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AUTHOR: 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO, HIS 
 LIFE, TEACHINGS AND., 
 
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 103 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 HIS LIFE, TEACHINGS, AND MAR- 
 TYRDOM. 
 
 Jl^- 
 
 Giordano Bruno was born at Nola, near Naples, 
 in 1548 or 1550. Some biographers assert that 
 he was of noble lineage, others that his parents 
 were of the poor class. His father's name was 
 Giovanni and he was a soldier. His mother's 
 name was Fraulissa Savollna, and he was bap- 
 tized Filippo, which he changed to Giordano when 
 he assumed the religious habit. ** His excitable 
 disposition, fervid imagination, untiring restless- 
 ness, may well be called volcanic,'* says Owen, 
 thus resembling the atmosphere, soil, and water 
 of the Naples district in which he passed his 
 youth. ** His works, poured forth under the in- 
 fluence of intense feeling, and carrying destruc- 
 tion to much of the assumed learning and settled 
 convictions of the time, may be likened to so 
 many streams of lava." 
 
 The first dogmas to be attacked by the expand- 
 ing intellect of Bruno were those of the Trinity, 
 Transubstantiation, and the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion, for he was from the beginning idealistic in 
 his mode of thought, and he had also early recog- 
 nized the unvarying order of natural processes. 
 The kingdom of Naples in this century was a 
 stronghold of Anti-Trinitarianism, and Bruno 
 was passionately fond of discussion and expressed 
 
 (Truth Seeker Tracts, New Series. No. 47.— Page 871.) 
 
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 ^' 
 
 u 
 
 J 
 
 
 "7 
 
 •'^AAa^ \ 
 
2 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 It 
 
 his opinions freely. *'The name of Person he 
 declared inapplicable both to the Son and to the 
 Holy Ghost." He was subjected to a process for 
 heresy before he had ended his novitiate and to 
 another after he had taken full orders. He per- 
 ceived his danger and left Naples, which he never 
 saw again, reaching Rome in 1576. 
 
 But he was not safe there. **His superiors, with 
 the keen dogmatic apprehension of bigots, which 
 is often in exactly inverse ratio to their dull intel- 
 lectual comprehension, had clearly discovered 
 Bruno*s abilities." He learnt that the process 
 he had left behind was to follow him to Rome, 
 and the case was graver than before, for his 
 enemies discovered prohibited works of Jerome 
 and Chrysostom as annotated by the heretic 
 Erasmus, which he had abandoned in his hurried 
 flight. Dropping his religious habit and resum- 
 ing his name of Philip, he departed to Genoa. 
 Here he established a school for boys and also 
 gave private readings to a few adult pupils on the 
 sphere, /. <?., celestial geography. Probably he 
 here studied the Copernican astronomy. He wrote 
 two treatises which have been lost. In quick suc- 
 cession he went to Savona, Turin, and Venice. In 
 Venice he wrote a work, '^The Signs of the 
 Times," which a learned Dominican approved, 
 but which is not subsequently mentioned by 
 Bruno. Going to Padua after two months, he 
 soon left that town and visited Brescia, from 
 which he departed for Bergamo, where he re- 
 sumed his Dominican habit, upon which he wore 
 his scapular. Next in Milan, where it is supposed 
 he made the acquaintance of Sir Philip Sidney, 
 later known under better conditions in England. 
 From Milan back to Turin and thence across the 
 
 Alps to Chambery. He had intended to go to Ly- 
 
 (872) 
 
 V- 
 
 ) -V 
 
 
 ons, but hearing unfavorable reports of the French 
 convents he proceeded to Geneva, still in 1576. 
 " He found Protestanlsm as antagonistic to free 
 Inquiry as he knew Romanism to be. As Bar- 
 tholom^ss says, ** The two churches were gov- 
 erned by the same principle of jurisdiction— the 
 -rimlnallty of heresies. Wiioever believed wrongly, 
 
 that is to say, otherwise than the Holy Office or 
 the Venerable Consistory, believed nothing; and 
 he who believed not committed the crime of 
 treason to God, and deserved capital punishment. 
 Persecution hence became a sacred duty, an act 
 agreeable to God. The greater Its intolerance, the 
 greater its value." Hence Bruno was not long 
 left in ignorance of the fact that Calvin's city was 
 a very poor place of refuge for a philosopher of 
 the free spirit. For two and a half months he 
 made a meagre livelihood by correcting for the 
 press, and then, realizing that he must starve or 
 openly profess Calvinism if he remained in Ge- 
 neva, he went to Lyons. «* Such," remarks Owen, 
 '* was the first of several experiences of Protestant 
 liberty which induced him to regard the Reforma- 
 tion as a deformation." From Lyons to Toulouse, 
 where, after examination for a doctor's degree, he 
 secured the professorship of Ordinary Reader of 
 Philosophy in the University, the second in 
 France, although he was wholly unknown. Here 
 he lectured for two years and a half and wrote 
 several books, some of which are lost. He also 
 had public disputations, but was not persecuted, 
 although encountering the antagonism of School- 
 men and Peripatetics. Going to Paris in 1579. ^^ 
 lectured independently in the Sorbonne on theo- 
 logical subjects, and the king invited liim to an 
 audience, ending by offering him an Ordinary 
 Lectureship in the Univ rslty of Pans. To accept 
 
 (873) 
 
 V. 
 
4 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 would entail the necessity of attending mass, and 
 so he declined the offer. Later, offered a chair as 
 Extraordinary Reader in philosophy, without an 
 obligation to attend mass, he accepted. This 
 period forms an agreeable episode in his career. 
 Here he published more books, including one 
 containing the germ of his system. 
 
 Near the close of 1583 he went to England, with 
 letters of introduction from Henry III. to the 
 French ambassador. This was the golden age of 
 Bruno's life. Enjoying the protection and support 
 of the ambassador, Castelnuovo, he first had what 
 he called the ** libertas philosophandi," for which 
 he had so long wished, and he could devote him- 
 self to intellectual pursuits with no fear of poverty 
 or persecution. Some of his chief works were 
 written at this time, and in the house of the ambas- 
 sador he met * ' sl select few of the best contempo- 
 rary representatives of English culture." His 
 eulogistic comments on Queen Elizabeth and other 
 non- Roman princes *' formed one item in the 
 charges which the Inquisition proffered against 
 him.'* Anxious always to carry on his propaganda, 
 he sought for a position in the University of Ox- 
 ford, and secured permission to lecture. His 
 work did not meet with a favorable reception, as 
 in religion it was neither Romanist nor Anglican, 
 and in physical science it was not in harmony 
 with Aristotle. He found Oxford inferior as a 
 university and nicknamed it **the widow of sound 
 learning." Taking part in the Oxford tourna- 
 ments, he vigorously defended the Copernican 
 system against the Ptolemaic and showed himself 
 the unyielding foe of Peripateticism. 
 
 The English climate and manners not agreeing 
 with the warm-blooded and polite son of the 
 South, he returned to Paris in the suite of 
 
 (874) 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. O 
 
 Castelnuovo late in 1585, and soon resumed his 
 lectures and disputations in the Sorbonne. His 
 attacks upon the Peripatetics excited attention 
 and some animosity. The civil discords in France 
 induced him to leave Paris early in 1586, although 
 this move was also in harmony with his prede- 
 termination to visit other universities. Reaching 
 Marburg in July, 1586, he immediately applied 
 for permission to lecture in the university. This 
 was refused, **for grave reasons." Leaving at 
 once for Mayence, he stopped there for but a few 
 days, when he proceeded to Wittenberg. Here 
 no questions were asked, no letters of recom- 
 mendation required, although he had them in 
 plenty. He lectured in Wittenburg for two years, 
 the first being devoted to metaphysical specula- 
 tions and the second to Aristotle's **Organon." 
 Two treatises were written while here. Through 
 a change in the throne of Saxony which threat- 
 ened to give the Calvinists the ascendency over 
 the Lutherans in the University of Wittenburg, 
 Bruno thought it prudent to take his departure. 
 Prague was his next stopping-place. Here he 
 published three books, two dedicated to the Span- 
 ish ambassador at the court of Rudolph II. and 
 the other to that monarch himself. In the last 
 he claimed full liberty of judgment in the liberal 
 sciences, affirming that in these matters he does 
 ** not allow the authority of parents, of masters, 
 of traditions, or of customs." (Owen.) Rudolph, 
 a dabbler in occultism, accepted the book and 
 sent Bruno 300 thalers, a much-needed present. 
 His stay in Prague was not satisfactory, for he 
 had no opportunity to lecture, and missed " the 
 encouragement and excitement produced by the 
 applause of enthusiastic pupils." Going to Helm- 
 
 stadt, he secured for himself favorable recogni- 
 
 (875) 
 
GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 tion and some substantial remuneration from the 
 young Duke of Brunswick, but a dispute with 
 Boetius, the superintendent of the Evangelical 
 church, soon clouded his prospects, and resulted 
 in his excommunication by that Protestant pope. 
 He appealed, but probably mistrusting the out- 
 come, he quietly departed for Frankfort, which he 
 reached in April, 1590, ** whence he issued (with- 
 out naming them) a decree of fulmination against 
 the Brunswick theologians." 
 
 In Frankfort Bruno became acquainted with 
 the great publishers, Wechel, and by them was 
 most kindly received and lodged in a Carmelite 
 convent at their expense. Frankfort was an in- 
 tellectual center, and to it came scholars from all 
 parts of Europe. Among those whom Bruno met 
 there were two Venetian booksellers, Ciotto and 
 Britanno. When they returned to Venice they 
 took with them a newly-published work of 
 Bruno's, which Professor Berti thinks was ** De 
 Monade Numero et Figura." Ciotto showed this 
 work to a young nobleman, a man of ** supersti- 
 tious and weak intellect." It seems that he had 
 dabbled in some of the so-called * * occult " sciences, 
 and he jumped to the conclusion that Bruno ** had 
 in reserve a large amount of esoteric lore, which 
 the work only hinted at." He induced Ciotto to 
 send a letter to Bruno to come to Venice to in- 
 struct him, Mocenigo. He also himself sent a 
 letter begging the Nolan to come with all speed. 
 Fifteen years* wandering over Europe had made 
 Bruno intensely home-hungry; he forgot the In- 
 quisition, he forgot the martyrdoms for Free- 
 thought which had taken place in Italy during 
 his absence, he forgot the old processes against 
 himself, everything but the genial skies of Italy 
 
 and the sweet smiles of its children. He at once 
 
 (876) 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 7 
 
 accepted the offer of Mocenigo, and left Frankfort 
 in such haste that he neglected to mark for cor- 
 rection the closing pages of a book the Wechels 
 were bringing out for him. 
 
 The Shadow Begins to Lower. 
 
 Bruno reached Venice in 1592. In mentality, 
 disposition, and education the master and pupil 
 were at the antipodes. Mocenigo was " a gloomy, 
 superstitious, mistrustful fanatic." But Bruno 
 imparted to him what he wished to learn, the 
 Lullian Cabbala, and his method of artificial 
 memory. The Freethinker was induced to take 
 up his abode in Mocenigo's house. In addition to 
 his teaching of his host, he was superintending 
 the publication of new works, frequenting the 
 bookshops, and holding discussions with their 
 other habitues. The spirit of the Renaissance had 
 stimulated in Venice, as in other Italian cities, the 
 formation of private debating clubs, where in- 
 teresting and momentous questions were debated. 
 There were two of these clubs in Venice, one at 
 the house of the merchant Sechini, where scientific 
 discoveries were the chief topics, and the other at 
 that of Morosini, a man of culture, who was the 
 chief historiographer of Venice. Bruno was early 
 introduced hereby Ciotto. The subjects discussed 
 were of a literary and philosophical character, 
 having no connection with religion, as Morosini 
 himself testified before the Venetian inquisitors. 
 This was in harmony with that separation of phi- 
 losophy and religion for which the Freethinkers 
 of the Renaissance contended. Meanwhile Bruno 
 occasionally lectured in the University of Padua 
 and ** gave private lectures to some German stu- 
 dents." These duties in Venice and Padua occu- 
 pied some seven or eight months. Already Mo- 
 
8 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 9 
 
 cenlgo had become suspicious as to the orthodoxy 
 of his tutor. He toid his suspicions to his con- 
 fessor, and was advised to investigate further 
 concerning Bruno's errors, and then to denounce 
 him to the Inquisition. This he proceeded to do, 
 exercising his ingenuity to draw out Bruno and 
 make him commit himself. The denuaciation 
 was made to the Inquisition in a letter dated the 
 23d of May. Meantime Bruno perceived the drift 
 of events and determined to return to Frankfort. 
 He sent his completed manuscripts to the press, 
 arranged other business affairs, and then, most 
 rashly, went to bid farewell to the treacherous 
 zealot. Mocenigo used first persuasions and then 
 threats to detain him. Failing, he resorted to 
 combined deception and violence and made Bruno 
 a prisoner. The next day, the 23d, he sent his 
 denunciation to the Inquisition. 
 
 The Shadow Blackens and Closes Down, Never Again 
 
 to Lift. 
 
 On the night of the 23d he was removed to the 
 prison of the Inquisition. The trial began on the 
 26th of May. Answering the interrogatories of 
 the judges, he told why he came to Venice. He 
 used several days in recounting the chief events of 
 his life. What he said, ** preserved in the Vene- 
 tian documents, now constitutes the sole au- 
 thority for most of his life." He was a philoso- 
 pher, he stated, not a theologian, and therefore 
 had a freedom of inquiry and exposition that a 
 theologian could not possess. He had taught 
 nothing directly contrary to Christianity, although 
 some implications of his teaching might come into 
 conflict with Christianity, just as it might with 
 the teaching of Aristotle or Plato. The universe 
 
 was infinite, consisting of innumerable worlds, 
 
 (878) 
 
 / 
 
 like our own. It was governed by general and 
 constant law, which he called Providence, pos- 
 sessing power, wisdom, and goodness; that is, 
 mind, intellect, and love. He admitted his blame 
 for not observing the rules of the church more 
 closely, and promised amendment for the future. 
 Replying to a question, he said he had always 
 believed the miracles of Christ were " divine, true, 
 real, and not pretended.'* He believed in the 
 transubstantiation of the bread and wine ' * into 
 the body and blood of Christ really and substan- 
 tially," but had not attended mass for sixteen 
 years beeause of his excommunication. Neither 
 had he confessed, ** although he held that the 
 Sacrament of Penance was ordained to purge our 
 sins, and he believed that every man dying in 
 mortal sin would be damned." (All from Owen.) 
 This defense met some of the counts in Mocenigo's 
 indictment, but there were many more in reserve. 
 Bruno was charged with saying that Christ was a 
 crafty personage, that he was a magician, that he 
 (Bruno) had a mind to perform more miracles 
 than had Christ and the Apostles, that there was 
 no punishment for sin, that souls passed from one 
 body into another, and so on and on. To all these 
 accusations Bruno returned specific and vehement 
 denials. He gave a list of, admitted the author- 
 ship of and accepted the responsibility for all his 
 works, and affirmed that ** no examination of them 
 would discover that he had sought to bring the 
 Catholic religion into contempt." The pretended 
 hesitation and kindness of the Venetian inquisi- 
 tors undoubtedly helped in the undoing of Bruno, 
 by deceiving his generous nature and thus lead- 
 ing him on to make unfortunate admissions. 
 
 At the close of his second examination on the 
 30th of May, * * he expressed some regret that he 
 
 (879) 
 
 i\ 
 
10 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 11 
 
 had discoursed too much as a philosopher and not 
 sufficiently as a good Christian" (Owen). On the 
 3d of June he said to his judges that he **detested 
 and abhorred all the errors that he had commit- 
 ted up to the present time against the Catholic 
 faith, all the heresies he had held, and the doubts 
 he had entertained respecting the beliefs and dog- 
 mas of holy church," adding: '' I repent of hav- 
 ing done, held, said, believed, or doubted things 
 not Catholic, and I implore this sacred tribunal, 
 in pity to my infirmity, to receive me into the 
 church, providing for me remedies useful to my 
 salvation, and to have mercy upon me." At the 
 last hearing on the 30th of July he made a still 
 more humble recantation, dropping on his knees 
 and asking the pardon of God and the tribunal, 
 pleading for a punishment ** whose excess may be 
 a public notification in due proportion to the dis- 
 grace I may have brought on my sacred habit as a 
 monk." Rev. John Owen (**The Skeptics of the 
 Italian Renaissance," p. 286) comments thus on 
 these confessions : 
 
 With the exception of distinct and repeated refusals to 
 recant, and the defiant utterance with which he met his 
 final sentence, nearly eight years after, these are Bruno's 
 last authentic words. They serve to show that the infa- 
 mous methods of the Inquisition had succeeded in tempo- 
 rarily humbling one of the most daring spirits that ever 
 lived. How long the humiliation really lasted, by what 
 means it was effected, how far its form was suggested by 
 the officers of the Inquisition, or was the ej: ammo confes- 
 sion of Bruno himself, we shall never know. Remember- 
 ing Bruno's undaunted spirit, I incline to the belief that it 
 was extorted from the poor wretch by a promise of liberty 
 or by the tortures of the rack, or it may have been induced 
 by the debilitating effect of a dreary imprisonment on such 
 a freedom-loving spirit, or by some other of the iniquitous 
 means by which the Holy Office induced false confessions 
 when they were unable to obtain true. 
 "^ (880) 
 
 For seven or eight weeks after this final exam- 
 ination in Venice, Bruno, for some unexplained rea- 
 son remained undisturbed in prison, and his ene- 
 mies were apparently quiescent. Then the acts of 
 his process were forwarded to Rome, and Cardinal 
 Sanseverino, the Chief Inquisitor, demanded his 
 extradition. Venice was slow to comply with the 
 demand, but finally yielded, as a special favor to 
 the pope, and Bruno was committed to the prison 
 of the Inquisition in Rome on the 27th of Febru- 
 ary, 1593. He had not gone to a speedy if hor- 
 rible death; that comparative mercy was denied 
 to him. He who passionately loved liberty, to 
 whom the earth itself was too small a cage, who 
 aspired to the limitless freedom of the cosmos, 
 was doomed to spend seven eternal years in 
 the dank, black, cold, fetid cell of a medieval dun- 
 geon, in isolation, idleness, and torturing thought, 
 shut out from his fellows and all the intellectual 
 activities and warfare which to him had been the 
 very breath of life. The silence of the tomb 
 hangs over nearly all the hours of those seven 
 years. We know nothing of the tortures to which 
 Bruno was subjected, of the infernally ingenious 
 devices which were employed to break down his 
 spirit and to crush out his last yearning wish for 
 freedom. As Owen says : 
 
 The long duration of his imprisonment seems to imply 
 that unusual pains were taken to convert a heresiarch 
 wnose fame was European, or at least to present him in 
 his last hours in the penitent state of mind which would 
 reflect so much lustre on his holy tormentors, and be such 
 an edifying spectacle to the faithful. 
 
 The end is drawing nigh. On the 14th of 
 January, 1599, Bruno was brought before the 
 Congregation of the Inquisition. There were 
 
 read to him eight heretical propositions extracted 
 
 (881) 
 
12 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 from his works. He was told to deliberate upon 
 and recant these heresies. On the 4th of February 
 of the same year he was again before the Congre- 
 gation, and he was informed that forty days con- 
 stituted the period within which his deliberations 
 must be confined. What happened we can only 
 surmise; the next time we see him he is again 
 before the Congregation, on the 21st of December. 
 He now said that '*he neither ought nor wished 
 to recant." On this or the next day he is heard 
 regarding his opinions and prison privations. 
 Silence envelops the first three weeks of 1600. 
 But now events are hurrying. Bruno again ap- 
 pears before his judges, and presents a memorial. 
 It is opened, but not read, there. 
 
 That its contents were of an unsatisfactory character is 
 shown by the appended decree, which informs us that 
 the general of the Dominicans and the procurator general 
 had been appointed to address him (for the last time) on 
 the subject of his recantation. Once more Bruno refused, 
 boldly maintaining that he had never put forth heretical 
 propositions, by which he no doubt meant consciously false 
 ones. The resolution was thereupon made that extreme 
 proceedings must betaken, and Bruno delivered over to the 
 secular arm. This was formally done on Tuesday, the 8th 
 of February. (Owen, p. 329). 
 
 The scene of the ecclesiastical degradation of 
 Bruno was the palace of the Supreme Cardinal In- 
 quisitor Madruzzi. Bruno appeared in his usual 
 Dominican dress. He was forced to kneel, while 
 his sentence was read. 
 
 To the long harangue Bruno listened with firm and un- 
 moved countenance. With equal unconcern he underwent 
 the ceremony of de^^radation — the stripping off his priestly 
 vestments and attiring him in the heretic's coat of the San 
 Benito, while the solemn formula was pronounced, "By the 
 authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Spirit, and by our own, we take from thee the clerical 
 habit, we depose and degrade thee, and deprive thee of 
 
 (882) 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 13 
 
 every ecclesiastical order and benefice" Once only did 
 Bruno condescend to notice the grim farce of which he was 
 the object. When the sentence was pronounced, he turned 
 to his judges and, with a firm voice and defiant expression, 
 uttered the noble and memorable words, ' ' I suspect you 
 are more afraid to pronounce that sentence than I am to 
 receive it." The ceremony over, Bruno was consigned 
 to the secular arm with the usual injunction that "he 
 should be punished as leniently as possible, and without 
 shedding of blood " —the iniquitous formula for death by 
 fire. Thereupon he was removed to the civil prison at 
 Rome. The usual delay of eight days was granted in or- 
 der to afford one last opportunity of recantation, but 
 in vain. At length he was brought forth to die on Thurs- 
 day, the 17th of February. (Ibid.) 
 
 Rome Wreaks Her Cruel Veng-eance. 
 
 It is a jubilee year in Rome. There are sixty 
 cardinals in the city. The streets are thronged 
 with pilgrims from all Christian lands. The at- 
 mosphere is deathly with the odor of sanctity and 
 clamorous with the multiple-noises of fanatical 
 devotion. Processions march, bells clang, prayer 
 and vow and penitential psalm drone out, and 
 through it all walks proudly, erect and composed, 
 to his fiend-ordained death Bruno of Nola, lover 
 of truth and paladin of freedom. About him crowd 
 soldiers armed with the sword of war and priests 
 with the more murderous crucifix of peace. He is 
 alone, the individual, the thinker, held in the 
 merciless grasp of authority and hooted by the 
 multitude of imbeciles. He comes to the stake. 
 He is bound. The fl imes seethe and curl about 
 him, piercing with pains indescribable, disin- 
 tegrating and consuming. No cry for mercy 
 escapes him; no moan passes the sealed lips; no 
 expression of agony is registered on the pale and 
 kingly face. A priest thrusts the crucifix, g ygibo l 
 of hate and death, before his scorching ey?s; He* 
 
 turns away his head with a gesture of proud impa- 
 
 (883) 
 
14 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 GIORDANO BRUNO. 
 
 15 
 
 tience— with a threatening glance, says his gloat- 
 ing enemy, the chronicler Schioppius. 
 
 Bruno is dead ! Bruno lives ! Rome burnt the 
 man, the unit, and she burnt his books, but she 
 could not burn out of man the race the inextin- 
 guishable love of liberty which was the life-light 
 and the hope of Giordano Bruno, and which re- 
 mains and ever will remain the inspiration of men 
 and women and the peril of every tyrant, ecclesi- 
 astical or secular. Rome of Peter burnt Bruno, 
 but his monument stands in Rome of the Seven 
 Hills to-day; the government of Italy publishes 
 his works, and his name rings through the world 
 as the rallying-cry of all soldiers of humanity, of 
 all whose swords beat hard against the shield and 
 reach hungrily for the throat of despotism. 
 
 Bruno was a metaphysician, an idealist. His 
 was not the nature to proceed slowly and carefully 
 along the path of the inductive method. He 
 leaped to his conclusions as the lightning leaps 
 from the cloud to the forest monarch. He said 
 that philosophy was search after unity. He sought 
 the unity of the universe, the harmony of earth 
 with all other worlds, of man and god, of spirit 
 and matter. He did not believe in creation, but in 
 constant emanation. God and nature, spirit and 
 matter, are coeternal. ** God," to him, meant sim- 
 ply the unity of existence. The cosmos is the 
 expression of God, not God himself. Here he 
 stood apart from the Pantheist, who says that God 
 and the universe are one. To Bruno, God is the 
 cause and the universe the effect, and yet there is 
 unity, there is but one. Take God away and the 
 universe would cease to be. As he said : " The 
 supreme being is the substance of the universe, 
 the pure essence of life and reality, the source of 
 all beine, the force of all forces, the virtue of all 
 ^ (884) 
 
 virtues. If nature is the outward originating 
 cause of all existence, divinity is its deeper 
 foundation and the more profound basis both of 
 nature and of each individual. God being the 
 cause of all causes, the ruling principle of all exist- 
 ence, may become everything; being also perfect, 
 he is everything. Despite all this, Bruno was 
 naturally a skeptic. He said that **he who wishes 
 to philosophize must begin by doubting all 
 things." 
 
 He held for the widest liberty of thought, and 
 political freedom was a corollary of this basic 
 principle. This position logically resulted from 
 his perception of the fallaciousness of the dogma of 
 the freedom of the human will. He says : ** Our 
 opinions do not depend upon ourselves; evidence, 
 the force of circumstances, the reason, impose 
 them on us. If no man, therefore, thinks what he 
 wishes nor as he wishes, no one has the right of 
 compelling another to think as he does. Every 
 man ought to tolerate with patience, nay, with in- 
 dulgence, the beliefs of his neighbor. Toleration, 
 that natural faith engraven upon all well-born 
 hearts, the fruit of the enlightened reason, is an 
 indispensable requirement of logic, as well as a 
 precept of morality." 
 
 In spite of his metaphysical aptitudes and be- 
 liefs, he perceived that, as Owen sums it up, 
 "metaphysics can not yield that perfect conviction 
 of truth which its earnest seeker desiderates. He 
 was too keen-sighted not to perceive that what- 
 ever advantage metaphysical terms and abstrac- 
 tions might have as ideal comprehensions of 
 diverse realities, the standpoint was essentially 
 imaginative and individual and that the pro- 
 founder the research, the more recondite and un- 
 attainable became its object." 
 
 (885) 
 
The Christ Myth 
 
 A STVDV. 
 By Elizabeth E. Evans, 
 
 Author of ''History of Religions r " The Abuse of Maternity; 
 
 ♦• The Story of Louis XVII. of France ;' ''Laura, an 
 
 American Girt;' " Transplanted Manners,'' 
 
 and Other Histories and Novels. 
 
 PAPER 25 CENTS. 
 
 ^ , J : ^ 
 
 The question of the historical existence of Jesus is jHal an 
 imperative. It lies at the basis of the whole structure of Bibhca 
 criticism, and the answer lurks between the lines in all the re 
 ports of modern investigation. ^ r^„„oo 
 
 This little book is the result of investigations by Mrs. Evans a 
 far back as 1875 in a department of Christian doctrine havang n 
 connection with dogmas concerning the identity of <-hnst. ^ 
 that time she did not know that his historical existence had bee 
 questioned, though she had, after long and painful mental cor 
 flict, given up her early belief in the tnnitanan creed. Speak 
 ing of this in her preface to the Christ Myth, she says: " Ihos 
 pe^ons who have always regarded Christ as a mere man canno 
 imagine the shock experienced by a believer m his dmnity whe 
 that faith gives way. Few have believed so firmly and entirel. 
 as I: not many, I trust, have suffered so intensely in renouncm 
 that belief: and it is because I have found ]oy and Peace m di. 
 believing that I mention my personal expenence m the hope o 
 making the way easier for other souls tormented by doubt am 
 goad^f by thl calling power of truth to be l^o^est wi^ th^^^^ 
 selves even at the sacrifice of what were once vital convictions 
 but which, through wider 'knowledge, have lost their meanm; 
 
 ^"""^EteTone 'interested in the truth or f alsi^ty or the claims o 
 the Christian church will find this a most helpful work It wil 
 not shock the most devout; it will satisfy the most radi^^^^^ IM 
 charmingly written, all the author's points are carefully and con 
 sSou^sly considered, and once its perusal is begun the bool 
 will not be laid down till the conclusion is reached. 
 
 A 
 
 Address THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY^ 
 Aaoress xx ^^ Lafayette Place, New York 
 
 ^ 
 
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