detention, from 21–24th June, at the end of which he was conducted by Niccolini, on the evening of the 24th, to the Villa Medici.[1] On 6th July he set out thence, "in very good health," for Siena, and in spite of his advanced age performed four miles on foot for his own pleasure,[2] which an infirm old man of seventy, if he had suffered torture a fortnight before, would surely not have been able to do.
But all these plain indications go for nothing with some historians, whose judgment is warped by partisanship, and who are not willing to give up the notion that Galileo did suffer the pangs of torture. And so we find this myth, at first mentioned by a few authors as a mere unauthentic report, assuming a more and more distinct form, until it is brought forward, with acute and learned arguments, as, to say the least, very probable, by Libri, Brewster, Parchappe, Eckert, and others.
These writers base their assertion on the following passage in the sentence:—
"And whereas it appeared to us that you had not stated the full truth with regard to your intention, we thought it necessary to subject you to a rigorous examination (examen rigorosum), at which (without prejudice however, to the matters confessed by you, and set forth as above with regard to your said intention) you answered like a good Catholic."
These writers assert, on the one hand, that the expression "examen rigorosum" in the vocabulary of the Inquisition could mean nothing but torture; and on the other, they take the expression that Galileo had "answered as a good Catholic" under examen rigorosum, to mean that they had extorted from him a confession as to his intention, and conclude that torture had been resorted to. But on closer scrutiny of the wording of the passage, the meaning appears to be exactly the contrary; for the sentence in parenthesis says plainly that Galileo had "answered as a good Catholic"
