OTD News: Galilei Being Tried on Charges of Heresy

ROME (February 14, 1633) -- The Italian philosopher, Gaileo Galilei met in Rome yesterday where he faced charges of heresy for his support of his blasphemous and radical ideology.

The astronomer and mathematician has been a strong advocate of the Copernican theory. A theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun, goes against, not only common sense, but the teachings of the church. The Pisa, Italy native may have landed himself into a flat-world of hurt with his teachings.

To go against the grain with his drastic view points is not anything new. But to challenge the church, shows how ruthless those who share Galileo's ideology can be.

This isn't the first time the Pisa Professor has toed the line of physics and reality. In 1589, he demonstrated that the speed of a falling object is not proportional to its weight, as Aristotle had also believed. According to some reports, Galileo conducted his research by dropping objects of different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

From 1592 to 1630, while teaching math at the University of Padua, Galileo began working on a device that he has claimed will allow it's users to observe lunar mountains and craters, the four largest satellites of Jupiter and the phases of Jupiter.

It was what Galilie discovered that has the Roman church up in arms. Using what we're calling a telescopio, in that it allegedly allows Galilie to aim (scopo)at a distance (tele), the Italian claims the Milky Way is made up of stars. From there he began to draw the conclusion that the Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, may have been on to something.

The odd part about all of this is that Copernicus' Heliocentric theory was accepted by the Roman Church. Copernicus was a stanch defender of the Church, but pressure from the protestants made the Copernican theory of a sun-centered solar system unacceptable.

Dedicating his life to creating a better understanding of the world, and universe, Galileo will now go before the Roman Inquisition pleading his case. The judicial system established by the papacy in 1542 to regulate church doctrine, this included the banning of anything that conflicted with church teachings. The Roman Inquisition is traced back to the Middle Ages with it's mission to prosecute heretics.

As of yesterday, February 13, Galileo Galilie's fate of being known as just a criminal of God. If found guilty of heresy, blasphemy, or anything that would be considered incriminating by the Church who rules Italy, Galilie will go down in history as just another criminal, instead of a brilliant philosopher.