Galileo's Dialogue and his trial by the Inquisition
- Date
- 1632–1633
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Papal States (Rome) / Italy
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
In 1632 Galileo published the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which compared the Ptolemaic and Copernican models and made a powerful case for a moving Earth, despite a 1616 precept warning him not to hold or defend heliocentrism.
The book, written in vigorous Italian for a wide readership, angered Pope Urban VIII and the Roman authorities. In 1633 Galileo was summoned to Rome and tried by the Inquisition. On 22 June 1633 he was found guilty of 'vehement suspicion of heresy' for defending a doctrine condemned as contrary to Scripture; his Dialogue was banned, and he was compelled to kneel and publicly abjure, curse and detest his alleged errors. He was sentenced to imprisonment, swiftly commuted to house arrest, under which he spent his remaining years, though he continued working and published important physics. The trial became one of the most famous confrontations between science and religious authority, a cautionary symbol of institutional resistance to new knowledge. The Catholic Church formally acknowledged errors in its handling of the case only in 1992.
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Empires active in 1632–1633
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- Wahhab–Saud Pact Founds the Wahhabi Movement and First Saudi State1744
- Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and the start of the Reformation31 October 1517
- Compilation of the Adi Granth, Sikh Scripture1604 CE
- Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion13 April 1598
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes18 October 1685
- St Bartholomew's Day Massacre24 August 1572
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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