476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



contained not seven stars but thirty-six and that the milky way was 

 powdered with stars. In reward for his discoveries the Venetian Sen- 

 ate doubled his salary of professor at Padua, and secured that position 

 to him for life. He was made philosopher extraordinary to the grand- 

 duke of Tuscany, and the next year visited Home, where he exhibited 

 the wonders of the heavens to the eminent personages of the Pope's 

 court. 



But war on Galileo soon named forth. The spiritual authorities saw 

 that established dogmas were endangered. He was accused of heresy 

 and atheism. The story of his summons before the inquisition, his 

 trial, conviction and suffering, has been told too often to be repeated 

 here. The triumph of superstition over his astronomical discoveries 

 was for the time complete. This great genius lived to see his works 

 expelled from all the universities of Europe, their publication pro- 

 hibited, and he knew that he was doomed to face all posterity as one 

 who had committed perjury to escape torture. 



Sixteen years previous to Galileo's first summons to Rome, poor 

 Giordano Bruno was burned in that city. In his wanderings to escape 

 persecution Bruno had visited England and while there published his 

 exposition of the Copernican system. Prudence frequently obliged 

 him to change his place of residence and it is not strange that he finally 

 drifted to Venice. Here greater religious liberty was permitted than 

 in other Italian cities, and here the stake had never been erected. It 

 was at the Palazzo Mocenigo, on the Grand Canal, that emissaries of 

 the inquisition finally ran him to earth. The first indictment of the 

 inquisition charged him with teaching that there were innumerable 

 worlds. He was burned to death in the Piazzo Campo di Fiore in the 

 year 1600. Galileo's greatest contemporary was Kepler, who discovered 

 the laws of planetary motion which paved the way to the greater dis- 

 coveries of Kewton. Kepler was abused, imprisoned and warned that 

 he must bring his theories into harmony with the scriptures. Astron- 

 omy was then so poorly patronized that to increase his meager income 

 he was obliged to pay homage to the astrological superstitions of 

 Rudolph II. and Wallenstein. 



One of Kepler's most terrible experiences arose from the prevailing 

 superstition of sorcery. His aunt and his mother were charged with 

 being witches and sentenced to be burned alive. Through Kepler's 

 indefatigable efforts, and the influence of powerful friends, his mother 

 was saved, but the suffering which she endured during more than a 

 year's imprisonment resulted in her death a few months later. Kep- 

 ler's aunt was burned at the stake. 



The writings of all ages up to the eighteenth century sbow that 

 comets were believed to be dire messengers of woe. Stars and meteors 

 were generally thought to foretell happy events, especially the birth of 

 heroes and great rulers. Eclipses expressed the distress of nature over 

 terrestrial calamities, while comets portended greater woes than all the 



