Sunday Special-An Idea that moved the World!

Nicolaus Copernicus

Before Copernicus, most people thought that the Sun and the other planets revolved around the Earth,this was called geocentrism

  In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs, a treatise that put forth his revolutionary idea that the Sun was at the center of the universe and that the Earth--rotating on an axis--orbited around the sun once a year.  Copernicus' theory was a challenge to the accepted notion contained in the natural philosophy of Aristotle, the astronomy of Ptolemy and the teachings of the Church that the sun and all the stars revolved around a stationary Earth.  In the half-century since its publication, however, Copernicus' theory met mostly with skepticism. 

The Roman Catholic Church was a powerful force in Europe during the time of the Scientific Revolution. The birth and growth of science led to conflicts between scientists and the Church.
Reason for Conflict
There were two related parts to the conflict between science and the Church. The first was that the new science was putting forth ideas that contradicted Church teachings. For example, Copernicus’s idea that the earth orbited the sun contradicted the Church teaching that the earth was at the center of the universe.

Biblical references such as Psalm 93:1, 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 which include text stating that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." In the same manner, Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place." What, if Copernicus were right, would be the sense of Joshua 10:13 which says "So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven" or Isaiah 40:22 that speaks of "the heavens stretched out as a curtain" above "the circle of the earth"?
A second part of the conflict was related to the first. When people contradicted the Church’s teachings, they weakened the Church. Church officials were afraid that questioning even one Church teaching might lead to more and more questions about the Church. People might even start to doubt key elements of the faith. Church officials feared this would undermine the Church’s influence.

Acts 1:11King James Version (KJV)

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

In the Christian world prior to Galileo's conflict with the Church, the majority of educated people subscribed either to the Aristotelian geocentric view that the earth was the center of the universe and that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth, or the Tychonic system that blended geocentrism with heliocentrism. Nevertheless, following the death of Copernicus and before Galileo, heliocentrism was relatively uncontroversial; Copernicus's work was used by Pope Gregory XIII to reform the calendar in 1582.

The conflict between science and the Church was illustrated by a trial. Galileo published a book that supported the view that the planets orbit the sun.

For this, he was put on trial by the Inquisition, a Church court that investigated people who questioned Church authority. Catholic officials insisted that Galileo publicly reject his findings and accept Catholic teachings that the earth was the center of the universe and did not move.

Summoned before Bellarmine on February 25, 1616 and admonished, Galileo--according to a witness, Cardinal Oregius--"remained silent with all his science and thus showed that no less praiseworthy than his mind was his pious disposition."  Oregius' account, and Galileo's own writings, indicate that Galileo did not "refuse to obey" the Church's admonition.  It is assumed, therefore, that Galileo was not formally enjoined. that the earth was the center of the universe and did not move.

Cristiano Banti's 1857 painting Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition -Trial of 1616

At the palace, the usual residence of  Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, the said Galileo, having been summoned and being present before the said Lord Cardinal, was...warned of the error of the aforesaid opinion and admonished to abandon it; and immediately thereafter...the said Galileo was by the said Commissary commanded and enjoined, in the name of His Holiness the Pope and the whole Congregation of the Holy Office, to relinquish altogether the said opinion that the Sun is the center of the world and immovable and that the Earth moves; nor further to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing; otherwise proceedings would be taken against him by the Holy Office; which injunction the said Galileo acquiesced in and promised to obey.  The Grand Duke reported that Galileo "for two nights continuous...cried and moaned in sciatic pain; and his advancing age and sorrow."  His only consolation during his stay at the embassy seemed to be that soon he would finally have a chance to defend his science and theology. On April 8, Niccolini informed Galileo that he would stand trial before ten cardinals.  A more difficult chore for Niccolini was to break the news to him that the merits of his case--as a practical matter--had been decided already; all he could do was submit. . Under threat of torture, Galileo agreed. Still, legend has it that as Galileo left his trial, he muttered,"E pur si muove"( “And yet it does move.”) Although he is remembered for opposing this Church teaching, Galileo was a devout Catholic. He believed that experimentation was a search for an understanding of God’s creation.

In 1623, Galileo received some hopeful news: Cardinal Maffeo Barberini had been elected Pope. 

Four days later, Galileo officially surrendered to the Holy Office and faced Father Firenzuola, the Commissary-General of the Inquisition, and his assistants.  Firenzuola informed Galileo that for the duration of the proceedings against him he would be imprisoned in the Inquisition building.  After putting Galileo under oath, the Commissary deposed Galileo concerning meetings he held with Cardinal Bellarmine and other church officials in 1616.  Galileo seemed to have trouble remembering who might have been present with Bellarmine on that fateful February day seventeen years earlier, as well as exactly what restrictions--if any--had been placed upon him.  Firenzuola told Galileo that he had been commanded to "neither hold, defend, nor teach that [the Copernican] opinion in any way whatsoever."  Galileo quibbled with the language--suggesting "I do not remember...the clause "in any way whatsoever"--, but accepted most of what the Commissary said.  After a series of questions concerning the licensing of the Dialogue, Galileo signed his deposition in a shaking hand.

The trial by the Congregation moved to its conclusion.  Several of the ten cardinals apparently pushed for Galileo's incarceration in prison, while those more supportive of Galileo argued that--with changes--the Dialogue ought to continue to be allowed to circulate.  In the end, a majority of the cardinals--rejecting much of the Commissary's agreement with Galileo--demanded Galileo "even with the threat of torture...abjure in a plenary assembly of the Congregation of the Holy Office.  Galileo's renunciation of 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."

On the morning of June 22, 1633, Galileo, dressed in the white shirt of penitence, entered the large hall of the Inquisition building.  He knelt and listened to his sentence:  "Whereas you, Galileo, the son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged seventy years, were in the year 1615 denounced to this Holy Office for holding as true the false doctrine....."  The reading continued for seventeen paragraphs:

And, so that you will be more cautious in future, and an example for others to abstain from delinquencies of this sort, we order that the book Dialogue of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by public edict. We condemn you to formal imprisonment in this Holy Office at our pleasure. As a salutary penance we impose on you to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for the next three years. And we reserve to ourselves the power of moderating, commuting, or taking off, the whole or part of the said penalties and penances.
This we say, pronounce, sentence, declare, order and reserve by this or any other better manner or form that we reasonably can or shall think of. So we the undersigned Cardinals pronounce.

Seven of the ten cardinals signed the sentence.

Following the reading of the sentence, Galileo knelt to recite his abjuration:

....[D]esiring to remove from the minds of your Eminences, and of all faithful Christians, this strong suspicion, reasonably conceived against me, with sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and generally every other error and sect whatsoever contrary to the said Holy Church; and I swear that in the future I will never again say or assert, verbally or in writing, anything that might furnish occasion for a similar suspicion regarding me.... I, the said Galileo Galilei, have abjured, sworn, promised, and bound myself as above; and in witness of the truth thereof I have with my own hand subscribed the present document of my abjuration, and recited it word for word at Rome, in the Convent of Minerva, this twenty-second day of June, 1633.
I, Galileo Galilei, have abjured as above with my own hand.  After six days in the custody of Niccolini, custody of Galileo transferred to Archbishop Piccolomini in Sienna.  In late 1633, Galileo received permission to move into his own small farmhouse in Arcetri, where,He went completely blind in 1638 and was suffering from a painful hernia and insomnia , in 1642, he  died.

According to popular legend,"E pur si muove" (And still it moves)was found written on the wall of his Prison Cell

It was while Galileo was under house arrest that he dedicated his time to one of his finest works, Two New Sciences. Here he summarised work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials, published in Holland to avoid the censor. This book has received high praise from Albert Einstein. As a result of this work, Galileo is often called the "father of modern physics"

^{Researched,Compiled and Illustrated by Tejinder Kamboj}