He had been in Rome three times – as a young man seeking aid and as a mature man looking for forgiveness. This last, almost seven-year stay, he spent in prison. However, he devoted many of his thoughts and treatises to this city – the religious center of Catholicism. We know he was a pragmatic, many times during his numerous trips around Europe he renounced his blasphemous views for his own good and safety. He was also an uncompromising man not bereft of self-love, possessing a sharp critical sense and a fervent desire to understand the world, philosophy and religion in their broad spectrum. For a child whose parents were not part of the then elites, but whose father was just a soldier (serving in the Spanish army), the best method to achieve such goals was a career in the Church. In 1565, the seventeen-year-old Filippo joined the Dominican Order in Naples where he took on the name Giordano. A few years later he came into conflict with his supervisors due to criticizing the fundamental dogmas of faith. The young monk, took down all images of saints from the walls in his cell, leaving only the cross, refused to read the lives of saints, ridiculed the cult of relics, questioned the immaculate conception and cult of the Virgin Mary. Despite all that, he became a doctor of the philosophical sciences and besides the basic text, which at the time for the clergy were the works of Aristotle, he also read Erasmus of Rotterdam and other books criticizing the Greek philosopher. Giordano went down this path, fully understanding, that such musings are a risk of death. Most likely in 1572 he made his first trip to the Eternal City and perhaps it was then, at the court of Cardinal Scipione Rebbi, that he turned his attention to mnemonics. When in 1575 he participated in a dispute concerning Arianism, he revealed his doubts about the Holy Trinity – the fundamental dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, coming somewhat closer to the Christian branches which have for centuries been considered heretical. Then his youthful defiance, of which he was suspected previously, began to be treated seriously, while the Naples organ of the Inquisition started to carefully analyze his dissenting behavior. Not waiting too long, Giordano left the order and went to the State of the Church, counting on support in Rome. He stayed in a Dominican monastery at the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, however, he quickly realized that the Roman friars also do not understand his beliefs and treat them as unacceptable. In 1576 he discarded the robes of a monk, which for him most likely meant no longer having to be loyal to the Church and believing he could preach anything, what his anxious and creative mind discovers, so he set off on a journey, counting on support for his more and more clear views. In Toulouse, where he came in 1580, for two years he lectured in philosophy and astronomy, then finding himself at the court of the French King Henry III, interested in his methods of mnemonics (“magical memory”) – a method which allowed to increase the range and longevity of memory. He devoted one of his treatises to this issue (De umbris idearum).  His stay at the French court also led to his writing of a comedy Candelaio and an opera Cantus Circaeus, in which he criticized the corruption of the contemporary world and the Church. When religious unrest increased in France, in 1583 he went to Anglican England, where he found opportunities to further his work, this time on a work inspired by a treatise of Copernicus and his heliocentric vision of the universe (De l’infinito universe e mondi). In it he agreed with Copernicus, who claimed that the Earth revolves around the Sun, but going further he predicted that it also did not constitute the center of the universe since – as he claimed – it is infinite, has no center, beginning or end. It is boundless in the temporal and spatial dimension, while its harmony is guaranteed by the existence of God, of whom it is a reflection. Assuming that God is infinite in his perfection, a world which is his reflection, Bruno perceived as equally perfect, which led him to identify God with nature (Pantheism). Bruno did not forget to criticize the Bible as a source of truth about the natural world, questioning the Genesis, the Last Judgement, the Apocalypse, expulsion from paradise, and all things which have for centuries been the foundation of the teachings of the Church. If that was not enough, he claimed that since a personification of God does not exist, Christ his son also does not exist, and neither does Mary – Mother of God.

Lectures at Oxford gave him self-confidence, but also more enemies among the university elites there, which resulted in his return to the continent in 1585, where for the next six years he traveled through the cities of the Holy Roman Empire and France, everywhere finding more enemies than allies. At that time his fascination with magic, kabbalah and astrology began.

Many of Giordano Bruno’s concepts were ahead of the then accepted point of view, both in the ideological dimension as well as the scientific interpretation of reality. He was a declared opponent of interference of religion into the world of science, as well as the right of universality of one religion leading to the “rape of the local deities of various countries”. He claimed that “whoever wants to think, should be able to move away from accepting anything as faith”. His judgements were based on speculation and a unbridled imagination, as well as the reading of texts of ancient authors, including those discarded by the Church. He was, at the same time radical and uncompromising. He did postulate tolerance, openness to discussion and exchange of ideas, since that is required – as he believed – by scientific cognition, however he discouraged his adversaries with unceremoniousness, acrimony and rudeness as well as a ridicule of all criticism of his own views, which in the then world were more than preposterous. He put Biblical stories on equal footing with Greek myths, he took away not only Christ’s divinity but called him a mage – charlatan using miracles, “a man worthy of scorn, despicable and uneducated”, the prophets on the other hand he perceived as epileptics. It should come as no surprise that among Protestants his claims were not listened to. Criticism of the Roman Catholic Church which was welcomed, was an entirely different matter than questioning the message of the Bible, or spreading views that all religions serve their representatives to attain domination over the uneducated masses. Back at the beginning of his European journey in Geneva (1578-1579), he was first imprisoned, then exiled and excommunicated by the Calvinists. The same happened, ten years later in Helmstedt, where Lutherans also cut themselves off from his theories. They were simply incompatible with the time period in which he lived. They brought down the order of the world and were unacceptable not only by representatives of different branches of Christianity, but also by the then intellectual elites, who had to take into account the authority of religious institutions. They were so revolutionary, that no sane man, even if within the confines of his home thought the same as Bruno, would ever publically say so, while open support for the views of the philosopher was out of the question.

Perhaps tired with the constant rejection and thus unaware of the danger, or perhaps too self-confident, in 1591 Giordano Bruno accepted a proposal which was to definitely change his life. He always dreamed of an academic career, he hoped that he would become the head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Padua. When this did not occur it, he accepted the invitation of a Venetian patrician, Giovanni Moceni, who was fascinated with his views and texts, and who wished for Bruno to introduce him to the art of effective memorization. Half a year later, the host bound his guest and denounced him to the Venetian Inquisition, accusing him of heresy. After a six-month stay in a Venetian prison, it was decided to transfer the prisoner to Rome and hand him over to the Roman Inquisition. It must be admitted that its activities, over which Robert Bellarmin presided, the very same who would several years later handle the case of Galileo, were marked with inquisitiveness and not bereft of a dose of good will. A thorough investigation was conducted, witnesses testified, documents were gathered, Bruno’s texts scattered all over Europe were studied, and his smaller and greater transgressions were analyzed, while still offering him an opportunity to renounce his views. For him, it meant a total eight years of imprisonment, spent on inactivity and the hope that he would be able to appear in front of Pope Clement VIII, to  share his views and convince him of his innocence. During the interrogations, he also attempted to present his views, which the Inquisition considered heretical, as purely philosophical concepts, which did little to convince Bellarmin, who demanded that he admit his errors and renounce them. Initially Bruno even agreed, and was willing to renounce some of them, but not all – he continued to preach the existence of “numerous worlds”, human nature of Christ and the negation of the Last Judgement. The effect of such an approach was the correction of the eight, so-called articles, meaning evidence of the fault of the defiant Dominican. The sentence was ready, however Bruno still had the opportunity to renounce all his views. On Christmas of 1599 he received paper inkwell and a quill, however he did not fill these with an act of repentance. It seemed that the New Year would bring imminent death, however the wait continued. It was not until 8 February that the sentence was pronounced. Bruno was excommunicated, as were his texts, which as heretical were condemned to be burned. The execution still did not come about. In subsequent days he was visited by monks from numerous congregations (Dominicans, Jesuits, Hieronymites) encouraging him to give up in his resistance and renounce his theses. However, their words fell on deaf ears. Finally, as a warning to all heretics, he was publically burned at the Campo de’ Fiori Square, while his ashes were thrown into the Tiber.

However, that is not the end of the pilgrimage of Giordano Bruno across Rome. The next stage was to take place in the XIX century during the period of Risorgimento, when the philosopher’s texts were discovered anew and their anti-clerical message was used in the open battle against the pope and the State of the Church. And it was this fact, more than the views of the erudite, which decided that for many generations of the secular elites he became both a hero and a martyr of free thinking. As early as 1849, during the time of the Roman Republic, a statue in his honor was erected, only to be destroyed after its downfall. The next monument, which was a real slap in the face of the Church, was created with the efforts of the secular Italian and European elites and was put up on Campo de’ Fiori in 1889 (Statue of Giordano Bruno).

On the four-hundredth anniversary of the heretic’s death, Pope John Paul II recognized the act of burning Giordano Bruno as an injustice, however the monk was not rehabilitated. The requests for forgiveness even today reach the ears of another pope, Francis, even from within the ranks of the Dominicans themselves (Frei Betto), but it does not seem that in the face of such iconoclastic theories the Church would be willing to take such a step. But, perhaps this is not yet the end of the story of the Dominican from Nola.