GALILEO. 121 



places, so composed that the reader might think the arguments ad- 

 duced on the false side to be so worded as more effectually to entangle 

 the understanding than to be easily solved, alleging in excuse, that 

 you have thus run into an error, foreign (as you say) to your intention, 

 from writing in the form of a dialogue, and in consequence of the 

 natural complacency which every one feels with regard to his own 

 subtilties, and in showing himself more skilful than the generality of" 

 mankind in contriving, even in favour of false propositions, ingenious 

 and apparently probable arguments. 



And, upon a convenient time having been given to you for making 

 your defence, you produced a certificate in the handwriting of His. 

 Eminence the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, procured, as you said, by 

 yourself, that you might defend yourself against the calumnies of your 

 enemies, who reported that you had abjured your opinions, and had 

 been punished by the Holy Office ; in which certificate it is declared 

 that you had not abjured, nor had been punished, but merely that the 

 declaration, made by His Holiness, and promulgated by the Holy 

 Congregation of the Index, had been announced to you, which de- 

 clares that the opinion of the motion of the earth, and stability of the 

 sun, is contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and, therefore, cannot be held 

 or defended. Wherefore, since no mention is there made of two 

 articles of the order, to wit, the order "not to teach," and "in any 

 manner," you argued that we ought to believe that, in the lapse of 

 fourteen or sixteen years, they had escaped your memory, and that 

 this was also the reason why you were silent as to the order, when you. 

 sought permission to publish your book, and that this is said by you 

 not to excuse your error, but that it may be attributed to vain-glorious 

 ambition, rather than to malice. But this very certificate, produced 

 on your behalf, has greatly aggravated your offence, since it is therein 

 declared that the said opinion is contrary to the Holy Scripture ; and 

 yet you have dared to treat of it, to defend it, and to argue that it is- 

 probable ; nor is there any extenuation in the licence artfully and 

 cunningly extorted by you, since you did not intimate the command, 

 imposed upon you. 



But whereas it appeared to us that you had not disclosed the whole- 

 truth with regard to your intentions, We thought it necessary to pro- 

 ceed to the rigorous examination of you, in which (without any pre- 

 judice to what you had confessed, and which is above detailed against 

 you, with regard to your said intention) you answered like a good 

 Catholic. Therefore, having seen and maturely considered the merits 

 of your cause, with your said confessions and excuses, and everything 

 else which ought to be seen and considered, We have come to the 

 underwritten final sentence against you. 



Invoking, therefore, the Most Holy name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 and of His Most Glorious Virgin Mother Mary, by this our final sen- 

 tence, which, sitting in council and judgment for the tribunal of the 



