In his trial before the Venetian Inquisition,[220] Bruno told the story of his life and stated his beliefs in answer to the charges against him, based mainly on travesties of his opinions. In this statement as well as in _La Cena de le Ceneri_, and in _De Immenso et Innumerabilis_,[221] Bruno shows how completely he had not merely accepted the Copernican doctrine, but had expanded it far beyond its author's conception. The universe according to Copernicus, though vastly greater than that conceived by Aristotle and Ptolemy, was still finite because enclosed within the sphere of the fixed stars. Bruno declared that not only was the earth only a lesser planet, but "this world itself was merely one of an infinite number of particular worlds similar to this, and that all the planets and other stars are infinite worlds without number composing an infinite universe, so that there is a double infinitude, that of the greatness of the universe, and that of the multitude of worlds."[222] How important this would be to the Church authorities may be realized by recalling the patristic doctrine that the universe was created for man and that his home is its center. Of course their cherished belief must be defended from such an attack, and naturally enough, the Copernican doctrine as the starting point of Bruno's theory of an infinite universe was thus brought into question;[223] for, as M. Berti has said,[224] Bruno's doctrine was equally an astro-theology or a theological astronomy. [Footnote 220: See official documents in Berti: 327-395.] [Footnote 221: Bruno: _De Immenso et Innumerabilis_: Lib. III, cap. 9 (vol. 1, pt. 1, 380-386).] [Footnote 222: Thayer: 268.] [Footnote 223: Berti: 285.] [Footnote 224: Ibid: 282.]