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Text
CON DEMNATION, A ABJURATION
OF
GALILEO GALILEI,
BEFORE THE
WoiK ihiqinsttion,
AT ROME, 1(B3.
Uoitdoit:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 55, FLEET STREET.
1819.
Price Fourpence.
jf
��publisher’s preface.
The Accusation, Condemnation, and Abjuration
of Galileo, are amongst the many strong proofs of
the mischievous tendency of an established priest
hood, which has invariably opposed itself as a bar
to the progress of science. It is an evidence that
cannot be denied, that the men (admitting their sin
cerity) who devote their time to the promulgation
of certain creeds, or to the illustration of certain
passages in the book called the Bible, are at all
times deficient in a knowledge of those things
which the more reasoning part of the community
admit as truths.
Where is the man in England, be he Prince,
Priest, or Peasant, who can read this Accusation,
Condemnation, and Abjuration of Galileo, without a
feeling of pity and disgust ? Yet I am inclined to be
lieve that my persecutors, at the present day, are in
fluenced by the same feelings and motives, as those
who persecuted and condemned the opinions of
Galileo. They are alarmed at any evidence, or
discovery that has a tendency to invalidate their
generally received opinions. They are at all times
ready to anathematize the bold enquirer after truth,
�iv
'*
and would persecute to destruction the man who
dares to avow his dissent from their opinions.
The Magnificent Inquisitor General of that day,
and of that country, and the Magnificent Inquisitor
General of the present day, and of this country, are
men of the same stamp and disposition. The charge
against Galileo was, that his opinions had a tenden
cy to bring into disrepute the Holy Scriptures; the
charge against me is, that my publications have the
same tendency. Galileo was imprisoned, but be
fore the expiration of his sentence, his perse
cutors were convinced of their ignorance and
folly. Galileo was liberated, and his astronomical
opinions espoused, even by his former persecutors.
For the honour of my country, I hope, that a jury
will not be found in the present day to become a
bar to scientific research, progressive improvement,
and free discussion on all subjects.
British Juries are called on to assume the patron
age of the Press. The Age of Reason will then be
seen in the prospective. No possible evil can arise
from the utmost effects of a free exercise of the Press.
Licentiousness is preferable to restraint. For Licen
tiousness of the Press is one of those vices that car
ries its own punishment with it, whilst restraint
must be a certain bar to utility. The proceedings
against Galileo are here submitted to the public,
as a proof of this assertion, and for their considera*
tion.
�/
t
‘ ?h r iVs
ACCUSATION,
We, Gaspar, of the title of Holy Cross of Jerusa
lem, Borgia, brother Felix Certinus of the title of
St. Anastatia, sirnamed of Asculum.
Guidus, of the title of St. Mary of the People,
Bentivolus, brother Desiderius Scaglia, of the title
of St. Charles, sirnamed of Cremona.
Brother Antonius Barbarinus, sirnamed of St.
Onuphrius, Laudivius Zacchia, of the title of St.
Peter, in vinculis, sirnamed of St. Sixtus.
Berlingerius, of the title of St. Augustin Gyposius.
Fabricius of St. Lawrence.
Francis of St. Lawrence.
Martin, of the new St. Mary and Ginethis, Dea
cons, by the mercy of God, Cardinals of the Holy
Roman Catholic Church, and specially deputed by
the Holy Apostolical seat as Inquisitors General
against heretical perverseness throughout the whole
Christian common-wealth.
Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vincent
Galileo of Florence, being 70 years of age, had a
charge brought against you in the year 1615, in this
Holy Office, that you held as true, an erroneous
opinion held by many ; namely, that the Sun is
the centre of the World, and immoveable, and that
the Earth moves even with a diurnal motion : also
that you had certain scholars into whom you instill
ed the same doctrine : also that you maintained a
correspondence on this point, with certain Mathe
maticians of Germany : also that you published cer
�tain Epistles, treating of the solar spots, in which
you explained the same doctrine, as true, because
you answered to the objections, which from time
to time were brought against you, taken from the
Holy Scripture, by glossing over the said Scripture
according to your own sense; and that afterwards
when a copy of a writing in the form of an Epistle,
written by you to a certain late scholar of yours, was
presented to you, (it following the hypothesis of Co
pernicus) you stood up for, and defended certain
propositions in it, which are against the true sense,
and authority of Holy Scripture.
This Holy Tribunal, desiring, therefore, to pro
vide against the inconveniencies and mischiefs
which have issued hence, and increased to the dan
ger of our Holy Faith ; agreeably to the mandate of
Lord N----- and the very eminent Doctors, Cardi
nals of this supreme and universal inquisition: two
propositions respecting the immobility of the Sun,
and the motion of the Earth, have been adopted and
pronounced, as under.
That the Sun is the centre of the World, and
immoveable, in respect of local motion, is an absurd
proposition, false in philosophy, and formally hereti
cal ; seeing it is expressly contrary to Holy Scrip
ture.
That the Earth is not the centre of the World,
nor immoveable, but moves even with a diurnal mo
tion, is also an absurd proposition, false in Philoso
phy, and considered Theologically, is at least an er
ror in Faith.
But whereas we have thought fit in the interim
to proceed gently with you, it has been agreed upon
in the Holy Congregation held before D. N. on the
25th day of Feb. 1616, that the most Eminent Lord
Cardinal Bellarmine should enjoin you entirely to
recede from the aforesaid false doctrine ; and, on
your refusal, it was commanded by the Commissary
of the Holy Office, that jou should recant the said
�7
false doctrine, and should not teach it to others, not*
defend it, nor dispute concerning it: to which
command if you would not submit, that you should
be cast into prison : and in order to put in execu
tion the same decree, on the following day you were
gently admonished in the Palace before the above
said most eminent Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, and
afterwards by the same Lord Cardinal: and by the
Commissary of the Holy Office, a notary and wit
nesses being present, entirely to desist from the said
erroneous opinion ; and that thereafter it should not
be permitted you to defend it, or teach it in any
manner, either by speaking, or writing ; arid where
as you promised obedience, you were at that time
dismissed.
And to the end, such & pernicious doctrine may be
entirely extirpated away, and spread no farther, to
the grievous detriment of the Catholic verity, a de
cree was issued by the Holy Congregation indicis^
prohibiting the printing of books, which treat of such
sort of doctrine, which was therein pronounced false,
and altogether contrary to Holy and Divine Scrip
ture. And the same book has since appeared at
Florence, published in the year last past, the inscrip
tion of which, shewed that you were its author, as
the title was, “ A Dialogue of Galileo Galileif con
cerning the two principal systems of the World, the
Ptolemaic and the Copernican, as the Holy Congregationj recognizing from the expression of the afore
said book, that the false opinion concerning the
motion of the Earth, and the immobility of the Sun
prevailed daily more and more : the aforesaid book
was diligently examined, when we openly discovered
the transgression of the aforesaid command, before
injoined you ; seeing that in the same book you had
resumed and defended the aforesaid opinion already
condemned, and in your presence declared to be
erroneous, because in the said book by various cir
cumlocutions, you earnestly endeavour to persuade,
�8
that it is left by you undecided, and at the least pro
bable which must necessarily be a grievous error,
since an opinion can by no means be probable,
which hath already been declared and adjudged
contrary to divine Scripture.
Wherefore you have by our authority been sum
moned to this our Holy Office, in which being exa
mined you have on oath acknowledged the said book
was written and printed by you. And have also
confessed, that about ten or twelve years ago, after
the injunction had been given you as above, that the
said book was begun to be written by you. Also
that you petitioned for licence to publish it, but
without signifying to those who gave you such li
cence, that it had been prohibited you, not by any
means to maintain, defend, or teach such doctrine.
You likewise confessed, that the writing of the
aforesaid book was so composed in many places,
that the reader might think, that arguments adduced
on the false part, calculated rather to perplex the
understanding by their weight, than be easily re
solved ; excusing yourself, by saying you had fallen
|$t° an error so foreign from your intention, (as you
declared) because you had handled the subject in
the form of a dialogue, and because of the natural
complacence which every one hath in maintaining
his own arguments, and in shewing himself more
acute than others in defending even false proposi
tions by ingenious deductions, and of apparent pro
bability.
And, when a time was assigned you for making
your defence, you produced a certificate under the
hand-writing of the most eminent Lord Cardinal
Bellarmine, procured as you said, in order to defend
yourself against the calumnies qf our enemies, who
every where gave it out, that you had abjured, and
had been punished by the Holy Office: in which
certificate it is said, that you had not abjured, nor
had been punished, but only that a declaration had
�been filed against you, drawn up by the said Lord,
and formally issued by the Holy Congregation Indicis, in which it is declared that the doctrine con
cerning the motion of the Earth, and the immobi
lity of the Sun, is contrary to the Holy Scriptures,
and therefore can neither be defended or maintained.
Wherefore seeing no mention was then made of
two particulars of the mandate; namely, (docere fy
quovis modo,} teaching, and by any means, we judge
that in the course of fourteen or sixteen years they
had slipped out of your memory, and for the same
reason you were silent respecting the mandate,
when you petitioned for a licence to print your book,
and yet this was said by you not to maintain, or
obstinately persist in your error, but as proceeding
from vain ambition, and not perverseness. But
this very certificate produced in your defence, ra
ther tends to make your excuse look worse, because
in it is declared, that the aforesaid opinion is con
trary to the Holy Scripture, and yet you have dared
to treat of it as a matter of dispute, and defend, and
teach it as probable: nor does the licence itself fa
vour you, seeing it was deceitfully and artfully ex
torted by you, as you did not produce the mandate
imposed upon you.
And whereas it appeared to us, that the whole
truth was not expressed by you, respecting your in
intention : we have judged it necessary to come to a
more accurate examination of the business, in which
(without prejudice to those things which you have
confessed, and which have been brought against
you as above, respecting your said intention) you
have answered as a penitent, and good* Catholic,
Wherefore we having' maturely considered the merits
of your cause, together with your abovesaid confes
sions, and defence, and are come to the under
written definitive sentence against you.
Having invoked the most holy name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and of his most glorious mother the
�10
ever blessed Virgin Mary, we, by this our definitive
sentence, by the advice and judgment of the most
Reverend Masters of Holy Theology, and the Doc
tors of both Laws, our Counsellors respecting the
cause and causes controverted before us, between
the magnificent Charles Sincerus, Dr. of both Laws,
Fiscal Procurator of this Holy Office on the one part,
and you, Galileo Galilei defendant, question exami
ned, and having confessed, as above on the other
part, we say, judge and declare, by the present pro
cessional writing, you, the abovesaid Galileo, on ac
count of those things, which have been adduced in
the written process, and which you have confessed,
as above, that you have rendered yourself liable to
the suspicion of heresy by this office, that is, you
have believed and maintained a false doctrine, and
contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures, namely,
that the Sun is the centre of the orb of the Earth,
and that it does not move from the East to the West,
and that the Earth moves and is not the centre of
the World ; and that this position may be held and
defended as a probable opinion, after it had been
declared and defined to be contrary to Holy Scrip
tures, and consequently that you have incurred all
the censures and penalties of the Holy Canons, and
other Constitutions general and particular, enacted
and promulgated ag'ainst such delinquents from
which it is our pleasure to absolve you, on condition
that first, with sincere heart and faith unfeigned, you
abjure, execrate, and detest the above errors and he
resies, and every other error and heresy, contrary to
the Catholic and Apostolical Roman Church, in our
presence, in that formula which is hereby exhibited
to you.
But that your grievous and pernicious error and
transgression may not remain altogether unpunished,
and that you may hereafter be more cautious, serving
as an example to others, that they may abstain from
the like offences, we decree, that the book of the
�Dialogue of Galileo, be prohibited by public edict,
and we condemn yourself to the prison of this Holy
Office, to a time to be limited by our discretion ; and
we enjoin under the title of salutary penitence, that
during three years to come you recite once a week the
seven penitential Psalms, reserving to ourselves the
power of moderating, changing, or taking away en
tirely, or in part, the aforesaid penalties and peni
tences.
And so we say, pronounce, and by our sentence
declare, enact, condemn, and reserve, by this and
every other better mode or formula, by which of
right we can and ought.
So we, the underwritten Cardinals pronounce, F.
Cardinal de Asculo, G. Cardinal Bentivolus, F.
Cardinal de Cremona, Fr. Antony Cardinal S. Onuphrii, B. Cardinal Gypsius, F. Cardinal Verospius,
Al. Cardinal Ginettus.
THE ABJURATION OF GALILEO.
I Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincent Galileo, a
Florentine, of the age of 70, appearing personally in
judgment, and being on my knees in the presence
of you, most eminent and most reverend Lords Car
dinals of the Universal Christian Commonwealth,
Inquisitors General against heretical depravity, hav
ing before my eyes the holy Gospels, on which I
now lay my hands, swear that I have always believed,
and now believe, and God helping, thaOJ shall for
the future always believe, whatever the H^ Catholic
and Apostolic Roman Church holds, preaches, and
teaches. But because this Holy Office had enjoin
ed me by precept, entirely to relinquish the false
dogma which maintains that the sun is the centre
of the world, and immoveable, and that the Earth is
not the centre, and moves; not to hold, defend,
�or teach by any means, or by writing, the aforesaid
false doctrine ; and after it had been notified to me
that the aforesaid doctrine is repugnant to the Holy
Scripture, I have written and printed a book, in
which I treat of the same doctrine already condemn
ed, and adduce reasons with great efficacy in favour
of it, not offering any solution of them ; therefore I
have been adjudged and vehemently suspected of
heresy, namely, that I maintained and believed that
the Sun is the centre of the world, and immoveable,
and that the Earth is not the centre, and moves.
Therefore, being willing to take out of the minds
of your eminences, and of every Catholic Christian,
this vehement suspicion of right conceived against
me, I with sincere heart, and faith unfeigned, abjure,
execrate, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies,
and generally every other sect contrary to the above
said Holy Church; and I swear that I will never any
more hereafter say or assert, by speech or writing,
any thing through which the like suspicion may be
had of me ; but if I shall know any one heretical, or
suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this
Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor, and Ordinary of
the place in which I shall be. I moreover swear and
promise, that I will fulfil and observe entirely all the
penitences which have been imposed upon me, or
which shall be imposed by this Holy Office. But if
it shall happen that I shall go contrary (which God
avert) to any of my words, promises, protestations,
and oaths, I subject myself to all the penalties and
punishments, which, by the Holy Canons, and other
Constitutors, general and particular, have been
enacted
promulgated against such delinquents :
So help nre God, and his Holy Gospels, on which I
now lay my hands.
I, the aforesaid Galileo Galilei,haveabjured, sworn,
promise, and have bound myself as above, and in
the fidelity of those with my own hands, and have
subscribed to this present writing of my abjuration,
�13
which I have recited word by word. At Rome, in
the Convent of Minerva, this 22d of J une, of the
year 1633.
I, Galileo Galilei, have abjured as above, with
my own hand.
The following is copied from the quarto edition of
Maclaurin’s Newton, pages 54, 55, and 60.
“ Galileo made surprising discoveries in the
heavens by the telescope, an instrument invented
by himself; and, by applying geometry to the doc
trine of motion, began to establish natural phi
losophy on a sure foundation. He made the evi
dence of the Copernican system more sensible,
when he shewed from the phases of Venus, like to
the monthly phases of the moon, that Venus actur
ally revolves about the sun. He proved the revo
lution of the sun on its axis, from his spots ; and
thence the diurnal rotation of the earth became more
credible. The four satellites that attend Jupiter in
his revolution about the sun, representedin Jupiter’s
lesser system, a just image of the great solar sys
tem ; and rendered it more easy to conceive how
the moon might attend the earth as a satellite in her
annual revolution. By discovering hills and cavi
ties in the moon, and spots in the sun constantly
varying, he shewed that there was not so great a
difference between the celestial andsubl Aary bodies
as the philosophers had vainly imagine® J
“ He did no less service by treatin g|^n a clear
and geometrical manner, the doctrine of motion,
which has been justly called the key of nature.
The rational part of mechanics had been so much
neglected, that there was hardly any improvement
made in it, from the time of the incomparable Archi-
�14
tnedes to that of Galileo ; but this last named au
thor has given us fully the theory of equable motions,
and of such as are uniformly accelerated or retarded,
and of these two compounded together. He first
demonstrated, that the spaces described by heavy
bodies from the beginning of their descent are as
squares of the times, and that a body, projected in
'any direction that is not perpendicular to the hori
zon, describes a parabola. These were the begin
nings of the doctrine of the motion of heavy bodies,
which has been since carried to so great a height by
Sir Isaac Newton.
“ He also discovered the gravity of the air, and en
deavoured to compare it with that of water; and open
ed up several other enquiries in natural philosophy.
He was not esteemed and followed by philosophers
only, but was honoured by persons of the greatest
distinctions of all nations. Des Cartes, indeed, after
commending him for applying geometry to physics,
complains that he had not examined things in order
but had enquired into the reasons of particular ef
fects only; adding that by his passing over the pri
mary causes of nature, he had built without a foun
dation. He did not, ’tis true, take so high a flight
as Des Cartes, or attempt so universal a system ; but
this complaint, I doubt, must turn out to Galileo’s
praise ; while the censure of Des Cartes shews that
he had the weakness to be vain of the worst part of
his writing.
“ But all the merit of this excellent philosopher
and elegant writer could rot preserve him from
persecutiAin his old age. Some pretended philo
sophers, Ibo had imprudently objected against his
new dist^Feries in the heavens, when they found
themselves worsted and exposed to ridicule, turned
their hatred and resentment against his person.
He was obliged by the rancour of the Jesuits and
the weakness of his protector, to go to Rome, and
there solemnly renounce the doctrine of the motion
�of the earth, which he had argued for with so much
ingenuity and evidence. After this cruel usage he
was silent for some time, but not idle ; for we have
valuable pieces of his of a later date.
“ Geometry and philosophy advanced together at
a great pace, and gave mutual aid to each other.
The evidence of geometry began to take place in
philosophy, while all things were examined by num
ber, weight, and measure ; and the principles of the
theory of motion, being now clearly understood,
furnished excellent illustrations of the abstruse parts
of geometry. Galileo had scholars worthy of so
great a master, by whom the gravitation of the at
mosphere was established fully, and its varying
pressure accurately and conveniently measured, by
the column of quicksilver of equal w eight sustained
by it in the barometrical tube. The elasticity of
the air, by which it perpetually endeavours to ex
pand itself, and, w hile it admits of condensation,
resists in proportion to its density, was a phenome
non of a new kind (the common fluids having no
such property) and of the utmost importance to
philosophy.
These principles opened a vast
field of new7 and useful knowdedge, and explained
a great variety of phenomena, which had been ac
counted for in an absurd manner before that time.”
��
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Victorian Blogging
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The accusation, condemnation, & abjuration of Galileo Galilei, before the Holy Inquisition, at Rome, 1633
Creator
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Carlile, Richard
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 15 P. ; 23 cm.
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R. Carlile
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1819
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G5769
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The accusation, condemnation, & abjuration of Galileo Galilei, before the Holy Inquisition, at Rome, 1633), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
Language
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English
Subject
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Freedom of speech
Freedom of Speech
Galileo Galilei
Heresy
NSS