Books Fatal to Their Authors by P. H. Ditchfield

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To those who believed that the earth was flat it was somewhat startling to
be told that there were antipodes. This elementary truth of cosmology
Bishop Virgil of Salzbourg was courageous enough to assert as early as
A.D. 764. He wrote a book in which he stated that men of another race, not
sprung from Adam, lived in the world beneath our feet. This work aroused
the anger of Pope Zacharias II, who wrote to the King of Bavaria that
Virgil should be expelled from the temple of God and the Church, and
deprived of God and the Church, and deprived of his office, unless he
confessed his perverse errors. In spite of the censure and sentence of
excommunication pronounced upon him, Bishop Virgil was canonised by Pope
Gregory XI.; thus, in spite of his misfortunes brought about by his book,
his memory was revered and honoured by the Western Church.

If the account of his imprisonment be true (of which there is no
contemporary evidence) our own celebrated English philosopher, Roger
Bacon, is one of the earliest scientific authors whose works proved fatal
to them. In 1267 he sent his book, _Opus Majus_, together with his _Opus
Minus_, an abridgement of his former work, to Pope Clement IV. After the
death of that Pope Bacon was cited by the General of the Franciscan order,
to which he belonged, to appear before his judges at Paris, where he was
condemned to imprisonment. He is said to have languished in the dungeon
fourteen years, and, worn out by his sufferings, to have died in his
beloved Oxford during the year of his release, 1292. The charge of magic
was freely brought against him. His great work, which has been termed "the
_Encyclopaedia_ and the _Novum Organum_ of the thirteenth century,"
discloses an unfettered mind and judgment far in advance of the spirit of
the age in which he lived. In addition to this he wrote _Compendium
Philosophiae_, _De mirabili Potestate artis et naturae, Specula
mathematica, Speculum alchemicum_, and other works.

The treatment which Galileo received at the hands of the ecclesiastics of
his day is well known. This father of experimental philosophy was born at
Pisa in 1564, and at the age of twenty-four years, through the favour of
the Medicis, was elected Professor of Mathematics at the University of the
same town. Resigning his chair in 1592, he became professor at Padua, and
then at Florence. He startled the world by the publication of his first
book, _Sidereus Nuntius_, in which he disclosed his important astronomical
discoveries, amongst others the satellites of Jupiter and the spots on the
sun. This directed the attention of the Inquisition to his labours, but in
1632 he published his immortal work _Dialogo sopra i due Massimi Sistemi
del monda, Tolemaico et Copernicano_ (Florence), which was the cause of
his undoing. In this book he defended the opinion of Copernicus concerning
the motion of the earth round the sun, which was supposed by the
theologians of the day to be an opinion opposed to the teaching of Holy
Scripture and subversive of all truth. The work was brought before the
Inquisition at Rome, and condemned by the order of Pope Urban VIII.
Galileo was commanded to renounce his theory, but this he refused to do,
and was cast into prison. "Are these then my judges?" he exclaimed when he
was returning from the presence of the Inquisitors, whose ignorance
astonished him. There he remained for five long years; until at length,
wearied by his confinement, the squalor of the prison, and by his
increasing years, he consented to recant his "heresy," and regained his
liberty. The old man lost his sight at seventy-four years of age, and died
four years later in 1642. In addition to the work which caused him so
great misfortunes he published _Discorso e Demonstr. interna alle due
nuove Scienze, Delia Scienza Meccanica (1649), Tractato della Sfera
(1655)_; and the telescope, the isochronism of the vibrations of the
pendulum, the hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, were all invented by
this great leader of astronomical and scientific discoverers. Many other
discoveries might have been added to these, had not his widow submitted
the sage's MSS. to her confessor, who ruthlessly destroyed all that he
considered unfit for publication. Possibly he was not the best judge of
such matters!

Italy also produced another unhappy philosophic writer, Jordano Bruno, who
lived about the same time as Galileo, and was born at Nole in 1550, being
fourteen years his senior. At an early age he acquired a great love of
study and a thirst for knowledge. The Renaissance and the revival of
learning had opened wide the gates of knowledge, and there were many eager
faces crowding around the doors, many longing to enter the fair Paradise
and explore the far-extending vistas which met their gaze. It was an age
of anxious and eager inquiry; the torpor of the last centuries had passed
away; and a new world of discovery, with spring-like freshness, dawned
upon the sight. Jordano Bruno was one of these zealous students of the
sixteenth century. We see him first in a Dominican convent, but the old-
world scholasticism had no charms for him. The narrow groove of the
cloister was irksome to his freedom-loving soul. He cast off his monkish
garb, and wandered through Europe as a knight-errant of philosophy,
_multum ille et terris jactatus et alto_, teaching letters. In 1580 we
find him at Geneva conferring with Calvin and Beza, but Calvinism did not
commend itself to his philosophic mind. Thence he journeyed to Paris,
where in 1582 he produced one of his more important works, _De umbris
idearum_. Soon afterwards he came to London, where he became the intimate
friend of Sir Philip Sidney. Here he wrote the work which proved fatal to
him, entitled _Spaccio della bestia triomphante_ (The expulsion of the
triumphing beast) (London, 1584). [Footnote: The full title of the work
is: _Spaccio della bestia triomphante da giove, effetuato dal conseglo,
revelato da Mercurio, recitato da sofia, udito da saulino, registrato dal
nolano, divisa in tre dialogi, subdivisi in tre parti. In Parigi, 1584,
in-8_.] This was an allegory in which he combated superstition and
satirised the errors of Rome. But in this work Bruno fell into grievous
errors and dangerous atheistic deceits. He scoffed at the worship of God,
declared that the books of the sacred canon were merely dreams, that Moses
worked his wonders by magical art, and blasphemed the Saviour. Bruno
furnished another example of those whose faith, having been at one time
forced to accept dogmas bred of superstition, has been weakened and
altogether destroyed when they have perceived the falseness and
fallibility of that which before they deemed infallible.

But in spite of these errors Bruno's learning was remarkable. He had an
extensive knowledge of all sciences. From England he went to Germany, and
lectured at Wittenberg, Prague, and Frankfort. His philosophy resembled
that of Spinosa. He taught that God is the substance and life of all
things, and that the universe is an immense animal, of which God is the
soul.

At length he had the imprudence to return to Italy, and became a teacher
at Padua. At Venice he was arrested by order of the Inquisition in 1595,
and conducted to Rome, where, after an imprisonment of two years, in order
that he might be punished as gently as possible without the shedding of
blood, he was sentenced to be burned alive. With a courage worthy of a
philosopher, he exclaimed to his merciless judges, "You pronounce sentence
upon me with greater fear than I receive it." Bruno's other great works
were _Della causa, principio e uno_ (1584), _De infinito universo et
mundis_ (1584), _De monade numero et figura_ (Francfort, 1591).

The Inquisition at Rome at this period was particularly active in its
endeavours to reform errant philosophers, and Bruno was by no means the
only victim who felt its power. Thomas Campanella, born in Calabria, in
Italy, A.D. 1568, conceived the design of reforming philosophy about the
same time as our more celebrated Bacon. This was a task too great for his
strength, nor did he receive much encouragement from the existing powers.
He attacked scholasticism with much vigour, and censured the philosophy of
Aristotle, the admired of the schoolmen. He wrote a work entitled
_Philosophia sensibus demonstrata_, in which he defended the ideas of
Telesio, who explained the laws of nature as founded upon two principles,
the heat of the sun and the coldness of the earth. He declared that all
our knowledge was derived from sensation, and that all parts of the earth
were endowed with feeling. Campanella also wrote _Prodromus philosophiae
instaurandae_ (1617); _Philosophia rationalis_, embracing grammar,
dialectics, rhetoric, poetry, and history; _Universalis Philosophatus_, a
treatise on metaphysics; _Civitas solis_, a description of a kind of
Utopia, after the fashion of Plato's _Republic_. But the fatal book which
caused his woes was his _Atheismus triumphatus_. On account of this work
he was cast into prison, and endured so much misery that we can scarcely
bear to think of his tortures and sufferings. For twenty-five years he
endured all the squalor and horrors of a mediaeval dungeon; through
thirty-five hours he was "questioned" with such exceeding cruelty that all
his veins and arteries were so drawn and stretched by the rack that the
blood could not flow. Yet he bore all this terrible agony with a brave
spirit, and did not utter a cry. Various causes have been assigned for the
severity of this torture inflicted on poor Campanella. Some attribute it
to the malice of the scholastic philosophers, whom he had offended by his
works. Others say that he was engaged in some treasonable conspiracy to
betray the kingdom of Naples to the Spaniards; but it is probable that his
_Atheismus triumphatus_ was the chief cause of his woes. Sorbière has thus
passed judgment upon this fatal book: "Though nothing is dearer to me than
time, the loss of which grieves me sorely, I confess that I have lost both
oil and labour in reading the empty book of an empty monk, Thomas
Campanella. It is a farrago of vanities, has no order, many obscurities,
and perpetual barbarisms. One thing I have learned in wandering through
this book, that I will never read another book of this author, even if I
could spare the time."

Authorities differ with regard to the ultimate fate of this author. Some
say that he was killed in prison in 1599; others declare that he was
released and fled to France, where he enjoyed a pension granted to him by
Richelieu. However, during his incarceration he continued his studies, and
wrote a work concerning the Spanish monarchy which was translated from
Italian into German and Latin. In spite of his learning he made many
enemies by his arrogance; and his restless and ambitious spirit carried
him into enterprises which were outside the proper sphere of his
philosophy. In this he followed the example of many other luckless
authors, to whom the advice of the homely proverb would have been valuable
which states that "a shoemaker should stick to his last."

The book entitled _De la Philosophie de la Nature, ou Traité de morale
pour l'espèce humaine, tiré de la philosophie et fondé sur la nature_
(Paris, _Saillant et Nyon_, 1769, 6 vols., in-12), has a curious history.
It inflicted punishment not only on its author, De Lisle de Sales, but
also on two learned censors of books who approved its contents, the Abbé
Chrétien and M. Lebas, the bookseller Saillant, and two of its printers.
De Lisle was sent to prison, but the severity of the punishment aroused
popular indignation, and his journey to gaol resembled a triumph. All the
learned *men of Paris visited the imprisoned philosopher. All the
sentences were reversed by the Parliament of Paris in 1777. This book has
often been reproduced and translated in other languages. De Lisle was
exposed to the persecutions of the Reign of Terror, and another work of
his, entitled _Eponine_, caused him a second term of imprisonment, from
which he was released when the terrible reign of anarchy, lasting eighteen
months, ended.

The industrious philosopher Denis Diderot wrote _Lettres sur les Aveugles
à l'usage de ceux qui voient_ (1749, in-12). There were "those who saw"
and were not blind to its defects, and proceeded to incarcerate Diderot in
the Castle of Vincennes, where he remained six months, and where he
perceived that this little correction was necessary to cure him of his
philosophical folly. He was a very prolific writer, and subsequently with
D'Alembert edited the first French Encyclopaedia (1751-1772, 17 vols.).
This was supposed to contain statements antagonistic to the Government and
to Religion, and its authors and booksellers and their assistants were all
sent to the Bastille. _Chambers' Cyclopaedia_ had existed in England some
years before a similar work was attempted in France, and the idea was
first started by an Englishman, John Mills. This man was ingeniously
defrauded of the work, which owed its conception and execution entirely to
him. Perhaps on the whole he might have been congratulated, as he escaped
the Bastille, to which the appropriators of his work were consigned.

An author who dares to combat the popular superstitious beliefs current in
his time often suffers in consequence of his courage, as Balthazar Bekker
discovered to his cost. This writer was born in West Friezland in 1634,
and died at Amsterdam in 1698. He was a pastor of the Reformed Church of
Holland, and resided during the greater part of his life at Amsterdam,
where he produced his earlier work _Recherches sur les Comètes_ (1683), in
which he combated the popular belief in the malign influence of comets.
This work was followed a few years later by his more famous book _De
Betoverde Weereld_, or _The Enchanted World_, [Footnote: _Le Monde
enchanté, ou Examen des sentimens touchant les esprits, traduit du flamand
en français_ (Amsterdam, 1694, 4 vols., in-l2). One Benjamin Binet wrote a
refutation, entitled _Traité historique des Dieux et des Démons du
paganisme, avec des remarques sur le système de Balthazar Bekker_ (Delft,
1696, in-l2).] in which he refuted the vulgar notions with regard to
demoniacal possession. This work created a great excitement amongst the
Hollanders, and in two months no less than four thousand copies were sold.
But, unfortunately for the author, it aroused the indignation of the
theologians of the Reformed Church, who condemned it, deprived Bekker of
his office, and expelled him from their communion. Bekker died shortly
after his sentence had been pronounced. A great variety of opinions have
been expressed concerning this book. Bekker was a follower of Descartes,
and this was sufficient to condemn him in the eyes of many of the
theologians of the day. The Jansenists of Port-Royal and the divines of
the old National Church of Holland were vehement opponents of
Cartesianism; consequently we find M.S. de Vries of Utrecht declaring that
this fatal book caused more evil in the space of two months than all the
priests could prevent in twenty years. Another writer states that it is an
illustrious work, and full of wisdom and learning. When Bekker was deposed
from his office, his adversaries caused a medal to be struck representing
the devil clad in a priestly robe, riding on an ass, and carrying a trophy
in his right hand; which was intended to signify that Bekker had been
overcome in his attempt to disprove demoniacal possession, and that the
devil had conquered in the assembly of divines who pronounced sentence on
Bekker's book. The author was supposed to resemble Satan in the ugliness
of his appearance. Another coin was struck in honour of our author: on one
side is shown the figure of Bekker clad in his priestly robe; and on the
other is seen Hercules with his club, with this inscription, _Opus
virtutis veritatisque triumphat_. Bekker also wrote a catechism, entitled
_La Nourriture des Parfaits_ (1670), which so offended the authorities of
the Reformed Church that its use was publicly prohibited by the sound of
bells.

The science of ethnology has also had its victims, and one Isaac de la
Peyrère suffered for its sake. His fatal book was one entitled
_Praeadamitae, sive exercitatio super versibus xii., xiii., xiv., capitis
v., epistolae divi Pauli ad romanos. Quibus inducuntur primi homines ante
Adamum conditi_ (1655, in-12), in which he advocated a theory that the
earth had been peopled by a race which existed before Adam. The author was
born at Bordeaux in 1592, and served with the Prince of Condé; but, in
spite of his protector, he was imprisoned at Brussels, and his book was
burnt at Paris, in 1655. This work had a salutary effect on the
indefatigable translator Abbé de Marolles, who with extraordinary energy,
but with little skill, was in the habit of translating the classical
works, and almost anything that he could lay his hands upon. He published
no less than seventy volumes, and at last turned his attention to the
sacred Scriptures, translating them with notes. In the latter he inserted
extracts and reflections from the above-mentioned book by Peyrère, which
caused a sudden cessation of his labours. By the authority of the Pope the
printing of his works was suddenly stopped, but probably the loss which
the world incurred was not very great. Peyrère seems to have foretold the
fate of his book and his own escape in the following line:--

_Parve, nec invideo, sine me, liber, ibis in ignem_.

Lucilio Vanini, born in 1585, was an Italian philosopher, learned in
medicine, astronomy, theology, and philosophy, who, after the fashion of
the scholars of the age, roamed from country to country, like the knight-
errants of the days of chivalry, seeking for glory and honours, not by the
sword, but by learning. This Vanini was a somewhat vain and ridiculous
person. Not content with his Christian name Lucilio, he assumed the
grandiloquent and high-sounding cognomen of Julius Caesar, wishing to
attach to himself some of the glory of the illustrious founder of the
Roman empire. As the proud Roman declared _Veni, Vidi, Vici_, so would he
carry on the same victorious career, subduing all rival philosophers by
the power of his eloquence and learning. He visited Naples, wandered
through France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and England, and
finally stationed himself in France, first at Lyons, and then in a convent
at Toulouse. At Lyons he produced his famous and fatal book,
_Amphitheatrum aeternae providentiae divino-magicum Christiano-Physicum,
nec non Astrologo-Catholicum_ (Lugduni, 1616). It was published with the
royal assent, but afterwards brought upon its author the charge of
Atheism. He concealed the poison most carefully; for apparently he
defended the belief in the Divine Providence and in the immortality of the
soul, but with consummate skill and subtilty he taught that which he
pretended to refute, and led his readers to see the force of the arguments
against the Faith of which he posed as a champion. By a weak and feeble
defence, by foolish arguments and ridiculous reasoning, he secretly
exposed the whole Christian religion to ridicule. But if any doubts were
left whether this was done designedly or unintentionally, they were
dispelled by his second work, _De admirandis naturae reginae deaeque
mortalium arcanis_ (Paris, 1616), which, published in the form of sixty
dialogues, contained many profane statements. In this work also he adopted
his previous plan of pretending to demolish the arguments against the
Faith, while he secretly sought to establish them. He says that he had
wandered through Europe fighting against the Atheists wherever he met with
them. He describes his disputations with them, carefully recording all
their arguments; he concludes each dialogue by saying that he reduced the
Atheists to silence, but with strange modesty he does not inform his
readers what reasonings he used, and practically leaves the carefully
drawn up atheistical arguments unanswered. The Inquisition did not approve
of this subtle method of teaching Atheism, and ordered him to be confined
in prison, and then to be burned alive. This sentence was carried out at
Toulouse in 1619, in spite of his protestations of innocence, and the
arguments which he brought forward before his judges to prove the
existence of God. Some have tried to free Vanini from the charge of
Atheism, but there is abundant evidence of his guilt apart from his books.
The tender mercies of the Inquisition were cruel, and could not allow so
notable a victim to escape their vengeance. Whether to burn a man is the
surest way to convert him, is a question open to argument. Vanini
disguised his insidious teaching carefully, but it required a thick veil
to deceive the eyes of Inquisitors, who were wonderfully clever in spying
out heresy, and sometimes thought they had discovered it even when it was
not there. Vanini and many other authors would have been wiser if they had
not committed their ideas to writing, and contented themselves with words
only. _Litera scripta manet_; and disguise it, twist it, explain it, as
you will, there it stands, a witness for your acquittal or your
condemnation. This thought stays the course of the most restless pen,
though the racks and fires of the Inquisition no longer threaten the
incautious scribe.

We must not omit a French philosopher who died just before the outbreak of
the First French Revolution, Jean Jacques Rousseau. It is well known that
his work _Emile, ou de l'Education, par J.J. Rousseau, Citoyen de Genève_
(_à Amsterdam_, 1762, 4 vols., in-12), obliged him to fly from France and
Switzerland, in both of which countries he was adjudged to prison. For
many years he passed a wandering, anxious life, ever imagining that his
best friends wished to betray him. Of his virtues and failings as an
author, or of the vast influence he exercised over the minds of his
countrymen, it is needless to write. This has already been done by many
authors in many works.

CHAPTER V.

HISTORY.

Antonius Palearius--Caesar Baronius--John Michael Bruto--Isaac Berruyer--
Louis Elias Dupin--Noel Alexandre--Peter Giannone--Joseph Sanfelicius
(Eusebius Philopater)--Arlotto--Bonfadio--De Thou--Gilbert Génébrard--
Joseph Audra--Beaumelle--John Mariana--John B. Primi--John Christopher
Rüdiger--Rudbeck--François Haudicquer--François de Rosières--Anthony
Urseus.

Braver far than the heroes of Horace was he who first dared to attack the
terrible Inquisition, and voluntarily to incur the wrath of that dread
tribunal. Such did Antonius Palearius, who was styled _Inquisitionis
Detractator_, and in consequence was either beheaded (as some say) in
1570, or hanged, strangled, and burnt at Rome in 1566. This author was
Professor of Greek and Latin at Sienna and Milan, where he was arrested by
order of Pope Pius V. and conducted to Rome. He stated the truth very
plainly when he said that the Inquisition was a dagger pointed at the
throats of literary men. As an instance of the foolishness of the method
of discovering the guilt of the accused, we may observe that Palearius was
adjudged a heretic because he preferred to sign his name _Aonius_, instead
of _Antonius_, his accuser alleging that he abhorred the sign of the cross
in the letter T, and therefore abridged his name. By such absurd arguments
were men doomed to death.

The _Annales Ecclesiastici_ of Caesar Baronius, published in twelve folio
volumes at Rome (1588-93), is a stupendous work, which testifies to the
marvellous industry and varied learning of its author, although it
contains several chronological errors, and perverts history in order to
establish the claims of the Papacy to temporal power. The author of this
work was born of noble family at Sora, in the kingdom of Naples, A.D.
1538, and was a pupil of St. Philip de Neri, the founder of the
Congregation of the Oratory, whom he succeeded as General of that order.
In 1596 Pope Clement VIII. chose him as his confessor, made him a cardinal
and librarian of the Vatican. On the death of Clement, Baronius was
nominated for election to the Papal throne, and was on the point of
attaining that high dignity when the crown was snatched from him by reason
of his immortal work. In Tome IX. our author had written a long history of
the monarchy of Sicily, and endeavoured to prove that the island
rightfully belonged to the Pope, and not to the King of Spain, who was
then its ruler. This so enraged Philip III. of Spain that he published an
edict forbidding the tome to be bought or read by any of his subjects. Two
booksellers who were rash enough to have some copies of the book on their
shelves were condemned to row in the galleys. When the election for the
Papal throne took place, thirty-three cardinals voted for Baronius, and he
would have been made Pope had not the Spanish ambassador, by order of the
King, who was practically master of Italy at that time, excluded the
author of the _Annals_ from the election. This disappointment and his ill-
health, brought on by hard study, terminated his life, and he died A.D.
1607. The _Annales Ecclesiastici_ occupied Baronius thirty years, and
contain the history of the Church from the earliest times to A.D. 1198.
Various editions were printed at Venice, Cologne, Antwerp, Metz,
Amsterdam, and Lucca. It was continued by Rainaldi and Laderchi, and the
whole work was published in forty-two volumes at Lucca 1738-57. It is a
monument of the industry and patience of its authors.

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