LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



Father Caccini preached a sermon from the text, "Ye 

 men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? ' 

 Only he changed the word "Galilee" to "Galileo," 

 claiming that it was the same thing, only different; 

 and as reward for his wit he was made a bishop. 

 Cardinal Bellarmine, a man of great energy: earnest, 

 zealous, sincere and learned the Dr. Buckley of his 

 day showed how that, "If the Copernican Theory 

 should prevail, it would be the absolute undoing of the 

 Bible, and the destruction of the Church, rendering 

 the death of Christ futile. If the earth is only one of 

 many planets, and not the center of the universe, and 

 the other planets are inhabited, the whole plan of sal- 

 vation fails, since the inhabitants of the other spheres 

 are without the Bible, and Christ did not die for them." 

 This was the argument of Father Lecazre, and many 

 others who took their cue from him. 

 Galileo was denounced as "atheist' and "infidel" 

 epithets that do not frighten us much now, since they 

 have been applied to most of the really great and good 

 men who have ever lived. But then such words set 

 fire to masses of inflammable prejudices, and there 

 were conflagrations of wrath and hate against which 

 it were vain to argue. 



The Archbishop of Pisa especially felt it incumbent 

 upon him "to bring Galileo to justice." Galileo was 

 born at Pisa, educated there, taught in the University ; 

 and now he had disgraced the place and brought it into 

 disrepute & & 



Galileo was still in communication with teachers at 

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