ion,
Cardinal Bellarmine was authorised to communicate with Galileo, and
inform him that unless he renounced the obnoxious doctrines, and
promised 'neither to teach, defend, or publish them in future,' it was
decreed that he should be committed to prison. Galileo appeared next day
before the Cardinal, and, without any hesitation, pledged himself that
for the future he would adhere to the pronouncement of the Inquisition.

Having, as they imagined, silenced Galileo, the Inquisition resolved to
condemn the entire Copernican system as heretical; and in order to
effectually accomplish this, besides condemning the writings of Galileo,
they inhibited Kepler's 'Epitome of the Copernican System,' and
Copernicus's own work, 'De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium.'

Whether it was that Galileo regarded the Inquisition as a body whose
decrees were too absurd and unreasonable to be heeded, or that he
dreaded the consequences which might have followed had he remained
obstinate, we know that, notwithstanding the pledges which he gave, he
was soon afterwards engaged in controversial discussion on those
subjects which he promised not to mention again.

On the accession of his friend Cardinal Barberini to the pontifical
throne in 1623, under the title of Urban VIII., Galileo undertook a
journey to Rome to offer him his congratulations upon his elevation to
the papal chair. He was received by his Holiness with marked attention
and kindness, was granted several prolonged audiences, and had conferred
upon him several valuable gifts.

Notwithstanding the kindness of Pope Urban and the leniency with which
he was treated by the Inquisition, Galileo, having ignored his pledge,
published in 1632 a book, in dialogue form, in which three persons were
supposed to express their scientific opinions. The first upheld the
Copernican theory and the more recent philosophical views; the second
person adopted a neutral position, suggested doubts, and made remarks of
an amusing nature; the third individual, called Simplicio, was a
believer in Ptolemy and Aristotle, and based his arguments upon the
philosophy of the ancients.

As soon as this work became publicly known, the enemies of Galileo
persuaded the Pope that the third person held up to ridicule was
intended as a representation of himself--an individual regardless of
scientific truth, and firmly attached to the ideas and opinions
associated with the writings of antiquity.

Almost immediately afte