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 or are defiant, his Holiness lets fall hard words and has no respect for anybody."

The conclusion of Cioli's reply of 19th September to this ominous despatch of Niccolini's gives us an insight into the attitude which the Tuscan Government, even at that time, desired to assume towards the papal chair in this unfortunate business. Cioli writes:—

Two letters from Count Magalotti, who was usually well informed, arrived almost at the same time as this despatch. Both bear the date of 4th September; one is to Mario Guiducci, the other to Galileo, who in a letter of 23rd August, which is lost, had expressed his anxiety to Magalotti lest his work should be pronounced suspicious, and the Copernican doctrine condemned as heretical by the authorities. Magalotti's news was, on the whole, reassuring. According to the opinions of persons who are generally present at the sittings of the Congregation of the Holy Office, he thought he could assure Galileo that it would never go so far as for the Copernican system to be condemned by the supreme authority. He thought, with Riccardi, that they would not entirely prohibit the "Dialogues," but only correct them, so as to sustain the decree of 5th March, 1616. He also urgently advised, like Niccolini, that they should arm themselves with the ut-utmost patience, and rather confer with Cardinal Barberini