The Galileo Affair (4)

Here is how Diance Moczar in Seven Lies About Catholic History sums up:

Galileo’s version of heavenly motion included details, such as perfect circular motion for the planets, which failed to satisfy other astronomers on technical grounds… When he began to champion the Copernican theory as a fact, he was met not only with scientific skepticism but also with the problem of those scriptural passages that appeared to contradict the theory. Convinced as usual that he was absolutely right, and impatient with the skeptics, Galileo went to Rome to try to obtain support... The Pope tried to persuade his headstrong friend to espouse Copernicus’s idea as the mere theory it was... [Furthermore] the papacy—still anxious to heal the Protestant rupture—was concerned with not appearing to support an idea that scandalized the Lutherans and Calvinists

Galileo, however, seemed to have little sensitivity to the delicacy of the issue, and he went on the offensive... [He] related in a letter how he had dealt with the controversy at a dinner party in a fashionable house. “I commenced,” he boasted, “to play the theologian.” Were his enemies using Scripture against him? He could interpret Scripture too, and he would demonstrate that in fact Scripture supported him and not his opponents. Thus Galileo claimed the right to decide what Scripture means in the light of his unproven theory...

Then Galileo publically humiliated his friend Pope Urban by publishing a fictional debate between characters supporting Galileo’s views and a fool (“Simplicio”) who supports Aristotle, making it clear that the fool personified the Pope.  Galileo had very publically thrown down the gauntlet by claiming theological authority and dismissing the Pope as a simpleton.