last a special commission had reported to the ecclesiastical authorities that he had become blind and wasted with disease and sorrow, he was allowed a little more liberty, but that little was hampered by close surveillance. He was forced to bear contemptible attacks on himself and on his works in silence; to see the men who had befriended him severely punished; Father Castelli banished; Ricciardi, the Master of the Sacred Palace, and Ciampoli the papal secretary, thrown out of their positions by Pope Urban and the Inquisitor at Florence reprimanded for having given permission to print Galileo's work. He lived to see the truths he had established carefully weeded out from all the Church colleges and universities in Europe, and when in a scientific work he happened to be spoken of as "renowned," the Inquisition ordered the substitution of the word "notorious."[1]
And now measures were taken to complete the destruction of the Copernican theory, with Galileo's proofs of it. On the 16th of June, 1633, the Holy Congregation, with the permission of the reigning Pope, ordered the sentence upon Galileo, and his recantation, to be sent to all the papal nuncios throughout Europe, as well as to all archbishops, bishops, and inquisitors in Italy and this document gave orders that the sentence and abjuration be made known "to your vicars, that you and all professors of philosophy and mathematics may have knowledge of it, that they may know why we proceeded against the said Galileo, and recognize the gravity of his error, in order that they may avoid it, and thus not incur the penalties which they would have to suffer in case they fell into the same."[2]
As a consequence of this, the professors of mathematics and astronomy in various universities of Europe were assembled and these documents were read to them. To the theological authorities this gave great satisfaction; the Rector of the University of Douay, referring to the opinion of Galileo, wrote to the papal nuncio at Brussels, "the professors of our university are so opposed to this fanatical opinion that.they have always held that it must be banished from the schools: in our English college at Douay this paradox has never been approved and never will be."
Still-another step was taken: the Inquisitors were ordered, especially in Italy, not to permit the publication of a new edition of any of Galileo's works, nor of any similar writings. On the other hand, theologians were urged, now that Copernicus and
- ↑ It is not probable that torture in the ordinary sense was administered to Galileo, though it was threatened. See Th. Martin, Vie do Galilée, for a fair summing up of the case. For the substitution of the word "notorious" for "renowned" by order of the Inquisition, see Martin, p. 227.
- ↑ For a copy of this document, see Gebler, p. 269. As to the spread of this and similar documents notifying Europe of Galileo's condemnation, see Favaro, pp. 804, 805.
