Hi All

A related matter usually portrayed as "science/anti-science" is the case of Bruno. However he was actually condemned for his other doctrinal heresies - which he didn't recant of - and several of them directly challenged ecclesiastical power. That was a serious 'no, no' in the 16th Century because it sided you with the Protestants, thus making you immediately condemned. He also denied things like the Virgin Birth and used all the usual sceptical canards that free-thinkers have thrown at the Church.

The Church shouldn't have fallen into the trap of equating heresy with sedition, but then Church & State weren't separated anywhere in Europe at that time in a real way legally - even in Protestant states. Heretics were essentially revolutionaries - and that was always a sure way to get in trouble...