Cardinal Bellarmine stated that the Bible passages under discussion could and “would” have to be re-interpreted “if there were a real proof” that the Earth did move. Biblical interpretation would have to yield to new scientific ideas—but only if there were proof, which Bellarmine, along with most scientists, did not believe there was. 1
Galileo agreed with Cardinal Bellarmine’s key point. One reason Galileo could have been agreeable is that even though he had not yet revealed it, he was working on what he thought would be real proof. Galileo had come to think that the regular movements of tides could constitute real proof that the Earth moved.... Galileo was counting on the tides because he knew his earlier observations about Jupiter and Venus had not constituted proof.
1, Cardinal Bellarmine. Letter of April 12, 1615 to Carmelite priest Paolo Antonio Foscarini. Quoted in Olaf Pedersen. The Book of Nature (Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1992). p. 49.
