112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



labors they had, within two months of their foundation, con- 

 structed a great planisphere upon which they drew both the 

 ancient and modern systems of astronomy. 



But evil days came. Investigations, questionings, or any sort 

 of freedom of thought was never looked upon with favor by the 

 ecclesiastical authorities of Rome. Columbus had appeared be- 

 fore the great Council of Salamanca to have his claims of the 

 sphericity of the earth and the existence of an attainable antip- 

 odes pronounced by the dignitaries " contrary to Scripture and 

 absurd in philosophy"; but he, with a persistence inconsistent 

 with a good Catholic, at last sailed across the waters and dis- 

 covered what his judges declared did not exist. 



Copernicus had written and submitted to Pope Paul III a 

 system of astronomy which was also pronounced contrary to 

 Scripture and erroneous in philosophy, and the books were con- 

 demned and publicly burned. 



Bruno had just been silenced by fire for upholding this 

 Copernican system and other heresies ; Porta was soon to appear 

 before Pope Paul III for trial and to be warned against resort- 

 ing to the black arts, because of his scientific. attainments; and 

 Galileo was to undergo more shameful treatment for " thinking 

 different to what the Dominicans allowed." So, when Cesi and 

 his friends began their investigations of Nature, studies which 

 had hitherto brought nothing but disturbance, unrest, and re- 

 volt at the authorized doctrines, it is not surprising that efforts 

 were made to stop them. 



The young men were asked if they had not the works of 

 Aristotle and of Thomas Aquinas, both accepted authorities by 

 the Church for centuries; and if so, why not be content with 

 them, for surely they did not imagine they were greater than 

 these masters in science ? But these tactics did not avail. Then 

 appeal was made to Cesi's parents. The old duke was a man of 

 domineering disposition and violent passions, and was unscrupu- 

 lous of means in gaining his end. 



He was told his son's morals were being undermined by his 

 associates, and sought to alienate him from them, but without 

 success. 



Attempts were made to reach him through his mother, by 

 arousing her fears as to his morals ; but she, with a mother's in- 

 stinct, could not be poisoned against him. 



The duke threatened dissolution of the Academy by force. On 

 Christmas-day young Cesi called his friends together, and, in order 

 to remove all suspicions against immorality, recast their constitu- 

 tion and laws, by which it was ordered that all future meetings 

 should be opened by reading one of the Psalms of David and by 

 prayer. According to the custom of the times, the Academy was 



