82 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



on the 13th February, when the Tuscan Ambassador, 

 Niccolini, who had sent his litter for him, received 

 him at his Palace. This, with all the freedom it 

 implied, was indeed an unusual indulgence to persons 

 situated as he was. After a short time, during which 

 no official steps were taken, he was conveyed to the 

 office of the Inquisition, and lodged there, but well 

 and commodiously, by the Pope's order. 



On the 12th April he appeared for the first time 

 before the Court ; he admitted the authorship of the 

 Dialogue ; he admitted, too, that the decree of the 

 Index had been notified to him ; but stated that 

 Cardinal Bellarmine had informed him that it was 

 allowable to hold the Copernican doctrine as a 

 hypothesis. He maintained further that he had not 

 contravened the order given him, that he should 

 not defend or support this doctrine ; and he de- 

 clared that he did not remember having been for- 

 bidden in any way to teach it. 



It would seem that this latter prohibition was 

 meant to include teaching by implication, such as 

 one may do through the medium of an interlocutor in 

 a dialogue. 



It is startling that Galileo should have said among 

 other things on this occasion, that he had not em- 

 braced or defended in his book the opinion that the 

 Earth is in motion and the Sun stationary ; but, on 

 the contrary, had shown that the reasons produced 

 by Copernicus were feeble and inconclusive. 



After this examination he was well lodged, though 



