Re: Galileo

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> Someone said that--
>
> > Contrary to popular misconception, the Church was actually relatively open to
> > Galileo's ideas, and Cardinal Baronius decided to help Galileo help
> > himself. But
> > Galileo was not particularly astute and almost tried to tick off everyone
> > in sight.
>
> Is this true?  The RCChurch and Galileo were on good terms?????
>
> Jim Green

Check out any of the many biographies of Galileo. He had some very
good friends within the church, and he was, to his dying day, a
devout and loyal Catholic. But, he had some enemies as well, most of
whom were not well placed, but a few were. Among his friends was
Cardinal Barberini, with whom he had a very cordial relationship. But
after Barberini became Pope Urban VIII, circumstances acted against
Galileo, and Galileo's Dialogue was widely seen within the church as
stepping on the Pope's authority, and that gave his enemies the
opportunity they sought to go after him in the Inquisition. As with
most of the politics and religion of that era, it was very convoluted
and Galileo was a player of the patronage game with few peers. But he
was also arrogant and did not suffer fools gladly. In the end, this
is what brought him down.

But he remained faithful to the church until his death. And there
were many of those high up in the church hierarchy who strongly
supported him. It was this support that kept his penalty at the hands
of the Inquisition from being much worse than it was.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

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