|
Alternative
Religions Research Guides Giordano
Bruno was born Filippo Bruno in 1548, in the small town of Nola,
Italy. He became a Dominican monk in 1659, adopting the name Giordano,
and was educated in Philosophy by the Order. He became a student
of magician Giovani Battista Della Porta, and studied the works of
Plato and Hermes Trismegistus.
Bruno was
a defender of Copernicus, which offended the academic establishment,
which still adhered to the geocentric Aristotlian view of the cosmos.
Bruno's refusal to back down from an idea under even intense pressure
did nohing to help his popularity, and would eventually lead to his
downfall.
Bruno
was not one to back down fromn a fight, however, and his outspoken
opinions got him into trouble on numerous occasions. His constant
criticism of the establishment brought on charges of heresy, which
caused him to flee to the relative safety of Rome. It wasn't long
before trouble followed again, and Bruno fled Rome and abandoned
the Dominican Order. He became something of a wandering philosopher,
attracting powerful friends as well as powerful detractors. Shortly
after traveling to London and befriending Queen Elizabeth, he was
thrown out of the city for defending his unpopular ideas on reincarnation
and the Copernican cosmos. After a failed attempt to reconcile with
the Church, he moved to Germany and flirted briefly with Lutheranism
before they, too, tired of him and excomminicated him.
During
his period of wandering, he published numerous works- including "The
Shadow of Ideas," on the unity of God and the universe, and the
treatise "On
the infinite universe and Worlds," wherein he proposed that
the universe was infinite, and contained an infinite number of
beings. His lectures drew him many admirers and made him many
dangerous enemies, especially within the Church, who despised
nothiung more than a convincing argument against a cherished doctrine.
Bruno's
ideas and oppositional style continued to outrage the authorities,
and his refusal to compromise finally caught up with him. He was
tricked into visiting Venice with a promise of patronage, where agents
of the Inquisition awaited him. He was arrested and tried for heresy.
The charges ranged from rejection of the geocentric universe to denying
the trinity. His trial included periods of torture, during which
he promised to recant hs beliefs. After these efforts produced the
desired results, he was summoned to Rome for yet another trial. There
he was imprisoned for eight years, and finally, after refusing to
recant a second time, was sentenced to be burned at the stake. His
response to the sentence of death constituted his last known words
before an iron spike was driven through his jaw: "It
is with far greater fear that you pronounce, than I receive, this
sentence."
Seven
days later, Bruno turned his eyes from the Crucifix before silently
expiring in the flames.
More
Biographies:
Articles
and Essays on Giordano Bruno:
Images:
Texts/Writings
of Bruno:
Quotes:
"It
is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses
or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does
not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
"There
is one simple Divinity found in all things, everything has Divinity
latent within itself. For she enfolds and imparts herself even unto
the smallest beings. Without her presence nothing would have being,
because she is the essence of the existence of the first unto the last
being."
~The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, 1582
"This
entire globe, this star, not being subject to death, and dissolution
and annihilation being impossible anywhere in Nature, from time to time
renews itself by changing and altering all its parts. There is no absolute
up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but
the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere
there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe,
and the observer is always at the centre of things."
~ On Cause, Principle, and Unity
"In
space there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only
the suns because they give light; the planets remain invisible, for
they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around
their suns, no worse and no less than this globe of ours. For no reasonable
mind can assume that heavenly bodies that may be far more magnificent
than ours would not bear upon them creatures similar or even superior
to those upon our human earth. "
~On
the Infinite Universe and Worlds
More
Giordano Bruno Quotes
Related
Links:
Bibliography/Recommended
Reading:
      
|
| 