Sunspot Letters
Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
Stillman Drake
Introduction: Third Part XVII
With the publication of the Letters on Sunspots the period of Galileo's most famed discoveries drew to a close, to be succeeded by one in which his even more famous opinions became the subject of violent and widespread controversy. Ostensibly this battle was waged over the Copernican system;
in reality it was fought over the right of a scientist to teach and defend his scientific beliefs. The real issue was perfectly clear to Galileo at all times, as it was to some of the theologians who were soon to decide the contest against him. But by his avowed enemies in the church it seems never to have been understood at all. To their minds Galileo was attacking the church; to his own mind he was protecting it from the commission of a fatal error. In place of the contempt Galileo felt toward his adversaries in science, he showed rage and indignation against his religious opponents. Ignorant men were powerless to injure science, but they could seriously damage the church. In order to prevent such a calamity Galileo undertook a struggle which involved him in grave personal danger, while his enemies acted not only in complete safety but even with a prospect of gaining glory.
December 16, 1611
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