98 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



Ptolemy completely overthrown, as in reality he 

 assuredly was, by the observations on Venus and 

 Mercury, there remained the system of Tycho Brah6, 

 as has been remarked already, and this system partly 

 met the case of those phenomena that Ptolemy 

 failed in accounting for ; and although we can easily 

 see now that it was something of the nature of a 

 makeshift, at that time there was no clear or con- 

 clusive evidence against it. 



I proceed now to state what appears to have been 

 the ecclesiastical force of the two condemnations by 

 the Eoman tribunals that of the Index prohibiting 

 certain books, and that of the Inquisition punishing 

 Galileo individually, and forcing him to abjure his 

 real or imputed opinions on the Copernican system 

 of astronomy. I trust I shall not lose sight of my 

 position as a lay theologian (in the sense I have 

 defined the term), or trespass upon strictly ecclesi- 

 astical preserves ; but I may surely say at once, that 

 it is evident no decision was pronounced on any 

 matter of faith. The first case, that of the Index in 

 1616, I have already discussed ; and as for the latter 

 one, that of the Inquisition, it seems hardly credible 

 that any one should maintain that the sentence of a 

 Koman tribunal on an individual, however eminent, 

 could constitute an ex cathedra decision on a question 

 of faith. Mr. Roberts, however, seems to maintain 

 something very like this ; but he does so by taking 

 some strong, and perhaps extreme, statements made 

 by theologians, such as M. Bouix and Dr. Ward, 



