the founder of the Carthusian order of monks was born at Cologne about the year 1030. He was educated at Cologne, and afterwards at Rheims, where he became so distinguished by his learning and piety, that he was appointed to superintend the studies in all the chief schools of the diocese. Among his pupils, many afterwards became distinguished, and in the number was Pope Urban II. In 1084, after some disputes with Manasses, the archbishop of Rheims, he retired into the desert of Chartreuse, where, with six companions, he built an oratory, with cells at a little distance from each other. After a residence of six years in this spot, he went to Rome, where his old pupil Urban II., pressed him to accept the archbishopric of Reggio. He declined this honour, and withdrew into the solitudes of Calabria, where he remained with his disciples till his death in 1101. He wrote treatises on the Psalms and some of the Epistles of St Paul, but none of these works have descended to our times.

Giordano, was born at Nola, in the kingdom of Naples. About the year 1582 he began to call in question some of the tenets of the Roman church, which occasioned his retiring to Geneva; but after residing there for two years, his open aversion for Calvinism occasioned his expulsion from that city. Having stayed some time at Lyons, Toulouse, and Paris, he came to London, and continued two years in the house of M. Castelnaud, the French ambassador. He was well received by Queen Elizabeth and the court, numbering among his friends Sir Philip Sydney and Sir Fulk Greville. With these and some others Bruno had frequent meetings; but as they treated of subjects of a very delicate nature, which could not suit the taste or capacity of everybody, none but select persons were admitted. Bruno's Spacio della Bestia Trionfante was printed in 1584, and dedicated to Sir Philip Sydney. From England he went to Wittemberg, and thence to Prague, where he printed several tracts, in which he openly avowed atheistical principles. After visiting some other towns in Germany, he made a tour to Venice, where he was apprehended by order of the inquisition, sent to Rome, tried, and condemned; and having refused to retract, he was burnt at the stake, Feb. 1600.