4. Why did the Church support Geocen-
trism?

The Church never advocated for geocentrism

Explanation:

The idea of geocentrism dates back to the Greeks when they were studying the stars. The early church fathers did however believe in geocentrism in the sense that the earth is the center because God showed how much he loved earth. Many many many years later, Copernicus and Galileo were studying the stars and noticed other planets and expounded upon the idea that the earth revolves around the sun.  It's quite ironic that people think the Church supported geocentrism, but it didn't. Copernicus was a Catholic canon and dedicated his writings to the pope at the time and the heliocentric theory was taught in many Italian universities. The protestant reformers like Luther and Calvin attacked the theory. In fact, Luther called Copernicus a madman because, as Luther said, Josue in the Old Testament stopped the sun, not the earth.

When Galileo visited Rome in the 1610s, he was well received by Cardinal del Monte and Pope Paul V. However, Galileo had a bad temper and that's what led to his writings and ideas being condemned because the Church thought that science was taking a step to far. He appealed to the pope to overturn the sentence and beesched St. Robert Bellarmine (a Catholic cardinal) to help his cause (and he did). A few years later, his temper got the best of him again and started attacking those who were nice to him like Pope Urban VIII who gave him a life long pension and was subsequently condemned again.