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His name was Lucilio Vanini, and he called himself Griulio Cesare Vanini (1585-1619). In one of his dialogues he makes one of the speakers cry out in the greatest wonder at the power of his reasoning, " Either thou art a God or Vanini ! " He modestly answered, " I am Vanini ! " In his " Amphitheatre," he ap peared as the antagonist of the philosophy of antiquity, and as the advocate of Christianity, the Church, the Council of Trent, and the Jesuits. In the very next year, he wrote the "Dialogues on Nature," "The Queen and Goddess of Mortals," in which he plainly derided the dogmas of religion and Christianity, though his irony was disguised by being expressed in the form of a dialogue. A century had passed since Pomponatius led naturalism into the field against the Church, and cautiously grounded and disguised doubt of the doctrines of faith. Vanini was a disciple of Pomponatius, though he lacked his earnestness and originality of inquiry. prev next |