Galileo goes to Rome to congratulate Urban VIII. on his Accession.—Favourable Reception.—Scientific discussions with the Pope.—Urban refuses to Revoke the Decree of 5th March.—Nicolo Riccardi.—The Microscope.—Galileo not the Inventor.—Urban’s favours to Galileo on leaving Rome.—Galileo’s reply to Ingoli.—Sanguine hopes.—Grassi’s hypocrisy.—Spinola’s harangue against the Copernican System.—Lothario Sarsi’s reply to “Il Saggiatore.”—Galileo writes his “Dialogues.” On the accession of Urban VIII. Galileo formed a project of offering his congratulations to the new Pope at Rome, and of using all his personal influence on the occasion to obtain toleration for the Copernican system, now no longer opposed by the weighty influence of Cardinal Bellarmine, for he had died two years before. But he first consulted his friends at Rome, whether he would be well received, and especially by his Holiness. He wrote among other things to Prince Cesi, on 9th October, 1623: “I have in my head plans of no small importance for the learned world, and perhaps can never hope for so wonderful a combination of circumstances to ensure their success, at least so far as I am able to conduce to it.”[187] Cesi, who well understood Galileo’s mode of speaking, confirmed him in his intentions in his answer of 21st October, and urged him to carry out his project speedily. “It is necessary for you to come, and you will be very welcome to his Holiness,” wrote the Prince.[188] Thomas Rinuccini, brother of the Archbishop of Fermo, of whom Galileo made the same inquiries, replied as commissioned by the new Pope’s nephew, Cardinal Francesco[115] Barberini, that Urban VIII. would always be pleased to receive him, and told him that he had had a long audience of the Pope himself three days ago, of which he reported to Galileo:—
“I swear to you that nothing pleased his Holiness so much as the mention of your name. After I had been speaking of you for some time, I told him that you, esteemed sir, had an ardent desire to come and kiss his toe, if his Holiness would permit it, to which the Pope replied that it would give him great pleasure, if it were not inconvenient to you, and if the journey would not be injurious to your health; for great men like you must spare themselves, that they may live as long as possible.”[189]
Galileo now resolved to go to Rome as soon as he could, but his uncertain health and the unprecedentedly bad weather, which had laid whole tracts of land under water, delayed his departure. His friends at Rome wrote meanwhile again and again, encouraging him to set out, for the Pope, Cardinal Barberini, and all his exalted patrons and numerous adherents were longing for his presence;[190] and Mgr. Ciampoli assured him that he “would find that his Holiness had a special personal affection for him.”[191]
At length, on the 1st April, Galileo was able to set out, although the state of his health was still such that he could only perform the journey in a litter. He reached Aquasparta on 8th April, spent a fortnight with Prince Cesi in his fine place there, and discussed the affairs which lay so near his heart with his learned and influential friend. He did not arrive in Rome till towards the end of April. The long-expected guest would have been sure of a distinguished reception, even without the Grand Duchess Christine’s letter[192] of recommendation to her son, Cardinal de’ Medici. Every one was aware of the favour which the new Pope entertained[116] for the great astronomer. His old adherents, therefore, received him with greater delight than ever; and his enemies, for the time, only ventured to clench their fists behind his back. His letters of this period express the great satisfaction which this flattering reception afforded him.[193] The prospect did not indeed look quite so favourable for his cause. Within six weeks he had had six long audiences of Urban VIII., had been most affably received by him, and had found opportunity to lay before him all his arguments in defence of the Copernican system;[194] but he would not be convinced, and in one of these discussions tried to turn the tables, and to convince the advocate of the modern system of its incorrectness, in which he met with no success. And not only did Urban, in spite of his esteem for Galileo, turn a deaf ear to his arguments, but he would not grant his petition for toleration of the new doctrine; on this point he was quite inexorable.
In vain did Galileo obtain the support of several of the cardinals who were friendly to him, to gain permission from the supreme ruler of Christendom to teach the Copernican system as true. The Pope said to Cardinal Hohenzollern, who, at Galileo’s request, warmly took up the question, and had observed in a conversation on it with Urban, that great caution was required in dealing with it, “that the Church neither had condemned nor ever would condemn the doctrine as heretical, but only as rash.”[195] This language was, as Henri Martin justly observes,[196] more than wanting in precision; for in the first place the Church had never condemned it at all, either as “heretical” or “rash,” for the Qualifiers of the Holy Office never mean the “Church”; and in the second place, this commission had, in 1616, not condemned this[117] opinion as “rash,” but “foolish and absurd philosophically, and formally heretical,” and this without the papal confirmation, so that no condemnation by the Church could be said to exist.
Galileo, finding that Urban, with all his friendly feeling towards him personally, would never be persuaded to revoke the decree of 5th March, 1616, resolved to return home after a stay of six weeks at Rome. There was little to be gained by remaining longer. As soon as the attitude which Urban intended to assume towards the prohibited doctrine became evident, Galileo’s clerical adherents as far as possible avoided expressing themselves on the subject, and the moderate party among the Romanists merely advised him to take care that his scientific speculations did not contradict Holy Scripture.
Father Nicolo Riccardi, who was much attached to Galileo and took a great interest in his subsequent trial, was very ingenious in maintaining a safe neutrality between the two systems. This good man, to whom from his eloquence, or as others said because he was so fat, the King of Spain had given the nickname of “Il Padre Mostro,” prudently agreed neither with the Ptolemaic nor the Copernican system, but contented himself with a view as peculiar as it was convenient. He saw no difficulty in the stars being moved, as we see them to be moved in the vault of heaven, by angels, a proceeding which demanded nothing on our part but wonder and admiration.[197]
Meanwhile Galileo’s stay at Rome had been of essential service to science, although in quite a different way from that which he intended on his arrival. In 1622 a certain Jacob Kuppler, from Cologne, came to Rome with a microscope made by a relative of his, a Dutchman of the name of Drebbel, in order to lay the new discovery, of which Drebbel claimed to be the inventor,[198] before the papal government.[118] Kuppler, however, died before he had an opportunity of exhibiting his instrument to the court. Soon afterwards many other microscopes were sent to Rome, where, however, no one knew how to use the complicated instrument. Galileo not only at once perceived its use, but greatly improved it.[199] He afterwards sent many of these improved instruments to his friends, and before long his microscopes were in as great request as his telescopes.[200] In order to rectify a mistake that has been often repeated, that Galileo was the inventor of this instrument of such vast importance to science, we mention here that he never claimed this merit himself; it was his eulogist, Viviani, who first claimed it for him, and his thoughtless followers have repeated it. Galileo had indeed, as he mentions in his “Il Saggiatore,” discovered a method of using the telescope to magnify objects as early as 1610, but it required an over-zealous biographer to claim Galileo as the inventor of the microscope from this. It was, however, he who, in 1624, brought the microscope to a degree of perfection on which for a long time no advance was made.
Urban VIII. heaped favours of all sorts on Galileo before his departure. He promised him a pension for his son,[201] three days afterwards he sent him a splendid picture, then again two medals—one of silver, the other of gold, and quite a[119] number of Agnus Dei[202]; poor consolation, it is true, for the disappointment of the great expectations with which he came to Rome. However, he did not return to Florence entirely without hope. Although there could be no longer any expectation of a public revocation of the famous decree, he was fain to believe that it would not be rigidly kept to, and thought that, supported by his papal patron, he should be able ingeniously to circumvent it. ............