When Galileo forced the issue to a head, Cardinal Bellarmine was called to adjudicate the matter. Bellarmine had lectured on astronomy in his youth and was in close contact with astronomers in Rome who were enthusiastic about Galileo's work. His writings show respect for Copernicus's theory along with a desire to avoid escalating the conflict unnecessarily. When it came to changing official church policy on such a substantive matter, Bellarmine insisted, quite reasonably, on seeing proof, writing: If there were a real proof that…the Sun does not go round the Earth but the Earth round the Sun,
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