Handout for Galileo on Trial, Christopher Check
Essays worth reading
Galileo and the Tyranny of Truth, Paul Feyerabend
Galileo, Exegete of Scripture vs. Rome, Advocate of Science, Christopher Decaen
Galileo, The New Catholic Encyclopedia
Books worth reading
Galileo in Rome, Shea and Artigas (sympathetic to the Church)
The Sleepwalkers, Arthur Koestler (sympathetic to Copernicus; hostile to Galileo)
The Case of Galileo: A Closed Question, Annibale Fantoli (hostile to the Church)
Robert Cardinal Bellarmine: Life and Works, James Brodrick
Outline
Prelude:
Matthew 10:22, GKC
I. The scene
-The current thinking of natural philosophy (physics) on cosmology
Geocentrism—sun and planets around earth (Aristotle, Ptolemy)
Epicycles, equant
Heliocentrism—Planets, including earth, around sun (Copernicus )
Hybrid—planets around sun, sun around earth (Tycho Brahe)
-The (limited) role of Astronomy (applied mathematics)
navigation, astrology, but not physics: hypotheses vs. reality
-The world of the Counterreformation
-The Scripture
II The story of the Galileo Affair: Helpful Timeline
4th Century B.C.
2nd Century A.D.
1473-1543
1517…
1564
1585-1610
1605-1621
1610-1633
1609/1610
1611
1613-1615
Aristotle
Ptolemy (Alexandria)
Copernicus—De revolutionibus orbium coelistium, 1543
Protestant rebellion
Galileo Galilei born in Pisa
Experiments in motion (Pisa, Padua)
Reign of Pope Paul V (Camillo Borghese)
Astronomical discoveries and controversy
(Padua, Florence, Rome)
Moons of Jupiter, sunspots, phases of Venus,
mountains on the moon;
Sidereus nuncius (Starry Messenger) March 1610
Feted in Rome
Letter to Castelli becomes Letter to Grand Duchess Christina
(Galileo’s thoughts on the interpretation of Scripture)
Nicolo Lorini sends a copy of Letter to Castelli to Inquistion
Carmelite Paolo Antonio Foscarini publishes Letter of opinion
over the Pythagorean and Copernican opinion concerning the
mobility of the earth and the stability of the sun
Handout for Galileo on Trial, Christopher Check
Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, Letter to Foscarini (1615)
Dec 1615-June 1616 Galileo in Rome, Inquisition censors Copernicus, Paul V directs
Bellarmine to warn Galileo, Bellarmine certifies Galileo against
rumors that he had been censored
1621-1623
Reign of Pope Gregory XV
1623-1624
Reign of Urban VIII (Maffeo Barbarini—Galileo’s friend)
1624
Galileo visits Urban VIII
1632
Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo
(Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems)
published in Florence
1633
Judgment of the Holy Office
1633-1642
Retirement; publishes on motion (Florence)
th
Mid 19 Century
Heliocentrism proved
III. The Take Away
What the Galileo Affair is not
Church vs. Science (Cardinal Newman) torture, dungeons, etc.
What the Galileo affair is
Collision of personalities, less of a deal than you think, etc.
What to do, say/The correct perspective
The humility of the Church
The moral evaluation/Our strengths against us/pastoral solutions to
speculative problems/ Why it won’t go away
Christopher Check is the Director of Development at Catholic Answers, the largest lay-run
apologetics and evangelization organization in the English-speaking world. Though its radio
program, Catholic Answers Live, its speakers bureau, its Catholic Answers Magazine, its press
and product line, its website (www.catholic.com) and online forums, and its team of full-time
apologists who field thousands of phone calls, letters, and e-mails each year, Catholic Answers
works to deepen the faith of existing Catholics, lead former Catholics home, and guide nonCatholics to the fullness of the Truth.
Chris holds a degree in English Literature from Rice University. He served for two decades as Vice
President of The Rockford Institute and before that for seven years as a field artillery officer in the
United States Marine Corps in deployments and expeditions in the Far East and the Persian Gulf. His
writings have appeared in, among others, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, This Rock,
Touchstone, The Wanderer, Angelus, New Oxford Review, Culture Wars, and the Chicago Tribune. He
has addressed audiences at home and abroad including at the University of London, the Pontifical
Augustinian University in Rome, the Serbian Writers Union in Belgrade, the National Press Club,
Catholic Answers, the American Chesterton Society, Legatus, Catholic Citizens of Illinois, Saint
Michael's Abbey, Silverado, California, Saint Gregory's Academy, The Institute for Catholic Culture,
The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, Ave Maria University, Argument of the Month Club, and,
most respectable of all, the Irish Rose Saloon in Rockford, Illinois. He is the creator of The Lepanto
Lectures, a series of audio lectures on topics in Salvation History from ancient times to the present
day. He and his wife Jacqueline and their four sons, Nicholas, Alexander, John Paul, and Nathanael,
show and breed Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, famed companions of the Stuart kings. Their kennel
name is Top Meadow Cavaliers (www.topmeadowcavaliers.com) named for G.K Chesteron’s
Beaconsfield estate.
Studio recordings Chris’s lectures in Church History are of this lecture is available at his table.