418 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



and supported as probable after it has been declared and finally de- 

 creed contrary to the Holy Scripture, and consequently that you have 

 incurred all the censures and penalties enjoined and promulgated in 

 the sacred canons, and other general and particular constitutions, 

 against delinquents of this description. From which it is Our pleas- 

 ure that you be absolved, provided that, first, with a sincere heart 

 and unfeigned faith, in Our presence, you abjure, curse, and detest 

 the said errors and heresies and every other error and heresy contrary 

 to the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, in the form now shown 

 to you. 



But, that your grievous and pernicious error and transgression may 

 not go altogether unpunished, and that you may be made more cautious 

 in the future, and may be a warning to others to abstain from delin- 

 quencies of this sort, We decree that the book of the Dialogues of 

 Galileo Galilei be prohibited by a public edict. 



We condemn you to the formal prison of this Holy Office for a 

 period determinable at Our pleasure ; and by way of salutary penance, 

 We order you, during the next three years, to recite once a week the 

 seven Penitential Psalms. 



Reserving to ourselves the power of moderating, commuting, or 

 taking off the whole or part of the said punishment or penance. 



And so We say, pronounce, and by Our sentence declare, decree, 

 and reserve, in this and every other better form and manner, which 

 lawfully we may and can use. 



So we, the undersigned Cardinals, pronounce. 



FELICE, Cardinal di Ascoli, 

 GUIDO, Cardinal Bentivoglio, 

 DESIDERIO, Cardinal di Cremona, 

 ANTONIO, Cardinal S. Onofrio, 

 BERLINGERO, Cardinal Gessi, 

 FABRICIO, Cardinal Verospi, 

 MARTINO, Cardinal Ginetti. 



II. His RECANTATION 



I Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei of Florence, aged 

 seventy years, being brought personally to judgment, and kneeling 

 before you, Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords Cardinals, 

 General Inquisitors of the Universal Christian Republic against heret- 



