Galileo’s Fears.—Allayed by letters from Rome.—Foscarini’s work.—Blindness of Galileo’s Friends.—His Apology to the Grand Duchess Christine.—Effect produced by it.—Visit to Rome.—Erroneous opinion that he was cited to appear.—Caccini begs pardon.—Galileo defends the Copernican system at Rome.—His mistake in so doing. Galileo knew no more than the rest of the world of the secret proceedings of the Inquisition against him and his system. He had only discovered that some Dominican monks wanted to make use of his letter to Castelli to effect the condemnation of the Copernican doctrines, and that they were spreading all sorts of calumnies against him based upon it. Fearing that the copy of it on which they relied might have been tampered with, he sent a correct copy on 16th February, 1615, to his sincere friend Mgr. Dini at Rome, with a request that he would forward it to the mathematician, Father Griemberger, and perhaps even to Cardinal Bellarmine. Galileo observed in the accompanying letter that he had written the one to Castelli “currente calamo,” that since then he had made many researches into the subject therein discussed, and announced the speedy completion of a larger work, in which he should carry out his reasoning far more in detail; as soon as it was finished he would send it to Mgr. Dini. (This was his great Apology to the Grand Duchess Christine.) In conclusion, he bitterly complains that his enemies were daily increasing in number, and, in order to injure him the more, were spreading the strange report among the people that he was the founder of the system of[60] the double motion of the earth, which gave rise to incidents like that with Bishop Gherardini.[110]
The philosopher, who it is evident was a good deal discomfited, received in reply consolatory assurances from Mgr. Dini and others of his ecclesiastical friends. But they earnestly advised him to treat the subject of the Copernican system purely from the mathematical, physical point of view, and carefully to avoid religious discussion. This hint came rather late in the day, and could not now be of much use to Galileo, when his doctrines were already attacked as heretical, although secretly at that time, and the accusation was based on the purely scientific work on the solar spots. War had been declared with the Copernican system in the name of the Bible.
Galileo’s letters to Mgr. Dini of 16th February and 28th March,[111] plainly show how unwillingly he had been driven into the theological field by his opponents. After he had in the second letter decidedly rejected Dini’s suggestion that he should treat the Copernican system merely as a hypothesis, he added that it had been his earnest desire to keep strictly to his part as a man of science, and not to be compelled to defend his astronomical system against religious scruples. He entirely agrees with those who say that the task of bringing natural science into agreement with Holy Scripture should be left to theologians, and shows that he has been compelled to defend himself on this dangerous ground. He says besides that his letter to Castelli was not originally intended to go any farther, and regrets that Castelli had had copies made of it without his knowledge.
It is a noteworthy circumstance that at the very time when the secret denunciation had been laid before the tribunal of the Inquisition at Rome, all the letters and reports which Galileo received from Rome, even from trustworthy friends, Mgrs. Dini, Ciampoli, and Prince Cesi, were calculated to allay his anxious fears. None of those persons, although in[61] influential positions, and likely it would seem to have been better informed, knew, as appears from their correspondence with Galileo, anything of the proceedings which were being instituted at Rome against him and the Copernican system. The Inquisition knew well enough how to keep its secrets. On 28th February[112] Mgr. Ciampoli writes confidently to Galileo that, notwithstanding all the inquiries he had made, he could learn nothing of any measures against him or the new doctrines; he sets down the whole rumour to the incautious talk of some hot-headed fellow.
On 7th March[113] Dini tells Galileo that Cardinal Bellarmine had said “he did not think that the work of Copernicus would be prohibited, and the worst that would happen would be that some addition would be made to it, stating that this theory was only accepted to explain phenomena,[114] or some such phrase, and with this reservation Galileo would be able to discuss the subject whenever he had occasion.” Under the same date Prince Cesi tells Galileo that a work had just been published by a Dominican monk, which brilliantly defended the opinion of Copernicus and made it agree with Holy Scripture. He adds that the work could not have appeared more opportunely.[115]
But what seems the most strange are the express and repeated assurances of the cardinals Barberini, Del Monte, and Bellarmine, to Galileo, through Dini and Ciampoli, that so long as he did not go beyond the province of physics and mathematics, nor enter into any theological interpretations of Scripture, he had nothing to fear.[116] How could Cardinal[62] Bellarmine, who had not long before expressly stated to Prince Cesi that the new system was not compatible with the doctrines of Holy Scripture, and who, as a member of the Inquisition, must have been aware of the transactions which had been going on about Galileo since 5th February, give these assurances so directly opposed to the truth? And yet these three prelates afterwards gave many proofs of good will towards Galileo. How then is their ambiguous conduct to be explained? It was simply that they were friendly to Galileo, but not to his doctrines. They certainly desired to shield his person, and afterwards honestly endeavoured to do so even under most difficult circumstances; but the system he defended, which endangered the faith of the Church, must be suppressed at all hazards. In order to this end it appeared advisable to keep it a secret from Galileo that the statement of Copernicus that the earth moved was assailed from the theological standpoint, until the Holy Office had issued the interdict against its circulation and defence. It was thus that they prudently rounded the rocks which the dreaded dialectics of the clever Tuscan had exposed to view.
And the nearer the period was drawing when the verdict of the Church was to be pronounced on the Copernican theory, and the more eagerly the secret inquiries about Galileo were being prosecuted, the more confident became the tone of the letters of his friends from the very city where this ominous web was being woven. It seems as if all Galileo’s trusty adherents had been struck with blindness, for we should not be justified in doubting the sincerity of a Dini, a Ciampoli, and a Cesi, men who afterwards proved by their actions their true friendship for the great astronomer. On 20th March the evidence of Caccini was taken, and on the 21st Ciampoli communicates to Galileo the consoling observations of the cardinals Del Monte and Bellarmine mentioned above. Ciampoli also adds to these comforting assurances by telling him that Foscarini’s work was no doubt in great danger of being prohibited by the Congregation of[63] the Holy Office to take place next month, but only because it meddled with matters concerning Holy Scripture. He goes on to say with real satisfaction that he can only confirm his previous information, and that all this noise originated with four or five persons who are hostile to Galileo; he and Dini had taken all possible pains to find out this assumed agitation, but had discovered absolutely nothing. He repeats this most decidedly in a letter of a week later;[117] and in another of 16th May[118] he cannot at all understand what has so disconcerted Galileo, and adds that it was no longer doubtful that the Copernican doctrine would not be prohibited, and expresses his conviction that it would be a great satisfaction to every one if Galileo would come to Rome for a time, and the more so because he had heard that many of the Jesuits were secretly of Galileo’s opinion, and were only keeping quiet for the present.
A private note enclosed in a letter from Prince Cesi to Galileo, of June 20th, is equally sanguine. He tells him that Foscarini’s work, of which a new and enlarged edition is to appear immediately, has had great success at Rome, and that the opponents of Galileo and of the new system are much cast down about it; he adds that neither the author of that treatise nor the doctrines in question are in any danger, if only a little prudence is exercised. Cesi even thinks that the new edition, in which the author refutes all the objections to his work, will satisfy the ecclesiastical authorities, convince opponents, and put an end to the whole business. “Then,” continues the prince confidently, “when every difficulty is removed and attack rendered impossible, the doctrine will be so fully permitted and recognised, that everybody who wishes to maintain it will be at liberty to do so, as in all other purely physical and mathematical questions.”[119]
This is the last letter we have from Galileo’s friends of this period. From this date to the time of his stay in Rome,[64] in 1616, there are no letters to him extant. This is the more to be regretted, as the gap occurs at a very interesting juncture. Perhaps after the Copernican doctrines were condemned Galileo may have destroyed this correspondence out of regard for his friends, for it may have contained allusions to very delicate matters.
Meanwhile, after having been repeatedly urged to it by Mgr. Dini,[120] he had completed his great apologetic treatise, in the form of a letter to the Grand Duchess Dowager, Christine. As it accurately defines the standpoint which Galileo desired to take as a natural philosopher and sincere Catholic, with respect to the Church of Rome, it seems necessary to give a sketch of its contents.
Galileo begins with the motive of his Apology. Several years ago he had made many discoveries in the heavens, the novelty of which, and the vast consequences they involve, which are opposed to many of the principles of the modern Aristotelian school, have incensed no small number of professors against him, as if he had placed these phenomena in the heavens with his own hands in order to overturn nature and science. Placing a greater value on their own opinions than on truth, these men had taken upon themselves to deny the existence of these discoveries, whereas if they had only consented to observe them, they would have been convinced. Instead of this, they assailed the new discoveries with empty arguments, and worst mistake of all, interwove them with passages of Scripture which they did not understand. But when the majority of the scientific world was convinced with its own eyes, so that it was impossible any longer to doubt the truth of these phenomena, their opponents tried to consign them to oblivion by obstinate silence; and when that did not avail they took another course. Galileo says that he should pay no more heed to these attacks than to former ones, at which, confident of the final result, he had always laughed, but they seek to cast an aspersion on him which he dreads[65] more than death. His opponents, knowing that he favoured the opinion of the double motion of the earth, and thereby attacked the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian principles, and perceiving since the universal recognition of his observations that they could never combat him successfully on the field of natural philosophy, are trying now to make a shield for their false statements out of a fictitious piety and the authority of Holy Scripture. They have therefore first tried to spread the opinion that the views he defends are opposed to the Bible, and therefore heretical and worthy of condemnation. They then easily found some one to denounce them from the pulpit, and he hurled his anathemas not only at the Copernican doctrines, but against mathematicians in general. They also gave out that the modern views of the system of the universe would shortly be pronounced heretical by the highest authorities.
Galileo then points out that Copernicus, the originator of these doctrines, was not only a good Catholic, but a priest highly esteemed by the Roman curia, both for his learning and piety. He had dedicated his famous work: “De Revolutionibus Orbium C?lestium,” to Pope Paul III., and no one had felt any scruples about his doctrines, although some ill-disposed persons want to have the book pronounced heretical, without ever having read, to say nothing of studied it. As an adherent of the Copernican theory, Galileo now feels compelled, in order to justify himself, to discuss in detail these arguments from Scripture brought forward by his opponents, and he hopes to prove that he is animated by a greater zeal for true religion than his adversaries; for he by no means demands that the book should not be condemned, but that it should not be condemned without being understood or even looked at. Before proceeding to discuss these arguments, he protests that he will not only always be ready publicly to rectify the errors he may from ignorance have fallen into on religious matters in this treatise, but that it was not in the least his intention to enter into dispute with[66] any one on such subjects; it is rather his desire, by these remarks, to incite others to deliberations useful to the Church. As to the decision about the Copernican system, we must bow to the opinions of the ecclesiastical authorities, and should it be adverse to him, let his work be torn up and burnt, for he had neither wish nor intention to promote results that were not catholic and pious.
After this long and cautious introduction, Galileo comes to the matter itself,—the discussion of the principles of exegesis of Scripture with respect to natural science. He employs the same arguments as in his letter to Castelli, only more in detail, and cites several passages from St. Augustine in support of his views, as to how far questions of natural philosophy should be left to the understanding and to science. He also quotes a saying of Cardinal Baronius: “The Holy Spirit intended to teach us how to go to heaven, and not how the heavens go.” Galileo then illustrates by examples how derogatory it will be to the dignity of Holy Scripture if every unauthorised scribbler is permitted to adduce passages from it in support of his views, which he often does not interpret rightly; and experience shows the futility of this method of proof. He then turns to the claim of theologians to enforce upon others in scientific discussions opinions which they hold to agree with passages of Scripture, while maintaining that they are not bound to explain the scientific phenomena which are opposed to their decisions. In support of this they affirm that theology is the queen of all the sciences, and need not condescend to accommodate herself to the teachings of other sciences far beneath her: they must submit to her as their sovereign, and modify their conclusions accordingly. This leads Galileo to some considerations which he will here set forth, that he may learn the opinions of others more expert on such questions than he is, and to whose decisions he is always ready to bow.
He is in doubt whether some ambiguity has not crept in[67] for want of more precision in defining why theology is entitled to be called a queen. It must either be because all that is taught by other sciences is comprised in and explained by theology, only in a higher sense; or because theology treats of a subject which far surpasses in importance all the subjects of which profane science treats. But even the theologians themselves will hardly maintain that the title belongs to theology in the first sense; for no one can say that geometry, astronomy, music, and medicine, are better treated of in Scripture than in the writings of Archimedes, Ptolemy, Boccius, and Galen. It appears then that the royal prerogative of theology must be derived from some other source. Galileo here remarks:—
“If then theology occupies herself solely with the highest problems, maintains her throne by reason of the supreme authority conferred on her, and does not condescend to the lower sci............