86 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



was of the prudence of the superior authorities, all 

 uncertainty in his mind had ceased, that he had then 

 adopted, and still held, the opinion of Ptolemy on 

 the mobility of the Sun as true and indubitable. 

 Certain passages in his book were then put to him 

 as being irreconcilable with the statements he was 

 making ; and yet he maintained that, though he had 

 stated the case pro and con in his work, he did not, 

 in his heart, hold the condemned opinion. " Concludo 

 dunque dentro di me medesimo ne tenere ne haver 

 tenuto dopo la determinazione delli Superiori la 

 dannata opinione." 



Threatened with torture if he did not tell the 

 truth, he persevered in his answer as already given ; 

 upon which the tribunal, after making him sign his 

 deposition, dismissed him. On the next day, the 

 22nd June, he was taken to Santa Maria Sopra 

 Minerva, and brought before the Cardinals and Pre- 

 lates of the Congregation, that he might hear his 

 sentence and pronounce his abjuration. 



The accusation was that he had openly violated the 

 order given him not to maintain Copernicanism ; that 

 he had unfairly extorted permission to print his book, 

 without showing the prohibition received in 1616 ; 

 that he had maintained the condemned opinion, 

 although he alleged that he had left it undecided and 

 as simply probable which, however, was still a grave 

 error, since an opinion declared contrary to Scripture 

 could not in any way be probable. 



His sentence was to the effect that he had rendered 



