Ateismo: il termine e l'idea. Per un confronto tra Bruno e Campanella

What is Bruno referring to when he employs the term 'atheism' in his introductory letter to the "Spaccio de la bestia trionfante"? In what is the only deployment of the term in his works, Bruno is referring to Calvinism. The passage in the letter introducing the "Spaccio" refers specifically to Henry III and his policies that attempted to mediate between Huguenots and Catholics. With some modifications, Bruno's discussion is connected to Plutarch's "De superstitione": the superstitious are the Catholics, while the impious (atheists) are the Protestants. For Campanella, then, Calvinists are certainly atheists on account of their theological idea of predestination, which constitutes a denial of human freedom far greater than any albeit radically sensist philosophical conception. While considering Epicureans, some Aristotelians, Machiavellians and Protestants as atheists, Campanella is also critical of the no less sectarian Italian reformers. A remark in the "Monarchia di Spagna" applied to them, as to others: «every heresy slides into atheism».