V. J. S. Ersch u. J. B. Gruber etc. sub Geddchtniss.

" Spaccio, III, ij.
' Giannone, Pietro ; 1st. Civile del regno diNapoli, 1723. Giannone only just mentions Bruno as " a visionary."
lO GIORDANO BRUNO
was but one refuge for a youth with no great means — the cloister, with all its opportunities and lettered ease. The Church was very wealthy : it possessed two-thirds of the landed property in Naples. And the order of Dominic the Spaniard was the most powerful and rich of the monastic bodies and enjoyed the full support of Philip and his coun- sellors. In his fifteenth year, a time of life when it was impossible for Felipe to comprehend anything like the full nature and implication of monastic vows and obligations or the real spirit of the cloister, he entered that Dominican Order of which the first requirement was intellectual sub- mission. He would be trained by men who were called " hounds of the Lord " and whose special function was to uphold doctrine and to scent out heresy as dogs are employed to scent out truffles.^ This was the first of the long series of sardonic ironies which Fate had provided for Felipe Bruno.
" Dominicans, so called from their founder, S. Domingo, on account of their special work, were punned on in the famous line " Domini canes Evangelium latrantes per totum orbem." Inquisitorial functions were attached to this order of " Preaching Friars" rather more than ten years after S. Domingo's death, which took place A.D. 1234.