Questioned upon the publication of his Dialogues, he answers in accordance with his previous utterances. 'I am here to obey,' he says, 'and I have not held this opinion since the decision was pronounced.' The protocol of his trial concludes with the words: (Galileo's) 'signature was obtained to his deposition and he was sent back to his place.' This place was not the palace of the Tuscan ambassador. Galileo was detained at the building of the Holy Office till June 24. It is the opinion of the best judges that Galileo was not confined in the dungeons of the Inquisition.
There is not in the Vatican manuscript of the protocol, or in any other place, any evidence or any hint that Galileo was put to the torture at this or at any time. That he was threatened with the torture is equally certain. If he had boldly professed the Copernican opinion the proceedings would have taken a course that had been prescribed in advance (June 16). As he was disposed to abjure this opinion the course was different.
On the twenty-second of June, 1633, Galileo was brought into the presence of his judges, where his sentence was pronounced. The sentence of Galileo is a long document. The following extracts contain the points of especial importance.
Whereas, you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei, Florentine, aged 70 years, were denounced, in 1615, to this Holy Office, for holding as true a false doctrine proposed by several authors, that is to say, that the sun is immovable . . .; and moreover for having had certain disciples to whom you taught the same doctrine; for having corresponded on this subject with certain mathematicians of Germany; for having made public certain letters on the subject of spots upon the Sun in which you expounded the said doctrine as true; and whereas you answered, when objections were made to you citing to you passages of Scripture, by explaining the said Scripture in your own manner; and whereas a copy of a letter was shown to you, said to have been written by you to one of your former disciples (Castelli), in which you, still maintaining the hypotheses of Copernicus, interpreted several propositions contrary to the meaning and the authority of Holy Writ:
This Holy Tribunal being therefore desirous of proceeding against the disorder and mischief thence resulting . . . the two propositions of the stability of the Sun and the motion of the earth were . . . qualified as follows:
The proposition that the sun is the center of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically, and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to the Holy Scripture.
The proposition that the earth is not the center of the world and immovable,
