Editing Giordano Bruno (section)

===Imprisonment, trial and execution, 1593–1600===
During the seven years of his trial in Rome, Bruno was held in confinement, lastly in the [[Tower of Nona]]. Some important documents about the trial are lost, but others have been preserved, among them a summary of the proceedings that was rediscovered in 1940.<ref>"II Sommario del Processo di Giordano Bruno, con appendice di Documenti sull'eresia e l'inquisizione a Modena nel secolo XVI", edited by Angelo Mercati, in ''Studi e Testi'', vol. 101.</ref> The numerous charges against Bruno, based on some of his books as well as on witness accounts, included blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy in matters of dogmatic theology, and involved some of the basic doctrines of his philosophy and cosmology. [[Luigi Firpo]] speculates the charges made against Bruno by the Roman Inquisition were:{{sfn|Firpo|1993}}

* holding opinions contrary to the [[Catholicism|Catholic faith]] and speaking against it and its ministers;
* holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith about the [[Trinity]], the [[divinity of Christ]], and the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|Incarnation]];
* holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith pertaining to Jesus as the [[Christ (title)|Christ]];
* holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith regarding the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|virginity of Mary, mother of Jesus]];
* holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith about both [[Transubstantiation]] and the [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]];
* claiming the existence of a [[cosmic pluralism|plurality of worlds]] and [[Eternity of the world|their eternity]];
* believing in [[metempsychosis]] and in the [[Transmigration of the soul|transmigration]] of the human soul into brutes;
* dealing in magics and divination.

[[File:Relief Bruno Campo dei Fiori n1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The trial of Giordano Bruno by the Roman Inquisition; bronze relief by Ettore Ferrari, [[Campo de' Fiori]], Rome]]
Bruno defended himself as he had in Venice, insisting that he accepted the Church's dogmatic teachings, but trying to preserve the basis of his cosmological views. In particular, he held firm to his belief in the plurality of worlds, although he was admonished to abandon it. His trial was overseen by the Inquisitor Cardinal [[Robert Bellarmine|Bellarmine]], who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. On 20 January 1600, [[Pope Clement VIII]] declared Bruno a heretic, and the Inquisition issued a sentence of death. According to the correspondence of [[Caspar Schoppe|Gaspar Schopp]] of [[Breslau]], he is said to have made a threatening gesture towards his judges and to have replied: ''Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam'' ("Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it").<ref>{{harvnb|Singer|1968|loc=ch. 7}}: "A gloating account of the whole ritual is given in a letter written on the very day by a youth named Gaspar Schopp of Breslau, a recent convert to Catholicism to whom Pope Clement VIII had shown great favor, creating him Knight of St. Peter and Count of the Sacred Palace. Schopp was addressing Conrad Rittershausen. He recounts that because of his heresy Bruno had been publicly burned that day in the Square of Flowers in front of the Theatre of Pompey. He makes merry over the belief of the Italians that every heretic is a Lutheran. It is evident that he had been present at the interrogations, for he relates in detail the life of Bruno and the works and doctrines for which he had been arraigned, and he gives a vivid account of Bruno's final appearance before his judges on 8 February. To Schopp we owe the knowledge of Bruno's bearing under judgement. When the verdict had been declared, records Schopp, Bruno with a threatening gesture addressed his judges: "Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it." Thus he was dismissed to the prison, gloats the convert, "and was given eight days to recant, but in vain. So today he was led to the funeral pyre. When the image of our Savior was shown to him before his death he angrily rejected it with averted face. Thus my dear Rittershausen is it our custom to proceed against such men or rather indeed such monsters."</ref>

He was turned over to the secular authorities. On 17 February 1600, in the [[Campo de' Fiori]] (a central Roman market square), naked, with his "tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words", he was [[Death by burning|burned alive at the stake]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Fitzgerald|first=Timothy|title=Discourse on Civility and Barbarity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b67p1VdF_OoC&pg=PA239|access-date=11 May 2017|date= 2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-804103-0|page=239}}</ref><ref>"Il Sommario del Processo di Giordano Bruno, con appendice di Documenti sull'eresia e l'inquisizione a Modena nel secolo XVI", edited by Angelo Mercati, in ''Studi e Testi'', vol. 101; the precise terminology for the tool used to silence Bruno before burning is recorded as ''una morsa di legno'', or "a vise of wood", and not an iron spike as sometimes claimed by other sources.</ref> His ashes were thrown into the [[Tiber]] river.

All of Bruno's works were placed on the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' in 1603. The inquisition cardinals who judged Giordano Bruno were [[Robert Bellarmine|Cardinal Bellarmino (Bellarmine)]], [[Carlo Gaudenzio Madruzzo|Cardinal Madruzzo (Madruzzi)]], Camillo Cardinal Borghese (later [[Pope Paul V]]), Domenico Cardinal Pinelli, Pompeio Cardinal Arrigoni, [[Paolo Emilio Sfondrati|Cardinal Sfondrati]], [[Pedro de Deza|Pedro Cardinal De Deza Manuel]] and [[Giulio Antonio Santorio|Cardinal Santorio]] (Archbishop of Santa Severina, Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Valentinuzzi|first=Max E.|date=4 October 2019|title=Giordano Bruno: Expander of the Copernican Universe|journal=IEEE Pulse|volume=10|issue=5|pages=23–27|doi=10.1109/MPULS.2019.2937244|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The measures taken to prevent Bruno continuing to speak have resulted in his becoming a symbol for free thought and [[free speech]] in present-day Rome, where an annual memorial service takes place close to the spot where he was executed.{{sfn|Rowland|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C-q8CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT8 8]}}