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Heard about the Giordano Bruno series from S.J. Parris’s guest shot on the Art Detective podcast. Now reading the Elizabethan-era mystery thrillers. Knew very little about Giordano Bruno apart from the manner of his death (burned at the stake at Campo dei Fiori, as stated in the wonderful poem by Czeslaw Milosz). I did some reading, and learned that one of the Vatican inquisitors who condemned Bruno to his horrific death was St. Robert Bellarmine, the same Jesuit theologian for whom the Ateneo de Manila building which houses my publisher is named. Bellarmine was also involved in the trial of Galileo.

Giordano Bruno was hanged naked upside down and then burned to death for heresy. He denied the Church doctrines of eternal damnation, the trinity, transubstantiation and others, plus he believed in reincarnation. He also wrote on cosmology and said the universe was infinite, the stars were suns with their own solar systems, and there could be life on other planets. Bruno had a talent for making enemies, and by some accounts he was an asshole, but no one deserves to die like that. Science has proven his beliefs correct.

Since the 19th century he’s been held up as a martyr for science, a label contested by historians who stress that he was executed by the Church for his religious beliefs and not his scientific views. But his views on many worlds came up several times at his trial, and the belief that there are more worlds than this one was certainly heretical. Also, if his scientific views were not an issue, how come Bellarmine warned Galileo to shut up about his astronomical theories, thus sparing him from Bruno’s fate?

In the US, Confederate statues are being toppled and institutions named after slaveholders are being renamed. There’s an ongoing reassessment of historical personalities, especially those who were involved in racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression. John Paul II apologized for some of the things that happened during the Inquisition, but Bellarmine is a saint so I don’t think renaming the building is going to happen.

Besides, if we start renaming buildings and institutions, streets, provinces, this entire nation (named for Phillip II—problematic) after reassessments of the people they were named after, it would never end. Plus we’re a young country—insufficient distance from our history. Which we are barely familiar with. The political battles over renaming would shred what’s left of our eardrums.

That said, the books of S.J. Parris are fascinating and insightful. It has long been known that Giordano Bruno, excommunicated by the Church, moved to London and Paris to teach and write, and worked as a spy for Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Walsingham.

Of course I’m going to bring this up.