Robert Bellarmine Quotation

[jamesatracy]

I noticed that susangail currently has the following quotation in her signature purportedly from Cardinal Robert Bellarmine:

"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin." ~Robert Cardinal Bellarmine-Trial of Galileo in 1615

I am wondering if anyone knows the exact source for this quotation, because there is something clearly wrong to me in the attribution. Galileo was not put on trial until 1632 after Bellarmine was long since dead - not in 1615 or even 1616 when the Vatican released its decree against Copernicanism. I searched Google and found plenty of references to the quotation all over the internet, but it always appears either without attribution, or with just a date (1615), or with the mistaken claim that it was said "at the trial" of Galileo.

The closest thing that I could find to this quotation comes from a letter that Bellarmine wrote in 1615:

Thus anyone who would say that Abraham did not have two sons and Jacob twelve would be just as much of a heretic as someone who would say that Christ was not born of a virgin, for the Holy Spirit has said both of these things through the mouths of the Prophets and the Apostles.
--- Letter from Cardinal Bellarmine to Antonio Foscarini, 12 April 1615.

My conclusion is that the quotation is likely bogus but nevertheless has somehow rapidly (and carelessly) spread all over the internet.

[McQ]

I noticed that susangail currently has the following quotation in her signature purportedly from Cardinal Robert Bellarmine:

"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin." ~Robert Cardinal Bellarmine-Trial of Galileo in 1615

I am wondering if anyone knows the exact source for this quotation, because there is something clearly wrong to me in the attribution. Galileo was not put on trial until 1632 after Bellarmine was long since dead - not in 1615 or even 1616 when the Vatican released its decree against Copernicanism. I searched Google and found plenty of references to the quotation all over the internet, but it always appears either without attribution, or with just a date (1615), or with the mistaken claim that it was said "at the trial" of Galileo.

The closest thing that I could find to this quotation comes from a letter that Bellarmine wrote in 1615:

Thus anyone who would say that Abraham did not have two sons and Jacob twelve would be just as much of a heretic as someone who would say that Christ was not born of a virgin, for the Holy Spirit has said both of these things through the mouths of the Prophets and the Apostles.
--- Letter from Cardinal Bellarmine to Antonio Foscarini, 12 April 1615.

My conclusion is that the quotation is likely bogus but nevertheless has somehow rapidly (and carelessly) spread all over the internet.

I don't know, but I have to give you credit for spotting this! Nicely done. Most people would never even give it a second thought. Good eyes!

[susangail]

Whoa dang. I honestly saw this quote and thought it was hilarious. I'm a quote whore and I saw it on several sites... hmm... I'll look around too and try to find exactly where I found it. Thanks for pointing that out!

[jamesatracy]

Susan,

The quotation would be a good one if it was definitely real, which probably explains why it is spread all over the internet. The real quotation that I provided above just doesn't have nearly as much of an impact! What initially made me suspicious was not the quotation itself but the mistaken reference to Galileo's "trial" in 1615, which didn't happen. Rather, Galileo was given a personal injunction to stop holding and defending heliocentrism in private by Bellarmine himself, and Galileo later requested an official document certifying that he was not put on trial to quash rumors that he had been!

[susangail]

Yeah, the fact that it's bogus ruins it for me. I'm gonna look for a new one. Thanks for the history lesson! (and I mean that literally, I love history )