There is considerable uncertainty over the exact nature of the church’s argument with Galileo. It has been suggested that his real crime was publicly to challenge the authority of a Catholic hierarchy that in fact included many who were sympathisers or supporters, or even that the heliocentric issue (Copernican Theory) was less of a problem than his atomic theories, which undermined the doctrine of transubstantiation (the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and spirit of Christ in the mass)