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Secularization in education began to grow significantly during the Scientific Revolution as many scientists gathered data empirically and stray away from traditional Catholic teachings. One of them, Galileo Galilee, Italian physicist and mathematician, published // [|Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems] // in 1632, where he strongly supported the Copernican heliocentric theory by comparing it to Ptolemy’s geocentric system. However, Galileo was soon suspected of heresy due to the contents of the book, which was later placed under the Index of Forbidden Books. He was forced by the church to recant, however, despite these setbacks, Galileo continued to make scientific breakthroughs. He made significant contributions to astronomy by observing the elliptical stages of several planets, describing sunspots, and also the surface of the moon.

 McKay, John P. __A History of Western Society__. 7th ed. New York City: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.