Jeff Scudder
World History Honors
Compare Luther to Galileo.

	Martin Luther and Galileo both took very different stands for their ideas. During the Diet of Worms, Luther stood well on his ideas, and did not let anyone change his mind. At Galileo's trial, he did not stand up for what he believed in, and he confessed and let the Church silence him.
	Martin Luther believed the Roman Catholic Church needed to be changed, and he stood well on his ideas. At the Diet of Worms, when others tried to calm him down, he kept pushing on, and he wrote the 95 theses stating things that were wrong with the Church. When people questioned him, he had lots of support and evidence to clearly explain his reasons and ideas of how the Church should change. This was very unlike Galileo.
	Galileo did not stand his ground as well as Martin Luther. There are several reasons for this. Galileo believed that the Earth was NOT the center of the universe. He however, did a poor job of explaining this. He didn't give enough evidence to back up his ideas, and therefore was not believed and thought to be crazy. Galileo was on trial, and he was scared of having an inquisition put on him, and scared of being torchered and possibly killed by the Catholic Church. So he confessed to his ideas, and said he was wrong, even though he knew he was right. It was not until about 10 years ago, that the Church apologized saying Galileo was right.
	These two men had two very different ways of standing their ground. Galileo gave up easily, when Luther stood his ground until the end. They both are great men in history, and they both had great ideas and discoveries, but Luther believed in his ideas more than Galileo, and he was willing to risk more.