Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

eye was unable to perceive; and as the largest fixed stars, in place of being magnified by the telescope, became actually minute brilliant points, he inferred their immense distance as rendered necessary by the Copernican hypothesis. All his discoveries, indeed, furnished fresh arguments in favour of the new system; and the order of the planets, and their relation to a central sun, may now be considered as established by incontrovertible evidence.

While Galileo was occupied with these noble pursuits at Pisa, to which he had been recalled in 1611, his generous patron Cosmo II., Grand Duke of Tuscany, invited him to Florence, that he might pursue with uninterrupted leisure his astronomical observa-tions, and carry on his correspondence with the German astronomers. His fame had now resounded through all Europe;-the strongholds of prejudice and ignorance were unbarred ;-and the most obstinate adherents of ancient systems acknowledged the meridian power of the day star of science. Galileo was ambitious of propagating the great truths which he contributed so powerfully to establish. He never doubted that they would be received with gratitude by all— by the philosopher as the consummation of the greatest efforts of human genius-and by the Christian as the most transcendant displays of Almighty power. But he had mistaken the disposition of his species, and the character of the age. That same system of the heavens which had been discovered by the humble ecclesiastic of Frauenberg, which had been patronised by the kindness of a bishop, and published at the expense of a cardinal, and which the pope himself had sanctioned by the warmest reception, was, after the lapse of a hundred years, doomed to the most violent opposition, as subversive of the doctrines of the Christian faith. On no former occasion has the human mind exhibited such a fatal relapse into intolerance. The age itself had improved in liberality;-the per

secuted doctrines themselves had become more deserving of reception ;-the light of the Reformed faith had driven the Roman Catholics from some of their most obnoxious positions; and yet, under all these circumstances, the Church of Rome unfurled her banner of persecution against the pride of Italy-against the ornament of his species, and against truths immutable and eternal.

In consequence of complaints laid before the Holy Inquisition, Galileo was summoned to appear at Rome, in 1615, to answer for the heretical opinions which he had promulgated. He was charged with "maintaining as true the false doctrine held by many, that the sun was immoveable in the centre of the world, and that the earth revolved with a diurnal motion;-with having certain disciples to whom he taught the same doctrine; with keeping up a correspondence on the subject with several German mathematicians;—with having published letters on the solar spots, in which he explained the same doctrine as true;-and with having glossed over, with a false interpretation, the passages of Scripture which were urged against it." The consideration of these charges came before a meeting of the Inquisition which assembled on the 25th of February, 1616, and the court declaring their disposition to deal gently with the prisoner, pronounced the following decree :- "That the Cardinal Bellarmine should enjoin Galileo to renounce entirely the above recited false opinions; that on his refusal to do so, he should be commanded by the commissary of the Inquisition to abandon the said doctrine, and to cease to teach and defend it; and that if he did not obey this command, he should be thrown into prison." On the 26th of February, Galileo appeared before Cardinal Bellarmine, and after receiving from him a gentle admonition, he was commanded by the commissary, in the presence of a notary and witnesses, to desist altogether from his erroneous opinions; and it

was declared to be unlawful for him in future to teach them in any way whatever, whether orally or in his writings. To these commands Galileo promised obedience, and was dismissed from the Inquisition.

The mildness of this sentence was no doubt partly owing to the influence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and other persons of rank and power at the Papal Court, who took a deep interest in the issue of the trial. Dreading, however, that so light a punishment might not have the effect of putting down the obnoxious doctrines, the Inquisition issued a decree denouncing the new opinions as false, and contrary to the sacred writings, and prohibiting the sale of every book in which they should be mentioned.

Thus liberated from his persecutors, Galileo returned to Florence, where he pursued his studies with his wonted diligence and ardour. The recantation of his astronomical opinions was so formal and unreserved, that ordinary prudence, if not a sense of personal honour, should have restrained him from unnecessarily bringing them before the world. No anathema was pronounced against his scientific discoveries; no interdict was laid upon the free exercise of his genius. He was prohibited merely from teaching a doctrine which the Church of Rome considered as injurious to its faith. We might have expected, therefore, that a philosopher, conspicuous in the eyes of the world, would have respected the prejudices, however base, of an institution whose decrees formed part of the law of the land, and which possessed the power of life and death within the limits of its jurisdiction. Galileo, however, thought otherwise. A sense of degradation seems to have urged him to retaliate; and before six years had elapsed, he began to compose his "Cosmical System, or Dialogues on the two greatest Systems in the World, the Ptolomean and the Copernican," the concealed object of which is to establish the opinions which he had promised to

abandon. In this work, the subject is discussed by three speakers, Sagredo, Salviatus, and Simplicius, a peripatetic philosopher, who defends the system of Ptolemy with much skill against the overwhelming arguments of the rival disputants. Galileo hoped to escape notice by this indirect mode of propagating the new system, and he obtained permission to publish his work, which appeared at Florence, in 1632.

The Inquisition did not immediately summon Galileo to their presence. Nearly a year elapsed before they gave any indications of their design; and, according to their own statement, they did not even take the subject into consideration till they saw that the obnoxious tenets were every day gaining ground, in consequence of the publication of the Dialogues. They then submitted the work to a careful examination, and having found it to be a direct violation of the injunction which had been formerly intimated to its author, they again cited him before their tribunal, in 1633. The venerable sage, now in his seventieth year, was thus compelled to repair to Rome; and when he arrived, he was committed to the apartments of the Fiscal of the Inquisition. The unchangeable friendship, however, of the Grand Duke of Tuscany obtained a remission of this severity, and Galileo was allowed to reside at the house of the Tuscan ambassador, during the two months which the trial occupied. When brought before the Inquisition, and examined on oath, he acknowledged that the Dialogues were written by himself, and that he obtained permission to publish them, without notifying to the person who gave it that he had been prohibited from holding, defending, or teaching the heretical opinions. He confessed also that the Dialogues were composed in such a manner, that the arguments in favour of the Copernican system, though given as partly false, were yet managed in such a manner, that they were more likely to confirm than overturn its doctrines; but that this

error, which was not intentional, arose from the natural desire of making an ingenious defence of false propositions, and of opinions that had the semblance of probability.

After receiving these confessions and excuses, the Inquisition allowed Galileo a proper time for giving in his defence; but this seems to have consisted solely in bringing forward a certificate from Cardinal Bellarmine, which made no allusion to the promisc under which Galileo had come, never to defend, nor teach in any way whatever, the Copernican doctrines. The court held this defence to be an aggravation of the crime rather than excuse for it, and proceeded to pronounce a sentence which will be ever memorable in the history of the human mind.

Invoking the name of our Saviour, they declare, that Galileo had made himself liable to the suspicion of heresy, by believing the doctrine, contrary to Scripture, that the sun was the centre of the earth's orbit, and did not move from east to west; and by defending as probable the opinion, that the earth moved, and was not the centre of the world; and that he had thus incurred all the censures and penalties which were enacted by the church against such offences;-but that he should be absolved from these penalties, provided he sincerely abjured and cursed all the errors and heresies contained in the formula of the church, which should be submitted to him. That so grave and pernicious a crime should not pass altogether unpunished, that he might become more cautious in future, and be an example to others to abstain from such offences, they decreed that his Dialogues should be prohibited by a formal edict, that he should be condemned to the prison of the Inquisition during pleasure, and that during the three following years, he should recite once a week the seven penitentiary psalms.

This sentence was subscribed by seven cardinals;

« AnteriorContinuar »