"I fought a lot; I thought I could win, but fate and nature repressed my study and my efforts. But it is already something to be on the battlefield because to win depends very much on fortune. But I did as much as I could and I do not think anyone of the future generation will deny it. I was not afraid of death, I never gave in to anyone, I chose courageous death instead of a coward's life." Giordano Bruno, De Monade (1591). In the early morning hours of Friday, February 17, 1600, one of those processions which were all too familiar to Rome was seen take its way to the "Campo dei Fiori," the place where the Holy Mother Church burned her heretics sons. Giordano Bruno was led to the pile, clad as a heretic, ..".his tongue was imprisoned because of his wicked words." Bruno was bound to the stake and the flames began to burn his flesh. When, at the last moment of his torment, a crucifix was held before him, he turned his eyes away. When the fire had died out, his ashes were dumped into the Tiber river.