Scientists recently found an unpublished article by Winston Churchill. In it, he talks about exoplanets and the high probability of the appearance of living beings in other star systems. In 1939 and 2017, the scientifically grounded belief in aliens only aroused admiration, but 417 years ago it led to the stake. In February 1600, Giordano Bruno was executed. Someone considers him a martyr of science, who died for his loyalty to the new astronomy of Copernicus, someone - a magician and pagan, far from rational thinking. But what exactly was Giordano Bruno burned for? Life understands previously unknown evidence and documents of the Inquisition.
Secrets of the Vatican
For some, Bruno is a great martyr of science, who gave his life for the idea of the Earth's movement, for others, an admirer of magic and hermeticism, a pagan who abandoned his monastic vocation and Christianity in general. The latter point of view is now generally accepted, including in Russia. "The legend of Bruno's persecution for his bold ideas of endless worlds and the movement of the Earth can no longer be considered true," wrote the main authority on early European science, Frances Yates. The deification of the world, the denial of the creation of the world by God and the redemptive mission of Christ, as well as magical practices - this is what is considered the main "fault" of the heretic philosopher.
The desire to expose the myth of Bruno as a martyr of science (and the Inquisition as the unconditional enemy of scientists!) Is true and commendable. But recently, historians have finally hit the trail of several secret documents from the time of the burning of Bruno and came to the conclusion that the main reason for his execution was something else - not science or magic. Only in 1925 did the prefect of the Vatican's Secret Archives find out that Bruno's inquisition file had been found 37 years ago, but then Pope Leo XIII ordered the case to be handed over to him personally and hid the documents. It took another 15 years to find the folders, and only during the Second World War the case was published. Then it became clear for the first time that Bruno's greatest "heresy" was the idea of a multitude of inhabited worlds in the Universe - a very relevant question for the 21st century!
Reincarnation on the Moon
But what is this idea and why is the Catholic Church so hostile to it? To understand this, the author of the latest investigation into the execution of Giordano Bruno suggests recalling ancient philosophy and religion.
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The existence of an infinite set of worlds was still admitted by Democritus and Epicurus - many lands, moons and suns. The heroes of Plutarch's dialogue "On the face visible on the disc of the Moon" argued whether there are plants, trees and animals on the Moon, or whether it represents an afterlife where the souls of people find peace after death (just as their bodies are buried on Earth). However, Cicero and Pliny, among others, considered this nonsense. They were joined by the first church fathers, for whom many worlds were not an abstract philosophical truth, but an attribute of pagan beliefs - for example, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. So, the Pythagoreans taught that the souls of people come from the region of the Milky Way, and animals - from the stars (and that heavenly bodies also have souls).
As Christian orthodoxy was established in the 4th-6th centuries, disputes about the uniqueness of the world (that is, the Earth) or the multitude of worlds flared up with renewed vigor. Athanasius of Alexandria insisted that the world is one, because God is one. To think otherwise was ungodly, absurd and dishonorable, but not yet heretical. The trouble happened because of the great theologian Origen, some of whose thoughts the church rejected - just the thoughts about the transmigration of souls between different countries and worlds. And the final formulation was given by Saint Isidore of Seville (VI century), who listed the main heresies in his encyclopedia. At the end of the list of Christian heresies, before the pagan heresies, he noted: “There are other heresies that do not have a founder and a recognized name … someone thinks that the souls of people fall into demons or animals; others argue about the state of the world; someone thinks that the number of worlds is infinite."
The position of the church in the Middle Ages can be seen in the example of Rupert of Deutz (13th century). Praising God, who created a world full of beautiful creatures, he writes: “Let the heretics-Epicureans, who speak of many worlds, and all who lie about the transfer of the souls of the dead to other bodies, perish. Pythagoras, according to their invention, became a peacock, then Quintus Ennius, and after five incarnations - Virgil. The idea of many worlds was also rejected by Thomas Aquinas, the chief theologian of the Latin Middle Ages. Yes, the power of God is unlimited, and, therefore, he can create an infinite number of worlds (Giordano Bruno will then resort to this argument):
“But against it is said (John 1:10): The world through Him began to be, where the world is spoken of in the singular, as if there were only one world. I answer: it should be said that the very order that exists in things, so created by God, is the oneness of the world. In fact, this world is called one because of the unity of the order, according to which each [thing] is ordered in relation to the other. But everything that is from God has order both among itself and in relation to God Himself … Therefore, it is necessary that everything belongs to one world. And therefore, the plurality of worlds could be admitted only by those who considered as the cause of the world not some ordering wisdom, but a case: for example, Democritus, who argued that this world, as well as an infinite number of other [worlds],arose as a result of a random combination of atoms "(Summa Theology, Volume 1, Question 47, Section 3).
Living Earth, living stars
But in fact, the difference between heresies (dangerous false doctrines) and controversial, dubious ideas at the organizational level took shape much later - when the Catholic Church began to defend itself against the Reformation, which “torn off” half of Europe from it. The heretics had to renounce their views or be executed, the erring ones got off with mild censure. At the same time, the index of forbidden books and the system of courts of the Inquisition arose.
The heresy about the many worlds received its serial number (77 according to the list of Augustine). In the new code of church law (1582), created by Pope Gregory XIII, there is a special paragraph: "There are other heresies, unnamed, among which … belief in an infinite number of worlds." The same wording was found in the Directorium Inquisitorum.
And at this moment, Giordano Bruno appears on the stage: inspired by Copernicus's works on the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, he turned to ancient cosmological texts, primarily Pythagorean ones. There he read that the stars are also worlds, the universe is infinite, and the souls of people are reborn - including animals - and included these ideas in his occult system.
For example, in his book "On Infinity, the Universe and the Worlds" (1584), Bruno argued that the omnipotence of God allows him to create not one, but one hundred thousand - even an infinite number of worlds. Despite the heat, the stars can be inhabited by plants and animals, which grow due to the cooling effect of neighboring celestial bodies (similar to how living things on Earth develop due to the heat of the Sun). All stars are living and thinking beings. An analogue of blood flows through their internal holes. Bruno quoted Epicurus, Lucretius and wrote about the infinite universe and in other works printed in Protestant countries - beyond the reach of the Inquisition.
The art of memory as a fatal mistake
But Bruno made a mistake that cost him his life: he went to teach the art of memory to the Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo, who in 1592 wrote a complaint against him to the local Inquisition:
“I, Giovanni Mocenigo, report out of my debt of conscience and by order of my confessor that I have heard many times from Giordano Bruno when I talked to him in my home that the world is eternal and there are endless worlds … that Christ performed imaginary miracles and was a magician, that Christ did not die of his own free will and tried to avoid death as much as he could; that there is no retribution for sins; that souls, created by nature, pass from one living being to another. He talked about his intention to become the founder of a new sect called New Philosophy. He said that the Virgin Mary could not give birth; monks disgrace the world; that they are all donkeys; that we have no proof that our faith has merit before God."
The church considered these accusations serious enough to transfer the case to Rome. The proceedings dragged on for seven and a half years - primarily because the inquisitors were not at all eager to destroy Bruno (who, by the way, was a Dominican priest who became a Calvinist, but also fled from Protestants). Therefore, it is extremely important which of the accusations the philosopher rejected and in which he persisted. For example, Bruno angrily denied that he had ever rejected belief in miracles performed by the church and the apostles, or that he taught something contrary to the Catholic faith.
On the contrary, the idea of many worlds created by the almighty God (worlds the same as the Earth), the idea of the infinite space of the Universe, Bruno ardently defended in the face of his accusers during many interrogations - not considering these ideas heretical! For Bruno, these were philosophical ideas that did not challenge the truth of faith in any way. In part, he had reason to think so: the Inquisition treated philosophers relatively softly. So, a certain Girolamo Borri was arrested for a year (for teaching about the mortality of the soul and keeping forbidden books), but then he was released; Francesco Patrizi was interrogated by the church authorities and released, even allowed to teach Platonic philosophy at the University of Rome.
However, the inquisitors considered Giordano Bruno not a philosopher, but a Catholic monk who renounced his faith, and treated him more severely. Having studied his works, on January 14, 1599, they presented a list of eight heretical statements (it has not survived to this day) and demanded that they renounce. Bruno refused. In April and December, they again turned to Bruno - and he again declared, "that he has nothing to repent of." After the last attempt at enlightenment (January 20, 1600), his works were banned, and the thinker himself was condemned as a heretic who persisted in his delusions.
A dangerous philosophy
So, the statement about the many worlds, as opposed to doubts about the sacrament, the virgin birth, or the divine-human nature of Jesus Christ, is found in all the charges brought against Giordano Bruno. And he never gave it up, as all the witnesses say. By the way, a curious confirmation of the seriousness of this accusation is a letter from the imperial envoy in Rome, Johann Wackler, to astronomer Kepler. “On Thursday, Giordano Bruno was adopted into the family of Baron Atoms. When the fire flared up, an icon of Christ crucified was brought to his face for a kiss, but he turned away from her, frowning. Now, I think, he will tell the endless worlds … how things are in ours."
And the final indication of the seriousness of this idea is the statistics of executions carried out in Rome from 1598 to 1604 (it was conducted by members of the brotherhood of St. John the Beheadless, who accompanied the executed on their last journey). A total of 189 people were killed: 169 of them were hanged, 18 quartered or beheaded after severe torture, and only two were burned alive - such a punishment was considered the most painful. So, according to recently discovered documents, only heretics were burned - Bruno and a certain Father Celestino from Verona. But even more remarkable is that this Capuchin monk believed "in many suns"! According to modern scholars, this fact proves the fear of the Roman Inquisition of this heresy.
So, despite the tendency of modern historians of science to look at Giordano Bruno as an occultist, esotericist and a fan of magic (for which there are very good reasons), he died as a martyr of his cosmological views. However, the conflict between Bruno and the Inquisition was not a conflict between science and religion - rather, between philosophy and religion.
The Church did not treat Bruno cruelly just because he gave up his dignity and faith. The reason is that in his views the inquisitors and cardinals saw not glimpses of a new science, but the resurrection of ancient pagan beliefs. Thoughts about the rotation of the Earth were "fastened" by Bruno to the Pythagorean postulates about its animation. The philosopher combined the idea of a multitude of worlds inhabited by living beings like ours with the belief that souls of people enter these beings after death … It was the connection with beliefs that radically erode the Christian picture of the world that sent the philosopher to the stake.
Anna Polonskaya