What scientist spent the last years of his life under house arrest because his ideas conflicted with the church, he discovered that all falling objects accelerate at fixed and predictable rates?

That would be Galileo Galilei the Italian polymath who is essential to the scientific revolution. His ideas conflicted with the church and as such he was on trial for heresy. During the second judgment he recanted his claims but is believed to have uttered the famous phrase on Earth revolving around the Sun: And yet it moves. This is used now to say that it doesn't matter what some may believe facts are the facts.