Bruno, Galileo and "Eppur si muove
Were people put to death for saying the Earth isn't the center? Bruno was burned in 1600, mostly for theology; Galileo was convicted in 1633.
Giordano Bruno, burned in 1600
Giordano Bruno, an Italian friar and philosopher, went beyond Copernicus: he taught that the universe is infinite, the stars are other suns, and they may have their own worlds with life. The Roman Inquisition burned him at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori on February 17, 1600.
But it is not quite true that he was killed for astronomy. The main charges were theological: denying the Trinity, the divinity of Christ and other core doctrines. His cosmology was part of the picture, not the whole of it. A statue of him stands where he was burned.
Galileo
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) turned a telescope on the sky in 1609–10 and saw moons circling Jupiter, the phases of Venus (which only make sense if Venus orbits the sun) and mountains on the Moon. Strong evidence for Copernicus.
- 1616: the Church declared the sun-centered idea contrary to scripture, put Copernicus's book on the banned list until corrected, and warned Galileo not to hold or defend it.
- 1632: he published the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which made the case anyway and put the Pope's own argument in the mouth of a character named Simplicio.
- 1633: tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy," forced to kneel and abjure (formally renounce) the idea. Sentenced to prison, commuted to house arrest for life at his villa at Arcetri near Florence. He died there in 1642, the year Newton was born.
- 1992: Pope John Paul II formally acknowledged the Church had erred.
"Eppur si muove" (And yet it moves)
Legend says that after abjuring, Galileo muttered "Eppur si muove" (EP-poor see MWOH-veh), "And yet it moves," meaning the Earth. It is probably a legend: it first appears in print in 1757, more than a century later (Giuseppe Baretti), though a painting from the 1640s may show the words. Saying it aloud in front of the Inquisition would have been suicidal. But it captures the truth: you can force a man to deny something, but the Earth goes on moving.
Key facts
- Bruno burned February 17, 1600, Campo de' Fiori; mainly for theological heresy
- Galileo 1633: convicted, house arrest; "Eppur si muove" (And yet it moves) is likely legend
- Galileo saw Jupiter's moons and Venus's phases (1610)
- Church acknowledged its error in 1992