History 127
Script Assignment
Galileo Galilei
On June 22, 1633, I was convicted of vehement suspicion of heresy and sentenced to
formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the inquisition1. Regarded as one of the most famous
people of my time and regarded very highly, I was forced to deny my beliefs that made me
famous, and was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of my life. It is argued that the church
and science deal with different orders of reality and so can never interact, yet, it was my goal to
prove that wrong.2
As a child I was very fervent in my schooling and immersed myself into the studies of
mathematics and astronomy that later helped changed the world. At first my father was very
eager for me to study the arts and music, but when I overheard a lecture on Geometry by a
professor, my heart was settled on mathematics. There was so much to learn and to be
discovered in the realm of mathematics that I soon mastered the sciences with the help from
Ostilio Ricci. It is said that Archimedes was one of the largest contributors to science, but it is I
who was the main contributor to the science of motion. Much was still to be learned
throughout these sciences at my time, so I was determined to think broadly and abstractly and
use my abilities to discover more about the natural world. I soon became the professor of
mathematics at the Venetian University in Padua. Through my studies, I discovered that a
telescope had been created, and I used my experience and knowledge to improve the telescope
1
2
Miller, David Marshall. “The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair”. History of Science, 2008: 49-74.
Hodgson, P.E. “The Church and Science: A changing Relationship. “Heythrop Journal, 2008: 632-647.
to see farther distances. With my new improved telescope, I was able to discover mountains on
the moon, and also discovered moons orbiting Saturn3. Although, my greatest triumph came
when I named Jupiter’s satellites the Medicean Stars after the Tuscany family4. After that, I
soon became a famous astronomer and regularly attended the princely courts across Europe. I
was rising in political stature and my influence was gaining. Some of my findings were published
in the book Siderius Nuncius in 1610, which gained a lot of popularity. I wanted to grow in my
statue, so I moved to Tuscany in 1610 to try to achieve greater religious and social power. While
in Tuscany, I grew in popularity and continued to immerse myself into my studies, and I even
got the opportunity to visit Rome. While I was in Rome, I began to write more books.
What started the controversy surrounding me was what I found with my telescope.
From my research, I changed the world and how it thought up to that point by pointing out that
the sun was the center of the world, and planets including the earth revolved around it5. Up
unto that point, everyone believed what the Catholics taught of how the earth was the center
of the universe, because that is how they interpreted Revelations from the Bible. I firmly
believed that the Bible could be interpreted multiple ways, but that idea was considered
heresy. My studies of researching planets confirmed that the sun actually was the center of the
world and that the earth revolved around it, but it came to a point that people wouldn’t even
look through my telescope out of fear of me being right. These findings followed the beliefs of
Copernicanism: the belief that planets like the earth revolve around the sun. I fervently
3
Graney, Christopher M. “Seeds of a Tychonic Revolution: Telescopic Observations of the Stars by Galileo Galilei
and Simon Marius” Physics in Perspective, 2010: 4-24.
4
Miller, David Marshall. “The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair”. History of Science, 2008: 49-74.
5
Graney, Christopher M. “Seeds of a Tychonic Revolution: Telescopic Observations of the Stars by Galileo Galilei
and Simon Marius” Physics in Perspective, 2010: 4-24.
advocated for this theory to the point that the Catholics were getting worried. I was becoming
so famous that in 1611, the Congregation of the Holy Office, known as the Inquisition, set up an
investigation into me and my publishings. The problem that I had was it was my word against
the Scripture6. Many people believed that I was trying to prove against faith, but what I was
trying to prove was that in studying creation and nature, I was honoring God, as I was a man of
faith myself. But because the Scriptures were interpreted only one way for many years, the
church was not about to change the way the Bible was interpreted because a few scientists like
me believed otherwise. It was not that I believed the Bible was wrong, it was that I believed
that the Bible could be interpreted another way that could coincide with my theories. The
church however would not see any of this, as they emphasized the traditional teaching that the
latter should have priority over the former7. So on February 25, 1616, Pope Paul ordered that I
could not defend my theory of Copernicanism anymore and that I could not even talk about it
any further.
Even though the Pope ordered that I not defend or speak about my beliefs in
Copernicanism, he actually respected me and thought of me very highly, and actually protected
me. Although, this protection wouldn’t last long for me, because a new Pope (Urban) came into
power. At first Urban admired my work and thought highly of it, but by 1630, that protection
eroded8. But that did not keep me from writing. I was able to visit Rome a few times and was
inspired to write a book, and published it on February 21, 1632. This would become another
popular book that I wrote, concerning the relationship between the church and science, and
6
Miller, David Marshall. “The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair”. History of Science, 2008: 49-74.
Cruz, Eduardo da. “It Started With Galileo.” Zygon, 2007: 591- 594.
8
Miller, David Marshall. “The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair”. History of Science, 2008: 49-74.
7
their differing views. Although I did not advocate outright for Copernicanism, I did argue in its
favor, which will later become my downfall9. Pope Urban was under a lot of pressure from the
people from the situation with the Protestant Army, so he needed someone to blame. I became
his target for blame. Instead of conducting a private investigation with the Inquisition like Paul
did in 1611, Urban wanted to go after me publically. So Urban soon banned my book in July
saying that I advocated for Copernicanism. So from 1632-1633, I was set up by Pope Urban and
was given the choice to recant what I had said in my books and denounce my belief that the
earth revolved around the sun, in exchange for only being under house arrest. I of course had
to comply. Therefore, I was sentenced to be under house arrest under the order to never speak
on the subject of Copernicanism. Pope Urban used me as political tool to gain more power by
showing the people what he was capable of, and continued to do so after my trial by
threatening me to torture. Because of my age however, torture was not carried out.
So although I was one of the greatest thinkers of my time, I was not permitted to reach
my full potential due to political and religious agendas. Initially science was developed by
Christian philosophers of nature and there were no particular difficulties with the Church10. By
the 17th century the Catholic Church was spending more on astronomy in particular and
science in general than any other institution.11 However problems grew when science started to
contradicted the Bible. So the Church was trying to gain power while I was trying to express
new thinking that could change the world. The problem was that Catholics were more inclined
to believe the old theories of interpreted Scripture than my theory of Copernicanism, which
9
Miller, David Marshall. “The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair”. History of Science, 2008: 49-74.
Hodgson, P.E. “The Church and Science: A changing Relationship. “Heythrop Journal, 2008: 632-647.
10
11
Little, Edmund. “Galileo, Science, and the Church”. Stimulus, 2010: 31-34.
was fairly new. I challenged the people of my day and tested the old philosophy that people
had believed for many centuries. I was even eventually taken as one of the martyrs of the
scientific revolution12. I was determined to the point of being stubborn in beliefs for I believed
they were true and held merit. I wrote in the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina explaining
that I believe that Copernicanism is compatible with the Scripture13, but it’s up to the people on
whether they are willing to believe me or not. I do not feel obliged to believe that the same
God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. 14
12
Cruz, Eduardo da. “It Started With Galileo.” Zygon, 2007: 591- 594.
Miller, David Marshall. “The Thirty Years War and the Galileo Affair”. History of Science, 2008: 49-74.
14
Galileo Galilei. BrainyQuote.com, Xplore Inc, 2012.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/g/galileogal161381.html, accessed June 1, 2012
13