[Footnote 208: Bartholmèss: I, 134.] [Footnote 209: Libri: IV, 144.] [Footnote 210: McIntyre: 16-40.] To Bruno belongs the glory of the first public proclamation in England of the new doctrine,[211] though only Gilbert[212] and possibly Wright seem to have accepted it at the time. Upon Bruno's return to London, he entered the home of the French ambassador as a kind of secretary, and there spent the happiest years of his life till the ambassador's recall in October, 1585. It was during this period that he wrote some of his most famous books. In _La Cena de la Ceneri_ he defended the Copernican theory, incidentally criticising the Oxford dons most severely,[213] for which he apologized in _De la Causa, Principio et Uno_. He developed his philosophy of an infinite universe in _De l'Infinito e Mondi_, and in the _Spaccio de la Bestia Trionphante_ "attacked all religions of mere credulity as opposed to religions of truth and deeds."[214] This last book was at once thought to be a biting attack upon the Roman Church and later became one of the grounds of the Inquisition's charges against him. During this time in London also, he came to know Sir Philip Sydney intimately, and Fulk Greville as well as others of that brilliant period. He may have known Bacon;[215] but it is highly improbable that he and Shakespeare met,[216] or that Shakespeare ever was influenced by the other's philosophy.[217] [Footnote 211: Bartholmèss: I, 134.] [Footnote 212: Gilbert: _De Magnete_ (London, 1600).] [Footnote 213: Berti: 369, Doc. XIII.] [Footnote 214: McIntyre: 16-40.] [Footnote 215: Bartholmèss: I, 134.] [Footnote 216: Beyersdorf: _Giordano Bruno und Shakespear_, 8-36.] [Footnote 217: Such passages as _Troilus and Cressida_: Act I, sc. 3; _King John_, Act III, sc. 1; and _Merry Wives_, Act III, sc. 2, indicate that Shakespeare accepted fully the Ptolemaic conception of a central, immovable earth. See also Beyersdorf: _op. cit._] Leaving Paris soon after his return thither, Bruno wandered into southern Germany. At Marburg he was not permitted to teach, but at Wittenberg the Lutherans cordially welcomed him into the university. After a stay of a year and a half, he moved on to Prague for a few months, then to Helmstadt, Frankfort and Zurich, and back to Frankfort again where, in 1591, he received an invitation from a young Venetian patrician, Moecenigo, to come to Venice as his tutor. He re-entered Italy, therefore, in August, much to the amazement of his contemporaries. It is probable that Moecenigo was acting for the Inquisition.[218] At any rate, he soon denounced Bruno to that body and in May, 1592, surrendered him to it.[219] [Footnote 218: McIntyre: 68.] [Footnote 219: Ibid: 47-72.]