He was born in Naples in 1548, five years after Copernicus had published his theory that the Earth orbited the Sun, and not vice versa. Bruno went further: he posited that even the Sun was not the centre of the Universe but just another star; that the Universe was infinite (and could therefore have no centre); and… that there was no reason to suppose that all the other stars didn’t have planets as well: “They are other worlds.” And… (and this is what really did for him) that life may exist on any number of them: “There may be men.” Theologically, the problem with this is that it implies a potentially infinite number of Jesuses, and the Church wasn’t quite ready for that.