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An interesting read is On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies by Copernicus, even if you just read the introduction. It’s an appeal to the Pope regarding the scientific nature of his conclusions. Regardless, they still excommunicated him years later for going against what was thought the authority of scripture.



He was never excommunicated as far as I know, and the book was only published after his death. The church did suppress the book though.


>An interesting read is On the Revolutions of Heavenly Bodies by Copernicus, even if you just read the introduction. It’s an appeal to the Pope regarding the scientific nature of his conclusions. Regardless, they still excommunicated him years later for going against what was thought the authority of scripture.

This... is completely false. Copernicus never faced adversity for his heliocentric model.


Thanks - I was confusing the stories of Copernicus and Galileo. Galileo’s works, based on Copernicus’s ideas, were declared heretical. While not excommunicated he was persecuted by the church.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair


no, Copernicus was never excommunicated, although "On the Revolutions of Heavenly bodies" went through various stages of requiring errata pointing out it was only a hypothesis and even a ban




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