During the 16th century, many artist, scientist, or anyone with creative outlooks struggled with the censorship laws passed, and enforced by the Catholic Church. Artist such as Michelangelo, scientist like Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, and even authors like Gutenberg were deemed by the Church sacrilegious. People were prohibited from reading any books on those subjects that contradicted religion by placing books on the Index of Prohibited Books (Jarus). A person's creativity should not be controlled or dictated base on religious or traditional beliefs. During this age, the Church had control, similar, but not the same as how the government has control now. The fear of heretics spreading teachings and opinions that opposed the Bible threatened the Catholic Churches, and the power they processed (Michelangelo). .
Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei were two scientists who printed books that the churches later banned. Copernicus faced no persecution because he died shortly after publishing his book. Unfortunately, Galileo was tried by the Inquisition after his book was published. Both scientists argued the same theory that the Earth revolved around the sun, a theory now known to be true. However, the Church disapproved of this theory because the Holy Scriptures state that the Earth is at the center of everything, not the Sun. As the contents of the Bible were taken literally, the publishing of these books demonstrated, to the Church, that Copernicus and Galileo were sinners; they preached, through writing, that the Bible was mistaken (Leveillee).
Some of the more controversial nudity in Michelangelo's Last Judgment was painted over the year after the artist's death. The church felt that the picture or painting was inappropriate and that it should be more appealing to audiences. Pope Clement VII commissioned Daniele da Volterra and had the more controversial nudity painted over.
