No. Galileo feared for his life more than once during decades of persecution. He was lucky to avoid torture. Read Heilbron's biography, or even just Wikipedia.

No. Galileo feared for his life more than once during decades of persecution. He was lucky to avoid torture. Read Heilbron's biography, or even just Wikipedia. This notion that Galileo insulting the pope was some sort of rhyme and reason for his persecution is wrong. It's commonly accepted that Galileo had no intention of insulting the pope, and the pope didn't take it as an insult (Heilbron goes into much detail) . There is some minor evidence involving the rumour that someone suggested to the pope that it looked bad, but this is not at all the central reason for his persecution. Did you get this from the Dava Sobel book? It's takes an awful license with history. Her Longitude book is the same, it's just wrong in so many aspects while presenting itself as accurate.