The History of the Church through 100 Masterpieces

The Trial of Galileo

The History of the Church 198 The Trial of Galileo “Because you held as true the false doctrine taught by some that the sun is the center of the world and motionless, and the earth is not, but moves with diurnal motion; whereas you taught this doctrine to your disciples and wrote about it to the mathematicians of Germany, your correspondents....” This allusion to German correspondents in the sentence of condemnation pronounced against Galileo on June 22, 1623, is very illuminating . To many, the heliocentric theory appeared to be a new war machine from the Protestant world. In reality, the hypothesis had first been formulated by a pious Polish canon, Copernicus. And Protestants likewise showed violent hostility toward this system, which ruined the geography of Ptolemy, thus, the physics of Aristotle, and therefore, scholastic tradition. In 1616, Copernican propositions had already been declared heretical by Rome. Because Galileo supported the theories publicly and with great vehemence, he was forced to abjure his position, though no one quite believed the sincerity of his declaration. Galileo died in 1642. The interdiction against the theories of Copernicus was lifted in 1757; however, the condemnation of Galileo was not formally nullified until 1992. Joseph Nicolas Robert-Fleury (1797–1890) Galileo before the Inquisition Musée du Louvre, Paris ...