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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.04.08 09:00l 49 Lines 2376 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 12
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@ALLUS
April 12, 1633
Galileo is convicted of heresy
On this day in 1633, chief inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculano da
Firenzuola, appointed by Pope Urban VIII, begins the inquisition
of physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei. Galileo was ordered
to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding
the belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which was deemed
heretical by the Catholic Church. Standard practice demanded that
the accused be imprisoned and secluded during the trial.
This was the second time that Galileo was in the hot seat for
refusing to accept Catholic Church orthodoxy that the Earth was
the immovable center of the universe: In 1616, he had been forbidden
from holding or defending his beliefs. In the 1633 interrogation,
Galileo denied that he "held" belief in the Copernican view but
continued to write about the issue and evidence as a means of
"discussion" rather than belief. The Catholic Church had decided
the idea that the Sun moved around the Earth was an absolute fact
of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that
scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the center
of the universe.
This time, Galileo's technical argument didn't win the day. On
June 22, 1633, the Catholic Church handed down the following order:
"We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo . . .
have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of
heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine (which
is false and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures) that the
sun is the center of the world, and that it does not move from east
to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the center of the
world."
Along with the order came the following penalty: "We order that by
a public edict the book of Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited,
and We condemn thee to the prison of this Holy Office during Our
will and pleasure; and as a salutary penance We enjoin on thee that
for the space of three years thou shalt recite once a week the Seven
Penitential Psalms."
Galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest
of his life under house arrest. It took more than 300 years for
the Catholic Church to admit that Galileo was right and to clear
his name of heresy.
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