20 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



however, he would not acquiesce, that he should 

 then be imprisoned. On the following day, 26th 

 February, this was accordingly done, and "Galileo was 

 warned "ut supra dictum opinionem . . . omnino 

 relinquat, nee earn de cetero quovis modo doceat 

 teneat aut defendat verbo aut scrip tis," with the 

 threat already mentioned in case of disobedience. 

 Galileo promised to obey. 



In the beginning of the month of March there 

 appeared a printed decree of the Congregation of 

 the Index prohibiting five works ; and here we arrive 

 at the curious fact that no work whatever of Galileo 

 was prohibited by name. The feeling in the high 

 ecclesiastical circles of Rome seems at that time to 

 have been very much to this effect : " Let us stamp 

 out the obnoxious opinion, but let us spare Galileo 

 individually." The final result (including what took 

 place in after years) is strikingly contrasted with 

 such expectations, if they existed. Galileo had 

 to suffer personally, not bodily torture or incar- 

 ceration, but humiliation and failure ; whilst the 

 dreaded doctrine of Copernicanism, purified from 

 incidental error and taught in an enlightened form, 

 has triumphed and reigns supreme. The decree 

 of the Index is particularly noteworthy, for it is the 

 principal matter with which we have to deal. After 

 prohibiting certain Protestant books, the decree pro- 

 ceeds as follows : " And since it has come to the 

 knowledge of the above-named Sacred Congregation 

 that that false Pythagorean doctrine, altogether con- 



