Burned Alive: Bruno, Galileo and the Inquisition

by Alberto A. Martinez

  Our teachers in scholastic theology are to follow the doctrine

  of St Thomas. Only those who are well disposed toward St

  Thomas are to be promoted to chairs of theology. Those who

  poorly understand him, or who are not in sympathy with

  him, are to be relieved of the office of teaching.

  Their rules also warned that professors of theology ‘should not

  commit themselves or their students to any philosophical sect’.18

  So what did Thomas say about Pythagorean beliefs?

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  From 1265 to 1274 Thomas Aquinas worked on his Summa

  Theologica. Among many topics he mentioned Pythagoras. Thomas

  complained that Pythagoras construed the number ‘one’ as a kind

  of undivided being, and since numbers are composed of units,

  Pythagoras believed that numbers were the substance underlying

  all things. 19 It seems that Thomas was echoing Aristotle, who had argued that the Pythagoreans construed numbers as the origin of

  all things. Yet Thomas attributed this notion to Pythagoras himself.

  Thomas also denied the notion that there exist multiple worlds.

  Like Hippolytus, he attributed this false claim to those who did not

  acknowledge the ordering wisdom of God. Thomas declared: ‘Those

  who posit many worlds do not believe in any ordaining wisdom, but

  in chance, as Democritus, who said that this world and infinitely

  many others came from a concourse of atoms. ’20

  Citing Aristotle’s On the Soul, Thomas denied the claim that

  the human soul can pass from body to body. Aristotle had said that

  the Pythagoreans were wrong about the transmigration of souls, yet

  Thomas attributed this doctrine to Pythagoras himself. In an article on ‘Whether the Fire of Hell is Underground’, Thomas noted: Pythagoras truly posited the place of punishment in the

  sphere of fire, which he said is in the middle of the whole

  world: and he called it the prison of Jupiter, as Aristotle

  relates ( On the Heavens and World ii). However, it is more in

  keeping with Scripture to say that it is beneath the earth.21

  Again, Aquinas repeated the habit of attributing to Pythagoras

  beliefs of some so­called Pythagoreans.

  Despite the great fame of the wise men of ancient Greece, for

  many Christians they could never compare to the Church Fathers,

  the saints, or the most pious clergymen. This was because the

  Greek philosophers seemed to be essentially ignorant of the most

  important theological truths and had indulged their misguided

  imaginations. For example, in Dante’s Inferno, completed after about

  1315, he named Orpheus, Democritus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras,

  Plato, Ovid and Virgil among the inhabitants of ‘the first circle of

  Hell’. Dante did not mention the mystic Pythagoras, although he

  fits well in such company. In a separate work, which was published

  posthumously, Dante wrote: ‘Pythagoras and his followers said that

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  this world was one of the stars.’ But Dante insisted that the ‘glorious’

  Aristotle had refuted this opinion as false.22

  Over the centuries Christian critiques against Pythagoras

  were supplemented by critiques against his advocates. Apollonius

  of Tyana, the reputed prognosticator and exorcist, was repeatedly

  denounced for allegedly performing exorcisms and resurrecting a

  man and a dead bride. Niceforo Callistos and Pico della Mirandola

  argued against divination and denounced Apollonius for practising demonic magic to imitate Christ’s miracles. Porphyry, who advocated for belief in many gods, had celebrated Pythagoras as a

  moral and divine superhuman, more eminent than anyone. In one

  of his earliest works Porphyry had claimed that the Sun god Apollo

  ‘exposed the incurable corruption of the Christians, saying that the

  Jews, rather than the Christians, recognized God’.23

  But the Catholic Church did not always oppose pagan culture.

  In the 1330s the Italian poet Petrarch initiated a revival of interest

  in the ancient classical cultures of Greece and Rome. He realized

  that instead of studying only heavenly or worldly things, one should

  thoughtfully contemplate humans themselves. He argued, compellingly, that the secular study of human nature was compatible with an authentic Christian relationship with God. Petrarch’s works inspired

  many Christian intellectuals to participate in what became known as

  Renaissance humanism. Hence the Church and its adherents sought

  ways to incorporate certain aspects of ancient Greek philoso phy into

  Christian culture, and even into theology. It was not easy, because

  often the ancient pagan ideas were clearly in conflict with Christian

  dogma as traditionally construed.

  Eventual y humanist culture came to dominate the stil fundamentally Christian countries and kingdoms of Europe. In this new intellectual climate, trials of heresy became progressively milder,

  and discussion and debate on religious and philosophical topics

  became more tolerated. By the 1480s the works by the Catholic

  priest Marsilio Ficino, especially his translations and commentaries

  of works by Plato and the legendary ‘Hermes Trismegistus’, greatly

  influenced humanists and the Catholic Church. Ficino even used

  the philosophy of the Pythagoreans and Plato to try to elucidate and

  refine biblical doctrines and Christian theology.

  However, the situation changed dramatically by the 1520s.

  Following the efforts of Luther and Calvin to reform Christianity

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  in northern Europe, the Roman Catholic Church became increasingly intolerant of unorthodox beliefs. In 1520 Pope Leo x issued his papal bull against Martin Luther. The Pope condemned the heret ical

  writings of Luther as ‘blinded in mind by the father of lies’ – the

  Devil. The Pope denounced Luther by saying ‘a new Porphyry has

  arisen.’ This shows Porphyry’s extremely inimical role for Christians

  at the start of the Protestant Reformation.

  Meanwhile, in 1510 a 37­year­old Nicolaus Copernik became

  a canon of the cathedral chapter of Frombork (Frauenburg) in

  Poland. Privately, he drafted a manuscript, Commentariolus, on

  the theory that the Sun, planets and stars do not circle the Earth.

  Instead, Copernicus argued that the Sun is at the centre of planetary

  motions, that the Earth is a planet. Some of his friends, including

  the Cardinal of Capua and the Bishop of Culm, encouraged him

  to publish, but he resisted. Why? He did not publish his theory

  until more than three decades later, when he prepared to print De

  Revolutionibus. He dedicated the book to Pope Paul iii, telling the

  Pope that it was good to ‘follow the example of the Pythagoreans

  and certain others, who used to transmit philosophy’s secrets only

  to kinsmen and friends, not in writing but by word of mouth, as is

  shown by Lysis’ letter to Hipparchus’. In this preface, Copernicus

  also took the opportunity to criticize those who stupidly argued

  about mathematical topics without understanding them. In this

  connection, he briefly criticized Lactantius, an ancient Christian

  authority, noting that although he was a celebrated writer, h
e was

  not a mathematician. Copernicus complained that Lactantius spoke

  in a childish way about the shape of the Earth, in saying that it is

  ‘ridiculous’ that its shape is spherical. 24

  In the ancient works of Cicero and ‘Plutarch’ (the Placita philosophorum), Copernicus found reference to various Pythagoreans, including Philolaus, who claimed that the Earth spins or moves. 25

  The Placita stated: ‘Some insist that the Earth is immovable; but

  Philolaus the Pythagorean says that it moves circularly around the

  central fire, in an oblique circle like the Sun.’

  Copernicus also discussed the allegedly divine significance of the

  Sun. He noted that Plato had argued that to become godlike one

  must know the Sun, the Moon and the heavenly bodies. Copernicus

  added that some people called the Sun the ruler of the universe,

  that ‘Trismegistus called it a visible god, and Sophocles’ Electra, the

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  all­seeing. Thus indeed, as though seated on a royal throne, the Sun

  governs the family of planets revolving around it. ’26

  Copernicus was so impressed by the Pythagoreans that he had

  planned to include the ancient Pythagorean letter from Lysis to

  Hipparchus in De Revolutionibus. Copernicus translated it from the

  Greek and included it in a draft, but for some reason he deleted

  it before the book was printed, though it was later found in his

  manuscripts. There, Lysis allegedly wrote:

  I would never have believed that after Pythagoras’ death his

  followers’ brotherhood would be dissolved. But now that

  we have unexpectedly been scattered hither and yon, as if

  our ship had been wrecked, it is still an act of piety to recall

  his godlike teachings and refrain from communicating the

  treasures of Philosophy to those who have not even dreamed

  about the purification of the soul. For it is indecent to divulge

  to everybody what we achieved with such great effort, just

  as the Eleusinian goddesses’ secrets27 may not be revealed to the uninitiated. The perpetrators of either of these misdeeds

  would be condemned as equally wicked and impious . . . That

  godlike man prepared the lovers of philosophy . . . divine and

  human doctrines were promulgated by him.

  This letter would have ended Book 1 of his De Revolutionibus. The

  life of Copernicus concluded with the end of his secrecy: he died in

  1543 just hours after he received a copy of his printed book.

  To understand originality it is common to compare innovators

  to their predecessors. Long before Copernicus some astronomers

  such as Aristarchus had argued that the Earth circles the Sun. But

  Copernicus hardly knew about the theory of Aristarchus, since its

  main account came to light in 1544, months after Copernicus died,

  when The Sand­reckoner by Archimedes was first printed in Europe.

  Copernicus had vaguely heard about it, since he mentioned it very

  briefly in a manuscript: ‘Philolaus believed in the mobility of the

  Earth and some say that Aristarchus of Samos was of that opinion. ’28 But Copernicus did not specify this in his book; he omitted the sentence along with his translation of the ‘Letter from Lysis’.

  Another account had appeared in 1440 when the German theologian Nicholas of Cusa had argued that the Earth moves and ‘is 24

  The Crimes of Giordano Bruno

  not the centre of the world’. But he did not say that the Earth orbits

  the Sun, just that the Earth is a star and moves the least of all the

  heavenly bodies, as it orbits a centre that is essentially God. He also

  spoke of the inhabitants of Earth and the stars:

  It cannot be said that this place of the world is inhabited by

  men & animals and vegetables that in degree are more ignoble

  than the inhabitants of the region of the Sun & other stars.

  For although God is the centre & the circumference of all

  the stellar regions, & although from Him there arise in each

  region inhabitants of diverse natural nobility, so that not all

  the celestial & stellar places are empty, & that perhaps lesser

  beings do not inhabit this Earth alone; still, given the intellectual nature that inhabits this Earth & its region, it does not seem that, according to the order of nature, there could be

  a more noble or more perfect nature, even if there are other

  kinds of inhabitants in the other stars: man does not desire

  another nature, except only perfection in his own [nature]. 29

  In contradistinction, Copernicus voiced no such discussions about

  the inhabitants of other stars or planets. In 1484 Nicholas of Cusa

  became a cardinal, yet his arguments about the Earth’s subtle motion

  did not convince or grab the attention of astronomers. The substantive, mathematical work of Copernicus, however, generated plenty of attention. More than Nicholas of Cusa’s theory, that of Copernicus

  seemed to resemble the ancient Pythagorean claim that the Earth

  orbits a central fire, if at least one misconstrued that central fire as

  the Sun. Indeed, what educated readers widely knew, thanks to the

  famous Aristotle, was that some Pythagoreans wrongly said that

  the Earth moves. Hence Copernicus seemed to revive or refine the

  theory of the Pythagoreans.

  Still, it is inappropriate to call Copernicus a Pythagorean because

  the beliefs that he explicitly shared with them, at least overtly, were

  few. 30 Yet it seems that he practised their secrecy as he painstakingly developed the theory that he attributed to them. And in writing,

  by explicitly referring to the Pythagoreans, he effectively connected

  the new and radical astronomy to the legendary pagan cult. In turn,

  the critics and admirers of Copernicus both linked his theory to the

  Pythagoreans.

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  In 1542 Pope Paul iii established the Supreme Sacred Congregation

  of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. Its official function was ‘to

  maintain and defend the integrity of the faith and to examine and

  proscribe errors and false doctrines’. It served as the final court of

  appeal in trials of heresy.

  Soon after Copernicus died – that is, promptly after his book

  was printed – the main censor in Rome decided to condemn the

  book. His name was Bartolomeo Spina and as Master of the Sacred

  Palace, chief theologian for the Pope, it was among his duties to

  sanction the printing of all religious books, and to censure heretical

  publications.

  We know about his objections only because, at the time, the

  Dominican friar Giovanni Maria Tolosani specified in a manuscript

  that Master Spina had intended to condemn the work of Copernicus

  but was impeded by illness. Tolosani criticized Copernicus’s book

  at length, for idiotically disregarding Aristotle’s critiques of the

  Pythagoreans and for contradicting the Bible. Tolosani rejected

  ‘the false imagination’ of the Pythagoreans for having said that ‘the

  Earth, existing as one of the stars’, circles around a central fire. Friar

  Tolosani warned:

  the contrived Pythagorean opinion has long deserved to be

  extinct yet once again it rises though directly contrary to

  human reason and against the sacred writings, from w
hich

  easily there can arise quarrels between the Catholic expositors of divine Scripture and those whose obstinate mind adheres to false opinions. This small work of ours has been

  written to prevent such a scandal from happening.31

  But Tolosani’s manuscript, dated 1546, remained unpublished, and his

  friend Spina died that year. Other important deliberations occupied

  the clergy, especially the Council of Trent, which transpired from

  1545 to 1563. With it, the Catholic Church reintroduced the medieval

  persecution of heresies in a severe but highly bureaucratic way.

  In the late 1550s the Roman Catholic Church also established

  the Index of Forbidden Books, to either prohibit or censure offensive

  works in order to prevent the spread of heresies, including Protestant

  beliefs. The precise definition of heresy became a subject of debate

  after the Council of Trent had led to the systematic establishment

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  of the Inquisitional courts and the Index of Forbidden Books.

  Officially proclaimed heresies justified the death penalty; erroneous or distasteful opinions instead usually concluded by requiring that the culprit voice an abjuration. Nevertheless, there was an initial

  period in which the Inquisitors themselves tried to carry out a policy

  that favoured toleration and peaceful persuasion. However, as ever

  more Protestants abandoned Catholicism, the Popes at the Vatican

  enacted increasingly severe measures of punishment, including the

  death penalty.

  By the 1590s and early 1600s various officials of the Catholic

  Church became increasingly hostile to pagan beliefs, just as they

  rejected Protestant beliefs. In that period cardinals and consultors

  of the Roman Inquisition as well as members of the Congregation

  of the Index of Forbidden Books examined and denounced various Pythagorean beliefs. Such developments echoed the previous conflict in which early Church Fathers, from roughly 150 to 550 ce,

  criticized and denounced Pythagorean beliefs as false and heretical.

  Once again, prominent Christians criticized the infectious speculations of philosophers. Pythagoras appeared in books on astrology, divination and demonology. But soon Galileo’s telescopic discoveries seemed to suggest that maybe, just maybe, Pythagoras was right: there were landscapes on the Moon; it was another world.

  The trials of Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei were caused