What cardinal gave Galileo a warning in 1616 to not teach heliocentrism?

Cardinal Robert Bellarmine gave Galileo the warning in 1616 not to teach heliocentrism. Acting on instructions from Pope Paul V, Bellarmine told Galileo to abandon the view that the Sun stood still at the centre and that Earth moved around it.

The warning followed a theological examination of Copernican astronomy. In February 1616, consultants to the Roman Inquisition judged heliocentrism philosophically absurd and theologically contrary to Scripture as it was then interpreted. Bellarmine delivered the order at his residence on 26 February.

A common mix-up is the name “Bellarmino,” the Italian form of Bellarmine’s surname; it refers to the same cardinal, not a different official. Cardinal Maffeo Barberini was another important figure in Galileo’s story, but he was a later pope, Urban VIII, and did not give the 1616 warning. The precise wording and legal status of the injunction later became central to Galileo’s 1633 trial.