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“Beat the poop out of him” is evidently unsourced. Who really controlled what history recorded then anyways? The Church. And if Galileos teaching wasn’t 100% correct, it was ahead of what man knew before him. This is a prime example of why the powers of Churches (or politicians for that matter) should be curbed. It leads to excesses. The CC had no business curtailing scientific discovery, conjectures or hypotheses. Yeah and the “luxuries” Galileo had are (I’m sure) embellishment of the CC to mitigate their shameful past.

I called it "a stupid conclusion and unjust ruling." My point is that it was the product of human vanity and folly --- men with their pride and rivalries (you'll always have that!) --- and not a matter of some erroneous doctrine of the Faith.

The actual history is really interesting (I'm not speaking of the comic book version.)

We know about the conditions of Galileo's "house arrest" from the writings of his exceptionally intelligent and devoted daughter, Maria Celeste, and the various friends and financial patrons whose hospitality he enjoyed --- in their guest houses and even ambassadors' quarters at the home of his ally Archbishop Piccolomini in Siena. Galileo entertained visitors, continued his experiments, and read and wrote whatever he wanted until his eyesight failed.

No force-feeding, no waterboarding. I suppose they knew even then that the court officials had got it wrong. The Church had used the Copernican model decades earlier to reform the calendar (1582), and the Jesuits at the Colegio Romanum in Rome had duplicated Galileo's telescopic observations and gone even further than he did.

Galileo finally returned to his villa at Arcetri near Florence, where he spent the rest of his life in comfort, remained in the Sacraments, and was buried with suitable honors in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence.

With a papal blessing.

I really recommend Dava Sobel's "Galileo's Daughter."