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 far as it was treated as a hypothesis, but had made the just remark that the earth, if it revolved round the sun, must be a star, an idea "which was too far opposed to theological truth." Castelli appeased the cardinal by assuring him that Galileo had weighty arguments against this, and it is characteristic of the prevailing confusion of ideas on astronomical subjects, that Barberini thought this possible, and that Castelli wrote to Galileo that he would not find it hard to steer clear of this rock. Another instance of the trammels placed by religion on the advancement of science.

A second letter of Castelli's to Galileo of 16th March, 1630, contains far more important and encouraging intelligence. According to this, Thomas Campanella had told the Pope at an audience, that a short time before he had tried to convert some German nobles to the Catholic faith, that he had found them favourably disposed, but when they heard of the prohibition of the Copernican system, they were so indignant that he could do nothing more with them. To this Urban