Giordano Bruno: Portrait of a Philosopher opposed to the Authority Principle

In his writings Giordano Bruno fought against the principle of authority, which he saw as an expression of a power which lacked true validity and thus could only reply with a violent imposition of its own will. What he was opposing was the authority of censors in the different guises adopted at the time; the appeal to authority was brought into play for problems to do with religious faith and not just for questions concerning literary or poetic models (for instance Petrarchism), or models of grammar and style (e.g. Ciceronianism), or philosophical models (such as the Aristotelianism which still dominated the schools).