faction herein desired. To-day I think of examining him in order to obtain the said confession; and having, as I hope, received it, it will only remain to me further to question him with regard to his intention, and to impose the prohibitions upon him; and that done, he might have the house[1] assigned to him as a prison, as hinted to me by your Eminence, to whom I offer my most humble reverence.
Rome, 28th April, 1633.
Your Eminence's humble and most obedient servant,
Fra Vinco da Firenzuola."
The second hearing did not take place on the 28th, as Firenzuola proposed, but not till the 30th, perhaps on account of Galileo's indisposition. He had again to take an oath that he would speak the truth, after which he was requested to state what he had to say. He then began the following melancholy confession:—
"In the course of some days' continuous and attentive reflection on the interrogations put to me on the 16th of the present month, and in particular as to whether, sixteen years ago, an injunction was intimated to me by order of the Holy Office, forbidding me to hold, defend, or teach 'in any manner,' the opinion that had just been condemned,—of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun,—it occurred to me to re-peruse my printed dialogue, which for three years I had not seen, in order carefully to note whether, contrary to my most sincere intention, there had, by inadvertence, fallen from my pen anything from which a reader or the authorities might infer not only some taint of disobedience on my part, but also other particulars which might induce the belief that I had contravened the orders of the Holy Church. And being, by the kind permission of the authorities, at liberty to send about my servant, I succeeded in procuring a copy of my book, and having procured it I applied myself with the utmost diligence to its perusal, and to a most minute consideration thereof. And as, owing to my not having seen it for so long, it presented itself to me, as it were, like a new writing and by another author, I freely confess that in several places it seemed to me set forth in such a form that a reader ignorant of my real purpose might have had reason to suppose that the arguments adduced on the false side, and which it was my intention to confute, were so expressed as to be calculated rather to compel conviction by their cogency than to be easy of solution. Two arguments there are in particular—the one taken from the solar spots, the other from the ebb and flow of the tide—which in truth come to the ear of the reader with far greater show of force and power than
