CHAPTER I.
GALILEO AT SIENA AND ARCETRI. Arrival at Siena.—Request to the Grand Duke of Tuscany to ask for his release.—Postponed on the advice of Niccolini.—Endeavours at Rome to stifle the Copernican System.—Sentence and Recantation sent to all the Inquisitors of Italy.—Letter to the Inquisitor of Venice.—Mandate against the Publication of any New Work of Galileo’s or New Edition.—Curious Arguments in favour of the Old System.—Niccolini asks for Galileo’s release.—Refusal, but permission given to go to Arcetri.—Anonymous accusations.—Death of his Daughter.—Request for permission to go to Florence.—Harsh refusal and threat.—Letter to Diodati.—Again at work.—Intervention of the Count de Noailles on his behalf.—Prediction that he will be compared to Socrates.—Letter to Peiresc.—Publication of Galileo’s Works in Holland.—Continued efforts of Noailles.—Urban’s fair speeches. Galileo arrived safely at Siena on 9th July, and was most heartily welcomed by Ascanio Piccolomini.[464] But neither his devoted kindness, nor stimulating converse with his friend, who was well versed in science, and the learned Alessandro Marsili, who lived at Siena, could make him forget that he was still a prisoner of the Inquisition, and that his residence there was compulsory. He longed for liberty, the highest earthly good, and next to this for Florence, which had become a second home to him. In order to attain this fervent desire, on 23rd July he addressed a letter to Cioli,[465] with an urgent request that his Highness the Grand Duke, to please whom Urban VIII. had done so much, would be graciously pleased to ask the Pope, on whose will alone it depended, for his release. Only five days afterwards, Galileo received tidings from Cioli that Ferdinand II. had in the kindest manner consented to make the attempt, and that Niccolini was already commissioned to petition at the Vatican, in the name of the Grand Duke, for a full pardon for his chief philosopher.[466] But the ambassador had good reasons for thinking that it was too soon, and that it would certainly be in vain to ask for Galileo’s entire release, and replied to this effect to Cioli, adding the advice not to do anything in it till autumn.[467] It was therefore decided at Florence, in consideration of Niccolini’s doubts and his intimate knowledge of affairs at Rome, not to intervene with the Pope in favour of Galileo for two months, which decision was communicated by Bocchineri to the prisoner at Siena in a letter of 13th August.[468] While Galileo was bearing his banishment in Siena, which Ascanio Piccolomini did all in his power to ameliorate, with resignation, and was even diligently at work on his “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze,” war was being waged with great vigour against the Copernican doctrine at Rome, and the utmost efforts were being made to stifle it in Catholic countries in general, and in Italy in particular. Urban VIII. first visited with severe punishment all those dignitaries of the Church who, in virtue of their official position, had conduced to the publication of the “Dialogues.” Father Riccardi was deprived of his office, and the Inquisitor at Florence was reprimanded for having given permission to print the work.[469] In accordance with a decree passed in the sitting of the Congregation of 16th June, 1633, the sentence on, and recantation of, Galileo were sent to all the nunciatures of Europe, as well as to all archbishops, bishops, and inquisitors of Italy. The form in which this commission was issued to the ecclesiastical dignitaries is of great historical interest. One of the letters which accompanied the decree and ordered its publication has been preserved to us by Father Polacco in his “Anti-Copernicus Catholicus,” published at Venice in 1644.[470] It was addressed to the Inquisitor at Venice, and was as follows; the rest were probably similar:— Most Reverend Father,— Although the treatise of Nicholas Copernicus, ‘De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium,’ had been suspended by the Congregation of the Index, because it was therein maintained that the earth moves, but not the sun, but that it stands still in the centre of the world (which opinion is contrary to Holy Scripture); and although many years ago, Galileo Galilei, Florentine, was forbidden by the Congregation of this Holy Office to hold, defend, or teach the said opinion in any way whatsoever, either verbally or in writing; the said Galileo ventured nevertheless to write a book signed Galileo Galilei Linceus; and as he did not mention the said prohibition, he extorted licence to print, and did then actually have it printed. He stated, in the beginning, middle, and end of it, that he intended to treat the said opinion of Copernicus hypothetically, but he did it in such a manner (though he ought not to have discussed it in any way) as to render himself very suspicious of adhering to this opinion. Being tried on this account, and in accordance with the sentence of their Eminences, my Lords, confined in the prison of the Holy Office, he was condemned to renounce this opinion, to remain in prison during their Eminences’ pleasure, and to perform other salutary penances; as your Reverences will see by the subjoined copy of the sentence and abjuration, which is sent to you that you may make it known to your vicars, and that you and all professors of philosophy and mathematics may have knowledge of it; that they may know why they proceeded against the said Galileo, and recognise the gravity of his error in order that they may avoid it, and thus not incur the penalties which they would have to suffer in case they fell into the same. Your Reverences, as brother, Cardinal of St. Onufrius. Rome, 2nd July, 1633. Again it is worthy of note, that even in this letter it was deemed necessary to lay special stress on the circumstance that Galileo had acted contrary to a special prohibition issued several years before. But then, to be sure, this formed the only legal ground for the proceedings against him. From a letter from Guiducci to Galileo from Florence of 27th August,[471] we learn the manner in which the publication had taken place there, on the 12th. Both the documents were read aloud in a large assembly of counsellors of the Holy Office, canons and other priests, professors of mathematics and friends of Galileo, such as Pandolfini, Aggiunti, Rinuccini, Peri, and others, who had been invited to the ceremony. This proceeding was followed in all the more important cities of Italy, as well as in the larger ones of Catholic Europe. It is characteristic of the great split which existed in the scientific world about the Copernican system, that Professor Kellison, Rector of the University of Douai, wrote in reply to a letter of the Nuncio at Brussels, who had sent the sentence and recantation of Galileo to that academy: “The professors of our university are so opposed to that fanatical opinion (phanaticÆ opinioni), that they have always held that it must be banished from the schools.... In our English college at Douai this paradox has never been approved, and never will be.”[472] The Roman curia, however, did not confine itself to trying to frighten all good Catholics from accepting the Copernican doctrine by as wide a circulation as possible of the sentence against Galileo; but in order to suppress it altogether as far as might be, especially in Italy, all the Italian Inquisitors received orders neither to permit the publication of a new edition of any of Galileo’s works, nor of any new work.[473] On the other hand, the Aristotelians, who had been very active since the trial, were encouraged to confute the illustrious dead, Copernicus and Kepler, and the now silenced Galileo, with tongue and pen. Thus in the succeeding decades the book market was flooded with refutations of the Copernican system.[474] In fighting truth with falsehood very curious demonstrations were sure now and then to come to light on the part of the adherents of the wisdom of the ancients. We will here only mention a book dedicated to Cardinal Barberini, which appeared in 1633: “Difesa di Scipione Chiaramonti da Cesena al suo Antiticone, e libro delle tre nuove stelle, dall’ opposizioni dell’Autore de’ due massimi sistemi Tolemaico e Copernicano,” in which such sagacious arguments as the following are adduced against the doctrine of the double motion of the earth:— “Animals, which move, have limbs and muscles; the earth has no limbs or muscles, therefore it does not move. “It is angels who make Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, etc., turn round. If the earth revolves, it must also have an angel in the centre to set it in motion; but only devils live there, it would therefore be a devil who would impart motion to the earth. “The planets, the sun, the fixed stars, all belong to one species; namely, that of stars—they therefore all move or all stand still. “It seems, therefore, to be a grievous wrong to place the earth, which is a sink of impurity, among the heavenly bodies, which are pure and divine things.”[475] But although Galileo was condemned to silence, there were courageous and enlightened men who, in spite of the famous sentence of the Inquisition, not only rejected such absurdities but made energetic advance along the new paths. At the Vatican, however, they seemed disposed, as we shall soon see, to make Galileo answerable for the defence of the Copernican system in Italy. For instance, at the beginning of November the Tuscan ambassador thought the time was come to take steps for obtaining pardon for Galileo with some prospect of success; and at an audience of the Pope on 12th November he asked, on behalf of the Grand Duke, for the prisoner’s release. Urban replied somewhat ungraciously, that he would see what could be done, and would consult with the Congregation of the Holy Office; but he remarked that it had come to his ears that some people were writing in defence of the Copernican system. Niccolini hastened to assure him that Galileo was not in the least implicated in it, and that it was done entirely without his knowledge. Urban answered drily, that he had not been exactly informed that Galileo had anything to do with it, but he had better beware of the Holy Office. In spite of reiterated urgent entreaty, Niccolini could get nothing more definite about Galileo’s release than the above evasive promise, and he communicated the doubtful success of his mission to Cioli in a despatch of 13th November,[476] in rather a depressed state of mind. Urban was not disposed to grant a full pardon to Galileo, and therefore made a pretext of the Congregation to the ambassador, as if the decision depended upon it, whereas it rested entirely with himself. Niccolini, however, still persisted in his efforts. He went to Cardinal Barberini and other members of the Holy Office, warmly recommending him to their protection.[477] Meanwhile an indisposition of the Pope, which lasted fourteen days, delayed the decision, as the Congregation did not venture to come to any without his concurrence. At length he made his appearance in the sitting of the Congregation of 1st December, and through the mediation of Cardinal Barberini, the petition for Galileo’s release was at once laid before him.[478] It was refused; but he was to be permitted to retire to a villa at Arcetri, a miglio from Florence, where he was to remain until he heard further; he was not to receive any visits, but to live in the greatest retirement.[479] Niccolini informed him of this amelioration of his circumstances in a letter of 3rd December,[480] with the expression of great regret that he could not at present obtain his entire liberation. He added that the Pope had charged him to say that Galileo might go to Arcetri at once, that he might receive his friends and relations there, but not in large numbers at one time, as this might give rise to the idea that he was giving scientific lectures. A few days after the receipt of this letter Galileo set out for Arcetri.[481] No sooner had he reached his villa, called “il Giojello,” which was pleasantly situated, than he made it his first care to thank Cardinal Barberini warmly for his urgent intercession, which had, however, only effected this fresh alleviation of his sad fate.[482] Some rhetorical historians make Galileo’s two daughters leave the Convent of St. Matteo, which was certainly within gunshot of “Giojello,” in order to tend their old and suffering father with childlike and tender care; a touching picture, but without any historical foundation. On the contrary, it was really one of Galileo’s greatest consolations to pay frequent visits to his daughters, to whom he was tenderly attached, at St. Matteo, when permitted to do so by the Holy Office. It was also a great satisfaction to him that on a very early day after his arrival at Arcetri the Grand Duke came from Florence, and paid the convict of the Inquisition a long visit.[483] But while Galileo was once more partaking of some pleasures, the implacable malice of his enemies never slumbered. There were even some who would have been glad to know that he was for ever safe in the dungeons of the Inquisition. As, however, he gave them no pretext on which they could, with any shadow of justice, have seized him, they had recourse to the most disgraceful means—to lying, anonymous denunciation, in which his enlightened and therefore disliked friend, the Archbishop Ascanio Piccolomini, was ingeniously involved. On 1st February, 1634, the following communication, without signature, was received at the Holy Office at Rome from Siena:— Most Reverend Sirs,— Galileo has diffused in this city opinions not very Catholic, urged on by this Archbishop, his host, who has suggested to many persons that Galileo had been unjustly treated with so much severity by the Holy Office, and that he neither could nor would give up his philosophical opinions which he had defended with irrefragable and true mathematical arguments; also that he is the first man in the world, and will live for ever in his works, to which, although prohibited, all modern distinguished men give in their adherence. Now since seeds like these, sown by a prelate of the Church, might bring forth evil fruit, a report is made of them.[484] Although this cowardly denunciation did not bear any immediate consequences either to Piccolomini or Galileo, events which took place soon after show most clearly the unfavourable impression it produced at the Vatican. Galileo, who was very unwell, asked permission of the Pope, through the mediation of his faithful friend Niccolini, to move into Florence for the sake of the regular medical treatment which he required, and which he could not well have at the villa outside the city.[485] As if to dye his tragic fate still darker, just while he was awaiting the result of Niccolini’s efforts, his favourite daughter Polissena, or by her conventual name Marie Celeste, was taken so ill that her life was soon despaired of. It was on one of the last days of March that Galileo was returning to his villa with a physician from a visit to his dying daughter at the Convent of St. Matteo, in deep depression of spirits. On the way the physician had prepared him for the worst by telling him that the patient would scarcely survive till the morning, which proved to be the case. On entering his house in anguish of soul, he found the messenger of the Inquisition there, who in the name of the Holy Office gave him a strict injunction to abstain from all such petitions in future, unless he desired to compel the Inquisition to imprison him again. This unmerciful proceeding had been ordered by a papal mandate of 23rd March.[486] The Inquisitor at Florence reported on it on 1st April to Cardinal Barberini, as follows:— “I have communicated to Galileo what was commanded by your Eminence. He adduced as an excuse that he had only done it on account of a frightful rupture. But the villa he lives in is so near the city that he can easily have the physicians and surgeons there, as well as the medicines he requires.”[487] A passage in a letter from Galileo to Geri Bocchineri at Florence, of 27th April, shows that the excuse was no empty pretext, and that he urgently needed to have medical aid always at hand. He says:— “I am going to write to you about my health, which is very bad. I suffer much more from the rupture than has been the case before; my pulse intermits, and I have often violent palpitation of the heart; then the most profound melancholy has come over me. I have no appetite, and loathe myself; in short, I feel myself perpetually called by my beloved daughter. Under these circumstances I do not think it advisable that Vincenzo should set out on a journey now, as events might occur at any time which might make his presence desirable, for besides what I have mentioned, continued sleeplessness alarms me not a little.”[488] A letter to Diodati at Paris, from Galileo, of 25th July, is also of great interest; an insight may be gained from it, not only into his melancholy state of mind, but it also contains some remarkable indications of the motives for the fierce persecution on the part of Rome. We give the portions of the letter which are important for our subject:— “I hope that when you hear of my past and present misfortunes, and my anxiety about those perhaps still to come, it will serve as an excuse to you and my other friends and patrons there (at Paris), for my long delay in answering your letter, and to them for my entire silence, as they can learn from you the unhappy turn which my affairs have taken. According to the sentence pronounced on me by the Holy Office, I was condemned to imprisonment during the pleasure of his Holiness, who was pleased, however, to assign the palace and gardens of the Grand Duke near the TrinitÀ dei Monti, as my place of imprisonment. As this was in June of last year, and I had been given to understand that if I asked for a full pardon after the lapse of that and the following month, I should receive it, I asked meanwhile, to avoid having to spend the whole summer and perhaps part of the autumn there, to be allowed, on account of the season, to go to Siena, where the Archbishop’s house was assigned to me as a residence. I staid there five months, when this durance was exchanged for banishment to this little villa, a miglio from Florence, with a strict injunction not to go to the city, and neither to receive the visits of many friends at once, nor to invite any. Here, then, I was living, keeping perfectly quiet, and paying frequent visits to a neighbouring convent, where two daughters of mine were living as nuns; I was very fond of them, especially of the eldest, who possessed high mental gifts, combined with rare goodness of heart, and she was very much attached to me. During my absence, which she considered very perilous for me, she fell into a profound melancholy, which undermined her health, and she was at last attacked by a violent dysentery, of which she died after six days’ illness, just thirty-three years of age, leaving me in the deepest grief, which was increased by another calamity. On returning home from the convent, in company with the doctor who visited my sick daughter shortly before her death, and who had just told me that her situation was desperate, and that she would scarcely survive till the next day, as indeed it proved, I found the Inquisitor’s Vicar here, who informed me of a mandate from the Holy Office at Rome, which had just been communicated to the Inquisitor in a letter from Cardinal Barberini, that I must in future abstain from asking permission to return to Florence, or they would take me back there (to Rome), and put me in the actual prison of the Holy Office. This was the answer to the petition, which the Tuscan ambassador had presented to that tribunal after I had been nine months in exile! From this answer it seems to me that, in all probability, my present prison will only be exchanged for that narrow and long-enduring one which awaits us all. From this and other circumstances, which it would take too long to repeat here, it will be seen that the fury of my powerful persecutors continually increases. They have at length chosen to reveal themselves to me; for about two months ago, when a dear friend of mine at Rome was speaking of my affairs to Father Christopher Griemberger, mathematician at the college there, this Jesuit uttered the following precise words:—‘If Galileo had only known how to retain the favour of the fathers of this college, he would have stood in renown before the world, he would have been spared all his misfortunes, and could have written what he pleased about everything, even about the motion of the earth.’ From this you will see, honoured Sir, that it is not this opinion or that which has brought, and still brings about my calamities, but my being in disgrace with the Jesuits. I have also other proofs of the watchfulness of my persecutors. One is that a letter from some foreigner, I do not know from whom, addressed to me at Rome, where he supposed me still to be, was intercepted, and delivered to Cardinal Barberini. It was fortunate for me, as was afterwards written to me from Rome, that it did not purport to be an answer to one from me, but a communication containing the warmest praises of my “Dialogues.” It was seen by many persons, and, as I hear, copies of it were circulated at Rome. I have also been told that I might see it. To add to all this, there are other mental disquietudes and many bodily sufferings oppressing me at the age of over seventy years, so that the least exertion is a torment and a burden to me. In consideration of all this, my friends must be indulgent to me for omissions which look like neglect, but really arise from inability.”[489] This deep dejection, however, could not last long with a man of so active a mind as Galileo. The impulse which had been implanted in him to investigate the problems of nature was too strong to be repressed by either mental or bodily sufferings. So far from it, it was this which, ever re-asserting itself with its normal energy, helped him to bear them with resignation, and he often forgot his painful situation in his scientific speculations. Thus, but a few months after his daughter’s death, we find him rousing himself and eagerly at work again on his masterpiece, the “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze.”[490] He also resumed his extensive scientific correspondence, of which unfortunately, and especially of the following year, 1635, the letters of his correspondents only have mostly come down to us.[491] While the prisoner of Arcetri was thus eagerly fulfilling his great mission to his age, his friends were exerting themselves in vain to obtain at least an extension of his liberty. The Count de Noailles, French ambassador at Rome, had once attended Galileo’s lectures at Padua, and had become so enthusiastic an adherent, that he afterwards told Castelli that he must see Galileo once more before leaving Italy, even if he walked fifty miles on purpose.[492] He therefore united his efforts with Niccolini’s to obtain some amelioration for Galileo. But in vain. At an audience which Niccolini had on 8th December, 1634, Urban said indeed that he esteemed Galileo very highly, and was well disposed towards him; but all remained as before.[493] In the year 1634 the band of dauntless men, who again and again ventured to attempt to obtain Galileo’s liberty from the papal chair, was increased by the celebrated officer of state and man of learning, Fabri von Peiresc. Like Noailles, he had attended Galileo’s lectures at Padua,[494] had since been one of his most ardent admirers, and had long maintained friendly intercourse with Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Peiresc now interceded eagerly with this prelate for Galileo, and even ventured openly to say, in a long and pressing letter of 5th December, 1634, to Barberini:—[495] ... “Really such proceedings will be considered very harsh, and far more so by posterity than at present, when no one, as it appears, cares for anything but his own interests. Indeed, it will be a blot upon the brilliance and renown of the pontificate of Urban VIII., unless your Eminence resolves to devote your special attention to this affair....” On 2nd January, 1635, Barberini wrote a long letter in reply,[496] in which he was prolix enough on many subjects, but about Galileo he only made the dry remark, towards the end of the letter, that he would not fail to speak to his Holiness about it, but Peiresc must excuse him if, as a member of the Holy Office, he did not go into the subject more particularly. In spite of this, however, only four weeks later, Peiresc again urged Barberini, in a letter of 31st January,[497] to exert his powerful influence on behalf of Galileo. Peiresc justified his zeal by saying, “that it arose as much from regard for the honour and good name of the present pontificate, as from affection for the venerable and famous old man, Galileo; for it might well happen, by a continuance of the harsh proceedings against him, that some day posterity would compare them with the persecutions to which Socrates was subjected.”[498] Galileo, who had received copies of these letters, thanked Peiresc most warmly in a letter of 21st February, 1635, for his noble though fruitless efforts, and added the following remarkable words:— “As I have said, I do not hope for any amelioration, and this because I have not committed any crime. I might expect pardon and favour if I had done wrong, for wrong-doing affords rulers occasion for the exercise of clemency and pardon, while towards an innocent man under condemnation, it behoves them to maintain the utmost severity, in order to show that they have proceeded according to law. But believe me, revered sir, and it will console you to know it, this troubles me less than would be supposed, for two grounds of consolation continually come to my aid: one of these is, that in looking all through my works, no one can find the least shadow of anything which deviates from love and veneration for the Holy Church; the other is my own conscience, which can only be fully known to myself on earth and to God in heaven. He knows that in the cause for which I suffer, many might have acted and spoken with far more learning and knowledge, but no one, not even among the holy fathers, with more piety and greater zeal for the Holy Church, nor altogether with purer intentions. My sincerely religious, pious spirit would only be the more apparent if the calumnies, intrigues, stratagems, and deceptions, which were resorted to eighteen years ago to deceive and blind the authorities, were brought to the light of day.”[499] If the issue of the assumed stringent prohibition of 1616 were admitted, this letter would be a piece of hypocrisy as glaring as it was purposeless; for in that case Galileo would not have been an innocent man under condemnation, who had committed no crime, and his conscience could not have consoled him in his painful situation. What he wrote to Peiresc about his religious spirit was also quite true, Galileo really was a truly religious man; his own revolutionary discoveries had not for a moment given rise to any doubts in his mind of supernatural mysteries as taught by the Roman Catholic Church. All his letters, even to his most intimate friends, proclaim it indisputably. He also perfectly well knew how to make his researches and their results agree with the dogmas of his religion, as is clear from his explanations to Castelli, Mgr. Dini, and the Grand Duchess Christine. The strangest contradictions were continually arising from this blending of a learned man striving to search out the truths of nature, and a member of the only true Church bound in the fetters of illusive credulity. Thus, at the end of 1633, he did not hesitate to act in opposition to his solemn oath, literally construed, by secretly sending a copy of his condemned and prohibited “Dialogues” to Diodati, at Paris, that they might be translated into Latin, and thus be more widely circulated. In 1635 the work really appeared in a Latin translation, from the press of the Elzevirs, in Holland, edited by a Strasburg professor, Mathias Bernegger, in order that no suspicion might rest upon Galileo of having had anything to do with it.[500] Such an act was very improper for a pious Catholic, and Galileo really was one. In the following year, however, he told his old friend, Fra Fulgenzio Micanzio, at Venice, with great delight, that Bernegger had brought out by the same publishers the Apology to the Grand Duchess Christine of 1615, in Italian with a Latin translation. The secret translator, concealed under the pseudonym of Ruberto Robertini Borasso, was also Diodati.[501] In a letter to Micanzio, as well as in another of 12th July, Galileo expressed an ardent wish that a large number of copies of it might be introduced into Italy, “to shame his enemies and calumniators.”[502] As we know, this letter to the Grand Duchess contained nothing but a theological apology for the Copernican system, so that what gratified Galileo so much in its publication, was that the world would now learn that he, who had been denounced as a heretic, had always been an orthodox Christian, into whose head it had never entered, as his enemies gave out, to attack the holy faith. Martin is quite justified in saying that “the reputation of a good Christian and true Catholic was as dear to Galileo as that of a good astronomer.”[503] While Galileo was enjoying the twofold satisfaction of seeing his “Dialogues” attain a wider circulation (they had meanwhile been translated into English),[504] and yet of being acknowledged as a pious subject of the Roman Catholic Church, the Count de Noailles continued his efforts at Rome, before his approaching departure from Italy, to obtain pardon for Galileo. Castelli, who, in consequence of his too great devotion to Galileo and his system, had been banished for three years from Urban’s presence, had at length, by the end of 1635, been taken into favour again,[505] and reported faithfully to Galileo all the steps taken to procure his liberty. The utmost caution had been exercised in order to attain this end.[506] Count Noailles and Castelli had persuaded Cardinal Antonio Barberini, in repeated interviews, that nothing had been further from Galileo’s intention than to offend or make game of Urban VIII., upon which the cardinal, at the request of the French ambassador, promised to intercede with his papal brother for Galileo. On 11th July Noailles made the same assurances to the Pope at an audience, whereupon he exclaimed: “Lo crediamo, lo crediamo!” (We believe it), and again said that he was personally very well disposed to Galileo, and had always liked him; but when Noailles began to speak of his liberation, he said evasively that this affair was of the greatest moment to all Christendom. The French diplomatist, who knew Urban’s irritable temper, did not think it advisable to press him further, and consoled himself for the time, even after this cool reply, with the thought that the brother cardinal had promised to use his good offices for Galileo. Castelli informed Galileo in a letter of 12th July[507] of all this, and advised him to write a letter of thanks to Cardinal Antonio for his kind intercession, which he at once did.[508] Noailles placed all his hopes on a farewell audience with the Pope, in which he meant to ask for Galileo’s pardon. On 8th August he drove for the last time to the Vatican. Urban was very gracious, and when Galileo’s affairs were introduced he even promised at last to bring the subject before the Holy Congregation.[509] Noailles told Cardinal Antonio of this most favourable result with joyful emotion, who said at once: “Good! good! and I will speak to all the cardinals of the Holy Congregation.”[510] They were apparently justified in entertaining the most sanguine hopes, but the future taught them that all this was nothing but fair speeches with which Urban had taken leave of the French ambassador. For there can be no doubt that if the Pope, with his absolute power, had been in earnest about Galileo’s liberation, the Congregation would not have been slow to comply with his wishes. Galileo, however, remained as before, a prisoner in his villa at Arcetri, which he had meanwhile bought, and the papal favour, of which a promise had been held out, was limited to allowing him, at the end of September, to accept an invitation from the Grand Duke to visit him at his Villa Mezzomonte, three miles from Florence,[511] and on 16th October to leave his place of exile for one day to greet the Count de Noailles, at Poggibonsi, in passing through it on his way to France.[512] This was the extent of the papal clemency for the present, and it was not till the old man was quite blind and hopelessly ill, with one foot in the grave, that any humane feeling was awakened for him at the Vatican.
CHAPTER II.
FAILING HEALTH AND LOSS OF SIGHT. Galileo’s Labours at Arcetri.—Completion of the “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze.”—Sends it to the Elzevirs at Leyden.—Method of taking Longitudes at Sea.—Declined by Spain and offered to Holland.—Discovery of the Libration and Titubation of the Moon.—Visit from Milton.—Becomes Blind.—Letter to Diodati.—On a hint from Castelli petitions for his Liberty.—The Inquisitor to visit him and report to Rome.—Permitted to live at Florence under Restrictions.—The States-General appoint a Delegate to see him on the Longitude Question.—The Inquisitor sends word of it to Rome.—Galileo not to receive a Heretic.—Presents from the States-General refused from fear of Rome.—Letter to Diodati.—Galileo supposed to be near his End.—Request that Castelli might come to him.—Permitted under Restrictions.—The new “Dialoghi” appear at Leyden, 1638.—They founded Mechanical Physics.—Attract much Notice.—Improvement of Health.—In 1639 goes to Arcetri again, probably not voluntarily. Galileo was unceasingly active in his seclusion at Arcetri. In the year 1636 he completed his famous “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze.”[513] He also exerted himself, like a loving father who wishes to see his children provided for before he dies, about the preservation and republication of his works which were quite out of print. But all these efforts were frustrated by envy, ecclesiastical intolerance, and the unfavourable times. His cherished scheme of bringing out an edition of his collected works could neither be carried out by the French mathematician, Carcavy, who had warmly taken up the subject,[514] nor by the Elzevirs through the mediation of Micanzio.[515] He had also to give up his project of dedicating his “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze” to the German Emperor, Ferdinand II., and of publishing them at Vienna, as he learnt from his friend and former pupil there, Giovanni Pieroni, that his implacable foes, the Jesuits, were all-powerful; that Ferdinand himself was entirely under their influence; and moreover that his bitterest foe, Father Scheiner, was just then at Vienna.[516] In the following year, however (1637), Pieroni succeeded by his prudent and untiring efforts, during the temporary absence of Scheiner, in obtaining a licence for Galileo’s latest work,[517] and afterwards one at OlmÜtz also; but meanwhile he had sent the MS. by Micanzio[518] to be printed by the Elzevirs at Leyden, and, under the circumstances described by Pieroni, he did not prefer to bring out his book at a place where his bitterest enemies were in power. He was at this time also deeply interested in a subject which originated as far back as 1610. It had occurred to him soon after the discovery of Jupiter’s moons, by a series of observations of them, to make astronomical calculations and tables which would enable him to predict every year their configurations, their relative positions and occasional eclipses with the utmost precision; this would furnish the means of ascertaining the longitude of the point of observation at any hour of the night, which appeared to be of special importance to navigation. For hitherto the eclipses of the sun and moon had had to be employed for the purpose, which, however, on account of their rarity and the want of precise calculation, were neither entirely to be relied on nor sufficient. Galileo had offered his discovery,—the practical value of which he overrated,—in 1612, to the Spanish Government, and in 1616 tedious negotiations were carried on about it, which however led to no result, were then postponed till 1620, and in 1630 entirely given up.[519] Now (August, 1636,) as he heard that the Dutch merchants had even offered a premium of thirty thousand scudi to any one who should invent a sure method of taking longitudes at sea, he ventured, without the knowledge of the Inquisition, to offer his invention to the Protestant States-General. Diodati at Paris was the mediator in these secret and ceremonious negotiations. On 11th November, Galileo’s offer was entertained in the most flattering manner in the Assembly of the States-General, and a commission was appointed, consisting of the four savans, Realius, Hortensius, Blavius, and Golius, to examine into the subject and report upon it.[520] While Galileo was impatiently waiting for the decision that was never come to, he made his last great telescopic discovery, although suffering much in his eyes, that of the libration and titubation of the moon, about which he wrote his remarkable letter to Alfonso Antonini, bearing the signal date: “Della mia carcere di Arcetri li 10 febbrajo 1637.”[521] The complaint in Galileo’s eyes grew rapidly worse. By the end of June the sight of the right eye was gone, and that of the other diminished with frightful rapidity from a constant discharge.[522] But in spite of this heavy calamity, combined with his other sufferings, his interest in science did not diminish for a moment. Even at this sad time we find him carrying on a brisk correspondence with the learned men of Germany, Holland, France, and Italy, continuing his negotiations with the States-General with great zest,[523] as well as occupying himself perpetually with astronomy and physics. He was indeed often obliged to employ the hand of another;[524] but his mind worked on with undiminished vigour, even though he was no longer able to commit to paper himself the ideas that continually occupied him. On 2nd September he received a visit from his sovereign, who came to console and encourage him in his pitiable situation.[525] A few months later an unknown young man, of striking appearance from his handsome face and the unmistakable evidences which genius always exhibits, knocked at the door of the solitary villa at Arcetri: it was Milton, then twenty-nine years of age, who, travelling in Italy, sought out the old man of world-wide fame to testify his veneration.[526] In December of the same year Galileo became permanently quite blind, and informed Diodati of his calamity on 2nd January, 1638, in the following words:— “In reply to your very acceptable letter of 20th November, I inform you, in reference to your inquiries about my health, that I am somewhat stronger than I have been of late, but alas! revered sir, Galileo, your devoted friend and servant, has been for a month totally and incurably blind; so that this heaven, this earth, this universe, which by my remarkable observations and clear demonstrations I have enlarged a hundred, nay, a thousand fold beyond the limits universally accepted by the learned men of all previous ages, are now shrivelled up for me into such narrow compass that it only extends to the space occupied by my person.”[527] Up to the time when Galileo entirely lost his sight, absolutely nothing had been able to be done for his liberation at Rome. Even the faithful Castelli wrote on 12th September, to Galileo’s son Vincenzo, that he had not been able to do anything whatever for his father; but he piously adds, “I do not fail every morning at holy mass to pray the Divine Majesty to comfort him, to help him, and to grant him His Divine grace.”[528] This precisely indicates the hopeless state of Galileo’s affairs. Just then, during the first few days of December of the same year, darkness closed round him for ever; and not long afterwards, 12th December, Castelli suddenly wrote to him, that he had been given to understand that Galileo had not been forbidden in 1634 to send petitions direct to the Holy Office, but only through other persons.[529] When the decided papal rescript of 23rd March, 1634,[530] is compared with this curious interpretation of it, there can be no doubt that it was intended to enable the curia to take a more lenient view without direct collision with a former mandate. Galileo at once sent Castelli’s letter to the Tuscan Court, with a request for instructions, as he did not wish to do anything without the concurrence of his sovereign.[531] He was informed that he had better draw up a petition to the Holy Office, and get it handed in at Rome through Castelli.[532] The latter had meanwhile informed himself under what formalities Galileo should make his request, and sent him on 19th January, 1638,[533] a draught of the petition, with the remark that it must be sent, together with a medical certificate, direct to the assessor of the Congregation of the Holy Office; this Galileo immediately did. The petition was as follows:— “Galileo Galilei, most humble servant of your most worthy Eminence, most respectfully showeth that whereas, by command of the Holy Congregation, he was imprisoned outside Florence four years ago, and after long and dangerous illness, as the enclosed medical certificate testifies, has entirely lost his eyesight, and therefore stands in urgent need of medical care: he appeals to the mercy of your most worthy Eminences, urgently intreating them in this most miserable condition and at his advanced age to grant him the blessing of his liberty.” The utmost caution was exercised at Rome before granting this petition. No confidence was placed in the medical certificate; but the Inquisitor-General of Florence, Father Fanano, was instructed to visit Galileo and to make an exact report of his health, and whether it was to be feared, if he lived at Florence, that he would promote the propagation of his errors.[534] Fanano at once conscientiously executed his commission, and on 13th February, 1638, sent the following report to Cardinal Francesco Barberini:— “In order the better to execute his Holiness’s commission, I went myself, accompanied by a strange physician, an intimate friend of mine, to see Galileo, quite unexpectedly, at his villa at Arcetri, to find out the state he was in. My idea was not so much by this mode of proceeding to put myself in a position to report on the nature of his ailments, as to gain an insight into the studies and occupations he is carrying on, that I might be able to judge whether he was in a condition, if he returned to Florence, to propagate the condemned doctrine of the double motion of the earth by speeches at meetings. I found him deprived of his eyesight, entirely blind; he hopes for a cure, as the cataract only formed six months ago, but at his age of seventy the physician considers it incurable. He has besides a severe rupture, and suffers from continual weariness of life and sleeplessness, which as he asserts, and it is confirmed by the inmates of his house, does not permit him one hour’s sound sleep in the twenty-four. He is besides so reduced that he looks more like a corpse than a living man. The villa is a long way from the city, and the access is inconvenient, so that Galileo can but seldom, and with much inconvenience and expense, have medical aid.[535] His studies are interrupted by his blindness, though he is read to sometimes; intercourse with him is not much sought after, as in his poor state of health he can generally only complain of his sufferings and talk of his ailments to occasional visitors. I think, therefore, in consideration of this, if his Holiness, in his boundless mercy, should think him worthy, and would allow him to live in Florence, he would have no opportunity of holding meetings, and if he had, he is so prostrated that I think it would suffice, in order to make quite sure, to keep him in check by an emphatic warning. This is what I have to report to your Eminence.”[536] This report at last opened the eyes of Urban VIII. as to Galileo’s real condition. The cry of distress from the blind old man, approaching dissolution, was too well justified to be wholly ignored, and a partial hearing was given to it at all events, at a sitting of the Congregation held on 25th February, under the presidency of the Pope.[537] But a full release, in spite of the information that Galileo was more like a corpse than a living man, still appeared too dangerous to be ventured on. On 9th March Galileo received from the Inquisitor-General, Father Fanano, the following communication:— “His Holiness is willing to allow you to remove from your villa to the house which you own in Florence, in order that you may be cured of your illness here. But on your arrival in the city you must immediately repair, or be taken, to the buildings of the Holy Office, that you may learn from me what I must do and prescribe for your advantage.”[538] Galileo availed himself of the permission to return to his little house, Via della Costa, at Florence, on the very next day. Here the Inquisitor-General, as charged by the Holy Office, informed him, “for his advantage,” of the order, not to go out in the city under pain of actual imprisonment for life and excommunication, and not to speak with any one whomsoever of the condemned opinion of the double motion of the earth.[539] It was also enjoined upon him not to receive any suspicious visitors. It is characteristic of the mode of proceeding of the Inquisition, that Fanano set Galileo’s own son, who was nursing him with the tenderest affection, to watch over him. The Inquisitor enjoined upon Vincenzo to see that the above orders were strictly obeyed, and especially to take care that his father’s visitors never stayed long. He remarks, in a report to Francesco Barberini of 10th March, that Vincenzo could be trusted, “for he is very much obliged for the favour granted to his father to be medically treated at Florence, and fears that the least offence might entail the loss of it; but it is very much to his own interest that his father should behave properly and keep up as long as possible, for with his death a thousand scudi will go, which the Grand Duke allows him annually.” In the opinion of the worthy Father Fanano, then, the son must be anxious for his father’s life for the sake of the thousand scudi! In the same letter the Inquisitor assured Barberini that he would himself keep a sharp look out that his Holiness’s orders were strictly obeyed, which, as we shall soon see, he did not fail to do. Galileo’s confinement in Florence was so rigorous that at Easter a special permission from the Inquisition was required to allow him to go to the little Church of San Giorgio, very near his house, to confess, to communicate, and to perform his Easter devotions,[540] and even this permission only extended expressly to the Thursday, Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday.[541] On the other hand, as appears from the dates of his letters,[542] he was allowed, during June, July, and August, to go several times to and fro between his villa at Arcetri and Florence. Galileo was now once more to discover how rigidly he was watched by the Inquisition. His negotiations with the States-General, in spite of the urgent intercession of such men as Diodati, Hortensius, Hugo Grotius, Realius, Constantine Huyghens (Secretary of the Prince of Orange, and father of the celebrated Christian Huyghens), and others, had not led to any result. His proposed method of taking longitudes at sea, well worked out as it was theoretically, presented many difficulties in practical application. His methods of precisely determining the smallest portions of time, and of overcoming the obstacles occasioned by the motion of the vessel, did not prove to be adequate.[543] He had endeavoured, in a long letter to Realius of 6th June, 1637,[544] to dismiss or refute all the objections that had been made; but this did not suffice, and although the States-General acknowledged his proposal in the main in the most handsome terms, even accepted it, and offered him a special distinction (of which presently), it appeared necessary to have some personal consultation on the subject with the inventor. For this purpose, Hortensius, who had also a great desire to make Galileo’s acquaintance, was to go to Florence.[545] The Inquisitor-General heard that a delegate was coming from Germany to confer with Galileo on the subject. He at once reported this on 26th June to Rome,[546] whence he received instructions under date of 13th July from the Congregation of the Holy Office, that Galileo must not receive the delegate if he were of a heretical religion, or from a heretical country, and the Inquisitor will please communicate this to Galileo; on the other hand, there was nothing to prevent the interview if the person came from a Catholic country, and himself belonged to the Catholic religion; only, in accordance with the previous regulations, the doctrine of the double motion of the earth must not be spoken of.[547] A few days after the Inquisitor had delivered his instructions to Galileo, the German merchants of the name of Ebers residing in Florence, presented him in the name of the Dutch Government with a very flattering letter, and a heavy gold chain, as a recognition of his proposals and a pledge of the ultimate adjustment of the negotiations. The envoys of the States-General found Galileo very ill in bed, his blinded eyes continually running and very much inflamed. He felt the gold chain, which he could not see, and had the letter read to him. He then handed the chain back to the merchants, on the plea that he could not keep it now, as the negotiations had been interrupted by his illness and loss of sight, and he did not at all know whether he should ever be in a position to carry them through.[548] The real motive, however, was nothing but fear of the Inquisition,[549] and as the sequel showed, he was quite right. Fanano sent a report on 25th July of all these circumstances to Cardinal Barberini at Rome. It is so characteristic that we cannot refrain from giving it:— “The person who was to come to see Galileo has neither appeared in Florence, nor is likely to appear, so far as I am informed; but I have not yet been able to learn whether in consequence of some hindrance on the journey or from some other cause. I know, however, that presents for Galileo and a letter to him have come to some merchants here. A highly estimable person, who is in my confidence, and has spoken with the person who has the presents and letter in charge, told me that both bear the seal of the Dutch Government; the presents are in a case, and may be gold or silver work. Galileo has steadily refused to accept either the letter or the presents, whether from fear of incurring some danger, on account of the warning I gave him on the first news of the expected arrival of an envoy, or whether because he really could not perfect his method of taking longitudes at sea, and is not in a state to do it; for he is now quite blind, and his head is more in the grave than fit for mathematical studies. Insurmountable difficulties had also occurred in the use of the instruments indicated by him. Besides, it is said here, that if he had fully brought his plan to perfection, his Highness (Ferdinand II. of Tuscany) would never have permitted it to pass into the hands of renegades, heretics, or enemies of the allies of his house. This is what I have to report to your Eminence.”[550] The news that Galileo had not accepted the distinction offered him by the Dutch Government gave great satisfaction at Rome; and Urban VIII. even charged the Inquisitor at Florence, by a mandate of 5th August, to express to Galileo the gratification of the Holy Congregation at his conduct in this affair.[551] About this time he was sunk so low, physically as well as mentally, that he and every one thought his dissolution was at hand. In a letter to Diodati of 7th August, in which he told him of his interview with the German merchants at Florence, he expressed the fear that “if his sufferings increased as they had done during the last three or four days, he would not even be able to dictate letters.”[552] He added, perhaps in reference to the Inquisitor’s intimation of 13th July: “It would be a fruitless undertaking if Signor Hortensius were to take the trouble to come and see me, for if he found me living (which I do not believe), I should be quite unable to give him the least satisfaction.” His profound vexation about the regulations imposed upon him in this matter by the Roman curia is very evident in a letter to Diodati of 14th August. He writes:— “As ill luck would have it, the Holy Office came to know of the negotiations I was carrying on about the geographical longitude with the States-General, which may do me the greatest injury. I am extremely obliged to you for having induced Signor Hortensius to give up his intended journey, and thereby averted some calamity from me which would probably have been in store for me if he had come. It is indeed true that these negotiations ought not to do me any harm, for the just and obvious reasons that you mention, but rather to bring me fame and honour, if my circumstances were but like those of other men, that is, if I were not pursued by misfortune more than others. But having been often and often convinced by experience of the tricks fate plays me, I can but expect from its obstinate perfidy, that what would be an advantage to any one else will never bring anything but harm to me. But even in this bitter adversity I do not lose my peace of mind, for it would be but idle audacity to oppose inexorable destiny.”[553] Galileo, who thought his hours were numbered, dictated his will on 21st August, in the presence of a notary and witnesses, and directed that he should be buried in the family vault of the Galilei in the Church of Santa Croce at Florence.[554] On 8th September the Grand Duke paid the dying astronomer, as was supposed, a visit of two hours, and himself handed him his medicine.[555] It had been for a long time a cherished wish of Galileo’s to have with him during the evening of his days his most devoted and favourite disciple, Father Castelli.[556] But the professorship which he held at Rome made the attainment of this wish difficult. As it was now supposed that a speedy death would deprive the world of the great philosopher, the Grand Duke requested through Niccolini at Rome that Castelli might come to Florence, for a few months at least, that he might yet receive from the lips of his dying master many ideas of importance for science, which he might not perhaps confide to any but his trusted friend.[557] After some difficulties were surmounted, he actually received the papal consent, but only on condition that a third person should always be present during the conversations with Galileo.[558] Early in October Castelli arrived in Florence, where the Inquisitor-General, as charged by the Holy Office, gave him permission to visit Galileo, with the express prohibition, under pain of excommunication, to converse with him on the condemned doctrine of the earth’s double motion.[559] The permission, however, to visit Galileo seems to have been very limited, for Castelli repeatedly wrote to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, with the most urgent entreaties to obtain an extension of it for him from the Pope. Castelli protests in this letter that he would rather lose his life than converse with Galileo on subjects forbidden by the Church. He gives as a reason for the need of more frequent interviews that he had received from the Grand Duke the twofold charge to minister to Galileo in spiritual matters, and to inform himself fully about the tables and ephemerides of the Medicean stars, because the Prince Giovanni Carlo, Lord High Admiral, was to take this discovery to Spain.[560] The cardinal replied that in consideration of these circumstances, Urban VIII. granted permission for more frequent visits to Galileo, under the known conditions;[561] but the official permission, was not issued until about November.[562] Nothing is known in history, however, of the Lord High Admiral’s having ever taken Galileo’s method of taking longitudes to the Peninsula. During the same year (1638), the Elzevirs at Leyden issued Galileo’s famous work: “Discourses on and Demonstrations of Two New Sciences appertaining to Mechanics and Motion.”[563] This work, known under the abridged title, “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze,” was dedicated to the Count de Noailles, in grateful remembrance of the warm interest which he had always shown in the author.[564] It is the most copious and best of all Galileo’s writings, and he himself valued it more highly than any of the others.[565] In it he created the new sciences of the doctrine of cohesion in stationary bodies, and their resistance when torn asunder; also that of phoronomics, and thereby opened up new paths in a field of science that had been lying fallow. He must, indeed, be regarded as the real founder of mechanical physics. It is not our province to enter farther into the contents of this work, or its importance for science. It has, however, some significance in our historical review of Galileo’s relations with the curia, for it excited immense attention in all learned circles, and increasingly attracted the notice of the scientific world to the prisoner of the Inquisition. This was by no means agreeable to the Romanists, who would have been glad to see him sink into oblivion. Galileo now again received communications from all countries, some of them expressing the highest admiration of his new work, and others asking more information on many of the theories expounded. And we now behold the shattered old man of seventy-four, only partially recovered from his severe illness, carrying on an extensive correspondence full of the most abstruse problems in physics and mathematics.[566] In January, 1639, as his health had so far improved as to allow the hope to be indulged that he might be spared some time longer, he returned to his villa at Arcetri, not to leave it again alive. Was this move a voluntary one? We have no document which finally settles the question. But we hold ourselves justified in doubting it. Not only because it is difficult to reconcile a voluntary return to Arcetri with his previous efforts to obtain permission to reside in Florence, but there is a later letter from him bearing the expressive date: “From the Villa Arcetri, my perpetual prison and place of exile from the city.”[567] And when the wife of Buonamici, who was distinguished for her mental powers, gave him a pressing invitation to Prato, which is only four miles from Florence, he reminds her in his reply of 6th April, 1641, that “he was still a prisoner here for reasons which her husband was well aware of”; he then presses her to visit him at Arcetri, adding: “Do not make any excuses, nor fear that any unpleasantness may accrue to me from it, for I do not trouble myself much how this interview may be judged by certain persons, as I am accustomed to bearing many heavy burdens as if they were quite light.”[568] From such utterances it is clear that Galileo had little pleasure in residing at Arcetri, and that therefore his second banishment from Florence was not voluntary, but was the result of a papal order.[569]
CHAPTER III.
LAST YEARS AND DEATH. Refusal of some Favour asked by Galileo.—His pious Resignation.—Continues his scientific Researches.—His pupil Viviani.—Failure of attempt to renew Negotiations about Longitudes.—Reply to Liceti and Correspondence with him.—Last Discussion of the Copernican System in reply to Rinuccini.—Sketch of its Contents.—Pendulum Clocks.—Priority of the discovery belongs to Galileo.—Visit from Castelli.—Torricelli joins Viviani.—Scientific discourse on his Deathbed.—Death, 8th Jan., 1642.—Proposal to deny him Christian Burial.—Monument objected to by Urban VIII.—Ferdinand II. fears to offend him.—Buried quietly.—No Inscription till thirty-two years later.—First Public Monument erected by Viviani in 1693.—Viviani directs his Heirs to erect one in Santa Croce.—Erected in 1738.—Rome unable to put down Copernican System.—In 1757 Benedict XIV. permits the Clause in Decree forbidding Books which teach the new System to be expunged.—In 1820 permission given to treat of it as true.—Galileo’s Work and others not expunged from the Index till 1835. We now come to the last three years of Galileo’s life. From two documents published by Professor Gherardi,[570] we learn that in 1639 Galileo once more asked at Rome for some favours not specified, but that they were absolutely refused by the Pope. From this time Galileo came no further into direct contact with the Roman curia. He had been compelled to give up all hope of any amelioration of his lot from the implacable Urban VIII. So he ended his days quietly and resigned, as the prisoner of the Inquisition, in his villa at Arcetri. Castelli also, who (as his letters to Galileo of 1639 bear witness)[571] had warmly exerted himself on his behalf with Cardinal Barberini and other influential persons, had probably come to the conclusion that nothing more could be done for his unfortunate friend, for from this time we find nothing in his letters to Galileo but scientific disquisitions and spiritual consolations.[572] This indicates the two interests which occupied the latest period of Galileo’s life—deep piety and scientific meditations. His utter hopelessness and pious resignation are very clearly expressed in the brief sentence he used often to write to Castelli: “Piace cosi a Dio, dere piacere cosi ancora a Noi.”[573] (If it please God, it ought also to please us.) He never omitted in any letter to his old friend and pupil to commend himself in conclusion to his prayers,[574] and in his letter of 3rd December, 1639, he added: “I remind you to persevere in your prayers to the all-merciful and loving God, that He will cast out the bitter hatred from the hearts of my malicious and unhappy persecutors.” The lofty genius with which nature had endowed Galileo never displayed itself in so striking and surprising a manner as during these last three years. No sooner were his physical sufferings in some measure relieved, than he occupied himself in scientific speculations, the results of which he partly communicated to his great pupil and subsequent biographer, Viviani, by word of mouth, and partly dictated them to some of those about him. The society of young Viviani, then eighteen years of age, who, by permission of the Inquisition, spent the last two years and a half of the old master’s life near him,[575] was the greatest comfort to him, and he conceived a fatherly affection for the talented youth. We owe it partly to the assistance and stimulus given by Viviani that the aged Galileo worked on to the end in improving and enlarging his “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze,” made a number of additions, and added new evidence of great importance to science in two supplementary dialogues.[576] During this last period of his life also, he again took up the negotiations with the States-General, broken off by his severe illness in 1638. After he became blind he had given up all his writings, calculations, and astronomical tables relating to the Medicean stars, to his old pupil, Father Vincenzo Renieri, in order that he might carry them further; he was well adapted for the task, and executed it with equal skill and zeal.[577] The new ephemerides were just about to be sent to Hortensius, when Diodati informed Galileo of his sudden death in a letter of 28th October, 1639.[578] The three other commissioners charged by the States-General with the investigation of Galileo’s proposal having also died one after another, in quick succession, it was difficult to resume the negotiations. The interest of the Netherlanders in Galileo’s scheme (perhaps from its acknowledged imperfection) had also evidently cooled, and his proposal to replace the commissioners was not carried out, although he offered to send Renieri to Holland to give all needful explanations by word of mouth. Galileo’s death then put an end to these fruitless negotiations.[579] At the beginning of 1640 Fortunio Liceti, a former pupil of Galileo’s, published a book on the phosphorescent Bolognian stone. In the fiftieth chapter of this work he treats of the faint light of the side of the moon not directly illuminated by the sun, and rejects the view advocated by Galileo in his “Sidereus Nuntius,” that it arises from a reflection of the sun’s rays striking our earth, which the earth reflects to our satellite, who again reflects them to us. Galileo was undecided whether it were not best to take no notice of Liceti’s objections, the scientific value of which he did not estimate very highly, when a letter from Prince Leopold de’ Medici, brother of the reigning Grand Duke, relieved him of his doubts.[580] This prince, who has gained a permanent name in the history of science by founding the celebrated “AccadÉmia del Cimento,” invited Galileo to give him his views on Liceti’s objections.[581] This challenge sufficed to rouse all the blind old man’s dialectic skill, though he was then seventy-six and bowed down by mental and bodily sufferings. He dictated a reply, in the form of a letter to Prince Leopold, which occupies fifty large pages in the extant edition of his “Opere,” and in fire, spirit, mastery of language, and crushing argument, it is quite a match for the most famous controversial works of his manhood.[582] A most interesting direct correspondence then ensued between Galileo and Liceti, which was carried on from June, 1640, to January, 1641, in which not this question only was discussed, but Galileo took occasion to express his opinions, with great spirit and learning, on the modern Peripatetic school and philosophy, on Aristotle himself, and his fanatical followers. These letters of the venerable hero of science are characterised by ostensible politeness pervaded by cutting irony, which makes them instructive and stimulating reading.[583] Ten months before his death, thanks to an indiscreet question from one of his former pupils, a last opportunity occurred of speaking of the Copernican system. Francesco Rinuccini, Tuscan resident at Venice, and afterwards Bishop of Pistoja, having apparently forgotten that the master had solemnly abjured that opinion, and had even been compelled to promise to denounce its adherents wherever he met with them to the Inquisition, informed him in a letter of 23rd March, 1641,[584] that the mathematician Pieroni asserted that he had discovered by means of the telescope a small parallax of a few seconds in some of the fixed stars, which would place the correctness of the Copernican system beyond all question. Rinuccini then goes on to say, in the same breath, that he had lately seen the manuscript of a book about to appear, which contained an objection to the new doctrine, and made it appear very doubtful. It was this: because we see exactly one half of the firmament, it follows inevitably that the earth is the centre of the starry heavens. Rinuccini begs Galileo to clear up these doubts for him, and to help him to a more certain opinion. This was the impulse to Galileo’s letter of 29th March, 1641,[585] which, as Alfred Von Reumont truly says,[586] whether jest or mask, had better never have been written. There is no doubt that it must not be taken in its literal sense. Precisely the same tactics are followed as in the letter which accompanied the “Treatise on the Tides,” to the Grand Duke of Austria in 1618, and in many passages of the “Dialogues on the Two Systems.” Galileo conceals his real opinions behind a thick veil, through which the truth is only penetrable by the initiated. The cautious course he pursued in this perilous answer to Rinuccini is as clever as it is ingenious, and appears appropriate to his circumstances; but it does not produce a pleasant impression, and for the sake of the great man’s memory, one would prefer to leave the subject untouched. We will now examine this interesting letter more closely. When we call to mind the disquisitions on the relation of Scripture to science, which Galileo wrote to Castelli in 1613, and to the Grand Duchess Christine in 1615, the very beginning is a misrepresentation only excusable on the ground of urgent necessity. He says: “The incorrectness of the Copernican system should not in any case be doubted, especially by us Catholics, for the inviolable authority of Holy Scripture is opposed to it, as interpreted by the greatest teachers of theology, whose unanimous declaration makes the stability of the earth in the centre, and the revolution of the sun round it, a certainty. The grounds on which Copernicus and his followers have maintained the contrary fall to pieces before the fundamental argument of the Divine omnipotence. For since this is able to effect by many, aye, endless means, what, so far as we can see, only appears practicable by one method, we must not limit the hand of God and persist obstinately in anything in which we may have been mistaken.[587] And as I hold the Copernican observations and conclusions to be insufficient, those of Ptolemy, Aristotle, and their followers appear to me far more delusive and mistaken, because their falsity can clearly be proved without going beyond the limits of human knowledge.”[588] After this introduction Galileo proceeds to answer Rinuccini’s question. He treats that argument against the Copernican system as delusive, and says that it originates in the assumption that the earth stands still in the centre, and by no means from precise astronomical observation. He refutes, therefore, the scientific objection to the new doctrine. Speaking of the assumed discovery of Pieroni, he says, that if it should be confirmed, however small the parallax may be, human science must draw the conclusion from it that the earth cannot be stationary in the centre. But in order to weaken this dangerous sentence, he hastens to add, that if Pieroni might be mistaken in thinking that he had discovered such a parallax of a few seconds, those might be still more mistaken who think they can observe that the visible hemisphere never varies, not even one or two seconds; for such an exact and certain observation is utterly impossible, partly from the insufficiency of the astronomical instruments, and partly from the refraction of the rays of light. As will be seen, Galileo takes great care to show the futility of the new arguments brought into the field against the Copernican system. It therefore seems very strange that some writers, and among them the well-known Italian historian, Cesare Cantu, suppose from this letter that at the close of his life Galileo had really renounced the prohibited doctrine from profound conviction![589] The introduction, and many passages thrown in in this cautious refutation, must, as AlbÈri and Henri Martin justly observe, be regarded as fiction, the author having the Inquisition in view; it had recently given a striking proof of its watchfulness by forbidding the author of a book called “De Pitagorea animarum transmigratione,” to apply the epithet “clarissimus” to Galileo, and it had only with great difficulty been persuaded to permit “notissimus Galileus”![590] A short time before the close of Galileo’s brilliant scientific career, in spite of age, blindness, and sickness, he once more gave striking evidence of the genius which could only be quenched by death. It will be remembered that the inadequacy of his proposed chronometer had been the chief obstacle to the acceptance by the States-General of his method of taking longitudes at sea. Now, in the second half of the year 1641, it occurred to him, as is confirmed beyond question by Viviani, who was present,[591] though the idea is generally ascribed to Christian Huyghens, of adding a pendulum to the then very imperfect clocks, as regulator of their motion. As this was sixteen years before Huyghens made known his invention of pendulum clocks, priority indisputably belongs to Galileo. But it was only permitted to the blind master to conceive the great idea—he was not to carry it out. It was his intention to employ the eyes and hands of his son Vincenzo, a very clever mechanician, to put his idea in practice, and he told him of his plan. Vincenzo was to make the necessary drawings according to his father’s instructions, and to construct models accordingly. But in the midst of these labours Galileo fell ill, and this time he did not recover.[592] His faithful pupil, Castelli, who probably foresaw the speedy dissolution of the revered old man, came to see him about the end of September, 1641. In October, on the repeated and urgent invitation of Galileo, Torricelli joined Castelli and Viviani, not to leave the Villa Arcetri until they left it with Galileo’s coffin. Torricelli was then thirty-three, and the old master had discerned his eminent talents from a treatise on the theory of motion which he had sent him.[593] Castelli was not permitted to stay till the close. At the beginning of November he had to return to Rome, leaving Galileo, Torricelli, and Viviani eagerly occupied with the completion of the “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze.” On 5th November Galileo was attacked by an insidious hectic fever, which slowly but surely brought him to the grave.[594] Violent pains in his limbs threw him on a sick bed, from which he did not rise again. In spite of all these sufferings, which were augmented by constant palpitation of the heart and almost entire sleeplessness, his active mind scarcely rested for a moment, and he spent the long hours of perpetual darkness in constant scientific conversation and discussions with Torricelli and Viviani, who noted down the last utterances of the dying man with pious care. As they chiefly related to the “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze,” they are to be found in the two supplementary Dialogues added to that work. On 8th January, 1642, the year of Newton’s birth, having received the last sacraments and the benediction of Urban VIII., Galileo breathed his last, at the age of nearly seventy-eight years. His son Vincenzo, his daughter-in-law Sestilia Bocchineri, his pupils Torricelli and Viviani, and the parish priest, were around his bed.[595] And when Vincenzo closed his father’s sightless eyes for their last long sleep, they gave not a thought at Rome to the severe loss sustained by science by Galileo’s death, but only prepared in hot haste to guard the interests of the Church, and as far as it lay in their power, to persecute the CÆsar of science even beyond the grave. The aim was now, as far as possible, to extinguish his memory, with which so many perils for Rome were bound up. Even around his bier the struggle began. Some pettifogging theologians went so far as to wish that Christian burial should be denied him, and that his will should be declared null and void, for a man condemned on suspicion of heresy, and who had died as a prisoner of the Inquisition, had no claim to rest in consecrated ground, nor could he possess testamentary rights. A long consultation of the ecclesiastical authorities in Florence, and two circumstantial opinions from them were required to put these fanatics to silence. Immediately after Galileo’s death his numerous pupils and admirers made a collection for a handsome monument to the famous Tuscan. The Inquisitor, Fanano, at once sent word of this to Rome, and received a reply by order of the Pope, dated 23rd January, that he was to bring it in some way to the ears of the Grand Duke that it was not at all suitable to erect a monument to Galileo, who was sentenced to do penance by the tribunal of the Holy Office and had died during that sentence; good Catholics would be scandalised, and the reputation of the Grand Duke for piety might suffer. But if this did not take effect, the Inquisitor must see that there was nothing in the inscription insulting to the reputation of the holy tribunal, and exercise the same care about the funeral sermon.[596] Besides this, Urban VIII. seized the next opportunity of giving the Tuscan ambassador to understand that “it would be a bad example for the world if his Highness permitted such a thing, since Galileo had been arraigned before the Holy Office for such false and erroneous opinions, had also given much trouble about them at Florence, and had altogether given rise to the greatest scandal throughout Christendom by this condemned doctrine.”[597] In the despatch in which Niccolini reported these remarks of the Pope to his Government, he advised that the matter be postponed, and reminded them that the Pope had had the body of the Duchess Matilda, of Mantua, removed from the Carthusian convent there, and buried at St. Peter’s at Rome, without saying a word to the Duke about it beforehand, excusing himself afterwards by saying that all churches were papal property, and therefore all the bodies buried in them belonged to the clergy! If, therefore, they did not wish to incur the danger of perhaps seeing Galileo’s bones dragged away from Florence, all idea must be given up for the present of suitably celebrating his memory. Niccolini received an official reply that there had been a talk of erecting a monument to Galileo, but that his Highness had not come to any decision, and proper regard would certainly be paid to the hints received from the Pope.[598] The weak Ferdinand II. did not venture to act in the least against the heartless Pope’s wishes. Even Galileo’s desire in his will to be buried in the vault of his ancestors in the Church of Santa Croce, at Florence, was not respected. His mortal remains were placed in a little obscure room, in a side chapel belonging to the Church, called “the Chapel of the Novitiate.” He was buried according to the desire of Urban VIII., very quietly, without any pomp. No monument nor inscription marked his resting place; but though Rome did all she could to obliterate the memory of the famous philosopher, she could not effect that the immortal name of Galileo Galilei should be buried in the grave with his lifeless remains. It was not till thirty-two years later, when Urban VIII. had long been in his grave, and more lenient views were entertained about Galileo at the Vatican, that Fra Gabriel Pierozzi, Rector of the Novices of the Convent of Santa Croce, ventured to adorn Galileo’s grave with a long bombastic inscription.[599] In 1693 Viviani, whose greatest pride it was to sign himself “DiscÉpolo ultimo di Galileo,” erected the first public monument to his immortal master. The front of his handsome house in the Via San Antonio was made to serve for it, for he placed the bronze bust of Galileo, after the model of the famous sculptor, Giovanni Caccini, over the door. A long eulogy on Galileo was engraved over and on both sides of it.[600] But Viviani was not content with thus piously honouring the memory of the master; in his last will he enjoined on his heirs to erect a splendid monument to him, which was to cost about 4000 scudi, in the Church of Santa Croce.[601] Decades, however, passed after Viviani’s death before his heirs thought of fulfilling his wishes. At length, in 1734, the preliminary steps were taken by an inquiry from the Convent of Santa Croce, whether any decree of the Holy Congregation existed which would forbid the erection of such a monument in the Church? The Inquisitor at Florence immediately inquired of the Holy Office at Rome whether it would be permitted thus to honour a man “who had been condemned for notorious errors.”[602] The opinion of the counsellors of the Holy Office was taken. They said that there was nothing to prevent the erection of the monument, provided the intended inscription were submitted to the Holy Congregation, that they might give such orders about it as they thought proper.[603] This opinion was confirmed by the Congregation of the Holy Office on 16th June, 1734.[604] And so the pompous monument to Galileo, which displayed the tastelessness of the age, and was not completed till four years later, could be raised in the Church of Santa Croce, this pantheon of the Florentines, where they bury their famous dead, and of which Byron finely sings in “Childe Harold”:— “In Santa Croce’s holy precincts lie Ashes which make it holier, dust which is Even in itself an immortality, Though there were nothing save the past, and this, The particle of those sublimities Which have relapsed to chaos:—here repose Angelo’s, Alfieri’s bones, and his, The starry Galileo, with his woes; Here Machiavelli’s earth returned to whence it rose.” [605] On 12th March, 1737, Galileo’s remains were removed, in presence of all the professors of the University of Florence, and many of the learned men of Italy, with great solemnity and ecclesiastical pomp, from their modest resting-place to the new mausoleum in a more worthy place in the Church of Santa Croce itself, and united with those of his last pupil, Viviani.[606] It had long been perceived at Rome that, in spite of every effort, it was vain to try to bury the Copernican system with Galileo in the grave. It could no longer greatly concern the Roman curia that Galileo’s memory was held in high honour, when the cause for which he suffered had decidedly gained the victory. It was by a singular freak of nature that in the very same year which closed the career of this great observer of her laws, another who was to complete the work begun by Copernicus and carried on by Galileo, entered upon his. He it is, as we all know, who gave to science those eternal forms now recognised as firmly established, and whose genius, by the discovery of the law of gravitation, crowned the edifice of which Copernicus laid the foundations and which Galileo upreared. During the lifetime of the latter, and the period immediately succeeding his death, the truth of the system of the earth’s double motion was recognised by numerous learned men; and in 1696, when Newton published his immortal work, “PhilosophiÆ naturalis principia Mathematica,” it became thoroughly established. All the scientific world who pursued the paths of free investigation accepted the Copernican system, and only a few ossified devotees of the old school, in common with some theological philosophers, still raised impotent objections to it, which have been continued even up to this day by some wrong-headed people.[607] At Rome they only accommodated themselves to the new system slowly and reluctantly. In 1757, when it was no longer doubted by any one but a few fanatics, the Congregation of the Index thought the time was come for proposing to Pope Benedict XIV. to expunge the clause from the decree of 5th March, 1616, prohibiting all books which teach that the sun is stationary and the earth revolves. This enlightened pontiff, known as a patron of the arts and sciences, entirely agreed, and signified his consent on 11th May, 1757.[608] But there still remained on the Index the work of Copernicus, “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium,” Diego di ZuÑiga’s “Commentary on the Book of Job” (these two works, however, only “donec corrigantur,” but this was quite worthless for strict Catholics as far as the work of Copernicus was concerned, as since the announcement of these “corrections” by the decree of 15th May, 1620, no new edition had appeared), Foscarini’s “LÉttera sÓpra l’opinione de i Pittagorici e del Copernico della mobilitÀ della Terra et stabilitÀ del Sole, e il nuove Pittagorico SistÉma del Mondo,” Kepler’s “Epitome astronomiÆ CopernicÆ,” and finally, Galileo’s “Dialogo sopra i due Massimi SistÉmi del Mondo.” This last work had indeed been allowed to appear in the edition of Galileo’s collected works,[609] undertaken at Padua in 1744, which had received the prescribed ecclesiastical permission; but the editor, the Abbot Toaldo, had been obliged expressly to state in an introduction that the theory of the double motion can and must be regarded only as a mathematical hypothesis, to facilitate the explanation of certain natural phenomena. Besides this, the “Dialogues on the Two Principal Systems” had to be preceded by the sentence on and recantation of Galileo, as well as by an Essay “On the System of the Universe of the Ancient Hebrews,” by Calmet, in which the passages of Scripture bearing on the order of the world were interpreted in the traditional Catholic fashion.[610] The celebrated French astronomer Lalande, as he himself relates,[611] tried in vain when at Rome, in 1765, to get Galileo’s works expunged from the Index. The Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of the Index objected that there was a sentence of the Congregation of the Holy Office in existence which must first be cancelled, but this was not done, and all remained as before; and even in the edition of the Index of 1819, strange to say, the five works mentioned above were to be found as repudiated by the Roman curia! It then happened in the following year, 1820, that Canon Joseph Settele, professor of optics and astronomy at the Archive-gymnasium at Rome, wrote a lesson book, “Elementi d’astronomia,” in which the Copernican system, in accordance with the results of science, was treated ex professo. The Master of the Palace, Philip Anfossi, to whom in his capacity of chief censor of the press the book was submitted, demanded under appeal to the decree of 5th March, 1616, still in force, that the doctrine of the double motion should be only treated hypothetically, and refused the imprimatur until the MS. had been altered. Canon Settele, however, was not disposed to make himself ridiculous in face of the whole scientific world by compliance with these antiquated conditions, and appealed to Pope Pius VII., who referred the matter to the Congregation of the Holy Office. Here at last some regard was had to the times, and in the sitting of 16th August, 1820, it was decided that Settele might treat the Copernican system as established, which was approved by Pius VII. without hesitation. Father Anfossi could not, after this decision, prevent the work from publication as it was, but he resolutely pointed out the contradiction between this permission and the decree of 5th March, 1616, and published a treatise entitled: “Can any one who has made the Tridentine Confession, defend and teach as a thesis, and as an absolute truth and not a mere hypothesis, that the earth revolves and the sun is stationary?”[612] This gave rise to discussions in the College of Cardinals of the Holy Inquisition as to the attitude to be adopted by ecclesiastical authority towards the Copernican system, which had been universally adopted for more than a century. In the sitting of 11th September, 1822, they finally agreed, with express reference to the decree of the Index Congregation of 10th May, 1757, and 16th August, 1820, “that the printing and publication of works treating of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun, in accordance with the general opinion of modern astronomers is permitted at Rome.”[613] This decree was ratified by Pius VII. on 25th September. But full thirteen years more went by until, in 1835, when the new edition of the catalogue of prohibited books appeared, the five works in which the theory of the double motion was maintained and defended were expunged from the list. It was not until 1835, therefore, that the last trace was effaced of the memorable warfare so long and resolutely waged by ecclesiastical power against the superior insight of science. If it is denied to history to surround the head of Galileo, the greatest advocate of the new system, with the halo of the martyr, ready to die for his cause, posterity will ever regard with admiration and gratitude the figure of the man, who, though he did not heroically defend the truth, was, by virtue of his genius, one of her first pioneers, and had to bear for her sake an accumulation of untold suffering.
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