Scientists who suffered for their beliefs. School encyclopedia

Probably every schoolchild, when asked why the Inquisition dealt with Giordano Bruno, will answer this way: in the 17th century. the young scientist was burned at the stake because he was a supporter of the Copernican heliocentric system, that is, he argued that the Earth revolves around the Sun. In fact, in this widespread myth, only one thing is true: Giordano Bruno was really burned by the Inquisition in 1600. Everything else requires clarification.

Firstly, Bruno could hardly be called young. In a surviving engraving from the 19th century. Nolanets (place of birth – Italian city Nola) really looks young, but at the time of his execution he was 52 years old, which at that time was considered a very advanced age. Secondly, he can hardly be called a scientist. Giordano Bruno was a wandering Dominican monk and philosopher who traveled all over Europe, taught at many universities (from where he was often expelled with scandal for heretical opinions), and defended two dissertations.

Perhaps, several centuries earlier, he could have been called a scientist, but in his time, hypotheses in scientific works required mathematical confirmation. Bruno's works were executed in a figurative, poetic form, and not in the form of scientific treatises. He wrote more than 30 works in which he argued that the Universe is limitless and infinite, that the stars are distant suns around which planets revolve, that there are other inhabited worlds, etc. Copernicus's heliocentric system only complemented his religious and philosophical concepts. Bruno didn't study scientific research in the sense in which Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and other scientists studied them.

Bruno Nolanets considered himself primarily a religious preacher who intended to reform religion. Contrary to the popular version, according to which the scientist opposed the church and clergy, he was not an atheist, and this dispute was not a conflict between science and religion. Despite the radicalism of his opinions, Giordano Bruno remained a believer, although he believed that the religion of his day had many shortcomings. He opposed the fundamental tenets of Christianity - about immaculate conception, the divinity of Christ, etc.

A denunciation written by a Venetian aristocrat against his teacher of mnemonics (the art of memorization), Bruno Nolanza, in 1592, reported his heretical views, “ 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... that theological bickering must be stopped and the incomes of the monks should be taken away, for they are a disgrace to the world" The fundamental ones for Giordano Bruno were primarily religious and philosophical, rather than scientific, ideas.

The Inquisition's investigation into Bruno's case lasted 8 years, during which they tried to convince him that his heretical statements were full of contradictions. However, the monk did not give up his views, and then the Inquisitorial tribunal declared him “an unrepentant, stubborn and inflexible heretic.” Bruno was defrocked, excommunicated and handed over to the secular authorities. In his guilty verdict there was no mention of the heliocentric system - he was charged with denying the tenets of Christianity. In those days, although Copernicus’ ideas were not supported by the church, their supporters were not persecuted or burned at the stake. But Bruno, in fact, created a new religious and philosophical teaching that threatened to undermine the foundations of Christianity, since it denied the omnipotence of God. Therefore, he was punished as a heretic, and not as a scientist.

In mid-February 1600, the “punishment without shedding of blood” was carried out. Giordano Bruno, who never renounced his views, was burned in Rome. In 1889, a monument was erected on this site with the inscription: “Giordano Bruno - from the century that he foresaw, on the spot where the fire was lit.” And if Galileo was rehabilitated by the church several centuries later, Bruno is still considered an apostate from the faith and a heretic.

Since adherents of the heliocentric system, in addition to Giordano Bruno, were also Galileo Galilei and Copernicus, in the popular consciousness all three of these historical characters often merge into one, which in scientific world They jokingly call Nikolai Brunovich Galilei. The famous phrase “And yet it turns” is attributed to them all in turn, although in fact it was born much later in one of the works on Galileo. But before his death, Bruno, again according to legend, said: “To burn does not mean to refute.”

The Inquisition dealt with not only Bruno Nolanz. .

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 conversation, 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.

I'm making up hypotheses!

As a thinker, Giordano Bruno certainly had an impact big influence for 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 modern knowledge, but also by the standards of science of the 16th century. 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 modern science, Isaac Newton, will 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 internal order 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.

Are God and the Universe “twin brothers”?

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 he was 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 he loses it 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 new era, and expounded in the so-called “Corpus Hermeticum”... In addition, Hermeticism had extensive astrological, alchemical and magical literature, which according to tradition was 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 is that distinguished esoteric-occult teachings from Christian theology... - conviction in the divine - uncreated - essence of man and the belief that there are magical means of purifying man, which 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.

Why were the inquisitors afraid of the verdict?

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 because of fear of torture, but because they were afraid of breaking with church tradition, break with Christ. During the trial, Bruno was not afraid of losing Christ, since this loss in his heart, apparently, happened much earlier...

Story:/ However

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Why was Giordano Bruno burned?

The minority is always wrong - at first!

...The scientist was sentenced to be burned.

When Giordano ascended 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.

...The heretic was executed for his idea,

The fire was burning on the Square of Flowers...

...Then they threatened Galileo with torture...

With science, darkness will not build bridges.

As the Earth turns, he is ready to renounce...

The earth is round, Galileo declared in 1633, but in order to avoid the fate of Giordano Bruno, being burned alive at the stake, he was forced to abandon his teaching and admit that the earth cannot rotate. But, leaving the Inquisition hall, the great scientist uttered his famous phrase:“But still she spins!” Whether it was true or not, the stubborn exclamation has survived the centuries. It now means:“Say what you want, I’m sure I’m right!”

On Orthodox forums there are often topics about the burning of Giordano Bruno, where Christians very passionately and convincingly argue that Bruno was burned “not for science,” but for heresy. Thank you for the fact that the very fact of grief is not denied. And Bruno himself, presumably, did not care what he was formally burned alive for - for science or heresy. Well, they burned and burned, so what...

Needless to say, Christianity strenuously disavows the medieval persecution of science, trying to tear away Bruno’s image as a martyr of science and prove that the entire Holy Inquisition are the nicest, kindest and most intelligent people. In principle, we have almost been convinced that science in the Middle Ages developed solely thanks to the care and patience of the Inquisition. I willingly believe it.

Bruno refused to recognize the main theories of his as false and was sentenced Catholic Church To death penalty, and then burned alive by Christians at the stake in Rome's Campo di Fiore on February 17, 1600. Last words Bruno were:“You probably announced this verdict with more fear than I listened to it... Burning does not mean refute.”

There is such a legend. When Giordano Bruno was being burned in the Piazza des Flowers in Rome, the fire suddenly began to die out: either the wind blew, or the wood became damp. From the crowd of onlookers watching the execution, an old woman, God's dandelion, suddenly rushed to the pyramid of firewood on which Giordano was tied and carefully thrust an armful of dry straw into the dying fire. Remember what Baron Munchausen said in the famous film by Mark Zakharov:“In the end, Galileo also renounced! That's why I always loved Giordano Bruno more..." . And indeed, even under the threat of the death penalty, the medieval thinker remained true to his convictions.

Why did Giordano Bruno so frighten the Catholic Church that, having lost to him in a philosophical dispute, it did not find any other way to fight philosophy and science than to burn its representative? Bruno in his teaching asserted what every person has known for a long time and was even recently recognized by the Vatican, which acquitted Galileo. The Universe is infinite, as is the number of stars in it. The Sun is not a fire lit by the Christian god to revolve around a stationary strip of the Earth and illuminate it, but one of the countless stars, which, like the Earth, rotates in space along its own trajectory. Our Earth is not the only planet in the universe where life exists.

He argued that the same laws apply throughout the universe, and they are based on the material principle. On June 9, 1889, in Rome, in the square of flowers - Campo dei Fiori, where the great scientist Giordano Bruno was burned in 1600, a monument to him was erected. The church made its last justification for the inhumanity of the “holy” Inquisition through the lips of the Jesuit historian Luigi Cicuttini in 1950, who literally said the following:"The manner in which the Church intervened in Bruno's case is justified... the right to intervene is an inherent right, which is not subject to the influence of history" ...Neither subtract nor add.

Notice of the burning of Giordano Bruno.

On Thursday morning, at Campo di Fiore, the Dominican criminal Brother Nolanets, about whom it has already been written before, was burned alive; the most stubborn heretic, who at his own will created various dogmas against our faith and, in particular, against the Most Holy Virgin and the saints, stubbornly wanted to die, remaining a criminal, and said that he was dying as a martyr and voluntarily, and knew that his soul would ascend along with the smoke to Correct. But now he will see whether he was telling the truth.

...No, people have not forgotten that fire

At the turn of the Renaissance.

And three centuries have not passed since then -

Became a monument to Bruno for his torment.

In monastic granite vestments

He looks at Rome from the Square of Flowers...

Heirs of the "seditious" teaching

They follow him in understanding the world.

The path to other Universes is open, to other worlds...

Why did the State Duma speaker “burn” Copernicus, for Galileo’s statement?

“But still she spins!” - “Say what you want, I’m sure I’m right!”

“The boyars in the Duma speak according to what is not written, so that everyone’s stupidity can be seen.” - Peter the First.

State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov demonstrated his scholarship “without a piece of paper” in an online interview. Speaking on May 28, 2010 at the press center of Gazeta.Ru (the speech was broadcast on the Internet), he, in particular, touched upon issues of pseudoscience. Speaking about this, the speaker said the following phrase:“These are the Middle Ages! So, Copernicus was burned at the stake because he said, “Still, the Earth rotates!”

Let us recall that Nicolaus Copernicus lived peacefully to the age of 70 and died of a stroke. Phrase“But still the Earth rotates!” attributed to Galileo Galilei, who also died in his bed. And the scientist philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned.“To burn does not mean to refute.”

So in the future we shouldn’t be too surprised if tomorrow our parliamentary “stargazer”, who, by the way, is also the chairman Supreme Council party "United Russia", will declare that the constellation Ursa Major is named so exclusively in honor of his favorite party, and the corporation MP ROC "United Ecumenical Religion" and other religions in Rus' cannot exist...

“The term “pseudoscience” goes back to the Middle Ages. We can remember Copernicus, who was burned because he said “But the Earth still rotates”…” The author of this fantastic quote where three are mixed up different people- politician Boris Gryzlov.

In fact, Galileo Galilei was persecuted for heliocentrism (the idea that the center of our planetary system is the Sun). The great astronomer was forced to renounce his views, but the phrases “But still it spins!” he did not say - this is a late legend. Nicolaus Copernicus, who lived earlier, the founder of heliocentrism and a Catholic clergyman, also died a natural death (his doctrine was officially condemned only 73 years later). But Giordano Bruno was burned on February 17, 1600 in Rome on charges of heresy.

There are many myths surrounding this name. The most common of them sounds something like this: “The cruel Catholic Church burned a progressive thinker, scientist, follower of Copernicus’s ideas that the Universe is infinite and the Earth revolves around the Sun.”

Back in 1892, a biographical essay by Julius Antonovsky “Giordano Bruno. His life and philosophical activity." This is a real “life of a saint” of the Renaissance. It turns out that the first miracle happened to Bruno in infancy - a snake crawled into his cradle, but the boy scared his father with a cry, and he killed the creature. Further more. Since childhood, the hero has been distinguished by outstanding abilities in many areas, fearlessly argues with opponents and defeats them with the help of scientific arguments. As a very young man, he gained all-European fame and, in the prime of his life, fearlessly died in the flames of a fire.

A beautiful legend about a martyr of science who died at the hands of medieval barbarians, from the Church, which “has always been against knowledge.” So beautiful that for many the real person ceased to exist, and in his place a mythical character appeared - Nikolai Brunovich Galilei. He lives a separate life, moves from one work to another and convincingly defeats imaginary opponents.

But this has nothing to do with the real person. Giordano Bruno was an irritable, impulsive and explosive man, a Dominican monk, and a scientist more in name than in essence. His “one true passion” turned out to be not science, but magic and the desire to create a single world religion based on ancient Egyptian mythology and medieval Gnostic ideas.

Here, for example, is one of the spells for the goddess Venus, which can be found in the works of Bruno: “Venus is good, beautiful, most beautiful, amiable, benevolent, merciful, sweet, pleasant, shining, starry, Dionea, fragrant, cheerful, Afrogenia, fertile, merciful , generous, beneficent, peaceful, graceful, witty, fiery, the greatest reconciler, the mistress of love” (F. Yeats. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. M.: New Literary Review, 2000).

It is unlikely that these words would be appropriate in the works of a Dominican monk or an astronomer. But they are very reminiscent of the conspiracies that some “white” and “black” magicians still use.

Bruno never considered himself a student or follower of Copernicus and studied astronomy only to the extent that it helped him find “strong witchcraft” (to use an expression from the “goblin translation” of “The Lord of the Rings”). This is how one of the listeners of Bruno’s speech in Oxford (admittedly rather biased) describes what the speaker was talking about: “He decided, among many other questions, to expound the opinion of Copernicus that the earth goes in a circle, and the heavens are at rest; although in fact it was his own head that was spinning and his brain could not calm down” (quote from the above-mentioned work by F. Yeats).

Bruno patted his senior comrade on the shoulder in absentia and said: yes, to Copernicus “we owe liberation from some false assumptions of general vulgar philosophy, if not from blindness.” However, “he was not far from them, 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.” In other words, Copernicus operated with exact sciences and did not seek secret magical knowledge, therefore, from Bruno’s point of view, he was not “advanced” enough.

Many readers of the fiery Giordano could not understand why among his works on the art of memorization or the structure of the world there were some crazy schemes and references to ancient and ancient Egyptian gods. In fact, these were the most important things for Bruno, and the mechanisms of memory training and descriptions of the infinity of the Universe were just a cover. Bruno, no less, called himself the new apostle.

Such views brought the philosopher to the stake. Unfortunately, the full text of Bruno's verdict has not been preserved. From the documents that have reached us and the testimony of contemporaries, it follows that Copernican ideas, which the defendant expressed in his own way, were also among the accusations, but did not make a difference in the inquisitorial investigation.

This investigation lasted eight years. The inquisitors tried to understand in detail the views of the thinker and carefully study his works. All eight years he was persuaded to repent. However, the philosopher refused to admit the accusations made. As a result, the inquisitorial tribunal declared him an “impenitent, stubborn and inflexible heretic.” Bruno was deprived of the priesthood, excommunicated from the church and executed (V.S. Rozhitsyn. Giordano Bruno and the Inquisition. M.: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955).

Of course, imprisoning a person and then burning him at the stake just because he expressed certain views (even false ones) is unacceptable for people of the 21st century. And even in the 17th century, such measures did not add to the popularity of the Catholic Church. However, this tragedy cannot be viewed as a struggle between science and religion. Compared to Giordano Bruno, the medieval scholastics are more reminiscent of modern historians defending traditional chronology from the fantasies of Academician Fomenko, rather than stupid and limited people who fought against advanced scientific thought.

Name: Giordano Bruno

Date of Birth: 1548

Age: 52 years old

Activity: Dominican monk, philosopher, poet, cosmologist

Family status: wasn't married

Giordano Bruno: biography

In February 1600, in the Piazza des Flowers of Rome, the Italian thinker Giordano Bruno was sentenced to death by burning by the Inquisition. Bruno's personality is so ambiguous that his role in world science and philosophy is still debated. Giordano developed a theory about the structure of the Universe, claiming that stars are moving celestial bodies, and the Universe is infinite in time and space. But even with his heliocentric picture of the world, the Inquisition punished him only with arrest. Why was Bruno burned?

The situation is also interesting because over the past few decades the Catholic Church has revised a number of decisions of the Inquisition regarding scientists and philosophers, but Giordano Bruno was not one of them. Moreover, the church supports the decision of the Inquisition. So why did the church ministers dislike Giordano so much? Was it his scientific views or was the reason much deeper?

Childhood and youth

Philip Bruno was born in 1548, in the town of Nola near Naples, in the family of a hired soldier Giovanni and a poor peasant woman. In 1559, the boy went to Naples with the goal of studying the sciences, including dialectics, literature and logic. Four years later, Philip was sent to a monastery, where he spent 10 years. There the boy received a second name, under which he became known to the world - Giordano.

At the monastery, Philip studied in detail Copernicus’s book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres” and spoke out against traditional beliefs and, pointing out their inconsistency with the data of practical observations. At the age of 24, Giordano became a priest and conducted his first service. Based on the bold statements of the young brother Giordano, the clergy suspected him of heresy.

This forced the young monk to go on the run. He left Italian territory in 1574 and wandered throughout Europe for 17 years. Over the years, Bruno visited Switzerland, England, France, and Germany. In 1577, having arrived in Toulouse (France), Bruno lectured on the science and philosophy of Aristotle. Two years later, Giordano, already in Paris, told the public about the works of the philosopher and theologian Lull, whose worldview he himself shared.

But five years later, the former church minister had a conflict with supporters of Aristotle’s teachings and he was forced to leave Paris, going to London. In England, Giordano worked fruitfully and wrote a number of philosophical treatises. In 1586, the thinker left for Germany, but he was forbidden to lecture in Marburg. Then Bruno took up teaching in Wittenberg.

The science

Giordano Bruno wrote philosophical treatises, spoke at debates, gave lectures, but everywhere in the end he was forced to stop promoting his ideas. The dignitary, who later participated in passing the death sentence on the thinker, wrote that Giordano was an outstanding mind, a philosopher of extraordinary knowledge and erudition.

Bruno strongly opposed the Catholic Church and, in general, any religion existing at that time, calling them the most serious obstacle that science would have to overcome on the path of its development. In 1584, his work “On Infinity, the Universe and Worlds” was published.

This work of his is sometimes considered as the basis of modern materialistic natural science, including the doctrine of the material unity of the world and the spatial and temporal infinity of the Universe.

During the same period, the work “Feast on the Ashes” was published, consisting of five dialogues dedicated to the promotion of Copernicus’ astronomical theories. Along with them, the author expresses his ideas about the infinity of the Universe and the plurality of worlds. In this work, for the first time, the belief in oneself as a superman, a messiah, which modern researchers often attribute to the philosopher, manifests itself.

Promoting Copernicus's ideas about the rotation of the Earth and other planets in orbits around the Sun, Bruno did not achieve success even with enlightened minds like and. Disillusioned with the states of central Europe, Bruno went to Prague. Several more books on magic were published there.

In general, Bruno's philosophy was based on Neoplatonism - he believed that there is a certain single beginning that gave continuation to everything in the Universe. But not only the first principle was called God by the thinker, but also nature, and even man - this is something the church could not tolerate.

Today, researchers argue that Bruno’s ideas did not have significant scientific significance, since they only continued the teachings of Copernicus, expanding it, but not supporting it with evidence. All the main ideas and discoveries of Giordano lay in the plane of mysticism or psychology, and not at all astronomy.

However, it is wrong to completely deny the significance of Bruno’s discoveries for modern science: the philosopher was the first to put forward a hypothesis about the movement of continents, the presence of distant planets invisible to humans, etc.

Personal life

ABOUT personal life Bruno knows practically nothing. Giordano was not married, had no children, and the thinker did not even have students or followers. Some biographers make assumptions about the philosopher's homosexual inclinations. However, this is not surprising for the morals of the Middle Ages and, in particular, for church ministers.

The most famous image of Giordano Bruno

In the photographs of surviving portraits, Giordano appears as a fragile young man with a thoughtful expression on his face. This thoughtfulness, passion for science and mysticism replaced the man with the delights of social life and carnal pleasures in the arms of women.

Death

Returning from his travels around Europe back to Italy, Giordano Bruno immediately fell into the hands of the Inquisition. According to a number of biographers, the philosopher could have avoided the death sentence if not for his speeches against monastic profits and estates and demands for their confiscation. Other researchers believe that the thinker’s statements about the plurality of worlds and the infinity of the Universe became the main reason that aroused the wrath of the Inquisition.

But Galileo’s theories clearly contradicted church doctrines, so why did the Inquisition treat him much more gently and tolerantly? According to researchers, the answer to this question lies in the methods used by thinkers. Galileo was a classical scientist who used mathematical tools to develop theories. And Giordano, rather, is a mystic, a thinker who used instead scientific methods magic where arguments were lacking.

A number of biographers say that the execution of Giordano Bruno was the result not so much of a struggle against science and enlightenment, but rather a struggle for power. Bruno was incredibly convincing in his teachings, and his main ideas were the rejection of religion as such, which was quite dangerous freethinking in the Middle Ages. Bruno was arrested after a denunciation from a certain Mocenigo, who accused the philosopher of heresy. The trial lasted six years, which the philosopher spent in captivity in a Roman prison.

A number of researchers believe that the Inquisition made it possible former priest to renounce heresy and stay alive, but he refused. The text of the verdict that the Inquisition passed on the heretic Giordano was lost; it is only known that the guilt was not in scientific theories, but in the blasphemy of a former church minister. It was the threat to church authority that became the main reason for the execution of the rebellious and stubborn philosopher.

The personality of Giordano Bruno is so extraordinary that there are more myths about him than facts from his real biography. This is due to the ambiguous attitude of researchers towards his theories and teachings. And indeed, a number of interesting facts took place in the life of the thinker. Thus, even during his life at the monastery, Brother Giordano expressed doubts about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, horrifying the holy fathers. This fact was later often recalled by the Inquisition during the trial.

Long work in France, despite the rejection of the philosopher’s ideas by local church ministers, this is explained by his phenomenal memory. Henry III drew attention to her and asked to teach him mnemonics. An aristocrat from Venice later made the same request to Bruno, but later it was Mocenigo who wrote a denunciation against his teacher, accusing him of heretical statements.

According to the nobleman, Giordano considered Jesus a magician and argued that his death was accidental and did not atone for the sins of humanity, and that human souls are not immortal in the sense that Christians mean by this concept, but are subject to reincarnation after death physical body.

The sentence ultimately passed on the philosopher was “execution without shedding of blood,” which meant death at the stake. And the works of Giordano Bruno were on the list of literature prohibited by the Catholic Church until the mid-twentieth century.

Now on the Square of Flowers in Rome there is a monument to the thinker who considered himself a martyr. But even the opening of the monument was accompanied by scandal and anti-Catholic demonstrations. Another interesting fact is that, contrary to the wishes of the church, centuries later secular society rehabilitated the philosopher: in 1973 a film of the same name was even released in Italy, and even a crater on the Moon is named after Giordano Bruno.

Bibliography

• 1582 – “On the Shadows of Ideas”
• 1582 – “The Art of Memory”
• 1582 – “Song of Circe”
• 1582 – “On the abbreviated construction and addition of the art of Lull”
• 1583 – “The Art of Remembering”, or “The Art of Remembering”
• 1583 – “Sealing of Seals”
• 1584 – “Feast on the Ashes”
• 1584 – “On the cause, the beginning and the one”
• 1584 – “On infinity, the universe and worlds”
• 1585 – “The Killen Donkey”
• 1586 – “On the interpretation of dreams”
• 1588 – “Theses against mathematicians”
• 1595 – “Code of Metaphysical Terms”