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 to Galileo. After the publication of the decree of 5th March he remained three months at Rome. His enemies took advantage of this to spread a false report that he had been obliged formally to recant, and absolutely to abjure his opinion. Galileo seems to have been indignant at this; he pacified his adherents who sent anxious inquiries to their master, and complained bitterly of the unscrupulousness of his enemies, for whom no means of injuring him were too bad. But in order to confute these calumnies and guard himself against them in future, before leaving Rome he begged a certificate from Cardinal Bellarmine to prove the falsity of this perfidious fiction, This dignitary consented, and wrote the following declaration:—