Copernicus & Galileo Myths Debunked

by Asa Boxer

Niclaus Copernicus Monument, Warsaw, Poland. Artist: Bertel Thorvaldsen 1830.

The advance of reason, the story goes, brought about the Renaissance in cosmology. Copernicus challenged the reigning common sense that the Earth lay at the centre of the universe by positing heliocentrism, the idea that in fact the sun was immobile and lay at the centre. It is furthermore assumed that Copernicus came to his conclusions through his own observations of the heavens. According to the myth, Copernicus was deemed a heretic by the backward Church and his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Book of Revolutions) was banned. However none of this story is true.

During his own lifetime, his ideas were considered fascinating and admirable by those in the Church hierarchy: he received direct encouragement from both the bishop Tiedemann Giese as well as from the cardinal Nicholas Schönberg, along with several others, including indirect interest on the parts of Pope Clement VII and Paul III. In fact, h…