Galileo's trial. Coloured historical artwork of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei's trial for heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo (1564-1642) wrote the Dialogue Concerning the two Chief World Systems (1632), which criticised the Church's doctrine that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe (Ptolemaic cosmology). Galileo believed the Copernican system to be correct. Galileo was threatened with death and finally renounced his views on 22 June 1633. He was imprisoned in his villa at Arcetri. In 1642 the Church refused to bury his body on consecrated ground. His conviction was finally annulled in 1992.