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some account of what followed, particularly his audience before the officials of the Inquisition. He was lodged in a delicious palace near the Tuscan Ambassador's, and thence by the Commissary of the Inquisition was conveyed to the palace of the Holy Office, with many efforts on the way to convince him of the scandal given by his opinion. Here others beset him, and particularly with Scripture, which he answered in the usual way; but puzzled his examiners with an unexpected passage from Job, at which they shrugged up their shoulders (solito refugi o di chi è persuaso per prejudizio e per anticipata opinione). "Finally," he says, "I was obliged, as a true Catholic, to retract my opinion, and for a punishment my Dialogue was prohibited,"[1] &c. After five months he left Rome, and came to Florence; thence he proceeded to Bellosguardo, and lastly to Arcetri, whence the letter is dated.
Omitting some following letters of just complaint, I will conclude with one from Arcetri, where he still was, of the year 1637, to the
- ↑ Finalmente, fui obbligato di ritrattare come vero Catolico mia opinione, e in pena mi fu proibito il Dialogo, &c. The latter clause has been falsely, and apparently with design, translated "as a punishment I have been deprived of the Dialogues."
