Chapter Five - Section One
Dangerous Concept, Dangerous Times - Galileo, Kepler and the Church - The Drawn Line
by K. R. "ahboo" Pinkela
"Let me not seem to have lived in vain" - Tycho's Last Words to Kepler
Introduction
Galileo had drawn a line of sorts, and seemed more than willing, in the end, to take a stance to defend it. And defend it he should for his discoveries, controversies aside, were absolute, many incontrovertible fact. But it was a very light line, erased more than once and redrawn, to be crossed almost capriciously, especially during the years 1619-1633 when confonting the church. This is evidenced in many texts of the period and even in Galileo's own writings. Be that it as it may, this is certainly no distraction from his great achievements for during this era many famous personages were not always as they had spoken or wished themselves to be, fluctuating in and out of the ideas, beliefs and enforcement of canon or church laws, cartering to their own desires, ideals or to the powers that be, whether they truly believed in their benefactors ideas or not. In this Galileo was not alone however, on the other side of that same coin was the Church, and they too had drawn a line; one that was very apparent; one that was discernable to all and one pointed out with extreme clarity to the one person they left in no doubt as to it's existence - Galileo Galilei - and it was upon himself to decide to cross it or remain behind it - K. Pinkela The Age of Galileo, 2009
I Subjective Writings, Objective History [ fn.1 ]
We are always in the age-long, paradoxical battle of writing objective histories, hoping that the subjective does not creep into the things written and in all fairness, many have accomplished this successfully to one degree or another. But I was surprised to find that, after reading mountains of historical works, the line between Galileo and the Church is still very much present, even four hundred plus years after the...