A Spanish polymath
I Found Which Scientists were Burned at Stakes
1. Giodano Bruno
2. Nicolaus Copernicus
3. Michael Servetus
About N. Copernicus and G. Bruno I agree and I have nothing to add to the posters above.
But the case of M. Servet is illustrative of the attitude towards religious dissent on booth sides of the theological dispute, when the secular power was still applied opinions and the sentences of the guilty of Heresy according to the ecclesiastical power.
Dispute that led to the loss of the religious unity of the Res Publica Christiana characteristic of medieval Europe.
Michael Servetus or Miguel Servet wasn't a Scientist in the modern sense of term.
He was a heterodox Spanish polymath, physician and autodidact theologian whose unorthodox teachings and Servetus’ involved speculations, what he proposed was clearly odious to booth sides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus
Led to his condemnation as a heretic by booth Protestants and Roman Catholics and to his execution by Calvinists de Geneva.
Calvin played a prominent part in the trial and pressed for execution, although by beheading rather than by fire.
Servetus was found guilty of heresy, mainly on his views of the Trinity and Baptism and was executed at Champel on October 27, 1553
His execution produced a Protestant controversy on imposing the death penalty for heresy, drew severe criticism upon John Calvin, and influenced Laelius Socinus, a founder of modern unitarian views.