APPENDIX. 419 



that Pius VII. (Chiaramonte) had assembled the Congre 

 gation &quot; which repealed the decree against Galileo and the 

 Copernican system,&quot; with only one dissentient voice. It is, 

 however, possible that the Index might still retain the name 

 of the book. It must also be remembered that nothing can 

 be more inconsistent with the usual proceedings and policy 

 of the Roman See, than making such an admission of 

 error as is involved in the repeal of a sentence pronounced, 

 and purporting to proceed upon the ground of heresy. 

 There can be no other explanation given of such a man 

 as Benedict XIV. (Lambertini), the friend and patron of 

 Boscovich, the correspondent of Voltaire and other lite 

 rary men, himself an eminent cultivator of letters, and 

 remarkable for the liberality of his opinions, suffering 

 the sentence on Galileo to continue the disgrace of his 

 church. 



It must, however, be borne in mind, that probably soon 

 after Galileo s condemnation, certainly for the last century 

 or more, the prohibition to teach the Copernican system 

 was little more than nominal ; nothing else was required 

 than to term it the Hypothesis, and not the doctrine, 

 or theory, of the earth s motion. The declaration of the 

 Fathers (Leseur and Jacquier) accordingly calls it an Hy 

 pothesis. They regard the proceedings in Galileo s case, 

 (to which it is manifest that their words refer) as a decree 

 against the motion of the earth. But many have sus 

 pected that this is a covert attack on those proceedings; 

 and certainly, considering the time of the declaration ap 

 pearing, when Benedict XIV. was in every way promo 

 ting science and letters, and pursuing generally the most 

 liberal and enlightened policy, this supposition is not 

 without plausibility. It must be added that whenever the 

 outward deference to the decree of the Consistory was 

 shown, the doctrine, under the name of Hypothesis, was 

 openly taught, with the utmost freedom in giving the 

 proofs whereon it rested. 



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