Searching interrogations touching other heads in the evidence against him, as blasphemous remarks on sacred persons, intercourse with heretics, abuse of the religious orders, dealings in magic arts, licentious principles of conduct, were answered by Bruno with a frank assurance, which proves his good conscience in essentials and his firm expectation of a favorable issue to the affair.  Mocenigo had described him as indemoniato; and considering the manifest peril in which he now stood, there is something scarcely sane in the confidence he showed.  For Mocenigo himself he reserved words of bitterest scorn and indignation.  When questioned in the usual terms whether he had enemies at Venice, he replied:  ’I know of none but Ser Giovanni Mocenigo and his train of servants.  By him I have been grievously injured, more so than by living man, seeing he has murdered me in my life, my honor and my property, having imprisoned me in his own house and stolen all my writings, books, and other effects.  And this he did because he not only wished that I should teach him everything I know, but also wished to prevent my teaching it to any one but him.  He has continued to threaten me upon the points of life and honor, unless I should teach him everything I knew.’[115]

The scene closes over Bruno in the Venetian Inquisition on July 30, 1592.  We do not behold him again till he enters the Minerva at Rome to receive his death-sentence on February 9, 1600.  What happened in the interval is almost a blank.  An exchange of letters took place between Rome and Venice concerning his extradition, and the Republic made some show of reluctance to part with a refugee within its jurisdiction.  But this diplomatic affair was settled to the satisfaction of both parties, and Bruno disappeared into the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition in the month of January 1593.

Seven years of imprisonment was a long period.[116]

[Footnote 115:  Op. cit. p. 378.]

[Footnote 116:  These years were not all spent at Rome.  From the Records of the Inquisition, it appears that he arrived in Rome on February 27, 1598, and that his trial in form began in February 1599.  The Pope ratified his sentence of death on January 20, 1600; this was publicly promulgated on February 8, and carried into effect on the subsequent 17th.  Where Bruno was imprisoned between January 1593, and February 1598 is not known.]

We find it hard to understand why Bruno’s prosecution occupied the Holy Office through this space of time.  But conjectures on the subject are now useless.  Equally futile is it to speculate whether Bruno offered to conform in life and doctrine to the Church at Rome as he had done at Venice.  The temptation to do so must have been great.  Most probably he begged for grace, but grace was not accorded on his own terms; and he chose death rather than dishonor and a lie in the last resort, or rather than life-long incarceration.  It is also singular that but few contemporaries mention