quoted the dictum of Tycho Brahe that the system of Copernicus was ‘absurd and contrary to Holy Writ’ since the judgment recites these very words. On March 5, 1616, the ‘De Revolutionibus’ of Copernicus and another work by Diego di Zuniga were suspended by the Congregation of the Index ‘until they be corrected,’ and Foscarini's book was ‘altogether prohibited and condemned’ as well as ‘all other works’ in which the Copernican opinion is taught. On February 25 the Pope directed ‘Cardinal Bellarmine to summon before him the said Galileo and to admonish him to abandon the said opinion; and, in case of his refusal to obey, that the Commissary is to intimate to him, before a notary and witnesses, a command to abstain altogether from teaching or defending this opinion and doctrine, and even from discussing it; and if he do not acquiesce therein, that he is to be imprisoned.’ This document is followed in the Vatican MS. by another: “Friday, the 26th (February, 1616). At the Palace, the usual residence of the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, the said Galileo, having been summoned and brought before the said Lord Cardinal, was in the presence of the Most Rev'd Michael Angelo Segnezzio, . . . Commissary-General of the Holy Office, by the said Cardinal warned of the error of the aforesaid opinion and admonished to abandon it; and immediately thereafter, before me and before witnesses, the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine being still present, the said Galileo was by the said Commissary commanded and enjoined . . . to relinquish altogether the said opinion . . .; nor henceforth to hold, teach or defend it in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing; otherwise proceedings would be taken against him in the Holy Office; which injunction the said Galileo acquiesced in and promised to obey. Done at Rome in the place above said, in presence of (two persons named) witnesses.” This annotation was long supposed to have been fabricated in 1632 to meet new conditions then arising. It is, however, entirely genuine. (Gebler's ‘Galileo,’ Appendix III.)
The exact wording is to be noted. Upon this admonition the subsequent fate of Galileo hangs.
(To be continued.)
