| A lot of people misunderstand the reasons behind the persecution of Galileo.
It wasn't as cut-and-dried as the idea that the church didn't like Galileo's
ideas and therefore decide to persecute him, as many make it sound. Actually,
Galileo's ideas were in conflict with the scientific establishment of it's
day (which subscribed to Greek philosopher Aristotle's beliefs). One of the
main reasons for the persecution was that Galileo published his work in Italian
(the language of the common man) and not in Latin (the language of the scientific
community), which caused Galileo to be considered an enemy of the scientific
community. It should be noted that the Pope, Urban VII, was sympathetic to
Galileo but was, sadly, unwilling to stand up to the authorities who put
pressure on him to punish Galileo. Essentially, Galileo's problem was not
with the church, but with the scientific community, which then used the church
to get back at Galileo, and the church simply lacked the courage to refuse. |