e. Perhapsto avoid direct criticism, Scheiner wrote under a pen name. Mark Welser published Scheiner'sletters and sent them to Galileo for comment without revealing the name of the author.Galileo replied in three Letters on Sunspots addressed to Welser (in Italian, whichScheiner could not read and had to have translated, while Scheiner had not written in his nativeGerman, but in Latin). In his letters, Galileo severely criticized Scheiner's views.The greatest significance of these Letters on Sunspots, as far as the Church wasconcerned, was that for the first time in print Galileo had openly endorsed Copernicus's theory asa reality and not as a mere hypothesis, and that he had used his own discoveries as proofs in favorof Copernicanism. Just as important, he had unwittingly antagonized a Jesuit, the first of many. The Jesuits were powerful in the Church, and in particular they were advisers on educationalmatters. It was unfortunate indeed that so many of them sooner or later should withdraw theirprevious friendship, respect, or even indifference toward Galileo to pass into the "enemy" camp.The trouble, however, initially came from other quarters. In 1613, Galileo learned fromFather Benedetto Castelli, one of his most beloved pupils, that in the course of a discussion at thecourt of Tuscany, the dowager Grand Duchess, Christina de Lorena, had taken the stand that theearth could not move because its motion would contradict the Holy Scriptures.Galileo decided that the time had come to explain his views on the relations betweenscience and faith. He did this in his Letter to Castelli, which he sent, in manuscript copies, notonly to his pupil Castelli, but also to several friends. Soon afterward, in his Letter to the GrandDuchess Cristina, he elaborated what he had written to Castelli. It was lofty and solemn andshowed that Galileo's faith in nature and its laws went side by side with his faith in God. Itcontains passages which are a...
