GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 91 



was supported, was the argument drawn from the 

 flux and reflux of the sea, which argument is 

 altogether false." 



Yet though we deny him the credit of having 

 been a hero or a martyr, we must not be too severe 

 in condemning him. He was old and enfeebled 

 by bad health ; moreover, his friends had advised 

 him to submit fully and unreservedly to the tribunal 

 of the Inquisition. And to this we may add the 

 following considerations. There can be little doubt 

 that he held the Copernican theory as a very probable 

 opinion ; how, indeed, with his knowledge of astro- 

 nomy, and with his own discoveries before his eyes, 

 could it be otherwise ? But it is very possible 

 that he had no fixed, absolute conviction on the 

 subject ; he was a sincere Catholic, and had a deep 

 respect for the Pope and for the Church, and, unlike 

 modern scientific men, he probably allowed some 

 weight to the decisions of ecclesiastical authorities. 

 Remembering all this, we may well admit that there 

 is much to palliate his conduct, though not fully 

 to justify it. 



But his want of candour evidently prejudiced his 

 judges against him. They accepted his reiterated 

 denials of belief, even a qualified belief, in Coper- 

 nicanism, but they did not credit them as being 

 true. I incline to hold that he would have done 

 as well and given more satisfaction to the tribunal 

 if he had made a straightforward defence in some 

 such way as this : that he could not help believing 



