Nor had Bruno committed himself even in thought to open rupture with Catholicism.

He held the opinion, so common at that epoch, so inexplicable to us now, that the same man could countermine dogmatic theology as a philosopher, while he maintained it as a Christian.

This was the paradox on which Pomponazzo based his apology, which kept Campanella within the pale of the Church, and to which Bruno appealed for his justification when afterwards arraigned before the Inquisitors at Venice.
[Footnote 87: On the city, university and Inquisition of Toulouse in the sixteenth century see Christie's _Etiennne Dolet_--a work of sterling merit and sound scholarship.] It appears from his own autobiographical confessions that Bruno spent some six months at Toulouse, lecturing in private on the peripatetic psychology; after which time he obtained the degree of Doctor in Philosophy, and was admitted to a Readership in the university.

This post he occupied two years.

It was a matter of some moment to him that professors at Toulouse were not obliged to attend Mass.