In the 1633 trial of Galileo Galilei, two worlds come into cosmic conflict. Galileo’s world of science and humanism collides with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church. The result is tragedy that marks both the end of Galileo’s liberty and the end of the Italian Renaissance. 

 

Galileo Galilei was born in 1564—the same year that Shakespeare was born and Michelangelo died. Galileo at the time of his trial was recognized as the father of experimental physics.

 

At the University of Padua, Galileo began to study the Copernican theory. Copernicus published Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs, a treatise that put forth his revolutionary idea that the Sun was the center of the universe and that the Earth—rotating on an axis—orbited around the sun once a year. This theory challenged the teachings of the Church that the sun and all the stars revolved around a stationary Earth. Sometime in the mid-1590s, Galileo concluded that Copernicus was right. Galileo fearing Church retribution kept his thoughts to a few trusted friends. In 1609, Galileo’s discovery of the telescope confirmed his beliefs in the Copernican system and emboldened him to make public arguments in its favor. Though his telescope he saw the Milky Way, the valleys and mountains of the moon, and four moons orbiting around Jupiter.

 

Galileo ultimately decided to address his arguments to the enlightened public rather than hidebound academics. He wrote simply and directly his arguments. Galileo argued that the bible must be understood in a figurative sense. Many of the theologians who opposed Galileo were not interested in physics, but rather will preserving the power of the papal super state. 

 

On February 25,1616, Cardinal Bellarmine admonished Galileo to “remain silent with all his science.”  1n 1623, Galileo’s friend Cardinal Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII and Galileo had long audiences with the Pope. He was even urged to put his thoughts into writing.

 

On December 24, 1629, Galileo complete his 500-page Dialogue. Using a variety of arguments, he led his readers to one inexorable conclusion: Copernicus was right. The character Salviati, a person of “sublime intellect, “ clearly speaks for Galileo in arguing for a Sun-centered system. Simplico is the straw man of the debate, a stubborn literal-minded defender of the Earth-centered universe. After years of review by Church sensors, the book was published in 1632, and quickly sold out. 

 

Jesuit enemies of Galileo convinced the Pope that the Dialogue was nothing but a thinly veiled brief for the Copernican model. The Pope was embittered that the Pope’s own argument concerning the tides was put into the mouth of Simplico.

 

On April 12, Galileo officially surrendered to the Holy Office and faced the inquisition of ten cardinals. One must remember that Galileo was a relatively old man at this time and suffered from a number of painful ailments. Weeks passed and finally Cardinal Barberini came up with a compromise. Galileo had to admit his error. His renunciation of the Copernicanism ended with the words, “ I affirm, therefore, on my conscience, that I do not now hold the condemned opinion and have not held it since the decision of authorities…I am here in your hands—do with me what you please.”

Galileo was sentenced in effect to house arrest, his book was henceforth to be prohibited, and he had to promise never again to promote his heresies. After he was sentenced to house imprisonment, Galileo was heard to mutter “But still it moves.”