ductions of reason
which appeal to their judgment with all the power of demonstration. He
supports these views by quotations from the ancient fathers; and he
refers to the dedication of Copernicus's own work to the Roman Pontiff,
Paul III., as a proof that the Pope himself did not regard the new
system of the world as hostile to the sacred writings. Copernicus, on
the contrary, tells his Holiness, that the reason of inscribing to him
his new system was, that the authority of the Pontiff might put to
silence the calumnies of some individuals, who attacked it by arguments
drawn from passages of Scripture twisted for their own purpose.

It was in vain to meet such reasoning by any other weapons than those of
the civil power. The enemies of Galileo saw that they must either crush
the dangerous innovation, or allow it the fullest scope; and they
determined upon an appeal to the inquisition. Lorini, a monk of the
Dominican order, had already denounced to this body Galileo's letter to
Castelli; and Caccini, bribed by the mastership of the convent of St
Mary of Minerva, was invited to settle at Rome for the purpose of
embodying the evidence against Galileo.

Though these plans had been carried on in secret, yet Galileo's
suspicions were excited; and he obtained leave from Cosmo to go to Rome
about the end of 1615.[29] Here he was lodged in the palace of the
Grand Duke's ambassador, and kept up a constant correspondence with the
family of his patron at Florence; but, in the midst of this external
splendour, he was summoned before the inquisition to answer for the
heretical doctrines which he had published. 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. The inquisition assembled to consider these charges on the 25th of
February 1615; and it was decreed that Galileo should be enjoined by
Cardinal Bellarmine to renounce the obnoxious doctrines, and to pledge
himself that he would neither teach, defend, nor publish them in future.
In the event of his refusing to acquiesce in this sentence, it was
decreed that he should be thrown into prison. Galileo did not hesitate
to yield to this injunction. On the day following, the 26th of February,
he appeared before Cardinal Bella