Brett's Two Cents

Hello, everyone. This past Tuesday, we celebrated the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, most famous perhaps for his participation in the trial of Galileo by the Inquisition.

The common wisdom is that Galileo was shabbily treated by the Church, being made to “groan away his days in the dungeons… because he had demonstrated by irrefutable proofs” that the earth moves around the sun (heliocentrism). The story is actually much more interesting than that, even at the human level.
 
Nicholas Copernicus (a Polish clergyman) was actually the first to propose the theory that the planets (including the Earth) revolve around the sun in the year 1530 A.D.  Though not able to prove his theory, it was nevertheless well-received in Rome, where the Pope invited him to present it in a lecture in the Vatican gardens. Among the scientific community, some scholars entertained heliocentrism, but most opposed it. Working some years later with telescopic observations, Galileo came to embrace and zealously promote Copernicus’ theory, eliciting much criticism, not so much from the Church as from his fellow scientists.

In 1611, Galileo published The Starry Messenger, in which he was able to demolish geocentrism, though he was not able to provide physical proof of heliocentrism (which would have to wait for the work of Frederic Bessel in 1838). Many in the Church supported Galileo’s work, including Pope Paul V, though some were concerned that it contradicted Scripture.

When Galileo pushed for official Church support for the theory, Pope Paul V referred the matter to the Inquisition (the Church court responsible for doctrinal questions), who decided that though the theory didn’t directly contradict Scripture, it did run afoul of the theological (and scientific) consensus at the time. Cardinal Bellarmine, despite his misgivings, was the one charged with conveying to Galileo the Inquisition’s decision: that the theory could not at that time be publicly taught and defended, though it could continue to be investigated privately.
 
Disappointed and perhaps a bit concerned, Galileo met afterwards with Pope Paul V, who assured him that he was not in trouble…  (to be continued!)