Galileo wasn't declared a heretic, ever. He was placed under house arrest, allowed the sacraments until his death, which a heretic could not do.
From Wiki, which is pretty accurate in this case:
Copernicus'
De revolutionibus had been published twenty years before Galileo's birth, and while
heliocentrism was condemned by Protestant leaders Luther, Calvin and Melanchthon, the Catholic church was more open to the idea. Copernicus had dedicated his book to
Pope Paul III, and it inspired very little debate regarding its relation to Christian dogma or scripture over the next sixty years. There was no institutional Catholic opposition to heliocentrism, and Copernicus' work was even used for the
Gregorian calendar reform of 1582.
[60] However, the heliocentric view was slow to be adopted by the educated public of the time, who mostly adhered to either to the Aristotelian
geocentric view that the earth was the
center of the universe and that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth,
[61] or the
Tychonic system that blended geocentricsm with
heliocentrism.
[62]
Galileo defended heliocentrism based on his astronomical observations of 1609 (
Sidereus Nuncius 1610). In December 1613 the Grand Duchess Christina of Florence confronted one of Galileo's friends and followers,
Benedetto Castelli, with biblical objections to the motion of the earth. According to Maurice Finocchiaro this was done in a friendly and gracious manner, out of curiosity. Prompted by this incident, Galileo wrote a letter to Castelli in which he argued that heliocentrism was actually not contrary to biblical texts, and that the bible was an authority on faith and morals, not on science. This letter was not published, but circulated widely.
[63]
By 1615 Galileo's writings on heliocentrism had been submitted to the
Roman Inquisition by Father Niccolo Lorini, who claimed that Galileo and his followers were attempting to reinterpret the Bible, which was seen as a violation of the
Council of Trent and looked dangerously like Protestantism.
[64] Lorini specifically cited Galileo's letter to Castelli.
[65] Galileo went to Rome to defend himself and his Copernican and biblical ideas. At the start of 1616, Monsignor Francesco Ingoli initiated a debate with Galileo, sending him an essay disputing the Copernican system. Galileo later stated that he believed this essay to have been instrumental in the action against Copernicanism that followed.
[66] According to Maurice Finocchiaro, Ingoli had probably been commissioned by the Inquisition to write an expert opinion on the controversy, and the essay provided the "chief direct basis" for the Inquisition's actions.
[67] The essay focused on eighteen physical and mathematical arguments against heliocentrism. It borrowed primarily from the arguments of Tycho Brahe, and it notedly mentioned Brahe's argument that heliocentrism required the stars to be much larger than the Sun. Ingoli wrote that the great distance to the stars in the heliocentric theory "clearly proves ... the fixed stars to be of such size, as they may surpass or equal the size of the orbit circle of the Earth itself."
[68] The essay also included four theological arguments, but Ingoli suggested Galileo focus on the physical and mathematical arguments, and he did not mention Galileo's biblical ideas.
[69] In February 1616, an Inquisitorial commission declared heliocentrism to be "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture." The Inquisition found that the idea of the Earth's movement "receives the same judgement in philosophy and... in regard to theological truth it is at least erroneous in faith".
[70] (The
original document from the Inquisitorial commission was made widely available in 2014.
[71])
Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Bellarmine to deliver this finding to Galileo, and to order him to abandon the opinion that heliocentrism was physically true. On 26 February, Galileo was called to Bellarmine's residence and ordered:
... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing.
[72]
The decree of the
Congregation of the Index banned Copernicus's
De Revolutionibus and other heliocentric works until correction.
[72] Bellarmine's instructions did not prohibit Galileo from discussing heliocentrism as a mathematical and philosophic idea, so long as he did not advocate for its physical truth.[8][73]
For the next decade, Galileo stayed well away from the controversy. He revived his project of writing a book on the subject, encouraged by the election of Cardinal Maffeo
Barberini as
Pope Urban VIII in 1623. Barberini was a friend and admirer of Galileo, and had opposed the condemnation of Galileo in 1616. Galileo's resulting book,
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was published in 1632, with formal authorization from the
Inquisition and papal permission.
[74]
Earlier, Pope Urban VIII had personally asked Galileo to give arguments for and against heliocentrism in the book, and to be careful not to advocate heliocentrism. He made another request, that his own views on the matter be included in Galileo's book. Only the latter of those requests was fulfilled by Galileo.
Whether unknowingly or deliberately, Simplicio, the defender of the Aristotelian geocentric view in
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was often caught in his own errors and sometimes came across as a fool. Indeed, although Galileo states in the preface of his book that the character is named after a famous Aristotelian philosopher (
Simplicius in Latin, Simplicio in Italian), the name "Simplicio" in Italian also has the connotation of "simpleton".
[75] This portrayal of Simplicio made
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems appear as an advocacy book: an attack on Aristotelian geocentrism and defence of the Copernican theory.
Unfortunately for his relationship with the Pope, Galileo put the words of Urban VIII into the mouth of Simplicio.
Most historians agree Galileo did not act out of malice and felt blindsided by the reaction to his book.
[76] However, the Pope did not take the suspected public ridicule lightly, nor the Copernican advocacy.
Galileo had alienated one of his biggest and most powerful supporters, the Pope, and was called to Rome to defend his writings
[77] in September 1632. He finally arrived in February 1633 and was brought before inquisitor
Vincenzo Maculani to be
charged. Throughout his trial Galileo steadfastly maintained that since 1616 he had faithfully kept his promise not to hold any of the condemned opinions, and initially he denied even defending them. However, he was eventually persuaded to admit that, contrary to his true intention, a reader of his
Dialogue could well have obtained the impression that it was intended to be a defence of Copernicanism. In view of Galileo's rather implausible denial that he had ever held Copernican ideas after 1616 or ever intended to defend them in the
Dialogue, his final interrogation, in July 1633, concluded with his being threatened with torture if he did not tell the truth, but he maintained his denial despite the threat.
[78]
The sentence of the Inquisition was delivered on 22 June. It was in three essential parts:
- Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions.[79]
- He was sentenced to formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition.[80] On the following day this was commuted to house arrest, which he remained under for the rest of his life.
- His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial, publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.[81]
If Galileo could physically prove that heliocentrism was true, he would not have been condemned.
Regarding evolution, where did I ever say it's not Christian? I believe it to be true. Darwin's theory didn't take God into account, though, in my opinion.