GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 87 



himself strongly suspected of heresy in believing and 

 maintaining a doctrine false and opposed to Holy 

 Scripture in respect of the motion of the Sun and 

 the Earth, and in believing that one might maintain 

 and defend any opinion after it had been declared to 

 be contrary to Holy Scripture. He had, therefore, 

 incurred the censures in force against those who 

 offend in such ways ; from which, however, he would 

 be absolved provided that, with a sincere heart and 

 unfeigned faith, he would abjure the said errors and 

 heresies ; but, as a penance and as a warning to 

 others, he was to undergo certain inflictions. The 

 book was henceforth to be prohibited, he himself was 

 to be condemned to the ordinary prison of the Holy 

 Office for a time the Holy Office would itself limit, 

 and he was to recite the seven Penitential Psalms 

 once a week for three years. The Holy Office 

 reserved to itself the power to remit or change part 

 or all of the above-named penances. Galileo abjured, 

 accordingly, as directed. 



The well-known legend that after his abjuration 

 he stamped on the ground with his foot, saying : 

 " E pur si muove " (And yet it, i.e. the Earth, does 

 move), is not found in any contemporary author, 

 and first appears towards the end of the eighteenth 

 century. It is also to the last degree improbable ; 

 Galileo was in far too great dread of his judges 

 to provoke them by openly perpetrating such an 

 action ; and if he did it sotto voce, who heard it, 

 and who testified to it ? The late Dr. Whewell in 



