Galileo sentenced by Inquisition / Octavia E. Butler born - June 22

On this day in history, the Roman Inquisition sentenced Galileo Galilei for being "vehemently suspect of heresy." / On this day in 1947, science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler was born.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you
know that you're going to be hearing two different events
in history in this episode. They're both good, if I
do say so myself. On with the show. Welcome to
this day in History class, where we bring you a
new tidbit from history every day. The day it was

(00:26):
June two three, the Roman Inquisition sentenced astronomer Galileo galile
to imprisonment and penance for supporting the idea that the
Sun was the center of the universe and Earth revolved
around it. He was deemed quote vehemently suspect of heresy,
and his book Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems

(00:49):
was banned. Galileo support of helio Centrism and the Galileo Affair,
as Galileo's controversy with the Catholic Church is known, have
become parts of his story that are as important as
his scientific contributions. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, when
Galileo was alive, most people believed that the Earth was

(01:10):
at the center of the universe and heavenly bodies revolved
around it, a model known as geocentrism that included the
Catholic Church, which maintained that the Earth was static, not
just out of fanatical faith, but because heliocentrism seemed absurd
based on scientific consensus and contrary to its ideas of

(01:30):
hierarchy and the cosmos, among other reasons. Misconceptions about the
Church's reasoning for sticking to geocentrism aside Galileo promoted astronomer
and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus's heliocentric theory. Galileo's telescopic observations and
writings supported the idea that the Sun was at the

(01:51):
center of the universe. In sixteen sixteen, the Holy Office
appointed a board of theologians called Qualifiers to evaluate the
idea that the Sun is at the center of the
universe and that Earth is not at the center of
the universe and has a diurnal motion. It concluded that
the proposition of the Sun being at the center of
the universe was absurd in false in philosophy, and formally

(02:15):
heretical since it was against scripture and common doctrine. The
Holy Office also said that the motion of the Earth
was quote at least erroneous in faith. Cardinal Robert Valarmina,
the Church's chief theologian, advised that Galileo treat heliocentrism as
hypothetical rather than treating it as a real phenomenon, and

(02:37):
Galileo was ordered not to hold, defend, or teach heliocentrism.
But in sixteen thirty two, Galileo published the book Dialogue
Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. The book pits the
Copernican system against the Ptolemaic system, framed as discussions among
three characters. The Ptolemaic system holds that Earth is the

(02:58):
stationary center of the universe. The character who holds tole
mag Us simply Joe, is repeatedly shut down by the
other two for his support of geocentrism. As the characters
made strong arguments in favor of the Copernican view, Hope
Urban the Eighth sent the book to a special committee
for examination. It was determined that the book defended helio centrism,

(03:20):
and so Galileo was suspected of holding the prohibited doctrine.
Galileo loosely admitted his fault, but said that he did
not intend to support helio centrism. In April of sixteen
thirty three, he said, I freely confessed that a reader
not knowing my mind might understand the arguments as supporting

(03:40):
the false side, which I intend to refute. Galileo's child
on May tenth three did not last long. He appeared
before Commissary Vincenzo Makulano, who gave him eight days to
prepare to present his defenses, but he declined the opportunity.
On June one, Galileo was forced to confess his beliefs

(04:02):
under threat of torture, but Galilea was not actually tortured,
as was typical for people who were older and ill.
He said that at first he considered the Ttolemaic and
Copernican systems equally possible, but now he believed in the
Ptolemaic system, and on June twenty two, the Inquisition declared
that Galileo had defended the condemned opinion of Helio Centrism

(04:24):
by presenting it as probable in the book Dialogue. The
Roman Inquisition was an agency the Catholic Church developed to
control religious doctrine and practice. The inquisitors mentioned how Galileo
had failed to bring up his precept not to hold
defend ort Helio Centrism when publishing his book, and they

(04:44):
noted how he confessed that readers could draw the conclusion
that heliocentrism was probable for meeting his book. They found
him vehemently suspected parisy, as he was suspect of having
held and believed the false doctrine, which is contrary to
sure that the Sun was static and at the center
of the universe while the Earth orbited around it. Dialogue

(05:06):
was banned. Galileo was sentenced to be imprisoned in the
Holy Office for an indeterminate time, and he was ordered
to say the penitential Psalms once a week for three years.
He was also required to abjure, curse, and detest the
error and heresy of Heliocentrism. He said the following in

(05:28):
part in his abjuration, I swear that I have always believed,
I believe now, and with God's help, I will in
the future believe all which the Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church doth hold, preach and teach. He admitted to his
error and swore not to hold, defend, or teach Heliocentrism.

(05:48):
The next day he was moved from the prisons of
the Holy Office to the palace of the Grand Duke.
Galileo stayed on house arrest in a villa near Florence
for the rest of his life. He continued to experiment
it right and work with a student until his death
in sixteen forty two. I'm Eves, Jeff Coo and hopefully
you know a little more about history today than you

(06:09):
did yesterday. But if you want to learn more about Galileo,
our episode of I'm Popular this week is about Galileo
and the Galileo Affair. You can get it wherever you
get your podcasts. If there are any upcoming days in
history that you'd really like me to cover on the show,
give us a shower on social media at t D

(06:30):
I h C podcast. Thanks again for listening, and we'll
see you tomorrow. Hey, y'all, I'm Eves and welcome to
the Stand History Class, a podcast that brings you a
little tidbit of history every day. The day was June two.

(06:55):
N Science fiction author Octavia E. Butler was born Pasadena, California.
Butler addressed themes of gender, sexuality, and race through her
speculative fiction. Over the course of her writing career, she
received several awards, including the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Butler's
mother was a domestic worker, and growing up, Butler recognized

(07:18):
the racism and economic inequity that affected her family. By
the time she was ten, she was already writing her
own stories, and she was interested in science fiction magazines
and stories. As a young adult, Butler pursuit passed besides
writing and work temporary jobs, but she wrote when she
wasn't working. Through the open door program at the Writer's Guild,

(07:40):
Butler was able to attend a class taught by science
fiction author Harlan Ellison. He encouraged her to pursue writing
further by attending the Clarion Science Fiction Writer's Workshop in Pennsylvania.
Though Ellison had offered to publish one of her stories
in an anthology, that anthology was never published. When she
left Clarion, she'd again working on the novels that became

(08:01):
part of the Patterness series. The first book in the series,
published by Double Day in nineteen seventy six, was pattern Master.
In the book, telepathic people known as pattern ists are
dominant over mutes or non telepathic humans, as well as
over mutated humans called clay arts. The next two books
in the series, Mind of My Mind and Survivor were

(08:23):
published in nineteen seventy seven and nineteen seventy eight. The
books sold will but she took a break from the
series to write Candred. In the novel, a black woman
named Dana travels back in time to slavery era Maryland. There,
she meets a white ancestor whom she has to repeatedly
rescue to make sure that he survives. Butler had trouble

(08:44):
placing the book with a publisher because it didn't fit
neatly into the science fiction category, but in nineteen seventy nine,
Double Day published Kindred as fiction. The book was received
well when it was published, and it became a text
that students read in high schools across the US. After Kindred,
Butler continued to publish books in the Pattern Master series,

(09:04):
including Wild Seed and Clay's Art. Many of her characters
were black women, and she explored themes like control and
in post colonialism and dystopian settings. In four she won
a Hugo Award for the short story Speech Sounds, and
Blood Child won the Nebula, Hugo and Locust Awards. Butler
worked on the Xeno Genesis trilogy in the late nineteen

(09:26):
eighties and in the nineteen nineties, she published Parable of
the Sower and Parable of the Talents, which followed the
protagonist Lauren Alamina as she escapes a walled community and
fouls a new one. Butler once said, quote, I don't
write utopia science fiction because I don't believe that imperfect
humans can form a perfect society. Fledgling, a science fiction

(09:48):
vampire novel, published in two thousand five, was Butler's last publication.
She died of a stroke in two thousand six. I'm
Eve Jeffcote and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. And if you have
any commerce ource suggestions, you can send them to us
at this day at iHeart media dot com. You can

(10:08):
also hit us up on social media where at t
D i h D podcast. Thanks again for listening to
the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts
from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

(10:29):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.