Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia/Chapter 18

by Karl von Gebler

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TRIAL CONTINUED.

Galileo allowed to return to the Embassy.—His Hopefulness.—Third Hearing.—Hands in his Defence.—Agreement of it with previous Events.—Confident Hopes of his Friends.—Niccolini's Fears.—Decision to examine Galileo under threat of Torture.— Niccolini's Audience of the Pope.—Informed that the Trial was over, that Galileo would soon be sentenced, and would be imprisoned.—Final Examination.—Sent back to "locum suum."—No Evidence that he suffered Torture or was placed in a Prison Cell.

On the day on which the second hearing had taken place, at Firenzuola's suggestion to the Pope, Galileo was permitted, in consideration of his age and infirmities, to return to the hotel of the Tuscan ambassador, on oath not to leave it, not to hold any intercourse with any one but the inmates of the house, to present himself before the Holy Office whenever summoned, and to maintain the strictest silence about the course of the trial.^[1] On the very next day Niccolini wrote to Cioli with great satisfaction: "Signor Galileo was yesterday sent back to my house when I was not at all expecting him, and although the trial is not yet ended."^[2] The Tuscan Secretary of State replied on 4th May, with the curt observation: "His Highness was much pleased at the liberation of Signor Galileo," and immediately adds the ill-humoured and unworthy remark: "It appears to me that I must remind your Excellency that when I wrote to you to entertain Signor Galileo at the embassy, the time specified was one month, and the expenses of the remaining time must fall upon himself."^[3] Niccolini replied with ill-concealed indignation: "It would not become me to speak of this subject to Galileo while he is my guest; I would rather bear the expense myself, which only comes to fourteen or fifteen scudi a month, everything included; so that if Galileo should remain here the whole summer, that is six months, the outlay for him and his servant would amount to about from ninety to a hundred scudi."^[4]

Galileo, who had no idea that his generous protector, Niccolini, had even had to go into unpleasant questions about his support, was entertaining the most confident hopes of a successful and speedy termination of his trial. Although his letters of this period are unfortunately not extant,^[5] we see from the answers of his correspondents what sanguine accounts he sent them. Geri Bocchineri wrote on 12th May:

 

"I have for a long time had no such consolatory news as that which your letter of the 7th brought me. It gives me well-founded hopes that the calumnies and snares of your enemies will be in vain; and in the end, the annoyances involved in the defence, maintenance, and perhaps even increase, of your reputation, can be willingly borne, as you undoubtedly have borne them, since you have gained far more than you have lost by the calamity that has fallen upon you! My pleasure is still more enhanced by the news that you expect to be able to report the end of the affair in the next letter." ^[6]

 

But many a post day was to pass over, many a letter from Galileo to be received, before his trial was to come to the conclusion he so little anticipated.

On 10th May he was summoned for the third time before the Holy Tribunal, where Father Firenzuola, the Commissary-General of the Inquisition, informed him that eight days were allowed him in which to write a defence if he wished to submit one. But Galileo handed it in at once^[7] from which we may conclude that he had been informed of this proceeding beforehand. It was as follows:—

 

"When asked if I had signified to the Reverend Father, the Master of the Sacred Palace, the injunction privately laid upon me, about sixteen years ago, by order of the Holy Office, not to hold, defend, or 'in any way' teach the doctrine of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun, I answered that I had not done so. And not being questioned as to the reason why I had not intimated it, I had no opportunity to add anything further. It now appears to me necessary to state the reason, in order to demonstrate the purity of my intention, ever foreign to the employment of simulation or deceit in any operation I engage in. I say, then, that as at that time reports were spread abroad by evil-disposed persons, to the effect that I had been summoned by the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine to abjure certain of my opinions and doctrines, and that I had consented to abjure them, and also to submit to punishment for them, I was thus constrained to apply to his Eminence, and to solicit him to furnish me with an attestation, explaining the cause for which I had been summoned before him; which attestation I obtained, in his own hand-writing, and it is the same that I now produce with the present document.^[8] From this it clearly appears that it was merely announced to me that the doctrine attributed to Copernicus of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun must not be held or defended, and . . . [Here the MS. is defaced.] beyond this general announcement affecting every one, any other injunction in particular was intimated to me, no trace thereof appears there. Having, then, as a reminder, this authentic attestation in the handwriting of the very person who intimated the command to me, I made no further application of thought or memory with regard to the words employed in announcing to me the said order not to hold or defend the doctrine in question; so that the two articles of the order—in addition to the injunction not to 'hold' or 'defend' it—to wit, the words 'nor to teach it' 'in any way whatsoever'—which I hear are contained in the order intimated to me, and registered—struck me as quite novel and as if I had not heard them before; and I do not think I ought to be disbelieved when I urge that in the course of fourteen or sixteen years I had lost all recollection of them, especially as I had no need to give any particular thought to them, having in my possession so authentic a reminder in writing. Now, if the said two articles be left out, and those two only be retained which are noted in the accompanying attestation, there is no doubt that the injunction contained in the latter is the same command as that contained in the decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Index. Whence it appears to me that I have a reasonable excuse for not having notified to the Master of the Sacred Palace the command privately imposed upon me, it being the same as that of the Congregation of the Index.

Seeing also, that my book was not subject to a stricter censorship than that made binding by the decree of the Index, it will, it appears to me, be sufficiently plain that I adopted the surest and most becoming method of having it guaranteed and purged of all shadow of taint, inasmuch as I handed it to the supreme Inquisitor at the very time when many books dealing with the same matters were being prohibited solely in virtue of the said decree. After what I have now stated, I would confidently hope that the idea of my having knowingly and deliberately violated the command imposed upon me, will henceforth be entirely banished from the minds of my most eminent and wise judges; so that those faults which are seen scattered throughout my book have not been artfully introduced with any concealed or other than sincere intention, but have only inadvertently fallen from my pen, owing to a vainglorious ambition and complacency in desiring to appear more subtle than the generality of popular writers, as indeed in another . . . [MS. defaced.] deposition I have confessed: which fault I shall be ready to correct by writing whenever I may be commanded or permitted by your Eminences.

Lastly, it remains for me to pray you to take into consideration my pitiable state of bodily indisposition, to which, at the age of seventy years, I have been reduced by ten months of constant mental anxiety and the fatigue of a long and toilsome journey at the most inclement season—together with the loss of the greater part of the years of which, from my previous condition of health, I had the prospect. I am persuaded and encouraged to do so by the clemency and goodness of the most eminent lords, my judges; with the hope that they may be pleased, in answer to my prayer, to remit what may appear to their entire justice . . . to such sufferings as adequate punishment—out of consideration for my declining age, which too, I humbly commend to them. And I would equally commend to their consideration my honour and reputation, against the calumnies of ill-wishers, whose persistence in detracting from my good name may be inferred from the necessity which constrained me to procure from the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine the attestation which accompanies this."^[9]

This touching appeal to the mercy of the judges of the Holy Office can scarcely be read without feelings of the profoundest pity for the unhappy old man, who, in the evening of his days, felt compelled by dread of the stake to deny his scientific convictions.

In looking at the defence in a judicial light, in spite of mistrust in the truthfulness of the accused, for which there is some Justification, it must be allowed that his statements about the proceedings of sixteen years before, agree entirely with all his letters and actions from 1616 to 1632. In view of this state of the case, Galileo's remark in his defence that "he had received that certificate from the very person who had intimated the command to him," possesses increased significance. His whole defence is intended to convince the judges that the two particulars "not to teach" and "in any way" were unknown to him up to the day of his first hearing, or, as he says, to avoid direct contradiction, "he had lost all recollection of them." He obviously thinks that the gravity of the indictment lies in these words. But he seems to be absolutely ignorant of their having been issued to him after the previous admonition of the Cardinal, by the Commissary-General of the Inquisition, with the threat that "otherwise they would proceed against him in the Holy Office," indeed, by the above remark he decidedly contradicts it. Apologists of the Inquisition at any price, of the stamp of Mgr. Marini, do not fail to adopt the only means left to them, and call Galileo's defence "childish evasions unworthy of so great a man, which are sure signs of guilt."^[10] We are of opinion, on the contrary, that the confident hopes of a favourable issue of his trial, by which, as appears from the replies of his correspondent and Niccolini's despatches, Galileo was animated up to the last moment, by no means comport with consciousness of guilt.

After his defence had been received, and the same obligations imposed on him on oath as after the second hearing, he was allowed to return to the embassy. The nearer the time approached when the old man's illusions were to be dispelled, the more sanguine was the intelligence he sent to his friends. He reminds one of a consumptive patient, full of hope when in the last stage of his disorder. Galileo receives in reply to his letters the congratulations of his friends on the, as they suppose, doubtless favourable issue of his trial. Cardinal Capponi writes on 21st May, that he had never expected anything else.^[11] Boccchineri, Guiducci, Agguinti, Cini, and others heartily express their satisfaction;^[12] the Archbishop of Siena, Ascanio Piccolomini, Galileo's devoted friend, invites him, in expectation of his speedy dismissal from Rome, to come and see him at Siena, that he may await the extinction of the plague at Florence.^[13] Galileo accepts the friendly invitation, and informs Bocchineri that he intends to go to Siena immediately after the end of the trial.^[14] Archbishop Piccolomini even offers his impatiently expected guest a litter for the journey.^[15] A favour granted to Galileo just at the last, on the urgent solicitation of Niccolini, and quite unheard of in the annals of the Inquisition, might have increased these confident hopes. He was permitted to take the air for the sake of his health in the gardens of the Castle of Gandolfo, to which, however, he was always conveyed in a half-closed carriage, as he was not to be seen in the streets.^[16]

Niccolini, however, did not share the hopes of his famous guest, and for very good reasons. He had had an audience, on 21st May, of the Pope and Cardinal Barberini, who had told him in answer to his inquiries when the trial might be expected to end, that it would probably be concluded in the congregation to take place in about a fortnight. After reporting this in his despatch to Cioli of 22nd May, Niccolini continues: "I very much fear that the book will be prohibited, unless it is averted by Galileo's being charged, as I proposed, to write an apology. Some 'salutary penance' will also be imposed upon him, as they maintain that he has transgressed the command communicated to him by Cardinal Bellarmine in 1616. I have not yet told him all this, because I want to prepare him for it by degrees, in order not to distress him. It will also be advisable to observe silence about this in Florence, that he may not hear it from his friends there; and the more so, as it may turn out otherwise."^[17] It was indeed "to turn out otherwise," but in a way that even Niccolini did not in the least suspect.

A momentary lull now took place in Galileo's trial—the preparation for the great catastrophe that was to take all the world by surprise. Sultry silence reigned for four weeks. No one, not even Niccolini, could learn anything about the progress of the affair; the thunderbolt had already fallen which was to crush the accused before it was known to anyone beyond the Holy Congregation. His fate had been sealed in a private meeting of it presided over by the Pope. Unfortunately we have no written notes of the proceedings of this highly interesting sitting. From two documents, which agree entirely in essentials, we simply know what the decrees were which minutely prescribed the final proceedings to be taken against Galileo. One of these documents is derived from the Vatican collection of the acts of Galileo's trial; the other is reproduced in Gherardi's collection of documents, and belongs to the MS. originals of the decrees drawn up in the sittings of the Holy Congregation in the archives of the Inquisition.

It is decreed in both documents^[18] which agree almost verbatim: To try Galileo as to his intention, and under threat of torture; if he kept firm, he was to be called upon to recant before a plenary assembly of the Congregation of the Holy Office, condemned to imprisonment according to the judgment of the Holy Congregation, and ordered in future not to discuss, either in writing or speaking, the opinion that the earth moves and the sun is stationary, nor yet the contrary opinion, under pain of further punishment for contumacy; further, the work, "Dialogo di Galileo Galilei, Linceo," was to be prohibited. And in order to make this known everywhere, copies of the sentence were to be sent to all papal envoys, and all inquisitors into heretical crimes, and specially to the Inquisitor of Florence, who was to proclaim it in a full conclave of the Congregation, and read it publicly to a majority of the professors of mathematics summoned for the purpose.

It is noteworthy that it was expressly decreed that Galileo was to be enjoined, "nor yet to discuss the contrary opinion," the Ptolemaic. They obviously accredited the clever dialectician with the skill, under pretext of defending the old system, of demonstrating exactly the contrary. It therefore seemed most prudent to impose absolute silence on him on this delicate subject.

Two days after the course of the proceedings had been secretly determined on, the Pope gave audience to Niccolini, who once more came to beg for a speedy termination of the trial. Urban VIII. said that it had already been terminated, and that within the next few days Galileo would be summoned before the Holy Office to hear his sentence. The ambassador, who was terrified at this unexpected intelligence, hastened to implore his Holiness, out of respect for his Highness the Grand Duke, to mollify the severity which the Holy Congregation might perhaps have thought it necessary to exercise; and added obligingly that the great complaisance shown to the Grand Duke in the matter of Galileo was fully appreciated, and that the Grand Duke was only awaiting the end of the business to express his gratitude in person. The Pope replied, with equal suavity, that his Highness need not take this trouble, as he had readily granted every amelioration to Galileo out of affection for him; but as to his cause, they could do no less than prohibit that opinion, because it was erroneous and contrary to Holy Scripture, dictated ex ore Dei; as to his person, he would, according to usage, be imprisoned for a time, because he had transgressed the mandate issued to him in 1616. "However," added Urban, "after the publication of the sentence we will see you again, and we will consult together so that he may suffer as little distress as possible, since it cannot be let pass without some demonstration against his person." In reply to Niccolini's renewed urgent entreaties that his Holiness would extend his accustomed mercy to the pitiable old man of seventy, the Pope said that "he would at any rate be sent for a time to some monastery, as for instance, St. Croce; for he really did not know precisely what the Holy Congregation might decree (?!), but it was unanimous and nemine discrepante in intending to impose a penance on Galileo."

The very same day the ambassador sent a detailed despatch about this audience to Cioli,^[19] and remarked at the end that he had simply informed Galileo of the approaching end of the trial, and of the prohibition of his book, but had said nothing about the personal punishment, in order not to trouble him too much at once; the Pope had also enjoined this, that Galileo might not distress himself yet, and "because perhaps in the course of the proceedings things might take a better turn."

Galileo’s trial now proceeded strictly according to the programme settled by the Congregation of the Holy Office under the papal presidency. On the evening of Monday, 20th June, Galileo received a summons from the Holy Office to appear the next day.^[20] In this final hearing the accused was to be questioned, under threat of torture, about his intention, that is, as to his real conviction concerning the two systems. On the morning of the 21st Galileo appeared before his judges. After he had taken the usual oath, and had answered in the negative the query whether he had any statement to make, the examiner began as follows:—

Interrogated whether he holds or has held, and how long ago, that the sun is the centre of the world and that the earth is not the centre of the world, and moves, and also with a diurnal motion;

He answered: "A long time ago, i.e., before the decision of the Holy Congregation of the Index, and before the injunction was intimated to me, I was indifferent, and regarded both opinions, namely, that of Ptolemy and that of Copernicus, as open to discussion, inasmuch as either one or the other might be true in nature; but after the said decision, assured of the wisdom of the authorities, I ceased to have any doubt; and I held, as I still hold, as most true and indisputable, the opinion of Ptolemy, that is to say, the stability of the earth and the motion of the sun."

Being told that from the manner and connection in which the said opinion is discussed in the book printed by him subsequently to the time mentioned—nay, from the very fact of his having written and printed the said book, he is presumed to have held this opinion after the time specified; and being called upon to state the truth as to whether he holds or has held the same;

He answered: "As regards the writing of the published dialogue, my motive in so doing was not because I held the Copernican doctrine to be true, but simply thinking to confer a common benefit, I have set forth the proofs from nature and astronomy which may be adduced on either side; my object being to make it clear that neither the one set of arguments nor the other has the force of conclusive demonstration in favour of this opinion or of that; and that therefore, in order to proceed with certainty we must have recourse to the decisions of higher teaching, as may be clearly seen from a large number of passages in the dialogue in question. I affirm, therefore, on my conscience, that I do not now hold the condemned opinion, and have not held it since the decision of the authorities."

Being told that from the book itself and from the arguments adduced on the affirmative side,—namely, that the earth moves and that the sun is immovable,—it is presumed, as aforesaid, that he holds the opinion of Copernicus, or at least that he held it at that time; and that therefore, unless he make up his mind to confess the truth, recourse will be had against him to the appropriate remedies of the law;

He answered: "I do not hold, and have not held this opinion of Copernicus since the command was intimated to me that I must abandon it; for the rest, I am here in your hands,—do with me what you please." Being once more bidden to speak the truth, otherwise recourse will be had to torture, the terrified old man answered with the resignation of despair: "I am here to obey, and I have not held this opinion since the decision was pronounced, as I have stated."

In the protocol of the trial the concluding sentence follows immediately after this last answer of Galileo’s: "And as nothing further could be done in execution of the decree (of 16th June), his signature was obtained to his deposition, and he was sent back to his place."^[21]

There is not in this document, nor in any other extant, the slightest trace that torture was actually applied to Galileo, as has long and even recently been fabled. Since the publication of it by Epinois has acquainted us with the decree of 16th June, none such can be expected ever to be found. In that decree the course of the final legal proceedings was precisely indicated. But it was only the threat of torture that was prescribed, after which recantation and sentence of imprisonment were to follow. The execution of this threat, then, would have been a gross, and under the circumstances, incredible violation of the decrees of the Holy Office itself. Moreover, the assumed torture of Galileo is opposed, as we shall see by and by, to various historical facts. When the whole course of the trial is unrolled before our eyes, we shall go more deeply into the region of fable and malicious fabrication.

But as we pursue the path of history, we come upon an error which Mgr. Marini’s peculiar mode of interpretation has given rise to. He takes the concluding words of the protocol of the trial of 21st June, "remissus fuit ad locum suum," to mean that Galileo was sent back to the Tuscan embassy.^[22] Now, it is indisputable, from a despatch of Niccolini’s to Cioli of 26th June, 1633, that after the hearing of the 21st June, the accused was detained in the buildings of the Holy Office, and did not leave them till the 24th.^[23]

We have no information whatever as to the treatment he met with this time in the buildings of the Holy Office. Was he put into the apartments he had occupied before, or was he confined in a prisoner's cell? From the considerate treatment in outward things which Galileo met with during his trial at Rome, it may perhaps be concluded that he never was thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition.

1. Vat. MS. fol. 421 vo.
2. Op. ix. pp. 441, 442.
3. Wolynski, "La Diplomazia Toscana," etc., p. 61.
4. See Niccolini to Cioli, 15th May, 1633. (Op. ix. p. 442.)
5. Galileo's letters between 23rd April and 23rd July, just the most interesting time, are entirely wanting, which can scarcely be altogether accidental.
6. Op. ix. p. 353.
7. See the protocol of the hearing of 10th May, 1633. (Vat. MS. fol. 422 ro.)
8. At his first hearing Galileo had only been able to show a copy of this certificate, but now produced the original.
9. Vat. MS. fol. 425 vo.
10. Comp. Marini, pp. 98-100.
11. Op. ix. p. 357.
12. See their letters (Op. ix. pp. 355-364; and Suppl. pp. 350, 351).
13. See his letters to Galileo (Op. Suppl. pp. 248-250).
14. Op ix. p. 359.
15. Ibid. p. 365.
16. See Niccolini's despatches to Cioli of 29th May. (Op. ix. p. 443.)
17. Op. ix. pp. 442, 443.
18. "Feria V. Die XVI. Junii 1633.Galilaei de Galileis Florentini in hoc S. Off carcerati et ob ejus adversam valetudinem ac senectutem cum praecepto de non discedendo de domo electae habitationis in urbe, ac de se repraesentando toties quoties sub poenis arbitro Sacrae Congregationis habilitati proposita causa relato processu et auditis notis, S.^mus decrevit ipsum Galilaeum interrogandum esse super intentione et comminata el tortura, et si sustinuerit, previa abjuratione de vehementi in plena Congregatione S. Off condemnandum ad carcerem arbitrio Sac. Congregationis, Injunctum ci ne de cetero scripto vel verbo tractet ampluis gnovis modo de mobilitate terræ, nec de stabilitate solis et e contra sub poena relapsus. Librum vero ab co conscriptum cuititutus est Dialogo di Galileo Galilei Linceo (publice cremandum fore (sic) ma cassato) prohibendum fore. Praeterea ut haec omnibus innotescant exemplaria Sententiae Decretumque perinde transmitti jussit ad omnes nuntios apostolicos, et ad omnes haereticae pravitatis Inquisitores, ac praecipue ad Inquisitorem Florentiae qui eam sententiam in ejus plena Congregatione, Consultoribus accersitis, etiam et coram plerisque Mathematicae Artis Professoribus publice legatur." (Gherardi's Documents, Doc. xiii.; and Vat. MS. fol. 451 vo.)
    It was then apparently at first determined publicly to burn Galileo's book, and it was not till after the decree had been committed to writing that it was altered. At whose instigation this was done, whether at that of the Pope, or in consequence of the remonstrances of some more lenient members of the Congregation, such as the Cardinals Barberini, Borgia, and Zacchia, cannot be decided.
19. Op. ix. pp. 443, 444, from which the above account is taken.
20. See Niccolini’s despatch to Cioli, 26th June. (Op. ix. pp. 444, 445.)
21. Et cu nihil aliud posset haberi in executione decreti habita eius subscriptione remissus fuit ad locum suum. (Vat. MS. fol. 453 ro.)
22. "Cioè al palazzo del Ministro di Toscana," says Marini, p. 62.
23. The passage in Niccolini’s despatch is as follows: Il Signor Galilei fu chiamato lunedi (20) sera al S. Uffizio, ove si trasferi martedi (21) mattina conforme all’ ordine, per sentire qual che potessero desiderare da lui, ed essendo ritenuto, fa condotto mercoledi (22) alla Minerva avanti alli Sig. Cardinali e Prelati della Congregazione, dove non solamente gli fu letta la sentenza, ma fatto anche abiurare la sua opinione, . . . la qual condannazione gli ful subito permutata da S. B. in una relegazione o confine al giardino della Trinita de’ Monti, dore io lo condussi venerdi (24) sera . . . ." (Op. ix. pp. 444, 445.)