Mercutio Badalocchio

Mercutio Badalocchio (10 April 1562 - 2 August 1621) was an Italian astronomer and professor at the University of Parma. He was a lifelong Christian but was charged with formal heresy by the Roman Inquisition in 1620 after being found with a copy of De Revolutionibus in Reggio Emilia. He is best known for escaping the charge by writing a letter to Pope Paul V in which he hid his belief in a heliocentric system of the universe and instead claimed to support a geocentric model which was the model of the universe supported by the Catholic Church.
Early life
Mercutio was born in the village of Parma, Italy, in 1562, the third of three children. He was born to Catholic parents who raised him under the Catholic tradition. Mercutio's father urged Mercutio to enrol in the priesthood as a young man and though Mercutio stringy considered it, he was more interested in the sciences and specifically in astronomy.
Education and career at the University of Parma
Mercutio went on to study astronomy at the University of Parma and would later become a professor at the university. While studying astronomy, Mercutio took great interest in the various developments that occurred in the field of astronomy in the 16th and 17th century and embraced them with open arms. At the time that Mercutio attended the university, the astronomical education at the University remained Aristotelian, Ptolemaic and geocentric in nature. However, Mercutio actively sought out the works of Nicolas Copernicus and Tycho Brahe among others, showing that he was more than willing to expand his worldview and question traditional astronomical knowledge. Despite not being permitted to teach non-Aristotelian astronomy at the university, he continued to study the works of other non-Aristotelian astronomers including Galileo Galilei and showed great interest and admiration in the heliocentric system of the universe they proposed. In fact, during the later part of the 16th century, most European astronomers had already converted to Copernicanism as the Copernican system was far mathematically superior than anything available at the time. In addition, new evidence for the Copernican system was piling up and in particular Johannes Kepler and Galileo had made convincing discoveries that could only be understood through a heliocentric model of the universe.
Charge of formal heresy by the Inquisition
In December 1620, Mercutio was caught with a copy of Copernicus' De Revolutionibus in the town of Reggio Emillia. De Revolutionibus had been placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by a decree of the Sacred Congregation on March 5, 1616 and being caught with possession of the book was worthy of a charge of formal heresy and thereby potentially carried the death penalty. Mercutio had anticipated the charge so he had actually travelled to Regio Emilia to obtain an edited version of De Revolutionibus with all nine sentences that affirmed heliocentricity removed. This edited version had been permitted by the Church earlier in the year but very few copies with the corrections were printed. Despite explaining to the Inquisition that his version was the edited version upon his initial capture, the charge of formal heresy remained.
Letter to Pope Paul V
On December 11, 1620, Mercutio wrote a letter to Pope Paul V defending himself against the charge of formal heresy. He started the letter off by explaining that he was in possession of the edited version of the tome which was permitted by the Church. Anticipating that the Inquisition might not believe him and being terrified of the consequences that the charge of formal heresy would bring, Mercutio went on to hide his true convictions in the letter and thoroughly denied Copernicanism both from a religious standpoint and a physical standpoint. He explained several ways in which Copernicanism contradicted Scripture and stated that he believed anyone who truly believed in Copernicanism was a heretic and an atheist. Similarly, he added various ways in which Copernicanism contradicted the accepted geocentric Aristotelian worldview at the time such as the absence of any observable stellar parallax.
It is known from Mercutio's journal which was later found in his home in Parma that he was deeply troubled not only because he had to deny a system which he deeply admired but because he was a devoted Catholic at the time and it pained him to have to lie to the Pope. Despite quoting scripture in his feigned rebuttal against Copernicanism, Mercutio actually believed that an allegorical interpretation of the bible was what God intended just like Thomas Aquinas and Albert Magnus had proposed in the 13th century. Throughout most of his life as a student and a professor he feared that his astronomical convictions were in conflict with his religious beliefs and he deeply lamented that the Church had chosen to condemn rather than adapt to the new astronomical discoveries being made at the time.
Ultimately, the Pope was convinced by the letter and commented that it was "excellently written." He apologized for having charged Mercutio in the first place and proceeded to drop the charge.
Death
Though Mercutio was able to escape the consequences of the Inquisition, he would never recover spiritually or morally from the letter he wrote. He was deeply troubled by the fact that he had lied to the Pope and admitted in his diary that in retrospect he would have preferred to die at the hands of the Inquisition than having to live with the guilt. Furthermore, he did not believe he could continue studying and teaching astronomy as he believed they were in too much conflict with one another. He committed suicide the following year on August 2, 1621.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu