The Pope and the Heretic
The True Story of Giordano Bruno, the Man Who Dared to Defy the Roman Inquisition
Excerpt
Chapter OnePrelude to a Burning
For large wood: 55 sols 6 deniers
For vine-branches: 21 sols 3 deniers
For straw: 2 sols 6 deniers
For four stakes: 10 sols 9 deniers
For ropes to tie the convicts: 45 sols 7 deniers
For the executioners, each 20 sols: 80 sols.
- Inquisition accounts for an execution
The grand inquisitor, the Lord Cardinal Santoro di Santa Severina, was not happy. It was freezing cold in the Congregation Chamber of the Vatican, and he remembered fondly the attentions of his lover earlier that morning. His hair disheveled, his limbs aching, he had been called from those attentions and reminded (with suitable reverence) that he must wash and dress and follow his servants to the Hall of the Congregation and the trial of the reviled heretic Giordano Bruno.
And now Father Bruno, a small man with black hair and dark brown eyes, stood before him, wafer-thin, scarred and drained, his face and body bearing the marks of the Inquisition. The date wa ... read full excerpt from Pope and the Heretic, The ebook
