Galileo was called before the Roman Inquisition on the charge of believing and holding doctrines which were false and contrary to Divine Scriptures. He was forced to plead guilty and deny his own doctrines. His life sentence was commuted to house-arrest in his home near Florence, Italy. He died 10 years later. Although accused of heresy and imprisoned by the Catholic Church for his support of the heliocentric cosmology, Galileo's observations and brilliant writings convinced most of his scientific contemporaries of the reality of the Copernican theory.