THE GALILEO AFFAIR

The waiting was excruciating. His mind raced, yet Galileo Galilei remained very still, sitting quietly in a wooden chair, his hands folded in his lap. Confined to a small but comfortable suite inside the Holy Office, he awaited the verdict that would decide his fate. Summoned by the Commissary General, Galileo came to Rome to answer charges of heresy regarding his book "Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems (Dialogo sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo)". The sixty-six-year old physicist was exhausted. The imprisonment and the accusations against him had taken a toll on his health.

Released in February 1632, Dialogue was stirring up controversy in intellectual and nonsecular circles across Italy. The work, which Galileo considered one of his great achievements, discussed the merits and deficiencies of two conflicting theories on the order of the universe, the Earth-centered Ptolemaic theory, and the sun-centered Copernican theory.

Since the fifteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church and most of Europe embraced geocentrism, which held that a motionless Earth was the center of the universe. Introduced by Aristotle and expounded on by Claudius Ptolemy, geocentrism formed the basis of European thought on astronomy. It also confirmed what was observed by man’s senses.

More important, the Ptolemaic system confirmed what was written in the Holy Scriptures. According to numerous passages in the Bible, the Earth stood still. Psalms 93:1 and 96:10 state, “Yea, the world is established; it shall never be moved.” And Psalm 92:1 declares that God “fixed the Earth upon its foundations, not to be moved forever.” Further, Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the Church’s most beloved and respected theologians, embraced the Ptolemaic system.

The Copernican theory, on the other hand, contradicted the Holy Scriptures. Astronomer and Catholic cleric Nicholas Copernicus introduced heliocentrism as an alternative to the Ptolemaic system in his seminal work "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Sphere (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium)". According to the heliocentric, or Copernican theory, the sun was the center of the universe, and the Earth revolved around it. Copernicus, who dedicated the book to Pope Paul III, died on the day Revolutions was published, unaware that a preface had been added that undermined his revolutionary theory. Unsigned, the preface states that the theory is meant as a mathematical tool for calculating the movements of the planets, and it appears to be written by the author. In fact, it was the work of Andreas Osiander, a Lutheran philosopher who oversaw the book’s publication. Although the Roman Catholic Church allowed Revolutions to be published, it had insisted the book carry a disqualifier, explaining that the alternate system was to be considered purely “hypothetical.” To secure permission for publication, Osiander added the preface.

First published in Germany in 1543, Revolutions took Copernicus years to complete and broke new ground. However, upon its release, the work was met with much derision and was largely dismissed by scientists and First published in Germany in 1543, Revolutions took Copernicus years to complete and broke new ground. However, upon its release, the work was met with much derision and was largely dismissed by scientists and theologians. Church reformer Martin Luther condemned it. Less than a century later, Copernicanism would ignite the intellectual passions of the brilliant physicist Galileo Galilei. The theory formed the basis of his Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems.

Presented in the form of a Socratic-type debate between three characters, the Dialogue offered arguments for and against the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories. An enlightened man of science, the character Salviati makes a compelling case in support of the Copernican theory. The neutral Sagredo is a wealthy, knowledge-seeking aristocrat. Simplicio, the third character, is an Aristotelian philosopher, who argues rather ineffectually for the Ptolemaic model of the solar system. Salviati, who represents Galileo’s views, emerges the clear winner of the debate.

Charged with heresy, Galileo could easily have fled Italy and escaped the authority of the Inquisition. Yet, he chose to stand trial and defend himself. The scientist considered himself a good Catholic and felt that heresy was “more abhorrent than death.” After traveling for twenty-three days, Galileo arrived in Rome on February 13, 1633. Ill and depressed, he spent the next two months with friends, recuperating at Villa Medici. In April, he surrendered to the Inquisition. No common prisoner, Galileo was housed in a three-room suite in the Holy Office, and a servant was at his disposal. The physicist was allowed visitors, but he could not leave the premises.

GALILEO’S FALL FROM GRACE

It was a far cry from the triumphant tour of Rome that Galileo made in 1624. His old friend Cardinal Barberini had just been appointed Pope Urban VIII. The new pontiff feted Galileo and encouraged his “favorite son” to continue his work exploring the heavens. The pope fancied himself an intellectual; the idea of sponsoring major scientific discoveries greatly appealed to his vanity.

During a succession of private meetings, Galileo tried unsuccessfully to convince the pontiff to reverse a Church edict against promoting and teaching the Copernican theory. The pope admitted that he did not approve of the edict but felt that because the Copernican theory could not be proven, it must be treated as a mathematical device, not as a factual discovery. He gave Galileo permission to write about Copernicanism but only in hypothetical terms. Pope Urban asked that his own view—that nature, as created by God, is far too complex to be understood by man—be included. He believed Galileo would bring him fame. The pope was right, but it would not be the fame he hoped for.

Galileo spent the next five years working on the "Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems". He submitted the book to the Church and received official approval. Published in 1632, the Dialogue was an enthusiastic, unapologetic endorsement of heliocentrism. Although Galileo’s allies were thrilled with the book, they were also wary. In Galileo’s eagerness to overturn the prevailing geocentric system, he had thrown caution to the wind. Despite his promise to Pope Urban to remain neutral, Galileo zealously defended Copernicanism in the book—albeit through the character Salviati. Described as “the laughingstock of this philosophical comedy” Simplicio is the character Galileo chose to express the pope’s views about the universe — a colossal misstep.

SINCE THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND MOST OF EUROPE EMBRACED GEOCENTRISM, WHICH HELD THAT A MOTIONLESS EARTH WAS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.

The Dialogue caused a scandal. Critics claimed it brazenly defied a Church edict forbidding the promotion of Copernicanism. Galileo’s enemies—and there were many—told the pope that he had been ordered by Chief Church Theologian Cardinal Robert Bellarmine not to defend the Copernican theory back in 1616. Galileo had failed to mention the warning during his meetings with the pontiff. His enemies also convinced the pope that the physicist had modeled Simplicio after him. Blinded by his own ambition, Galileo had inadvertently insulted one of his dearest friends. Pope Urban felt humiliated and betrayed. Galileo promptly lost his most important and powerful ally.

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO IN 1633

Galileo was officially charged with defying the Church’s edict forbidding the defense of the heliocentric theory and for publicly “holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the sun is the center of the world.” The tribunal claimed that he had been personally warned not to teach or promote the theory in 1616 — a charge that is not altogether accurate. According to the written indictment, the Church theologians decreed the following:

1. The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scriptures.

2. The proposition that the Earth is not the center of the world, nor immovable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal action, is also absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically considered, at least erroneous in faith.

Ten cardinals heard Galileo’s case. Over a two-month period, officers of the Inquisition interrogated Galileo eighteen times. The prosecution’s case was bolstered by a suspect injunction against Galileo dated March 3, 1616. The injunction, which may have been planted in Galileo’s file by an enemy, states, incorrectly, that Cardinal Bellarmine “had admonished [Galileo] to abandon his opinion which he has held up to that time, that the sun is the center of the spheres and immobile and that the Earth moves, and had acquiesced therein.”

Galileo was understandably flummoxed. He insisted he never saw the letter, nor had he been served with any injunction. In his defense, he said that he had never been forced to abjure his position on heliocentrism, as the tribunal was now claiming. As proof, he offered up a letter from Bellarmine stating that “Galileo has not abjured, either in our hands or in the hands of any other person here in Rome, or anywhere else as far as we know, any opinion or doctrine which he has held; nor has any salutary or any other kind of penance been given to him.”

Galileo also pointed out that Church authorities, including the Supreme Inquisitor, had signed off on the Dialogue. The book was not written in his voice, in the first person, but rather as a dialogue between three men. He did not understand why the book was now being prohibited when it had already received official approval.

Two cardinals, sympathetic to Galileo, worked to spare him and proposed a lenient sentence. Commissary General Father Vincenzo Maculano received permission to approach Galileo extra-judicially with a deal, the seventeenth century equivalent of a plea bargain. For an admission of guilt—an honest acknowledgement that he had erred in defending and advocating heliocentrism in the Dialogue—Galileo would be sentenced to private penance and temporary house arrest. Realizing the odds were against him, he agreed to the deal.

Pope Urban, who was still smarting from his perceived betrayal by his old friend, overruled the sentence and decreed that the Dialogue was to be forbidden and Galileo was to be forced to formally abjure, by threat of torture. Because of his age and ill health, there was little chance that Galileo would be subjected to torture. Galileo was well aware that the threat was an empty one. Still, the sentence, meted out by his old friend, hurt him deeply.

MISTRUTHS, MYTHS, AND MISCONCEPTIONS

The trial and conviction of Galileo Galilei is considered one of the greatest scandals in the history of Christianity. For centuries, Galileo’s name has been used as a battle cry against the perceived tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church. The physicist is consistently portrayed as the voice of science and reason, as an educated man battling an unyielding, unenlightened Church.

Two ironies are at work here. The first is that the Church was responsible for much of the early progress in astronomy; many of the leading astronomers in the seventeenth century were also members of the clergy. The second is that despite his conviction for heresy, Galileo considered himself a good Catholic who strove to square his responsibilities as a scientist with his faith. He would most likely be dismayed to learn that his name was being used to besmirch the Church.

THE MYTH OF GALILEO BEING CONFINED TO A DANK JAIL CELL AND TORTURED IS JUST THAT, A MYTH.

The myth holds that Galileo, the scientist, tried to enlighten the close-minded Church, arguing that reason and science should be given precedent over faith. In reality, both Galileo and his judges believed that science and the Bible must be reconciled, and that they could not stand in contradiction. The Galileo Affair, as it has come to be known, was not a battle of reason versus religion, but of good science versus bad science. We know today that the earth orbits the sun, but Galileo lacked the scientific instruments necessary to prove this fact. It would take another hundred years for such instruments to be developed.

The charges brought against Galileo were motivated by personal vendettas. With his acerbic wit, sarcasm, and refusal to compromise, Galileo had made many enemies, including Pope Urban VIII. He routinely attacked rival theories and the men who proposed them. He mocked his opponents mercilessly and insulted their intelligence. Such bully tactics did not sit well with his victims, many of whom had been former allies. Years after the trial, a Jesuit astronomer remarked that if Galileo had not offended the order, “he would not have fallen into trouble, he would be able to write on any subject he wished, even the rotation of the Earth.” Several cardinals assigned to Galileo’s case believed that the trial was intended not to protect doctrinal purity but to punish Galileo. History bears this out.

GALILEO QUARRELED OFTEN WITH HIS COLLEAGUES, CRITICIZING THEIR THEORIES, DISMISSING THEIR IDEAS, AND REFUSING TO CONCEDE ANY OF THEIR POINTS. HE REFERRED TO THOSE WHO DISAGREED WITH HIM AS “INTELLECTUAL PYGMIES.”

The myth of Galileo being confined to a dank jail cell and tortured is just that, a myth. Galileo was forced to formally abjure, and the Dialogue was banned. While the sentence issued by Urban was unduly harsh, it was never enforced. Galileo’s daughter, a Carmelite nun, was permitted to say his penance for him, and the physicist was allowed to live out his days at home, under a loosely-enforced house arrest. He spent the remainder of his life working on the Discourses on Two New Sciences. Presented as another discussion between the fictional characters Salviati, Sagredo, and Simplicio, the book offered Galileo’s views on kinematics (the study of the motion of objects).

THE MAKINGS OF A BRILLIANT PHYSICIST

Born in Pisa in 1564, Galileo Galilei was the eldest child of Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. Vincenzo was a talented but poor musician who struggled to support his wife and six children. He encouraged Galileo to become a doctor. Galileo enrolled in medical school but dropped out after two years, deciding to study mathematics instead of medicine.

In 1589, Galileo was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa. He was an independent spirit, an iconoclast who eschewed blind philosophical faith. He was drawn instead to reasoned argument. Stubborn and opinionated, Galileo quarreled often with his colleagues, criticizing their theories, dismissing their ideas, and refusing to concede any of their points. He referred to those who disagreed with him as “intellectual pygmies.” Galileo routinely disparaged Aristotle, whose work was widely revered in academia.

“Few there are who seek to discover whether what Aristotle says is true,” he confided to a friend. “It is enough for them that the more texts of Aristotle they have to quote, the more learned they will be.”

The gifted young man quickly alienated himself from the other educators at the University. He also incurred the wrath of Giovanni de Medici, son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s son, when he lambasted a machine de Medici invented to dredge the harbor of Leghorn. It seems that Galileo’s capacity for scientific discoveries was rivaled only by his knack for making enemies.

Galileo took a mistress, a local woman named Marina Gamba, with whom he fathered three children out of wedlock. Oddly, the devoutly Catholic Galileo declined to marry his lover and legitimize his offspring. He dispatched of his daughters Virginia and Livia, sending them to live at the convent of San Matteo. Both girls became nuns and lived in abject poverty. Their mother later married an older man who adopted Galileo’s son, Vincenzo. Although a devoted academic and scientist, Galileo was an ineffectual father.

In 1592, he left Pisa for a more prestigious, and lucrative, position at the University at Padua. There, Galileo developed interests in a range of topics including kinematics of motion, optics, astronomy, tidal theory, and instrumentation. He made numerous discoveries in both pure and applied science.

THE DISPUTE OVER THE COSMOS

Galileo had long been interested in Copernican theory. In May 1609 he learned that a Dutchman had invented a new magnifying device to view the heavens. The physicist immediately drew up plans for a device of his own. Galileo’s telescope permitted him to observe the night sky as never before. His celestial discoveries confirmed for him that Copernicus had been right: The universe was a sun-centered system, and the planets, including Earth, orbited the sun. Jupiter’s moons and the phases of Venus showed that the planets—at least not all of them — did not orbit the Earth. This fact disproved the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system. Galileo assumed the Church would now adopt the Copernican theory. Then again, he still had the Tychonic system to contend with.

Galileo made his first public endorsement of Copernicanism in 1613 with Letters on the Sunspots. He continued to vigorously defend the theory in subsequent letters and debates. Not content to treat Copernicanism as a hypothesis only, Galileo continually trespassed on theological ground—a scandalous thing for a layman to do. He insisted the scriptures be reassessed to incorporate his new discoveries. Galileo argued that the Bible was designed to teach mankind about religion, not the natural world. He cited works from St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas that bolstered his position.

In Galileo’s 1615 "Letter to the Grand Duchess", he wrote, “As to rendering the Bible false, that is not and never will be the intention of Catholic astronomers such as I am; rather, our opinion is that the Scriptures accord perfectly with demonstrated physical truths. But let those theologians who are not astronomers guard against rendering the Scriptures false by trying to interpret it against propositions which may be true and might be proved so.” Many theologians were outraged.

In 1615, Carmelite friar and respected theologian Paolo Antonio Foscarini published a book that attempted to reconcile the Copernican theory with Holy Scripture. News of the work gave Galileo hope that the subject was ripe for reexamination by the Church. He believed that Foscarini’s support was just what he needed. He was wrong. There were now two men openly advocating for Copernicanism. This antagonized the more conservative members of the clergy. A contentious debate over the private interpretation of the Holy Scripture had been one of the reasons behind Martin Luther’s split with the Church in 1517. Now, the Church feared Foscarini and Galileo might stir up a new theological revolution.

Galileo’s rivals claimed, incorrectly, that there were a growing number of “Galileans” promoting Copernicanism on the physicist’s behalf. Still smarting from the Protestant Reformation, the Church moved to assert its authority. Copernicus’s Revolutions was banned until it could be “corrected,” and Cardinal Robert Bellarmine reminded Foscarini and Galileo that the Council of Trent “prohibits expounding the Scriptures contrary to the common agreement of the holy Fathers.”

Bellarmine, an educated, calm, and fair man, met privately with Galileo and counseled him to treat the theory as a mathematical device, a hypothesis only. The Church was not banning the theory, he explained, but would only accept it as fact if it could be proven conclusively. In that event, the Church would need to reexamine its interpretation of the Holy Scripture, Bellarmine allowed. Galileo was not officially enjoined from discussing Copernicanism. He was, however, in a difficult position. Convinced the theory was correct, Galileo could not possibly prove it to be so. To the naked eye, the stars appeared to remain still. This reinforced contemporary consensus that the Earth was immobile. Galileo’s telescope was too weak to observe the star’s parallax shifts as the Earth orbited around the sun.

POISON PEN LETTERS AND THE LEAGUE OF PIGEONS

Galileo’s unorthodox views, predilection toward sarcasm, and increasing preoccupation with heliocentrism made him a controversial celebrity. He continued to make enemies and became embroiled in a series of bitter disputes with members of the scientific community. His archrival Lodovico delle Colombe was determined to ruin Galileo’s reputation. He was joined by a group of theologians Galileo dubbed the “Pigeon League” (Colombe means “dove” in Italian). In terms of achievement and intellectual brilliance, the group was no match for Galileo. The group could not best the physicist intellectually; it decided to bait him with a scriptural argument. The ploy worked. Galileo was too stubborn and too vain to remain silent on the issue.

Galileo counted the Jesuits among his allies, but his hubris and sarcasm soon alienated the order. Galileo claimed credit for the discovery of sunspots, despite the fact that the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Scheiner had written about them two years earlier. Scheiner proposed that sunspots were really small stars orbiting and eclipsing the solar body. Galileo not only disagreed with him, but viciously attacked the Jesuit in print, writing the following in his first book, The Assayer:

“Others, not wanting to agree with my ideas, advance ridiculous and impossible opinions against me; and some, overwhelmed and convinced by my arguments, attempted to rob me of that glory which was mine, pretending not to have seen my writings and trying to represent themselves as the original discoverers of these impressive marvels.”

In reality, neither man discovered sunspots. That honor belonged to Johann Fabricius, a German whose pamphlet on the subject was published months before Scheiner’s.

Galileo’s stunning rebuke of Scheiner deeply offended Jesuits. The belligerent physicist also engaged in a heated debate over comets with Jesuit mathematician and astronomer Horatio Grassi. Once again, Galileo used his pen as a sword, writing in "The Assayer", “Let Sarsi [Galileo’s pseudonym for Grassi] see from this how superficial his philosophizing is except in appearance. But let him not think he can reply with additional limitations, distinctions, logical technicalities, philosophical jargon, and other idle words, for I assure him that in sustaining one error, he will commit a hundred others that are more serious, and produce always greater follies in his camp.”

Up until this point, the Jesuits had been Galileo’s biggest supporters. His vicious attacks on members of their order would cost him dearly. The Jesuits remained silent when Galileo’s enemies, led by the League of Pigeons, repeatedly urged Church authorities to bring charges against him for heresy. Their determined campaign eventually led to Galileo’s trial in 1633.

GALILEO’S ENDURING LEGACY

On April 30, 1633, Galileo recanted his belief in heliocentric system before the Inquisition. He said:

"I have been judged vehemently suspected of heresy, that is of having held and believed that the Sun is at the center of the Universe and immovable, and that the Earth is not at the center and that it moves. Therefore, wishing to remove from the minds of your Eminences and all faithful Christians this vehement suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith these errors and heresies, and I curse and detest them as well as any other error, heresy or sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church.

And I swear that for the future I shall neither say nor assert orally or in writing such things as may bring upon me similar suspicions; and if I know any heretic, or one suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor or Ordinary of the place in which I may be."

Contrary to popular belief, Galileo did not mutter defiantly, “And yet it does move!” (Eppur si muore!”) After abjuring, he was sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life and ordered to recite daily penance. Galileo spent his remaining years working on his final book, Discourses on Two New Sciences, which recounted many of his scientific discoveries. While writing the book, the physicist lost his sight. He died in 1642 in Florence.

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UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEAVENS

In 1608, Dutch lens crafter Hans Lippershey invented the first practical telescope. Dubbed the “Dutch perspective glass,” Lippershey’s telescope could only magnify objects thrice. The lens crafter’s designs were disseminated around Europe. Galileo received news of the telescope in Padua and immediately set out to build one of his own. The telescope he created was much more powerful than Lippershey’s and, according to Galileo, magnified objects “nearly one thousand times larger and thirty times closer than when seen with the naked eye.”

Galileo used his new instrument to study the heavens. What he saw astounded him. The moon was not smooth, nor perfectly round as was believed; it had valleys and crevices and its surface resembled the Earth.

Jupiter had a quartet of satellites circling it! He observed Venus and discovered that the planet was revolving around the sun, not the Earth. This led Galileo to believe that the Earth was neither motionless, nor the central focus of the solar system. These discoveries turned the Ptolemaic theory of the cosmos on its head.

The up-and-coming astronomer described his exciting discoveries in "Starry Messenger" (Sidereus Nuncius), a pamphlet he dedicated to Cosimo II de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He named Jupiter’s moons the “Medicean Stars” in the Duke’s honor. The Duke was flattered and appointed him mathematician and philosopher of his court. Galileo would continue his celestial observation under the patronage of the Duke.

"Starry Messenger" was widely circulated in Italy. The text contradicted the accepted geocentric view of the cosmos, and it naturally caused a sensation. Galileo’s discoveries, like Copernicus’ before him, were met with skepticism. However, once the leading Jesuit astronomers obtained a telescope, they confirmed Galileo’s claims. The Jesuits gave him their support. Still, they were not willing to abandon geocentrism. Instead, they compromised, adopting the system proposed by Tycho Brahe.

Danish astronomer Brahe had rejected the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system as well as the Copernican theory. According to Brahe, all the planets orbit the sun, while the sun and the moon revolved around a motionless Earth. Unfortunately for Galileo, his celestial discoveries fit just as well in the Tychonic system as they did in the Copernican one. What’s more, the Tychonic system did not contradict the Holy Scripture, making it especially appealing to the Church. Galileo was clearly frustrated. He was also a man on a mission. Although he could not prove the Copernican theory, he was determined to convince the world of its accuracy.

In 1611 Galileo traveled to Rome to discuss his celestial discoveries with the leading scientists and theologians. He received a warm welcome, and he was even granted a private audience with Pope Paul V.

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THE CHURCH APOLOGIZES

In 1822, the Catholic Church lifted the ban against Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Sphere and allowed heliocentrism to be defended as fact. In 1979, Pope John Paul II reopened the Galileo case. In 1992, the Church investigation concluded that:

“Certain theologians, Galileo’s contemporaries, being heirs of a unitary concept of the world universally accepted until the dawn of the seventeenth century, failed to grasp the profound, nonliteral meaning of the Scriptures when they described the physical structure of the created universe. This led them unduly to transpose a question of factual observation into the realm of faith.

“It is in that historical and cultural framework, far removed from our own times, that Galileo’s judges, unable to dissociate faith from an age-old cosmology, believed quite wrongly that the adoption of the Copernican revolution, in fact not yet definitively proven, was such as to undermine Catholic tradition, and that it was their duty to forbid its being taught. This subjective error of judgment, so clear to us today, led them to a disciplinary measure from which Galileo had much to suffer. These mistakes must be frankly recognized, as you, Holy Father, have requested.”

Pope John Paul II officially acknowledged that the Earth moved and issued a formal apology for the prosecution of Galileo.

Today, Galileo Galilei is considered to be the father of modern science. His work and his intellect have inspired countless scientists, artists, intellectuals, and even musicians. A spacecraft, the four large moons of Jupiter, a pop song, and a play by esteemed dramatist Bertolt Brecht have been named in his honor. Galileo’s final work was “so great a contribution to physics,” maintains the award-winning physicist Stephen Hawking, “that scholars have long maintained that the book anticipated Isaac Newton’s laws of motion.”

By William Weir in "History's Greatest Lies", Fair Winds Press, USA, 2009, excerpts chapter 6. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

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