GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 39 



views on astronomy, shows a state of mind so dif- 

 ferent from what we find amongst even non-scientific 

 men in our own day, that we are almost startled and 

 bewildered when we meet with it. The truth, how- 

 ever, is that Bellarmine was a sort of link between 

 the mediaeval and modern thinkers ; in theology and 

 controversy, and in appreciation of the change that 

 had taken place in Europe owing to the religious 

 revolution of the preceding century, in all that, he 

 was, I imagine, in advance of his age ; in physical 

 science he was a simple mediaavalist. But it was 

 not for some time that even able men came to 

 recognise the principle that in the search for truth, so 

 far as the works of Nature are concerned, the opinions 

 of the ancients and the traditions of forefathers count 

 but for little ; and observation and experiment are 

 the true and only key to knowledge. It is other- 

 wise, of course, with theology and kindred studies ; 

 and it required some mental grasp, or in default of 

 that it required a long, very long, experience before 

 the human mind drew the distinction between the 

 two. 



But this is a digression. I have quoted Bellarmine 

 to show what he thought of the necessity, from an 

 ecclesiastical standpoint, of putting down Coperni- 

 canism, at least until it should be proved to 

 demonstration. He did not appear to contemplate 

 a dogmatic decision against it, but what he did 

 desire, and succeeded in obtaining, was a disciplinary 

 prohibition of the obnoxious doctrine. As a theologian 



