was consulted during the dispute, while acknowledging that Bruno's errors in heresy were very grave, declared that he possessed "a most excellent rare mind, with exquisite learning and wisdom."
On his arrival in Rome he was at once cast into a dungeon, as the Pope hoped to break his spirit by prolonged imprisonment. For six whole years (1593 to 1599) nothing was heard of him. What his sufferings were in the dark dungeons of the Inquisition no one can tell. Whatever methods may have been used to overcome his obstinate determination, they were unsuccessful. For when at last he was visited in 1599 he said that "he ought not to recant and he would not recant; that he had nothing to recant, nor any reason to recant, nor knew he what he should recant." Had he not written, too: "There are men in whom the working of the will of God is so powerful that neither threats nor contumely can cause them to waver. He who fears the body has never felt himself to be one with God. He alone is truly wise and virtuous who fears no pain, and he is happy who regards things with the eye of reason."
At last sentence of death was passed on him. "Perhaps you pronounce your sentence with greater fear than that with which I receive it," was his only reply to his inhuman judges. From the presence of the great assemblage of cardinals and theologians who sat in judgment over him, the man whom suffering could not move and for whom the condemnation of
