n of the highest authority in the Church, "contrary to the
sacred Scriptures," "opposed to the true faith," and "false and
absurd in theology and philosophy"--to say that such declarations
are "provisory" is to say that the truth held by the Church is not
immutable; from this, then, the apologists retreated.(79)

(79) This argument also seems to have been foisted upon the world by the
wily Monsignor Marini.

Still another contention was made, in some respects more curious
than any other: it was, mainly, that Galileo "was no more a victim
of Catholics than of Protestants; for they more than the Catholic
theologians impelled the Pope to the action taken."(80)

(80) See the Rev. A. M. Kirsch on Professor Huxley and Evolution, in The
American Catholic Quarterly, October, 1877. The article is, as a whole,
remarkably fair-minded, and in the main, just, as to the Protestant
attitude, and as to the causes underlying the whole action against
Galileo.

But if Protestantism could force the papal hand in a matter of this
magnitude, involving vast questions of belief and far-reaching questions
of policy, what becomes of "inerrancy"--of special protection and
guidance of the papal authority in matters of faith?

While this retreat from position to position was going on, there was a
constant discharge of small-arms, in the shape of innuendoes, hints,
and sophistries: every effort was made to blacken Galileo's private
character: the irregularities of his early life were dragged forth, and
stress was even laid upon breaches of etiquette; but this succeeded so
poorly that even as far back as 1850 it was thought necessary to cover
the retreat by some more careful strategy.

This new strategy is instructive. The original documents of the Galileo
trial had been brought during the Napoleonic conquests to Paris; but in
1846 they were returned to Rome by the French Government, on the express
pledge by the papal authorities that they should be published. In 1850,
after many delays on various pretexts, the long-expected publication
appeared. The personage charged with presenting them to the world was
Monsignor Marini. This ecclesiastic was of a kind which has too often
afflicted both the Church and the world at large. Despite the solemn
promise of the papal court, the wily Marini became the instrument of
the Roman authorities in evading the promise. By suppressing a document
here, and interpolating a statement there, he m