What was the motive behind it? For almost fifty years of his life, he had held his tongue about Copernicus, not out of fear to be burnt at the stake, but to avoid academic unpopularity. When, carried away by sudden fame, he had at last committed himself, it became at once a matter of prestige to him. He had said that Copernicus was right, and whosoever said otherwise was belittling his authority as the foremost scholar of his time. That this was the central motivation of Galileo's fight will become increasingly evident. It does not exonerate his opponents; but it is relevant to the problem whether the conflict was historically inevitable or not.
The final section of the Letter to the Grand Duchess is devoted to the miracle of Joshua. Galileo first explains that the sun's rotation around its axis is the cause of all planetary motion. "And just as if the motion of the heart should cease in an animal, all other motions of its members would also cease, so if the rotation of the sun were to stop, the rotations of all the planets would stop too." 18 Thus he not only assumed, with Kepler, the annual revolutions of the planets to be caused by the sun, but also their daily rotation round their axes – an ad hoc hypothesis with no more "rigorous proof" than the analogy with the animal's heart. He then concludes that when Joshua cried: "Sun, stand thou still," the sun stopped rotating, and the earth in consequence stopped both its annual and daily motion. But Galileo, who came so close to discovering the law of inertia, knew better than anybody that if the earth suddenly stopped dead in its track, mountains and cities would collapse like match-boxes; and even the most ignorant monk, who knew nothing about impetus, knew what happened when the horses reared and the mail-coach came to a sudden halt, or when a ship ran against a rock. If the Bible was interpreted according to Ptolemy, the sudden stand-still of the sun would have no appreciable physical effect, and the miracle remained credible as miracles go; if it was interpreted according to Galileo, Joshua would have destroyed not only the Philistines, but the whole earth. That Galileo hoped to get away with this kind of painful nonsense, showed his contempt for the intelligence of his opponents.
In the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina the whole tragedy of Galileo is epitomized. Passages which are classics of didactic prose, superb formulations in defence of the freedom of thought, alternate with sophistry, evasion and plain dishonesty.
4. The Denunciation
For almost a whole year after the Letter to Castelli nothing dramatic happened. But the damage was done. Copies of the Letter were circulating and were distorted in the process, then even more distorted by rumour. People like old Father Lorini, who, a year earlier, had not even heard the name "Ipernicus", got the impression that some new Luther had arisen, denying the miracles of the Bible and defying the authority of the Church by means of some mathematical sophistries. Typical was the reaction of the Bishop of Fiesole, who wanted Copernicus instantly jailed, and was surprised to learn that he had been dead for seventy years.
In December (we are in 1614), there was a public scandal on a minor scale. A Dominican monk, Father Thommaso Caccini, who had previously been censured in Bologna as a rabble-rouser, preached a sermon in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Choosing as his text "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into the heaven?", he attacked mathematicians in general and Copernicus in particular. Galileo promptly complained to Caccini's superiors in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. As a result, Father Luigi Maraffi, Preacher General of the Dominican Order, wrote to him a sincere apology. "Unfortunately," wrote Maraffi, "I have to answer for all the idiocies that thirty or forty thousand brothers may or do actually commit." 19 The letter illustrates the contrast in attitude between the higher dignitaries of the Church and the ignorant fanatics among the lower echelons.
At the time of Caccini's sermon, Father Lorini was on a visit to Pisa. On 31 December, Castelli reported to Galileo: "From what I hear, Father Lorini (who is here) felt very sad that your fine priest had let himself get so far out of hand." 20 But a few days later, Lorini was shown a copy of the Letter to Castelli. He was profoundly shocked, and made a copy of it. On his return to his convent – St. Mark's in Florence – he discussed its contents with his fellow brethren. By now the atmosphere had become so tense, that they decided the Letter should be forwarded to the Holy Office. On 7 February, 1615, Lorini wrote to Cardinal Sfondrati:
"All our Fathers of this devout convent of St. Mark are of opinion that the letter contains many propositions which appear to be suspicious or presumptuous, as when it asserts that the language of Holy Scripture does not mean what it seems to mean; that in discussions about natural phenomena the last and lowest place ought to be given to the authority of the sacred text; that its commentators have very often erred in their interpretation; that the Holy Scriptures should not be mixed up with anything except matters of religion... Ever mindful of our vow to be the 'black and white hounds' of the Holy Office ... when I saw that they [the 'Galileists'] expounded the Holy Scriptures according to their private lights and in a manner different from that of the common interpretation of the Fathers of the Church; that they strove to defend an opinion which appeared to be quite contrary to the sacred text; that they spoke in slighting terms of the ancient Fathers and of St. Thomas Aquinas; that they were treading underfoot the entire philosophy of Aristotle which has been of such service to Scholastic theology; and, in fine, that to show their cleverness they were airing and scattering broadcast in our steadfast Catholic city a thousand saucy and irreverent surmises; when, I say, I became aware of all this, I made up my mind to acquaint your Lordship with the state of affairs, that you in your holy zeal for the Faith may, in conjunction with your most illustrious colleagues, provide such remedies as will appear advisable... I, who hold that those who call themselves Galileists are orderly men and good Christians all, but a little overwise and conceited in their opinions, declare that I am actuated by nothing in this business but zeal for the sacred cause." 21
The letter was evidently the outcome of a collective decision of the Dominicans of St. Mark. It did not mention Galileo by name, only referred to "Galileists". It also seems that old Father Lorini was not quite definite in his mind whether the writer of the Letter to Castelli was Galileo or Copernicus. 21a But the copy of the Letter to Castelli which he enclosed contains two deliberate errors in transcription. Galileo wrote that there were passages in Scripture which, "taken in the strict literal meaning, look as if they differed from the truth". In Lorini's copy this became: "... which are false in the literal meaning". Galileo wrote that Scripture sometimes "overshadows" its own meaning; in Lorini's copy "overshadows" became "perverts".
The forgery is usually blamed on Lorini. By what is known of the character of the old man and by other internal evidence, it seems much more likely that it was committed by some other hand. As will presently be seen, it made no difference to the outcome, but this first forgery should be noted because of the suspicion of a second and more important one at a later stage.
To anyone who does not remember the reverence of the higher dignitaries of the Church for Science and Scientists, the result of Father Lorini's denunciation must appear rather startling. The Letter to Castelli was duly forwarded to the Consultor of the Holy Office for his opinion; who pronounced that "such words as 'false' and 'perverting' sound very bad"; however, considered in the general context they were not of a nature that they could be said to deviate from Catholic doctrine; and, as for the remaining contents of the Letter, he had no objection. The case was dismissed.
Lorini's denunciation had fallen through, but a month later Caccini appeared in Rome, undaunted by the disavowal of his superior. He approached the Holy Office "begging to testify concerning the errors of Galileo for the exoneration of his conscience".
Caccini beautifully fits the satirist's image of an ignorant, officious, lying and intriguing monk of the Renaissance. His testimony before the Inquisition was a web of hearsay, innuendo and deliberate falsehood. He named as witnesses a Spanish priest, Father Ximenes, and a young man named Atavante. Since X
imenes was travelling abroad, he could not be called till 13 November, and Atavante was called the following day. The contradictions in their evidence convinced the inquisitors that Caccini's charges of heresy and subversion were a fabrication, and the case against Galileo was again dropped.
This was in November, 1615. For the next eighteen years Galileo lived honoured and unmolested, befriended by Pope Urban VIII and an impressive array of cardinals.
But the Letters to Castelli and to the Grand Duchess remained on the files of the Inquisition, and in the minds of the theologians. The text was so carefully worded that it could not be indicted as heresy, but the intent was unmistakable; it constituted a challenge which sooner or later had to be answered. The challenge lay in the implied claim that the Copernican system belonged to the category of "rigorously demonstrated" physical truths to which the meaning of the Bible must be adapted; and that unless it was explicitly refuted and condemned, theological objections would become irrelevant and the case would go by default.
Three months after Galileo himself had been cleared of all charges against his person, Copernicus' book was put on the Index "pending corrections". It is necessary to describe in some detail the events which led to this.
5. The Refusal to Compromise
Galileo's chief opponent in the historic controversy was both a bogyman and a saint. In England he was believed to be the master-mind behind the Gunpowder Plot, "a furious and devilish Jebusite"; for a while, wine-jugs featuring a bearded head were called Bellarmines. He was beatified in 1923 and made a saint in 1930.
At the time of the controversy, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine was seventy-three, a general of the Jesuit Order, Consultor of the Holy Office, and the most respected theologian in Christendom, whose opinion carried more spiritual authority than Pope Paul V's. He was the author of the catechism in its modern form, and co-editor of the Clementine edition of the Vulgate. But his lasting fame is that of one of the great controversialists of all time. His polemics against Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and particularist tendencies in Catholic countries such as France and the Venetian Republic, were inspired by an overriding vision: the Universal Church as a super-state. This involved the rejection not only of the Protestant heresy, but also of the new nationalist tendencies derived from the principle of absolute monarchy. The idea of the Universal Church demanded a Holy Father with a universal authority overriding that of any national ruler.
However, Bellarmine was sufficiently realistic to moderate his claims of temporal power for the Papacy. Hence, on the one hand, he had to fight that other great controversialist, James I, in a long series of tracts and counter-tracts which were the scandal and delight of Western Christendom; but he also incurred the displeasure of Paul V for not claiming absolute temporal authority for the Pope. In a later controversy between Jesuits and Dominicans on the question of predestination Bellarmine again took a middle line; the point of interest to us is that the Dominicans' (as later the Jansenists'), arguments were mainly based on Augustine's, so that the African saint's opinions had become a very controversial subject. Galileo's innocent reliance on Augustine's authority shows how unwise it was for a layman to venture out into the rarified but highly charged air of theology.
As an individual, Bellarmine was the opposite of what one would expect from a formidable theologian who defied popes and kings. He was a lover of music and the arts; he had lectured on astronomy in his youth. He had a simple manner and led a simple, ascetic life, in contrast to other princes of the Church; but above all he had a "childlike quality that was noted by all who came in contact with him". At the time of the Galileo controversy, he was writing a devotional book called Lament of the Dove, which his most ferocious opponent, James I, in his later years constantly carried about his person, and described as a wonderful aid to spiritual comfort.
One of Bellarmine's official functions was that of a "Master of Controversial Questions" at the Roman College. Here he was in constant touch with the leading astronomers of the capital, Fathers Clavius and Grienberger, who had been among the first converts to Galileo's telescopic discoveries, and had acclaimed him on his first visit to Rome. Thus it can hardly be said that Galileo's opposite number in the drama was an ignorant fanatic. Bellarmine's independence of mind is further illustrated by the fact that in 1890 his magnum opus, the Disputationes, was temporarily put on the Index of forbidden books.
Sixteen years before he became involved with Galileo, Bellarmine had been one of the nine Cardinal Inquisitors who participated in the trial of Giordano Bruno, and some writers have tried to see a sinister connection between the two events. In fact, there is none. Bruno was burnt alive, on 16 February, 1600, under the most horrible circumstances on the Square of Flowers in Rome, as an impenitent apostate, who during seven years of imprisonment refused to abjure his theological heresies, and persisted in his refusal to the last moment. 22 Giordano Bruno and Michael Servetus (burned, in 1553, by the Calvinists in Geneva) seem to be the only scholars of repute who became victims of religious intolerance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – not, of course, because of their scientific, but because of their religious opinions. Coleridge's remark: "If ever a poor fanatic thrust himself into the fire, it was Michael Servetus," applies to the irascible and tempestuous Bruno as well. His teachings of the infinity of the universe and the plurality of inhabited worlds, his pantheism and universal ethics exerted a considerable influence on subsequent generations; but he was a poet and metaphysician, not a scientific writer, and thus does not enter into this narrative. 22a
We have followed the events of 1615, from Lorini's denunciation of Galileo Letter and Caccini's denunciation of his personal activities, to the collapse of the case against him in November. The proceedings were conducted in secret, and Galileo had no part in them; but his friends in Rome knew that something was up, and kept him informed of all rumours and developments. Among his informants were Cardinal Piero Dini, Archbishop of Fermo, and Monsignor Giovanni Ciàmpoli. The letters exchanged, during 1615, between these two in Rome and Galileo in Florence, are important for the understanding of the developments which led to the prohibition of Copernicus.
On 16 February, Galileo sent a copy of his Letter to Castelli to Dini, with the request that it should be shown to Father Grienberger and, if possible, to Cardinal Bellarmine. In his covering letter there were the usual complaints about the hostility surrounding him. He remarked that the Letter to Castelli was written in haste and that he was going to improve and extend it; the extended version, as we know, became the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.
Before Dini answered, Ciàmpoli wrote, at the end of February (my italics):
" CardinalBarberini [the future Pope Urban VIII], who, as you know from experience, has always admired your worth, told me only yesterday evening that with respect to these opinions he would like greater caution in not going beyond the arguments used by Ptolemy and Copernicus, * and finally in not exceeding the limitations of physics and mathematics. For to explain the Scriptures is claimed by theologians as their field, and if new things are brought in, even by an admirable mind, not everyone has the dispassionate faculty of taking them just as they are said..." 23
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*
i.e., that they are to be regarded as mathematical hypotheses only, in the sense of Osiander's preface.
A few days later, on 3 March, Dini's answer arrived (my italics):
"With Bellarmine I spoke at length of the things you had written... And he said that as to Copernicus, there is no question of his book being prohibited; the worst that might happen, according to him, would be the addition of some material in the margins of that book to the effect that Copernicus had introduced his theory in order to save the appearances, or some such thing – just as others had introduced epicycles without thereafter believing in their existence. And with a similar precaution you may at any time deal with these matters. If things are fixed accor
ding to the Copernican system, [he said], it does not appear presently that they would have any greater obstacle in the Bible than the passage '[the sun] exults as a strong man to run his course,' etc., which all expositors up to now have understood by attributing motion to the sun. And although I replied that this also could be explained as a concession to our ordinary forms of expression, I was told in answer that this was not a thing to be done in haste, just as the condemnation of any of these opinions was not to be passionately hurried... I can only rejoice for you..." 24
On the same day – 7 March – Prince Cesi, the President of the Linceian Academy, also wrote to Galileo. His letter contained the sensational news that a Carmelite monk from Naples, Paolo Antonio Foscarini, a Provincial of his Order, had published a book in defence of Galileo and Copernicus. 25 Foscarini was now preaching in Rome and had offered to meet all comers in public discussion. He had sent a copy of his book to Bellarmine.
On 21 March, Ciàmpoli relayed further assurances by Cardinals Bellarmine and del Monte, that Galileo had nothing to fear so long as he kept to the province of physics and mathematics, and refrained from theological interpretations of Scripture. 26 He added that there was a danger of Foscarini's book being prohibited, but only because it meddled with Holy Scripture. Ciàmpoli had also been told that several Jesuit astronomers were Copernicans, but were still holding back, that it was essential to go on working until all quietened down, and to avoid new occasions for scandal-makers. 27