"Bruno believed that Copernicus had not developed the full cosmological implications of his insight. He postulated the idea of an infinite universe with an infinity of worlds, many of them, perhaps, populated with creatures as intelligent as ourselves. He suggested furthermore that in the future human beings might develop means of traveling through space and visiting these other worlds.

"Such opinions generated a good deal of ridicule. But there were church authorities who took Bruno's views much more seriously."

Denounced as a heretic by the Inquisition, the church first burned Bruno's books and papers in St. Peter's Square, and then, on February 17, 1600 ordered Bruno himself to be publicly burned.

"In later centuries, Bruno was acclaimed as a champion of intellectual freedom against the force of intolerance. In a deliberate snub to the Vatican, the Republican government of Rome erected a statue in his honor in the square where he was burned."

Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, and his works banned under the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. That ban lasted until 1966, by the way...
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