Wrong! The church had a LOT to do with it:
en.wikipedia.org
Giordano Bruno (Latin: Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; Italian: [d?or'dano 'bruno]; 1548 – February 17, 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer.[3] He is best known for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then-novel Copernican model: while supporting heliocentrism, Bruno also correctly proposed that the Sun was just another star moving in space, and claimed as well that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited worlds, identified as planets orbiting other stars.[4]
Beginning in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges including denial of the Trinity, denial of the divinity of Christ, denial of virginity of Mary, and denial of Transubstantiation. The Inquisition found him guilty, and in 1600 he was burned at the stake.[5] After his death he gained considerable fame, particularly among 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who, focusing on his astronomical beliefs, regarded him as a martyr for modern scientific ideas,[6] though scholars emphasize that Bruno was persecuted as a heretic due to his pantheist theology of an infinite God.[7][8] Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the future of the emerging sciences.[9][10] |
