The great Italian had original views not only on astronomy, but also on religion
Why was the genius scientist of the Renaissance sent to the stake? Because he argued that the Earth revolves around the Sun and is generally round? But no - he did not die because of his adherence to the heliocentric system.
Bruno Nolanets
The scholar and Dominican monk was also known by this name, as he was from the Italian city of Nola. When Bruno Nolanza was burned at the stake in Rome in 1600, the Holy Inquisition once again discredited itself, and on a large scale.
For a long time, the reason for the death of Bruno was considered to be the spread of the views of Copernicus - in particular, his heliocentric system; it was this version of events that we were told at school. However, the holy fathers were outraged not by what Giordano claimed - the Earth, they say, revolves around the sun, but the fact that he stubbornly denied the fundamental Christian dogmas.
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Freethinking and denunciation
Giordano Bruno saw himself not only as a scientist, but also as a preacher whose mission is to reform science and religion. His teaching was a very curious cocktail of Neoplatonism, Pythagoreanism and Hermetic philosophy. Bruno was a devout believer, but he believed that his contemporary religion had a lot of shortcomings that needed to be corrected. As for the teachings of Copernicus, Giordano perceived it as a very convenient applied tool with which one can popularly explain his own vision of the world.
So, he was many years ahead of Leo Tolstoy, claiming that the transformation of bread into the body of the Lord is nothing more than absurdity. That Christ was an ordinary swindler who deceived the people, and did not die of his own free will - moreover, he tried to avoid death. That no religion in the world, including Christianity, seems worthy to him. That the Virgin Mary could in no way give birth to the Son of God; that Catholicism operates with blasphemous rituals, and faith in God cannot be considered a merit before God, because to be virtuous, it is enough just not to do to others what you would not want for yourself. And also - that the souls after the death of the body pass into other bodies and even into other worlds, and these worlds are innumerable.
All these fabrications Bruno expressed, in particular, to the Venetian aristocrat Giovanni Mocenigo, whom he taught the art of mnemonics (the art of memorizing the necessary information - ed.). He at first listened with interest, and then, when his relationship with the teacher deteriorated, he saw fit to inform the inquisitors about him. Which he did. Three times.
Swung at sacred
The inquisitors of Venice did not find it possible to deal with Bruno on their own and sent him to Rome. There he was kept in dungeons for seven years - and, we must pay tribute to the holy fathers, all these years they tried to dissuade the lost brother, stubbornly proving to him that his teaching is full of logical inconsistencies. And all seven years Bruno shocked the inquisitors with statements like that he did not believe in the dogma of the Holy Trinity, “for, according to St. Augustine, this term is not ancient, but a new one that arose in his time."
Only after seven years of admonitions, Giordano Bruno, who refuses to repent of heresies, was handed over to the secular authorities.
The scientist's death sentence has come down to us; about the heliocentric system of Copernicus, as well as about science in general, there is not a word in it. It summarizes Bruno's eight heretical propositions.
Soviet historians, however, assumed that part of the document in which the accusations of the Inquisition were indicated in more detail had been lost. It is possible that it was so; however, there is a letter from Kaspar Shoppa, a Jesuit, which retells Bruno's heresies - and this letter also does not contain a single mention of the Earth revolving around the Sun. Giordano Bruno was executed as a heretic, but not as a scientist. Which, of course, does not diminish the significance of this loss for humanity.
BOYKO ANNA