THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 389 



precisely set forth the rights of science, at the same time asserting for 

 religion its own. Here, according to him, are two separate domains, 

 which are not rashly to be confounded. 



" The Holy Scripture," said he, " can neither lie nor err, but it 

 needs to be interpreted ; for, were we to insist upon the literal sense 

 of the words, we should find not only contradictions, but heresies and 

 blasphemies ; we should have to give to God hands, feet, ears, to sup- 

 pose him subject to like passions with men to anger, remorse, hatred ; 

 and, again, to hold that he forgets the past and is ignorant of the 

 future. . . . Inasmuch as the Bible constantly requires interpretation 

 to explain how very different the true sense of the words is from their 

 apparent signification, it appears to me that it should be quoted in sci- 

 entific discussions only as the last resort. In truth, Holy Scripture and 

 Nature both come from the Divine Word, the one being the dictation 

 of the Holy Ghost, while the other is the executor of God's decrees ; 

 but it was fitting that, in the Scriptures, the language should be 

 adapted to the people's understanding in many things where the 

 appearance differs widely from the reality. Nature, on the other 

 hand, is inexorable and immutable ; she is not at all concerned 

 whether the hidden reasons and means through which she works are 

 or are not intelligible to man, because she never oversteps the limit 

 of the laws imposed upon her. Hence it appears that when we have 

 to do with natural effects brought under our eyes by the experience 

 of our senses, or deduced from absolute demonstrations, these can in 

 no wise be called in question on the strength of Scripture texts that 

 are susceptible of a thousand different interpretations, for the words 

 of Scripture are not so strictly limited in their significance as the phe- 

 nomena of Nature. ... I therefore think it would be wise to forbid 

 persons from using texts of Holy Scripture, and from forcing them, 

 as it were, to support as true certain propositions in natural science, 

 whereof the contrary may to-morrow be demonstrated by the senses 

 or by mathematical reasoning." 



This noble letter, the moderation of which would nowadays be ad- 

 mitted by every theologian, but which then gave out a dangerous odor 

 of novelty, no doubt passed from hand to hand, was read by ill-dis- 

 posed persons, perhaps fomented the agitation produced by Caccini's 

 vehement assault, and furnished to another Dominican, Niccola Lorini, 

 an opportunity of denouncing Galileo to the Congregation of the Holy 

 Office. " Here," said the informer, " are propositions that seem to be 

 suspect and rash, opinions that contradict the text of the Holy Script- 

 ure. Besides," he added, " Galileo and his disciples speak with little 

 respect of the fathers of the Church, of St. Thomas of Aquino, and of 

 Aristotle, whose philosophy has rendered so much service to the 

 scholastic theology." The Inquisition, though search was made, was 

 unable to procure the original of the. letter, for Castelli had given it 

 back to his master, and he prudently refused to part with it. The 



