Page 15 - History of Christianity II- Textbook

was poorly attended but did result in some minor changes and the shoring up of Catholic doctrines.
Indulgences were abolished and clergy were exhorted to avoid even the smallest of faults. Doctrinally,
the council reaffirmed the Catholic positions on the seven sacraments making them necessary for
salvation. Transubstantiation was reasserted; the Bible could only be read in Latin and was forbidden to
be translated to the language of common people. The reforms of the Council of Trent further separated
Catholic and Protestant views.

Roberto Bellarmine, 1542-1621

Roberto Bellarmine wrote Disputationes de Controversiis Christianae Fidei
(“Disputations concerning the controversies of the Christian Faith”) in which he argued
in favor of Catholicism against Protestantism.

Bellarmine was a professor of theology and later rector of the Roman College, and in
1602 became Archbishop of Capua. He supported the reform decrees of the Council of
Trent.

In 1616, on the orders of Paul V, Bellarmine summoned Galileo, notified him of a
forthcoming decree of the Congregation of the Index condemning the Copernican doctrine of the
mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun, and ordered him to abandon it. Galileo agreed to do
so.

When Galileo later complained of rumors to the effect that he had been forced to abjure and do
penance, Bellarmine wrote out a certificate denying the rumors, stating that Galileo had merely been
notified of the decree and informed that, as a consequence of it, the Copernican doctrine could not be
"defended or held", Cardinal Bellarmine believed such a demonstration could not be found because it
would contradict the unanimous consent of the Fathers' scriptural exegesis, to which the Council of
Trent, in 1546, defined all Catholics must adhere.

Copernicus published his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, 1543

“On the revolutions of the heavenly bodies” set out a heliocentric view of the solar system
in contrast to the Catholic Church’s geocentric view. The interpretation of Biblical passages
was the main issue in the debate.

Galileo Condemned 1600-25

Catholic Church condemns Galileo for stating that the earth revolves around the sun. The Catholic
Church would not change their views since it could open the doors for Protestantism.

Marguerin de la Bigne, 1546-1595

He wrote Bibliotheca Patrum (“Library of the Fathers”) which defended the continuity between Roman
Catholicism and the church fathers.

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