ate his great discoveries;--how could the Church of Rome have
appealed to its pontifical decrees as the ground of persecuting and
punishing Galileo? Even in later times, the same doctrines had been
propagated with entire toleration: Nay, in the very year of Galileo's
first persecution, Paul Anthony Foscarinus, a learned Carmelite monk,
wrote a pamphlet, in which he illustrates and defends the mobility of
the earth, and endeavours to reconcile to this new doctrine the passages
of Scripture which had been employed to subvert it. This very singular
production was dated from the Carmelite convent at Naples; was dedicated
to the very reverend Sebastian Fantoni, general of the Carmelite order;
and, sanctioned by the ecclesiastical authorities, it was published at
Naples in 1615, the very year of the first persecution of Galileo.

Nor was this the only defence of the Copernican system which issued from
the bosom of the Church. Thomas Campanella, a Calabrian monk, published,
in 1622, "_An Apology for Galileo_," and he even dedicates it to D.
Boniface, Cardinal of Cajeta. Nay, it appears from the dedication, that
he undertook the work at the command of the Cardinal, and that the
examination of the question had been entrusted to the Cardinal by the
Holy Senate. After an able defence of his friend, Campanella refers, at
the conclusion of his apology, to the suppression of Galileo's writings,
and justly observes, that the effect of such a measure would be to make
them more generally read, and more highly esteemed. The boldness of the
apologist, however, is wisely tempered with the humility of the
ecclesiastic, and he concludes his work with the declaration, that in
all his opinions, whether written or to be written, he submits himself
to the opinions of the Holy Mother Church of Rome and to the judgment of
his superiors.

By these proceedings of the dignitaries, as well as the clergy of the
Church of Rome, which had been tolerated for more than a century, the
decrees of the pontiffs against the doctrine of the earth's motion were
virtually repealed; and Galileo might have pleaded them with success in
arrest of judgment. Unfortunately, however, for himself and for science,
he acted otherwise. By admitting their authority, he revived in fresh
force these obsolete and obnoxious enactments; and, by yielding to their
power, he riveted for another century the almost broken chains of
spiritual despotism.

It is a curious fact in the ann