[Footnote 109:  Ibid. p. 355.]

[Footnote 110:  Ibid. p. 362.]

That he expected no severe punishment appears from the terms of his so-called recantation.  ’I said that I wished to present myself before the feet of his Holiness with certain books which I approve, though I have published others which I do not now approve; whereby I meant to say that some works composed and published by me do not meet with my approbation, inasmuch as in these I have spoken and discussed too philosophically, in unseemly wise, not altogether as a good Christian ought; in particular I know that in some of these works I have taught and philosophically held things which ought to be attributed to the power, wisdom and goodness of God according to the Christian faith, founding doctrine in such matters on sense and reason, not upon faith.’[111] At the very end of his examination, he placed himself in the hands of his judges, ‘confessing his errors with a willing mind,’ acknowledging that he had ‘erred and strayed from the Church,’ begging for such castigation as shall not ’bring public dishonor on the sacred robe which he had worn,’ and promising to ’show a noteworthy reform, and to recompense the scandal he had caused by edification at least equal in magnitude.’[112] These professions he made upon his knees, evincing clearly, as it seems to me, that at this epoch he was ready to rejoin the Dominican order, and that, as he affirmed to Mocenigo, he expected no worse punishment than this.

In attempting to estimate Bruno’s recantation, we must remember that he felt no sympathy at all for heretics.  When questioned about them, he was able to quote passages from his own works in which he called the Reformation a Deformation of religion.[113] Lutheran and Calvinist theologians were alike pedants in his eyes.[114] There is no doubt that Bruno meant what he said; and had he been compelled to choose one of the existing religions, he would have preferred Catholicism.  He was, in fact, at a period of life when he wished to dedicate his time in quiet to metaphysical studies.  He had matured his philosophy and brought it to a point at which he thought it could be presented as a peace-offering to the Supreme Pontiff.  Conformity to ecclesiastical observances seemed no longer irksome to the world-experienced, wide-reaching mind of the man.  Nor does he appear to have anticipated that his formal submission would not be readily accepted.  He reckoned strangely, in this matter, without the murderous host into whose clutches he had fallen.

[Footnote 111:  Op. cit. p. 349]

[Footnote 112:  Ibid. p. 384]

[Footnote 113:  Ibid. p. 364]

[Footnote 114:  Ibid. p. 363]