s
own axis and around the sun. So, too, in the condemnation of Galileo in
1633, and in all the proceedings which led up to it and which followed
it, Urban VIII was the central figure. Without his sanction no action
could have been taken.

True, the Pope did not formally sign the decree against the Copernican
theory THEN; but this came later. In 1664 Alexander VII prefixed to
the Index containing the condemnations of the works of Copernicus and
Galileo and "all books which affirm the motion of the earth" a papal
bull signed by himself, binding the contents of the Index upon the
consciences of the faithful. This bull confirmed and approved in express
terms, finally, decisively, and infallibly, the condemnation of "all
books teaching the movement of the earth and the stability of the
sun."(76)

(76) See Rev. William W. Roberts, The Pontifical Decrees against the
Doctrine of the Earth's Movement, London, 1885, p. 94; and for the text
of the papal bull, Speculatores domus Israel, pp. 132, 133, see also St.
George Mivart's article in the Nineteenth Century for July, 1885. For
the authentic publication of the bull, see preface to the Index of 1664,
where the bull appears, signed by the Pope. The Rev. Mr. Roberts and
Mr. St. George Mivart are Roman Catholics and both acknowledge that the
papal sanction was fully given.

The position of the mother Church had been thus made especially
difficult; and the first important move in retreat by the apologists was
the statement that Galileo was condemned, not because he affirmed the
motion of the earth, but because he supported it from Scripture. There
was a slight appearance of truth in this. Undoubtedly, Galileo's letters
to Castelli and the grand duchess, in which he attempted to show that
his astronomical doctrines were not opposed to Scripture, gave a new
stir to religious bigotry. For a considerable time, then, this quibble
served its purpose; even a hundred and fifty years after Galileo's
condemnation it was renewed by the Protestant Mallet du Pan, in his wish
to gain favour from the older Church.

But nothing can be more absurd, in the light of the original documents
recently brought out of the Vatican archives, than to make this
contention now. The letters of Galileo to Castelli and the Grand-Duchess
were not published until after the condemnation; and, although the
Archbishop of Pisa had endeavoured to use them against him, they were
but casually mentioned in 1616