Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-19
A STATUE TO GIoROANo BRUNO.
Unveiled at Rome in Honor of One
burned to Death For HcresY.

|
Burned to Death For Heresy.
| For Humanity sweeps onward
! While the hootiug mob of yesterday in silent
awe return
| To CLEAN up the scattered ashes into History's
golden urn
The citizens of Rome viewed yester-
| day for the first time the unveiling of
u statue to an arch hereto on the spot
! where nearly three centuries ago he
was burned to death by order of the in
quisition, says the Chicago Tribune:
1t is enough to make the bodies of all
the dead members OF the holy office
turn in their graves with horror. 1t
has shocked the living ones, and the
erection of the monument was bitterly
opposed from the beginning by the
pope, who considered it scandal
lous in the highest degree.
But the Italian government does
not believe that the church is infallible
now, or that it was so in the days when
it was dealing with Galileo and other
teachers of new doctrines. The idea
of commemorating this great Italian
who met his death in the cause of re-
ligious liberty was conceived by Ital-
ians who, while they may not share his
views, yet wish to recognize his sim
cerity, high -mindedness, and devotion
to what he believed to be the truth.
The statue is the work of Ettori Fer
rari, an eminent sculptor and MEM
ber of the Italian chamber of deputies.
1t is placed in the Campo de Fiori, not
far from the banks of the Tiber, where
Bruno was burned.
GiordanO Bruno was born in 154S in
the Neapolitan city of Nola. His father
was soldier, and perhaps of German
parentage. When ten or eleven years
old he was sent to an uncle in Naples.
At the age OF fifteen he entered
Dominican monastery and became
novice of the order. His baptismal
name of Philip he exchanged for his
which he is always known. In this
monastery he remained fifteen years.
Even while novice he was accused of
heresy because he had abandoned de-
votion to pictures of the saints and
contented himself with crucitix
alone. This charge was smothered,
but in 1873 new complaints were made,
and he left Naples and went to Rome.
The next two years were spent
in school teaching in the north
of Italy. Then he went to Geneva,
but Calvinism was abhorrent to him,
and he journeyed on to Paris, where he
taught and wrote and gained the friend
ship Of Henry III. Next he went to
England, lectured at Oxford, became in
innate with Sir Philip Sidney and Fulke
Greville, and won the favor of Queen
Elizabeth, whom he called the ''Diana
of the Nymphs of the North" In 1885
he went to Germany and spent quiet
years at Wittenberg. In 1891 he was
unwise enough to go to Venice. A false
friend denounced him to the Inquisi-
sition. He was arrested, and in 1898
was turned over by the Venetian
government to the Papal authorities.
He was tried for heresy. 1t was
charged that he taught the eternity
worlds, and many other false doc
trims. Some of the accusations made
against him he denied, some he ad-
mitted to be true, but refused to recant.
After seven years spent In prison he
was found guilty and was turned over
by the inquisition to the secular ARM"
the order reading 'beseeching you so to
mitigate the severity of his sin with
respect to his body, that there may be
no shedding of blood" This gentle
phrase meant that he should be burnt.
Burnt he was February II, 1900, in the
presence of large and enthusiastic
audience of Roman citizens. According
to the account in news letter, "he was
slowly roasted, and may now, in those
other worlds which he imagined to
exist, tell how blasphemers and heretics
are punished at Rome" To-day his
statue is unveiled on the spot where he
died and the church is powerless to
prevent it.
SwIFT's SPECIFIC has a brisk and constant
sale with us, and the universal verdict is
that as blood medicine it has no rival.
q.