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
Geocentrismsun and planets around earth (Aristotle,
Ptolemy)
Epicycles, equant
HeliocentrismPlanets, including earth, around sun
(Copernicus )
Hybridplanets 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. Aristotle

2nd Century A.D. Ptolemy (Alexandria)
1473-1543 CopernicusDe revolutionibus orbium coelistium,
1543
1517 Protestant rebellion
1564 Galileo Galilei born in Pisa
1585-1610 Experiments in motion (Pisa, Padua)
1605-1621 Reign of Pope Paul V (Camillo Borghese)
1610-1633 Astronomical discoveries and controversy
(Padua, Florence, Rome)
1609/1610 Moons of Jupiter, sunspots, phases of Venus,
mountains on the moon;
Handout for Galileo on Trial, Christopher Check

Sidereus nuncius (Starry Messenger) March

1610
1611 Feted in Rome
1613-1615 Letter to Castelli becomes Letter to Grand Duchess
Christina
(Galileos 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
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 BarbariniGalileos
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 wont 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
Handout for Galileo on Trial, Christopher Check

former Catholics home, and guide non-Catholics 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 Chesterons Beaconsfield
estate.

Studio recordings Chriss lectures in Church History are of this lecture is

available at his table.