Bellarmine · Letters · On Copernicus and Scripture

Letter to Paolo Antonio Foscarini, 12 April 1615

Our translation, from the Italian of Galileo Galilei, Opere, ed. Antonio Favaro (Florence: Giunti–Barbera), vol. XII, pp. 171–172. The 1615 Italian is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Foscarini was a Carmelite who had published a book arguing that the Copernican system could be reconciled with Scripture, and sent it to Bellarmine for his opinion. This is the reply. It was written ten months before the decree of 1616 and seventeen years before Galileo's trial.

My most Reverend Father,

I have read with pleasure the Italian letter and the Latin treatise which Your Paternity has sent me. I thank you for both, and I confess that they are full of ability and learning. But since you ask my opinion, I will give it very briefly, since you now have little time for reading and I have little time for writing.

1. I say that it seems to me that Your Paternity and Signor Galileo do prudently to content yourselves with speaking ex suppositione and not absolutely, as I have always believed that Copernicus spoke. For to say that, supposing the earth moves and the sun stands still, all the appearances are saved better than by putting forward eccentrics and epicycles, is very well said, and has no danger in it; and this is enough for the mathematician. But to want to affirm that the sun really stands at the centre of the world, and only turns upon itself without running from east to west, and that the earth stands in the third heaven and goes round the sun with the greatest speed, is a very dangerous thing, not only to irritate all the scholastic philosophers and theologians, but also to injure the holy faith by making the Holy Scriptures false. For Your Paternity has indeed shown many ways of expounding the Holy Scriptures, but you have not applied them in particular; and without doubt you would have found the very greatest difficulties if you had wished to expound all those passages which you yourself have cited.

2. I say that, as you know, the Council forbids expounding the Scriptures against the common consent of the holy Fathers. And if Your Paternity will read, I do not say only the holy Fathers, but the modern commentaries on Genesis, on the Psalms, on Ecclesiastes, on Joshua, you will find that all agree in expounding literally that the sun is in the heavens and turns about the earth with the greatest speed, and that the earth is very far from the heavens and stands at the centre of the world, motionless. Consider now for yourself, with your prudence, whether the Church can bear that a sense be given to the Scriptures contrary to the holy Fathers and to all the Greek and Latin expositors. Nor can it be answered that this is not a matter of faith; for if it is not a matter of faith on the part of the thing spoken of, it is a matter of faith on the part of the one who speaks. And so a man would be as much a heretic who said that Abraham did not have two sons and Jacob twelve, as one who said that Christ was not born of a virgin, because the Holy Spirit says the one and the other by the mouth of the Prophets and the Apostles.

3. I say that if there were a true demonstration that the sun stands at the centre of the world and the earth in the third heaven, and that the sun does not go round the earth but the earth goes round the sun, then it would be necessary to proceed with great care in explaining the Scriptures which appear contrary, and rather to say that we do not understand them than to say that something is false which has been demonstrated. But I will not believe that there is such a demonstration until it is shown to me. Nor is it the same thing to demonstrate that, supposing the sun at the centre and the earth in the heavens, the appearances are saved, and to demonstrate that in truth the sun is at the centre and the earth in the heavens. The first demonstration I believe may exist; of the second I have the very greatest doubt; and in a case of doubt one must not abandon the Holy Scripture as expounded by the holy Fathers.

I add that he who wrote, The sun riseth and goeth down, and returneth to his place, was Solomon, who not only spoke inspired by God, but was a man above all others most wise and most learned in the human sciences and in the knowledge of created things, and all this wisdom he had from God; whence it is not likely that he would affirm a thing which was contrary to a truth demonstrated, or able to be demonstrated.

And if you tell me that Solomon spoke according to appearance, since it seems to us that the sun goes round while it is the earth that turns, as it seems to a man leaving the shore that the shore is departing from the ship: I answer that a man leaving the shore, although it seems to him that the shore departs from him, nevertheless knows that this is an error and corrects it, seeing clearly that the ship moves and not the shore. But as to the sun and the earth, there is no wise man who has any need to correct the error, because he plainly experiences that the earth stands still, and that the eye is not deceived when it judges that the sun moves, just as it is also not deceived when it judges that the moon and the stars move. And let this be enough for now.

With which I greet Your Paternity warmly, and pray God to grant you every contentment.

From home, the 12th of April 1615.
Your most Reverend Paternity’s, as a brother,
Cardinal Bellarmine

Why this letter matters

It is usually produced as evidence for one side or the other, and it will not sit still for either. Bellarmine is warning a friend off, and he is doing it on the authority of the Fathers and the Council of Trent. He was wrong about the astronomy, and the office he spoke for went on to silence a man who was right.

And in the middle of the warning he lays down a rule that cuts against his own conclusion. If the thing were actually demonstrated, he says, then the right response is not to call the demonstration false. It is to go back and admit we had not understood the passage. He did not think the demonstration existed. He said plainly what would follow if it did.

Read the last two paragraphs and you can watch the test fail in his hands. He is sure the earth stands still because he can feel that it does, and because the eye does not appear to be deceived. The ship-and-shore argument is the very analogy that would later be used against him. What defeated him was not Scripture. It was confidence about the evidence, held by a careful man in good faith, at a moment when the better evidence was not yet in.

Which is the reason to keep the letter: a man may hold the right rule and still reach the wrong answer, and the rule is not discredited by the man. See Faith Was Never Meant to Be Blind for the Galileo affair told straight, and Bellarmine for who he was.

Molto R.do P.re mio

Ho letto volentieri l'epistola italiana e la scrittura latina che la P.V. m'ha mandato: la ringratio dell'una e dell'altra, e confesso che sono tutte piene d'ingegno e di dottrina. Ma poiché lei dimanda il mio parere, lo farò con molta brevità, perché lei hora ha poco tempo di leggere ed io ho poco tempo di scrivere.

1° Dico che mi pare che V. P. et il Sig.r Galileo facciano prudentemente a contentarsi di parlare ex suppositione e non assolutamente, come io ho sempre creduto che habbia parlato il Copernico. Perché il dire che, supposto che la terra si muova et il sole stia fermo si salvano tutte l'apparenze meglio che con porre gli eccentrici et epicicli, è benissimo detto, e non ha pericolo nessuno; e questo basta al matematico: ma volere affermare che realmente il sole stia nel centro del mondo, e solo si rivolti in se stesso senza correre dall'oriente all'occidente, e che la terra stia nel 3° cielo e giri con somma velocità intorno al sole, è cosa molto pericolosa non solo d'irritare tutti i filosofi e theologi scolastici, ma anco di nuocere alla Santa Fede con rendere false le Scritture Sante; perché la P.V. ha bene dimostrato molti modi di esporre le Sacre Scritture, ma non li ha applicati in particolare, che senza dubbio havria trovate grandissime difficultà se avesse voluto esporre tutti quei luoghi che lei stessa ha citati.

2° Dico che, come lei sa, il Concilio proibisce esporre le Scritture contra il comune consenso de' Santi Padri; e se la P.V. vorrà leggere non dico solo li Santi Padri, ma li commentari moderni sopra il Genesi, sopra i Salmi, sopra l'Ecclesiaste, sopra Giosuè, trovarà che tutti convengono in esporre ad literam c'il sole è nel cielo e gira intorno alla terra con somma velocità, e che la terra è lontanissima dal cielo e sta nel centro del mondo, immobile. Consideri hora lei, con la sua prudenza, se la Chiesa possa sopportare che si dia alle Scritture un senso contrario alli Santi Padri e a tutti gli espositori greci e latini. Né si può rispondere che questa non sia materia di fede, perché se non è materia di fede ex parte obiecti, è materia di fede ex parte dicentis; e così sarebbe heretico chi dicesse che Abramo non habbia avuti due figliuoli e Iacob dodici, come chi dicesse che Cristo non è nato da vergine, perché l'uno e l'altro lo dice lo Spirito Santo per bocca de' Profeti et Apostoli.

3° Dico che quando ci fusse vera demostratione che il sole stia nel centro del mondo e la terra nel 3° cielo, e che il sole non circonda la terra, ma la terra circonda il sole, allora bisognerà andar con molta consideratione in esplicare le Scritture che paiono contrarie, e più tosto dire che non l'intendiamo, che dire che sia falso quello che si dimostra. Ma io non crederò che ci sia tal dimostratione, fin che non mi sia mostrata: né è l'istesso dimostrare che supposto ch'il sole stia nel centro e la terra nel cielo, si salvino le apparenze, e dimostrare che in verità il sole stia nel centro e la terra nel cielo; perché la prima dimostratione credo che ci possa essere, ma della 2° ho grandissimo dubbio, et in caso di dubbio non si dee lasciare la Scrittura Santa, esposta da' Santi Padri. Aggiungo che quello che scrisse: Oritur sol et occidit, et ad locum suum revertitur etc., fu Salomone, il quale non solo parlò inspirato da Dio, ma fu huomo sopra tutti gli altri sapientissimo e dottissimo nelle scienze humane e nella cognitione delle cose create, e tutta questa sapienza l'hebbe da Dio; onde non è verisimile che affermasse una cosa che fusse contraria alla verità dimostrata o che si potesse dimostrare. E se mi dirà che Salomone parlò secondo l'apparenza, parendo a noi che il sole giri, mentre la terra gira, come a chi si parte dal litto pare che il litto si parta dalla nave, risponderò che chi si parte dal litto, se bene gli pare che il litto si parta da lui, nondimeno conosce che questo è errore e lo corregge, vedendo chiaramente che la nave si muove e non il litto; ma quanto al sole e la terra, nessuno savio è che habbia bisogno di correggere l'errore, perché chiaramente esperimenta che la terra sta ferma e che l'occhio non s'inganna quando giudica che il sole si muove, come anco non s'inganna quando giudica che la luna e le stelle si muovino. E questo basti per ora.

Con che saluto charamente V.P., e gli prego da Dio ogni contento.

Di casa, li 12 di aprile 1615
Di V. P. molto R. come fratello
Il Card. Bellarmino