Roberto Bellarmino

Famous and influential theologian of the Jesuit Order, advisor to the Holy Office and then, from 1599, Cardinal, Roberto Bellarmino coordinated the lengthy trial brought against Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), which began in 1593. From a thorough examination of Bruno's works, Bellarmino extracted some heterodox propositions. The trial concluded with a sentence of death for the philosopher, condemned as an "unrepentant heretic". Bruno, consigned to the secular arm of the law by Pope Clement VIII (1536-1605, Pope from 1592), was burned at the stake on 17 February 1600 in Piazza di Campo de' Fiori, Rome.

Bellarmino was also the protagonist of the first stage of the clash between Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the Copernicans, on the hand, and the ecclesiastical authorities on the other. He opposed, in fact, requests to consider physically admissible the hypothesis advanced by Niccolò Copernico (1473-1543), stubbornly reiterating that it could be considered only a hypothesis. He also played a primary part in the drawing up, in 1616, of the decree of the Court of the Inquisition that forbid declaring the Copernican hypothesis to be true or teaching it. The decree was notified to Galileo in the presence of Bellarmino. In 1930 he was canonized by Pius XI (1857-1939, Pope since 1922) and was declared Doctor of the Church in the following year.