Europe has committed many sins since the execution of Socrates, countless, in fact. However, the theory's widespread adoption in the Soviet Union, which suggests that Giordano Bruno was burned for suggesting the Earth rotates, remains unclear. The idea of the Earth's rotation around its axis and orbit around the Sun was already being discussed a century earlier by the Polish astronomer Copernicus.
Giordano Bruno was a 16th-century Italian philosopher, alchemist, cosmologist, poet, and mystic, one of the most unorthodox thinkers of the Renaissance era, who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600.
Here’s what really happened: At that time, science operated within the bounds of the Church and monasteries. Giordano Bruno was also a clergyman, a monk, and, along with cosmology, he explored theological issues. He preached entirely new, revolutionary ideas about the universe and God. Bruno questioned the divinity of Christ, rejected the concept of the Immaculate Conception, and denied the doctrine of transubstantiation (the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ). All of this contradicted the fundamental dogmas of the Catholic Church.
He also spoke of the universe's infinity, the multiplicity of planets, and the possibility of life on other worlds.
To the Church, Giordano Bruno was a rebellious monk who refused to return to the path of faith. The Inquisition deemed that his ideas diminished God's creation, challenged the uniqueness of humanity, and undermined the Christian concept of salvation.
At the trial held by the Inquisition, what was examined were not Bruno’s cosmological, but his theological views. It was his religious beliefs and ideas, which posed a danger to the spiritual health of believers and public order, not his scientific speculations, that led to his death sentence. In that era of European history, many scientists made revolutionary discoveries, yet none were burned at the stake for it.
Also false is what we were taught in Soviet schools that Giordano Bruno’s last words were: “And yet it moves.” According to the trial records, when the verdict was read, the accused said: “You may be more afraid to bring that sentence against me than I am to accept it.” These are considered to be his final words.
Now that we’ve clarified what happened to Giordano Bruno, it would be interesting to know who exactly is the “sinner” Mr. Kobakhidze was referring to, the one allegedly burned in Europe for calling a woman a woman and a man a man. We weren’t told his name, nor in which country or town square he was tortured. We were only told that “Europe is sick.”
Europe, of course, does not live in paradise. There is no paradise on Earth, and Giordano Bruno would have agreed with that. Europe, too, sometimes suffers from health problems. But in the more than 400 years that have passed since the burning of that rebellious monk, Europe has come to recognise that Giordano Bruno is one of the most important figures in the history of Western thought. Today, he is regarded as a precursor of modern civilisation. The generations that came after him, who valued his ideas and his life, erected a statue in his honour on the very square where he was executed.
Giordano Bruno played a significant role in ensuring that, in today’s European states, no one is threatened for expressing differing opinions or views that may be unacceptable to someone else. In Europe, only criminals, thieves, murderers, abusers, and dishonest or irresponsible officials are prosecuted, regardless of their position or family connections.
Misinterpreting Giordano Bruno’s legacy is not only a historical error, but it is morally wrong. It diminishes the heroism of those who sacrificed their lives for freedom of thought.
It reminds us that the real threat to liberty today does not come from Europe’s past, but from those who try to bring the Inquisition back in the name of “tradition,” “sovereignty,” or “alternative truths.”
If we are to defend democracy, we must first protect the truth, including historical truth.
