136 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



manly attitude of Cremonini — an attitude, be it remarked, which he 

 successfully maintained in the face of the Inquisitors. No one can 

 read it without pity. It can be interpreted in many differing ways. 

 My own interpretation is that Galileo was persuaded to make the con- 

 fession by representations that the case was very serious indeed and 

 that a general admission of the sort would satisfy the Pope and 

 cardinals; and that after the confession was obtained it was not very 

 difficult for his judges to proceed to the abjuration ; while if the abjura- 

 tion had been first proposed Galileo might have desperately refused to 

 make it, thus precipitating a crisis most unwelcome to the Holy Office. 

 This is mere conjecture and is perhaps not worth recording. Certain it 

 is that, the confession once extorted, all the dignity of Galileo's attitude 

 was lost. By a slight increase of pressure one who had already yielded 

 so much could be made to yield more, and finally to yield all. It 

 seems to be clear that the pressure was gradually applied. 



The confession was received by the congregation. Galileo with- 

 drew; but almost immediately returned to offer to write a continua- 

 tion of his Dialogues which should most effectually confute the argu- 

 ments of the earlier portions. This offer is interpreted by Gebler as 

 ' weakness and insincere obsequiousness/ It appears to me to be 

 simply an attempt on his part to prevent the condemnation and pro- 

 hibition of his book; and to show that he was, even yet, far from 

 realizing the grimness of the situation. Immediately offer the hear- 

 ing, Galileo, still a prisoner of the Inquisition, was permitted to re- 

 turn to the palace of the Tuscan ambassador. He wrote letters (which 

 are not extant) to friends. Their answers show that he ' entertained 

 the most confident hopes of a successful and speedy termination of 

 his trial.' One of them writes (May 12) from Florence: "I have 

 for a long time had no such consolatory news as that which your letter 

 of the seventh brought me. It gives me well-founded hopes that the 

 calumnies and snares of your enemies will be in vain . . . since you 

 have gained far more than you have lost by the calamity that has 

 fallen upon you. My pleasure is still more enhanced by the news 

 that you expect to be able to report the end of the affair in your next 

 letter." 



On May 10, Galileo was again summoned and was informed that 

 eight days would be allowed him to prepare a defense. He, however, 

 had already prepared it and at once submitted the following: 



When asked if I had signified to the R. P. the Master of the Palace 

 the injunction privately laid upon me, about sixteen years ago, by orders of 

 the Holy Office, not to hold, defend or ' in any way ' teach the doctrine of the 

 motion of the earth and the stability of the sun, I answered that I had not 

 done so. And not being questioned as to the reason why I had not intimated 

 it, I had no opportunity to add anything further. It now appears to me to 

 be necessary to state the reason in order to demonstrate the purity of my in- 



