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In 1633, one of Europe’s greatest men was brought to court not for violence or treason, but for his ideas.
Galileo Galilei looked to the heavens and reached conclusions that challenged centuries of accepted beliefs.
What followed was a confrontation between observation and authority, the consequences of which would reverberate for centuries.
Learn more about the trial of Galileo Galilei and his legacy in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
European thought and Catholic doctrine were dominated for hundreds of years by a geocentric model of the universe. This framework, which has its roots in the writings of Aristotle and Ptolemy, assumed that the Earth was stationary at the center of the universe, while all other celestial bodies rotated around it.
This view was considered to be in complete harmony with both the Bible and the established philosophical heritage.
In the 16th century, Europe began to recover from the slow pace of scientific discovery of the Middle Ages, and scientists began to realize that long-accepted models were wrong.
In 1542, Polish priest Nicolas Copernicus published a revolutionary work. About the rotation of the celestial sphere. Copernicus caused controversy by making the Earth an orbiting satellite with the Sun at its center.
As a priest, Copernicus was well aware of the controversy his book would cause. To avoid controversy, Copernicus decided to publish his discoveries only late in his life.
To avoid religious confusion, he dedicated his work to Pope Paul III. He wrote, Learned and uneducated people alike can see me shrinking from criticism from anyone. It is to His Holiness more than anyone else that I have chosen to dedicate this study.
Copernicus died while his book was being printed and distributed, ultimately escaping the controversy.
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and his student Johannes Kepler were among the scientists who picked up where Copernicus left off. Without a telescope, Brahe relied on his naked eye to observe the movements of celestial bodies in detail.
Kepler used Brahe’s observations to develop a model of planetary motion, and both adopted the Copernican model while living in Protestant fortresses.
Unlike Kepler or Brahe, Italian scientist Galileo Galilei could not avoid controversy with the Catholic Church. Because it was his backyard.
Galileo’s relationship with the Catholic Church was very deep. At one point he planned to pursue the priesthood, and later his two daughters entered convents. Given his church background, Galileo was knowledgeable and a strong candidate for scientific breakthroughs.
Galileo’s main early scientific contribution was the development of experimental methods. Early Greek scientists rarely experimented and preferred to formulate hypotheses based on observation and reason. Galileo’s approach emphasized forming hypotheses and gathering evidence to support or refute them.
His early research focused on the physics of inertia, a more moderate Aristotelian principle. Galileo countered Aristotle by arguing that objects remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force, a view later established by Isaac Newton. Although this theory ran counter to the church’s views, it was less controversial than rewriting the celestial model of the universe.
Aristotle argued that the universe consists of a perfect sphere moving in a circle around the Earth.
For centuries, church doctrine favored this cosmological model. By supporting Aristotle’s vision of a flawed and changing Earth and a flawless celestial sphere, the Church maintained a worldview that linked the physical world and heavens to the concept of a divine and perfect creation.
Galileo was concerned about contradicting church doctrine. Unlike Kepler or Brahe, Galileo was a devout Catholic, which created internal conflict over how far to push the issue.
Galileo, like Copernicus, feared the church’s reaction to dissent. In a 1597 letter to Kepler, Galileo shared his views with great clarity and interest when he wrote: Like you, I accepted Copernicus’s position several years ago. I have written many reasons and rebuttals on this subject, but have not dared to make them public until now, having been warned of the fate by our teacher Copernicus himself. If there were more people like you, I would dare to express my thoughts. But since there isn’t one, I’ll bear with it…
Galileo made astronomical observations using a telescope invented in the Netherlands in 1608, and discovered Jupiter’s four moons, mountains on the moon, and stars that could not be seen with the naked eye. In his book starry messengerAlternatively, in The Starry Messenger, published in 1610, Galileo challenged Aristotle’s cosmology.
In 1616, the heliocentric theory came under siege as the works of Kepler and Copernicus were placed on the Earth. “List of banned books”List of books banned by the Catholic Church.
Galileo avoided the ban but received a stern warning from Cardinal Robert Bellarmine. Bellarmine warned that Galileo’s continued contradictions with the Church’s teachings on the universe violated the Council of Trent and constituted heresy. The Council of Trent was the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation.
The publication of Galileo’s findings came at a particularly sensitive time for the Church, as it coincided with the height of the Thirty Years’ War, the most violent phase of the ongoing religious struggle between Catholics and Protestants.
As the war intensified and Protestantism grew, the church could no longer tolerate the controversy.
The Church began investigating Galileo’s Copernican exploration of the universe, and in 1616 heliocentrism concluded that: “It is absurd and absurd, philosophically false and formally heretical.”
For the Vatican, the issue was not just about science, but survival. The Reformation cost the Catholic Church millions of believers and could no longer tolerate defections. The church was concerned that the controversy could spark challenges to other teachings.
Galileo disagreed and looked for a way for the church and science to cooperate. In his famous 1615 letter to Archduchess Christina, a member of the Medici family, Galileo hoped to share scientific consensus with the church.
In fact, Galileo believed that God intended scientific inquiry. He wrote: I do not think we are under any obligation to believe that the same God who gave us sense, reason, and intellect, intended that we should not use them, but give us knowledge that we could obtain by other means.
The letter gained notoriety, was widely circulated, and eventually fell into the hands of Vatican officials.
Galileo realized that he, like Icarus, had flown too close to the sun and decided to obey the Vatican’s orders and limit his public expression of his views. Galileo continued his scientific explorations in silence until 1623.
Galileo constantly found himself in the crosshairs of the papal authorities under Popes Paul V and Gregory XV. However, the ascension of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini as Pope Urban VIII in 1623 was exactly what Galileo had hoped for.
Galileo had a long relationship with the Barberini family, including their sponsorship of scientific research. As a cardinal, Barberini also wrote a lengthy Latin poem commemorating Galileo’s achievements. Quote:
or to the attendants of Jupiter or Saturn (his father);
Discovered by your glass learned Galileo!
Galileo could not have been more excited about Barberini’s election as pope. In fact, according to papal records, he met the Pope six times by 1624. Having someone he respected and trusted as Pope gave Galileo the opportunity to write and lecture on a larger scale.
In fact, Galileo made the monumental decision to start writing in Italian instead of Latin. Latin was the traditional language of science and its audience was limited to the educated. Galileo wanted to reach a wider audience by writing in Italian.
In 1632 he obtained church approval for his work. A conversation about two major world systems. In addition to writing in Italian, Galileo also wrote ‘Dialogues’, which were narrative conversations between three people.
One of the characters in the narrative was “Simplicio” or Simpleton. In the narrative, Simpleton is cast as a dim-witted Aristotelian who refuses to deviate from his doctrine despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
The book was published throughout Europe and caused a great stir.
As it turns out, the book’s censors did not properly vet it, in part because Italy was dealing with an outbreak of plague at the time. Nonetheless, the damage was done.
The Vatican was outraged by Aristotle’s portrayal of those who adhered to traditional beliefs. Galileo misjudged the situation, especially regarding his relationship with the Pope.
Urban VIII’s views were complex. While he admired Galileo as a scientist, he saw the problem as scientifically evolving. The book, thought to be approved by the Church, was seen as a hypothetical, mathematical treatise on heliocentrism, and not as a bitter and cynical statement against those who did not believe in the theory.
The goodwill between Pope Urban VIII and Galileo disappeared, and the Church called for an Inquisition in 1633. It was an important year, marking the halfway point of the Thirty Years’ War.
Catholic and Protestant armies were sowing destruction throughout Europe, and the Church, unable to handle any more dissent, had to make an example of Galileo.
The trial began in April 1633.
Galileo clearly understood what was at stake for him personally. He could have been excommunicated, tortured, or even executed. It is also important to remember that Galileo was still a devout Catholic, and in his ideal world his discoveries were seen as confirmation of the radiance of God, as he came to understand the laws of nature as created by God.
The trial lasted just two months.
Galileo, realizing that his case was doomed, reached an agreement with papal officials. If he renounced his teachings, he could avoid torture, imprisonment, and death.
Galileo was 67 years old at the time and his health was failing. Recanting was the only way for him to end the affair and continue working.
On June 22, 1633, Galileo made the following proposal to the tribunal: I deny, curse, and abhor the aforesaid errors and heresies.
According to legend, after retracting his claim, Galileo said under his breath: “Still moving”Or “still moving”. Their story is almost entirely uncertain, as there was no mention of him for over 100 years after his death.
The chief inquisitor, Father Vicenzo da Firenzuola, also wanted to end the case because Galileo had many powerful supporters, including the Medici family.
Urban VIII also wanted a quick solution. Although he was angry about the powerful insults in Galileo’s book, he had no interest in executing his former friend, a famous public figure.
This was the most viable off-ramp for everyone involved.
Galileo was forced to pledge to stop further research on heliocentrism and spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
While in prison, Galileo did not focus on heliocentrism, but he also did not sit still. He smuggled his work from Italy to the Netherlands, where he wrote a treatise on physics. two new sciences,’ was published.
Galileo died under house arrest in 1642 at the age of 77.
Isaac Newton acknowledged Galileo’s achievements when he said: What I’ve seen more closely is Standing on the Giants’ Shoulders.
Galileo’s efforts to obtain vindication from the Vatican did not come to fruition until 1992, when Pope John Paul II acknowledged the church’s mistake in prosecuting Galileo for his scientific exploration of heliocentrism.
Galileo Galilei’s life reminds us that truth does not depend on permission. Although he bowed to the authorities of his time to survive, his discoveries were not forgotten.
His work led to a scientific revolution, changing the way we view the universe and ourselves. In the end, the trial, which was intended to limit his thoughts, only served to amplify them.
