A Defense of Galileo

determines. They are therefore moved. Likewise in 3 Esdras 4: Great is the earth, high is the heaven, and swift is the course of the sun, which turns the heavens around to their place in a single day. original: "Magna est terra, & excelsum est cælum: & velox curſus ſolis conuertit in gyro cælum in locum ſuum in vna die." 3 Esdras is a book of the Apocrypha, often cited in this period. For this reason, Galileo, by making the starry heaven immobile, openly contradicts the scripture of God.

8. Furthermore, Galileo places water on the moon and the planets; this is false, since they are of an incorruptible nature, as all the Scholastics Medieval theologians who synthesized Christian thought with Aristotelian logic. along with Aristotle The ancient Greek philosopher whose physics claimed that everything above the moon was perfect, unchanging, and made of a fifth element (aether), unlike the "corruptible" earth. attest, and as the perpetuity and unchanging state of the heavens through so many centuries bear witness. He also places mountains on the moon, and lands both there and on other stars; this seems to greatly devalue the dwellings of the angels and to shatter our hopes, which are placed in the heavens.

9. Furthermore, from Galileo’s opinion, it follows that there are multiple worlds, earths, and seas, just as Muhammad A reference to Islamic traditions regarding the "seven earths," which Christian writers of the time often viewed as heretical. proposes; and that men inhabit them, if the four elements exist in the stars just as they do in our world. For if any star consists of the full four elements, then any star would surely be its own world. Since the Scriptures speak only of one world and one race of men, he seems to hold views contrary to the Scriptures. I will pass over the fact that this would bring back the heresy that Christ died for those men on other stars as well—just as some once thought Christ was crucified a second time in the other hemisphere to save the people living there, just as he saved us. It would also be necessary to propose, along with the heretic Paracelsus A Swiss physician and alchemist (1493–1541) known for his radical ideas and belief in elemental beings like undines and gnomes., that other men live in the air, in the water, and under the earth as participants in blessedness, though it is doubtful whether the Redemption applies to them. The Jesuit Martin Delrio A famous scholar (1551–1608) known for his "Disquisitions on Magic," a definitive work on the supernatural and heresy. wrote against him in his Disquisitions on Magic.

10. Furthermore, it does not seem possible to dispute these matters without causing a great scandal. For the doctrine concerning the heavens and the earth—which conforms to theology as the Scholastics teach it—has already been accepted in the schools. Therefore, whoever teaches otherwise seems to be paving a new path toward the subversion of Scholastic theology and behaving with pride over others.

11. Furthermore, in the Scriptures we are warned: Seek not the things that are too high for thee; and Be not wise more than it behooveth to be wise; and Do not overstep the boundaries which your fathers have set; and The searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory. These are paraphrases from the books of Sirach, Romans, Proverbs, and Proverbs respectively, often used to discourage scientific inquiry that challenged tradition. Galileo, however, seems to do the opposite, subjecting celestial things to his own wit and reconstructing the entire architecture of the world according to his own whim. Cato more rightly commanded:

Leave the secrets of God, and to inquire what heaven is,

Since you are mortal, care for things which are mortal.

original: "Mitte arcana Dei, cælumque inquirere quid ſit, / Cum ſis mortalis, quæ ſunt mortalia, cura." This quote is from the "Distichs of Cato," a standard textbook for moral instruction in the Renaissance.