1616–1630s

The Galileo Affair and the Condemnation of Heliocentrism

In 1616 the Inquisition declared that the earth, not the sun, stood at the center of the universe. It tasked Cardinal Robert Bellarmine with informing Galileo Galilei. The doctrine of the earth's revolution around the sun was declared heretical. Galileo remained silent for a time, but in the 1630s ran into serious new trouble with the Inquisition. Sources note that Bellarmine's role was less despotic than popular history sometimes portrays.