After publishing his findings, Galileo was contacted by Pope

Paul V, who demanded he retract his heretical ideas. Fearing

for his life, he did so. But a few years later, unhappy that so
important a truth should remain suppressed, he published a
brilliantly composed dialogue in which he defended and
supported the Copernican theory. Again, under threat of torture,
he was forced to "abjure, curse, and detest" the absurd view
that the earth moves around the sun. He was then put under
house-arrest so that he could be watched and prevented from
causing any further trouble -- and remained there till his death.