Great Astronomers by Robert Stawell Ball (uplifting novels .txt) 📕

to the north or to the south of the average lunar disc.

But the circumstances which make the career of Galileo so

especially interesting from the biographer’s point of view, are

hardly so much the triumphs that he won as the sufferings that he

endured. The sufferings and the triumphs were, however, closely

connected, and it is fitting that we should give due consideration

to what was perhaps the greatest drama in the history of science.

On the appearance of the immortal work of Copernicus, in which it

was taught that the earth rotated on its axis, and that the earth,

like the other planets, revolved round the sun, orthodoxy stood

aghast. The Holy Roman Church submitted this treatise, which bore

the name “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium,” to the

Congregation of the Index. After due examination it was condemned

as heretical in 1615. Galileo was suspected, on no doubt

excellent grounds, of entertaining the objectionable views of

Copernicus. He was accordingly privately summoned before Cardinal

Bellarmine on 26th February 1616,

and duly admonished that he was on no account to teach or to

defend the obnoxious doctrines. Galileo was much distressed by

this intimation. He felt it a serious matter to be deprived of

the privilege of discoursing with his friends about the Copernican

system, and of instructing his disciples in the principles of the

great theory of whose truth he was perfectly convinced. It pained

him, however, still more to think, devout Catholic as he was, that

such suspicions of his fervent allegiance to his Church should

ever have existed, as were implied by the words and monitions of

Cardinal Bellarmine.

In 1616, Galileo had an interview with Pope Paul V., who received

the great astronomer very graciously, and walked up and down with

him in conversation for three-quarters of an hour. Galileo

complained to his Holiness of the attempts made by his enemies to

embarrass him with the authorities of the Church, but the Pope

bade him be comforted. His Holiness had himself no doubts of

Galileo’s orthodoxy, and he assured him that the Congregation of

the Index should give Galileo no further trouble so long as Paul

V. was in the chair of St. Peter.

On the death of Paul V. in 1623, Maffeo Barberini was elected

Pope, as Urban VIII. This new Pope, while a cardinal, had been an

intimate friend of Galileo’s, and had indeed written Latin verses

in praise of the great astronomer and his discoveries. It was

therefore not unnatural for Galileo to think that the time had

arrived when, with the use of due circumspection, he might

continue his studies and his writings, without fear of incurring

the displeasure of the Church. Indeed, in 1624, one of Galileo’s

friends writing from Rome, urges Galileo to visit the city again,

and added that—

“Under the auspices of this most excellent, learned, and benignant

Pontiff, science must flourish. Your arrival will be welcome to

his Holiness. He asked me if you were coming, and when, and in

short, he seems to love and esteem you more than ever.”

The visit was duly paid, and when Galileo returned to Florence,

the Pope wrote a letter from which the following is an extract,

commanding the philosopher to the good offices of the young

Ferdinand, who had shortly before succeeded his father in the

Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

“We find in Galileo not only literary distinction, but also the

love of piety, and he is also strong in those qualities by which

the pontifical good-will is easily obtained. And now, when he has

been brought to this city to congratulate us on our elevation, we

have very lovingly embraced him; nor can we suffer him to return

to the country whither your liberality calls him, without an ample

provision of pontifical love. And that you may know how dear he

is to us, we have willed to give him this honourable testimonial

of virtue and piety. And we further signify that every benefit

which you shall confer upon him, imitating or even surpassing your

father’s liberality, will conduce to our gratification.”

The favourable reception which had been accorded to him by

Pope Urban VIII. seems to have led Galileo to expect that there

might be some corresponding change in the attitude of the Papal

authorities on the great question of the stability of the earth.

He accordingly proceeded with the preparation of the chief work

of his life, “The Dialogue of the two Systems.” It was submitted

for inspection by the constituted authorities. The Pope himself

thought that, if a few conditions which he laid down were duly

complied with, there could be no objection to the publication of

the work. In the first place, the title of the book was to be so

carefully worded as to show plainly that the Copernican doctrine

was merely to be regarded as an hypothesis, and not as a

scientific fact. Galileo was also instructed to conclude the book

with special arguments which had been supplied by the Pope

himself, and which appeared to his Holiness to be quite conclusive

against the new doctrine of Copernicus.

Formal leave for the publication of the Dialogue was then given

to Galileo by the Inquisitor General, and it was accordingly sent

to the press. It might be thought that the anxieties of the

astronomer about his book would then have terminated. As a matter

of fact, they had not yet seriously begun. Riccardi, the

Master of the Sacred Palace, having suddenly had some further

misgivings, sent to Galileo for the manuscript while the work was

at the printer’s, in order that the doctrine it implied might be

once again examined. Apparently, Riccardi had come to the

conclusion that he had not given the matter sufficient attention,

when the authority to go to press had been first and, perhaps,

hastily given. Considerable delay in the issue of the book was

the result of these further deliberations. At last, however, in

June, 1632, Galileo’s great work, “The Dialogue of the two

Systems,” was produced for the instruction of the world, though

the occasion was fraught with ruin to the immortal author.

[PLATE: FACSIMILE SKETCH OF LUNAR SURFACE BY GALILEO.]

The book, on its publication, was received and read with the

greatest avidity. But presently the Master of The Sacred Palace

found reason to regret that he had given his consent to its

appearance. He accordingly issued a peremptory order to

sequestrate every copy in Italy. This sudden change in the Papal

attitude towards Galileo formed the subject of a strong

remonstrance addressed to the Roman authorities by the Grand Duke

of Tuscany. The Pope himself seemed to have become impressed all

at once with the belief that the work contained matter of an

heretical description. The general interpretation put upon the

book seems to have shown the authorities that they had mistaken

its true tendency, notwithstanding the fact that it had been

examined again and again by theologians deputed for the duty. To

the communication from the Grand Duke the Pope returned answer,

that he had decided to submit the book to a congregation of

“learned, grave, and saintly men,” who would weigh every word in

it. The views of his Holiness personally on the subject were

expressed in his belief that the Dialogue contained the most

perverse matter that could come into a reader’s hands.

The Master of the Sacred Palace was greatly blamed by the

authorities for having given his sanction to its issue. He

pleaded that the book had not been printed in the precise terms of

the original manuscript which had been submitted to him. It was

also alleged that Galileo had not adhered to his promise of

inserting properly the arguments which the Pope himself had given

in support of the old and orthodox view. One of these had, no

doubt, been introduced, but, so far from mending Galileo’s case,

it had made matters really look worse for the poor philosopher.

The Pope’s argument had been put into the mouth of one of the

characters in the Dialogue named “Simplicio.” Galileo’s enemies

maintained that by adopting such a method for the expression of

his Holiness’s opinion, Galileo had intended to hold the Pope

himself up to ridicule. Galileo’s friends maintained that nothing

could have been farther from his intention. It seems, however,

highly probable that the suspicions thus aroused had something to

say to the sudden change of front on the part of the Papal

authorities.

On 1st October, 1632, Galileo received an order to appear before

the Inquisition at Rome on the grave charge of heresy. Galileo,

of course, expressed his submission, but pleaded for a respite

from compliance with the summons, on the ground of his advanced

age and his failing health. The Pope was, however, inexorable; he

said that he had warned Galileo of his danger while he was still

his friend. The command could not be disobeyed. Galileo might

perform the journey as slowly as he pleased, but it was

imperatively necessary for him to set forth and at once.

On 20th January, 1633, Galileo started on his weary journey to

Rome, in compliance with this peremptory summons. On 13th

February he was received as the guest of Niccolini, the Tuscan

ambassador, who had acted as his wise and ever-kind friend

throughout the whole affair. It seemed plain that the Holy Office

were inclined to treat Galileo with as much clemency and

consideration as was consistent with the determination that the

case against him should be proceeded with to the end. The Pope

intimated that in consequence of his respect for the

Grand Duke of Tuscany he should permit Galileo to enjoy the

privilege, quite unprecedented for a prisoner charged with heresy,

of remaining as an inmate in the ambassador’s house. He ought,

strictly, to have been placed in the dungeons of the Inquisition.

When the examination of the accused had actually commenced,

Galileo was confined, not, indeed, in the dungeons, but in

comfortable rooms at the Holy Office.

By the judicious and conciliatory language of submission which

Niccolini had urged Galileo to use before the Inquisitors, they

were so far satisfied that they interceded with the Pope for his

release. During the remainder of the trial Galileo was

accordingly permitted to go back to the ambassador’s, where he was

most heartily welcomed. Sister Maria Celeste, evidently thinking

this meant that the whole case was at an end, thus expresses

herself:—

“The joy that your last dear letter brought me, and the having to

read it over and over to the nuns, who made quite a jubilee on

hearing its contents, put me into such an excited state that at

last I got a severe attack of headache.”

In his defence Galileo urged that he had already been acquitted

in 1616 by Cardinal Bellarmine, when a charge of heresy was

brought against him, and he contended that anything he might now

have done, was no more than he had done on the preceding occasion,

when the orthodoxy of his doctrines received solemn confirmation.

The Inquisition seemed certainly inclined to clemency, but the

Pope was not satisfied. Galileo was accordingly summoned again on

the 21st June. He was to be threatened with torture if he did not

forthwith give satisfactory explanations as to the reasons which

led him to write the Dialogue. In this proceeding the Pope

assured the Tuscan ambassador that he was treating Galileo with

the utmost consideration possible in consequence of his esteem and

regard for the Grand Duke, whose servant Galileo was. It was,

however, necessary that some exemplary punishment be meted out

to the astronomer, inasmuch as by the publication of the Dialogue

he had distinctly disobeyed the injunction of silence laid upon

him by the decree of 1616. Nor was it