circumstances before him, and used all his eloquence to awaken pity for the infirm old man. But in vain. Niccolini asked at last whether his Holiness had not seen Galileo's letter to Cardinal Barberini; and he said he had, but in spite of all that the journey to Rome could not be dispensed with. "Your Holiness incurs the danger," replied Niccolini, "considering Galileo's great age, of his being tried neither in Rome nor Florence; for I assure your Holiness that he may die on the way under all these difficulties combined with so much anxiety." "He can come very slowly (pian piano) in a litter, with every comfort, but he really must be tried here in person. May God forgive him for having been so deluded as to involve himself in these difficulties, from which we had relieved him when we were cardinal." This was the Pope's stern reply to the ambassador's urgent representations. And when he remarked that it was the sanction given to the book here which had occasioned all this, because from the signature, and the orders given to the Inquisitor at Florence, they felt quite secure, and had proceeded without scruple, Urban broke out into violent complaints about the conduct of Father Riccardi and Mgr. Ciampoli, and repeated that it was a question of a most pernicious doctrine.[1]
Nicolini, seeing that his efforts were in vain retired, but only to hasten to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, and to entreat him to take up the cause of this persecuted man. But the cardinal made the pertinent excuse that he could not act against the Pope's will, but he would procure all possible relaxation of the strict quarantine regulations for Galileo. Niccolini could not even obtain any definite promise of delay; and, much discomfited and with profound sorrow, he communicated the results of his sincere and unwearied endea-
- ↑ The cup of papal wrath had by this time been emptied on Ciampoli's head. He had been deprived of his important office as Secretary of the Papal Briefs, and in order to remove him from Rome he was made Governor of Montalto, and entered on his post at the end of November. (See the letters of Castelli to Galileo. Op. ix. pp. 306, 313–316.)
