Niccolini’s Attempt to avert the Trial.—The Pope’s Parable.—The Mandate summoning Galileo to Rome.—His Grief and Consternation.—His Letter to Cardinal Barberini.—Renewed Order to come to Rome.—Niccolini’s fruitless Efforts to save him.—Medical Certificate that he was unfit to Travel.—Castelli’s hopeful View of the Case.—Threat to bring him to Rome as a Prisoner.—The Grand Duke advises him to go.—His Powerlessness to protect his Servant.—Galileo’s Mistake in leaving Venice.—Letter to Elia Diodati. Only a few days later, on 15th September, the Pope informed the Tuscan ambassador through one of his secretaries, Pietro Benessi, that he (Urban) hereby notified to him, out of esteem for his Highness the Grand Duke, that he could do no less than hand Galileo’s affairs over to the Inquisition. At the same time the strictest secrecy as to this information was enjoined both on the Grand Duke and Niccolini, with a threat that otherwise they would be proceeded against according to the statutes of the Holy Office.[293]
Niccolini was astounded by this news, and hastened, two days afterwards, to the Pope, to make a final attempt to avert the danger of a trial before the Inquisition for Galileo. But his urgent though respectful solicitations met with no response. Urban indeed said that “Signor Galileo was still his friend,—but that opinion had been condemned sixteen years before.” He then expatiated, as he had so often done before, on the danger of the doctrine, and ended by saying that Galileo’s book was in the highest degree pernicious.[176] When Niccolini remarked that he thought the “Dialogues” might be altered to the prescribed form, instead of being prohibited altogether, the Pope answered affably by telling him a parable about Cardinal Alciato. A manuscript was submitted to him with the request that, in order not to spoil the fair copy, he would mark the places requiring alteration with a little wax. The cardinal returned it without any marks at all. The author thanked him, and expressed his satisfaction that he had not found anything to find fault with, as there was not a single mark; but the cardinal replied that he had not used any wax, for if he had, he must have gone to a wax chandler’s, and dipped the whole work into melted wax in order to amend it thoroughly.[294] Thus had Cardinal Alciato enlightened the unfortunate author in his day, and Urban enlightened Niccolini by quoting the story, to which he could only reply with a forced smile, that nevertheless he “hoped his Holiness would allow them to treat Galileo’s work as indulgently as possible.”
Niccolini’s efforts had been in vain, and measures were laid with almost breathless haste to deliver Galileo up to the Inquisition. This was finally effected in the sitting of the Congregation of the Holy Office of 23rd September, 1632, when it was pronounced that he had transgressed the prohibition of 26th February, 1616, and concealed it when he obtained the imprimatur. In a document of the Vatican Manuscript we have the papal mandate which followed this sentence. It runs as follows:—
“23rd September, 1632. His Holiness charges the Inquisitor at Florence to inform Galileo, in the name of the Holy Office, that he is to appear as soon as possible in the course of the month of October, at Rome before the Commissary-General of the Holy Office. He must also obtain a promise from Galileo to obey this order, which the Inquisitor is to give him in the presence of a notary and witnesses, but in such a[177] way that Galileo may know nothing about them, so that if he refuse and do not promise to obey, they may, if necessary, bear witness to it.”[295]
On 1st October the Inquisitor carried out this order, which Galileo had to certify by the following attestation:—
1st October, 1632, at Florence. “I, Galileo Galilei, certify that on the day indicated the order has been delivered to me by the honourable Father Inquisitor of this city, by command of the Holy Congregation of the Holy Office at Rome, to go to Rome in the course of the present month, October, and to present myself before the Father Commissary of the Holy Office, who will inform me what I have to do. I will willingly obey the order in the course of this month October. And in testimony thereto I have written these presents.”
“I, Galileo Galilei wrote manu propria.”[296]
This mandate to present himself before the Inquisition quite overwhelmed Galileo, as is evident from his correspondence of that period. He was totally unprepared for it. Scarcely recovered from a severe complaint in the eyes, which had lasted several months and had prevented him from using them, otherwise suffering in health, and at an advanced age, he was now to go to Rome in the midst of the plague, which had broken out again with increased virulence, and entailed strict quarantine regulations, in order to give account of himself before the dread tribunal. No wonder that it dismayed him, and in spite of his promise “willingly to obey the order in the course of this month, October,” we find him making every effort to get out of it. On 6th October he wrote in the greatest excitement to Cioli, who was just then with the Grand Duke at Siena, that he was in the greatest consternation at this summons to appear before the Inquisition at Rome, and as he was well aware of the importance of the matter, he would come to Siena to lay his schemes and plans[178] before his Highness, for he had more than one in his head, and to consult him about the steps to be taken.[297]
This journey, however, was not undertaken, as the court soon returned to Florence.
Galileo’s deep depression is most evident from a long letter of 13th October addressed to a cardinal of the Barberini family,[298] which was to reach him through Niccolini. Galileo remarks first that he and his friends had foreseen that his “Dialogues” would find opponents, but he had never imagined that the envious malice of some persons would go so far as to persuade the authorities that they were not worthy to see the light. He goes on to say that the summons before the Inquisition at Rome had caused him the deepest grief, for he feared that such a proceeding, usual only in the case of serious delinquents, would turn the fruits of all his studies and labours during many years, which had lent no little repute to his name with the learned all over the world, into aspersions on his fair fame. “This vexes me so much,” continues Galileo, “that it makes me curse the time devoted to these studies in which I strove and hoped to deviate somewhat from the beaten track generally pursued by learned men. I not only repent having given the world a portion of my writings, but feel inclined to suppress those still in hand, and to give them to the flames, and thus satisfy the longing desire of my enemies to whom my ideas are so inconvenient.” After this desperate cry from his oppressed soul, he expresses his conviction that, burdened with seventy years and many bodily sufferings, increased by constant sleeplessness, he shall not reach the end of this tedious journey—made more arduous by unusual difficulties—alive. Impelled by the instinct of self-preservation common to all men, he ventures to ask the good[179] offices of the cardinal. He begs him to represent his pitiable condition to the wise fathers in Rome, not to release him from giving account of himself, which he is most anxious to do, as he is sure that it will only tend to his advantage, but only that it may be made easier for him to obey. There are two ways of doing this. One is for him to write a minute and conscientious vindication of all that he has said, written, or done since the day when the conflict began on Copernicus’s book and his new system. He is certain that his sincerity and his pure, zealous, and devout attachment to the holy Church and its supreme head, would be so obvious from this statement, that every one, if he were free from passion and party malice, must confess that he had behaved so piously and like a good Catholic, that not even any of the fathers of the Church to whom the epithet holy is applied, could have shown more piety. He asserts and will indisputably prove, by all the works he has written on this subject, that he has only entered into the controversy out of zeal for the holy Church, with the intention of imparting to her servants that knowledge which one or other of them might wish to possess, and which he had acquired by long study, as it treated of subjects difficult to understand and different from the learning generally cultivated. He will also show how many opinions contained in the writings of the fathers of the Church had been an encouragement to him, and how he was “finally confirmed in his intention by hearing a short but holy and admirable address, which came unexpectedly, like an echo of the Holy Spirit, from the lips of a personage eminent in learning and revered for his sanctity of life.” But for the present he will not give this admirable saying, nor the speaker’s name, as it does not seem prudent or suitable to involve any one in the present affair which concerns him personally alone.[299] Having in a touching manner begged that what he should write may be read, and declared that should[180] his vindication not give satisfaction on all points he will reply in detail to objections, he proceeds to the second means of averting the journey to Rome.
He only wishes that his adversaries would be as ready to commit to paper what they have perhaps verbally and ad aures said against him, as he was to defend himself in writing. If they will not accept his written vindication, and still insist upon a verbal one, there was an Inquisitor, Nuncius, archbishop, and other high officials of the Church at Florence, whose summons he was quite ready to obey. He says:—“It appears to me that things of much greater importance are decided by this tribunal. And it is not likely that under the keen and watchful eyes of those who examined my book with full liberty to omit, to add, and to alter as seemed good to them, errors so weighty could escape that the authorities of this city should be incompetent to correct or punish them.” This passage again clearly indicates that Galileo knew nothing whatever of the prohibition of 1616; that he had no idea of having broken his word to the ecclesiastical authorities. His only thought is of a revision of his work as the result of a conviction that it contained errors.[300]
The letter to the cardinal concludes with the following assurance:—“If neither my great age, nor my many bodily infirmities, nor the deep concern I feel, nor the wearisomeness of a journey under the present most unfavourable circumstances, are considered sufficient reasons, by this high and sacred tribunal, for granting a dispensation, or at least a delay, I will undertake the journey, esteeming obedience more than life.”[301]
Niccolini could not deliver this letter to the cardinal immediately,[181] as he was just then absent from Rome. He received however, at the same time, an urgent petition from another quarter. Michael Angelo the younger wrote to this dignitary, with whom he was on friendly terms, and entreated him, out of consideration for the philosopher’s age and infirmities, to use his powerful influence to get his affairs settled at Florence.[302] But there was a long delay before Galileo’s letter was delivered to the cardinal. The ambassador wished first to consult Castelli, whom the Grand Duke had appointed as his counsel in Galileo’s affairs, whether it was to be delivered. Niccolini had doubts about these explanations, and expressed them both in a letter to Galileo of 23rd October,[303] and in a despatch to Cioli of the 24th.[304] In the former Niccolini says that he thinks Galileo’s letter is more calculated to incense them against him than to pacify them, and the more he asserted that he could defend his work the more it would be thought that it ought to be condemned. He thinks that a delay will be granted to the accused of his journey to Rome, but that he will not be released from it on any consideration. Niccolini gave him the following friendly hint as to the attitude he should maintain: “It appears desirable not to enter into any defence of things which the Congregation do not approve, but to submit and to recant what the cardinals may desire; for to speak as a Christian, one must not maintain anything, but what they, as the highest tribunal, that cannot err, please.”[305] By such conduct the ambassador hopes for an easier solution of the question; not, however, without its coming to an actual trial, and Galileo may even be somewhat restricted in his personal liberty. He has great doubts about the passage referring to an “admirable address, which came unexpectedly like an echo of the Holy Spirit from the lips of[182] a personage eminent in learning and revered for his sanctity of life,” as he thinks that if the letter is handed to the cardinal, he will hand it to the Congregation, and the cardinals may request to be informed who this personage is. At all events he would like first to consult Castelli, who was not just then at Rome.
The result of the consultation was, however, to deliver the letter to Barberini. Niccolini reported to Galileo on 6th November,[306] that he had received it in a very friendly spirit, and was altogether very kindly disposed towards him. The ambassador does not doubt that a delay will at any rate be granted, that Galileo may make the journey to Rome with less inconvenience.[307] We learn from a document in Gherardi’s archives, that Galileo’s petitions were discussed at a sitting of the Congregation of the Holy Office held on 11th November, in presence of the Pope, but that he would not grant them, and decreed that Galileo must obey, and ordered that the Inquisitor at Florence should be written to that he might compel Galileo to come to Rome.[308]
Niccolini, meanwhile, was unwearied in trying to get Galileo’s proposals accepted. He went to Cardinal Ginetti, who was a member of the Congregation and in high favour with the Pope, and to Mgr. Boccabella, assessor of the Holy Office, and represented to both Galileo’s great age, his failing health, and the peril to his life of a journey through quarantine and plague. But as both prelates, on whom as members of the Holy Office strict secrecy was imposed, “only heard what he had to say, and answered nothing,” Niccolini went to the Pope himself, to make one more attempt. Having as he thought put the imperious pontiff into the best of humours, by assuring him that the unfortunate savant was ready to render prompt obedience to every command, he laid all the[183] circumstances before him, and used all his eloquence to awaken pity for the infirm old man. But in vain. Niccolini asked at last whether his Holiness had not seen Galileo’s letter to Cardinal Barberini; and he said he had, but in spite of all that the journey to Rome could not be dispensed with. “Your Holiness incurs the danger,” replied Niccolini, “considering Galileo’s great age, of his being tried neither in Rome nor Florence; for I assure your Holines............