vi INQUIRY AND INTERPRETATION 145 



not self-luminous (if we may entertain the same views about 

 Mercury as we do about Venus). The second is that we are 

 absolutely compelled to say that Venus (and Mercury also) 

 revolve round the sun, as do also all the rest of the planets. 

 A truth believed, indeed, by the Pythagorean school, by Coper- 

 nicus, and by Kepler, but never proved by the evidence of our 

 senses as it is now proved in the case of Venus and Mercury. 

 Galileo. 



The discoveries made by Galileo with his telescope 

 excited the hostility of the expounders of Aristotelian 

 philosophy ; and they supported the Copernican doctrine 

 to such an extent as to bring him under the ban of the 

 Romish Church. He was denounced to the Inquisition 

 in 1612, but it was not until 1633 that proceedings were 

 taken which resulted in the observer of seventy years 

 of age being bound by oath to abjure the doctrine " that 

 the sun is at the centre of the universe and is immovable, 

 and that the earth is not the centre and is movable," 

 and being treated as prisoner for the last nine years of 

 his life. During this time, in his exile at Siena and 

 Arcetri, his interest in science never waned, despite his 

 infirmities, and he devoted himself to dynamical pro- 

 blems on which he was still at liberty to express opinions. 



The Copernican doctrine was believed to be contrary 

 to Holy Scripture, and therefore Galileo was compelled 

 to renounce it and to do penance for teaching it. What- 

 ever was in his mind as he rose from his knees before the 

 ten Cardinals in the Convent of Minerva, Rome, on 

 June 22, 1633, we cannot know, but it is unlikely that 

 he muttered " Eppur si muove " and yet it moves 

 as is related in the familiar anecdote associated with 

 his abjuration. 



The action of the Inquisition in forcing Galileo to 

 deny the evidence of his own senses cannot be con- 

 demned too strongly ; but the fact that the Church of 



G.D. K 



