As the old story goes, Pythagoras and his followers were adamant that all numbers were rational, until Hippasus came along and proved that $\sqrt{2}$ (the length of the diagonal of the unit square) is irrational. A lot of Pythagoras' work was thrown into question, and as a result, he sentenced Hippasus to be drowned.
Now, I'm dubious of the reliability of this story (it varies from source to source), but I am interested in whether there are more cases of a mathematician being persecuted (punished in some way) by "the man" for making a radical discovery/proof.
Are there any such examples? If there are, please state the discovery (the actual mathematical statement) along with the punishment.
Edit
I'm looking for examples of persecution solely due to the discovery (not anything to do with the race, relgion, orientation, etc. of the discoverer)
Best Answer
Here is a rather comical one.
Henry Oldenburg founded the Royal Society (in London) in 1662.
If an effort to publish high quality papers, he had to correspond with many foreigners across Europe. The high volume of foreign correspondence came to the attention of authorities. He was arrested as a spy and held in the Tower of London for several months.