Giordano Bruno summary

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Giordano Bruno, orig. Filippo Bruno, (born 1548, Nola, near Naples—died Feb. 17, 1600, Rome), Italian philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, and occultist. He entered a Dominican convent in 1565 and was ordained a priest in 1572. He abandoned the order in 1576 after being accused of heresy. He moved to Geneva in 1578 and thereafter traveled Europe as a lecturer and teacher. Rejecting the traditional geocentric astronomy for a theory even more radical than that of Copernicus, he hypothesized an infinite universe and multiple worlds. His cosmological theories, which anticipated fundamental aspects of the modern conception of the universe, led to his excommunication by the Roman Catholic, Calvinist, and Lutheran churches. In 1592 he was arrested and tried by the Venetian Inquisition, which extradited him to the Roman Inquisition in the following year. After a seven-year trial, he was burned at the stake. His ethical ideas have appealed to modern humanists, and his ideal of religious and philosophical tolerance has influenced liberal thinkers. His most important works are On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584) and The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast (1584).

Dominican Summary

Dominican, one of the four great mendicant orders of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by St. Dominic in 1215. Its members include friars, nuns, active sisters, and lay Dominicans. From the beginning the order has been a synthesis of the contemplative life and the active ministry. The members live

Calvinism Summary

Calvinism , the theology advanced by John Calvin, a Protestant reformer in the 16th century, and its development by his followers. The term also refers to doctrines and practices derived from the works of Calvin and his followers that are characteristic of the Reformed churches. The Calvinist form

Roman Catholicism Summary

Roman Catholicism, Christian religion that has been the decisive spiritual force in the history of Western civilization. Along with Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism, it is one of the three major branches of Christianity. It is led by the pope, as the bishop of Rome, and the Holy See forms the

poetry Summary

Poetry, literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. (Read Britannica’s biography of this author, Howard Nemerov.) Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and