Who was the Pope who condemned Galileo in 1633?

The Pope who condemned Galileo in 1633 was Urban VIII. His papacy turned Galileo’s long, complicated relationship with the Catholic Church into the famous trial associated with the Galileo affair.

Urban VIII had initially been relatively sympathetic to Galileo and had encouraged discussion of Copernican astronomy, provided that heliocentrism was presented as a hypothesis rather than an established physical truth. The relationship deteriorated after Galileo published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. The book appeared to favor the Sun-centered model and seemed to place arguments associated with the pope in the mouth of a character named Simplicio.

In 1633, the Roman Inquisition tried Galileo and found him “vehemently suspect of heresy.” He was forced to recant his support for Earth’s motion and spent the remainder of his life under house arrest. Urban VIII was the pope during this trial and approved the proceedings, although the condemnation was issued by the Inquisition rather than as a simple personal decree from the pope. A common mix-up is with Paul V, who was pope during the earlier 1616 proceedings against heliocentrism.