Contra Ecclesiam? - For the moment, just the Sound of Silence...

On February 17, 1600 the "philosopher" - occultist Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake by the SECULAR authorities of Rome after the Roman Inquisition had found him guilty of heresy.

(Note that the Vatican authorised Holy Office of the Inquisition - as opposed to the Spanish Inquisition which was an instrument of the spanish Kings - did NOT by regulation carry out torture and executions. These were left to the secular authorities, because after all it was them that were mostly concerned, as heresy was an affront to the social establishment and power structure)

I had the intention to write a scathing post as an introductory to my series of posts against ecclesiastical errors against humanity and human thought.

However, in the Bruno case, after a lot of thought I found that I didn't have much to write. It is now widely believed and argued that Bruno's condemnation as a heretic had very little to do with his superficial endorsement of the Copernican cosmology and his belief that there are numerous other worlds, most probably inhabitable by sentient life (the two views that would eventually - and rather unfortunately - vindicate the insufferable quack that Bruno was...) :

"Pope Clement VII (r. 1523-1534) had reacted favorably to a talk about Copernicus's theories, rewarding the speaker with a rare manuscript. There is no indication of how Pope Paul III, to whom On the Revolutions was dedicated reacted; however, a trusted advisor, Bartolomeo Spina of Pisa (1474-1546) intended to condemn it but fell ill and died before his plan was carried out. Thus, in 1600 there was no official Catholic position on the Copernican system, and it was certainly not a heresy. When Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was burned at the stake as a heretic, it had nothing to do with his writings in support of Copernican cosmology."

( "Nicolaus Copernicus" entry at the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy )

Indeed, Bruno had adopted a weird animism and reincarnation theory, had become a Calvinist (for the love of God !!! ) and would have ended up warming the bench of a Japanese or American soccer team if he were given such an option in his days; Inconsistent, incoherent and totally disorganised in his thought and methods (After all, he did pass for some time as an "alchemist", at the side of John Dee...)

So, what WILL make me gripe is the way the Catholic Church always overplay their hand, probably because of arrogance and greed and create martyrs out of nobodies. One would have thought that the Reformation had taught them a couple of things...

Anyway enjoy the Simon & Garfunkel song The Sound of Silence by The Masters of Chant , witness what a powerful force Ecclesiastical tradition has been and imagine it unfettered by obsolete dogmatic inhibitions. Almost scary...

PS:

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach to you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence...