GALILEO GALILEI. 23 



world is not full of men and women who can suffer 

 death for their convictions, however much we may 

 admire such courage. On May 10, he was sum- 

 moned a third time before the Inquisition, and told 

 that he had eight days in which to write his 

 defence. In touching language he stated how the 

 book had been examined and re examined by the 

 authorities, so that there might be nothing hetero- 

 dox in it ; and then he urged them to consider his 

 age and feeble health. 



A fourth time he came before the Holy Congre- 

 gation, June 21, and was asked whether he held 

 that the sun is the centre of the solar system, 

 and that the earth is not the centre, and that it 

 moves. He replied, " I do not hold, and have not 

 held this opinion of Copernicus since the command 

 was intimated to me that I must abandon it ; for 

 the rest, I am here in your hands, do with me 

 what you please." 



And then June 22, in the forenoon, in the large 

 hall of the Dominican Convent of St. Maria sopra 

 la Minerva, in the presence of cardinals and prel- 

 ates, he heard his sentence. 



" The proposition that the sun is the centre of 

 the world and does not move from its place is 

 absurd, and false philosophically, and formally her- 

 etical, because it is expressly contrary to the Holy 

 Scripture. 



" The proposition that the earth is not the centre 

 of the world and immovable, but that it moves, and 

 also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and 



