The discrepancy between this record and that of 25th February is obvious: that says that the Pope had ordered that Cardinal Bellarmine should admonish Galileo to renounce the opinions of Copernicus, and only in case he should refuse, was the Commissary to issue the order to him to abstain from teaching, defending, or discussing those opinions. Here in the report of the 26th we read, that "immediately after" the admonition of the cardinal, the Commissary issued this stringent order, and with the significant modification, "nor to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatsoever." In this report of the proceedings it is not expressly stated whether Galileo at first refused or not, but, according to the wording of the report, it is almost impossible that he could have done so, since it represents that the Cardinal's admonition was followed immediately by the absolute prohibition from the Commissary. But such a mode of procedure was by no means in accordance with the papal ordinance, and would rather have been an arbitrary deviation from it.
Until within the last ten years, in all the works, great or small, which treat of Galileo's trial, we find this absolute prohibition which he was said to have received related as an established historical fact. It was the sole legal ground on which the indictment was based against Galileo sixteen years later, and he was condemned and sentenced by his judges by an ostentatious appeal to it. Up to 1850 not a single document had been seen by any of the authors who wrote so confidently of the stringent prohibition of 1616, which confirmed its historical truth. And yet it could but exist among
second might be nome (nomine); the first began with a p (proprie?) but is quite illegible.] S[illegible] D. N. Pape et totius Congreg[illegible] s[illegible] officij, ut suprad[illegible] oponione q. sol sit cé: trum mundi, et imobilis, et Terra moveatur omnino relinquat, nec ea de Cetero q*vis mo teneat, doceat, aut defendat, verbo, aut scriptis, als (alias) con ipsu procedetur i (in) Sto offo., cui precepto Idem Galileus aequievit, et parere promisit. Sub. quib. & actum Rome ubi subra pntibus ibidé R.D. Badino Nores de Nicosia i Regno Cypri, et Augustino Mongardo de loco Abbatie Rose, dioc. Politianen (Poletianensis) familiarib. di [illegible] D. Card[illegible] Testibus. (Vat. MS. folio 379 ro, 379 vo.)
