The Galileo Affair & Death
The Galileo Affair was a number of events that occurred starting from around 1610. These events led to the trial and condemnation of Galileo that was initiated by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1616 and 1633 for believing that Galileo supported the “heliocentric” model rather than geocentrism.
The heliocentric model is a theory regarding that the Sun is the center of the universe and that the planets orbit around it. Galileo had many findings and opinions that suggested this idea of heliocentrism during the time where society and the church strongly that geocentrism is the right theory. Geocentrism is the belief that the Earth is the center of the universe.
The Galileo Affair began when Galileo published Sidereus Nuncius in 1610 which described the observations he made with the telescope he created. This included some of his most important contributions such as the phases of Venus and the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Due to these observations, he promoted the idea of the heliocentric theory.
The discovery that Galileo made were met with opposition with the Catholic Church
and in 1616, the church declared that the belied of heliocentrism is now heretical. With this rule being made, all books regarding this belief were banned and Galileo had to refrain himself from defending, teaching or sharing his heliocentric ideas.
Galileo Galilei and the Roman Catholic Church
In 1616, Galileo proposed a theory of tides and a theory on comets in 1619. His theory of tides was evidence for the motion of the Earth. Then, in 1632, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which once again supported heliocentrism and his findings became very popular. His ideas were against the theology, astronomy, and philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church at that time which caused them to sentencing him to indefinite imprisonment in 1633 because they believed that he was a “gravely suspect of heresy”. Due to this, Galileo was under house arrest until he died due to heart palpitations and fever on January 8, 1642, in Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy.