ctrines taught by the Greek philosopher; nor had
he any difficulty in exposing their inaccuracies. One of these, which
maintained that the heavier of two bodies descended to the earth with
the greater rapidity, he proved to be incorrect, and demonstrated by
experiment from the top of the tower at Pisa that, except for the
unequal resistance of the air, all bodies fell to the ground with the
same velocity.

As the chief expounder of the new philosophy, Galileo had to encounter
the prejudices of the followers of Aristotle, and of all those who
disliked any innovation or change in the established order of things.
The antagonism which existed between Galileo and his opponents, who were
both numerous and influential, was intensified by the bitterness and
sarcasm which he imparted into his controversies, and the attitude
assumed by his enemies at last became so threatening that he deemed it
prudent to resign the Chair of Mathematics in the University of Pisa.

In the following year he was appointed to a similar post at Padua, where
his fame attracted crowds of pupils from all parts of Europe.

In 1611 Galileo visited Rome. He was received with much distinction by
the different learned societies, and was enrolled a member of the
Lyncaean Academy. In two years after his visit to the capital he
published a work in which he declared his adhesion to the Copernican
theory, and openly avowed his disbelief in the astronomical facts
recorded in the Scriptures. Galileo maintained that the sacred writings
were not intended for the purpose of imparting scientific information,
and that it was impossible for men to ignore phenomena witnessed with
their eyes, or disregard conclusions arrived at by the exercise of their
reasoning powers.

The champions of orthodoxy having become alarmed, an appeal was made to
the ecclesiastical authorities to assist in suppressing this recent
astronomical heresy, and other obnoxious doctrines, the authorship of
which was ascribed to Galileo.

In 1615, Galileo was summoned before the Inquisition to reply to the
accusation of heresy. 'He was charged with maintaining the motion of the
Earth and the stability of the Sun; with teaching this doctrine to his
pupils; with corresponding on the subject with several German
mathematicians; and with having published it, and attempted to reconcile
it to Scripture in his letters to Mark Velser in 1612.'

These charges having been formally investigated by the Inquisit