could be corrected, if it was thought that the book to which such favour should be shown were of any value."

Immediately after this follows the seventh point, saying that "the author had transgressed the mandate of the Holy Office of 1616, 'that he should relinquish the said opinion,' etc.-down to, and promised to obey.'" 1

Herewith the memorial of the preliminary commission concludes. It draws no conclusions from the facts adduced, but leaves that to his Holiness the Pope. The last count confirms Galileo's chief offence: he is guilty of having disobeyed a special mandate of the ecclesiastical authorities, has broken a solemn promise made before a notary and witnesses. Such a crime, according to inquisitorial usage, demanded severe punishment. The perfidy of 1616 had

signally triumphed.

1 Vat. MS. fol. 387 ro.-389 vo.

CHAPTER V.

THE SUMMONS TO ROME.

Niccolini's Attempt to avert the Trial.-The Pope's Parable.-The Mandate summoning Galileo to Rome.-His Grief and Consternation.-His Letter to Cardinal Barberini.-Renewed Order to come to Rome.Niccolini's fruitless Efforts to save him.-Medical Certificate that he was unfit to Travel.-Castelli's hopeful View of the Case.-Threat to bring him to Rome as a Prisoner.-The Grand Duke advises him to go. His Powerlessness to protect his Servant.-Galileo's Mistake in leaving Venice.-Letter to Elia Diodati.

ONLY a few days later, on 15th September, the Pope informed the Tuscan ambassador through one of his secretaries, Pietro Benessi, that he (Urban) hereby notified to him, out of esteem for his Highness the Grand Duke, that he could do no less than hand Galileo's affairs over to the Inquisition. At the same time the strictest secrecy as to this information was enjoined both on the Grand Duke and Niccolini, with a threat that otherwise they would be proceeded against according to the statutes of the Holy Office.1

Niccolini was astounded by this news, and hastened, two days afterwards, to the Pope, to make a final attempt to avert the danger of a trial before the Inquisition for Galileo. But his urgent though respectful solicitations met with no response. Urban indeed said that "Signor Galileo was still his friend, but that opinion had been condemned sixteen years before." He then expatiated, as he had so often done before, on the danger of the doctrine, and ended by saying that Galileo's book was in the highest degree perni

1 See Niccolini's despatch to Cioli of 18th September, 1632. (Op. ix. PP. 425-428.)

cious. When Niccolini remarked that he thought the "Dialogues" might be altered to the prescribed form, instead of being prohibited altogether, the Pope answered affably by telling him a parable about Cardinal Alciato. A manuscript was submitted to him with the request that, in order not to spoil the fair copy, he would mark the places requiring alteration with a little wax. The cardinal returned it without any marks at all. The author thanked him, and expressed his satisfaction that he had not found anything to find fault with, as there was not a single mark; but the cardinal replied that he had not used any wax, for if he had, he must have gone to a wax chandler's, and dipped the whole work into melted wax in order to amend it thoroughly.' Thus had Cardinal Alciato enlightened the unfortunate author in his day, and Urban enlightened Niccolini by quoting the story, to which he could only reply with a forced smile, that nevertheless he "hoped his Holiness would allow them to treat Galileo's work as indulgently as possible."

Niccolini's efforts had been in vain, and measures were laid with almost breathless haste to deliver Galileo up to the Inquisition. This was finally effected in the sitting of the Congregation of the Holy Office of 23rd September, 1632, when it was pronounced that he had transgressed the prohibition of 26th February, 1616, and concealed it when he obtained the imprimatur. In a document of the Vatican Manuscript we have the papal mandate which followed this sentence. It runs as follows:

"23rd September, 1632. His Holiness charges the Inquisitor at Florence to inform Galileo, in the name of the Holy Office, that he is to appear as soon as possible in the course of the month of October, at Rome before the Commissary-General of the Holy Office. He must also obtain a promise from Galileo to obey this order, which the Inquisitor is to give him in the presence of a notary and witnesses, but in such a

1 Niccolini's despatch to Cioli, 18th September, 1632. (Op. ix. pp. 425-428.)

way that Galileo may know nothing about them, so that if he refuse and do not promise to obey, they may, if necessary, bear witness to it." 1

On 1st October the Inquisitor carried out this order, which Galileo had to certify by the following attestation :—

1st October, 1632, at Florence. "I, Galileo Galilei, certify that on the day indicated the order has been delivered to me by the honourable Father Inquisitor of this city, by command of the Holy Congregation of the Holy Office at Rome, to go to Rome in the course of the present month, October, and to present myself before the Father Commissary of the Holy Office, who will inform me what I have to do. I will willingly obey the order in the course of this month October. And in testimony thereto I have written these presents."

"I, Galileo Galilei wrote manu propria." 2

This mandate to present himself before the Inquisition quite overwhelmed Galileo, as is evident from his correspondence of that period. He was totally unprepared for it. Scarcely recovered from a severe complaint in the eyes, which had lasted several months and had prevented him from using them, otherwise suffering in health, and at an advanced age, he was now to go to Rome in the midst of the plague, which had broken out again with increased virulence, and entailed strict quarantine regulations, in order to give account of himself before the dread tribunal. No wonder that it dismayed him, and in spite of his promise" willingly to obey the order in the course of this month, October," we find him making every effort to get out of it. On 6th October he wrote in the greatest excitement to Cioli, who was just then with the Grand Duke at Siena, that he was in the greatest consternation at this summons to appear before the Inquisition at Rome, and as he was well aware of the importance of the matter, he would come to Siena to lay his schemes and plans

1 Vat. MS. p. 394 vo.

* After Galileo's signature follow the autograph attestations of the notary and witnesses, of whose presence Galileo knew nothing. (Vat. MS. fol. 398 ro.)

N

before his Highness, for he had more than one in his head, and to consult him about the steps to be taken.1

This journey, however, was not undertaken, as the court soon returned to Florence.

Galileo's deep depression is most evident from a long letter of 13th October addressed to a cardinal of the Barberini family, which was to reach him through Niccolini. Galileo remarks first that he and his friends had foreseen that his "Dialogues" would find opponents, but he had never imagined that the envious malice of some persons would go so far as to persuade the authorities that they were not worthy to see the light. He goes on to say that the summons before the Inquisition at Rome had caused him the deepest grief, for he feared that such a proceeding, usual only in the case of serious delinquents, would turn the fruits of all his studies and labours during many years, which had lent no little repute to his name with the learned all over the world, into aspersions on his fair fame. "This vexes me so much," continues Galileo, "that it makes me curse the time devoted to these studies in which I strove and hoped to deviate somewhat from the beaten track generally pursued by learned men. I not only repent having given the world a portion of my writings, but feel inclined to suppress those still in hand, and to give them to the flames, and thus satisfy the longing desire of my enemies to whom my ideas are so inconvenient." After this desperate cry from his oppressed soul, he expresses his conviction that, burdened with seventy years and many bodily sufferings, increased by constant sleeplessness, he shall not reach the end of this tedious journey-made more arduous by unusual difficulties-alive. Impelled by the instinct of selfpreservation common to all men, he ventures to ask the good

1 Op. vii. p. 6.

2 The address does not indicate which of the Cardinals Barberini, but it is clear from Niccolini's despatch of 13th November, 1632, to Cioli, that it was to Cardinal Antonio, jun., nephew of the Pope, and not, as Albèri assumes, to Cardinal Antonio, sen., the Pope's brother.