fathers were present, but I did not know them, and have never seen them since."
Inquisitor: "Was any other command communicated to you on this subject, in the presence of those fathers, by them or any one else, and what?"
Galileo: "I remember that the transaction took place as follows: Signor Cardinal Bellarmine sent for me one morning, and told me certain particulars which I was to bring to the ears of his Holiness before I communicated them to others.[1] But the end of it was that he told me that the Copernican opinion, being contradictory to Holy Scripture, must not be held nor defended. It has escaped my memory whether those Dominican fathers were present before, or whether they came afterwards; neither do I remember whether they were present when the Signor Cardinal told me the said opinion was not to be held. It may be that a command was issued to me that I should not hold nor defend the opinion in question, but I do not remember it, for it is several years ago."
Inquisitor: "If what was then said and enjoined upon you as a command were read aloud to you, would you remember it?"
Galileo: "I do not remember that anything else was said or enjoined upon me, nor do I know that I should remember what was said to me, even if it were read to me. I say freely what I do remember, because I do not think that I have in any way disobeyed the injunction, that is, have not by any means held nor defended the said opinion that the earth moves and the sun is stationary."
The Inquisitor now tells Galileo that the command which was issued to him before witnesses contained: "that he must neither hold, defend, nor teach that opinion in any way whatsoever."[2] Will he please to say whether he remembers in what way and by whom this was intimated to him.
- ↑ No explanation is to be found anywhere of this mysterious notification. The protocols of the trial show that none took place before the Inquisitor. These "particulars," therefore, as they are not mentioned again in the course of the trial, and play no part in it, may have been chiefly of a private nature.
- ↑ These are the precise words of this ominous passage in the annotation of 26th February, 1616, which appear to have been considered absolutely decisive by the Inquisitor.
