> I am wondering if there are some historians out there who can
> comment on this. From what I heard, Galileo, when he first published
> his theories about the Solar System, the Church largly ignored him.
> It was some secular philosophers/scientists who were upset about
> the theory and activily enlisted the aide of Rome to come down on
> Galileo.
...
What you wonder about Galileo is essentially true. His first opponents
were Aristotolian philosophers but there were Jesuit mathematicians of
the Roman College that supported him. A very good summary of the whole
affair can be found in...
Fantoli, Annibale: "Galileo. For Copernicanism and for the Church",
Vatican City: Vatican Observatory and University of Notre Dame, IN,
1994. Pp. 540, ISBN 0-268-01029-3, $ 21.95 (pb). This is a translation
(by George Coyne S. J.) of Fantoli's "Galileo, Per il Copernicanesimo e
Per la Chiesa", Citta del Vaticano : Specola vaticana, Libreria editrice
vaticana, 1993. There is a review of the book by A.Blair in "The
Observatory" 115 (1995) 1126, 140-141.
In 1615 Galileo wrote that he had no other aim but the honor of the Holy
Church and that he did not direct his small labors to any other goal.
Hope this helps.
Christopher Morbey