Vladimir Legoyda
Despite the fact that the idea of religion as “the opium of the people” is no longer modern and relevant, many old views do not change and continue to wander from generation to generation. One of these ideas is the struggle between religion and science “not to the death, but to the death.” Supporters of this view habitually trump famous names: Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno. The most amazing thing is that the myths about these “martyrs of science” have become so firmly entrenched in everyday consciousness that sometimes it seems that they cannot be eradicated. Times change, history is subject to close and scrupulous analysis, but defenders of scientists allegedly offended by Christianity continue to accuse the “damned churchmen” of destroying science. The reason for the persistence of these myths is a topic for a separate serious discussion, involving both historians and cultural experts, as well as psychologists and sociologists. The purpose of our publications is somewhat different - to try to understand, firstly, what actually happened and, secondly, how much what happened relates to the conflict between religion and science, if such is possible at all. We talked about Galilee. Today we will talk about Giordano Bruno.
I'll start by stating a fact: Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) actually suffered at the hands of the inquisitors. On February 17, 1600, the thinker was burned in the Piazza des Flowers in Rome. Regardless of any interpretations and interpretations of events, the fact always remains: the Inquisition sentenced Bruno to death and carried out the sentence. Such a step can hardly be justified from the point of view of evangelical morality. Therefore, Bruno's death will forever remain a regrettable event in the history of the Catholic West. The question is different. For what Did Giordano Bruno get hurt? The existing stereotype of a science martyr does not even allow one to think about the answer. How for what? Naturally, for your scientific views! However, in reality this answer turns out to be at least superficial. But in fact, it is simply incorrect.
As a thinker, Giordano Bruno certainly had a great influence on the development philosophical tradition of his time and - indirectly - on the development of modern science, primarily as a successor to the ideas of Nicholas of Cusa, which undermined the physics and cosmology of Aristotle. Moreover, Bruno himself was neither a physicist nor an astronomer. The ideas of the Italian thinker cannot be called scientific, not only from the standpoint of modern knowledge, but also by the standards of 16th-century science. Bruno was not engaged in scientific research in the sense that those who really created science at that time were engaged in it: Copernicus, Galileo, and later Newton. The name Bruno is known today primarily because of the tragic ending of his life. At the same time, we can say with full responsibility that Bruno did not suffer for his scientific views and discoveries. Simply because... he didn't have any!
Bruno was a religious philosopher, not a scientist. Natural scientific discoveries interested him primarily as reinforcement of his views on completely non-scientific issues: the meaning of life, the meaning of the existence of the Universe, etc. Of course, in the era of the emergence of science, this difference (scientist or philosopher) was not as obvious as it is now. Soon after Bruno, one of the founders of modern science, Isaac Newton, would define this boundary as follows: “I invent no hypotheses!” (i.e. all my thoughts are confirmed by facts and reflect the objective world). Bruno "invented hypotheses." Actually, he didn’t do anything else.
Let's start with the fact that Bruno was disgusted by the dialectical methods known to him and used by scientists of that time: scholastic and mathematical. What did he offer in return? Bruno preferred to give his thoughts not the strict form of scientific treatises, but poetic form and imagery, as well as rhetorical colorfulness. In addition, Bruno was a proponent of the so-called Lullian art of linking thoughts - a combinatorial technique that involved modeling logical operations using symbolic notation (named after the medieval Spanish poet and theologian Raymond Lull). Mnemonics helped Bruno remember important images that he mentally placed in the structure of the cosmos and which were supposed to help him master divine power and comprehend the internal order of the Universe.
The most accurate and vital science for Bruno was... magic! The criteria of his methodology are poetic meter and Lullian art, and Bruno’s philosophy is a peculiar combination of literary motifs and philosophical reasoning, often loosely related to each other. It is therefore not surprising that Galileo Galilei, who, like many of his contemporaries, recognized Bruno’s outstanding abilities, never considered him a scientist, much less an astronomer. And in every possible way he avoided even mentioning his name in his works.
It is generally accepted that Bruno's views were a continuation and development of the ideas of Copernicus. However, facts indicate that Bruno’s acquaintance with the teachings of Copernicus was very superficial, and in the interpretation of the works of the Polish scientist, the Nolanian made very serious mistakes. Of course, Copernicus' heliocentrism had a great influence on Bruno and on the formation of his views. However, he easily and boldly interpreted the ideas of Copernicus, putting his thoughts, as already mentioned, in a certain poetic form. Bruno argued that the Universe is infinite and exists forever, that there are countless worlds in it, each of which in its structure resembles the Copernican solar system.
Bruno went much further than Copernicus, who showed extreme caution here and refused to consider the question of the infinity of the Universe. True, Bruno’s courage was based not on scientific confirmation of his ideas, but on the occult-magical worldview, which was formed in him under the influence of the ideas of Hermeticism, popular at that time. Hermeticism, in particular, assumed the deification of not only man, but also the world, therefore Bruno’s own worldview is often characterized as pantheistic(pantheism is a religious doctrine in which the material world is deified). I will give only two quotes from the Hermetic texts: “We dare to say that man is a mortal God and that the God of heaven is an immortal man. Thus, all things are governed by the world and man,” “The Lord of eternity is the first God, the world is the second, man is the third. God, the creator of the world and everything that it contains, controls this whole whole and subjects it to the control of man. This latter turns everything into the subject of his activity.” As they say, no comments.
Thus, Bruno cannot be called not only a scientist, but even a popularizer of the teachings of Copernicus. From the point of view of science itself, Bruno rather compromised the ideas of Copernicus, trying to express them in the language of magical superstitions. This inevitably led to a distortion of the idea itself and destroyed its scientific content and scientific value. Modern historians of science believe that in comparison with the intellectual exercises of Bruno, not only the Ptolemaic system, but also medieval scholastic Aristotelianism can be considered the standards of scientific rationalism. Bruno did not have any actual scientific results, and his arguments “in favor of Copernicus” were just a set of nonsense that primarily demonstrated the ignorance of the author.
So, Bruno was not a scientist, and therefore it was impossible to bring against him the charges that, for example, were brought against Galileo. Why then was Bruno burned? The answer lies in his religious views. In his idea of the infinity of the Universe, Bruno deified the world and endowed nature with divine properties. This view of the Universe actually rejected Christian idea of God who created the world ex nihilo(out of nothing - lat.).
According to Christian views, God, being an absolute and uncreated Being, does not obey the laws of space-time created by Him, and the created Universe does not possess the absolute characteristics of the Creator. When Christians say, “God is Eternal,” it does not mean that He “will not die,” but that He does not obey the laws of time, He is outside of time. Bruno's views led to the fact that in his philosophy God dissolved in the Universe, between the Creator and creation, the boundaries were erased, the fundamental difference was destroyed. God in Bruno’s teaching, unlike Christianity, ceased to be a Person, which is why man became only a grain of sand in the world, just as the earthly world itself was only a grain of sand in Bruno’s “many worlds.”
The doctrine of God as a Person was fundamentally important for the Christian doctrine of man: man is personality, since created in the image and likeness Personalities- The Creator. The creation of the world and man is a free act of Divine Love. Bruno, however, also talks about love, but with him it loses its personal character and turns into cold cosmic aspiration. These circumstances were significantly complicated by Bruno’s passion for occult and hermetic teachings: the Nolan was not only actively interested in magic, but also, apparently, no less actively practiced the “magical art.” In addition, Bruno defended the idea of the transmigration of souls (the soul is capable of traveling not only from body to body, but also from one world to another), questioned the meaning and truth of the Christian sacraments (primarily the sacrament of Communion), ironized the idea of the birth of the God-man from the Virgin and etc. All this could not but lead to conflict with the Catholic Church.
“Hermeticism is a magical-occult teaching that, according to its adherents, goes back to the semi-mythical figure of the Egyptian priest and magician Hermes Trismegistus, whose name we meet in the era of the dominance of religious and philosophical syncretism of the first centuries of the new era, and expounded in the so-called “Corpus Hermeticum”... In addition, Hermeticism had extensive astrological, alchemical and magical literature, which was traditionally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, who acted as the founder of the religion, herald and savior in esoteric Hermetic circles and Gnostic sects... The main thing that distinguished esoteric-occult teachings from Christian theology... was conviction in the divine - uncreated - essence of man and the belief that there are magical means of purifying man that return him to the state of innocence that Adam possessed before the Fall. Having been cleansed of sinful filth, a person becomes the second God. Without any help or assistance from above, he can control the forces of nature and thus fulfill the covenant given to him by God before his expulsion from paradise.”
Gaidenko P.P. Christianity and the genesis of modern European natural science // Philosophical and religious sources of science. M.: Martis, 1997. P. 57.
From all this it inevitably follows that, firstly, the views of Giordano Bruno cannot be characterized as scientific. Therefore, in his conflict with Rome there was not and could not be a struggle between religion and science. Secondly, the ideological foundations of Bruno’s philosophy were very far from Christian. For the Church he was a heretic, and heretics at that time were burned.
It seems very strange to the modern tolerant consciousness that a person is sent to the stake for deifying nature and practicing magic. Any modern tabloid publication publishes dozens of advertisements about damage, love spells, etc.
Bruno lived in a different time: during the era of religious wars. The heretics in Bruno’s time were not harmless thinkers “not of this world” whom the damned inquisitors burned for no reason. There was a struggle. The struggle is not just for power, but a struggle for the meaning of life, for the meaning of the world, for a worldview that was affirmed not only with the pen, but also with the sword. And if power were seized, for example, by those who were closer to the views of the Nolanite, the fires would most likely continue to burn, as they burned in the 16th century in Geneva, where Calvinist Protestants burned Catholic inquisitors. All this, of course, does not bring the era of witch hunts closer to living according to the Gospel.
Unfortunately, the full text of the verdict with charges against Bruno has not been preserved. From the documents that have reached us and the testimony of contemporaries, it follows that those Copernican ideas that Bruno expressed in his own way and which were also included in the accusations did not make any difference in the inquisitorial investigation. Despite the ban on Copernicus’s ideas, his views, in the strict sense of the word, were never heretical for the Catholic Church (which, by the way, a little over thirty years after Bruno’s death largely predetermined the rather lenient sentence of Galileo Galilei). All this once again confirms the main thesis of this article: Bruno was not and could not be executed for scientific views.
Some of Bruno’s views, in one form or another, were characteristic of many of his contemporaries, but the Inquisition sent only a stubborn Nolanite to the stake. What was the reason for this sentence? Most likely, it is worth talking about a number of reasons that forced the Inquisition to take extreme measures. Don't forget that the investigation into Bruno's case lasted 8 years. The inquisitors tried to understand Bruno's views in detail, carefully studying his works. And, apparently, recognizing the uniqueness of the thinker’s personality, they sincerely wanted Bruno to renounce his anti-Christian, occult views. And they persuaded him to repent for all eight years. Therefore, Bruno’s famous words that the inquisitors pronounce his sentence with more fear than he listens to it can also be understood as the clear reluctance of the Roman Throne to pass this sentence. According to eyewitness accounts, the judges were indeed more dejected by their verdict than the Nolan man. However, Bruno's stubbornness, refusing to admit the charges brought against him and, therefore, to renounce any of his views, actually left him no chance of pardon.
The fundamental difference between Bruno's position and those thinkers who also came into conflict with the Church was his conscious anti-Christian and anti-church views. Bruno was judged not as a scientist-thinker, but as a runaway monk and an apostate from the faith. The materials on Bruno's case paint a portrait not of a harmless philosopher, but of a conscious and active enemy of the Church. If the same Galileo never faced a choice: or his own scientific views, then Bruno made his choice. And he had to choose between church teaching about the world, God and man and his own religious and philosophical constructs, which he called “heroic enthusiasm” and “the philosophy of the dawn.” If Bruno had been more of a scientist than a “free philosopher,” he could have avoided problems with the Roman throne. It was precise natural science that required, when studying nature, to rely not on poetic inspiration and magical sacraments, but on rigid rational constructs. However, Bruno was least inclined to do the latter.
According to the outstanding Russian thinker A.F. Losev, many scientists and philosophers of that time in such situations preferred to repent not out of fear of torture, but because they were frightened by the break with church tradition, the break with Christ. During the trial, Bruno was not afraid of losing Christ, since this loss in his heart, apparently, happened much earlier...
Giordano Bruno- a great scientist, philosopher, poet, was born in the small Italian city of Nola in 1548. His father was a simple soldier. At birth he was given the name Philippe and, as an 11-year-old teenager, he was taken to Naples, to the monastery of St. Dominic, where he studied dialectics, logic, and literature, actively expanded his knowledge base thanks not only to his own zeal, but also to the wealth of the monastery library. In 1565 he was tonsured a monk, and from then on he began to bear the name Giordano. The priesthood he received in 1572 did not prevent him from not only doubting some of the tenets of Christianity, but also openly expressing his thoughts. By this, he attracted the attention of his superiors, but, without waiting for the investigation he had started to end, he moved to Rome, and then to Northern Italy, which seemed safer to him.
From that time on, Giordano Bruno's life turned into constant wanderings around the continent; he never stayed anywhere for long. Teaching philosophy became his source of livelihood. After living in Switzerland for a while, he moved to France. There he wrote a cycle of philosophical sonnets, a satirical poem “Noah's Ark”, which was anti-church in nature, as well as a comedy “The Candlestick” (1582). One day, King Henry III of France himself came to see him for a lecture. Impressed by the memory and encyclopedic knowledge of the scientist, the monarch invited him to court and subsequently provided him with recommendations when Bruno was going to England.
The “English” period of Giordano Bruno’s biography began in 1583 in London. His stay in the capital of Foggy Albion under the patronage of the English king turned out to be very fruitful: it was here that his main works in the field of philosophy and natural science were published. While a teacher at Oxford University, Bruno wrote treatises “On the Infinity of the Universe and Worlds”, “On the Cause, the Beginning and the One”, and proposed a bold alternative to the then dominant Ptolemaic idea of the universe, anticipating a large number of discoveries made by the science of future centuries. Actively promoting the teachings of Copernicus, according to which the Sun is the center of the planetary system, Giordano Bruno acquired a huge number of ill-wishers. Two years later, in 1585, he was forced to flee to France and then to Germany, but in this country his lectures were vetoed.
In 1591, Giordano Bruno returned to his native Italy and moved to Venice: he was invited as a teacher by a certain Giovanni Mocenigo, a young aristocrat. However, the relationship between student and teacher did not remain warm for long. In May 1592, the Venetian inquisitor first received one denunciation from Mocenigo against his mentor, a few days later more followed - the disgraced scientist was arrested and imprisoned. Bruno's personality, his influence, and the courage of his convictions turned out to be so large-scale that his case was transferred to Rome, where he was transported on February 27, 1593.
For seven years Bruno languished in the dungeons, subjected to torture and trials, but they could not force him to admit his picture of the world order as a delusion. On February 9, 1600, Bruno was declared an “impenitent, stubborn and inflexible heretic” by the inquisitorial tribunal. After being defrocked and excommunicated from the church, Giordano Bruno was handed over to the court of the Roman governor with the hypocritical demand to impose the most merciful punishment that would not shed blood. The secular court issued a verdict according to which on February 17, 1600, the unshakable scientist was burned on the Square of Flowers. Three centuries later, a monument was erected on the site with the inscription "Giordano Bruno - from the century he foresaw" on the spot where the pyre was lit.
Giordano Bruno(Italian: Giordano Bruno; born Filippo Bruno, nickname Bruno Nolaniec; 1548, Nola near Naples - February 17, 1600, Rome) - Italian Dominican monk, pantheistic philosopher and poet; author of numerous treatises. Recognized as an outstanding thinker of the Renaissance and a great representative of esotericism. Due to his penchant for reading works considered suspicious by the Catholic Church, and because of his expressed doubts regarding the transubstantiation and immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, as well as his unorthodox approach to the interpretation of the Trinity, he incurred suspicions of heresy and was forced to leave the Dominican Order (1576 ) and wander around Europe: he lived in Switzerland, France, England and Germany. Returning to Italy (1592), he was arrested in Venice and handed over to the Inquisition court in Rome. He refused to renounce his teachings, and after seven years in prison, he was burned at the stake as a heretic and violator of his monastic vows. In 1889, a monument to him was erected at the site of his execution in Rome.
One of the many accusations brought against him is Bruno's teaching about the infinity of the universe and the many worlds. An opponent of scholasticism and scholastic Aristotle, Bruno was influenced by Eleatic, New Platonic, and partly Epicurean ideas. His worldview is pantheistic: God and the universe are one and the same being; the universe is infinite in space and time; it is perfect because God dwells in it. The simple, indecomposable elements of everything that exists are monads; they do not arise, do not disappear, but only connect and separate; these are metaphysical units, mental and at the same time material points. The soul is a special monad; God is a monad of monads.
Bruno opposed the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system of the world that was dominant in his time, contrasting it with the Copernican system, which he expanded, drawing philosophical conclusions from it and pointing out certain facts that are now recognized by science as undeniable: that the stars are distant suns , about the existence of celestial bodies unknown in his time within our solar system, about the fact that in the Universe there are countless bodies similar to our Sun. The fame of his work was contributed, first of all, by the German philosophers F. G. Jacobi (1785) and Schelling (1802).
Filippo Bruno was born into the family of soldier Giovanni Bruno, in the town of Nola near Naples in 1548. At the age of 11 he was brought to Naples to study literature, logic and dialectics. At the age of 15, he entered the monastery of St. Dominic (1563), where in 1565 he became a monk and received the name Giordano. Bruno dedicated his first work, Noah's Ark, to Pope Pius V during his visit to Rome in 1568.
In 1572, 24-year-old Giordano became a Catholic priest. In Campania, a provincial town in the Kingdom of Naples, a young Dominican celebrated his mass for the first time.
In 1575, while staying in the monastery of St. Dominic, Giordano brought upon himself suspicions of reading forbidden books; in addition, he took icons out of his cell and left only a crucifix. The authorities had to launch an investigation into his activities. Without waiting for results, Bruno moved to Rome in 1576, but, considering this place not safe enough, he moved to the north of Italy (Genoa, Turin, Venice), and then to Switzerland - to Geneva, where he became a Calvinist (1578). In 1579, he was enrolled at the University of Geneva, but during the debate he was again persecuted by accusations of heresy - this time from the Calvinists.
Having moved to Toulouse at the beginning of 1580, Bruno received the academic title Magister artium and for almost 2 years he gave a course in philosophy and public lectures on Aristotle’s book “De anima” (from Latin - “On the soul”).
In the summer of 1581, Bruno moved to Paris, where he became a teacher at the Sorbonne University. Here Bruno published his first works on mnemonics (Shadows of Ideas; De umbris idearum) and lectured on Raymond Lull's book The Great Art: A Brief Discovery of the Truth (Ars magna: compendiosa inventendi veritam; c. 1272). There, Bruno was noticed by King Henry III of France, who was present at one of his lectures, and was impressed by Bruno’s knowledge and memory. In 1582, Bruno dedicated the work "Ars memoriae" to Henry III and published other works, including the theatrical play "The Candlestick" (in another translation "Neapolitan Street"; Italian: Candelaio). The king invited Bruno to court and provided him with several years (until 1583) of peace and security, and later, when Bruno’s disputes with Aristotle’s supporters forced him to leave Paris, he gave him letters of recommendation for a trip to England. In 1583 Bruno went to London, where he remained for two years.
At first, the 35-year-old philosopher lived in London, under the patronage of the French envoy Michel de Chateauneuf de la Movisière, then in Oxford, but after a quarrel with local professors he again moved to London, where he published a number of works, among which one of the main ones is “On Infinity, universe and worlds" (1584). Other works of this period: “A Feast on Ashes”; "The Casting Out of the Triumphant Beast", in which he mentions Egyptian beliefs; "The Kabbalah of the Pegasus Horse" (or "The Mystery of Pegasus"; 1585); "Killen Donkey"; “On Heroic Enthusiasm” and others.
In England, Giordano Bruno tried to convince high-ranking officials of the Elizabethan kingdom of the truth of Copernicus' ideas, according to which the Sun, and not the Earth, was at the center of the planetary system. This was before Galileo generalized the Copernican doctrine. In England, he never managed to spread the simple Copernican system: neither Shakespeare nor Bacon succumbed to his efforts, but firmly followed the Aristotelian system, considering the Sun to be one of the planets, revolving like the others around the Earth. Only William Gilbert, a physician and physicist, accepted the Copernican system as true and experimentally came to the conclusion that the Earth is a huge magnet. He determined that the Earth is controlled by the forces of magnetism as it moves.
In October 1585, Bruno returned to Paris, where he published a course of lectures on Aristotle's Physics. In June 1586, Bruno moved to Germany, where he unsuccessfully sought work in Mainz and Wiesbaden. In Marburg, after joining the university staff, he was soon prohibited from lecturing.
From there he moved to Wittenberg, where a more cordial welcome awaited him, and where he stayed for two years (1586-1588), lecturing. Upon departure, Bruno gave a warm speech of praise to Luther.
In 1588, 40-year-old Bruno moved to Prague, where his literary activity concentrated on writings on the topic of magic, especially his work “ De magia naturali", where he counts nine different forms of magic (1/ magic of the sages; 2/ medico-alchemical; 3/ magical; 4/ natural; 5/ mathematical or occult; 6/ demonic; 7/ necromantic; 8/ destructive-malignant; 9 / prophetic).
In 1589 he was already in Helmstedt, and in 1590 he came to Frankfurt am Main, where he published his works and received a substantial fee. However, in 1591 Bruno was forced to hastily leave Frankfurt.
In 1591, Bruno accepted an invitation from the young Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo to teach the art of memory and moved to Venice. However, Bruno and Mocenigo's relationship soon deteriorated. On May 23, 1592, Mocenigo sent his first denunciation against Bruno to the Venetian Inquisitor, in which he wrote:
I, Giovanni Mocenigo, report out of obligation of conscience and by order of my confessor that I heard many times from Giordano Bruno when I talked with him in my house that the world is eternal and there are infinite worlds... that Christ performed imaginary miracles and was a magician, that Christ was dying not of his own free will and, as far as he could, tried to avoid death; that there is no retribution for sins; that souls created by nature pass from one living being to another. He talked about his intention to become the founder of a new sect called “new philosophy.” He said that the Virgin Mary could not give birth; monks disgrace the world; that they are all donkeys; that we have no proof whether our faith has merit before God.
On May 25 and May 26, 1592, Mocenigo sent new denunciations against Bruno, after which the philosopher was arrested and imprisoned. On September 17, a demand was received from Rome to Venice to extradite Bruno for his trial in Rome. The social influence of the accused, the number and nature of the heresies of which he was suspected, were so great that the Venetian Inquisition did not dare to complete this process itself. According to A. Steckli, the extradition of Bruno was the result of the political relations between Venice and Rome, which came into conflict over the issue of "fuorushiti".
On February 27, 1593, Bruno was transported to Rome. He spent six years in Roman prisons, refusing to admit that his natural philosophical and metaphysical beliefs were a mistake. On January 20, 1600, Pope Clement VIII approved the decision of the congregation and decided to transfer Brother Giordano into the hands of secular authorities.
On February 9, the Inquisitorial Tribunal, with its verdict, recognized Bruno “ an unrepentant, stubborn and unyielding heretic" Bruno was deprived of the priesthood and excommunicated from the church. He was handed over to the court of the governor of Rome, ordering him to be subjected to “punishment without shedding of blood,” which meant the requirement to be burned alive. In response to the verdict, Bruno told the judges: “You probably pronounce a verdict on me with more fear than I listen to it,” and repeated several times: “Burn does not mean refute!”
The death sentence that has come down to us does not mention the heliocentric system or science in general.
By decision of a secular court, on February 17, 1600, Bruno was burned in Rome on the Square of Flowers (Italian: Campo dei Fiori). The executioners brought Bruno to the place of execution with a gag in his mouth, tied him to a post in the center of the fire with an iron chain and tied him with a wet rope, which, under the influence of the fire, contracted and cut into the body. Bruno's last words were: " I die a martyr voluntarily and know that my soul will ascend to heaven with its last breath».
All works of Giordano Bruno were listed in 1603 in the Catholic Index of Prohibited Books and were there until its last edition in 1948.
On June 9, 1889, a monument was inaugurated in Rome on the very Square of the Flowers where the Inquisition executed him about 300 years ago. The opening ceremony turned into a noisy anti-papal demonstration. The statue depicts Bruno in full height. Below on the pedestal there is an inscription: “ Giordano Bruno - from the century he foresaw, on the spot where the bonfire was lit».
On the 400th anniversary of Bruno's death (2000), Cardinal Angelo Sodano called Bruno's execution a "sad episode", but, nevertheless, pointed to the correctness of the actions of the inquisitors, who, in his words, "did everything possible to save his life." The head of the Roman Catholic Church also refused to consider the issue of his rehabilitation, considering the actions of the inquisitors justified.
In his works, Bruno often referred to the name of Hermes Trismegistus. The idea of Bruno as a Hermeticist and "Renaissance magician" is contained in Frances Yates's Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964). In later studies, this thesis was criticized, although a certain influence of Hermeticism on Bruno is not denied.
He wrote books on mnemonic techniques, “On the Shadows of Ideas” (1584) and “The Song of Circe,” which, according to researchers of Bruno’s work, have their roots in Hermeticism.
Developing the heliocentric theory of Copernicus and the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa, Bruno expressed a number of guesses: about the absence of material celestial spheres, about the boundlessness of the Universe, about the fact that stars are distant suns around which planets revolve, about the existence of planets unknown in his time within our solar systems. Responding to opponents of the heliocentric system, Bruno gave a number of physical arguments in favor of the fact that the movement of the Earth does not affect the course of experiments on its surface, also refuting arguments against the heliocentric system based on the Catholic interpretation of Holy Scripture. Contrary to the prevailing opinions at that time, he believed that comets were celestial bodies, and not vapors in the earth's atmosphere. Bruno rejected medieval ideas about the opposition between Earth and heaven, asserting the physical homogeneity of the world (the doctrine of the 5 elements that make up all bodies - earth, water, fire, air and ether). He suggested the possibility of life on other planets. When refuting the arguments of opponents of heliocentrism, Bruno used the theory of impetus.
Bruno's thinking intricately combined a mystical and natural-scientific understanding of the world. According to a number of authors, the enthusiasm with which Giordano Bruno welcomed the discoveries of Copernicus was explained by his confidence that the heliocentric theory was fraught with deep religious and magical meaning (during his stay in England, Bruno preached the need for a return to the magical religion of Egypt in that form , as it is set out in the treatise “Asclepius”.). Bruno calls Copernicus “the dawn that must precede the sunrise of true ancient philosophy.”
Thus, the German philologist and historian of science L. Olschki writes in 1922:
He lectured on the teachings of Copernicus throughout Europe, and in his hands Copernicanism became part of the Hermetic tradition... Bruno turned mathematical synthesis into a religious doctrine, viewed the universe in the same terms as did Raymond Lull, Ficino and Pico, that is, as a magical universe . The philosopher's task was to take advantage of the invisible forces that permeate the universe, and Trismegistus held the key to these forces.
Mircea Eliade believes that some of Giordano Bruno's feeling of superiority over Copernicus was caused by his belief that the latter, being a mathematician, did not understand his own theory, while Bruno himself was able to decipher Copernicus's diagram as a hieroglyph of divine secrets.
Confirmation of this opinion is sometimes seen in the words of Bruno himself:
The Nolanian replied that he did not look through the eyes of Copernicus or Ptolemy, but with his own. These mathematicians are like intermediaries, translating words from one language to another; but then others get the meaning, not themselves. They are like those simple people who inform the absent commander about the form in which the battle took place and what its result was, but they themselves do not understand the deeds, reasons and art, thanks to which these ones won... To Him (Copernicus) we owe liberation from certain false assumptions of general vulgar philosophy, not to say from blindness. However, he did not go far from it, since, knowing mathematics more than nature, he could not go so deep and penetrate into the latter as to destroy the roots of difficulties and false principles, thereby completely resolving all opposing difficulties, and would have saved himself and others from many useless studies and would fix attention on permanent and definite matters.
A number of other historians of science disagree with the view that Bruno's cosmology was hermetic. At the same time, it is indicated that he gave purely physical arguments in support of the idea of the Earth's movement, used heliocentrism to explain the observed phenomena, that his cosmology in many respects radically contradicts Hermetic ideas and is based not only on theological, but also astronomical and logical arguments, that Copernicanism is completely did not become part of the Hermetic tradition. According to this view, Bruno's heliocentrism was a physical and not a religious doctrine, although it was part of his general philosophical doctrine. These authors believe that Bruno’s claim to Copernicus was not due to the fact that he did not establish a connection between heliocentrism and Hermeticism, but that the Polish scientist did not understand that the heliocentric system implies the absence of the need for the sphere of fixed stars, and also left in his theory epicycles and deferents. A number of arguments of supporters of the Hermetic interpretation of Bruno's cosmology were criticized in later studies. The great influence of his ideas about the infinity of space and the relativity of motion on the further development of physics is indicated.
Cosmological issues (mainly his doctrine of the plurality of worlds) were repeatedly discussed during the inquisitorial investigation of Bruno, especially towards the end of the trial. Despite the fact that at the time of the trial the heliocentric system had not yet been officially prohibited by the Inquisition, the Inquisitorial tribunal pointed out to Bruno that the theory of the movement of the Earth contradicted the literal reading of the Holy Scriptures. There are different points of view on how Bruno's cosmological ideas influenced the course of the Inquisitorial investigation. Some researchers believe that they played a minor role in it, and the accusations were mainly on issues of church doctrine and theological issues, others believe that Bruno's intransigence in some of these issues played a significant role in his condemnation. The text of the verdict against Bruno that has reached us states that he is charged with eight heretical provisions, but only one provision is given, the contents of the remaining seven are not disclosed. At present, it is impossible to establish with complete certainty the content of these seven provisions of the guilty verdict and answer the question whether Bruno’s cosmological views were included there.
As a poet, Bruno belonged to the adherents of literary humanism. In his works of art - the anti-clerical satirical poem “Noah’s Ark”, philosophical sonnets, the comedy “The Candlestick” (1582, Russian translation 1940) - Bruno breaks with the canons of “learned comedy” and creates a free dramatic form that allows him to realistically depict the life and customs of the Neapolitan street . Bruno ridicules pedantry and superstition, and with caustic sarcasm attacks the stupid and hypocritical immorality that the Catholic reaction brought with it.
To date, the only source from which a significant proportion of Bruno’s works is known is the “Moscow Codex”, or “Norov Codex”, named after the prominent Russian statesman and bibliophile A. S. Norov, who acquired the manuscript for his collection and subsequently donated it to the Rumyantsev Museum. He has preserved to this day the philosopher’s priceless autographic sketches and works. Only very recently, a thorough scientific study of the Moscow manuscript was finally used as the basis for the complete collected works of Bruno, published by the authoritative Parisian publishing house Les Belles Lettres.
Giordano lived and worked in London for a long time, and also worked as a typesetter in Oxford for two years, and could communicate with people close to W. Shakespeare, or with the playwright himself. This is reflected in two of the latter’s works: “The Tempest” (Prospero’s speeches) and “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”
Jack Lindsay in the novel "Adam of the New World" ( Adam of a New World) (1936, Russian translation 1940) and Alexander Volkov in the novel “Wanderings” (1963) described the life of D. Bruno.
A number of musical works are dedicated to Bruno, in particular, the song “Heretic” by the group “Legion”.
The film “Giordano Bruno” was made about Bruno in Italy ( Giordano Bruno, 1973), and in the USSR (Kyiv Film Studio) in 1955 - the film “The Bonfire of Immortality” (in the role of Giordano Bruno - Vladimir Druzhnikov).
In 1988, composer Laura Quint wrote the rock opera Giordano. Starring Valery Leontyev.
In 2013, the Canadian punk band Crusades released the album Perhaps You Deliver this Judgment with Greater Fear than I Receive It, dedicated to the life of Giordano Bruno, with his image on the cover.
One of the lunar craters was named in honor of Giordano Bruno.
The poet Ivan Bunin dedicated a poem of the same name to Giordano Bruno.
Name: Giordano Bruno (born Filippo Bruno)
State: Italy
Field of activity: Philosophy, astronomy
Greatest Achievement: Outstanding thinker of the Renaissance. He was burned at the stake by the Great Inquisition for his views.
The late Middle Ages gave the world many talented scientists, writers, philosophers, thinkers, architects and other cultural and artistic figures. Unfortunately, it must be admitted that in those days science did not have such wide recognition - the Roman Catholic Church did everything to ensure that the correct ideas in the world did not reach the broad masses.
Probably, from their point of view, illiterate people were easier to manage. However, in all centuries there were those who were not afraid to resist the oppression of the church and continued to defend their point of view. For most daredevils, such courage ended sadly - in death. And not just in his bed, but at the stake - as apostates and heretics. Those who were weaker in spirit admitted their mistakes, and the church mercifully released them. Some remained true to their views to the end. One of these heroes is the Italian scientist Giordano Bruno. It will be discussed below.
The future philosopher and scientist was born into a military family and a peasant woman in the town of Nola near Naples in 1548.
The exact date of birth of the boy is unknown. At baptism the child received the name Filippo. Almost nothing is known about Bruno's early years. At the age of 11 he was sent to Naples for training. In those days, schools as such in our modern understanding did not yet exist; children were sent to monasteries to study. There, in addition to the usual subjects - literature, Latin, ethics - they also taught church subjects (perhaps in this way the church tried to attract as many people as possible to its side, not only parishioners, but also future ministers).
It is known that at the age of 15, Filippo moved to continue his studies at the monastery of St. Dominic. Studying here attracted the young man so much that after 2 years he decided to say goodbye to worldly life and become a monk. It was then that Filippo Bruno ceased to exist for the world - the Dominican monk Giordano Bruno was born. This happened in 1565.
Gradually Giordano begins his journey as a Catholic priest. In 1572, in the city of Campania (from the commune of the same name), he held his first mass. But if only everything were so smooth! In those days, there was fierce competition between the clergy for power, influence over cardinals and getting closer to the Pope.
There was a rumor that the newly minted monk read forbidden literature in his monastery cell at night (this then included almost all books that contradicted the church’s ideas about human development, both mentally and physically). And the rumor spread because the young priest’s sermons were full of free and bold statements addressed to the papal throne. Of course, Giordano could not continue working in Italy (especially in such a situation).
First he went to Rome, then moved to the north of the country, and then completely left the territory of his homeland - he moved to Switzerland. Looking ahead, we note that from 1574 for 17 years he did not return to Italy - he was received in European countries - France, England, Germany.
In Geneva, Giordano becomes a university student, however, even here they begin to suspect him of heresy - already local Christians - Calvinists. Therefore, Bruno did not stay in Switzerland for long - he moved to France, where he was accepted twice. In 1580, the monk moved to Toulouse in the south of France, where he became a teacher of philosophy and gave lectures. Giordano was engaged in this activity for almost two years.
Then his path lay to Paris, where Bruno began teaching at the Sorbonne, one of the oldest and elite educational institutions. The king patronized the fugitive Italian, but Giordano himself did not want a quiet life. Disputes began again with local priests, forcing Bruno to leave the capital of France. In parting, King Henry III gave him letters of recommendation so that the talented philosopher could find another job. Soon Giordano swam across the English Channel and ended up in England.
It should be noted that in those days the astronomer’s idea of the central place of the sun in our system was attacked and distrusted. Giordano tried his best to prove that Copernicus was right. During the two years that he lived in England - London and Oxford - from 1583 to 1585 - he failed to convince either scientists or priests that he was right.
Arguments begin with university teachers - no one liked the free philosophical ideas, the monk’s written treatises, denouncing the Catholic (and not only) church, which prevents the human mind from developing. Bruno is forced to leave the English coast.
In 1585, Giordano returned to France, but could not find work in the teaching field - apparently, the Dominican’s too frivolous views affected him. A year later, Giordano moved to Germany, where he also received job refusals. Some time later, the university in the town of Marburg offers Bruno a teaching position, but even here the monk’s luck runs out and he is soon dismissed.
In 1586, the Dominican traveled around Germany giving lectures, then moved to Prague, where he also gave a course of lectures and published his treatises. Rome, meanwhile, is closely watching the rebellious monk, waiting for some mistake to be made. And it didn’t take long for it to happen. In 1591, the Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Monecigo offers Bruno a position as a private teacher in mnemonics - the art of memory. Giordano travels to Italy, unaware that he has set foot on a dangerous path. After all, he did not give up his views. Soon the first denunciations against Bruno appeared on the table of the ruler of Venice - the Doge. He was soon arrested and transported to Rome.
In 1593, Giordano Bruno was sent to a Roman prison, where he spent 6 years. All these years, the church unsuccessfully tried to force the monk to renounce his heretical views and stop. In the end, realizing that this was absolutely useless, Pope Clement VIII transferred the matter into the hands of the Inquisition - the most terrible weapon of the Middle Ages. In February 1600, the inquisitors convicted him of heresy and apostasy. Giordano was deprived of his priesthood and sentenced to “bloodless death” - that is, burning at the stake. On February 17, the scientist was executed in Rome at Campo dei Fiori.
It is difficult to say now, after so many centuries, whether Giordano really died for his beliefs, or were there some other motives of the church behind the death of the monk? We will never know. But his works continue to live, proving that Bruno was right - the sun does not revolve around the earth, but quite the opposite. As Copernicus said.
>> Giordano Bruno
Short biography:
Date of Birth: 1548
Education: Naples Convent School
Place of Birth: Nola, Kingdom of Naples
A place of death: Rome, Papal States
- Italian philosopher, monk and scientist: biography with photos, main ideas, views and teachings, how Copernicus saw the Universe, the trial, why he was burned.
Of all the Italian scientists and philosophers of that era, he is most worthy of the title of predecessor and founder of modern sciences.
The birthplace of Giordano Bruno is the town of Nola, which is located near Naples. He was born in 1548, his father was a simple soldier, the exact date of birth of the scientist is unknown. After graduating from the Naples convent school, Bruno entered the Dominican order and became a priest in 1572.
There he begins to study science, give lectures, and in 1576 he is accused of heresy and forced to flee to Rome, and then leave Italy altogether. Then Bruno continues to travel from one city to another and give his lectures, as well as write his various works. During his travels, the scientist was received in the courts of the monarchs Elizabeth and Henry III.
In 1592, the Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo invited Bruno to Venice, ostensibly to give his lectures, but when the scientist arrived in the city, Mocenigo reported him to the Inquisition. Bruno was arrested and put on trial. The investigation was carried out first by the Venetian authorities, then, in 1593, the scientist was extradited and transported to Rome. At Bruno’s trial, they faced many charges, including blasphemy, immorality, criticism of a number of theological dogmas, and a number of his cosmological and philosophical theories were also declared heresy.
Pope Clement VIII ordered Bruno to admit his main ideas were false, but the scientist refused to do this, and for this on February 17, 1600 he was executed by burning at the stake in Rome's Campo di Fiore square.
Among his many works, Bruno also wrote one comedy, treatises, dialogues and poems, in Italian and Latin. In the work “On the Cause, the Beginning and the One,” written in 1584, Bruno outlined his main teaching.
In the work “On Infinity, the Universe and Worlds” of 1584, his cosmological theory was outlined, in which it was stated that the Universe is unlimited and that there are many worlds, stars and planets.
What is Giordano Bruno famous for?
What did Giordano Bruno do?
The main discoveries of Giordano Bruno influenced the development of astronomy and philosophy.
Giordano Bruno became the first scientist to express the idea of the infinity of the Universe.
That is why the Italian scientist believed that not only the Sun or the Earth, but also not a single cosmic body, could be its center.
The scientist also suggested the idea of the existence of a large number of other stars and planets that are not visible to people.
