Source set · 7 sources ✓ Lesson ready

How did the new science challenge older authorities?

Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Harvey, and Newton explain their methods, and the Church's 1633 case against Galileo shows how authorities responded.

Timeline of key events →Unit: The Enlightenment →

Teach it

✓ Lesson ready

A ready-to-run lesson for this set: Hot Seat: Voices of the New Science. Slides include a hook, one slide per source, directions, a take-a-stand vote, an exit ticket, and a teacher script in the speaker notes.

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1. Hook: a striking quote 3-5 min

I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be rejected.
Nicolaus Copernicus, dedication to Pope Paul III (1543)

Ask: Copernicus expected people to reject his idea before he even published it. Why might the claim that the Earth moves upset people in 1543?

2. Main activity: Hot Seat: Voices of the New Science

Grouping: Seven volunteers take the hot seat in turn; the rest of the class writes and asks questions in pairs

Setup: A student sits in the hot seat as a person connected to one source. The class asks questions; the student answers only with facts from the role card and source. If the answer is not in the evidence, the student says, “The source doesn’t tell us.”

Materials (printables are in the Lesson Plan Doc)

Hot seat role cards (printable pages in the Lesson Plan Doc)
Evidence cards for all 7 sources
Question-writing sheet

Prepare questions 5 min
Pairs read the evidence cards and write two questions for each role. At least one question per role asks: “Whose authority are you challenging?”
Prepare the hot seat 5 min
Volunteers study their role cards. The teacher models one answer.
Hot seat 25 min
About 3 to 4 minutes per role, in date order. The class notes one fact from each person.
Debrief and vote 8 min
Ask: Were these thinkers mainly challenging the Church, or mainly challenging ancient authorities like Aristotle? Use the take-a-stand slide.
Exit ticket 5 min
Students answer on a slip before leaving.

Take a stand: Did the new science mainly challenge the Church, or mainly challenge ancient thinkers like Aristotle?

Mainly the Church: Copernicus feared rejection, and in 1633 the Holy Office forced Galileo to abjure the idea that the Earth moves.
Mainly ancient thinkers: Galileo’s dialogue argues against Aristotle, Copernicus dedicated his book to the pope, and Bacon, Descartes, and Newton offered new methods to replace older learning.

3. Pacing options

15-minute bell-ringer

3 min Hook: Copernicus
8 min One hot seat only: the judge of the Holy Office, with the class reading Galileo’s abjuration
4 min Exit ticket question 1

Full 50-minute lesson

4 min Hook: Copernicus
10 min Prepare questions and roles
25 min Hot seat rotation
6 min Debrief and vote
5 min Exit ticket

4. Exit ticket

Pick one thinker from today. Whose authority did he challenge, and what evidence or method did he use?
Galileo was forced to abjure in 1633. Why might a court see a claim about the Earth’s motion as a religious question?

5. Differentiation

Support

This set has no Adapted Docs yet; read key passages aloud or chunk them for struggling readers.
Give each pair only three roles to write questions for.
Provide a word bank: authority, hypothesis, experiment, method, abjure, heresy.
Question starters: “How do you know that ___?” “Who disagreed with you about ___?”

Extension

Read more of Galileo’s dialogue. How does Galileo use the character Simplicius? Why might that have offended readers in 1632?
Compare Bacon’s and Descartes’s methods. Which one relies more on observation and which more on reasoning?

Suggested sequence

Leveled readings: 1 key passages in this set are adapted to about grade 4, 7, and 10 reading levels, shown next to the original wording.

Leveled readings (make a copy)

Niclolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): Dedication of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (1543)
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 11 min
Niclolaus Copernicus (1473-1543): Dedication of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies. A primary source from 1543, reproduced from Prefaces and prologues to famous books. It begins: "I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book which I have written..."
Ask: Why does Copernicus dedicate his book to the Pope, and how does he defend an idea he expects people to resist?
Open with this source to frame the question.
Original ↗SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP
Galileo Galilei (1563-1642): Dialogues on the System of the World (1612), excerpts
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 8 min
Galileo Galilei, famous as an astronomer and as an experimental physicist, was born at Pisa, in Italy, Feb.
Ask: How does Galileo use a conversation between characters to argue his case, and what evidence does each side use?
Original ↗SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP
The Crime of Galileo: Indictment and Abjuration of 1633
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 9 min
The Crime of Galileo: Indictment and Abjuration of 1633. A primary source from 1633, reproduced from Since this text is widely linked to. It begins: "Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei, of Florence, aged seventy years, were denounced in 1615, to this Holy Office..."
Ask: What did the Church charge Galileo with, and what was he required to say?
Original ↗SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP
First Book of Aphorisms (1620)
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 9 min
First Book of Aphorisms. A primary source from 1620, reproduced from Francis Bacon: First Book of Aphorisms and Second Book of Aphorisms. It begins: "Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to..."
Ask: What mistakes in thinking does Bacon warn against, and what method does he propose instead?
Original ↗SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP
William Harvey (1578-1657): On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood In Animals, 1628
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 30 min
William Harvey (1578-1657): On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood In Animals, 1628. A primary source from 1628, reproduced from Scientific papers; physiology. It begins: "William Harvey, whose epoch-making treatise announcing and demonstrating the circulation of the blood is here printed, was born at Folkestone, Kent, England..."
Ask: What observations and experiments does Harvey use to show that blood circulates?
Original ↗SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP
René Descartes (1596-1650): Discouse on Method (1637), excerpts
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 19 min
René Descartes (1596-1650): Discouse on Method (1637), excerpts. A primary source from 1637, reproduced from The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy. It begins: "René Descartes was born March 31, 1596, at La Haye, in the ancient province of Touraine, France, of a noble family of..."
Ask: What rules does Descartes set for finding truth, and why does he begin by doubting everything?
Original ↗SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP
Isaac Newton: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, excerpts (1687)
Document · Fordham University · World: Early Modern (1450-1750) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 4 min
Isaac Newton: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, excerpts. A primary source from 1687, reproduced from Isaac Newton. It begins: "We are to admit no more causes of natural things, than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances...."
Ask: What rules of reasoning does Newton lay out, and how do they shape the way scientists should explain nature?
Close with this source before writing.
Leveled reading Original ↗Copy Doc SOAPSTone HIPP / HAPP

Quick check

Five questions built only from this set’s sources: four multiple choice and one short answer. Print it or assign it in Google Classroom. The answer key gives the source line for every answer.

Quick check (make a copy)Answer key (make a copy)

Preview the questions

Which source in this set contains this passage? “Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed…”
What was the first rule in Descartes' Discourse on Method?
Which source in this set contains this passage? “Simplicius: Aristotle has proved in a hundred ways that the universe is finite and spherical. Salviatus: Aristotle’s proof that the universe was finite and spherical was derived essentially from the consideration that it moved…”
What did Harvey conclude about blood in the body (1628)?
Short answer: Choose two sources from this set. Using a specific detail from each, explain how they help answer the set’s question: “How did the new science challenge older authorities?” Write 3 to 5 sentences.

Culminating writing prompt

Using evidence from at least three sources in this set, write an argument that answers the question: “How did the new science challenge older authorities?” Cite each source by title, explain how its author, audience, and purpose affect its reliability, and respond to at least one counterargument.

Printable writing sheet (make a copy)

Build a DBQ DBQ packet (make a copy)

Students can plan with the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning organizer.