GIOEDANO BRUNO. 257 religion of his age ; and this attack is on ethical grounds. The Christianity of the sixteenth century came very far short of his ideal of a religion that should always have ethical ends in view and should not discountenance intel- lectual liberty. Catholicism seemed to him to exalt credulity and ignorance to the rank of virtues and to discourage scien- tific curiosity as .being in itself evil rather than good ; and to Protestantism as a religious system he was less favourable than to Catholicism, for the doctrine of justification by faith seemed to him directly opposed to the true object of a reli- gion. The gods, it is frequently said in the Spaccio, ought to be thought of as rewarding the good and punishing the bad actions of men, not for their own sakes, as if they could receive any benefit or injury from their worshippers, but for the sake of men. Laws have been ordained for the good of human society ; and because some men do not see the fruit of their merits in this life, there have been placed before their eyes in another life rewards and punishments according to their works. The Spaccio della Bestia trionfante (" Expulsion of the triumphant Beast ") is an allegory of which the chief per- sonages are the Greek gods and goddesses. The inter- locutors in the dialogues are Saulino the representative of the philosopher Wisdom (Sofia), and Mercury. At the be- ginning of the first dialogue "Wisdom relates to Saulino that the gods, finding themselves to have grown old, are offering up prayer to the Fates (although they know that Fate is inexor- able), that they may either maintain their present state of being, or, if this is not permitted, then that they may enter into a better and not into a worse state. For Jove and the other gods are subject to change ; it may be that they too have to pass the shores of Acheron. And they are afraid that the next great revolution of the world will be quite different from those that have gone before, and will not end in a mere change of dynasty. In order to preserve their existence, they have resolved to put away their vices, and, as a symbol of this change in themselves, to expel from heaven the records of the evil deeds of their youth, and to sub- stitute the moral virtues for the monsters and deified human beings they had formerly placed in the constellations. The " expulsion of the triumphant beast " from heaven and the assigning of a constellation to each virtue is effected by a council of the gods which is called by Jupiter. The mythological monsters and the heroes who had had places in the constellations along with them are disposed of in various ways. Hercules and Perseus are sent down to the
