denounced the Scriptures, he had shown himself to be a disbeliever, they said. In December 1614, a meddlesome and ambitious Dominican priest, Thomas Caccini, preached a fiery sermon in Florence denouncing Copernicanism and science in general as contrary to Christian faith. The attack was clearly aimed at Galileo, and a written apology from a Preacher-General of the Dominicans did not take the edge off Galileo's displeasure at having been the target of a Sunday homily. A month later, Caccini appeared in Rome uninvited, begging the Holy Office to testify against Galileo. Although nothing came of it, it was a precursor of the storm to come. A storm that Galileo was largely unaware of. In 1616 the pope decided to set up a commission to enquire into the Copernican theorys relation to Christian doctrine. The main consideration of the commission was did the hypothesis of a moving Earth go against the Churchs interpretation of the Scriptures, and would it be likely to mislead the faithful from the true and narrow paths of righteousness? The commission concluded that Copernicanism in fact did both. The commission pronounced the Earth to be at the centre of the universe and the belief that it moved, heretical. Copernicus book was suspended for correction. Copernicus was denounced by the Papal Court as "dangerous to faith and morals"; Galileo was summoned to Rome; as the champion of this view, the church thought he should be disciplined. Galileo appeared before the Pope, who directed him to abandon the Copernican theory. He more or less obeyed the restrictions for 16 years but his studies continued. In the early 1632, he published a work written for the common man, the non-specialist, written not in the scholarly Latin but in the vulgate, common Italian: Dialogo Sopra i Due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo [Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems in the World]. The publication which supported Copernicus and opposed Ptolomey marked a turning point ...
