Heresy Charges

Galileo Galilei was a religious man, and he agreed that the Bible could never be wrong. However, he said, the interpreters of the Bible could make mistakes, and it was a mistake to assume that the Bible had to be taken literally.This might have been one of Galileos major mistakes. At that time, only Church priests were allowed to interpret the Bible, or to define Gods intentions. It was absolutely unthinkable for a mere member of the public to do so.And some of the Church clergy started responding, accusing him of heresy. Some credits went to the Inquisition, the Church court that investigated charges of heresy, and formally accused Galileo Galilei. This was a very serious matter. In 1600, a man named Giordano Bruno was convicted of being a heretic for believing that the earth moved about the Sun, and that there were many planets throughout the universe where lifeliving creations of Godexisted. Bruno was burnt to death.However, Galileo was found innocent of all charges, and cautioned not to teach the Copernican system. 16 years later, all that would change.