3 ms·

Ok, why did Inquisitor Bellarmine have the Copernican follower Giordano Bruno burned at the stake?

dang 5y ago
Please don't take HN threads further into religious, er, flamewar. Not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
analog31 5y ago
As I understand it, Bruno was accused of heresy. The same fate would have awaited Galileo, but the Church stopped one step short of accusing Galileo of heresy. The words that I recall reading was that he was "vehemently suspected of heresy."
- ilteris 5y ago
  Is there a documentary or a book i can watch or read to learn about these events? Thanks.
  - analog31 5y ago
    I read a book, "Galileo's Daughter" that was not strictly about the heliocentrism affair, but gave enough of the details, plus what I thought was good insight into the surrounding social and political issues. One interesting political issue is that the Church hierarchy was facing accusations from lower level clergy, of being "soft on heresy" in the aftermath of the Reformation. Some people saw the Galileo affair as a test of whether the Church was willing to assert its authority or not. Also, Galileo had two trials, that were conducted under two different Popes. And some of the issues were clouded by the fact that it was actually hard to communicate between A and B in Italy. Apparently many of the letters back and forth were held up because they would not carry mail through towns that were under quarantine when a plague came through. The text of Bellarmine's letter to Galileo is worth reading. Note that I'm not defending the Church with my comments, but only documenting what I think was the technical difference between the Galileo and Bruno cases.
speeder 5y ago
Because he defended reincarnation, pantheism, denied the trinity and so on. Basically the church got upset he was preaching religious stuff against the church, it had nothing to do with his science.

dang 5y ago

Please don't take HN threads further into religious, er, flamewar. Not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

analog31 5y ago

As I understand it, Bruno was accused of heresy. The same fate would have awaited Galileo, but the Church stopped one step short of accusing Galileo of heresy. The words that I recall reading was that he was "vehemently suspected of heresy."

ilteris 5y ago
Is there a documentary or a book i can watch or read to learn about these events? Thanks.
- analog31 5y ago
  I read a book, "Galileo's Daughter" that was not strictly about the heliocentrism affair, but gave enough of the details, plus what I thought was good insight into the surrounding social and political issues. One interesting political issue is that the Church hierarchy was facing accusations from lower level clergy, of being "soft on heresy" in the aftermath of the Reformation. Some people saw the Galileo affair as a test of whether the Church was willing to assert its authority or not. Also, Galileo had two trials, that were conducted under two different Popes. And some of the issues were clouded by the fact that it was actually hard to communicate between A and B in Italy. Apparently many of the letters back and forth were held up because they would not carry mail through towns that were under quarantine when a plague came through. The text of Bellarmine's letter to Galileo is worth reading. Note that I'm not defending the Church with my comments, but only documenting what I think was the technical difference between the Galileo and Bruno cases.

speeder 5y ago

Because he defended reincarnation, pantheism, denied the trinity and so on. Basically the church got upset he was preaching religious stuff against the church, it had nothing to do with his science.