Elizabeth herself he calls a goddess, _diva_, using phrases which were afterwards recited in the terms of his indictment before the Inquisition.

What pleased him most in England, was the liberty of speech and thought he there enjoyed.[90] Society was so urbane, government was so unsuspicious, that a man could venture to call things by their proper names and speak his heart out without reserve.

That Bruno's panegyric was not prompted by any wish to flatter national vanity, is proved by the hard truths he spoke about the grossness of the people, and by his sarcasms on Oxford pedants.

He also ventured to condemn in no unmeasured terms some customs which surprised him in domestic intercourse.

He drew, for instance, a really gruesome picture of the loving-cup, as it passed round the table, tasted by a mixed assemblage.[91] A visit paid by Bruno to Oxford forms a curious episode in his English experiences.