CHAPTER V

AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE
For three years Bruno had sojourned in various Italian States, receiving hospitahty in spacious, dignified monas- teries or under the homelier shelter of some kindly Italian roof. Nowhere were the refinements of life wanting. Across the mountains, he found a stern, rough folk, who knew not the use of the fork or the amenities of the table. The guest at the inn was called upon to share his bed with more than one bedfellow, and might consider himself fortunate if he arrived at the inflexible hour for the common meal, and had neither to forfeit it nor to tarry for it.
At Naples, Bruno read St Augustine in secret, so we may suppose that he felt some interest in his writings. The austere and naked theology of that Father had been strengthened and hardened by John Calvin. That remark- able fugitive from France to Geneva had carried with him even more of the vigour of the legislator than of the dexterity of the controversialist. Conscientious in his rejection of a mediating priesthood, he nonetheless was visited by no scruples when he established at Geneva that worst of theocratic governments — the tyranny of a board of theologians. His sectaries established and maintained the outward form of a " city of God," less accomplished, less broad-minded, and even more coercive than ever Rome was; and, when Calvin died, his mantle fell on a man of like mind — his fellow-exile, Theodore de Beze
of V^zelay. Hardly more than twenty years before
41
42 GIORDANO BRUNO
Bruno's arrival, Calvin's perfervid zeal for petty theological doctrines persuaded him to betray Miguel Serveto y Rives to the Inquisition, and when Servetus escaped and sought an asylum in Geneva, it was Calvin who sent him to the stake. Under Beze, drastic discipline was dealt out to anyone who offended against the most meticulous article prescribed by the autocratic congregation of theologians who formed a state within the political state and were supreme over it.'^
Nevertheless Bruno knew that Geneva opened her gates to those who sought refuge for conscience-sake and that independent thinkers from his own beloved Italy had found asylum and established an Italian evangelical church there. It dated from 1542. Bruno put up at a hostelry and inscribed his name at the Academy. One may still read in the Rector's Register the name " Philippus Brunus Nolanus, sacra theologies professor, 20 May J 579," written in Bruno's bold firm hand.^
The presence of a wandering monk would excite little surprise in most places. It was quite usual to encounter such travellers, who might wish to visit libraries, or who found the atmosphere of their monastery uncongenial. But a monk in this abode of the saintly elect could not fail to attract attention ; although Catholic princes some- times passed through the city and even visited the most distinguished of the exiles, the Neapolitan Galeazzo Caracciolo, marquis of Vico and nephew of Pope Paul IV. Di Vico had forsaken wife and children for faith's sake and had been regarded by Calvin as a pillar of the church.
1 Cfr. Bolsec, H. ; Hist, de la vie etc. de J. Calvin, Lyons, 1577. — Bonnet, J ; Lettres franqaises dej. C, Paris 1854. — Roget, A ; Histoire dupeuple de Genlveetc. 1870-83. — Brunnem, K ; M. Servetus, Berlin, 1865. — Rilliet, A ; Relation duproch centre S., Geneva, 1844.
^ It will be observed that Bruno retains his baptismal name in the Protestant city.
AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE 43
Indeed, Calvin dedicated one of his works to him. Di Vico was a kindly and honourable man, zealous for doctrine, but ready to welcome and aid any distressed fellow-country- man.^ It was not long before he paid Bruno a visit.
" He asked me who I was and if I had come there to stay and avow the religion of the city. I then gave an account of myself and of why I had left my order, and added that I had no intention of professing the faith of the city, for I did not know what it might be; and that my object was to dwell in freedom and safety rather than anything else. The Marquis advised me to cast away my monkish garb at any rate. So I made trunk-hose and other gear from some stuff I had by me, and he and other Italians gave me a sword, hat, cloak and other needful clothes and other things that I might support myself by correcting proofs. I remained two months thus employed, going sometimes to hear Italians and Frenchmen expound and preach. I listened oftenest to Nicolo Balbani of Lucca, who expounded the epistles of Paul and preached the gospels." ^ Balbani was pastor of the Italian church and a great friend of Di Vico.
It would not need the insistence of his new friends to induce Bruno to read the works of Calvin. His inquiring mind led him to dip into all the chief writers of the Refor- mation. In the record of his trial at Venice we read the frank declaration : " I have read books by Melancthon, Luther, Calvin and other heretics beyond the Alps, not to acquire their doctrine or for improvement, for I think them more ignorant than myself, but out of sheer curiosity. I have never kept them in my possession — I mean those who professedly treat of matters opposed and repugnant to the
* Cfr. Specimen Italiae Reformatae, una c. Syllabo Reformatorum Jtal., Lugd., Bat., 1765,/. 205.— Berti, op. cii., ed. ofl?>%6,p. 91 sgq.
* Doc. ix.
44 GIORDANO BRUNO.
Catholic faith ; while I have indeed kept by me other con- demned works, such as those of Raymond Lully and other writers who treat of philosophical matters. I scorn both them and their doctrines." ^
But, on his arrival at Geneva, before he knew much about Calvinistic administration, he may have flirted with the idea of joining the Reformed Church. John Vincent told Cotin (if the diarist were he), rather more than six years later, that " Jordanus said [to the Genevese] he would have attached himself to their religion had they not so dishonoured him."^ Probably Vincent got this on hearsay; but it is likely to be true. We shall deal with the " dishonour " directly. Bruno did not vex himself overmuch with the vain disputes of theology. He conceived it to be his busi- ness to try to get at the truth of Nature by reason, and he confessed to his judges that he was no theological expert.^ But theology can be undermined by philosophy and physical science. Bruno's intrepid zeal for truth landed him in difficulties when little more than two months had elapsed from his arrival in Geneva. One of the evangelical shepherds of the city was Antoine de la Faye of Chateaudun, a man who had taken his medical degree at Padua five years before and was a refugee.* Most likely Aristotle was the subject of dispute. How long Bruno continued to accept the authority of Aristotle, we do not know ; but he came after much thought to perceive the errors of his Cosmology and Physics.^ Ever a fighter, a valiant knight-errant of Truth, he was as impulsive and imprudent as courageous. Rebellion against accepted views is always strangely limited in its extent, and the governing body of the Genevese
' Doc. xij. ' Auvray, L ; op. cii., sub 15 Mar. 1856.
' Doc. xij.
* Haag, Eugene et Emile ; La France Protestanie, 1846-59, t vj, pp. iSs, 186. ' Bruno ; Infinito, Dial. I.
AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE 45
reformers retained not a few of the prejudices of their fore- fathers ; they regarded Aristotle as hardly less authoritative than Holy Writ. Theodore de Bdze .told Pierre de la Ram^e that they had resolved not to depart one jot or tittle from the judgements of Aristotle ; and among those who supported this decision was de la Faye, who, just now, was lecturing at the Academy on Philosophy.
If, as a passage in Genevese records would seem to indi- cate, it was on Aristotle that Bruno attacked de la Faye, he began a warfare at Geneva which occupied the best yeaf^ of a rebellious life — a determined and persistent effort to upheave the dead load of obsolete authority and give freedom to the human spirit once again. He felt, to use the language of Bacon, that the ancient cosmology was " no match for the subtlety of Nature." ^
The consistory of theologians sat watchful for the slightest offence against the stringent moral and theological code they chose to institute.^ On Thursday, August 6, 1579, we find Bruno and one Jean Bergeon laid by the heels. It is recorded in the Registers of the Consistory that Bruno had caused Bergeon to print " certain objections and invectives againt M. de la Faye, reckoning, twenty blunders in one of his lectures." (The twenty blunders became multiplied by five in Parisian gossip.^) " It was resolved that he should be examined after dinner." Then Jean Bergeon pleaded that the Italian had persuaded him of the wholly philoso- phical bearing of the matter ; he was given a day's imprison- ment and fined 50 florins.
The next day Bergeon sent up a petition asking the Council to pardon his transgression. He had " been led astray by the monk, who affirmed there was nothing in it against God
' Bacon ; Nov. Org., xiij.
' Fairbairn, A ; Camb. Mod. Hist, II, 368.
' Auvray, L ; op. cit., sub 20 May, 1556.
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or the Council." His fine was reduced by half, " on account of his small means." Bruno seems to have been visited in his cell by the pastors and one Michael Varro, a lawyer who dabbled in mathematics and natural science and had written on motion. The lawyer's hobby strengthens the surmise that the quarrel arose about Aristotle. Bruno acknowledged that he had offended. The council sat again on Monday, lOth Aug., and decided that he should be set free, but he must beg pardon of God, the law and the insulted professor; he must acknowledge his offence before the Consistory and tear up the libel. So, on the 13th August he appeared, as required, before the Consistory " to acknowledge his trans- gression in that he had erred in doctrine and called the pastors of the Church of Geneva pedagogues." But a sur- prise awaited the good pastors : he would " neither excuse himself nor plead guilty, for the matter had not been truly reported. He believed the story came from Pastor Antoine de la Faye. Asked whom he called pedagogues, he made many excuses and assertions that he was persecuted, set- ting forth conjectures and fresh accusations, but nevertheless admitted he was here to own his misconduct in traducing the pastors. Was admonished to follow the true doctrine. Said he was ready to receive censure. Seeing that he calumniated the said de la Faye, and accused him of saying a thing which he did not say, and had no wish to repent his doings, but urged that he had done right, it is recommended that he shall make a complete apology and acknowledge his trans- gression ; otherwise, that he be forbidden the sacrament and be brought up again before the governing board, who are entreated not to endure this kind of person, one who disturbs the school, and who shall straightway be compelled to acknow- ledge his offence. Replied, that he repented of his offence, would amend his speech, and, further, admitted having calumniated Pastor de la Faye. The said remonstrances
AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE 47
and prohibition of the sacrament made, and he sent away remonstrating." On Thursday, Aug. 27, " Philippe Brun, student, residing in this city, begs for the sacrament, which had been forbidden him . . . acknowledging that he had greatly offended. It was decided that he should be thoroughly reprimanded and allowed to partake of the sacrament. The said reprimand to .free him from his transgression ; for which he humbly rendered thanks." *
These entries in the Genevese Register would seem, at first sight, to prove that Bruno conformed to a regulation of the City whereby students were compelled to sign the Calvinistic Confession of faith. It has been shown, however, that this regulation, framed in 1559, ceased to be enforced in 1576. After the latter date, only member- ship of the community was required ; and Bruno fulfilled this condition by putting in an appearance at the Italian Evangelical Church. The sentence of exclusion from the sacraments would appear to have been merely a formal one — one that we find repeated at Helmstadt a few years later on a similar occasion. It does not necessarily imply that Bruno was ever a communicant. But it would carry with it the stigma of heresy and be productive of highly inconvenient, if not serious, consequences. When on trial for his life he gave an open and manly account of his career and opinions. It is true that here and there he slides over a fact capable of being turned against him ; now and then he puts a little theological whitewash, as the times required, on his opinions. But any unprejudiced reader must regard his statement, taken as a whole, as being a model of plain, straightforward statement. In it we find him saying : " I often went to hear heretics preach or dispute [in Protestant countries] rather through curiosity
1 Registres du Consistoire : vol. de 1577-79. 2» Dufour, T ; G.B. & Genive, Schuchardt, 1884.
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as to their ways than because I found them inviting; nor had I satisfaction ; so that after the reading or sermon, when the time came for the sacrament and the distribution of bread in their style, I went about my business. I have never taken the sacrament or observed their practices." The inquisitors pointed out that the statement was hardly credible, since by non-compliance he would make enemies. Bruno replied : " Wherein I have transgressed I have told the truth. Herein I did not sin, and it shall never be found of me. Moreover, in these heretical lands Catholics are always to be met with who do not observe their usages." ^ And the Parisian diarist writes : " John Vincent says that Jordanus paid penalty on his knees at Geneva for calumniating M. de la Faye, a doctor of medicine of Padua, and printing a sheet containing lOO (sic) blunders committed by La Faye in a single lesson. Then Jordanus said he would have attached himself to their religion had they not so dishonoured him. The said de la Faye is preaching at the present time." ^
Bruno had been kindly received by the Italian reformers at Geneva; he had been ill-treated by his own Church; he had achieved by this time his own esoteric interpretation of Christianity, and he would gladly have united himself with a truly liberal Church. Indeed one could hardly get daily bread on any other terms than that of joining the dominant Church of a place, Roman or Protestant. As to the sacrament, that would present no insuperable difficulty were he once sure of the sincerity and Hberal wisdom of the religious community administering it. He did not dabble in theological niceties. Peter and Paul, he said, had no
' Doc. xij.
' Auvray, L; op. ctt., sub Mar. 2oth 1586. De la Faye became Rector of the Academy in 1 580 and, later, held the chair of Philo- sophy. Prof. Mclntyre says of Bruno's antagonist that "his one title to fame is that he was the biographer of Beza."
AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE 49
knowledge of subtleties ; they only knew that " this is my body"; and, while he accepted the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, he gave it an interpretation of his own : the whole universe, in his philosophy, is an eternal trans- mutation of the World-Soul, the Divine Word, the ever- present Absolute. He laughed at the fuss that men made about "mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus."^ Bruno was not the man to submit to the narrow yoke of acrid Calvinism. But the ecclesia*stical despotism of Geneva had prohibited the sacrament, and he was sent away remonstrating, not against the formal sentence, but against what it implied. He had to request that it should be withdrawn, probably because there would otherwise be no sustenance for him forthcoming either from the printers or from the incensed Italian Community. Henceforward he had no leanings towards Calvinism.
Once, on the occasion of some meticulous theologic tiff, Calvin himself was exiled with the polite intimation that " the gates of the city were open." They were still un- closed to dissentients. " Having been told," says Bruno, " that I could not stay if I did not bring my mind to accept the religion of that city, and, besides, having received no aid from them, I determined to leave, and I journeyed to Lyons, where I stayed a month ; but not finding the where- withal for my daily bread and necessities, I went on to Toulouse." 2
There was an Italian colony at Lyons, chiefly of emigrants from Lucca. There were also several famous printing-presses, which turned out more books every year than Paris could boast of. Such men as Boletus, Henricus Stephanus
* Cfr. Doc. xij. — Tocco, F ; Nuova Aniologia, 4° ser., CI, Sept. 1902. — Archives of the Inquisition, vol. 1482-1600 A.D.,fol. 1379, 80, 81. — Sigillus Sigillorum, " de Cereie et Baccho crudelitates" ; De Immenso, I, i; Spaccio, III, i. ' Doc. ix.
D
50 GIORDANO BRUNO
and Servetus had earned their living there by reading proofs.^ So Bruno had good reason to hope for the success he failed to obtain there.
Toulouse was a bulwark of orthodoxy and one of the most intolerant cities in France. The university boasted its 10,000 students, most of them following the law-courses, for which Toulouse had acquired particular fame. Petrarch had studied law there, and there Lully had taught.
The Dominicans had a monastery in the city, wherein lay the bones of Aquinas ; but we may be sure that Bruno did not seek hospitality at a place which, for the memories it aroused, presented so much of interest to him. That easy charm of the children of the south, so attractive and ingratiating, must have been his, for here, as in every new place throughout his Hfe, he speedily made acquaintances. He began to enjoy brighter days than had fallen to his lot during the past three years. He was asked to " read the Sphere with certain students,"^ and continued to do this and teach philosophy for about six months.
His sympathies were with the concrete organic life of Catholicism, and not at all with the atomic individualism of the Protestants and that tendency towards social and moral disruption which was already apparent among them. Geneva had cured him of all illusion on that score. Until he was seized by the officers of the Inquisition, he could never understand that the belief of the Roman Church was expressed in other than " language of accommodation," and that truly instructed and wise Catholics would prefer rigid and incomprehensible dogma to his own esoteric and rationalized explanation. Bruno felt as might an ancient Greek exile, a homeless wanderer from his own city, which meant more than home to him, and deprived of the civic
' Bartholmfess, C ; /. B., t. J, p. 68 ; Berti ; op. cit., p. io6. ' Doc. ix.
AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE 5 1
rights he held so dear. Religion and religious functions were, in the sixteenth century, an integral part of the moral and social organization of each civil state. He was an outlaw, an object of suspicion and reprobation. Moreover, it is hard to break with ancient habit, and there is nothing which appeals, even to a rationalizing Catholic, so persistently as does the Mass ; nothing which he feels so acutely as exclusion from unity with his fellows and with God, which, even if taken symbolically, is em- phasized in receiving the sacrament. Honourable scruple kept him from participation : " I always abstained from that, knowing that I was excommunicated for abandoning my order and casting its habit aside." ^ And, to be sure of bread, not to speak of the comforts of life, it was necessary in a foreign and catholic city that he should reconcile himself with the Church. The Jesuits were learned men ; they mixed with the world and bore them- selves as men of the world ; they possessed great influence in the most powerful quarters ; on the surface they were sympathetic, even lax. He trusted to priestly honour or to the secrecy of the Confessional, an office, however, of which, as excommunicated, he had no right to avail himself. He went to a Jesuit father ; ^ but got no help.
An "ordinary" chair in the University fell vacant. The University here did not require attendance on Mass, as did that of Paris, from its ordinary lecturers ; so, although under charge of heresy, there was not this particular stum- bling-block before him. He was peculiarly qualified for the post ; for it was to teach philosophy. As a first step, he says : " I procured my doctorate through the Dean of Arts." * The Parisian diarist tells us that " Bruno is a doctor of theology, passed at Rome."* This is a mistake of course,
^ Doc. ix. " Doc. xij. ^ Doc. ix.
* Auvray, L ; op. cit., sub Dec. 7, 1585.
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and it is easy to see how it arose. The diarist gives clear evidence that he did not catch or remember everything Bruno told him, and it was Bruno's habit to call him- self a " doctor in Roman theology." ^ " The theses for his doctorate," the diarist continues, " were ' Whatever St Thomas says in his summary against the Gentiles is true ' and ' Whatever the Master of Sentences ' (St Peter Lombard) ' says is true.' He ranks St Thomas above all in his ' Summa ' and ' Disputed Questions.' " ^
Armed with his degree, Bruno entered into the contest for the chair. In those days, as still for the Rectorship of our Scottish Universities, the election lay with the students : it had done so from the first beginnings of Universities. He must have got a considerable reputation through his private lessons, for the choice fell on him. " I presented myself to the meeting and was appointed and approved, and gave instruction on Aristotle's De Anima and other philosophical subjects."^ This text-book would give him an opportunity of treating a popular subject in his own original way. The nature and destiny of the soul had been eagerly debated for a century, with all the inevit- able rancour and vituperation which attend on disputation without real knowledge. Probably the new professor, whose zeal and courage, in the end, always got the better of his modicum of tact, contrived to arouse bitter opposition. He could hardly have avoided expounding the germs of the philosophy which was shaping itself in his mind ; and there was plenty to offend therein. In the MS. of his evidence at the Venetian trial, a passage which runs : " But in certain disputable points which I gave forth, and proposed
1 He inscribed himself in the roll of students of the Protestant university of Marburg, July 25, 1586, as " Jordanus Nolanus Neapoli- tanus Theologias Doctor Romanensis."
' Auvray, L ; loc. cit. ' Doc. ix.
AT GENEVA, LYONS AND TOULOUSE 53
conclusions ..." is cancelled.* This points to some opposition ; and elsewhere Bruno wrote of the rowdy bear- ing of students towards him at Toulouse, Paris and Oxford.^ At the two last named universities, we know that his attacks on Aristotle aroused violent resentment. Little freedom of thought was allowed at Toulouse in days when France was distracted by faction and Catholics and Huguenots were at each other's throats. During the year which saw Bruno's arrival in the city and the first complete year of his stay there ( 1 579-80) the Huguenots made more than forty attacks on neighbouring towns.
The passage referring to disputes in the school having been cancelled, Bruno continues : " I left on account of the civil wars, and went on to Paris." ^ A very excellent reason ; but did it stand alone ?
He would seem to have employed his time at Toulouse, when he was not teaching, in writing a big book on LuUian method and artificial memory which he entitled "Clavis Magna" "The Great Key." He conceived that he had included and systematized in it all the theories and practical devices of previous writers on these subjects and this in a complete philosophic form. The work was never published, although Bruno frequently refers to it in his earlier writings ; but there is little doubt that parts of it were the bases of his " Seal of Seals " * and " Combinatory Lamp." ^
' Doc. ix. ' J. Bruni Oratio Valedictoria.
' Doc. ix. ' Mclntyre; op. cit.,p. 17.
" De Lampade combinatoria Lulliana. Est et UNICA clavis ad omnium Lullianorum etc.