391 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
391 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
6 page printout
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GIORDANO BRUNO
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Filosofo, arso vivo a Roma,
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PER VOLONTA DEL PAPA
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IL 17 FEBBRAIO 1600
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by John J. Kessler, Ph.D., Ch.E.
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GIORDANO BRUNO,
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THE FORGOTTEN PHILOSOPHER
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In the year 1548 an Italian boy was born in the little town of
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Nola, not far from Vesuvius. Although, he spent the greater part of
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his life in hostile and foreign countries he was drawn back to his
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home at the end of his travels and after he had written nearly
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twenty books.
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When he was thirteen years old he began to go to school at the
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Monastery of Saint Domenico. It was a famous place. Thomas Aquinas,
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himself a Dominican, had lived there and taught. Within a few years
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Bruno had become a Dominican priest.
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It was not long before the monks of Saint Dominico began to
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learn something about the extraordinary enthusiasm of their young
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colleague. He was frank, outspoken and lacking in reticence. It was
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not long before he got himself into trouble. It was evident that
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this boy could not be made to fit into Dominican grooves. One of
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the first things that a student has to learn is to give the teacher
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the answers that the teacher wants. The average teacher is the
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preserver of the ancient land marks. The students are his audience.
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They applaud but they must not innovate. They must learn to labor
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and to wait. It was not Bruno's behavior but his opinions that got
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him into trouble.
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He ran away from school, from his home town, from his own
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country and tried to find among strangers and foreigners a
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congenial atmosphere for his intellectual integrity that he could
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not find at home. It is difficult not to get sentimental about
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Bruno. He was a man without a country and, finally, without a
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church.
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Bruno was interested in the nature of ideas. Although the name
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was not yet invented it will be perfectly proper to dub Bruno as an
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epistemologist, or as a pioneer Semanticist. He takes fresh stock
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of the human mind.
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It is an interesting fact that here, at the close of the 16th
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Century, a man, closed in on all sides by the authority of priestly
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tradition, makes what might be termed a philosophical survey of the
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world which the science of the time was disclosing. It is
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particularly interesting because it is only in the 20th Century
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that the habit of this sort of speculation is again popular. Bruno
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lived in a period when philosophy became divorced from science.
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Perhaps it might be better to say that science became divorced from
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philosophy. Scientists became too intrigued with their new toys to
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bother about philosophy. They began to busy themselves with
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telescopes and microscopes and chemical glassware.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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GIORDANO BRUNO
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In 1581 Bruno went to Paris and began to give lectures on
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philosophy. It was not an uncommon thing for scholars to wander
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from place to place. He made contacts easily and was able to
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interest any group with whom he came in contact with the fire of
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his ideas. His reputation reached King Henry III who became curious
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to look over this new philosophical attraction. Henry Ill was
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curious to find out if Bruno's art was that of the magician or the
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sorcerer. Bruno had made a reputation for himself as a magician who
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could inspire greater memory retention. Bruno satisfied the king
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that his system was based upon organized knowledge. Bruno found a
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real patron in Henry Ill and it had much to do with the success of
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his short career in Paris.
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It was about this time that one of Bruno's earliest works was
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published, De Umbras Idearum, The Shadows of Ideas, which was
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shortly followed by Ars Mernoriae, Art of Memory. In these books he
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held that ideas are only the shadows of truth. The idea was
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extremely novel in his time. In the same year a third book
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followed: Brief Architecture of the Art of Lully with its
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Completion. Lully had tried to prove the dogmas of the church by
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human reason. Bruno denies the value of such mental effort. He
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points out that Christianity is entirely irrational, that it is
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contrary to philosophy and that it disagrees with other religions.
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He points out that we accept it through faith, that revelation, so
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called, has no scientific basis.
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In his fourth work he selects the Homeric sorcerer Circi who
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changed men into beasts and makes Circi discuss with her handmaiden
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a type of error which each beast represents. The book 'Cantus
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Circaeus,' The Incantation of Circe, shows Bruno working with the
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principle of the association of ideas, and continually questioning
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the value of traditional knowledge methods.
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In the year 1582, at the age of 34 he wrote a play Il
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Candelajo, The Chandler. He thinks as a candle-maker who works with
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tallow and grease and then has to go out and vend his wares with
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shouting and ballyhoo:
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"Behold in the candle borne by this Chandler, to whom I
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give birth, that which shall clarify certain shadows of ideas
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... I need not instruct you of my belief. Time gives all and
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takes all away; everything changes but nothing perishes. One
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only is immutable, eternal and ever endures, one and the same
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with itself. With this philosophy my spirit grows, my mind
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expands. Whereof, however obscure the night may be, I await
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the daybreak, and they who dwell in day look for night ...
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Rejoice therefore, and keep whole, if you can, and return love
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for love."
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There came a time when the novelty of Bruno had worn off in
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France and he felt that it was time to move on. He went to England
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to begin over again and to find a fresh audience. He failed to make
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scholastic contact with Oxford. Oxford, like other European
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universities of this time, paid scholastic reverence to the
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authority of Aristotle. A great deal has been written about the
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Middle Ages being throttled by the dead hand of Aristotle. It was
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not the methods of Aristotle nor the fine mind of Aristotle which
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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GIORDANO BRUNO
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were so much in question as it was the authority of Aristotle. A
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thing must be believed because Aristotle said it. It was part of
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the method of Bruno to object in his own strenuous fashion to the
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cramming down one's throat of statements of fact because Aristotle
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had made such statements when they were plainly at variance with
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the fresh sense experience which science was producing.
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In his work The Ash Wednesday Supper, a story of a private
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dinner, being entertained by English guests, Bruno spreads the
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Copernican doctrine. A new astronomy had been offered the world at
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which people were laughing heartily, because it was at variance
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with the teachings of Aristotle. Bruno was carrying on a spirited
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propaganda in a fighting mood. Between the year 1582 and 1592 there
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was hardly a teacher in Europe who was persistently, openly and
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actively spreading the news about the "universe which Copernicus
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had charted, except Giordano Bruno. A little later on another and
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still more famous character was to take up the work: Galilee.
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Galileo never met Bruno in person and makes no mention of him
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in his works, although he must have read some of them. We may not
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blame Galilee for being diplomat enough to withhold mention of a
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recognized heretic. Galilee has often been criticized because he
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played for personal safety in the matter of his own difficulties.
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We demand a great deal of our heroes.
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While in England Bruno had a personal audience with Queen
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Elizabeth. He wrote of her in the superlative fashion of the time
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calling her diva, Protestant Ruler, sacred, divine, the very words
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he used for His Most Christian Majesty and Head of The Holy Roman
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Empire. This was treasured against him when he was later brought to
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trial as an atheist, an infidel and a heretic. Queen Elizabeth did
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not think highly of Bruno. She thought him as wild, radical,
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subversive and dangerous. Bruno found Englishmen rather crude.
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Bruno had no secure place in either Protestant or Roman
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Catholic religious communities. He carried out his long fight
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against terrible odds. He had lived in Switzerland and France and
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was now in England and left there for Germany. He translated books,
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read proofs, and got together groups and lectured for whatever he
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could get out of it. It requires no great stretch of the
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imagination to picture him as a man who mended his own clothes, who
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was often cold, hungry and shabby. There are only a few things that
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we know about Bruno with great certainty and these facts are the
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ideas which he left behind in his practically forgotten books, the
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bootleg literature of their day. After twenty years in exile we
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picture him as homesick, craving the sound of his own native tongue
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and the companionship of his own countrymen. But he continued to
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write books. In his book De la Causa, principio et uno, On Cause,
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Principle, and Unity we find prophetic phrases:
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"This entire globe, this star, not being subject to
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death, and dissolution and annihilation being impossible
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anywhere in Nature, from time to time renews itself by
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changing and altering all its parts. There is no absolute up
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or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space;
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but the position of a body is relative to that of other
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bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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GIORDANO BRUNO
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position throughout the universe, and the observer is always
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at the center of things."
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His other works were The Infinity, the Universe and Its
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Worlds, The Transport of Intrepid Souls, and Cabala of the Steed
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like unto Pegasus with the Addition of the Ass of Cyllene, an
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ironical discussion of the pretensions of superstition. This "ass,"
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says Bruno, is to be found everywhere, not only in the church but
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in courts of law and even in colleges. In his book The Expulsion of
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the 'Triumphant Beast' he flays the pedantries he finds in Catholic
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and Protestant cultures. In yet another book The Threefold Leas and
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Measure of the Three Speculative Sciences and the Principle of Many
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Practical Arts, we find a discussion on a theme which was to be
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handled in a later century by the French philosopher Descartes. The
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book was written five years before Descartes was born and in it he
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says: "Who so itcheth to Philosophy must set to work by putting all
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things to the doubt."
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He also wrote Of the Unit, Quantity and Shape and another work
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On Images, Signs and Ideas, as well as On What is Immense and
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Innumerable; Exposition of the Thirty Seals and List of
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Metaphysical Terms for Taking the Study of Logic and Philosophy in
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Hand. His most interesting title is One Hundred Sixty Articles
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Directed Against the Mathematics and Philosophers of the Day. One
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of his last works, The Fastenings of Kind, was unfinished.
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It is easy to get an impression of the reputation which Bruno
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had created by the year 1582 in the minds of the clerical
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authorities of southern Europe. He had written of an infinite
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universe which had left no room for that greater infinite
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conception which is called God. He could not conceive that God and
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nature could be separate and distinct entities as taught by
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Genesis, as taught by the Church and as even taught by Aristotle.
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He preached a philosophy which made the mysteries of the virginity
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of Mary, of the crucifixion and the mass, meaningless. He was so
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naive that he could not think of his own mental pictures as being
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really heresies. He thought of the Bible as a book which only the
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ignorant could take literally. The Church's methods were, to say
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the least, unfortunate, and it encouraged ignorance from the
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instinct of self-preservation.
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Bruno wrote: "Everything, however men may deem it assured and
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evident, proves, when it is brought under discussion to be no less
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doubtful than are extravagant and absurd beliefs." He coined the
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phrase "Libertes philosophica." The right to think, to dream, if
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you like, to make philosophy. After 14 years of wandering about
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Europe Bruno turned his steps toward home. Perhaps he Was homesick.
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Some writers have it that he was framed. For Bruno to go back to
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Italy is as strange a paradox as that of the rest of his life.
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He was invited to Venice by a young man whose name was
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Mocenigo, who offered him a home and who then brought charges
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against him before the Inquisition. The case dragged on. He was a
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prisoner in the Republic of Venice but a greater power wanted him
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and he was surrendered to Rome. For six years, between 1593 and
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1600 he lay in a Papal prison. Was he forgotten, tortured? Whatever
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historical records there are never have been published by those
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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GIORDANO BRUNO
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authorities who have them. In the year 1600 a German scholar
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Schoppius happened to be in Rome and wrote about Bruno, who was
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interrogated several times by the Holy Office and convicted by the
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chief theologians. At one time he obtained forty days to consider
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his position; by and by he promised to recant, then renewed his
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"follies." Then he got another forty days for deliberation but did
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nothing but baffle the pope and the Inquisition. After two years in
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the custody of the Inquisitor he was taken on February ninth to the
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palace of the Grand Inquisitor to hear his sentence on bended knee,
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before the expert assessors and the Governor of the City.
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Bruno answered the sentence of death by fire with the
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threatening: "Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence
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against me with greater fear than I receive it." He was given eight
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more clays to see whether he would repent. But it was no use. He
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was taken to the stake and as he was dying a crucifix was presented
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to him, but he pushed it away with fierce scorn.
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They were wise in getting rid of him for he wrote no more
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books, but they should have strangled him when he was born. As it
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turned out, they did not get rid of him at all. His fate was not an
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unusual one for heretics; this strange madcap genius was quickly
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forgotten. His works were honored by being placed on the Index
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expurgatorius on August 7, 1603, and his books became rare. They
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never obtained any great popularity.
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In the early part of the 18th Century English deists
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rediscovered Bruno and tried to excite the imagination of the
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public with the retelling of the story of his life, but this
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aroused no particular enthusiasm.
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The enthusiasm of German philosophy reached the subject of
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Bruno when Jacobi (1743-1819) drew attention to the genius of Bruno
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and German thinkers generally recognized his genius but they did
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not read his books. In the latter part of the 19th Century Italian
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scholars began to be intrigued with Bruno and for a while "Bruno
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Mania" was part of the intellectual enthusiasm of cultured
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Italians. Bruno began to be a symbol to represent the forward-
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looking free-thinking type of philosopher and scientist, and has
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become a symbol of scientific martyrdom. Bruno was a truant, a
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philosophical tramp, a poetic vagrant, but has no claims to the
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name of scientist. His works are not found in American libraries.
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In this age of biographical writing it is surprising that no modern
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author has attempted to reconstruct his life, important because it
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is in the direct line of modern progress. Bruno was a pioneer who
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roused Europe from its long intellectual sleep. He was martyred for
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his enthusiasm.
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Bruno was born five years after Copernicus died. He had
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bequeathed an intoxicating idea to the generation that was to
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follow him. We hear a lot in our own day about the expanding
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universe. We have learned to accept it as something big. The
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thought of the Infinity of the Universe was one of the great
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stimulating ideas of the Renaissance. It was no longer a 15th
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Century God's backyard. And it suddenly became too vast to be ruled
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over by a 15th Century God. Bruno tried to imagine a god whose
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majesty should dignify the majesty of the stars. He devised no new
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metaphysical quibble nor sectarian schism. He was not playing
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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GIORDANO BRUNO
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politics. He was fond of feeling deep thrills over high visions and
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he liked to talk about his experiences. And all of this refinement
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went through the refiners' fire -- that the world might be made
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safe from the despotism of the ecclesiastic 16th Century Savage. He
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suffered a cruel death and achieved a unique martyr's fame. He has
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become the Church's most difficult alibi. She can explain away the
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case of Galileo with suave condescension. Bruno sticks in her
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throat.
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He is one martyr whose name should lead all the rest. He was
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not a mere religious sectarian who was caught up in the psychology
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of some mob hysteria. He was a sensitive, imaginative poet, fired
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with the enthusiasm of a larger vision of a larger universe ... and
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he fell into the error of heretical belief. For this poets vision
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he was kept in a dark dungeon for eight years and then taken out to
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a blazing market place and roasted to death by fire.
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It is an incredible story.
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The "Church" will never outlive him.
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**** ****
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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**** ****
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The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful,
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scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
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suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the
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Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
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nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
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religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
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the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
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that America can again become what its Founders intended --
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The Free Market-Place of Ideas.
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The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
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hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
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and information for today. If you have such books please contact
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us, we need to give them back to America.
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**** ****
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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**** ****
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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