IV. CUSANUS

Cusanus (Nicolaus Chrypffs of Cues, 1401-1464), the son of a fisherman on the Mosel, became a cardinal and the close friend of iEneas Silvius (Pius II). One of the most remarkable men of his age, he was the earliest of those speculative dogmatists who He midway between Scholas- ticism and Critical Philosophy. Bruno owed to this remark- able mind his own strongest philosophic impulse and many
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of his own views ; ^ he speaks of Cusanus as " divine " and " a great discoverer." ^ Cusanus, as became a bold and independent thinker, tried to rationalize theology, and made more than one attempt to expound the Trinity as three abstracted aspects of God and His universe, which are one.' He held that sense-impressions are united in the activity of thought ; yet knowledge at its best and highest is merely an image of being ; and therefore can only approximate towards, and can never be identical with Reality. At best, knowledge is as the polygon, which, while it remains a composite figure, can never become a circle.* Cusanus declared the relativity of all knowledge ; but, by intuition, men can rise above antimonies and hold contraries together in a unity; and when we do this we are doing, in our finite measure, what God does. By this doctrine of intui- tion, Cusanus saves himself from scepticism. Yet, though he is content to utter " O altitudo ! " ^ and finds God incom- prehensible, he declares Him to be all things, and that He could not be other than He is ; this gave rise to accusations of pantheism. The negation of greater imperfection, says Cusanus, is nearer truth than is the negation of the higher attributes. In other words there are degrees in truth and reality." The universe is the unfolding of what, in Deity, is unity ; just as a line is the unfolding of a point. If we reflect, we shall find that to a true maximum nothing can
1 The indebtedness of B. to Cusanus is exaggerated by F. J Clemens in his G. B und Nic. v. Cusa, Bonn, 1847 ; but, in spite of its prejudice, this remains a valuable work.
^ S^accio, I,j, at beginning; Infinite, HI; Oratio. Valedic.
= Cusanus, De docia ignorantia, i, 7 ; ij, 7 ; Alchoran, 6, 7, 8 ; De possest.
* Cusanus, De docta ignorantia.
« " I love to lose myself in a mystery, to pursue my Reason to an O altitudo," Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici.
« Cfr. the modern view of Bradley, Appearance and Reality, c. xxiv.
30 GIORDANO BRUNO
be added ; from a true minimum nothing can be taken away ; man can perceive therefore that, in Ultimate Reality, maximum and minimum coincide.^ The universe is bound- less in space and time, and the centre of the universe is precisely where the observer stands in it, a doctrine to which Bruno was much indebted. Nature is animate and articulated ; everything being a more or less imperfect mirror of the universe in its own place, and preserving itself in relation to and community with other things." In conscious experience there is indivisible continuity ; but in things there is an indivisible minimum.* All these views of Cusanus reappear in Bruno, often enlarged and enriched. Cusanus' teaching that reason unfolds itself in numbers * strengthened Bruno's Pythagorean tendency. The German saw that the universe can, at least in part, be explained scientifically by the application of mathematics to the results of observation ; and Bruno is his eager pupil. It was probably the study of Cusanus which set him on the track of the infinity of the universe of innumerable worlds and of the interpenetration of everything in the whole.^ There was as yet no really philosophical or scientific method : only an eager questioning of experience ; but Cusanus made the first attempt since the days of Greek science to explain the universe on scientific principles. He foreshadowed the law of inertia, and declared, in 1436, that the earth is in motion ; ^ but since we have no fixed
' Cusanus ; De docta ignorantiaj De sapientia libri tres. Cfr. Bruno ; De triplici mininio.
^ Cusanus ; De ludo globi.
" Cusanus; De idiota, iij. Cfr. Bruno; De triplici min; De vionade.
* Cusanus ; De conjecturis ; De visione Dei. Cfr. Bruno, De monade.
^ Clemens, F. J.; op. cit.,pp. 142, 143.
° Cusanus ; De reparatione Calendarii.
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point from which to observe this, its movement cannot be measured.
The mysticism of his countryman Eckhardt reappeared in Cusanus,^ and reinforced Bruno's own mystical tendency.