for the great astronomer. His old adherents, therefore, received him with greater delight than ever; and his enemies, for the time, only ventured to clench their fists behind his back. His letters of this period express the great satisfaction which this flattering reception afforded him.[1] The prospect did not indeed look quite so favourable for his cause. Within six weeks he had had six long audiences of Urban VIII., had been most affably received by him, and had found opportunity to lay before him all his arguments in defence of the Copernican system;[2] but he would not be convinced, and in one of these discussions tried to turn the tables, and to convince the advocate of the modern system of its incorrectness, in which he met with no success. And not only did Urban, in spite of his esteem for Galileo, turn a deaf ear to his arguments, but he would not grant his petition for toleration of the new doctrine; on this point he was quite inexorable.
In vain did Galileo obtain the support of several of the cardinals who were friendly to him, to gain permission from the supreme ruler of Christendom to teach the Copernican system as true, The Pope said to Cardinal Hohenzollern, who, at Galileo's request, warmly took up the question, and had observed in a conversation on it with Urban, that great caution was required in dealing with it, "that the Church neither had condemned nor ever would condemn the doctrine as heretical, but only as rash."[3] This language was, as Henri Martin justly observes,[4] more than wanting in precision; for in the first place the Church had never condemned it at all, either as "heretical" or "rash," for the Qualifiers of the Holy Office never mean the "Church"; and in the second place, this commission had, in 1616, not condemned this
- ↑ Compare his letter from Rome of 8th June to Cesi, who was then at Aquasparta. (Op. vi. pp. 295-297.)
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ . . . "Fu da S. Santita risposto come S. Chiesa non l'avea dannata, ne era per dannarla per eretica, ma solo per temeraria." Comp. Galileo's letter to-Cesi, 8th June. (Op. vi. pp. 295-297.)
- ↑ Page 92.
