GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 105 



Index. This was done in order that people should 

 4 have a clear knowledge of all that was done from the 

 beginning in this matter/ also to facilitate references 

 for readers and especially for booksellers. The Pope 

 goes on to say that he confirmed and approved this 

 same general Index as aforesaid, composed and revised 

 by our order, and printed at our apostolic press.' ' 



Mr. Murphy adds : " No new decree is issued, no 

 new obligation imposed, no change in the character of 

 any of the decrees is made by this Bull. . . . No 

 Catholic theologian would for a moment regard this 

 Bull as equivalent to an approbation, by special man- 

 date, of any decree contained in the volume to which 

 it is prefixed. . . . The Bull is a purely disciplinary 

 act, perfectly valid until it is cancelled by an autho- 

 rity equal to that which issued it, but it condemns no 

 new error, and defines no new truth." 



It may no doubt be urged that there have been 

 certain indiscreet controversialists who have main- 

 tained that the Popes had nothing to do with the 

 condemnation of Galileo or of the Copernican theory 

 that, in fact, it was all the work of the Cardinals. 



The Bull " Speculatores " is a good argumentum 

 ad hominem addressed to such persons, but no one 

 who knows the facts of the case can take up or ought 

 to take up such a position. As a matter of discipline, 

 the Popes did give their sanction to the condemnation 

 in question. The Congregations of the Index and of 

 the Inquisition have no authority at all except so far 

 as the Pope confers it on them ; and whether he gives 



