free-thinker of the
16th century,
executed by the
Roman Catholic Church in
1600.
In England, Bruno published six books, all in Italian, fully elaborating his philosophical ideas for the first time. He was one of the first philosophers to discuss scientific issues in the vernacular. The very act of publishing in Italian was an open challenge to the Church, which sought to maintain Latin as the language of intellectual discourse and so limit the wider dissemination of ideas. Copernicus's groundbreaking work had been published only in Latin. So afraid were Bruno's printers that not one of them identified himself in the printed texts.
See Giordano Bruno After 400 Years, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/brun-f16_prn.shtml