GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 79 



proceedings soon showed. In the month of August of 

 this same year the Master of the Sacred Palace gave 

 orders to the printer at Florence to suspend the dis- 

 tribution of the copies, and he also sent for those 

 which had been brought to Eome. Nor was this all. 

 In the following month the Pope ordered that a letter 

 should be written to the Inquisitor of Florence, en- 

 joining him to direct Galileo to present himself in 

 Eome in the month of October, in order to explain his 

 conduct. 



The book had already been examined by special 

 Commission a step taken with the view of pleasing 

 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, so as to avoid bringing 

 the affair before the Inquisition. 



The Pope, from whatever cause, was much dis- 

 pleased. This appeared in a conversation with 

 Niccolini, the Tuscan Ambassador, in which His Holi- 

 ness said that Galileo had entered on ground which 

 he ought not to have touched, and that both Ciampoli 

 and the Master of the Sacred Palace had been de- 

 ceived. Still it seemed that, so far, there was no 

 intention to do more than censure the book and 

 demand a retractation. 



The special Commission, of which mention has just 

 been made, after a month's interval, reported that 

 Galileo had been disobedient to orders in the follow- 

 ing respects : Affirming as an absolute truth the 

 movement of the Earth instead of stating it as a hypo- 

 thesis ; attributing the tides to this cause i.e. to 

 the revolution and movement of the Earth ; deceitfully 

 keeping silence as to the order given him in 1616 to 



