No, but it was this, along with his insistance that geocentrism was disproved, that got the attention of the Holy Office. Before he started spouting off on scriptural exegesis, the Vatican pretty much ignored him.
And even if he did, it was wrong to punish him. Certainly by our standards it was wrong.
I agree.
Anyway, he didn't start the fight. The first thing was that his work was criticized on theological grounds. It was only then, in defense of his work, that he suggested the current understanding of scripture could be wrong.
It's true that he didn't start the fight over theology, but it wasn't Church authorities who started the fight either. A few priests started preaching sermons against the Copernican system. The Holy Office and the rest of the Vatican ignored him UNTIL he started writing about theology. It was his writings on the need to revise scripture that raised the ire of the inquisition, specifically his letter to Castelli, written in 1613 and forwarded to the inquisition in 1615.
If Galileo had been content to stick with science and ignored the idiot priests, leaving them to the theologicans, the Holy Office would never have touched him. If after his 1616 trial he had contented himself with accurately discribing his evidence for Copernicanism as suggestive but definitive, he also would have been fine.
But no, instead he chooses to draw erroneous conclusions from his evidence, pontificate on theology and scriptural exegesis, an area outside his expertise, and insult the pope to boot. That's not smart.
None of this excuses what happened to him, but it does put the events in proper perspective.
In history, things are seldom black and white, and the case of Galileo is no exception. This case is more about egos and personal grudges than anything else.
That's certainly true.
... but it does put the events in proper perspective.
Well, that depends, doesn't it? From my perspective, even granting the all intemperate behavior that you attribute to Galileo, it's still pretty black and white. I guess we're not going to agree about this one.