On the termination of this preliminary examination, he was assigned the more spacious and pleasant apartments of the Fiscal of the Inquisition.
"Galileo," says Mr. Drinkwater, "was treated with unusual consideration;" and Sir David Brewster states that "during the whole trial, which had now commenced, Galileo was treated with the most marked indulgence."
On the 22d of April, the commissary charged with the conduct of the trial was ready to proceed, but postponed it on Galileo's statement that he was suffering from severe pain in his thigh.
So matters rested, until, on the 30th, Galileo asked for a resumption of the examination, and presented a complete and utter disavowal of his book and its principles. He declared that, having again read over his Dialogues, in order to examine whether, contrary to his express intention, he had inadvertently disobeyed the decree of 1616, he found that two arguments were too strongly presented; that they were not conclusive, and could be easily refuted. "If I had to present them now," he said, "I should assuredly do it in terms that would deprive them of the weight they apparently have, but which in reality they do not possess."
His error, he admitted, arose from a vain ambition, pure ignorance and inadvertence: "E stato dunque l'error mio, e lo confesso, di una vana ambitione, e di una pura ignoranza e inavertenza."
Galileo's Voluntary Retraction.
Here the examination closed for the day; but Galileo voluntarily returned, and reopened it with the declaration ("et post paululum rediens dixit") that he had not held the condemned opinion of the earth's motion, and that he was ready, if time were granted him, to prove it clearly.
"I will take up," said he, "the argument in my Dialogues, and will refute with all possible energy the arguments presented in favor of that opinion."
He closes by reiterating his request to be allowed the opportunity of putting these resolutions in execution: "Prego dunque questo S. Tribunals che voglia concorrer meco in questa buona risolutione col concedermi facoltà di poterle metter in effetto."