
The phrasing Copernicus utilized was “that if the earth were in motion then the observed phenomenon would result.”4.) This phrasing is extremely important as it means the Copernicus himself could deny he believed it he merely fashioned it in such a way that it was a hypothesis that would allow astronomers to correct mathematical errors they came across while observing the heavens. 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.Ĭopernicus published his book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (hereafter referred to simply as Revolutions) in 1543 shortly before his death.1.) In Revolutions, Copernicus states that the Sun is at the center and the Earth revolves around it while rotating on its axis daily.2.) Like all scholarly authors, Copernicus wrote in Latin, which only educated people could read, effectively minimizing the number of readers to a select few.3.) However, the Church disapproved of this theory because the Holy Scriptures state that the Earth is at the center, not the Sun. Both scientists held the same theory that the Earth revolved around the sun, a theory now known to be true. Galileo, on the other hand, was tried by the Inquisition after his book was published. Copernicus faced no persecution when he was alive because he died shortly after publishing his book. Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei were two scientists who printed books that later became banned. A type of war between science and religion was in play but there would be more casualties on the side of science. They persecuted scientists who formed theories the Church deemed heretical and forbade people from reading any books on those subjects by placing the books on the Index of Prohibited Books. During most of the 16th and 17th centuries, fear of heretics spreading teachings and opinions that contradicted the Bible dominated the Catholic Church.
