Page:An Index of Prohibited Books (1840).djvu/118

 It may, perhaps, appear to the reader of these few extracts, that the punishment inflicted upon the philosopher was, in his estimation, not quite so gentle as is sometimes represented. It will appear, likewise, that they recognise two different, but harmonious, proceedings, by two principal organs of authority in his own Church — the Congregation of the Index, and the Congregation, or Tribunal, of the Inquisition, at the head of both of which is his holiness himself, of the latter as sole prefect. It is with the latter we are now concerned, and the extracts which have been given plainly enough prove, that the real charge against Galileo was, his assertion and publication of the Copernican system, and that