SEQUEL TO COPERNICUS. 421 



deeply concerned. The general acceptance of the 

 Copernican System was no longer a matter of 

 doubt. Several persons in the highest positions, 

 including the Pope himself, looked upon the doc- 

 trine with favourable eyes; and had shown their 

 interest in Galileo and his discoveries. They had 

 tried to prevent his involving himself in trouble 

 by discussing the question on scriptural grounds. It 

 is probable that his knowledge of those favourable 

 dispositions towards himself and his opinions led 

 him to suppose that the slightest colour of pro- 

 fessed submission to the church in his belief would 

 enable his arguments in favour of the system to 

 pass unvisited : the notice which I have quoted, 

 in which the irony is quite transparent and the 

 sarcasm glaringly obvious, was deemed too flimsy 

 a veil for the purpose of decency, and indeed must 

 have aggravated the offense. But it is not to be 

 supposed that the inquisitors believed Galileo's ab- 

 juration to be sincere, or even that they wished it 

 to be so. It is stated that when Galileo had made 

 his renunciation of the earth's motion, he rose from 

 his knees, and stamping on the earth with his foot, 

 said, E pur si muove " and yet it does move." 

 This is sometimes represented as the heroic soli- 

 loquy of a mind cherishing its conviction of the 

 truth in spite of persecution : I think we may more 

 naturally conceive it uttered as a playful epigram 

 in the ear of a cardinal's secretary, with a full 



