In 1600, after 8 years of repeated and hideous torture, "heretic" Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at the stake - for his belief and teaching that the Earth was not fixed at the center of the universe with everything revolving around it, including even the sun, but that it revolves around the sun, around which the other planets also revolve; and that the stars were not pin-holes in some sky-vault through which heavenly light shone, but are themselves distant suns around which other planets may revolve. He could have saved himself by recanting, but he steadfastly refused. He basically allowed himself to be burnt - for truth.