by MUBARAK ALI
The trial of Giordano Bruno by the Roman Inquisition. Bronze relief by Ettore Ferrari, Campo de’ Fiori, Rome. IMAGE/Wikipedia
In the 16th century, Europe confronted religious, social and political conflict. This is not necessarily a bad thing as historians believe that conflict is a leitmotif of change. It awakens society from slumber and stagnation and leads to the creation of new ideas and thoughts with the passage of time.
When Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church and its outdated institutions, the church became divided. In turn, the Catholic Church launched the Counter- Reformation with an aim to reform the church and restore Catholicism in Europe.
In 1618-48, the Thirty Year War ravaged Germany along with other European countries like Sweden, France, Spain and Austria when the Roman Catholic Church attempted to curtail the activities of the Protestants, sparking a rebellion. At first the Catholic Church authorities underestimated the extent of the Reformation but when they realised that the movement was spreading from one country to another, they decided to take action to defend and reform themselves.
The Inquisition, which was a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Roman Catholic Church, took harsh steps against heretics to check any deviation from faith in order to retain its unity.
The first philosopher to face the charges of heresy was Giordano Bruno (d.1600) who propagated his idea that earth moved and there were a number of galaxies behind the sun. The Inquisition arrested him and tried him as a heretic. It was the practice of the Inquisition to torture its prisoners and force them to plead guilty. Giordano Bruno endured the torture but refused to reject his ideas. Finally, he was taken out of prison, paraded in the streets as a heretic and burnt at stake.
In 1610, Galileo a prominent scientist and philosopher published Sidereus Nuncius presenting his startling astronomical observations in which he recorded the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter. With these observations he promoted the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. Galileo’s initial discoveries were met with opposition within the Catholic Church, and in 1616 the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be formally heretical. Responding to mounting controversy over theology, astronomy and philosophy, Galileo was tried in 1633 for heresy and sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. He was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642.
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