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CHAPTER IX.

THE SENTENCE AND RECANTATION.

The Sentence in full.—Analysis of it.—The Copernican System had not been pronounced heretical by "Infallible" Authority.—The Special Prohibition assumed as Fact.—The Sentence illegal according to the Canon Law.—The Holy Office exceeded its powers in calling upon Galileo to recant.—The Sentence not unanimous.—This escaped notice for two hundred and thirty-one Years.—The Recantation.—Futile attempts to show that Galileo had really altered his Opinion.—After the Sentence, Imprisonment exchanged for Banishment to Trinita de' Monti.—Petition for leave to go to Florence.—Allowed to go to Siena.

 

On Wednesday, 22nd June, 1633, in the forenoon, Galileo was conducted to the large hall used for melancholy proceedings of this kind, in the Dominican Convent of St. Maria sopra la Minerva, where, in the presence of his judges and a large assemblage of cardinals and prelates of the Holy Congregation, the following sentence was read to him:—

 

We, Gasparo del titolo di S. Croce in Gierusalemme Borgia;
Fra Felice Centino del titolo di S. Anastasia, detto d' Ascoli;
Guido del titolo di S. Maria del Popolo Bentivoglio;
Fra Desiderio Scaglia del titolo di S. Carlo detto di Cremona;
Fra Antonio Barberino detto di S. Onofrio;
Laudivio Zacchia del titolo di S. Pietro in Vincola detto di S. Sisto;
Berlingero del titolo di S. Agostino, Gessi;
Fabricio del titolo di S. Lorenzo in pane e perna, Verospi, chiamato Prete;
Francesco di S. Lorenzo in Damaso Barberino, e
Martio di S. Maria Nuova Ginetti Diaconi;

 

by the grace of God, cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Inquisitors General, by the Holy Apostolic see specially deputed, against heretical depravity throughout the whole Christian Republic.