Some of the most pervasive myths of Modernity revolve around the relationship between religion and science, often to the detriment of the former. The narrative usually goes like this:
Ancient/Mediaeval people [ignorant savages] once believed [insert absurdity here].
Along came a scientist who knew better and tried to enlighten people. The religious authorities [agents of ignorance and dogma] persecuted the scientist because his views conflicted with orthodox religious views [primitive superstitions]. Centuries later, we know that the scientist was correct, and he stands as an example of reason and integrity in the face of ignorance and persecution.
Sound familiar?
Galileo Galilei is probably the most-often cited figure in this narrative (others have been Giordano Bruno and Isaac Newton).
The Galileo mythos has as its foundation the claim that Galileo was persecuted for believing in a heliocentric universe, which contradicted the Bible. The Church had him imprisoned, declaring its official position that the earth was the center of the universe, and it was not until the 1990s that they apologized and admitted that Galileo was right.
I was taught this at WMU!
Now to clarify some finer points, especially for those who believe that the Church was some sort of "evil empire" (another very popular modern myth).
Galileo did not invent the idea of a heliocentric universe. That had been done years earlier by Copernicus, a Catholic priest. Copernicus was never persecuted for these ideas.
Some ideologues have declared that Copernicus avoided persecution because he died before the Church could do anything about it.
That's rich.
Ten years before Copernicus's death a scholar named Albert Widmanstadt gave a lecture about the heliocentric model in front of Pope Clement VII. Nothing bad befell him. In 1536 two Church officials, a Cardinal and a bishop, actively encouraged Copernicus to publish his work.
The work of Copernicus was forbidden by the Church in 1616, seventy-three years after Copernicus's death, but was re-allowed after some sentences which proclaimed the certainty of the heliocentric model were changed.
1616 was also the year in which a council of theologians decided that the heliocentric model was junk science, and probably heretical. It was not a trial. Galileo was not present, nor was he punished, nor did his name come up when the edict was announced. One month after that edict, in fact, Galileo had a meeting with Pope Paul V, who assured Galileo of his support--though he had been formally warned against teaching the Copernican doctrine as truth.
Galileo was tried in 1633 for having published a book defending the Copernican view. The trial was a modest affair--Galileo faced two churchmen with a secretary taking notes--and was ruled upon by ten cardinals. Three of those cardinals refused to sign the condemnation. It was confirmed neither by the pope nor by a Council, and as such was not a statement of official doctrine by the Church--it was a disciplinary matter.
Galileo was sentenced to house arrest, which he spent in the Florentine embassy, in a house in Acetri, and in the home of the archbishop of Sienna, who supported him. He continued conducting experiments and publishing books until his death.
Contrary to what I was taught at university, it is a fact that Benedict XIV gave an imprimatur to Galileo's works in 1741, a quarter of a millennium before the 1990s.
The fact that Galileo was punished is of course unjust. But his persecution had more to do with the fact that the Ptolemaic model was firmly entrenched in the scientific community, at a time when many scientists also happened to be churchmen. Scripture was of course considered, but it is a myth that a literal interpretation of scripture was the chief reason for Galileo's imprisonment. Cardinal Bellarmine, the cleric who notified Galileo of the 1616 decision, aptly noted that if the heliocentric model were found to be correct, then the Church would have to modify her understanding of Scripture.
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