"From Venice,"[24] Bruno tells us, "I went to Padua, where I found some fathers of the order of St. Dominic, whom I knew; they persuaded me to resume the habit, even though I should not wish to return to the order, as it was more convenient for travel: with this idea I went to Bergamo, and had a robe made of cheap white cloth, placing over it the _scapular_ which I kept when I left Rome." On his way to Bergamo he seems to have touched at Brescia and Milan, at the former place curing, "with vinegar and polypod," a monk who claimed to have the spirit of prophecy.[25] At Milan he first heard of his future patron and friend, Sir Philip Sidney.[26] From Bergamo he was making for Lyons, but at Chambéry was warned that he would meet with little sympathy there, and turned accordingly towards Geneva, the home of exiled reformers of all nationalities, but especially of Italians. It is uncertain how the time was distributed among these places,--possibly Bruno spent a winter, as Berti suggests, at Chambéry, having crossed the Alps the previous autumn;--what _is_ certain is, that he arrived at Geneva in April or May of 1579. Under the date May 22, of that year, in the book of the Rector of the Academy at Geneva, is inscribed the name _Philippus Brunus_, in his own hand. On his arrival at the hostelry in Geneva, he was called upon by a distinguished exile and reformer, the Marquis of Vico, a Neapolitan. To the court at Venice, Bruno gave the following account of this visit and of his life in Geneva:--"He asked me who I was, and whether I had come to stay there and to profess the religion of the city, to which, after I had given an account of myself and of my reasons for abandoning the Order, I said that I had no intention of professing the religion of the city, not knowing what it was, and that therefore I wished rather to remain living in freedom and security, than in any other manner. I was persuaded, in any case, to lay aside the habit I wore; so I had made for myself from the cloth a pair of trews and other things, while the Marquis himself, with other Italians, gave me a sword, hat, cape, and other necessaries of clothing, and enabled me to support myself so far by correcting proofs. I stayed about two months, and attended at times the preachings and discussions, both of Italians and Frenchmen who lectured and preached in the city; among others, I heard several times Nicolo Balbani of Lucca, who read on the epistles of St. Paul, and preached the Gospels; but having been told that I could not remain there long if I did not make up my mind to adopt the religion of the city, for if not I should receive no assistance, I resolved to leave."[27] When the inscription of Bruno's name in the book of the Rector of the Academy was found, a doubt appeared to be thrown upon the truth or frankness of this evidence about himself. The regulations of 1559 had made it necessary for intending members to accept and sign