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1. Other (planetary) worlds invented
Kosmos: unique or multiple (infinite in number?)
Greek atomists Leucippus and Democritus considered the world built of the same (`solar abundance') atomic matter that forms the Earth, subject to constant motion through vacuum, collision, and coalescence (accretion).
Who invented the solar nebula: Kant & Laplace or Leucippus?
The worlds come into being as follows: many bodies of all sorts and shapes move from the infinite into a great void; they come together there and produce a single whirl, in which, colliding with one another and revolving in all manner of ways, they begin to separate like to like.
Leucippus (480-420(?) B.C.), after Diogenes Laertios (3rd cent. A.D.)
Earliest consideration of worlds (planets) around pulsars and binary stars; evolutionary aspect stressed; hot planets predicted.
In some worlds there is no Sun and Moon, in others they are larger than in our world, and in others more numerous.
In some parts there are more worlds, in others fewer (...); in some parts they are arising, in others failing. There are some worlds devoid of living creatures or plants or any moisture.
Democritus (ca. 460-370 B.C.), after Hyppolytus (3rd cent. A.D.)
Plurality and diversity of planetary systems reaffirmed:
There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. For the atoms being infinite in number, as was already proven, (...) there nowhere exists an obstacle to the infinite number od worlds.
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)
Similar writings by Lucretius (ca. 99-55 B.C.).
The atomist system was eclipsed by a cohesive system of Aristotle, the student of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was not very interested in extrasolar planetary system or their formation, or other unobservable things, and (unfortunately) extremely influential after 1.5*103 yrs. His world was geocentric, unchanging and unique.
The four elements moved each to their 'natural place' with respect to the center of the world. Existence of many such centers was unthinkable:
There cannot be more worlds than one.
Aristotle [De Caelo]
Aristotle's work rediscovered in 13th century, starts Renaissance in Europe. For 100 years everybody agrees with him on most issues.
Roger Bacon (1214-1292) at Oxford cites the argument about the impossibility of vacuum between the planetary systems. Similar thinking prevailed at other rising universities, like Paris.
But the Aristotelian insistence on unity and uniqueness begun to contradict the Christian doctrine of the time.
In 1277 Etienne Tempier, the bishop of Paris, condemned
opinions based on 219
statements in Aristotelian writings, among them "that
the First Cause cannot make many worlds".
The many-worlds opinion was hotly contested at the
universities but prevailed, as was mandated by the Church
under the threat of excommunication.
William of Ockham (ca. 1280-1347) supported the plurality of worlds.
But then begun a strong opposition to the idea. The religious critics pointed out that neither other worlds nor the creation of man elswhere, were mentioned in the Scriptures.
William of Vorilong discussed the question of Jesus Christ's status in extrasolar systems:
As to the question whether Christ by dying on this earth could redeem the inhabitants of another world, I answer that he is able to do this even if the worlds are infinite, but it would not be fitting for Him to go into another world that he must die again".
William of Vorilong (ca. 1450)
The heliocentric system of Nicolaus Copernicus (1543) was received as supporting the plurality of planets and their systems in the Universe.
Giordano Bruno explains his conviction about infinite number
of terrestrial planets and the inhabitability
of both planets and stars (non-selfluminous and self-luminous bodies) [On the
Infinite Universe and Worlds, 1584].
In 1592, Bruno falls into the hands of Holy Inquisition, and in 1600 dies at the
stake, but not primarily because of his cosmological views.
Kepler did not believe the stars making up the Milky Way (as discovered by Galileo) are of the same brightness or status as our sun, or that they may have planets.
And so on...
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