As a consequence of the U-turn on Biblical geocentrism, it became crucial for Catholics to begin an endless portrayal of the Galileo affair, and the 1616 decree, in books and articles in Catholic publications and elsewhere, not as a papal act, but as a reformable one, merely a temporary disciplinary ban on heliocentrism by a few theologians of the Inquisition until proof was found.
‘Galileo’s aggressiveness at a sensitive time about a delicate issue, combined with his lack of scientific proof, drew down upon him a condemnation of the Church. That condemnation admittedly went too far, but in no way did it involve the Church’s infallibility or make geocentrism a dogma of Catholic belief.’ (Reference given was Arthur Koestler’s, The Sleepwalkers) --- Fr Paul Robinson SSPX: The Realist Guide to Religion and Science, Gracewing, 2018, p.284.
The reason for this of course, is because if it was admitted as an unrevisable (infallible) papal decree that was proven false, it could be said to have falsified the Catholic dogma of infallibility itself, and put every official definition of faith and morals at risk. From 1820 on then, it was crucial for churchmen to reject the 1616 decrees as an authoritative papal teaching. So then, was heliocentrism infallibly condemned, and what are the conditions for infallibility according to the Dogma of Infallibility of Vatican Council I? They are, a pope must use his supreme authority (1), when ruling on a matter of faith or morals (2), and, the definition must apply to the whole flock (3).
In 1542, in the wake of the Protestant rebellion, Pope Paul III (1534-1549) set up the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition, otherwise known as the Holy Office, to combat heresy at the highest level. Later, in 1588; Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) gave the Holy Office even more explicit powers in the Bull Immensa Dei. In this directive he made the reigning pope Prefect of the Supreme Congregation. This meant that decisions assigned to the Holy Office judgment, before publication, would invariably be examined and ratified by the Pope himself as supreme judge of the Holy See, and would go forward clothed with such formal papal authority. Thus, Pope Paul V, in 1616, as Prefect of the Holy Office, ordered the decree defining a fixed-sun heretical be made binding on all by placing the ban on the Index as well as books promoting the heresy, thus complying to infallibility conditions (1) and (3). Moreover, Pope Alexander VII approved with Apostolic authority the 1616 and 1620 decrees that defined heliocentrism as formal heresy. As regards it being a matter of faith, well in his 1615 Letter to Foscarini, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine clarified that it was a matter of faith.
‘Nor may it be answered that this [Biblical moving-sun] is not a matter of faith, for if it is not a matter of faith from the point of view of the subject matter (ex parte objecti), it is a matter of faith on the part of the ones who have spoken (ex parte dicentis). It would be just as heretical to deny that Abraham had two sons and Jacob twelve, as it would be to deny the virgin birth of Christ, for both are declared by the Holy Ghost through the prophets and apostles.’---Cardinal Bellarmine: 1615.
Indeed, the same instruction must surely apply to everything contained in the Bible, including the history and years revealed in Genesis. Given the Church of 1616 and 1633 approved the above matter of faith, it should have been defended in 1820 based on the arguments offered by the Vatican censor Fr Anfossi. So serious did Pope Urban VIII view this heresy in 1633 that he personally directed Galileo’s trial. The recorded docuмents of the trial, again clearly confirmed the 1616 decree was irreversible when declaring: ‘since an opinion can in no manner be probable which has been declared, and defined to be, contrary to the divine Scripture.’ Here then, is another confirmation that the heresy was irreformable. There remained however, one more condition for the anti-heliocentric decree’s ‘irreversibility,’ it must be made binding on all. Well, apart from the fact that when a pope defines a heresy, it applies to all the flock as one has never heard of a heresy applying to an individual but not to anyone else. In the Galileo case however, such was the serious danger of this heresy that in the summer of 1633, all papal nuncios in Europe and local inquisitors in Italy received from the Roman Inquisition copies of the sentence against Galileo and his abjuration, together with orders to publicise them among as many of the flock as possible.
“To your vicars, that you and all professors of philosophy and mathematics may have knowledge of [the heliocentric heresy], that they may know why we proceeded against the said Galileo, and recognise the gravity of the error in order that they may avoid it, and thus not incur the penalties which they would have to suffer if they fell into the same [heresy].”’--- Fr Roberts, The Pontifical Decrees against the Earth’s Movement, London, 1870, revised 1885.
Theologians were then urged to use their learning to show Galileoism as a serious heresy to the flock. Accordingly, many professors of philosophy, mathematics, physics, and astronomy were assembled like their students at roll call and the trial docuмents read to them. History records ‘that the University of Douay in France was so opposed to this fanatical heliocentric opinion that they always held that it must be banished from the schools.’
Topic: Was the 1616 decree against heliocentrism an infallible act? (Read 12431 times)