66 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



GALILEO. 



By EDWARD S. HOLDEN, Sc.D., LL.D., 



U. S. MILITARY ACADEMY . 

 * 



III. 



A N extant annotation dated February 26, 1616, which is un- 

 -£-*- doubtedly genuine, declares that upon this day Galileo was 

 summoned before Cardinal Bellarmine and in the presence of witnesses 

 was warned of the error of the Copernican opinion taught by him, and 

 was admonished henceforth not to hold, teach or defend it in any 

 way whatsoever, verbally or in writing . . . which injunction the 

 said Galileo promised to obey. The exact wording should be noticed. 

 Upon it the subsequent fate of Galileo hangs. The document is 

 genuine. Does it represent the facts of his examination of 1616 

 exactly as they occurred? 



The proceedings against Galileo in 1632-3 show that the Pope 

 and the Holy Office acted precisely as if the statements of the annota- 

 tion were exact. The publication of his Dialogues (1631) was a 

 flagrant violation of the command not to teach, etc. In the case of 

 a personage so celebrated as Galileo nothing less than a flagrant viola- 

 tion would be noticed. The Roman Curia could not afford to harass 

 him about trifles. With his defense of 1633 he submitted the follow- 

 ing certificate : 



We, Roberto Cardinal Bellarmine, having heard that it is calumniously re- 

 ported that Signor Galileo Galilei has in our hand abjured and has also been 

 punished with salutary penance, and being requested to state the truth as to 

 this, declare: that the said Signor Galileo has not abjured . . . any opinion or 

 doctrine held by him,f neither has any salutary penance been imposed upon 

 him; but only the declaration made by the Holy Father and published by the 

 Sacred Congregation of the Index has been intimated to him, wherein it is 

 set forth that the doctrine attributed to Copernicus, ... is contrary to the 

 Holy Scriptures and therefore can not be defended or held.$ In witness whereof 

 we have written and subscribed these presents with our hand this 26th day 

 of May, 1616. Roberto Card. Bellarmino. 



Galileo's enemies had spread the calumnious reports mentioned. 

 He wished to have a proof that they were false. Cardinal Bellarmine 



* Continued from the Popular Science Monthly for February, 1905. 



t According to the terms of this certificate Galileo never had ' held ' the 

 Copernican opinion — or at least he had never ' abjured ' it. The annotation of 

 February 26, 1616, commands him to ' relinquish ' it. 



t The words respecting teaching are not here given, it is to be remarked. 



