afforded by the fact of the witnesses being compelled to silence or suffering punishment." 1 With the arrival at last of the preface and conclusion, all the obstacles which had threatened the continuation of the printing of the "Dialogues" were removed. Stephani, who was charged by the Inquisitor at Florence to undertake the final censorship, was not the man to place difficulties in the way of the appearance of the book. He took great care, however, that the Pope's commands as to the treatment of the Copernican doctrines should, as far as the letter went, be strictly obeyed. The "Dialogues," from beginning to end, were opposed to the spirit both of the decree of 5th March, 1616, and the papal ordinances, and there was great naiveté in the idea that the fine-spun preface and the various little diplomatic arts which Galileo employed in the course of his work could disguise its real meaning from the learned world. But that was not Stephani's affair; for the MS. as a whole had been sanctioned by Father Visconti and had received the imprimatur for Rome from the authorities of the censorship. The delay about the preface, which, according to Riccardi's orders, was to be printed before the book, had two results out of which Galileo's enemies afterwards tried to make capital for their intrigues, and which must therefore find mention here. The printing had been long in hand and was proceeding when the preface arrived. It was therefore necessary to print it on a separate sheet, which, according to Riccardi's orders, was placed at the beginning of the book. For technical reasons, also, it was printed in different type from the rest of the work. From these two insignificant circumstances, Galileo was afterwards reproached with having by the outward form destroyed the inner connection between the introduction and the book; and with having thus, to some extent, intended to indicate that it had nothing to do with the " Dialogues." This was at the time when one party was setting every lever in 2 1 Zeitschrift für Mathematik u. Physik. 9th Series, Part 3, p. 184. * Marini, pp. 116, 117; Op. Suppl. pp. 324, 325. motion to find cause for accusation against Galileo. The book itself, which appeared with the double imprimatur of the ecclesiastical censorship of Rome and Florence, afforded no legal ground for it. We will not, however, anticipate the historical course of these memorable events, but will carefully follow them step by step. CHAPTER III. THE "DIALOGUES" AND THE JESUITS. Publication of the "Dialogues."—Applause of Galileo's Friends and the Learned World.—The hostile Party.—The Jesuits as Leaders of Learning.-Deprived of their Monopoly by Galileo.—They become his bitter Foes. Having the Imprimatur for Rome and Florence, Galileo thought himself doubly safe.-The Three Dolphins.-Scheiner.-Did "Simplicius" personate the Pope?-Conclusive Arguments against it.—Effect of the Accusation.—Urban's Motives in instituting the Trial. By the beginning of January, 1632, the printing of the "Dialogues" was so far advanced, that on the 3rd Galileo had the satisfaction of telling his friend, Cesare Marsili, at Bologna, that the work would be completed in ten or twelve days. It did not, however, appear till February. On the twenty-second of that month Galileo presented his book to the Grand Duke, to whom it was dedicated, and to the other members of the house of Medici. On the twenty-third he sent at first thirty-two copies to Cesare Marsili. He had a large number of copies handsomely bound for his powerful friends and patrons at Rome, but they could not be despatched immediately, since, owing to the continued prevalence of the plague, they would have had to be purified in the quarantine houses, which might have injured them. It was not till May that two unbound copies reached the papal residence in a roundabout way. One of these came into the hands of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who lent it to Father Castelli. In a letter to Galileo of 26th September, 1631,5 he had vowed that, after the appearance of the 1 Op. vi. p. 389. 2 Ibid. p. 390. 3 Ibid. 5 Ibid. p. 253. Dialogues," he would read no other book but that and the Breviary; and in a letter of 29th May, he now expressed to the author his admiration of his work, which surpassed all his expectations. Shortly afterwards, Count Filippo Magalotti, who was on very friendly terms with Galileo, and from his relationship to the Barberinis, was an influential personage, imported eight copies from Florence, and, as charged by the author, presented one copy each to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, to the Tuscan ambassador Niccolini, Father Riccardi, Mgr. Serristori, counsellor of the Holy Office, and the Jesuit Father Leon Santi.2 While these few copies were being eagerly devoured by impatient readers at Rome, and passed rapidly from hand to hand, the book had been circulating in the rest of Italy in spite of the difficulties of communication. The applause which this famous work called forth from all men of independent minds was unexampled, and was only equalled by the bitterness and consternation it excited among the scientific conservatives. The learned world of Italy was divided into two hostile camps: that of Ptolemy on the one side, that of Copernicus-Galileo on the other. In the one were to be found progress, recognition of truth, free independent thought and research; in the other blind worship of authority and rigid adherence to the old school. And the latter party was far the most numerous; it was also reinforced by those, of whom there were a considerable number, who opposed the great reformer of science from interested motives. Besides this, the academic corporations were not favourable to him, because he so dangerously revolutionised the modern methods of teaching. The university of his native city seemed especially adverse to him. It had carried its animosity so far a few years before as to try to deprive him of the income which he enjoyed as its first mathematician by the Grand Ducal decree of 12th July, 1620, though, thanks to 1 Op. ix. pp. 270–272. 2 Op. Suppl. p. 319. the energetic remonstrances of some influential patrons, the attempt was not successful.1 In addition to all this there is another consideration, which played a much larger part in the sad story of Galileo's trial than is generally supposed. The clergy, and especially the Jesuits, had hitherto had a monopoly of science. Everybody knows how assiduously it had been cultivated in ancient times in the cells and schools of the convents, and that the ecclesiastical orders were the guardians and disseminators of learning, while among both populace and nobles ignorance flourished like a weed. When by the natural law of progress the nations of Europe emerged from the simplicity of childhood into the storm and stress period of youth; when inventions, especially printing,-and above all the discovery of America, began to spread knowledge and culture among the masses, it was once more the servants of Rome who, justly estimating the spirit of the age, placed themselves, so to speak, in the van of the intellectual movement, that they might guide its course. The strongest evidence that the Church was in exclusive possession of the highest mental powers is afforded by the Reformation; for the first stirrings of doubt, of critical, philosophical speculation, arose in the bosoms of the Roman Catholic clergy. All the reformers, from Abelard and Arnold of Brescia, to Huss and Luther, sprang, without exception, from among them. Just at the juncture when the split into two creeds threatened to divide the joints and marrow of the supreme power of the Church, the man appeared who most effectually contributed to restore it by founding a new ecclesiastical order, with a very peculiar organisation. This was Ignatius Loyola. And if we seek for the explanation of the profound influence gained by this corporation in all parts of the world, and every grade of society, we shall find it in four factors: the highest enthusiasm for the common cause; willing 1 Comp. Nelli, vol. i. pp. 504, 505; Op. vi. p. 104, note 2; ix. pp. 163-165, 192; Suppl. p. 234. |