Galileo was now requested to state what was decreed in February, 1616, and communicated to him.
Galileo: “In the month of February, 1616, Signor Cardinal Bellarmine told me that as the opinion of Copernicus, if adopted absolutely, was contrary to Holy Scripture, it must neither be held nor defended, but that it might be held hypothetically, and written about in this sense. In accordance with this I possess a certificate of the said Signor Cardinal Bellarmine, given on 26th May, 1616, in which he says that the Copernican opinion may neither be held nor defended, as it is opposed to Holy Scripture, of which certificate I herewith submit a copy.”[355]
Inquisitor: “When the above communication was made to you, were any other persons present, and who?”
Galileo: “When Signor Cardinal Bellarmine made known to me what I have reported about the Copernican views, some Dominican fathers were present, but I did not know them, and have never seen them since.”
Inquisitor: “Was any other command communicated to you on this subject, in the presence of those fathers, by them or any one else, and what?”
Galileo: “I remember that the transaction took place as follows: Signor Cardinal Bellarmine sent for me one morning, and told me certain particulars which I was to bring to the ears of his Holiness before I communicated them to others.[356] But the end of it was that he told me that the Copernican opinion, being contradictory to Holy Scripture, must not be held nor defended. It has escaped my memory whether those Dominican fathers were present before, or whether they came afterwards; neither do I remember whether they were present when the Signor Cardinal told me the said opinion was not to be held. It may be that a command was issued to me that I should not hold nor defend the opinion in question, but I do not remember it, for it is several years ago.”
Inquisitor: “If what was then said and enjoined upon you as a command were read aloud to you, would you remember it?”
Galileo: “I do not remember that anything else was said or enjoined upon me, nor do I know that I should remember what was said to me, even if it were read to me. I say freely what I do remember, because I do not think that I have in any way disobeyed the injunction, that is, have not by any means held nor defended the said opinion that the earth moves and the sun is stationary.”
The Inquisitor now tells Galileo that the command which was issued to him before witnesses contained: “that he must neither hold, defend, nor teach that opinion in any way whatsoever.”[357] Will he please to say whether he remembers in what way and by whom this was intimated to him.
Galileo: “I do not remember that the command was intimated to me by anybody but by the cardinal verbally; and I remember that the command was, not to hold nor defend. It may be that, ‘and not to teach’ was also there. I do not remember it, neither the definition ‘in any way whatsoever’ (quovis modo), but it may be that it was; for I thought no more about it, nor took any pains to impress the words on my memory, as a few months later I received the certificate now produced, of the said Signor Cardinal Bellarmine, of 26th May, in which the injunction given me, not to hold nor defend that opinion, is expressly to be found. The two other definitions of the said injunction which have just been made known to me, namely, not to teach, and in any way, I have not retained in my memory, I suppose, because they are not mentioned in the said certificate, on which I rely, and which I have kept as a reminder.”