Robert Bellarmine

In a letter of 12 April 1615 to the Carmelite Paolo Antonio Foscarini he wrote that the motion of the earth could safely be used as a hypothesis, that to assert it as fact went against the Fathers’ common reading of Scripture, and that if it were ever truly demonstrated the passages that seem contrary would have to be explained with great caution; he did not believe such a demonstration existed (Bellarmine, Letter to Foscarini, points 1–3).

The minutes of the Holy Office record that on 25 February 1616 the pope ordered him to summon Galileo Galilei and warn him to abandon the opinion, and that he did so the next day in his own residence (Galileo trial documents, minutes of 25 and 26 February 1616 (Opere 19, pp. 321–322)). On 26 May he wrote out a certificate for Galileo, stating that Galileo had not abjured or done penance but had been told of the declaration that the Copernican doctrine is contrary to Scripture and may not be defended or held (Galileo trial documents, Bellarmine’s certificate, 26 May 1616 (Opere 19, p. 342)). See the Trial of Galileo.