732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



last a special commission had reported to the ecclesiastical au- 

 thorities that he had become blind and wasted with disease and 

 sorrow, he was allowed a little more liberty, but that little was 

 hampered by close surveillance. He was forced to bear contempti- 

 ble attacks on himself and on his works in silence ; to see the men 

 who had befriended him severely punished ; Father Castelli ban- 

 ished; Ricciardi, the Master of ihQ Sacred Palace, and Ciampoli 

 the papal secretary, thrown out of their positions by Pope Urban 

 and the Inquisitor at Florence reprimanded for having given per- 

 mission to print Galileo's work. He lived to see the truths he 

 had established carefully weeded out from all the Church colleges 

 and universities in Europe, and when in a scientific work he hap- 

 pened to be spoken of as "renowned," the Inquisition ordered the 

 substitution of the word " notorious." * 



And now measures were taken to complete the destruction of 

 the Copernican theory, with Galileo's proofs of it. On the IGth 

 of June, 1633, the Holy Congregation, with the permission of the 

 reignmg Pope, ordered the sentence upon Galileo, and his recan- 

 tation, to be sent to all the papal nuncios throughout Europe, as 

 well as to all archbishops, bishops, and inquisitors in Italy • and 

 this document gave orders that the sentence and abjuration be 

 made known "to your vicars, that you and all professors of phi- 

 losophy and mathematics may have knowledge of it, that they 

 may know why we proceeded against the said Galileo, and recog- 

 nize the gravity of his error, in order that they may avoid it, and 

 thus not incur the penalties which they would have to suffer in 

 case they fell into the same." f 



As a consequence of this, the professors of mathematics and 

 astronomy in various universities of Europe were assembled and 

 these documents were read to them. To the theological authori- 

 ties this gave great satisfaction ; the Rector of the University of 

 Douay, referring to the opinion of Galileo, wrote to the papal 

 nuncio at Brussels, " the professors of our university are so op- 

 posed to this fanatical opinion that .they have always held that 

 it must be banished from the schools : in our English college at 

 Douay this paradox has never been approved and never will be." 

 Still -another step was taken : the Inquisitors were ordered, 

 especially in Italy, not to permit the publication of a new edition 

 of any of Galileo's works, nor of any similar writings. On the 

 other hand, theologians were urged, now that Copernicus and 



It is not probable that torture in the ordinary sense was administered to Galileo, 

 though it was threatened. See Th. Martin, Vie do Galilee, for a fair summing up of the 

 case. For the substitution of the word "notorious" for "renowned" by order of the 

 Inquisition, see Martin, p. 227. 



•f For a copy of this document, see Gebler, p. 269. As to the spread of this and simi- 

 lar documents notifying Europe of Galileo's condemnation, see Favaro, pp. 804, 805. 



