What was Galileo Galilei charged in heresy?

Answer 1

Galileo was put on trial for questioning the Catholic faith, because he believed strongly that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. Catholic doctrine at that point perceived that Earth had been created by God and that the entire universe was based around the Earth, with all other objects revolving around it. Galileo sought to prove that the Earth orbited around the Sun and not the other way around, and his religious beliefs were called into question as a result -- in the Catholic Church's eyes, Galileo's belief that the Earth was not the centre of the universe was a blasphemy.

Answer 2

Galileo was accused of heresy for reinterpreting the scriptures.

Galileo promoted the new theory of the planets' movements among the stars devised by Copernicus. This was against the church's teaching at the time because it placed the Sun at the centre, but Galielo was told he could teach the new theory as a convenient way of making predictions, but that he must not insist it was the absolute truth.

After several years of this Galileo published a book with a summary of the argument, in which the Pope was portrayed as a simpleton for maintaining the Earth is at the centre. After that Galileo was put on trial for heresy and asked to provide proof. There was no proof and he was convicted, and he retracted his argument.

But many years later, after Newton's discoveries, it was found that Kepler's model, which used elliptical orbits but retained the idea of having the Sun at the centre, was probably correct, and further discoveries in the next 200 years supported this view so that today it is generally accepted as right. So Galileo turned out to have been right all along, without being able to prove it during his lifetime.

Answer 3

Rome