Many people consider Galileo, who stood out as a mathematician, astronomer and physicist, the "father of modern science". He was one of the first men to scrutinize the heavens with a telescope, and he used his observations to support a theory that was the subject of heated debate in his day: that the Earth revolves around the Sun and that, therefore, it is not the center of the universe. This explains why he is sometimes seen as the creator of the modern experimental method. Already at the end of the sixteenth century, Galileo had adopted the theory of Copernicus. According to this, the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa, what is known as a heliocentric system. In 1610 he discovered with his telescope celestial bodies that had never been observed before, and he was convinced that he had found confirmation of this theory.
In 1611, Galileo traveled to Rome to meet with senior ecclesiastical officials. But, although he used the telescope to show them his astronomical discoveries, things did not turn out as he had expected. By 1616, Galileo was officially the object of investigation. The theologians of the Roman Inquisition described the heliocentric theory as "philosophically insensate and absurd, and formally heretical, since in many aspects it explicitly contradicts the sentences of the Holy Scriptures in their literal meaning, their common interpretation and the opinion of the Saints. Parents and doctors of theology. "
Galileo was sentenced on June 22, 1633 in an austere courtroom before the members of the inquisitorial tribunal. He was found guilty of "having defended and believed the false doctrine, contrary to the Sacred and Divine Scriptures, that the Sun [...] does not move from east to west, and that the Earth moves and is not the center of the world".
