This monk and philosopher remembered history as an opponent of the Catholic Church and a victim of the Inquisition. You may not know his merits, but many remember that it was he who was burned at the stake for his beliefs. What did Giordano Bruno believe in?
Outstanding Thinker
He received the name “Giordano” only after taking monastic vows when he decided to devote his life to the religious path. Moreover, at the age of 24, he became a Catholic priest. However, the young man did not limit himself only to church literature. He wanted to penetrate the secrets of the universe and understand how everything works. Therefore, he began to read forbidden books, in which the church contributed almost all the scientific literature that did not correspond to biblical history.
Of course, he is being prosecuted and accused of heresy (a terrible accusation in those times), so Bruno changes several cities and even countries until he is tricked into returning to Venice. First of all, he was accused of attacking the church, because Giordano claimed that the miracles of Jesus were just the focus, and there is no such thing as the immaculate conception. Then studied his speculations about the world and the universe.
The prosecution resulted in the threat of punishment by burning. He needed to repent of sins and renounce his convictions in favor of the church. The philosopher refused, for which on February 17, 1600 (he was about 52 years old) he was executed in Rome.
Ideas of Giordano Bruno
Researchers believe that this philosopher in his convictions managed to outstrip his contemporaries and subsequent generations. These were not mathematical calculations and calculations with evidence, but thoughts themselves seem incredible for that period.
First of all, Bruno refused the main scientific statements that existed in his time. He did not believe that there is a world center (later, Cusa's will confirm that the Universe is devoid of a central fixed point), that outer space has a finite feature, no celestial spheres proposed by Aristotle, opposition to celestial and terrestrial matter, and beliefs that our world - the only one in the universe.
Already for the rejection of all this, he could be considered a dangerous free-thinker. But Giordano Bruno developed his thoughts even further. He followed Nikolai Kuzansky and Nicolaus Copernicus, promoting the heliocentric system of the world (the Sun, not the Earth, is at the center of the system). This was the base from which Bruno was repelled in his vision.
Although Bruno defended Copernicus, he did not hesitate to criticize some of his theories. For example, Copernicus believed that the Sun was completely motionless, but Bruno was convinced that our star rotates around its axis. Proving the rotation of the Earth, the philosopher came as close as possible to the fundamental physical principle of relativity.
The Giordano Bruno Trial by the Roman Inquisition
The truth for him was the infinity of outer space, which did not correspond to the conclusions of Aristotle adopted by official science. But the most surprising thing is that Bruno, unlike his contemporaries, was convinced that there were other worlds. Our Sun is just one of the stars, which means that there are a great many of them. Then there must be a planet. The latter even led him to the idea of the existence of other living beings (perhaps the first ufologist before us?).
Postscript
Some call the philosopher the “martyr of science.” But they often argue with that, because the Inquisition, above all, attacked him for speaking out against church dogma. Only then did the charges go against his cosmological teachings.
However, if he refused to attack against religion, then until recently he held his scientific convictions. It is believed that the Inquisition was most embarrassed by his faith in other worlds. For Giordano Bruno, everything ended in fire, a formal apology from Rome in 1889 and the opening of the monument. Rehabilitation did not materialize, because the Pope considered the work of the inquisitors to be justified.
