It is generally believed that the Church opposed Copernicus's heliocentric theory because geocentrism put Earth and man in an exalted position, in "the image of God". However, in medeival thought, the center of the universe was not a position of importance; it was, rather, the lowest. According to Galileo, geocentrism made the Earth "the sump where the universe's filth and ephemera collect". To put the earth among the stars was to raise man to the status of the angels, which was one reason the church objected to it so strongly.