THE MEDIAEVAL ATTITUDE 



the subterfuge that his ideas were purely imaginary, 

 as the true cosmogony was that revealed to Moses. 



The trial and condemnation of Galileo is one of the 

 causes cclchres^ and, even today, it arouses bitter com- 

 ment. After making every allowance for personal 

 provocation, the trial was a colossal blunder. It would 

 have been wiser to have followed the advice of St. 

 Augustine not to oppose obvious facts with the author- 

 ity of the Scriptures. Instead of crushing the new ra- 

 tional movement, it strengthened the determination 

 to expand the work and to oppose the authority of the 

 Church. In all controversies between religion and 

 science since then, it has been the rallying cry of the 

 rationalists who have pointed to it as an example of 

 what the religious would always do if they had the 

 power. It was used most effectively by Huxley in 

 combating attacks on Darwinism. On the other hand, 

 the attitude of many modern writers on science is 

 quite unjustifiable when they give the impression that 

 the Church was persecuting an innocent and inoffen- 

 sive old man. It is quite certain that Galileo intended 

 his work to be a bitter polemic against the most cher- 

 ished convictions of the world, and that he drove the 

 authorities at Rome to action by his caustic and dom- 

 ineering temper which never neglected an opportuni- 

 ty to cover the Jesuits and Aristotelians with ridicule. 



Even after he abjured his heresy, Galileo con- 

 tinued his scientific work and at the end of his life, 

 during his retirement, he published his second great 



