Pass your own conscientious verdict, reader, on all these transactions, and bear in mind that Galileo's real enemies were of the same class of men who persecuted Kepler in Würtemberg, Tycho Brahe in Denmark, and Descartes in Holland. The first were Catholic, all the last were Protestants; but all were adherents of the old Ptolemaic system and the Aristotelian philosophy. And that was the field on which the battle was fought in Italy, until Galileo insisted on dragging in the Scriptures. The pope and the cardinals esteemed and honored Galileo personally, and, as we see, were far from being in the Peripatetic ranks.
But how did Galileo act after leaving Rome in 1616, and why was he, of all the well-known Copernicans, singled out for prosecution?
Whence The Change?
How came it about? Were there elements in the controversy other than scientific? Was it, or not, the fault of Galileo that the question was shifted from the safe repose of the scientific basis on which it had remained more than fourscore years?
Now we could readily answer these questions thoroughly in very few words, feeling certain, in advance, that the reply would be satisfactory to our Catholic readers. But, writing for the general public, we prefer to present the results ascertained in this much vexed matter by historians, astronomers, and men of science removed by nationality and by religion from any possible bias.
"It was not the doctrine itself," says Mr. Drinkwater, "so much as the free, unyielding manner in which it was supported, which was originally obnoxious."
"The church party," admits Sir David Brewster, "were not disposed to interfere with the prosecution of science, however much they may have dreaded its influence."
In the opinion of Dr. Whewell, "Under the sagacious and powerful sway of Copernicus, astronomy had effected a glorious triumph; but under the bold and uncompromising sceptre of Galileo, all her conquests were irrevocably lost." And he adds, referring to the misfortunes that assailed the reformers of philosophy, "But the most unfortunate were, for the most part, the least temperate and judicious." (Philosophy of Discovery, pp. 101-2.)
Even Fra Paolo (Sarpi) thought that if Galileo had been less impetuous and more prudent, he need not have had the slightest difficulty.