Galileo: Hero or Heretic
In years past the Galileo incident was used as an “example” of the conflict between science and religion. In the “example” the church of the Middle Ages is suppressing all scientific knowledge and intellectual breakthroughs that would conflict with it in any way. But in recent years more evidence has emerged about the Galileo incident that has shown this once simple story to be far more complex than thought.
William Draper is the originator of much of this belief since the conflict as he wrote the first major work on this thesis. In his book Conflict between Religion and Science, which was written in 1875, Draper brings up many conflicts that would be written about after him. So this book is important in understanding where this conflict scholarship1 originated. Draper discusses the origins of science and religion, focusing primarily on Christianity; he then builds to his conflict perspective and uses examples to support his idea.
Draper states that the ancient Greeks focused on science because their old religion was failing to keep up with modern times since many could see the reason behind events without having to turn to gods for answers. He makes the case that ancient Greek philosophers were moving away from the gods of their time and turning to science: “Her philosophers, in their studies of the world, had been profoundly impressed with the contrast between the majesty of the operations of nature and the worthlessness of the divinities of Olympus” (Draper, 1). He discusses how over time people, not just the thinkers of the time, were turning away from the gods. Since people were turning away from religion to answer questions there must be a new way of answering them. So now that science was at the center of Greek intellectual thought instead of religion, and therefore they started making advancements in thought on nature and in philosophy. Draper also compared of the downfall of the ancient Greek gods to Christianity of this time, and how Christianity would eventually fail to answer questions for us and that we would turn to science like the Greeks. He then begins, talking about how Christianity spread throughout the world through the Roman Empire. Also he discussed Christianity’s rise to power as a government in itself through the Roman Catholic Church.
With the Catholic Church now in power, as the main form of actual government during its time,2 it decided what should be taught and what should not be taught. It decided if something is true or if something is false and as such the church suppressed knowledge it deemed against Christian theology. Draper gives several examples of this, the main one being the Galileo incident where he states that the church set out to ridicule and force Galileo to submit to its beliefs. Galileo had read a book by Copernicus in which Copernicus stated that the earth revolved around the sun, Galileo accepted this idea and he wrote supporting this idea. With the use of his telescope he had made several observations that supported the heliocentric theory, namely the phases of Mercury and Venus. He also noticed that the moon had mountains and valleys similar to the earth. The next thing Galileo noticed was that the sun has spots on it and they are not always in the same position.
These observations by Galileo led him to believe that Copernicus was correct that the earth revolved around the sun and that the previous system explaining the heavens motion was incorrect.3 However the church held the belief that the earth was the center of the universe and was unmoving; it used examples in the scriptures to support this ideology. In 1632 Galileo published The System of the World whose objective, Draper states “Was the vindication of the Copernican doctrine” (Draper, 171). He states that this renewed interest in the Copernican system, after being warned previously by the church, was the reason he was brought up on heresy charges. These charges, Draper claims, led to his conviction and punishment “He was compelled to abjure and curse the doctrine of the movement of the earth” (Draper, 171). Galileo, according to Draper, only recanted his beliefs under threat of torture and death from the inquisition after which he was forced to spend the remainder of his years in jail: “He was then committed to prison, treated with remorseless severity during the remaining ten years of his life, and was denied burial in consecrated ground”(Draper, 172).
Draper’s book is very important for many reasons, it is the first major work on this thesis; Draper is also the main founder of this thesis which many would build upon in later generations. He brings many things to our attention that must be dealt with, but his book is not so much a historic work as a piece of propaganda against Christianity, and the Roman Catholic Church in particular. Many of his facts are incorrect4 and one must wonder why they are incorrect. Were they for persuasion, or were they, out of hatred to make a point? Galileo did not spend the remainder of his life in prison; he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. (See figure.1) Draper seemed to let no fact get in the way of his hatred: “By the low and ignorant ecclesiastics they were denounced as deceptions or frauds” (Draper, 171). In this quote he is referring to the Copernican system and the church’s reaction to this new theory.
Andrew D. White is noted for his book written in 1896, A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom in it, he states there is a war between science and religion, specifically Christianity. White’s book is a two volume work, in which he has done very good research to support his arguments. His book is very complete. He begins with ideas on creation from ancient to medieval times, and how the people of those times viewed different parts of creation all the way up to the creator himself. He then goes into various scientific areas and discusses the problems between them and religion. These areas include geology, astronomy, biology (evolution), anthropology, and many other areas.
In the beginning of his book White discusses that many people felt the earth and man were created in some way by a god. He discusses several beliefs, mainly Christian, arguing that many of the ancient and medieval time generally took the bible literally, so that when god made heaven and the earth, he actually did it in just 6 days.5
White next moves to the Galileo incident, where Galileo was arguing for the Copernican system of the universe. He points out that Galileo had seen the phases of Venus through observations with his telescope. White said that when Galileo had shown that there were phases to Venus, Galileo had taken the Copernican idea out of the realm of theory and had proven it. According to White almost immediately afterwards Galileo came under fire for his stance. White said that many “Semi-scientific professors, endeavoring to curry favour with the church, attacked him with sham science; earnest preachers attacked him with perverted scripture” (White, 130,131). A Dominican, Father Caccini, preached a sermon titled “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” (White, 133). White builds upon this, reporting, many attacks that Galileo received for his belief and his evidence, supporting the Copernican system. He mentions that Galileo had met with the new Pope Urban VIII and in a book The Dialogue Galileo had put the new pope’s argument into the mouth of someone named, Simplicio, (The simpleton) in the book. This angered the pope so much that “His whole power was now thrown against Galileo.” (White, 141) White states that after Galileo was tortured he recanted his belief in the Copernican theory,6 and that the order for torture came directly from Pope Urban VIII.7 He also says that, Galileo recanted what he knew to be true, but he feared he would be put to death had he not accepted his punishment and the requests of his prosecutors.
White does a far more balanced and well-thought-out job than Draper had previously done. White was very thorough in his research. He used many quotes from the many priests, and from the meetings Galileo had with the Pope. He included new discoveries in his book; he did present the fact that Galileo had agitated the Pope by putting his argument in the mouth of a simpleton in his book. This does show that the church was not the complete evil and wrong institution that Draper had previously attempted to portray. White also holds the belief that Galileo was tortured, which is known today to be incorrect. So White’s work is far more accurate and contains fewer errors but we still see a key one in his also with the torture. This is a key piece of propaganda that is still believed by many due to how influential these two works are.
Now we have a book written in 1987 by Pietro Redondi and his book Galileo Heretic. Redondi spent years digging through the Vatican archives,8 focusing specifically on the Galileo incident. He researched the people involved, reading their notes and personal letters during the trials surrounding Galileo. He found several documents in the archives that deal with the Galileo trial and one which was very interesting It stated that the main concern the church had with Galileo’s books were the fact they supported the idea of atomism.9 This goes against what White and Draper previously argued that he got in trouble over his belief in the Copernican system. So this is completely different than what is previously thought by everyone on this matter.10 These documents refer to Galileo’s book The Assayer, in which Galileo discusses things that support atomism. The reason Redondi states that this is dangerous is that the church had just made the Eucharist Dogma (Council of Trent)11, which means it could not be questioned at all. So what does his book supporting atomism have to do with the Eucharist? Well the Eucharist is the miracle of where the bread is turned into the body of Christ and the wine into his blood; this could be explained with the “Aristotelian” science of the time. Atomism could not explain this and actually somewhat falsified this belief that these actually changed.12
Redondi states that Galileo did receive outside criticism from various sources about his support for the Copernican theory but that he was not in trouble for it. The reason he states this is the fact that Galileo had proven the old Ptolemaic system wrong but that he had not proven Copernican system right. This was another concern with earlier writers. They felt he had proven Copernican system correct, but by the science of the day he had merely proven one wrong not the other right. The end result of his first inquisition was that he was not to have or hold the view that the earth revolves around the sun.13
Galileo also stepped out of science and into philosophy. He went into a realm and challenged the views of people in an area where many felt he should not go, he was a scientist and not someone to interpret the scriptures.14 Redondi also stated that Galileo was not sensitive to the political winds of his time. The Catholic Church and the pope were under attack from outside for various reasons. Also as mentioned by White, Galileo published his book Dialogue on Two World Systems where he had used the Pope’s argument in the mouth of the simpleton.15 Redondi argues that this angered, not only the pope, but also the theologians (when he attempted to interpret scripture to support his science), and many scientists of his time (the Jesuits), because they refused to side with him on his view that Copernicus was correct.
Redondi, placed much of the blame on Galileo and his inability to work with others to help his views,16 Galileo’s unwavering stance simply encouraged his enemies and discouraged his friends. Redondi does a very good job of showing the extent of what was going on during this time. The Catholic Church was dealing with the counterreformation which had been underway for some time and the church had to respond to various attacks on it.
William Shea and Mariano Artigas write a book in 2003 called Galileo in Rome. The book covers Galileo’s six trips to Rome. For his first trip Galileo was going to Rome to gain a benefactor or a job and if he was lucky, both.17 This did work as he made friends with a Roman Jesuit professor named Christopher Clavius, who helped him get his first job teaching at the University of Pisa. Shortly after this Galileo moved to the University of Padua here he made his discoveries about the heavens with his telescope and published them. This gained him great fame, after which he returned to Florence where he served under the Grand duke as a philosopher and mathematician.
Shea and Mariano state that this rise in fame due to his discoveries also caused people to be jealous and despise him. Then his backing and publishing ideas on Copernican system gave his new enemies a chance to strike at him. Shea and Mariano claim the first to strike was a philosopher named Ludovico delle Colombe. He “circulated a manuscript treatise in which he not only ridiculed the motion of the earth but fired the first theological broadside by claiming it was at variance with the teaching of scripture.” (Shea, Artigas, 27) Combe used various scriptures to support his argument against Galileo; some being “You fixed the earth on its foundations (Psalm 104:5)” (Shea, Artigas, 27) and “The sun rises, and sets, and returns to its place, from which, reborn, it revolves through the meridian, and is curved toward the North. (Ecclesiastes 1:5)”. (Shea, Artigas, 27) So they argue that it is the thinkers of his time that fired the first shot instead of the clergy as was previously the argument of Draper and White. Shea and Artigas go on to argue that these scientists who embraced the Aristotelian ideology of science get the clergy to attack Galileo on this and aid them in their war on Galileo. They soon had enough support according to the book to have Galileo brought forth and condemned for his views.
Galileo now went back to his studies and he made little noise of his views and did not try to pursue things after he was condemned by the holy office. Now in 1623 the Cardinals elected a new Pope, Urban VIII, was a friend and admirer of Galileo. Later Urban VIII made Galileo’s, illegitimate son legitimate.18 Galileo went to Rome again in 1624 and met with the new pope 6 different times during his stay there. During one of his meetings with Pope Urban VIII Galileo had mentioned the Copernican theory and the Pope stated that God could have made things anyway he wanted. When Galileo left he felt that he was freed up and could now go back to his view and start discussing Copernicus’ theory. Soon after, Galileo published his book Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems where, as stated before, he put the Pope’s argument into the mouth of the simpleton named, Simplicio. He also attacked the Jesuit Christopher Scheiner19 in his book. He had previously had disputes over Scheiner’s beliefs in the Ptolemaic system as opposed to Galileo’s belief in the Copernican system.
Draper was the first to put this idea of a conflict between science and religion into print in a major and far reaching way, but it has progressed. One of the problems this thesis faces is that one of its founders had a blatant hatred of organized religion, as mentioned earlier. Draper spoke of how the Greeks had given up on their gods and moved strictly to science to explain things, this could not be further from the truth. The Greeks were still deeply rooted in the religion of their gods which heavily influenced much of their scientific work instead of halting it’s growth. They explained nature through the beliefs they held of their gods. Draper would have you believe that they simply one day threw the gods out of the equation and became enlightened. Then the evil Christianity came along through the Catholic Church using the Roman Empire as its vessel. He believed that Christianity wanted to suppress knowledge so that it may rule supreme instead of reason.
Draper skewed many facts to make his argument more appealing, especially when talking about Galileo. He states Galileo died in jail and was never given any liberties until he was nearly dead and barely able to function. He does not mention that Galileo wrote his most influential book after he was under house arrest, that book being Dialogues concerning Two New Sciences.
White comes into the picture after Draper and gives an overall more balanced look at things though he also feels there is a conflict between science and religion. White claims that the church deliberately attempted to suppress scientific knowledge but his work was more thorough and his facts are more accurate. White focuses on the reaction that the clergy had to Galileo’s view of the Copernican theory, that many in the clergy had said made statements attacking Galileo.
After years there is finally an answer that this conflict may not be as simple as it first appeared. First we have Redondi who does a tremendous amount of research in the Vatican archives and he found documents that involved the people in the inquisition of Galileo. These documents mention something that was previously not thought of, atomism. This atomism which was mentioned in some documents, Redondi found, was great concern to the Catholic Church. The church of this time had gone through the reformation and the counter reformation, the council of Trent had set forth Catholic doctrine concerning salvation, and the sacraments one of which being the Eucharist. Atomism would bring into question this new dogma of the Eucharist and cast doubt upon it. The church according to Redondi was not willing to have this questioned by anyone. Redondi also stated that Galileo was famous and brought great fame to the Catholic Church20 so that its leaders would be hesitant to bring charges against Galileo because it could look bad for the church itself. He states that the belief of the Copernican system had little to do with Galileo and his conviction. Shea and Artigas on the other hand take a slightly different angle with this, they feel that Galileo and his rise to power was possibly his downfall. They make the argument that his inability not to argue and fight with other theologians and the fact that he would use the scripture to help his case for his theories angering the philosophers. The final straw would be when he insulted the Pope Urban VIII who was a friend and admirer of Galileo, the Pope and made Galileo’s son legitimate even though they were out of wedlock, when he used the Pope’s argument that God could do it however he wanted.
We see that there is far more to this story than the church was evil and science was the good guy. We see the individuals behind this and what roles they played in this entire problem between science and religion. So is it really a problem between science and religion or a problem with people? Could it be that we resist change no matter what our views are? Looking at Shea’s book we see that many of the scientists of the time resisted change, that they got help from the church to disprove Galileo. We see that Galileo was a great and very intelligent person, but his one short coming was the fact that he was not sensitive to the politics of his time and became a victim of them. He insulted the Pope, many other scientists of his time namely the Jesuits, dabbled in personal interpretation of the scripture when he was advised not to, and the very thing he accused his attacks of he was guilty of also.
Johannes Kepler was another astronomer who talked with Galileo about a problem he was grappling with. Kepler was having difficulty with Mars as it was not moving in perfect circles as was thought by everyone at that time, Kepler came up with the idea that it moves in an elliptical orbit. He had told Galileo of his idea and Galileo rejected it, so Galileo was just as guilty as his opponents were of not listening to others ideas and verifying results/findings if they are correct.
After looking at the evidence I would say that it is more of the fact that Galileo attacked his attackers and ended up attacking his friends who had stood by him before. When the church was going through hard times dealing with external attacks that the Pope was not supporting various countries against the protestant countries during this time Galileo wanted to challenge church dogma. His mentioning of atomism in some of his writings had bothered some of the members of the holy office. All of this comes together and forces us to see that though the church had a part in this, Galileo had an equal if not more so part in his own destruction. On the bright side there is some good that comes out of this, while on house arrest Galileo wrote his most influential work the two new sciences. This would influence Newton and others in their work on physics in the future, so the church forcing Galileo to actually not fight over this one theory actually influenced science centuries later.
1 That organized religion is actively seeking to suppress scientific knowledge.
2 After the Roman Empire fell the Catholic Church was the main form of government that held things together during this time.
3 The Ptolemaic system was used to explain how the heavens moved. Copernicus was part of the commission to redo the calendar and he came up with the view that the sun was the center and the earth revolved around it.
4 Draper states that Galileo was tortured, which he was not though he was threatened with it; this was not known during his time. Several years earlier the specifics of his trial had come out and it was told that he was tortured to no end. He fails to mention that Galileo was placed under house arrest and later wrote another book, Draper states that Galileo died of old age ridiculed and sick.
5 That many during this time took the bible literally at its word. For example it states that God created the universe in 6 days and on the 7th he rested, many felt this to be what really happened.
6 This belief was still around even after the Draper book only until the past few decades has this finally be accepted that he was not.
7 Urban VIII was likely mad at being painted as a simpleton in Galileo’s book and wanted to threaten and intimidate Galileo.
8 He found many new documents that were in the special archives reserved only for high ranking ecclesiastical members such as cardinals. So he was able to find documents not previously available to the public, nor were they easy to find.
9 Atomism is the view that everything is made up of smaller particles, they did not have the idea of atoms as we do but that a table would be made up of particles of a table.
10 All the previous work has focused on Galileo’s support of Copernicus. Redondi found documents stating that they inquisitors were more concerned with his books support of atomism.
11 Set forth some of the Catholic sacraments one of which was the Eucharist. This was not to be challenged as this was one of the foundational beliefs of the church.
12 Was all of the bread changed along with the wine, or was part of it still in its original form. If it was made of other particles then how would these particles change at all? This brought into question the entire belief of the Eucharist.
13 This was the outcome of the first trial of Galileo; this verdict was handed to him from Cardinal Bellarmine. Galileo requested a copy of this judgment to show that he was not heretical.
14 Galileo attempted to use scripture to support his arguments which offended the theologians as they are the ones to interpret scripture not Galileo.
15 The Pope had stated that God could have ordered the universe however he wanted.
16 That he would attack other scientists of his time who held different views than him.
17 Galileo was for all purposes broke when he made his first trip to Rome. He was forced to leave the university due to the fact that his finances had run out.
18Galileo had several children out of wedlock, Urban VIII made his son legitimate.
19 A professor who held the view that the earth was the center of the universe and that Copernicus was wrong.
20 Galileo’s findings helped the Church as he was a faithful Catholic and this brought fame to the Church whenever he made a new discovery.