No one wanted the Universe to change much

While thinkers prior to Hubble’s era disagreed on whether the Universe was infinite (Anaximander) or finite (Olbers), they essentially all agreed that it was unchanging (Aristotle) at some great distance from Earth. 

Even during the Renaissance, which saw a great expansion of scientific ideas, the appearance of Tycho’s supernova in 1572 was tremndously unsettling to natural philosophers because it meant that something about the Universe--even if just the brightness of a single star, could change. 

Centuries later, even Einstein, whose equations all but demanded change, famously hated the idea of anything but a static Universe.