Giordano Bruno. Martyr to Astronomy.

I read somewhere that his arrogance and contempt for Bellarmine made him his own worst enemy.

Burned alive upside down !

Poor wretch.

They sure knew how to punish you in those days !

Here’s another link that gives a bit more about Bruno.

www.infidels.org/library/historical/john.../giordano_bruno.html

pmgisme wrote

I read somewhere that his arrogance and contempt for Bellarmine made him his own worst enemy.

Burned alive upside down !

Poor wretch.

They sure knew how to punish you in those days !"

It's a pity this punishment is not in vogue these days!!!

I can think of a few more people to burn at the stake :twisted:

Spaceboy

Very interesting story. Stirs some anger at how he was muffled. Still, if it wasn't for brazen men like him, and Galileo, and Copernicus among others, astronomy may not have readily survived those 'dark times'.

The RCC was well versed in copernican theory. De Revolutionibus was dedicated to the Pope even. Galileo, as has been pointed out here, took the theory and started proclaiming it as truth without any proof which is bad enough, but then went on to say that the bible was wrong also and took his argument into the theological realm. De Revolutionibus only ended up on the banned bok list 70 years after publication, when Galileo decided to use it as a theological book. If the church was so anti-copernicus why did it not ban the ideas when they first were published?

Urban VIII encouraged Galileo, his friend, to work on the heliocentric model but not to advocate it, simply to publish the arguments for and against the system. Galileo then went and published 'Dialogue on the Two World Systems' which basically just advocates the helicentric model without proof and insults the Pope.

The common history of the event and what actually happened are quite different. Probably due to whoever wrote the 1700's history books! However the whole Galileo mess was badly handled by the church. But Galileo himself was the main cause of the trouble; a little less arrogance and a little (well any!) political savy and he would have not only not ended up in court but would have kept the favour (and patronage) of the pope and church.

Both sides could have learnt from St. Augustine:
Whatever they can really demonstrate to be true of physical nature, we must show to be capable of reconciliation with our Scriptures; and whatever they assert in their treatises which is contrary to these Scriptures of ours, that is to Catholic faith, we must either prove it as well as we can to be entirely false, or at all events we must, without the smallest hesitation, believe it to be so.

Cheers,
~Al

Dont blame Galileo and Bruno.

Without their sacrifice we would still be burning people at the stake upside down.

They will be remembered long after Bellarmine and his clique, who believed that they had a hot line to the creator of the cosmos, are long forgotten.

Peter.

To me it doesn't matter if Bruno was a loonie or a genious. He was burned simply for believing something the church did not like rather than believing what the church put around as fact based on no evidence either! He is a martyr, but not neccessarily to science.

Yet another reason for my utter discust at the RCC for electing the head of the inquizition to the possition of pope.

Bart.