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 torture; if he kept firm, he was to be called upon to recant before a plenary assembly of the Congregation of the Holy Office, condemned to imprisonment according to the judgment of the Holy Congregation, and ordered in future not to discuss, either in writing or speaking, the opinion that the earth moves and the sun is stationary, nor yet the contrary opinion, under pain of further punishment for contumacy; further, the work, "Dialogo di Galileo Galilei, Linceo," was to be prohibited. And in order to make this known everywhere, copies of the sentence were to be sent to all papal envoys, and all inquisitors into heretical crimes, and specially to the Inquisitor of Florence, who was to proclaim it in a full conclave of the Congregation, and read it publicly to a majority of the professors of mathematics summoned for the purpose.

It is noteworthy that it was expressly decreed that Galileo was to be enjoined, "nor yet to discuss the contrary opinion," the Ptolemaic. They obviously accredited the clever dialectician with the skill, under pretext of defending the old system, of demonstrating exactly the contrary. It therefore seemed most prudent to impose absolute silence on him on this delicate subject.