GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 109 



assent interiorly to the grounds alleged for such 

 acts ? 



In saying this, I do not wish to contradict the 

 opinion of those theologians who hold that the non- 

 scientific Catholics of Galileo's age were bound, by 

 what is termed " the piety of Faith," to give a 

 certain interior assent to the pronouncements of the 

 Roman Congregations ; and that on the ground that 

 such persons had no better evidence to act upon. 

 Their assent then would be very much like that 

 given by dutiful sons, not yet of age, to the opinions 

 of their father ; similar in kind though stronger in 

 degree. 



I am of course assuming the contemporary Catholics, 

 whose case I am considering, to be men of an obedient 

 and dutiful disposition. 



I have confined myself so far to the decrees of the 

 Index. The sentence of the Inquisition on Galileo 

 affected himself alone. It was no doubt held up 

 as an example in terrorem for the benefit of others ; 

 but strictly and immediately it concerned Galileo 

 alone, and when he died, it died with him. 



I now pass to the all-important question, what 

 ought we to think of the whole proceeding, with 

 all the light that has been thrown on it by the 

 two centuries and a half that have since elapsed ? 

 Here, then, I have to steer a middle course between 

 what I hold to be extreme opinions on opposite 

 sides, each held by men of note, and men whose 

 principles and character demand that they should 



