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Robert Bellarmine: Letter on Galileo's Theories, 1615

Full Texts Galileo's letter of 1614 to the Grand Duchess Christina Duchess of Tuscany was not widely
Multimedia known, and was ignored by Church authorities. When a year later the Carmelite provincial
Additions Paolo Foscarini supported Galileo publicly by attempting to prove that the new theory was
Search not opposed to Scripture, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, as "Master of Controversial
Questions," responded.
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On April 12, 1615 the saint wrote to Foscarini:
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"I have gladly read the letter in Italian and the treatise which Your Reverence sent me, and
Studying History
I thank you for both. And I confess that both are filled with ingenuity and learning, and
since you ask for my opinion, I will give it to you very briefly, as you have little time for
Reformation
reading and I for writing:
Early Modern World
Everyday Life "First. I say that it seems to me that Your Reverence and Galileo did prudently to content
Absolutism
yourself with speaking hypothetically, and not absolutely, as I have always believed that
Copernicus spoke. For to say that, assuming the earth moves and the sun stands still, all
Constitutionalism
the appearances are saved better than with eccentrics and epicycles, is to speak well; there
Colonial North America is no danger in this, and it is sufficient for mathematicians. But to want to affirm that the
Colonial Latin America sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself (i. e., turns
Scientific Revolution upon its axis ) without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the
Enlightenment third sphere and revolves with great speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not
only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our
Enlightened Despots
holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false. For Your Reverence has demonstrated
American many ways of explaining Holy Scripture, but you have not applied them in particular, and
Independence
without a doubt you would have found it most difficult if you had attempted to explain all
French Revolution the passages which you yourself have cited.
Industrial Revolution
Romanticism "Second. I say that, as you know, the Council [of Trent] prohibits expounding the
Scriptures contrary to the common agreement of the holy Fathers. And if Your Reverence
Conservative Order
would read not only the Fathers but also the commentaries of modern writers on Genesis,
Nationalism Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Josue, you would find that all agree in explaining literally (ad
Liberalism litteram) that the sun is in the heavens and moves swiftly around the earth, and that the
1848 earth is far from the heavens and stands immobile in the center of the universe. Now
19C Britain consider whether in all prudence the Church could encourage giving to Scripture a sense
contrary to the holy Fathers and all the Latin and Greek commentators. Nor may it be
19C France
answered that this is not a matter of faith, for if it is not a matter of faith from the point of
19C Germany
view of the subject matter, it is on the part of the ones who have spoken. It would be just
19C Italy as heretical to deny that Abraham had two sons and Jacob twelve, as it would be to deny
19C West Europe the virgin birth of Christ, for both are declared by the Holy Ghost through the mouths of the
19C East Europe prophets and apostles.
Early US
"Third. I say that if there were a true demonstration that the sun was in the center of the
US Civil War universe and the earth in the third sphere, and that the sun did not travel around the earth
US Immigration but the earth circled the sun, then it would be necessary to proceed with great caution in
19C US Culture explaining the passages of Scripture which seemed contrary, and we would rather have to
Canada
say that we did not understand them than to say that something was false which has been
demonstrated.But I do not believe that there is any such demonstration; none has been
Australia & New
Zealand
shown to me. It is not the same thing to show that the appearances are saved by assuming
19C Latin America that the sun really is in the center and the earth in the heavens. I believe that the first
Socialism demonstration might exist, but I have grave doubts about the second, and in a case of
doubt, one may not depart from the Scriptures as explained by the holy Fathers. I add that
Imperialism
the words ' the sun also riseth and the sun goeth down, and hasteneth to the place where
Industrial Revolution II he ariseth, etc.' were those of Solomon, who not only spoke by divine inspiration but was a
Darwin, Freud man wise above all others and most learned in human sciences and in the knowledge of all
19C Religion created things, and his wisdom was from God. Thus it is not too likely that he would affirm
World War I something which was contrary to a truth either already demonstrated, or likely to be
demonstrated. And if you tell me that Solomon spoke only according to the appearances,
Russian Revolution
and that it seems to us that the sun goes around when actually it is the earth which moves,
Age of Anxiety
as it seems to one on a ship that the beach moves away from the ship, I shall answer that
Depression one who departs from the beach, though it looks to him as though the beach moves away,
Fascism he knows that he is in error and corrects it, seeing clearly that the ship moves and not the
Nazism beach. But with regard to the sun and the earth, no wise man is needed to correct the
Holocaust
error, since he clearly experiences that the earth stands still and that his eye is not
deceived when it judges that the moon and stars move. And that is enough for the present.
World War II
I salute Your Reverence and ask God to grant you every happiness."
Bipolar World
US Power Notes:
US Society
Solange Hertz makes the problem clear in her commentary on this letter (in an article
Western Europe Since which contends that the earth is indeed the center of the Universe):
1945
Eastern Europe Since "There are many such passages in the Bible, outstanding among them
1945
being, of course, the one relating how Joshua commanded, "Move not, O
Decolonization sun, toward Gabaon, nor thou, O moon, toward the valley of Ajalon,"
Asia Since 1900 whereupon, "the sun and the moon stood still, till the people revenged
Africa Since 1945 themselves of their enemies" (Jos.10:12-13). And again, as St. Robert
Middle East Since 1945
Bellarmine pointed out, the Preacher says," The sun riseth and goeth down
and returneth to his place: and there rising again, maketh his round by the
20C Latin America
south and turneth again to the north" (Eccles. 1:5-6)
Modern Social
Movements
"Scripture also specifies that the Earth is immovable in the face of these
Post War Western solar and lunar peregrinations, Psalm 92 stating flatly that God "hath
Thought
established the world which shall not be moved." Psalm 103 says He
Religion Since 1945 has"founded the earth upon its own bases ; it shall not be moved forever
Modern Science and ever," Psalm 95 telling us God has "corrected the world, which shall not
Pop Culture be moved." Again, in I Paralipomenon 16:30, "He hath founded the earth
21st Century immovable," and according to Job 26:7, God by His power"stretched out the
north over the empty space and hangeth the earth upon nothing." No less
an authority than the Catechism of the Council of Trent, in its commentary
IHSP Credits
on the Creed, states furthermore, "The earth also God commanded to stand
in the midst of the world, rooted in its own foundation."

Action by the Congregation of the Index

In 1616 the Congregation of the Index -- founded by St. Pius V in 1571 and
now headed by Cardinal Bellarmine acting in the name of Paul V -- was
forced to take action, based on the findings of consultors to the Holy Office.
Without naming Galileo, it banned all writings which treated of
Copernicanism as anything but an unproven hypothesis,

"because it has come to the attention of this Congregation

that the Pythagorean doctrine which is false and contrary to
Holy Scripture, which teaches the motion of the earth and
the immobility of the sun, and which is taught by Nicholas
Copernicus in De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium and by
Diego de Zuniga's On Job, is now being spread and accepted
by many - as may be seen from a letter of a Carmelite Father
entitled 'Letter of the Rev. Father Paolo Antonio Foscarini,
Carmelite, on the Opinion of the Pythagoreans and of
 Copernicus concerning the Motion of the Earth and the
Stability of the Sun, and the New Pythagorean System of the
World,' printed in Naples by Lazzaro Scoriggio in 1615: in
which the said Father tries to show that the doctrine of the
immobility of the sun in the center of the world, and that of
the earth's motion, is consonant with truth and is not
opposed to Holy Scripture.

"Therefore, so that this opinion may not spread any further

to the prejudice of Catholic truth, it ( the Sacred
Congregation ) decrees that the said Nicholas Copernicus' De
Revolutionibus Orbium, and Diego de Zuniga's On Job, be
suspended until corrected; but that the book of the Carmelite
Father, Paolo Foscarini, be prohibited and condemned, and
that all other books likewise, in which the same is taught, be
prohibited."

Continuinng Condemnation: 1664

Taking her information from The Pontifical Decrees against

the Doctrine of the Earth's Movement and the Ultramontane
Defense of Them , compiled in 1870 by the English Catholic
priest William W. Roberts, the Catholic creationist writer
Paula Haigh has pointed out that a generation after Galileo's
death:

"In 1664 the Church went to further lengths to extirpate his

error: The Index for that year was prefixed by a Bull. Entitled
Speculatores Domus Israel, it was signed by Pope Alexander
VII, who declared, 'We, having taken the advice of our
Cardinals, confirm and approve with Apostolic authority by
the tenor of these presents, and command and enjoin all
persons everywhere to yield to this Index a constant and
complete obedience.'

"The importance of this document cannot be minimized, for it

included and re-affirmed not only previous formal
condemnations, but 'all the relevant decrees up to the
present time, that have been issued since the Index of our
predecessor Clement'" Miss Haigh therefore rightly concludes,
"The evidence for papal infallibility in the Galileo case rests
then upon the Bull of Alexander VII in 1664."

She discerns a twofold basis for its authority: "1) The decrees
of the Index and the Inquisition which were based on the
truth of the Church's tradition, especially as in this case it
rested upon the unanimity of the Fathers and the constant
position of the Church; and 2) the infallibility of the Pope
speaking in his own official capacity as Head of the Church
and therefore ex cathedra, even though not defining any new
dogma but simply affirming tradition.

"The modern theologians have never addressed the problem

posed by this Bull of Alexander VII. If they had, they would
need to admit its direct papal authority and search for some
subsequent document by a subsequent pope that formally
and specifically abrogated, i.e., nullified the 1664 Bull. But no
such document has ever been found or produced.
Source:

Texts extracted from

Solange Strong Hertz: "Galileo Recanted" in Beyond Politics: A Meta-Political View of

History. www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3251/

This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection
of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern
European and World history.

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© Paul Halsall, January 1999

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