There is absolutely no reason for doubting these statements, and if true, they are quite compatible with acquaintance, if not friendship, between Bruno and Sir Philip Sidney, or the others whom he mentions. Mendoça was not, however a _persona grata_ at Court: he was a thorough-going supporter of the Scottish Queen, and seems to have had a finger in almost every conspiracy that was planned or formed by the English Catholics. He became unbearable to Queen Elizabeth; his recall was demanded and refused; but in January of 1584 he was compelled to leave England, and a formal rupture with Spain was the consequence, which became actual war four years afterwards. Philip of Spain did not desert his champion, in whom he had the highest confidence. In October of 1584 Mendoça became Ambassador to France, and there in 1855 Bruno renewed acquaintance with him. [Sidenote: Sidney.] [Sidenote: Greville.] [Sidenote: Spenser.] Like all his contemporaries, Bruno came under the spell of Sir Philip Sidney's charm. He had already heard in Milan and in France of that "most illustrious and excellent cavalier, one of the rarest and brightest spirits in the world." To Sir Philip are dedicated the two chief ethical writings of Bruno, the _Spaccio_, and the _Heroici Furori_, with the expressed assurance that the author is not presenting a lyre to a deaf man, nor a mirror to a blind. "The Italian reasons with one who can understand his speech; his verses are under the censure and the protection of a poet. Philosophy displays her form unveiled to so clear an eye as yours. The way of heroism is pointed out to a heroic and generous spirit." Sidney was one of the first to take an interest in the Italian on his arrival in England, and when the _Spaccio_ was published, on the eve, as Bruno thought, of his departure from England towards the close of 1584,[56] Bruno could not turn his back upon Sidney's "beautiful, fortunate, and chivalrous country, without saluting him with a mark of recognition, along with the generous and humane spirit, Sir Fulke Greville." There was some disagreement, however, between Greville and Bruno, "the invidious Erinnys of vile, malignant, ignoble, interested persons, had spread its poison" between them, in Bruno's emphatic words. What the ground of division was we do not know; possibly the tone in which the _Cena_ spoke of Oxford men, and of English scholars generally, had offended Greville, and this may have called out the partial retractation in the _Causa_. As is well known the friendship of the two men, Sidney and Greville (with whom Edward Dyer was closely associated), was of the noblest type. Greville died in 1628 in the fulness of years and of honours, but had retained the impress of his young friendship fresh to the end.[57] It may be added that he became an intimate of Francis Bacon, who may through him have been introduced to Bruno's works. It must have been in some such way also that Spenser knew of Bruno, as it