146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



works of Copernicus and Galileo and " all books which affirm the 

 motion of the earth/' a papal bull signed by himself, binding the 

 contents of the Index upon the consciences of the faithful. This 

 bull confirmed and approved in express terms, finally, deci- 

 sively, and infallibly, the condemnation of " all books teaching 

 the movement of the earth and the stability of the sun." * 



The position of the mother Church, then, was especially diffi- 

 cult. The first important move in retreat by the apologists was 

 the statement that Galileo was condemned, not because he affirmed 

 the motion of the earth, but because he supported it from Script- 

 ure. There was a slight appearance of truth in this. Undoubt- 

 edly, Galileo's letters to Castelli and the grand duchess, in which 

 he attempted to show that his astronomical doctrines were not 

 opposed to Scripture, gave a new stir to religious bigotry. For 

 a considerable time, then, this quibble served its purpose ; even a 

 hundred and fifty years after Galileo's condemnation it was re- 

 newed by the Protestant, Mallet du Pan, in his wish to gain favor 

 from the older Church. 



But nothing can be more absurd, in the light of the original 

 documents recently brought out of the Vatican archives, than to 

 make this contention now. The letters of Galileo to Castelli and 

 the grand duchess were not published until after the condemna- 

 tion ; and, although the Archbishop of Pisa had endeavored to 

 use them against him, they were but casually mentioned in 1616, 

 and entirely left out of view in 1633. What was condemned in 

 1616 by the Sacred Congregation held in the presence of Pope 

 Paul V, as " absurd, false in theology, and heretical, because abso- 

 lutely contrary to Holy Scripture," was the proposition that " the 

 sun is the center about which the earth revolves" ; and what was 

 condemned as " absurd, false in philosophy , and from a theologic 

 point of view, at least, opposed to the true faith," was the propo- 

 sition that " the earth is not the center of the universe and immov- 

 able, but has a diurnal motion." 



And again, what Galileo was made, by express order of Pope 

 Urban, and by the action of the Inquisition under threat of torture, 

 to abjure in 1633 was " the error and heresy of the movement of 

 the earth." 



What the Index condemned under sanction of the bull issued 

 by Alexander VII in 1664 was, " all boohs teaching the movement 

 of the earth and the stability of the sun." 



* See Rev. William W. Roberts, The Pontifical Decrees against the Doctrine of the 

 Earth's Movement, London, 1885, p. 94; and for the text of the papal bull, Speculators 

 domus Israel, pp. 132, 133. See also St. George Mivart's article in the Nineteenth Century 

 for July, 1885. For the authentic publication of the bull, see preface to the Index of 1664, 

 where the bull appears, signed by the Pope. The Rev. Mr. Roberts and Mr. St. George 

 Mivart are Roman Catholics, and both acknowledge that the papal sanction was fully given. 



