History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in ChristendomWhite, Andrew Dickson
Religion
History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
White, Andrew Dickson
Religion and science -- History
And now measures were taken to complete the destruction of the
Copernican theory, with Galileo's proofs of it. On the 16th of June,
1633, the Holy Congregation, with the permission of the reigning Pope,
ordered the sentence upon Galileo, and his recantation, to be sent to
all the papal nuncios throughout Europe, as well as to all archbishops,
bishops, and inquisitors in Italy and this document gave orders that the
sentence and abjuration be made known "to your vicars, that you and all
professors of philosophy and mathematics may have knowledge of it, that
they may know why we proceeded against the said Galileo, and recognise
the gravity of his error, in order that they may avoid it, and thus not
incur the penalties which they would have to suffer in case they fell
into the same."(65)
(65) For a copy of this document, see Gebler, p. 269. As to the
spread of this and similar documents notifying Europe of Galileo's
condemnation, see Favaro, pp. 804, 805.
As a consequence, the processors of mathematics and astronomy in various
universities of Europe were assembled and these documents were read to
them. To the theological authorities this gave great satisfaction. The
Rector of the University of Douay, referring to the opinion of Galileo,
wrote to the papal nuncio at Brussels: "The professors of our university
are so opposed to this fanatical opinion that they have always held that
it must be banished from the schools. In our English college at Douay
this paradox has never been approved and never will be."
Still another step was taken: the Inquisitors were ordered, especially
in Italy, not to permit the publication of a new edition of any
of Galileo's works, or of any similar writings. On the other hand,
theologians were urged, now that Copernicus and Galileo and Kepler were
silenced, to reply to them with tongue and pen. Europe was flooded with
these theological refutations of the Copernican system.
To make all complete, there was prefixed to the Index of the Church,
forbidding "all writings which affirm the motion of the earth," a bull
signed by the reigning Pope, which, by virtue of his infallibility as
a divinely guided teacher in matters of faith and morals, clinched this
condemnation into the consciences of the whole Christian world.
From the mass of books which appeared under the auspices of the Church
immediately after the condemnation of Galileo, for the purpose of
rooting out every vestige of the hated Copernican theory from the mind
of the world, two may be taken as typical. The first of these was a
work by Scipio Chiaramonti, dedicated to Cardinal Barberini. Among
his arguments against the double motion of the earth may be cited the
following:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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