Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church.

Another reason he gave was that the sun was known to be in heaven. One reason that Cardinal Bellarmine gave was that the geocentric theory was supported by Holy Scripture and there was no concrete evidence for the heliocentric theory.

Galileo’s discoveries were met with opposition within the Catholic Church, and in 1616 the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be “formally heretical.” Heliocentric books were banned and Galileo was ordered to abstain from holding, teaching or defending heliocentric ideas.

In 1992. the Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing. On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

The Council of Trent was the formal Roman Catholic reply to the doctrinal challenges of the Protestant Reformation. It served to define Catholic doctrine and made sweeping decrees on self-reform, helping to revitalize the Roman Catholic Church in the face of Protestant expansion.

By the late Middle Ages indulgences were used to support charities for the public good including hospitals. But the abuse of indulgences, mainly through commercialization, had become a serious problem which the church recognized but was unable to restrain effectively.

1567