Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/147

Rh the foregoing documents are to be taken as correct statements of the circumstances before and during the trial, or not. It is assumed in this paper that they are, in this respect, correct.

It seems impossible to make any thing more than a verbal distinction between an injunction 'not to teach' and one 'not to hold or defend.' An opinion that is held and defended to others is an opinion taught to them.

The words of Galileo's judges appear to mean precisely what they say. There was no need to distort them, for his confession of April 30 placed him completely at the mercy of his judges.

A discussion by Gebler (pp. 234-239) of the legality of the proceedings against Galileo and of the effect of the sentence against him brings out with complete demonstration the propositions that: 'the sentence of Galileo rests again and again, even on the principles of the ecclesiastical court itself, on an illegal foundation'; that 'Roman Catholic posterity can say to this day'—with truth—"that Paul V. and Urban VIII. were in error 'as men' about the Copernican system, but not 'as Popes' "; and that "the conditions which would have made the decree of the congregation, or the sentence against Galileo, of dogmatic importance were wholly wanting. Both Popes had been too cautious to endanger (the) highest privilege of the papacy, by involving their infallible authority in the decision of a scientific controversy."

There can be no doubt of the validity of these conclusions. The purpose of the prosecution was to check the spread of Copernican doctrines among the faithful and to utterly ruin the authority of Galileo. This purpose was fully attained when notice of his abjuration and punishment was sent to all vicars "so that it may come to the knowledge of all professors of philosophy and mathematics . . . that they may understand the gravity of the fault he has committed as well as the punishment they will have to undergo should they (likewise) fall into it." (July 2, 1633).

There is no need to trace the further history of Galileo's life in detail. He was permitted to return to the neighborhood of Florence and there he lived until his death in 1642—the year of Newton's birth.

His friend and pupil Castelli writes of his death:

The year 1638 was marked by the publication of his epoch-making book 'Discourses on two new Sciences appertaining to Mechanics and Motion.' This contained the foundation of the modern doctrine of