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Why didn't the Catholic Church execute Copernicus or Galileo?

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It was only in 1616, more than seventy years after Copernicus's book appeared, that the Catholic Church officially condemned heliocentrism as physically false and contrary to the Bible. There has been much debate among modern historians over why the Church took that long to move against heliocentrism. read more

Galileo was placed on house arrest by the Church. He was a firm believer in the heliocentric model. The Catholics offered to let him recant, but he didn't. Killing heretics was reserved in their thinking for people who did not believe in the Bible the way they thought one should. This is why Copernicus and Galileo were not slain as heretics. read more

Unlike Galileo and other controversial astronomers, however, Copernicus had a good relationship with the Catholic Church. It may come as a surprise, considering the Church banned Copernicus'"Des revolutionibus" for more than 200 years. Copernicus was actually respected as a canon and regarded as a renowned astronomer. read more

However, the Church disapproved of this theory because the Holy Scriptures state that the Earth is at the center, not the Sun. As the contents of the Bible were taken literally, the publishing of these books proved, to the Church, that Copernicus and Galileo were sinners; they preached, through their writing, that the Bible was wrong. read more

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Further Research

The Galileo Affair
www.catholiceducation.org

The Galileo Controversy
www.catholic.com