348 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Grand Duke of Florence (May 31, 1611) that Galileo had given great 

 satisfaction : ' Were we still living under the ancient republic of Eome 

 I verily believe there would have been a column on the capitol erected 

 in his honor.' Galileo was at the top of the wave of fortune to all 

 appearance. At this very moment, however, Cremonini's trial was 

 going on before the Eoman Inquisition and on the records is an inquiry 

 whether Cremonini and Galileo were in any relation with each other. 

 He was already suspected of heresy. His friendship would, even then, 

 have been prejudicial. By 1613 Galileo was aware that there was a 

 league of his Florentine enemies against him. In a letter to Prince 

 Cesi he makes light of it. ' I laugh at it,' he says, but it was none the 

 less serious. It was based on religious scruples, but stirred to action 

 by bitter personal animosities. 



Brilliant successes, like those of Galileo, raise up an army of enemies. 

 He was haughty with his own. Sure of his talents, his fortune and his 

 powerful patrons in church and state, he had no managements for any 

 one. t The wind is fair : now is the time to take in sail,' is a maxim 

 that he would have scorned. Of Aristotle's virtues he practised mag- 

 nificence, not prudence. His colleagues in the universities were mostly 

 Aristotelians. The heretical and Arab Aristotle had been banished; 

 the Greek Aristotle reigned supreme. Galileo handled his opponents 

 harshly. He was proud; he had a right to be. He was haughty; it 

 led to his fall. When certain chosen astronomers of Italy were asked 

 in 1615 by the Holy Office to report on his system, the report was 

 adverse. Science and pseudo-science were in conflict and the latter 

 won. The Aristotelianism of the universities was bound closely to that 

 of the church. In attacking the orthodox Aristotle, Galileo attacked — 

 or was supposed to have attacked — orthodoxy itself. His enemies were 

 vanquished in philosophy ; they dragged in texts of scripture to support 

 the weakness of their science. Galileo met them on this ground also, 

 which was a fatal error. He was no more competent to discuss texts 

 of scripture than they to decide upon points of science. 



Father Castelli, an ardent friend of Galileo's, had been appointed to 

 be professor of mathematics at Pisa (1613). At a dinner at the Ducal 

 Palace (December, 1613) the conversation turned on astronomical mat- 

 ters. Did the Medicean stars really exist? asked the Dowager Duchess 

 Christine. The professor of physics in the university reluctantly ad- 

 mitted that they did — that he had seen them. Castelli then praised 

 Galileo's splendid discovery. The professor whispered something to 

 the duchess to insinuate that while the discoveries might be true, the 

 conclusion in favor of the Copernican theory was certainly contrary 

 to scripture. Castelli was called upon to reply and made a brilliant 

 answer. The Grand Duke and most of those present were convinced. 

 Castelli reports all this to Galileo, and Galileo writes in reply (Decern- 



