GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 23 



interview between Cardinal Bellarmine and Galileo 

 took place after the answers had been returned by 

 the Qualifiers of the Inquisition, but before the publi- 

 cation of the decree of the Index. The certificate 

 given by the Cardinal, to which I have just alluded, 

 was subsequent, and bears date the 26th May, 1616. 



And here we may pause in the narrative, to 

 inquire briefly what was the effect, in an ecclesiastical 

 point of view, of the decree just quoted, and of the 

 admonition given by Papal order to Galileo. On 

 the mere face of it, it cannot surely be maintained 

 that there was any doctrinal decision, strictly speak- 

 ing, at all. I do not wish to undervalue the im- 

 portance of the disciplinary decision, I think it most 

 momentous ; moreover, the reason alleged for it was 

 that the opinion, the publication of which was to 

 be forbidden, was contrary to Scripture ; but I fail 

 to see how this last-mentioned fact can possibly 

 convert what is avowedly a disciplinary enactment, 

 prohibiting the circulation of certain books, into a 

 dogmatic decree. 



I should submit it to the judgment of theologians 

 whether this would not be true even if the Pope's 

 name had been explicitly introduced as sanction- 

 ing the decree; as it stands, however, the decree 

 appears simply in the name of the Congregation of 

 the Index. 



It would, I think, scarcely be necessary to argue 

 these points at length, were it not that the contrary 

 view has been maintained in a work entitled " The 



