 Interest in the Galileo affair was revived in the early 19th century, when Protestant polemicists used it (and other events such as the Spanish Inquisition and the Flat Earth Myth) to attack Roman Catholicism. Interest in it has waxed and waned ever since. In 1939 Pope Pius XII, in his first speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, within a few months of his election to the papacy, described Galileo as being among the "most audacious heroes of research ... not afraid of the stumbling blocks and the risks on the way, nor fearful of the funereal monuments". His close advisor of 40 years, Professor Robert Leiber, wrote: "Pius XII was very careful not to close any doors (to science) prematurely. He was energetic on this point and regretted that in the case of Galileo."
