Page 80 - History of Christianity - Student Textbook

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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