Renaissance v. Galileo

I find it very interesting that the term renaissance is defined as re-brith, when in the case of Galileo it seems to stepped backwards. By the end of the "dark ages" there was a great amount of free thinking going on, which lead to advances in, among other things, science. Yet dispite this thinking outside the box, along comes Galileo with his ideas on the make up of the universe and everyone puts the brakes on and condemns him. Do you fault the guy for denouncing it all? I don't know. We had already lost a couple of intelligent men who wouldn't denounce their way of thinking. Who knows what might have been gained if they had lived longer. There is a fine line between being a martyr and strategically waiting to fight another day. Who's to say how much we might have been set back if Galileo had refused to denounce this beliefs and was killed. And thank goodness the seeds of his thinking had already been firmly planted before he was forced to denounce his beliefs.