weakness he may have shown life is redeemed by his heroic death and,

even

if it

not.

judge.

;

were

not,

I

am

not appointed his

ITS SOURCES,

HOW HAS

IV.

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

63

Bruno's idea affected subsequent

THOUGHT ?

When

the Church undertakes to destroy an

adversary, she

most

is

not content with taking his

life in

the

way

she generally

;

ignominious and public

painful,

tries at the

same time and

long after to ruin his reputation, both as a thinker and as a man.

This was recently exemplified ing

way

in the

in

a most shock-

papal allocution called forth by

impotent fury over the erection of a

statile to

Bruno, two hundred and eighty-nine years after his

martyrdom.

Such moral

now, fortunately, no

effect

barbarities

have

save on the author

of them, his character, and the cause he represents

;

but

in

times past,

more than two hundred

it

was otherwise.

years, such

For

was Bruno's

reputation for atheism, impiety and misconduct that his writings

only

were completely tabooed, not

among Catholics, but even among ProThey were burned or kept secret,

testants.

like obscenities.

Hegel

tells

us that as late as

the year 1830 they were forbidden to be shown

Bruno's thought:

64 the

in

lost,

of

or buried in the archives of the

Of

Inquisition.

Many

Dresden.

public library at

them are

those

known

no com-

to exist

plete or reasonably accurate edition has ever

The

been published. lected

Italian

works were

and edited by a German.

col-

In spite of

Bruno's thought has exerted a determining

this,

influence

upon many great minds, upon Des-

cartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz,

Kant and Hegel, and

through them upon Goethe, Coleridge, Emerson and the whole body of modern evolutionists

and monists. risen to but

V.

As we

have

shall see, these last

one side of his thought,

THE PERMANENT WORTH OF BRUNO'S THOUGHT. In the last resort, man's interest in a thing

is

measured by

then

my

is

its

permanent worth.

the worth of Bruno's

thinking,

it

lies in

two things:

maintains the universe to be essentially intelligible, first

(2)

(i)

infinite,

that

What To

thought?

it

that

one,

it

and

makes the

principle of the universe transcendent as

well as immanent.

ITS SOURCES,

By

the former of these affirmations,

cludes

both

the

sentimentality.

Inscrutable

It

is

embalmed

equally the

is

foe

and the Unknowable.

It

in

of the inspires

with reverence in presence of the uni-

verse,

and with enthusiasm

movement

scientific

or

ex-

it

forms of Agnosticism, the

and the modern which

man

65

which was eked out with revela-

mediaeval tion,

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

in

will

any true way

to study

No

ever be permanent,

beneficial,

inspired with the conviction that

way to absolute truth.

By the latter of its

it.

that it

is

affirmations,

is

not

on the

Bruno's

thought leaves a place for the future evolution of mind. it is

that the that

If

there be any truth in evolution,

surely the height of absurdity to maintain

of mind has

evolution

new mental

faculties

ceased,

and

can never be pro-

duced, or to set limits to the possibilities of mind in

any

before

direction.

we

sit

down

It

to

would be well

for

us,

construct philosophies

of the universe, to reflect that our minds are in

a comparatively low state of development.

—

Bruno's thought

66

and

as Aristotle says, the crown of per-

that,

belong to the imperfect

fection does not

same

at the

:

but,

;

time, to realize that we, for this

very reason, can

fix

no

bound

pillars to

the

reach of thought.

While Bruno maintains gence can

God

rise to

that

of

shall

consciousness

in fact,

than

God

a

attained by

developed a form than the

human

a God-consciousness, as much higher

is

man

higher than the mere consciousness

And, indeed,

which belongs to the brutes.

what

in

the self-consciousness belonging to

as that

in

he does not

is

may be

have

higher

it,

there

that

transcendent mode, which

man when he

intelli-

only as immanent

the universe and as animating

dream of denying

human

else

is

faith,

about which men, for

well-

nigh two thousand years, have been disputing, fighting

and dying, but the dawning of

new God-consciousness Christianity

embodiment ness?

And

in

its

and for

in

deepest trainer

of

man

?

What

the is

essence but the this

what other reason

consciousis

Christi-

'

ITS SOURCES,

CHARACTER AND VALUE.

and making way

anity sinking into disrepute, for

mere

been

physical science, but because

unfaithful to

its

67

it

has

task of developing the

God-consciousness, and has become a mere

matter

dogmas;

of

respectability

The

truth

churches

and

Pharisaic

?

is that,

when Bruno broke with

Church, and with the Christianity of

all

the the

churches, he did so in favor of pure religion

and the very essence of

Bruno should have been shows to what liable to

vile

Christianity.

called

uses

That

an atheist only

human language

is

be put by the ignorant slaves of creeds.

Bruno was,

in truth,

whom

was a glowing

faith

a god-intoxicated man, in life

of " heroic fury,"

not a mere belief maintained by anathemas and the fear of

To sum

hell.

up:

Bruno's fundamental idea was that of a Godinformed, God-governed universe, a universe

embodying power, wisdom and essentially accessible to the ness, partially

now and

love, a universe

human

conscious-

progressively with the

68

Bruno's thought.

progress of that consciousness.

posed

This, as op-

to the notion of a God-bereft universe, in

disfavor

-vfrith

an

God, was

inscrutable

thought which temporarily succumbed

Campo

de' Fiori in

1

600,

and rose

the

in

the

again, let us

hope, to everlasting triumph on the same spot in

1889.

No wonder

called forth

Church.

that

Bruno's thought

Strange, nay fantastic, as

sometimes sound, It

is,

in truth, the

us out of

this

resurrection

the malignant hostility of the

all

it

is

is

its

of

infinite value.

may

expression

the loftiest yet attained.

very thing that

we need

to

lift

forms of blind agnosticism, dog-

all

matism and materialism, into true, seeing science,

and

to

pave the way

higher consciousness

which alone can

PRESS OF WM.

r.

for the development of a

in us,

satisfy the

FELL &

00., 1220-24

a God-consciousness,

human

SANSOM

ST.,

soul.

PHILADELPHIA.