Born Italian; 1564 – 1642. Prominently known and remembered as the man condemned by the Catholic Church for “vehement suspicion of heresy”
The enmity between Galileo and the Catholic Church heightened in the 1630s when he wanted to publish a book which acknowledged the Copernican heliocentrism astronomical theory.
As you must have heard, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Pope was both the spiritual and political leader, with the Catholic Church (Vatican) as its administrative structure. To keep the people steadfast and loyal, the church concocted many rules and moral definition of “good” and “evil”, which equally entailed consequences, especially for the defined “evil”, of which heresy is a major “sin” (could in fact be defined as any word or act in opposition to the church and its doctrines).
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Now, there was Galileo about to publish his book “Dialogo” which supported the 1543 theory of Nicolaus Copernicus. According to the theory, the Sun is placed at the center of the cosmos (universe), stationary, and had Earth and the other planets orbit it at uniform speeds in circular orbits modified by epicycles. And this was utmost heresy – as the church strongly believed beyond all whatever scientific proof that the earth is the centre of the universe.
We could simplify that his greatest crime was his “Elliptical Orbit” definition – which puts planetary motion as elliptical: all planetary bodies revolving round the sun, whereas the Vatican had insisted only heavenly motion was circular.
For his intended action, the Church arrested Galileo, with the condition of release if only he’d add a persuasive evidence of the Church’s own geocentric model in his book. Even after his compromise (which was deceitfully done), his work still was seen as heretical, and the Vatican placed him on house arrest until he died at the age of 77.
The sad thing is that he died with a bad name hanging on his neck “vehement suspicion of heresy.” And so, even when the Grand Duke of Tuscany, wished to bury him in a honourable place, the Vatican rejected such offer, and instead buried him in a small room next to the novices’ chapel.
Sorry, but if I must interject, this sounded a lot like when Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus’ body, to be buried in his honourable tomb. And like I’m not making this up, Jesus was equally condemned of heresy against God, and died in the most dishonourable way. What if Pilate had rejected Joseph’s request, just like the Vatican did to the Grand Duke? Hmmmmm. Believe me if I say this thought just came to my head. Wow!
Well, we’ll, well, years passed and Pope John Paul II admitted on October 31, 1992, that the Church had mistaken in condemning Galileo of heresy, and the underserved punishment. According to the Pope, the theologians who condemned Galileo were unaware of the formal division between the Bible and its interpretation (The New York Times, 1992).
Let’s talk about Galileo and the Cross next time. Yep, the Cross you know.
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Thank you for reading. I haven’t written here for over a year, I really do wish you enjoyed this and would come back for such factual tales.
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Books you might want to try reading: Angels and Demon by Dan Brown, The Things you Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
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