Giordano Bruno e a crise religiosa da segunda metade do século XVI

Abstract

In this article we address the religious crisis that inflicted Europe in the 16th century, initiated by Martin Luther (1483-1546) when he public disclosed his insatisfactions in 1571 against several procedures of the Roman Catholic Church, especially regarding the indulgences. The movement called Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation was a reaction to the dissemination of these ideas and had its peak by the time the Council of Trent took place, in 1545. As references to this study there will be used the comprehensions exposed by Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) in the work Spaccio de la bestia trionfante, 2007, published in London in 1584. This work deals specifically with the moral crisis arising from the division of Christians between Catholics and Protestants. The moral according to Bruno is a field of discussion regarding vices and virtues, considered by him as the first principles of the moral, and the religion is seen as the stimulator of the socializing experience. To Bruno the 17th century society didn’t had a religion that played this part, since it was disintegrated, each group defending a particular interpretation of the sacred scriptures and, in a sense, of God itself. The main question that permeates our investigation is: what led Bruno to criticize either Catholics and Protestants; which bring us to a another search: by criticizing both did Bruno proposes a third way, an alternative religious system? We gather that to Bruno the religion must be considered as a unifying social element, a political instrument to be used by the ones in power to keep the order among their subjects. Protestants and Catholics by disputing the position of true interpreters of the deity, sacraments and sacred scriptures, contributed to establish the quarrel between the believers, unfulfilling its role as keepers of the peace between different social groups. A possible solution for this crisis, proclaimed in Spaccio, is in our understanding related to the annexation of the religion by the political power, the State.