i34 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was placed in arrest in the delicious palace of . . . the Ambassador of Tuscany. 

 The next day I received the visit of P. Lancio, Commissary of the Holy Office, 

 who took me with him in his carriage. On the way he questioned me, show- 

 ing a great desire that I should repair the scandal I had raised throughout 

 all Italy by maintaining the opinion of the motion of the earth. To all the 

 mathematical reasons that I could bring forward he answered one thing only. 

 Terra autem in ceternum stdbit, quia terra in ceternum stat, as the Scripture 

 saith. Thus discoursing, we arrived at the palace of the Holy Office. I was 

 presented, by the commissary, to the assessor with whom I found two Dominican 

 monks. They notified me, with civility, that I should be permitted to ex- 

 plain my reasons to the congregation, and that, subsequently, my excuses would 

 be heard if I were judged culpable. The following Sunday I appeared, in 

 fact, before the congregation and proceeded to set forth my proofs. To my 

 ill-fortune they were not satisfying; no matter what pains I took I could not 

 succeed in making myself understood. My arguments were interrupted by their 

 zeal, they spoke only of the scandal I had caused, always bringing up the 

 passage of Scripture referring to the miracle of Joshua, as the unanswerable 

 portion of the matter. This reminded me of another passage in which the 

 language of the Bible is entirely conformable to popular notions — (The heavens 

 are solid and polished like a mirror of brass). This example seemed to me 

 to be opposite to prove that the words of Joshua could be so interpreted and 

 the conclusion seemed to me to be entirely just. But they gave it no weight 

 and I was answered only by shrugging of shoulders. 



Galileo's own account of the proceedings gives a different impres- 

 sion from that of the official record. He was argumentative about texts 

 of Scripture, and when his explanation of Joshua's miracle was not 

 found satisfactory, he suddenly recalls another text which will con- 

 vince the Inquisitors, he thinks, that Scripture is not to be interpreted 

 literally. They answered by shrugging their shoulders and by again 

 referring to the scandal he has created in the Church. Galileo does 

 not seem to have, even yet, realized the situation. A letter from the 

 commissary-general of the Inquisition to Cardinal Francesco Barberini 

 (dated April 28, 1633) explains the events of the next weeks. The 

 letter states that the commissary has informed the cardinals of the 

 Holy Office regarding Galileo's case, and that they " took into con- 

 sideration various difficulties with regard to the manner of pursuing 

 the case and of bringing it to an end. More especially as Galileo has 

 in his examination denied what is plainly evident from the book writ- 

 ten by him; since in consequence of this denial there would result 

 the necessity for greater rigor of procedure and less regard to other 

 considerations belonging to this business. Finally I suggested a 

 course, namely, that the Holy Congregation should grant me permis- 

 sion to treat extra-judicially with Galileo, in order to render him 

 sensible of his error, and to bring him, if he recognizes it, to a con- 

 fession of the same . . . permission was granted me. That no time 

 might be lost, I entered into discourse with Galileo yesterday after- 

 noon, and after many arguments and rejoinders had passed between 



