In the trial of 1616, the defendant was actually a scientific idea, namely, Galileo"s hypothesis about the structure and motion of the solar system. "To submit an idea to a trail may sound odd to us now, but this was not so in Galileo"s day of high sensitivity to heretical views" (Shea 76). The charge brought against Galileo"s hypothesis was that it contradicted numerous passages in Scripture that speak of a stationary Earth and of the motion of the Sun. Galileo not overestimating his own powers of persuasion let the scientific evidence contradict the Bible. "Cardinal Bellarmine, who at the time served as the chief theological adviser to the pope, admitted frankly that the traditional interpretation of Scripture would have to be changed if conclusive proof of Galileo"s hypothesis were forthcoming" (Fontoli 306). Galileo realized that the scientific evidence supported his hypothesis more than the Scriptures was prepared to debate the matter in a scholarly fashion. The Church immediately publicly denounced Galileo"s hypothesis and issued a decree forbidding it to be discussed among scholars and at the universities. ".the Council decrees that, in matters of faith and morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, no one, relying on his own judgment and distorting the Sacred Scriptures according to his own conceptions, shall dare to interpret them contrary to that sense which Holy Mother Church."(Fontoli 375). Professors of philosophy also scorned Galileo"s discoveries at this time, partly to keep in good graces with the Church and partly to keep their reputations as men of science and ideology. "What called them into action was a perceived threat to the authority of Scriptures as well as to their own authority as its licensed interpreters and teachers" (Taylor 141). Once the professors entered the rebellion, the battleground shifted, as Galileo very quickly saw.