The motives of Mocenigo were more than questionable. He was of the noblest blood of Venice, the Doge's Chair having been seven times filled by members of his family, and among the patrician youth there was a fashionable craze for Lullism and kindred much-promising arts at this time.[105] _De Valeriis_, another Venetian noble, wrote, in 1589, an _Opus Aureum_, which was published at Strassburg along with other Lullian works (including Bruno's) in 1609. Again, Bruno believed in, and probably taught, a kind of "natural magic," the magic of sympathetic influence from stars, animals, plants, and stones upon the life of man. Mocenigo, as his conduct abundantly showed, was shallow, mean, superstitious, weak-minded, and vain. He was just the type of man to be attracted therefore by anything that savoured of the black art, of which Bruno was popularly regarded as a devotee. His real aim may have been to be initiated by Bruno into this, although he professed the desire merely of having the Lullian mnemonics and art of invention taught him. His disappointment, when he found Bruno had nothing new to give him in that direction, might account, in a man of his character, for the revenge he took. But there may have been worse behind: Mocenigo had been one of the _Savii all' Eresia_--the assessors appointed by the State to the Inquisition Board in Venice--and was therefore familiar with the intrigues of that body. He was also under the influence of his Father Confessor, by whose orders he denounced Bruno. The proceedings make it extremely probable, therefore, that the Inquisition laid a trap for Bruno, into which he unsuspectingly walked. It is more difficult to understand how the latter so calmly entered the lion's jaws. _Acidalius_ (Valens Havekenthal), writing to Michael Forgacz from Bologna (January 21, 1592), expressed the general surprise. "Tell me one thing more: Giordano Bruno, whom you knew at Wittenberg, the Nolan, is said to be living just now among you at Padua. Is it really so? What sort of man is this that he dares enter Italy, which he left an exile, as he used himself to confess? I wonder, I wonder! I cannot yet believe the rumour, although I have it on good authority. You shall tell me whether it is true or false." But clearly ill rumours were spreading, for on the third of March he wrote in a different tone, "I no longer wonder about that other sophist, so diverse and incredible are the tales I hear daily of him here."[106] Probably Bruno did not understand what manner of reputation he had; he still regarded himself as belonging to the Catholic Church. Ciotto deposed he had heard nothing from Bruno's lips which might suggest a doubt of his being a good Catholic and Christian. Venice was a free and powerful state, Mocenigo the son of a powerful house, so that he may well have looked for safety; and it was his beloved Italy, for which he had never ceased to yearn since the day he had crossed the Alps.