What was the sentence imposed on Galileo by the Roman Inquisition in 1633?

The sentence imposed on Galileo by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 was house arrest.

Galileo was prosecuted after publishing Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to defend the motion of Earth and the Copernican model. The Inquisition found him “vehemently suspect of heresy” and required him to formally abjure, curse, and detest the views he had defended. His book was banned, and he was forbidden to teach or defend heliocentrism.

The formal sentence initially described imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition. On the day after the judgment, however, this was commuted to house arrest. Galileo spent the remainder of his life under varying restrictions, first in the residence of the archbishop of Siena and later at his own villa in Arcetri near Florence.

A common misconception is that Galileo was burned at the stake or permanently excommunicated; neither happened. Another popular story claims he muttered “and yet it moves” after abjuring heliocentrism, but the saying appears in sources written about a century later and lacks contemporary evidence.