"'That the earth is neither the centre of the world nor immovable, but that it possesses a daily motion, is likewise an absurd proposition, false in philosophy, and, theologically considered, at least, erroneous in point of faith.'
"But as it pleased us in the first instance, to proceed kindly with you, it was decreed in the said Congregation, held before our Lord N. Feb. 25. anno. 1616, that the most eminent lord cardinal Bellarmine should command you, that you should entirely depart from the said false doctrine, and in case you should refuse to obey him, that you should be commanded by the commissary of the Holy Office to abandon the same, and that you should neither teach it to others, defend it, nor say any thing concerning it; and that if you should not submit to this order, you should be put in jail," &c.
"Thus, for merely entertaining and expressing an opinion with regard to the system of the universe," says an eminent modern writer, "was the greatest philosopher of his age subjected to be imprisoned in the jail of the Inquisition, which imprisonment almost necessarily inferred the forfeiture of life by means of burning; and if the Holy Inquisitors, in their great mercy, were pleased not to burn him to death, the circumstance of being imprisoned by them, necessarily inferred the forfeiture of all his property, and the consigning of his name to infamy."
After a long account of the errors of Galileo's writings, their condemnation of the same, and their dealings with the author, in order to his recantation, the inquisitors proceed in the words following:—" Invoking, therefore, the most holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his most glorious mother Mary, ever a virgin, we do, by this our definitive sentence, &c. &c. judge and declare, that you the said Galileo, have, upon account of those things, which are produced in the written process, and which you have confessed as above, subjected yourself to a strong suspicion of heresy in this holy office, by believing and holding to be true a doctrine which is false, and contrary to the sacred and divine Scripture; viz. that the sun is the centre of the orb of the earth, and does not move from the east to the west; and that the earth moves, and is not the centre of the world, and that these things may be considered and defended as probable opinions, although they have been declared and determined to be contrary to the sacred Scripture; and consequently that you have incurred all the censures and penalties appointed and promulgated by the sacred canons, and other general and particular acts against such offenders; from which it is our pleasure that you should be absolved, provided that you do first, with a sincere heart, and a true faith, abjure, curse, and detest, before us, the afore-said errors, and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and apostolic Roman Church, in the form which shall be presented by us to you."
In consequence of these proceedings, Galileo, contrary to his conviction, made a formal abjuration of his opinions, swearing that, "by the aid of God, he would in future believe every thing which the holy Catholic Church held, preached, and taught. But whereas," he adds, "notwithstanding, after I had been legally enjoined and commanded by this holy office to abandon wholly that false opinion, which maintains that the sun is the centre of the universe, and immovable—I do, with a sincere heart, and a true faith, abjure, curse, and detest, not only this heresy, but every other error and opinion, which may be contrary to the holy Church; and I swear, that for the future, I will never more say or assert, either by word or writing, any thing that shall give occasion for a like suspicion, and that if I know any heretic, or person suspected of heresy, I will inform against him to this holy office, or to the Inquisitor, or ordinary of the place in which I shall then be. Sworn at Rome, in the convent of Minerva, this 22d day of July, anno 1633."
Though Galileo, by denying on oath what he believed to be true, appears here in a very contemptible light, yet it is evident that he had no alternative between this and suffering death. Had he been actuated by Christian principle, he would rather have died than have sworn to a falsehood, though it had been a matter of no more importance than that two and three make five. But if the philosopher appears contemptible in this matter, what shall we say of the holy Church of Rome (and of the Inquisition,) that imposed such a hardship upon the wisest of her children! She appears not only as the enemy of truth and righteousness, but also as the enemy of science and literature.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] A more particular account of the government and proceedings of what is called the modern Inquisition, will be given afterwards.
[5] "No object can be presented to the imagination more gloomy," says Puigblanch, "than the period of the regeneration of this establishment in Seville. It seems as if at sight of it nature herself had shuddered, or that she wished to consummate the infelicity of Spain, so unseasonable and great was the hurricanes of the year 1481, when the Inquisition began to display its fury." "This year of 1481," says Andrew Bernaldez, an eye witness, "was a year of great rains and inundations commencing at Christmas, and continuing onwards in such manner, that the Guadalquiver bore away and destroyed the village of Copero, in which were eighty families, as well as many other places upon the banks, and the flood rose up through the battlements of Seville and the outlet of Coria, higher than it was ever known, where it remained stationary for three days, and the whole city was under the greatest apprehensions of being destroyed by water." According to this very author, a distemper also broke out in the same year, which desolated this southern part of the kingdom, till 1488. "This year," says he, "was quite out of the common order of nature in Andalusia, being, on the contrary, marked with a great and general pestilence, which occasioned an extreme mortality in all the cities, towns, and villages. In Seville, more than fifteen thousand persons died, and in Cordova the same number; and Xerez and Ecija lost each from eight to nine thousand, and the other towns and villages in the same proportion." He afterwards adds, "that a similar distemper returned with more or less activity, till at last it raged with great fury, causing the same destruction and ravages as in the first. Thus ominous were the auspices under which the re-organized Inquisition hoisted its bloody standard."
[6] "In this same burning place of Seville," says Puigblanch, "which the Inquisition used for the first time in 1481, on the persons of six men and women of the Jewish persuasion, the tribunal performed its last tragedy in 1782, by the execution of a woman for being a Molinist. Persons who were there present, relate, that the prisoner was placed on a raised platform, sustained by four beams, resting on the four pillars; that these, and the works which served as a base, were adorned with a lining painted black, on which were seen the usual fooleries, of dragons and devils in white, and on the tops of which were four figures in penitential garments; finally, that the prisoner, after being strangled, (she had been converted while going to the place of execution, and therefore met with this favour!) was burnt, together with the whole platform and frame, for which purpose, barrels of pitch, faggots of vine-cuttings, and a large quantity of wood, had been placed underneath. The above six followers of the Jewish rites, (who were put to death in 1481) were executed, according to Pedro de Torres, canon of Calahorra, and also a contemporary author, on the 10th of January, as well as seventeen others on the 26th of March, and a great many more on the 21st of April; those who died up to the 4th of November, amounting to two hundred and ninety-eight; and besides seventy-nine others were condemned to perpetual imprisonment."