On February 17, 1600, according to the verdict of the Inquisition court in Rome, one of the greatest thinkers Renaissance Giordano Bruno. His scientific research on the structure of the Universe was considered heresy, undermining the foundations of faith. In essence, they undermined not faith, but the worldview imposed by the church. And the Inquisition was created so that Catholics would not dare to contradict church dogmas and leave the influence of the Holy See.
Over the six centuries that the Inquisition existed, millions of people found themselves undesirable and were executed or ended their lives in exile. Among them are many epoch-making personalities, whose names will never fade on the pages of history.
Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
The legendary Joan of Arc was a commoner who, at the age of 13, began to see saints in visions. The Hundred Years' War raged, and voices allegedly called on Joan to bow to the heir to the throne, Charles VII, to convince him to attack the British and expel them from French lands.
There was a prophecy that God would send France a savior in the form of a young virgin. Therefore, when Jeanne achieved an audience with the king and, during interrogations, convinced him that she was being sent higher power, the girl was entrusted with command of the troops. In white armor, riding a white horse, Jeanne really looked like an angel, God's messenger. The Maid of Orleans, demonstrating amazing abilities for a young peasant woman, won one victory after another, everyone joined her army more people, inspired by the image of the holy warrior.
In 1430, Jeanne was captured. The British, in order to justify their defeats, accused her of having connections with the devil and handed her over to the Inquisition. The girl was forced to renounce her “delusions,” branded a heretic, and on May 30, 1431, burned at the stake, tied to a pole in the square of Rouen. 25 years later, at the request of Charles VII, who did not lift a finger to save Jeanne, the trial was reviewed and the unfortunate woman was found innocent.
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)
The Neapolitan philosopher Giordano Bruno actively popularized the ideas of Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus, who developed the concept of a heliocentric world system in his works, was persecuted by the church, but still was not condemned. The fate of his follower was more tragic.
Developing the theory of Copernicus, Bruno put forward ideas about the unity of the Universe and the plurality of inhabited worlds. But the Inquisition persecuted him not for his scientific views, but for his criticism of generally accepted ideas about afterlife. Furthermore, he called religion a force that gives rise to wars, strife and vices of society. The churchmen could not forgive this.
In 1592, the Italian was captured and thrown into prison for eight years. They tried to convince him to back down, but Bruno remained true to himself. The court pronounced the death sentence. Having ascended the scaffold, the scientist said: “To burn does not mean to refute! The coming centuries will appreciate and understand me!” Two and a half centuries later, a monument to Giordano Bruno was erected in Campo dei Fiori, where the execution took place.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
The heliocentric system, as we know, was true, so over time many scientists came to it. Including the outstanding Italian physicist, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei. For defending heretical ideas in 1633 he was put on trial.
The process lasted only two months. Galileo was treated relatively carefully due to the fact that he was patronized by Pope Paul V himself. Historians believe that the scientist, as they say, actively cooperated with the investigation and quickly renounced his ideas. Therefore, the legend that after the trial Galileo shouted the sacramental: “And yet she turns!” - is questioned.
Page from the interrogation protocol Galileo Galilei with his signature.
Nevertheless, the physicist was still sentenced to life imprisonment. True, the punishment was soon replaced by house arrest, and Galileo spent the rest of his life under the supervision of the Inquisition.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Unlike Galileo, the poet Dante was a devout fighter for his beliefs. He regularly attended church, respected the ministers, but, as a true humanist, he could not agree with the cruel sentences that the Lord passed on sinners. Among whom, in his opinion, there are many worthy people.
In his great poem “The Divine Comedy,” written in the first person, Dante pities gluttons, pagans, and soothsayers, and sometimes his compassion is so great that he cannot hold back his tears. Naturally, such a condemnation of the divine will could not but irritate the Inquisition. In addition, the description of the journey through purgatory was clean water heresy, because the dogma of purgatory was introduced by the church much later.
Dante was also disliked because he openly criticized the policies of the pope and was an active participant political struggle in Florence. The inquisitors persecuted the poet, and in 1302 he was forced to leave his hometown forever.
Jan Hus (1369-1415)
In the 15th century, an era began in Europe that went down in history as the Reformation - the struggle against catholic church and papal power. One of the first notable figures in this movement was the Czech theologian Jan Hus. He traveled to cities and gave lectures exposing feudal lords and the clergy.
Gradually, Hus's influence on the people's minds became so great that the Pope issued a special bull excommunicating the Czech priest from the church. His sermons were banned, but Hus continued his educational activities.
In 1414 he was summoned to church cathedral in Konstanz, Germany, guaranteeing complete safety. But as soon as the thinker arrived in the city, he was arrested and put in the prison of the Holy Inquisition, where he spent seven months. Even under torture, Hus did not repent, for which he was sentenced to be burned. A fire was built in a nearby square. When the fire had already started, an old woman threw a bundle of brushwood into the fire. “Holy simplicity,” Gus said bitterly.
All the lies about Giordano Bruno June 28th, 2016
We once had a post about whether it really is, and now a little about Giordano Bruno.
Who doesn't know about Jordan Bruno? Well, of course, a young scientist who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition for spreading the teachings of Copernicus. What's wrong here? Except for the fact of his execution in Rome in 1600 - that’s all. Giordano Bruno a) was not young, b) was not a scientist, c) he was not executed for spreading the teachings of Copernicus.
But what was it really like?
Myth 1: young
Giordano Bruno was born in 1548, and in 1600 he was 52 years old. Even today no one would call such a man young, but Europe XVI century, a 50-year-old man was rightfully considered elderly. By the standards of that time, Giordano Bruno lived long life. And she was stormy.
He was born near Naples into a military family. The family was poor, the father received 60 ducats a year (official mediocre– 200-300). Filippo (that was the boy’s name) graduated from school in Naples and dreamed of continuing his education, but the family did not have money for university studies. And Filippo went to the monastery, because the monastery school taught for free. In 1565 he took monastic vows and became Brother Giordano, and in 1575 he set off on a journey.
For 25 years, Bruno traveled all over Europe. Been to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England. Geneva, Toulouse, Sorbonne, Oxford, Cambridge, Marburg, Prague, Wittenberg - he taught in every major European University. Defended 2 doctoral dissertations, wrote and published works. He had a phenomenal memory - contemporaries said that Bruno knew by heart more than 1,000 texts, ranging from the Holy Scriptures to the works of Arab philosophers.
He was not just famous, he was a European celebrity, met with royalty, lived at court French king Henry III, met with Queen of England Elizabeth I and the Pope.
Little does this wise man of life resemble young man, looking at us from the pages of a textbook!
Myth 2: scientist
In the 13th century, Bruno would undoubtedly have been considered a scientist. But at the end of the 16th century, all hypotheses and assumptions already had to be confirmed by mathematical calculations. Bruno does not have any calculations or figures in his works.
He was a philosopher. In his writings (and he left more than 30 of them), Bruno denied the existence celestial spheres, wrote about the boundlessness of the Universe, that the stars are distant suns around which planets revolve. In England, he published his main work, “On Infinity, the Universe and Worlds,” in which he defended the idea of the existence of other inhabited worlds. (Well, it cannot be that God would calm down after creating just one world! Of course there is more!) Even the inquisitors, considering Bruno a heretic, at the same time recognized him as one of “the most outstanding and rare geniuses imaginable.”
His ideas were perceived by some with enthusiasm, others with indignation. Bruno was invited to visit the largest universities in Europe, only to be expelled with a scandal. At the University of Geneva he was recognized as an insulter to the faith, put in a pillory and kept in prison for two weeks. In response, Bruno did not hesitate to openly call his opponents imbeciles, fools, and donkeys, both verbally and in his writings. He was a talented writer (author of comedies, sonnets, poems) and wrote mocking poems about his opponents, which only made more enemies.
It’s simply amazing that with such a character and such a worldview, Giordano Bruno lived to be over 50 years old.
Execution on the Square of Flowers
In 1591, Bruno came to Venice at the invitation of the aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo. Having heard about Giordano Bruno's incredible ability to remember huge amounts of information, Senor Mocenigo was inflamed with a desire to master mnemonics (the art of memory). At that time, many scientists earned money as tutors, Bruno was no exception. A trusting relationship was established between teacher and student, and on May 23, 1592, Mocenigo, as a true son of the Catholic Church, wrote a denunciation against the teacher to the Inquisition.
Bruno spent almost a year in the cellars of the Venetian Inquisition. In February 1593, the philosopher was transported to Rome. For 7 years, Bruno was demanded to renounce his views. On February 9, 1600, he was declared by the Inquisitorial court to be “an unrepentant, stubborn and inflexible heretic.” He was defrocked and excommunicated and handed over to the secular authorities with a recommendation to execute him “without shedding blood,” i.e. burn alive. According to legend, after hearing the verdict, Bruno said: “To burn does not mean to refute.”
On February 17, Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome in a square with the poetic name “Place of Flowers.”
Myth 3: execution for scientific views
Giordano Bruno was executed not at all for his views on the structure of the Universe and not for promoting the teachings of Copernicus. The heliocentric system of the world, in which the Sun was in the center, and not the Earth, was not supported by the church at the end of the 16th century, but it was not denied either; supporters of the teachings of Copernicus were not persecuted and were not dragged to the stake.
Only in 1616, when Bruno had been burned for 16 years, Pope Paul V declared the Copernican model of the world to be contrary to Scripture and the astronomer’s work was included in the so-called. "Index of Banned Books".
The idea of the existence of many worlds in the Universe was not a revelation for the church. “The world that surrounds us and in which we live is not the only possible world and is not the best of worlds. He is just one of an infinite number possible worlds. He is perfect to the extent that God is reflected in him in some way.” This is not Giordano Bruno, this is Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a recognized authority of the Catholic Church, the founder of theology, canonized in 1323.
And the works of Bruno himself were declared heretical only three years after the end of the trial, in 1603! Then why was he declared a heretic and sent to the stake?
The mystery of the verdict
In fact, why the philosopher Bruno was declared a heretic and sent to the stake is unknown. The verdict that reached us says that he was charged with 8 counts, but which ones were not specified. What kind of sins did Bruno have that the Inquisition was even afraid to publicize them before his execution?
From the denunciation of Giovanni Mocenigo: “I report out of conscience and by order of my confessor that I heard many times from Giordano Bruno when I talked with him in his house that the world is eternal and there are infinite worlds... that Christ performed imaginary miracles and was a magician, that Christ he did not die 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.” This is not just a heresy, this is something completely beyond the boundaries of Christianity.
Intelligent, educated, undoubtedly a believer in God (no, he was not an atheist), well-known in theological and secular circles, Giordano Bruno, based on his picture of the world, created a new philosophical teaching that threatened to undermine the foundations of Christianity. For almost 8 years the holy fathers tried to persuade him to renounce his natural philosophical and metaphysical beliefs and were unable to do so. It is difficult to say how justified their fears were, and whether brother Giordano would have become the founder new religion, but they considered it dangerous to release the unbroken Bruno into freedom.
Does all this diminish the scale of Giordano Bruno's personality? Not at all. He truly was a great man of his time, who did a lot to promote advanced scientific ideas. In his treatises, he went much further than Copernicus and Thomas Aquinas, and expanded the boundaries of the world for humanity. And of course he will forever remain a model of fortitude.
Myth 4, last: justified by the church
You can often read in the press that the church admitted its mistake and rehabilitated Bruno and even recognized him as a saint. This is wrong. Until now, Giordano Bruno, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, remains an apostate from the faith and a heretic.
Vladimir Arnold, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and honorary member of a dozen foreign academies, one of the leading mathematicians of the 20th century, when meeting with Pope John Paul II, asked why Bruno has not yet been rehabilitated? Dad replied: “When you find aliens, then we’ll talk.”
Well, the fact that in the Square of Flowers, where the fire broke out on February 17, 1600, a monument to Giordano Bruno was erected in 1889, does not mean at all that the Roman Church is happy about this monument.
Most of our contemporaries remember the name Giordano Bruno from the history textbook for high school. It briefly says: this scientist was recognized as a heretic in the Middle Ages and burned at the stake, because, contrary to the then church dogmas, he, following Copernicus, argued that the Earth is round and revolves around the Sun. But a closer acquaintance with the biography of the great Italian allows us to conclude: he was not executed for his scientific beliefs.Left only the crucifix
One of the most common myths about Bruno is that he passed away in at a young age. This is due to two surviving portraits where he actually looks young. All other images of him were destroyed by decision of the Catholic Church.
But Giordano Bruno was born in 1548 and was 52 years old before his execution. In Europe at that time, such an age was considered advanced. So we can assume that the scientist’s life was long.
At birth, the boy received the name Filippo; he was born in the town of Nola near Naples. His father served as a simple soldier, earning 60 ducats a year (the average city official received (200-300 ducats). Despite the fact that the boy showed himself well in local school, it was clear that due to lack of money, the path to university was closed to him. The only option to continue scientific activity a career as a priest was imagined - since in church institutions they taught for free.
In 1559, when Filippo was 11 years old, his parents sent him to the school at the monastery of St. Dominic, located in Naples. The teenager studied logic, theology, astronomy and many other sciences. In 1565 he was tonsured a monk and began to bear the name Giordano - Italian name sacred river Jordan, in whose waters Jesus was baptized.
Seven years later, Bruno received the priesthood. And then denunciations from other Dominicans began to arrive at the monastery’s leadership. Giordano was accused of reading heretical books, and also of removing all the icons from his cell and leaving only the crucifix there. But the main sin was doubts about the unshakable postulates christian church- for example, in the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The authorities of the monastery began to investigate the activities of the heretic, but Bruno did not wait for the obvious solution and in 1576 fled first to Rome and then abroad.
Stubborn Shakespeare
Another myth is the claim that Giordano Bruno was not a scientist. Modern researchers like to emphasize that his works contain absolutely no mathematical calculations. Yes, he talks about the boundlessness of the Universe and the multiplicity of its planets, but rather as a publicist. And most of his works are comedies and poems. That is, he should be considered not a scientist, but a writer.
However, a long period of travel abroad proves that Giordano Bruno was perceived by the people of his time as a man of science. During his years of wandering around Europe, he taught at major universities - including the Sorbonne and Oxford. Giordano defended two doctoral dissertations. Several of his works are devoted to the development of memory. Bruno himself, thanks to his personal memorization technique, knew by heart more than a thousand books, including the Bible and the works of Arab philosophers.
In 1581, King Henry III of France attended one of Giordano’s lectures, who was literally amazed by the scientist’s memory. The monarch invited him to his court and even gave him a good allowance. But quiet life did not last long - Giordano quarreled with scientists of the French Academy over the works of Aristotle and was forced to say goodbye to hospitable Paris. Henry II! advised him to go to England and gave letters of recommendation for the trip.
In London, Bruno lectured on the truth of Copernicus's ideas, according to which it is not the Earth, but the Sun that is at the center of our planetary system. He held discussions on this matter with the most outstanding people countries - writer William Shakespeare, philosopher Francis Bacon, physicist William Gilbert. Shakespeare and Bacon could not be convinced; they remained faithful to the beliefs of Aristotle and Claudius Ptolemy that the Sun is a planet and revolves around the Earth. But Gilbert not only became imbued with Bruno’s ideas, but also developed them, establishing some physical laws of the heliocentric system.
Here in England, Giordano published his main treatise“On Infinity, the Universe and Worlds”, where he argued that in the vastness of space there must be other inhabited
planets. Among the evidence was the following: God created our world in a week, didn’t he really want to try to do something else during the rest of the time? In total, Bruno wrote more than 30 scientific papers.
Great Heretic
For 16 years, Giordano Bruno traveled around Europe, lecturing at universities and promoting his views. In 1591, he returned to Italy as a personal teacher to the Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo. However, the relationship between teacher and student quickly deteriorated. A year later, Mocenigo wrote the first denunciation against the scientist. In a letter to the Venetian inquisitor, he said that Giordano Bruno is a heretic because he claims that other worlds exist, that Christ did not die of his own free will and tried to avoid death, that human souls, after the death of the body, pass from one living being to another, etc. . The first denunciation was followed by two more. As a result, the scientist was arrested and placed in prison. But Bruno's personality and influence were too large for provincial Venice - and in February 1593 he was transported to Rome, where he was tortured for seven years, forcing him to renounce his views.
Third and main myth about Giordano Bruno: he was executed for advanced scientific ideas - in particular, for the doctrine of the infinity of worlds and heliocentric theory structure of our planetary system. But at the end of the 16th century, similar views were expressed by many. The Inquisition has not yet sentenced the followers of Copernicus to death. death penalty. Only 16 years after Bruno was burned at the stake, Pope Paul V declared that Copernicus's theory contradicted the Holy Scriptures, and only in 1633 was Galileo forced to renounce his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Paradoxical but true: all the works of Giordano Bruno were declared heretical only three years after his death. Then why was he sent to the stake?
Court documents in Rome indicate that Bruno was killed for denying the fundamental tenets of Christianity. The great scientist, in fact, created his own teaching, which threatened to undermine the influence of the Vatican. He called on everyone to doubt the sanctity of church books and argued that it was necessary to completely reconsider many provisions of Catholicism and create a different religion.
For more than seven years, the inquisitors tried through torture and persuasion to persuade Bruno to renounce these views - but they could not break the will of the convinced heretic. And releasing such an authoritative person meant subjecting the Catholic Church to tests in the fight against new religious teachings.
Execute, cannot be pardoned
On February 9, 1600, the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition declared Giordano Bruno “an unrepentant, stubborn and inflexible heretic.” He was deprived of his priesthood and excommunicated from the church. After which the Vatican authorities pretended to withdraw: the sinner was transferred to the court of the governor of Rome with a hypocritical request to impose a “merciful” punishment that does not shed blood. In reality, this meant a painful execution - burning alive at the stake.
The full text of the verdict of the secular court has not been preserved. From the passages that have survived to this day, it is known that it dealt with eight heretical statements - but more or less specifically we can talk about only one: the denial that bread can turn into the body of Christ, that is, the church dogma about holy communion.
According to legend, Giordano, after hearing the verdict, said:
- Burning does not mean disproving!
The execution took place on February 17, 1600 in the Piazza des Flowers in Rome. According to evidence, the verdict was deliberately read out so vaguely that the people did not understand who was being set on fire and for what.
Another myth about the great heretic - as if Roman Catholic Church in our days, she forgave him and condemned the then actions of the Inquisition. But, unlike Galileo, whom Pope John Paul II completely rehabilitated in 1992, Giordano Bruno has still not been acquitted. Moreover, in 2000, when the 400th anniversary of the scientist’s execution was celebrated, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who acted as official representative The Vatican, although it called the actions of the inquisitors a “sad episode,” emphasized that these people did everything to save the heretic’s life. There was no talk of any forgiveness - so for Bruno the death sentence is still considered justified by the Church.
And despite the fact that back in 1889 a monument to Giordano Bruno was erected on the Square of Flowers, the already mentioned John Paul II, famous for his progressive views, meeting with a group of scientists, when asked why Bruno had not yet been rehabilitated, sharply answered:
- When you find aliens, then we’ll talk.
Giordano Bruno. Engraving from 1830 based on an early 18th century original Wellcome Library, London
“...The scientist was sentenced to be burned.
When Giordano went up to the fire,
The Supreme Nuncio in front of him lowered his gaze...
- I see how afraid you are of me,
Not being able to refute science.
But the truth is always stronger than fire!
I don’t renounce and I don’t regret.”
Italy of the Renaissance did not know, perhaps, a figure more large-scale and at the same time complex and contradictory than Giordano Bruno, also known as Bruno Nolan (from his place of birth - Nola, a city in Italy). A Dominican monk, a famous wanderer, one of the most scandalous people of his time, an ardent supporter of the heliocentric system, the creator of a sect called “new philosophy” - all this is one person. Tragic death Nolanza, burned in Rome in 1600, became one of the darkest pages in the history of the Inquisition. Bruno's execution has been repeatedly interpreted as an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop the spread of the Copernican heliocentric system, which Nolanets advocated. Over time it became completely commonplace(see poetic epigraph). Here is a typical passage from school assignments for an 11th grade social studies lesson: “At that time they taught that the Earth is the center of the Universe, and the Sun and all the planets revolve around it. The clergy persecuted everyone who disagreed with this, and especially those who were stubborn were destroyed... Bruno angrily ridiculed the priests and the church, calling on people to penetrate the mysteries of the Earth and the sky... His fame spread to many universities in Europe. But the churchmen did not want to put up with the daring scientist. They found a traitor who pretended to be Bruno's friend and lured him into the trap of the Inquisition."
However, the documents of the inquisitorial trial of Giordano Bruno completely refute this point of view: Nolan died not because of science, but because he denied the fundamental tenets of Christianity.
In 1591, at the invitation of the Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo, Bruno secretly returned to Italy. The reason why he decided to do this remained a mystery for a long time: he had once left Italy due to persecution; appearing in Venice or other cities could have threatened Bruno with serious consequences. Soon Bruno's relationship with Mocenigo, to whom he taught the art of memory, deteriorated. Apparently, the reason was that Bruno decided not to limit himself to teaching one subject, but outlined his own “new philosophy” to Mocenigo. Apparently, this also prompted him to cross the border of Italy: Bruno planned to present a new, harmonious and holistic religious teaching in Rome and other cities of Italy.
By the early 1590s, he increasingly saw himself as a religious preacher and apostle of reformed religion and science. This doctrine was based on extreme Neoplatonism Neoplatonism- current in ancient philosophy, developing from the 3rd century. until the beginning of the 6th century. n. e. While remaining followers of Plato, representatives of this teaching developed their own philosophical concepts. Among the most prominent Neoplatonists are Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, and Damascus. Late Neoplatonism, especially Iamblichus and Proclus, was imbued with magical elements. The legacy of Neoplatonism has had big influence on Christian theology and European culture of the Renaissance . , Pythagoreanism Pythagoreanism- a religious and philosophical doctrine that arose in Ancient Greece and named after its ancestor Pythagoras. It was based on the idea of the harmonious structure of the universe, subject to numerical laws. Pythagoras did not leave a written statement of his teachings. As a result of subsequent interpretations, it acquired a pronounced esoteric character. The Pythagorean magic of number and symbol had a great influence on the Kabbalistic tradition., ancient materialism in the spirit of Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus(c. 99 - c. 55 BC) - author of the famous poem “On the Nature of Things”, follower of Epicurus. An adherent of the philosophy of atomism, according to which sensory objects consist of material, bodily particles - atoms. He rejected death and the afterlife and believed that the matter underlying the universe is eternal and infinite. and Hermetic philosophy Hermetic philosophy- a mystical teaching that arose in the era of Hellenism and late Antiquity. According to legend, Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice greatest”) gave texts containing mystical revelation to his followers and students. The teaching was of a pronounced esoteric nature, combining elements of magic, astrology and alchemy.. At the same time, one thing must not be forgotten: Bruno was never an atheist; Despite the radicalism of the opinions he expressed, he remained a deeply religious man. For Bruno, Copernicanism was by no means a goal, but a convenient and important mathematical tool that made it possible to substantiate and supplement his religious and philosophical concepts. This once again casts doubt on the thesis about Bruno as a “martyr of science.”
Bruno's ambitions probably contributed to his break with Mocenigo: for two months Bruno taught the Venetian aristocrat mnemonics at home, but after he announced his desire to leave Venice, Mocenigo, dissatisfied with teaching, decided to “snitch” on his teacher. In the denunciation that he sent to the Venetian inquisitors, Mocenigo emphasized that Bruno denies the fundamental tenets of Christian doctrine: the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, immaculate conception and others. In total, Mocenigo wrote three denunciations, one after another: May 23, 25 and 29, 1592.
“I, Giovanni Mocenigo, son of the Most Serene Marco Antonio, report, out of conscience and by order of my confessor, that I heard many times from Giordano Bruno Nolanza, when I talked with him in his house, that when Catholics say that bread is transformed into body, then this is a great absurdity; that he is an enemy of mass, that he does not like any religion; that Christ was a deceiver and committed deceptions to seduce the people - and therefore could easily foresee that he would be hanged; that he does not see the difference of persons in the deity and this would mean the imperfection of God; that the world is eternal and there are infinite worlds... that Christ performed imaginary miracles and was a magician, like the apostles, and that he himself would have had the courage to do the same and even much more than them; that Christ did not die 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; that, just as animals are born into depravity, people are born in the same way.
He talked about his intention to become the founder of a new sect called “new philosophy.” He said that the Virgin could not give birth and that our Catholic faith is filled with blasphemies against the greatness of God; that it is necessary to stop theological bickering and take away the income from the monks, for they are a disgrace to the world; that they are all donkeys; that all our opinions are the doctrine of asses; that we have no proof whether our faith has merit before God; that for a virtuous life it is completely enough not to do to others what you do not want for yourself... that he is surprised how God tolerates so many heresies of Catholics.”
The volume of heretical theses was so great that the Venetian inquisitors sent Bruno to Rome. Here, for seven years, leading Roman theologians continued to interrogate Nolanz and, judging by the documents, sought to prove to him that his theses were full of contradictions and inconsistencies. However, Bruno firmly stood his ground - at times he seemed ready to make concessions, but at the last moment he changed his mind. It is quite possible that the reason for this was a sense of his own high mission. One of the cornerstones of the accusation was Bruno's sincere admission that he did not believe in the dogma of the Holy Trinity.
“Did he affirm, did he really recognize, or does he now recognize and believe in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in essence?..
He answered: “Speaking Christianly, according to theology and everything that every true Christian and Catholic should believe, I really doubted the name of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit... for, according to St. Augustine, this term is not ancient, but a new one that arose in his time. I have held this view from the age of eighteen to the present day."From the materials of the investigation of the Venetian Inquisition
After seven years of unsuccessful attempts to convince Bruno, the inquisitorial tribunal declared him a heretic and handed him over to the secular authorities. Bruno, as we know, resolutely refused to repent of heresies, this is, in particular, evidenced by the report of the congregation of inquisitors dated January 20, 1600: “On the instructions of his serene Highnesses, Brother Hippolyte Maria, together with the Procurator General of the Order of Friars Preachers, talked with this brother Giordano, exhorting him to confess to heretical provisions contained in his writings and presented to him during the trial, and renounce them. He did not consent to this, claiming that he had never expressed heretical propositions and that they were maliciously extracted by the servants of the holy service.”
Bruno is not mentioned in the death sentence that has come down to us. heliocentric system and science in general. The only specific accusation is: “You, brother Giordano Bruno... eight years ago were brought before the court of the Holy Office of Venice for declaring the greatest absurdity to say that bread was transformed into the body, etc.”, that is, Bruno was charged with I blame the denial of church dogmas. Mentioned below are "reports... that you were recognized as an atheist while you were in England."
The verdict mentions certain eight heretical provisions in which Bruno persisted, but they are not specified, which gave some historians, including the Soviet school, reason to assume that part of the document detailing the accusations of the Inquisition was lost. However, a letter has been preserved from the Jesuit Kaspar Schoppe, who, apparently, was present at the announcement full sentence and later briefly recounted his position in a letter:
“He taught the most monstrous and senseless things, for example, that the worlds are countless, that the soul moves from one body to another and even to another world, that one soul can be in two bodies, that magic is a good and permitted thing, that the Holy Spirit is nothing other than the soul of the world, and that this is exactly what Moses meant when he said that the waters are subject to him and the world is eternal. Moses performed his miracles through magic and succeeded in it more than the rest of the Egyptians, that Moses invented his laws, that Holy Bible there is a specter that the devil will be saved. From Adam and Eve he derives the genealogy of Jews only. The rest of the people come from the two whom God created the day before. Christ is not God, he was a famous magician... and for this he was deservedly hanged, and not crucified. The prophets and apostles were worthless people, magicians, and many of them were hanged. To express it in one word, he defended every heresy without exception that was ever preached.”
It is not difficult to see that in this retelling (the reliability of which is a matter of separate scientific discussion) the heliocentric system is not mentioned, although the idea of innumerable worlds is mentioned, and the list of heresies that were attributed to Bruno are related specifically to issues of faith.
In mid-February, at Campo dei Fiori in Rome, the “punishment without shedding of blood” was carried out. In 1889, a monument was erected on this site, the inscription on the pedestal of which reads: “Giordano Bruno - from the century that he foresaw, on the spot where the fire was lit.”
Sources
- Yates F. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic tradition.
- Rozhitsyn V. S. Giordano Bruno and the Inquisition.
- Giordano Bruno. Documents. Le procès. Ed. L. Firpo et A.-Ph. Segonds.
Paris, Les belles lettres, 2000.
- L. Firpo. Il processo di Giordano Bruno.
Roma, Salerno, 1993.
- Favole, metafore, story. Seminario su Giordano Bruno, a cura di M. Ciliberto.
Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2007.
- Enciclopedia bruniana e campanelliana, dir. da E. Canone and G. Ernst.
Pisa: Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali, 2006.
- Giordano Bruno. Parole, concetti, immagini, 3 vols, direzione scientifica di M. Ciliberto.
Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2014.
I recently went to Once again came across the phrase “ the contribution of religion to culture was often expressed in the persecution of scientists, in the burning of books and scientists themselves, in the banning of entire teachings and branches of knowledge.” The author did not bother himself with any more detailed accusations - exactly how many scientists were burned by the clergy, for what kind of scientific research, he did not give the names of these people and the circumstances of their execution. For what? After all, everyone educated person knows that churchmen have been burning scientists for centuries, this is part of the great conflict between science and religion, in which science, initially persecuted and exterminated, finally won. This is something that is firmly known to everyone and “proven by science.”
But what happens if we do show a little curiosity and try to clarify the details - for example, the number of scientists burned? How many of them were there, martyrs of science? Hundreds of thousands? Tens of thousands? Thousands? Hundreds? How many victims have the centuries-old cruel struggle between science and religious obscurantism claimed?
Let's try to find out.
Turning to the atheistic literature itself, we find only two candidates for the role of scientists, from the priests who were martyred, burned by the Roman Inquisition, and Miguel Servetus, executed in Calvinist Geneva. Was Giordano Bruno a scientist, much less a great one? This controversial issue, most sources prefer to label him a “philosopher” and a “mystic,” and his surviving works are occult and in no way scientific. But what is indisputable is that the reasons why he was burned had nothing to do with science. No one accused Bruno of any scientific research - the reason for his accusation and execution was his views regarding Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Sacraments, as well as his occult activities. There is nothing good in burning people for any views - but it should be noted that the views for which Bruno suffered were not related to science. Occultists, admirers of Hermes Trismegistus and the secret arts can still count him as their martyr. But he is not in the least degree a martyr of science.
Miguel Servet is indeed a natural scientist and doctor. And they really burned it in Geneva. However, he is not well suited to the role of a victim of the “struggle between science and religion.” Servetus himself was fanatically religious; it was his religion, and not his scientific views, that brought him to the stake. He was condemned because of his book “The Restoration of Christianity” in which he denied the Trinity of God and generally expressed views that were extremely heretical from the point of view of Calvin (and everyone else). Let us say again: burning heretics - or anyone else in general - is bad. But religious false teachers are in no way martyrs of science - they are martyrs of the corresponding religious teachings.
So, do we have an answer to the question “how many scientists were burned by the clergy for their scientific research?” Yes, and very accurate. No one. This is even surprising - in the history of the Church, all sorts of things have happened, there have been villains, there have been fools, there have been political showdowns under religious flags, there have been settling of personal scores under the guise of a struggle for the true faith - but somehow it did not work out with the burning of scientists for science. Somehow it doesn’t work out very well with scientists, tortured clergymen - there are only two candidates, and even those, upon closer examination, did not suffer for science at all.
In "" the Catholic church authorities really forced the great scientist to abandon his scientific views; their position, in a historical context, can be considered partly understandable, although undoubtedly erroneous. But was Galileo burned? No. To what extent did the atrocities of the inquisitors reach in this textbook and culminating case of the confrontation between science and religion? Galileo was sentenced to house arrest, which he spent initially in the palace of his friend, Archbishop Piccolomini in Siena, and then in his homeland, Arcetri.
But have there been large-scale “persecutions of scientists” in history? Was there a “ban on entire teachings and branches of knowledge,” were there scientists who were really tortured for their scientific views? Yes, there were, and relatively recently, not in the dark Middle Ages, but in the twentieth century, not in foreign countries, but in our homeland. Only the persecutors of science were not “religious obscurantists,” but, on the contrary, atheistic obscurantists.
Fields of knowledge such as genetics and cybernetics were banned as “bourgeois pseudosciences,” and scientists were subjected to severe persecution. The outstanding Russian biologist Nikolai Vavilov was accused of “promoting obviously hostile theories... he fought against the theories and works of Lysenko, which are of decisive importance for Agriculture USSR", arrested, tortured and tortured and died in prison. A book on the history of agriculture, written by him in prison, was destroyed by decision of the NKVD of the USSR. Vavilov himself, speaking about the persecution to which he was subjected as a scientist, compared himself with Galileo; however, as we see, his fate under the rule of militant atheists was much more bitter.
Why is the myth about “scientists burned by churchmen” repeated with such persistence? There are a number of reasons for this - intellectual laziness, lack of curiosity, closed-mindedness, stubborn reluctance to recognize facts that contradict once and for all accepted ideas. In a word, inertia and dogmatism, which atheists so love to attribute to believers.
And I want to convert people who talk about “scientists burned by churchmen” not even to faith, but to reason. To intellectual honesty and openness, to a willingness to check facts and reconsider obviously false ideas. To all those virtues without which true science cannot exist.
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