From a reader:

Subject: Thanks for the Article on Galileo
Dear Jonah,
Some footnotes to add to your understanding of
Galileo:
1. He rejected Kepler’s mathematics showing that
planets move in egg-shaped orbits. With
Copernicus, he affirmed uniform motion in
perfect circles, which entailed more cycles
and epicycles than were used in the Ptolemaic
system.
2. The Pope’s favorite argument was put in
the mouth of old Simplicio (aka Shapth to
his friends). This was not a friendly act.
3. The condemnation was primarily about Galileo’s
teaching about the Scriptures. If he had only
left the Bible out of the book, he probably
could have escaped ecclesiastical notice.
4. Galileo had no new observational evidence
to prove that the heliocentric model was correct.
He asserted on his personal authority that it
was a fact. Scientists love to praise doubt
except when it is turned against their edicts.
Completely persuasive observations were not
made until the late 18th and early 19th
centuries–but by then, Newton’s use of
Galileo’s laws of motion and Kepler’s laws
of planetary motion, coupled with Newton’s
own theory of gravity, had utterly eradicated
the geocentric model. Anti-Catholics routinely
ignore Galileo’s scientific errors and focus
solely on the (real and lamentable) errors of
the tribunal that condemned him.