THE NEW COSMOLOGY 



(>st;ints of the time favored the heliocentric doctrine 

 we have already quoted Luther in an adverse sense 

 but of course it was characteristic of the Refor- 

 mation temper to oppose any papal pronouncement, 

 hence the ultramontane declaration of 1616 may in- 

 directly have aided the doctrine which it attacked, 

 by making that doctrine less obnoxious to Lutheran 

 eyes. Be that as it may, the work of Kepler brought 

 its author into no direct conflict with the authorities. 

 But the result was quite different when, in 1632, Gal- 

 ileo at last broke silence and gave the world, under 

 cover of the form of dialogue, an elaborate exposition 

 of the Copernican theory. Galileo, it must be ex- 

 plained, had previously been warned to keep silent 

 on the subject, hence his publication doubly offended 

 the authorities. To be sure, he could reply that his 

 dialogue introduced a champion of the Ptolemaic 

 system to dispute with the upholder of the opposite 

 view, and that, both views being presented with full 

 array of argument, the reader was left to reach a 

 verdict for himself, the author having nowhere point- 

 edly expressed an opinion. But such an argument, of 

 course, was specious, for no one who read the dialogue 

 could be in doubt as to the opinion of the author. 

 Moreover, it was hinted that Simplicio, the character 

 who upheld the Ptolemaic doctrine and who was 

 everywhere worsted in the argument, was intended 

 to represent the pope himself a suggestion which 

 probably did no good to Galileo's cause. 



The character of Galileo's artistic presentation may 

 best be judged from an example, illustrating the vig- 

 orous assault of Salviati, the champion of the new 



83 



