THE NEW COSMOLOGY 



of the sun-spots. It is probable, however, that several 

 discoverers (notably Johann Fabricius) made the 

 telescopic observation of the spots, and recognized 

 them as having to do with the sun's surface, almost 

 simultaneously with Galileo. One of these claimants 

 was a Jesuit named Scheiner, and the jealousy of this 

 man is said to have had a share in bringing about that 

 persecution to which we must now refer. 



There is no more famous incident in the history of 

 science than the heresy trial through which Galileo 

 was led to the nominal renunciation of his cherished 

 doctrines. There is scarcely another incident that has 

 been commented upon so variously. Each succeeding 

 generation has put its own interpretation on it. The 

 facts, however, have been but little questioned. It 

 appears that in the year 1616 the church became at 

 last aroused to the implications of the heliocentric 

 doctrine of the universe. Apparently it seemed clear 

 to the church authorities that the authors of the Bible 

 believed the world to be immovably fixed at the centre 

 of the universe. Such, indeed, would seem to be the 

 natural inference from various familiar phrases of the 

 Hebrew text, and what we now know of the status of 

 Oriental science in antiquity gives full warrant to 

 this interpretation. There is no reason to suppose 

 that the conception of the subordinate place of the 

 world in the solar system had ever so much as occurred, 

 even as a vague speculation, to the authors of Genesis. 

 In common with their contemporaries, they believed 

 the earth to be the all-important body in the universe, 

 and the sun a luminary placed in the sky for the sole 

 purpose of giving light to the earth. There is nothing 



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