208 Traxsactwss of the American lysTiTUTE. 



several planets, it cannot be that any such great things liave beeiT 

 done especially for it, as the Christian doctrine teaches. If there are 

 other planets — since God makes nothing in vain — they must be 

 inhabited, but how can these inhabitants be descended from Adam ; 

 how can they trace back their origin to Noah's ark ; how can they 

 have been redeemed by tlie Savior? In addition to this prodigious 

 engine of war, there was kept up a terrific fire of smaller artillery 

 in the shape of texts and Scriptural extracts. Some samples of these- 

 weapons may inferest you. TVlien Galileo had discovered the four 

 satellites of Jupiter, it Avas denounced as impossible and impious. It 

 was argued that the Bible clearly showed, by all applicable types, that 

 there could be only seven planets; that this was proved by the seven 

 golden candle-sticks of the Apocalypse ; by the seven branched can- 

 dle-stick of the Tabernacle, and by the seven churches of Asia. In a 

 letter to his friend Renieri, Galileo gives a sketch of some of the 

 dealings of the inquisition with him. He says "the Father Com- 

 missary Lancio was zealous to have me make amends for the scandal 

 I had caused in sustaining the idea of the movement of the earth. 

 To all my mathematical and other reasons he responded nothing but 

 the words of Scripture. Terra autem in ceiernum stahitr It was 

 declared that the doctrine was proved false by the standing still of the 

 sun for Joshua ; by the declarations that " the foundations of the earth 

 are fixed so firmly that they cannot be moved,"" and that the sun 

 "runneth about from one end of heaven to the other." The Domini- 

 can Father Catticini preached a sermon from the text: " Ye men of 

 Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven," and this wretchjed pun 

 was the beginning of a series of sharper weapons. For the final 

 assault, the park of heavy artillery was at last wheeled into place. 

 You see it on all the scientific battle-fields. It consists of general 

 denunciation, and Father Melchior Inchofer of the Jesuits brought 

 his artillery to bear well on Galileo with the declaration, that the 

 opinion of the earth's motion is of all heresies the most abominable, 

 the most'pernicious, the most scandalous; tliat the immobility of the 

 earth is thi'ice sacred. That arguments against the iunnortality of 

 the soul, the creation, the incarnation, &c., should be tolerated sooner 

 than argument to prove that the earth moves. In vain did Galileo 

 try to prove the existence of satellites by showing them to the 

 doubters through his telescope; they either declared it impious to 

 look, or, if they did see tiiem, declared them illusions from the devil. 

 In vain did he try to protect himself by his famous letter to the 



