Sounds like you know as much about the Galileo affair as you do about Biblical interpretation or science...
Nicholas Copernicus was the first to present the heliocentric model of the Universe, 70 years before Galileo, and what happened to him? He was asked by the Pope to provide input on the reform the ecclesiastical calendar... And the people who opposed Copernicuss ideas? Protestant theologians...
Galileo's problem was that he taught it as FACT, despite an agreement he signed promising to teach it as a possibility, and he ventured into the realm of theology, saying that the interpretation of the Bible was wrong. Keep in mind this was early 1600s--the Protestant Reformation had already happened nearly 100 years before. Scientists and theologians alike saw the Earth as the center. The Church wanted only to proceed judiciously, to gather facts and evaluate evidence, not turn the conception of the Earth on its head because of the observations of one man.
Also, Galileo wasn't tortured, he spent his days in an Italian villa in the mountains, living rather comfortably until his death...
The interpretation of the Bible was wrong.