A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA - Il Cantiere #10-12: Roberto Bellarmino, il (santo) martello degli eretici - Francisco Soriano (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

For many scholars, critics and above all god-fearing, Roberto Bellarmino 
(1542-1621, Jesuit, cardinal, director of the Vatican library, head of the 
Inquisition and, finally, a saint, went down in history for his interventions in 
the trial against Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei) was "an open and balanced 
intellectual, capable of exercising his task with a critical spirit and 
authority, with rigor and firmness, but also attentive to the needs of the 
Church's tradition and contemporary culture". ---- The period from the end of the 
sixteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century represented, for 
the dialectic between the Catholic Church and science (the latter understood 
above all as human progress and liberation from the snares of magic and false 
religious beliefs) , a dramatic moment characterized by a strenuous and painful 
struggle carried out by many protagonists of human history. Most of the victims 
of the Inquisition were sacrificed on the altar of hypocrisy and power and paid 
for the consistency of ideas with their own lives. Bellarmino was judge, 
inquisitor and executioner.

Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Roberto Bellarmino was one of 
the most famous theologians of the Society of Jesus and of the Church. Clement 
VIII during the consistory for the new cardinals, gave him an unprecedented 
eulogy: "We choose the one who has no equal in the Church of God in terms of 
doctrine; moreover he is the grandson of the excellent and most holy Pope 
Marcellus II". Bellarmine entered the Society of Jesus in 1560 and soon showed 
very marked skills as a preacher, first in Lovania, proposing himself as an 
interpreter and diffuser of the Catholic faith with the aim of "converting the 
heretic from his bad faith", without disdaining to refute the divine truths to 
Protestants and, later, he wrote the "Controversie", "a masterpiece of historical 
research and at the same time a model of argumentation, Bellarmine will support 
the theory of the pope's indirect power over political power which, like what the 
author himself affirmed, had already been developed by Thomas Aquinas in the 
Middle Ages. The novelty was Bellarmine's accent in supporting the complete 
autonomy of political power, so much so as to cost him at the hands of Sixtus V 
(who believed papal power absolutely sovereign over the world), the banning of 
his Confessions, relegating them to the forbidden books. and prohibited.

The angularity of character was also evident towards the popes, as in the case 
that concerned a dispute with Clement VIII who appointed him cardinal, but did 
not hesitate to send him away from Rome, marginalizing him in Capua with the 
function of archbishop from 1602 to 1605. he had been accused of claiming that 
the pope was merely a servant of the Church and not a master. Not even at that 
juncture did he betray his propensity and self-denial to pastoral activity, very 
intense, not even when after being "confined" he was recalled to Rome for the 
conclave. The theologian was the protagonist, above all, in the trial against 
Giordano Bruno, whom he sent to the stake on February 17, 1600 in Campo de 
'Fiori. Many critics delimit Bellarmino's responsibilities, but it is really 
difficult to reduce his incisive and decisive action in the trial against Bruno. 
His activism towards Galileo is also well documented. Bellarmine studied the 
Copernican theory and met Galileo in 1606. He sent a letter to the scientist 
advising him not to publicize the Copernicus theory also because, according to 
him, it had not been proven: the fear consisted in the possibility that the new 
astronomical ideas could with their scientificity contradict the "dictation" of 
the Holy Scriptures. In fact, the Vatican itself claims today that Galileo had 
been saved by Bellarmine, his main accuser, who personally wrote a document in 
which he defined Galileo as not a heretic, even if his ideas tended dangerously 
in that direction. The trial was celebrated in the Sant ' office from 1616 to 
1633. However, we must not forget that Galileo did not save his life for the soft 
quotations of Bellarmino or for the "flexibility" of the judges who condemned him 
anyway, but for the famous abjuration, unforgivable act of compulsion that the 
clergy had demanded under the threat of torture and execution. A sad and shameful 
chapter for the Church which remembers, with a certain hypocrisy, that Galileo 
was sentenced "only" to home imprisonment and his writings included in the Index 
of forbidden books. Over time many popes tried to analyze the archives that 
contained the documentation of the trial of Galileo, but it was with John Paul II 
and with the help of the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the former 
Holy Office, the merit of having rehabilitated the figure of the scientist with a 
mea culpa in the year 2000. The figure of Roberto Bellarmino, saint, is linked to 
inquisitorial issues but is also the result of a specific political as well as 
religious affair. Because? We recall that the canonization-sanctification of the 
prelate was declared by Pius XI in 1931, also to establish and attempt 
politically and religiously, in that particular historical context, that 
synthesis of a system in difficulty which instead needed to regenerate itself 
from the point of view of national identity as a core value of a people. In fact, 
as claimed in an article by Martìn Maria Morales, in those times ("San Roberto 
Bellarmino and the cancel culture", from the Archive it is linked to 
inquisitorial issues but is also the result of a specific political as well as 
religious affair. Because? We recall that the canonization-sanctification of the 
prelate was declared by Pius XI in 1931, also to establish and attempt 
politically and religiously, in that particular historical context, that 
synthesis of a system in difficulty which instead needed to regenerate itself 
from the point of view of national identity as a core value of a people. In fact, 
as claimed in an article by Martìn Maria Morales, in those times ("San Roberto 
Bellarmino and the cancel culture", from the Archive it is linked to 
inquisitorial issues but is also the result of a specific political as well as 
religious affair. Because? We recall that the canonization-sanctification of the 
prelate was declared by Pius XI in 1931, also to establish and attempt 
politically and religiously, in that particular historical context, that 
synthesis of a system in difficulty which instead needed to regenerate itself 
from the point of view of national identity as a core value of a people. In fact, 
as claimed in an article by Martìn Maria Morales, in those times ("San Roberto 
Bellarmino and the cancel culture", from the Archive also to establish and 
attempt politically and religiously, in that particular historical context, that 
synthesis of a system in difficulty which instead needed to regenerate itself 
from the point of view of national identity as a core value of a people. In fact, 
as claimed in an article by Martìn Maria Morales, in those times ("San Roberto 
Bellarmino and the cancel culture", from the Archive also to establish and 
attempt politically and religiously, in that particular historical context, that 
synthesis of a system in difficulty which instead needed to regenerate itself 
from the point of view of national identity as a core value of a people. In fact, 
as claimed in an article by Martìn Maria Morales, in those times ("San Roberto 
Bellarmino and the cancel culture", from the Archive

historian of the Pontifical Gregorian University, 17 September 2020) "a wind of 
persecution and struggle blew from different peoples and nations against the 
Church and its visible Head, the Pope, against God and his Christ: it was 
blowing, in these very days , more impetuous than the earth so far celebrated for 
the most Catholic, indeed the Catholic nation par excellence; and it was already 
raging with so much ferocious violence and unexpected brutality that many of 
those themselves, who had favored the first outbreak and promoted it, are amazed 
and dismayed, without foreseeing it, the subversive impetus of society ". That 
"most Catholic" nation was Spain, where monasteries and sacred statues were 
burned and the Jesuit professed house in Madrid in 1931. together with the Jesuit 
missionaries who died in North America; in September 1931 he finally declared him 
a Doctor of the Universal Church. These particular attentions to the highest 
Jesuit authority after Ignatius of Loyola, allow us to say that Pius XI, who has 
been called the Pope of the Missions and the Pope of Catholic Action, must 
especially be called the Pope of the Jesuits (the Missions and the Catholic 
Action, moreover, are the two pupils of the eyes of the Society of Jesus)[Q.7, § 88].

Bruno was an exuberant man, very deep and unattainable, a true demon philosopher 
of thought, whirlwind and intoxicating, who had allowed himself the criticism and 
dialectical demolition of clerical power based on hypocrisy, corruption and even 
military violence.

The story also tells us another anecdote concerning, centuries later, the 
contrast between Bellarmino and the great Giordano Bruno. On the occasion of the 
Lateran Pacts in 1929, the Catholics made themselves the bearers of a request 
sent to Benito Mussolini, that of: "removing the statue of Giordano Bruno and 
turning over that of Garibaldi who was aiming, always threatening, with his horse 
towards St. Peter ". On that occasion, Mussolini extricated himself 
diplomatically, ignoring the requests with a rather ambiguous answer: "I must 
declare that the statue of Giordano Bruno, as melancholy as the fate of this 
friar, will remain where it is. Of course it is not even a think that the 
Garibaldi monument on the Janiculum could have a different location,

In 1885, therefore, a few years before Bellarmino's proclamation as saint, a 
committee was formed for the construction of a monument to Giordano Bruno, in 
Piazza Campo dei Fiori, "where the stake burned". Extraordinary intellectuals and 
politicians of the time such as Victor Hugo, Michail Bakunin, George Ibsen, 
Giovanni Bovio, Herbert Spencer and many others joined the initiative. The Roman 
university students did not miss their voices, who bravely revealed themselves 
with numerous demonstrations, in clashes with the police, arrests and wounded. In 
1889 the statue was erected. We just have to distinguish, today, these 
protagonists of our history, executioners and victims. In our view Bellarmine was 
too learned and aware man not to have understood Galileo's reasons, to which he 
provided a certainly milder opposition to those of the magnificent Nolan. Bruno 
was an exuberant man, very deep and unattainable, a true demon-philosopher of 
thought, whirling and intoxicating, who had allowed himself the criticism and 
dialectical demolition of clerical power based on hypocrisy, corruption and even 
military violence. The "saint" sensed its danger and greatness.

Today the "sweet and sweet" Bellarmine must be remembered as the executioner of 
men and, above all, as the staunch enemy of the ideas of progress. He 
distinguished himself, in his action to safeguard an absurd and always 
anti-historical, anti-scientific and regressive Church on the subject of human 
rights, as the one who carried out the persecution of the opponents of the Church 
with all his available means.

It is worth remembering, always and constantly, that Giordano Bruno read the 
sentence on February 8, 1600 that condemned him as an unrepentant, persistent and 
obstinate heretic.

Nine days later he was taken to Campo de 'Fiori, Rome, where he was stripped, 
tied to a stake and burned alive, while all his writings were included in the 
Index of Forbidden Books, a list issued by the Catholic Church containing books 
banned from read and own.
---
Taken from Il Cantiere n. September 10, 2022

Libertarian Alternative / Federation of Anarchist Communists

To request a copy of the magazine, send an article or a comment you can write to 
ilcantiere@autistici.org

Il Cantiere n. 10 Settembre 2022
Alternativa Libertaria/Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici
ilcantiere@autistici.org
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