Page:An Index of Prohibited Books (1840).djvu/96

 by certain ingenious devices in logic relative to the personal treatment of the philosopher, the better judges abroad saw at once, that this charge and defence were of a comparatively transitory description; but that the condemnation, not of the man only, but of his doctrine-yes, absolutely of  — was in a record under the hand and seal of the Head of the Roman Church, published repeatedly for two hundred years, and had therefore a permanency of character, which rendered it abundantly more important and more fatal than the other. By the authority of this juster view, we are encouraged to proceed with the evidence afforded by the Prohibitory Indexes of Rome. We shall not, however, neglect an investigation of the evidence in the other field. For there is something important to be said there. In order of time the prosecution of Galileo, by the Roman Inquisition, his sentence, his abjuration, and confinement, precede the Indicial condemnation, which was its natural sequel: but, as it is important to establish the fact in view by the most decisive and irrefragable evidence in the first place, particularly because such an order will preclude a good deal of argument rendered