Astronomers Gone Wild! ... What's a Pope to do?

An out of this world Year in Review item:

One day, the Emperor sentenced a man to be beheaded, and the man was executed immediately. However, it was not entirely clear that this was an act of justice or an act of anger. The historian recorded the event:

"The Emperor, on becoming angry at so and so, had his head cut off, seemingly unjustly."

The Emperor, on reviewing the writings of the historian that day, became angry and insisted the historian change the record to reflect the emperor's belief that the act was just. The historian duly noted in that day's journal that the Emperor insisted that the record of that day's execution be altered, and that the historian refused.

The next entry in this historical record read something like this:

"Former historian so and so was executed ...

How does it all end?

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