82 . SIXTEENTH CENTURY. FT, in. 



the sun. But poor Bruno was a very plain outspoken man, 

 and his bold language brought him to a sad but noble 

 death. When people said he should not spread the Coper- 

 nican system because it was contrary to the Bible, he 

 answered boldly that the Bible was meant to teach men 

 how to love God and live rightly, and not to settle questions 

 of science. Most people now would say that Bruno was 

 right, but the judges of the Inquisition did not think so, 

 and were so alarmed at his opinions that they condemned 

 him to death. In the year 1600, just as the century closed, 

 Bruno was burnt at the stake in Rome as an atheist, partly 

 because he insisted on repeating that the earth is not the 

 centre of the universe, and that there may be other in- 

 habited worlds besides ours. 



Chief Works consulted. WhewelFs ' Inductive Sciences ;' Rrewster's 

 'Optics;' Brewster's 'Martyrs of Science,' 1874; Encyclopedia 

 Britannica,' art. ' Astronomy ; ' Drinkwater's ' Life Galileo ; ' 

 Rossitei j s 'Mechanics,' 1873; Cuvier, ' Histoire des Sciences Natu- 

 relies j' Baden Powell's 'Natural Philosophy.' 



