Stories of scientists who were persecuted and expelled because of important discoveries or inventions
(1) Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) - Italian physicist, astronomer, and mathematician. Galileo is perhaps more qualified than any other person to be called the founder of modern science. His famous conflict with the Catholic Church was the central event in his philosophy. That's because Galileo was one of the first to argue that humans have the potential to understand how the world works, and that we can do this by observing the real world. Galileo had long believed in the Copernican theory that the planets orbited the sun, but only publicly supported it when he discovered evidence to support it. He wrote about Copernicus' theory in Italian (rather than in ordinary academic Latin), and his views soon gained widespread support beyond the university community. This angered the Aristotelian professors, who rallied against him and tried hard to persuade the Catholic Church to ban Copernicanism. Galileo was worried about this and rushed to Rome to complain to the Catholic authorities. He argued that the Bible does not attempt to tell us anything about scientific theories, but often assumes that when the Bible conflicts with common sense, it becomes metaphorical. But the church feared that the scandal might harm its fight against Protestants, so it resorted to repressive measures. In 1616, it declared Copernicanism "hypocritical and false" and ordered Galileo not to "defend or uphold" the doctrine anymore. Galileo reluctantly accepted.
In 1623, a long-time friend of Galileo became pope. Galileo immediately tried to overturn the 1616 verdict. He failed, but he managed to obtain permission to write a book describing the Aristotelian and Copernican theories on two premises: he must not be inclined and at the same time draw the conclusion that human beings in any situation No one can determine how the world works, because God will achieve the same effect in ways that humans cannot imagine, and humans cannot limit God’s omnipotence. The book, entitled Dialogue Concerning the Two Principal World Systems, was completed and published in 1632 with the censor's full support, and was immediately hailed throughout Europe as a literary and philosophical masterpiece. The Pope soon realized that the book was seen as a confirmation of Copernicanism and regretted allowing its publication. The pope pointed out that although the censor had officially approved the publication of the book, Galileo still violated the 1616 ban. He brought Galileo before the Inquisition, sentenced him to lifelong house arrest, and ordered him to publicly renounce Copernicanism. Galileo was forced to obey for the second time.
(2) Bruno
The martyr of science - Giordano Bruno (1548-1600 AD) was born in the town of Nola near Naples, Italy. Probably he lost his parents when he was young, or he came from a poor family and was raised by priests. This poor boy was eager to learn since childhood, and became a monk in a Dominican monastery when he was 15 years old. Thanks to tenacious self-study, he finally became a knowledgeable scholar in the contemporary era.
This diligent, studious, bold and brave young man immediately aroused his fiery enthusiasm as soon as he came into contact with Copernicus's "On the Revolution of the Celestial Bodies". From then on, he abandoned religious ideas, only recognized scientific truth, and fought for it throughout his life.
Bruno believed in Copernican theory, so he became a religious rebel. He was accused of being a heretic and excommunicated. In 1576 AD, Bruno, who was only 28 years old, had to escape from the monastery and drifted abroad for a long time in Switzerland, France, England and Germany. He was at home all over the world, living in Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, London, Wittenberg and other countries. Lived in many cities. Despite this, Bruno remained unswervingly promoting scientific truth. He gave lectures and articles everywhere, and often attended debates in some universities. He used his pen and tongue to actively praise the Copernican theory without fear and ruthlessly attacked the obsolete dogma of official scholastic philosophy.
Bruno’s major was neither astronomy nor mathematics, but he greatly enriched and developed the Copernican theory with superhuman foresight.
In his book "On Infinity, Universe and World", he proposed the idea of ??infinite universe. He believed that the universe is unified, material, infinite and eternal. There are countless celestial worlds beyond the solar system. What humans see is only an extremely small part of the infinite universe, and the earth is just a tiny speck of dust in the infinite universe.
Bruno further pointed out that thousands of stars are huge and hot stars like the sun, and these stars are rushing in all directions at huge speeds. There are also many planets like our earth around them, and there are many satellites around the planets. Life not only exists on our earth, but may also exist on distant planets that people cannot see...
With a brave blow, Bruno will bind people's minds for thousands of years. The "ball shell" was smashed to pieces. Bruno's outstanding ideas made his contemporaries feel confused and shocked! Most people think that Bruno's ideas are simply "appalling". Even the astronomer Kepler, who was revered as the "legislator of the sky" in that era, could not accept it. Kepler felt dizzy while reading Bruno's works!
In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Bruno is an extremely harmful "heretic" and a heinous enemy. They used cunning intrigues to bribe Bruno's friends and lured Bruno back to the country. They arrested him on May 23, 1592, imprisoned him in the prison of the Inquisition, and interrogated and tortured him continuously up to For 8 years!
Since Bruno is a highly reputable scholar, the Catholic Church tried to force him to repent in public and gain notoriety. However, they never expected that all threats, threats and inducements would not shake Bruno's belief in the truth at all. . Some priests talked to Bruno and said that based on his talent, if he returned to religion and studied dogma painstakingly, he would definitely improve the Holy See in Rome. He said frankly: "It is difficult to reconcile my thoughts with the Bible."
The people in the Catholic Church were desperate. They showed their viciousness and suggested that the authorities burn Bruno alive. Bruno seemed to have expected it. After hearing the verdict, he said contemptuously to the brutal executioners without changing his expression: "Your fear when the verdict was read was much greater than when I walked towards the fire." AD 1600 On February 17, 2011, Bruno died heroically in the Plaza de Fiori in Rome. A great scientist was burned to death.
Due to Bruno's vigorous propaganda, Copernicus' theory spread throughout Europe. The Catholic Church was well aware that this kind of science was a great threat to them, so in 1619 AD the Roman Catholic Council decided to list "On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres" as a banned book, prohibiting the promotion of Copernicus's theory.
Bruno was not afraid of the punishment of fire, fought unyieldingly against the church and theology, and contributed to the development of science. His scientific spirit lives on forever! In 1889, people erected a bronze statue of Bruno in the Flower Square where he was martyred to forever commemorate this warrior who dedicated his life to science. Bruno was later called "the astronomer after Copernicus". Not only that, Bruno became more and more respected, and the church also felt sad for his behavior at that time...
(3) Copernicus
In 1515, Copernicus began to write "The Movement of the Celestial Bodies" "On" book. After completing "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres", Copernicus hesitated to publish it. He was worried that after the book was published, it would be attacked by believers in geocentric theory and suppressed by the Holy See. With the support and encouragement of friends and students, and after long and repeated consideration, Copernicus finally decided to publish this work. In June 1542, the work of "On the Movement of Celestial Bodies" and printing began. On May 24, 1543, the dying Copernicus finally saw the newly published "On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres". Unfortunately, he was already blind due to cerebral hemorrhage. He only touched the cover of the book and passed away. .
The book "The Structure of the Human Body" by the Belgian doctor Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was published.
Vesalius studied human structure through human anatomy practice and overturned many errors of Galen in ancient Greece. The anatomy he established opened the way for the discovery of blood circulation; Spanish doctor Michael Servetus (1511) -1553) also corrected Galen's erroneous theory and elaborated on his views on pulmonary circulation; British physician William Harvey (1578-1657) finally discovered blood circulation and published "Heart and Blood Exercises" in 1628 Detailed description in "Theory".
Vesalius was persecuted by the church and ran away from Spain. He was later sentenced to death. After the king's intervention, he was changed to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On the way back, his ship was in danger and he died unfortunately; Servetus's book was regarded by the believers as For heresy, the Inquisition sentenced him to death at the stake. Servetus was burned to death on the burning ground in Geneva in 1553, and all his works were burned together; Fortunately, the power of British religion was not as great as that on the European continent at that time. Thanks to the protection given to him by King Charles I, Harvey was finally able to live a long life.
In 1589, a British priest named William Lee designed a manual pedal-operated machine for knitting with spring crochet hooks. This was the ancestor of the modern knitting machine.
In the era when William Lee lived, hand-knitting was very popular. It is said that after William Lee finished his studies at Cambridge University, he returned to his hometown - Calvinton. When he began his pastoral career, he also began a life with those girls who knitted almost all day long. He was a person who did not adapt to the environment. He felt very uncomfortable when he saw the two sticks in the girls' hands constantly dancing and heard the thumping sound made by the stick needles. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind: Why not use hundreds of small needles instead of one large needle, use many hooks to lift the loop and place it on the wool, and punch one row at a time? Why can't we make an automatic knitting machine?
There was nothing particularly new in William Lee's ideas. North African herders had been using knitting machines and hooks for centuries BC. Carpet weavers used a framing technique not unlike that of William Leahy. What was new was just the concept of the "knitting machine" and the simple knitting action of using a row of hooks to lift the knitted loops onto the yarn.
After three years of hard work, the first manual and pedal knitting machine was born, and William Lee thought he had found a way to become famous and make money. He took the machine to the court to meet Queen Elizabeth, hoping to obtain the monopoly and patent rights for the knitting machine. But the Queen was not interested in his invention. She believed that the invention of the knitting machine would threaten the cotton industry of the British Empire. She also believed that wool socks were too tacky. In order to be able to knit silk stockings, he spent another 8 years. However, Elizabeth still refused to recognize his patent. He was in a difficult situation and wanted to find help in the city, but no one had confidence in his machine. Soon he and his brother came to the European continent. They tried their best to persuade financiers to set up a mechanical weaving industry. However, all efforts were in vain. In 1610, the designer of the knitting machine died in a foreign country in despair after running around and running into obstacles everywhere.