⚖️ Was Galileo Really a Heretic? ⚖️

Some years ago I discovered in the heavens many things that had not been seen before our own age. The novelty of these things . . . stirred up several professors against me. They hurled various charges and published numerous writings filled with vain arguments, and they made the grave mistake of sprinkling these with passages taken from places in the Bible, which they failed to understand properly.

The reason given for attacking the opinion that the earth moves and the sun stands still is that in many places in the Bible one may read that the sun moves and the earth stands still. Since the Bible cannot err, it follows that anyone who claims that the sun is motionless and the earth movable takes an erroneous and heretical position.

With regard to this argument, I think in the first place that it is very pious to say and prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth—whenever its true meaning is understood. But I believe nobody will deny that the Bible is often very complex, and may say things which are quite different from what its bare words signify. . . .

I do not believe that the same God who has given senses, reason and intellect has intended us to not to use them. . . . He would not require us to deny sense and reason in physical matters of direct experience. . . .

Can an opinion be heretical and yet have no concern with the salvation of souls?

Source: Galileo Galilei, "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany," 1615.

As you know, the Council [of Trent] prohibits interpreting the Scriptures contrary to the common agreement of the holy Fathers. And if you would read not only the Fathers but also the commentaries of modern writers on Genesis, Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Joshua, you would find that all agree in explaining that the sun is in the heavens and moves swiftly around the earth, and that the earth is far from the heavens and stands immobile in the center of the universe. . . .

It would be just as heretical to deny that Abraham had two sons and Jacob twelve, as it would be to deny the virgin birth of Christ, for both are declared by the Holy Ghost through the mouths of the prophets and apostles. . . .

I say that if there were a true demonstration that the sun was in the center of the universe and the earth in the third sphere, and that the sun did not travel around the earth but the earth circled the sun, then it would be necessary to proceed with great caution in explaining the passages of Scripture which seemed contrary, and we would rather have to say that we did not understand the Scripture than to say that something was false which has been demonstrated.

But I do not believe that there is any such demonstration; none has been shown to me. . . . [One] clearly experiences that the earth stands still and that his eye is not deceived when it judges that the moon and stars move.

Source: Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, "Letter on Galileo's Theories," 1615.