Why was Copernicus convicted of heresy?

Answer 1

He wasn't. Galileo was. Copernicus published the theory that the earth revolves around the sun shortly before he died in 1543, and caused no great reaction from the church at the time. It was some 70 years later that Galileo got in trouble for advocating the theory in the 1600s.

Answer 2

Copernicus was not convicted of heresy. His work, proposing that the Earth revolved around the sun, was met with resistance from the Catholic Church but he did not face any formal charges or convictions for heresy during his lifetime. It was only after his death that his ideas were included in the Church's Index of Prohibited Books.

Answer 3

The Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) could be said to have had a good sense of self-preservation, because he did not publish his theories about the place of the earth in the solar system, contained in the book On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres, during his own lifetime for fear of being persecuted by the Catholic Church. He knew that his life depended on not doing so.

When it was published, after his death, the book was in Latin, so the general public was not able to read it. Academics could, but few learned people were willing to face the Church and risk death. Seventy three years after it was published, in 1616, the Church considered the book important enough to place on its Index of Prohibited Books. This was one of many instances in which the truth came second to the interests of the Church.

Although Copernicus was astute enough to avoid persecution in his own lifetime, he would in time become regarded as an enemy of the Church and his legacy was to have his works prohibited.

Roman Catholic AnswerHe did not get in trouble with the Church: the Catholic Church never condemned the theories of Copernicus. As a matter of fact, the Church supported him and urged him to publish his theories, which he did with a dedication to the current Pope. Sixty-three years after his death, the protestants objected to his theories, and subsequently, when Galileo published similar theories, Copernicus (and Galileo's work was edited to say that it was only a theory, as neither man had actually proved their theories, and there were problems with some influential Churchman at the time who thought that the theories contradicted Sacred Scripture. Please see the link below for a discussion of the matter.

Answer 4

That's basically what happened, yes.