The religious and political conflicts of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation evoked passionate and widespread controversies over the meaning of the Bible. Both Catholic and Protestant traditions accepted, in principle, the idea that Scripture passages are accommodated to ordinary human understanding and cannot be taken literally. Practical application of this principle, however, was complicated by longstanding traditions of interpretation. Natural philosophers might face mortal hazards when writing about theological topics. Yet in other cases, Scripture had been used to bolster and legitimize scientific inquiry.  

In the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo argued that the purpose of Scripture is to tell us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go. Thus, Scripture never errs, but its interpreters do; read rightly, Scripture and science will never conflict as there is a unity of truth. That which is obscure figurative language) should be explained by that which is clear (mathematical demonstrations). Nevertheless, Galileo’s Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World overstepped the expected boundaries for a mathematician by arguing that Copernicanism was more than merely a hypothesis, leading to Galileo being called to trial in 1633