Let us see now why Dr. Scartazzini insists that not only the concluding sentence, but the whole protocol of 21st June, is a falsification. The reason is not far to seek. As we have seen, according to the rules of the Inquisition, if Galileo had really suffered torture, or if they had only proceeded to territio realis against him, within twenty-four hours of leaving the torture chamber he would have had to confirm the depositions made there, in the ordinary court. But the passing of the sentence and the recantation took place on the 22nd, on the day therefore on which the tortured Galileo would have had to ratify these depositions, and not till after this could the sentence be legally drawn up. Dr. Scartazzini sees plainly enough that Galileo’s ratification, the drawing up and passing of the sentence, and the recantation, could not possibly all have taken place in one morning. But he finds his way out of this cul-de-sac in a remarkably simple manner; he boldly asserts that the date is false, that the last examination was not on 21st June, but earlier, perhaps on the 17th! The whole protocol, therefore, must be false. Of course Dr. Scartazzini has not a shadow of evidence to give for his assertion. He contents himself with the singular reason that the papal decree of 16th June did not admit of a delay of five or six days, but would be at once carried out.[454] This arbitrary assertion is contradicted by the official report of Niccolini to Cioli of 26th June, 1633, in which he says that Galileo was summoned on Monday evening to the Holy Office, and went on Tuesday morning to learn what was wanted of him; he was detained there, and taken on Wednesday to the Minerva.[455] The dates given by Niccolini agree precisely with those of the protocol of Galileo’s last hearing, which is assumed to be false! In face of this evidence, so conclusive for any serious historian, Dr. Scartazzini remarks: “the Tuscan ambassador’s memory must have failed him, whether involuntarily or voluntarily.”[456] We leave all comment on this kind of historical evidence to the reader.
But we must raise a decided protest, in the name of impartial history, against the way in which Dr. Scartazzini, in order to lend some probability to the above remark, afterwards tries to make out that Niccolini had repeatedly sent romances to Florence, in order to represent to the Grand Duke, who was so anxious about Galileo, how much he (Niccolini) had exerted himself for him, and had actually achieved. Thus Dr. Scartazzini comes to the conclusion, which must excite the ire of every right-minded person, that “the Tuscan ambassador, Niccolini, is a liar.”[457] Niccolini then, Galileo’s noblest, most devoted, and indefatigable friend, who was at his side in every difficulty, and certainly did more for him at Rome than was ordered at Florence, and perhaps even more than was approved,—this historical figure, worthy of our utmost reverence,—was a liar! Happily it is with Dr. Scartazzini alone that the odium of the accusation rests; in the annals of history, the name of Niccolini stands untarnished, and every Italian, every educated man, will think with gratitude of the man who nobly and disinterestedly stood by the side of Galileo Galilei at the time of his greatest peril. Honour be for ever to his memory!
We give, in conclusion, one more instance of a curious kind of evidence that Galileo really was subjected to torture. Professor Eckert thinks he knows with “almost geometrical certainty that Galileo suffered torture during the twenty-four hours which he spent before the Inquisition.” In proof of this assertion the author says: “In conclusion, the two hernias which the unfortunate old man had after his return is a proof that he must have endured that kind of torture called il tormento della corda.”[458] This shrewd conclusion falls to the ground in face of the medical certificate of 17th December, 1632, wherein among the rest we find: “We have also observed a serious hernia, with rupture of the peritoneum.”[459] And further, this certificate affords indisputable evidence that both his age[460] and his state of health, in consequence of the rupture, were sufficient to protect him against torture according to the rules of the Holy Office.[461] Galileo would have had to be professionally examined by a physician and surgeon, and, according to their written report, he would either have been subjected to torture, or a dispensation would have been granted against it, and all this would have been minutely recorded in the Acts of the trial.[462] It is needless to say that among these papers there is not a trace either of any protest of Galileo’s, nor of the certificates of the physicians of the Holy Office; and that according to the protocol of the hearing of 21st June, it never went so far, and the Pope himself, as the decree of 16th June undoubtedly proves, never intended that it should.
No, Galileo never suffered bodily torture, nor was he even terrified by being taken into the torture chamber and shown the instruments; he was only mentally stretched upon the rack, by the verbal threat of it in the ordinary judgment hall, while the whole painful procedure, and finally the humiliating public recantation, was but a prolonged torture for the old man in his deep distress. Libri, Brewster, and other rhetorical authors have desired to stamp Galileo as a “martyr of science” in the full sense of the words. But this will not do for two reasons, as Henri Martin[463] justly points out. In the first place, Galileo did not suffer torture; and in the second, a true martyr, that is, a witness unto blood, never under any circumstances, not even on burning coals, abjures his opinions, or he does not deserve the name.
For the sake of Galileo’s moral greatness, his submission may be regretted, but at all events greater benefit has accrued from it to science, than if, in consequence of a noble steadfastness which we should have greeted with enthusiasm, he had perished prematurely at the stake or had languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. It was after the famous trial that he presented the world with his immortal “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze.”