Free The Forbidden Universe by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince

heliocentricity, but the telescope might lead to further discoveries that would decisively tip the balance in its favour. And now there was an added piquancy: if irrefutable proof was forthcoming, would it inspire the Hermeticists to kickstart their revolution, philosophically, theologically – even politically?
    Matters came to a head in 1615 when Galileo finally went public with his support for heliocentricity. He circulated an essay based on the biblical passages that implied the Earth did not move, including the unequivocal statement: ‘I hold that the Sun is located at the centre of the revolution of the heavenly orbs and does not change place, and that the Earth rotates on itself and moves around it.’ 18 This was an extraordinarily dangerous declaration that would transform Galileo’s fame into notoriety overnight.
    Pope Paul V ordered a group of cardinals to investigate the issue of heliocentricity on theological grounds, and they decided it was contrary to scripture. As a result, Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres was finally banned, along with any other pro-heliocentric works. Galileo was summoned to Rome to be warned off and put right. The sun moved round the Earth and not vice versa. It was true because the Vatican said so.
    But there was an unspoken subtext: the cardinal tasked with warning Galileo was none other than Roberto Bellarmino, the same man who had interrogated Bruno in his last months, and was responsible for his condemnationand execution. This was not a coincidence – Bellarmino had been Archbishop of Capua since 1602, but was recalled to Rome specifically to deal with Galileo. He even interviewed Galileo in the same room as he had interviewed Bruno.
    Bellarmino, of course, understood from his experience of Bruno the significance that heliocentricity possessed for the Hermetic revolution. Bruno was dead and Campanella incarcerated in Naples, but they had followers – nobody knew how many. And now here was Galileo, associated with both Campanella and Pinelli, getting dangerously close to the proof that Bruno had declared would trigger the new Hermetic age. In the end, nothing harsh was done to Galileo. He was simply given a document written by Bellarmino himself stating that the Pope had decreed that Copernicus’ views could not be ‘defended or upheld’. Galileo hastily agreed.
    Even more telling is Galileo’s immediate reaction after receiving his warning. Rather than return directly to Florence, he wanted to travel to Naples and was obliged to request permission from his patron, Duke Cosimo – but Cosimo refused. Why Naples? A crucial piece of the jigsaw fell into place when we read in a paper by Olaf Pedersen, a specialist in the religious aspects of the Galileo affair, that the reason for Galileo’s request and the odd refusal was that he wanted to visit Tommaso Campanella in his prison cell. 19 In other words, the Church brings in the man who had condemned Bruno to warn Galileo off, and Galileo wants to consult Bruno’s successor Campanella; surely none of this was a coincidence.
    Having been denied a meeting with Galileo, Campanella rallied to the cause, penning the Defence of Galileo , which his followers published in Frankfurt. However, given Campanella’s reputation – one conviction for heresy and another for subversion, for which he was still doing time – the kind of support he could muster was hardly designed toenhance Galileo’s reputation. Which is probably why, back in Florence, Galileo kept his head down. Nothing in the Pope’s decree prevented the discussion of heliocentricity as a hypothesis, and many scholars were avidly doing just that. However, Galileo himself dropped the whole subject for many years, although he was clearly waiting for an appropriate time to re-emerge as its iconic figurehead.
    A potential change for the better came in 1623 when one of Galileo’s old friends, Maffeo Barberini, became Pope Urban VIII. They had met at the