a modern reader of his prose, seems to have been copied straight from Aretino.  The coinage of fantastic titles, of which Lo Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante contributed in some appreciable degree to Bruno’s martyrdom, should be ascribed to the same influence.  The source of these literary affectations was a bad one.  Aretino, Doni, and such folk were no fit masters for Giordano Bruno even in so slight a matter as artistic form.  Yet, in this respect, he shared a corrupt taste which was common to his generation, and proved how fully he represented the age in which he lived.  It is not improbable that the few contemporary readers of his works, especially in euphuistic England, admired the gewgaws he so plentifully scattered and rendered so brilliant by the coruscations of his wit.  When, however, the real divine oestrum descends upon him, he discards those follies.  Then his language, like his thought, is all his own:  sublime, impassioned, burning, turbid; instinct with a deep volcanic fire of genuine enthusiasm.  The thought is simple; the diction direct; the attitude of mind and the turn of expression are singularly living, surprisingly modern.  We hear the man speak, as he spoke at Fulke Greville’s supper-party, as he spoke at Oxford, as he spoke before the Sorbonne, as he might be speaking now.  There is no air of literary effort, no tincture of antiquated style, in these masculine utterances.

CHAPTER X.

FRA PAOLO SARPI.

Sarpi’s Position in the History of Venice—­Parents and Boyhood—­Entrance into the Order of the Servites—­His Personal Qualities—­Achievements as a Scholar and Man of Science—­His Life among the Servites—­In Bad Odor at Rome—­Paul V. places Venice under Interdict—­Sarpi elected Theologian and Counselor of the Republic—­His Polemical Writings—­Views on Church and State—­The Interdict Removed—­Roman Vengeance—­Sarpi attacked by Bravi—­His Wounds, Illness, Recovery—­Subsequent History of the Assassins—­Further Attempts on Sarpi’s Life—­Sarpi’s Political and Historical Works—­History of the Council of Trent—­Sarpi’s Attitude toward Protestantism—­His Judgment of the Jesuits—­Sarpi’s Death—­The Christian Stoic.

Fra Paolo was the son of Francesco Sarpi and Isabella Morelli, Venetians of the humbler middle class.  He was born in 1552, christened Pietro, and nicknamed Pierino because of his diminutive stature.  On entering the Order of the Servites he adopted the religious name of Paolo, which he subsequently rendered famous throughout Europe.  Since he died in 1623, Sarpi’s life coincided with a period of supreme interest and manifold vicissitudes in the decline of Venice.  After the battle of Lepanto in 1571, he saw the nobles of S. Mark welcome their victorious admiral Sebastiano Veniero and confer on him the honors of the Dogeship.  In 1606, he aided the Republic to withstand the thunders of the Vatican and defy the excommunication of a Pope.  Eight years later