The Pope and the Heretic by Michael White

Author:Michael White
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-01-28T23:12:44+00:00

And as Bruno concluded the recounting of this part of his story, his words trailed off into a heavy silence. The room had grown dark around him as his tale had unfolded, candles had been lit, and now shadows flickered across the faces of all around him. Bruno looked at Father Giovanni Gabrielle, at Laurentio Priuli, then across to Ludovico Taberna and Aloysio Fuscari, the assessor, before turning to the gathered observers and witnesses. Father Gabrielle, his face expressionless, rose, and his voice, resonating with power and authority, ordered everyone present to swear silence before he adjourned the trial until the following day. Bruno, exhausted, his face drawn and lined, was returned to his cell.

That evening Bruno received his first visit from one of the Venetian confraternities that took food and provisions to prisons. The best-known was the Fraterne, but two others also worked hard for prisoners, the Scuole and the Corporazioni delle Arti. These were charitable organizations whose members made personal visits, tended wounds, fed prisoners, and left blankets and medicines. The state felt little obligation to do more than incarcerate those on trial; its only real concern was to prevent escape, and, aside from the aid provided by the confraternities, prisoners relied on help from friends and relatives. Bruno was probably well cared for because he had wealthy and influential associates, but he was also a famous antiestablishment figure who would undoubtedly have been treated especially harshly by the authorities and the cutthroat guards of the prison.25

Also that evening, no more than fifty yards from Bruno’s dark cell, his judges met in private to discuss, over fine food and free-flowing wine, the problem prisoner whose fate lay in their hands. They were clearly troubled. Gabrielle and Priuli were certainly growing concerned for their position. Rome was desperate for this man, and having heard Bruno’s tale, they could understand why. But as Venetians they could not simply hand the man over to the pope, as such a move would attract criticism from many quarters. Venetian patriots would accuse them of weakness, those inclined to religious tolerance would claim they were stoking the fires of prejudice, and the lawyers might even suggest such a move was illegal. But they were also good Catholics, men who despised heresy. This man Giordano Bruno was obviously dangerous. At the very least they needed more information from him and from others; Mocenigo, they realized, must be forced to provide a third statement immediately. Then, when the court was returned, they must each plumb the depths of this vile individual Bruno, whose sordid views they would expose; they would reveal the limits of his depravity so that no one could doubt what they must do next.

“Bruno believes,” Mocenigo claimed in his third report to the Venetian Inquisition, “the Church manifests violence, not love toward heretics. The world could not remain in ignorance and without good religion. Truly the Catholic religion was more acceptable to him than others; but all needed much reform on itself, for it could not continue to corrupt.

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