130 Science Religion and Reality 



astrological teaching always tended to limit the freedom of the 

 human will and the omnipotence of the Creator. It had been 

 thus used by the heretic Pomponazzi. Now the detailed display 

 of the structure of the human body by Vesalius and his followers, 

 and the detailed study of the structure of the universe by such 

 astronomers as Copernicus, made the astrological point of view 

 less tenable. Thus it was that the two great publications of 1543 

 laid the axe to medieval science from both sides. While, there- 

 fore, the Church thrust from her the new interpretation of the 

 world, she was by no means reluctant to be quit of her old enemy. 

 That enemy died in giving birth to a new foe. 



This early modern period of conflict between religion and 

 science closes naturally with the year 1600. The manifestations 

 of the human spirit are not accustomed to confine themselves 

 naturally to exact secular limits. Yet it happens, in this case, that 

 the year 1600 really does mark a turning-point. Giordano Bruno 

 (i 548-1 600), who was no practical scientist, had eagerly incor- 

 porated into his often fantastic philosophy the ill-worked-out 

 conclusions of Copernicus. Despite the allegorical presentation 

 of his thoughts, his works leave us in no doubt of the vehemence of 

 his attack on established religion. His denial of particular pro- 

 vidence leads him to a rejection of miracle, to the identification of 

 liberty and necessity, and to the doctrine of the uselessness of prayer. 

 Bruno in his search for unity regards God as the universal substance. 

 Nominally adopting the Copernican theory, he modified it funda- 

 mentally. Praising the genius of Copernicus for its freedom from 

 prejudice, he regrets that the astronomer was more a student of 

 mathematics than of Nature, and was therefore unable to free 

 himself from untenable principles. The limitation of the sphere 

 of the fixed stars was obnoxious to Giordano, and he removed the 

 boundaries of the world to an infinite distance in accordance 

 with the principles of his philosophy. 



Giordano was burned at the stake at Rome, after seven years' 

 imprisonment, on February 17, 1600. In the same year the 

 experimental era was ushered in with the work of William Gilbert, 

 " On the Magnet," in which he not only demonstrates experi- 

 mentally the properties of magnets but also shows that the earth 

 itself is a magnet. In the same year Tycho Brahe handed over 

 the torch to Johannes Kepler. Tycho was the last of the older 

 astronomers who worked on the Aristotelian view of circular and 



