Galileo's Daughter
Page 24
The Madonna of Impruneta
“As for your returning here under these prevailing conditions,” Suor Maria Celeste worried in her next letter, “I can guarantee you neither resolution nor assurance on account of the contagious pestilence, whose end is so urgently desired that all the faith of the city of Florence is now vested in the Most Holy Madonna, and to this effect this morning with great solemnity her miraculous Image was carried from Impruneta to Florence, where it is expected to stay for 3 days, and we cherish the hope that during its return journey we will enjoy the privilege of seeing her.”
From May 20 to 23, the Madonna of Impruneta passed through the streets of Florence laid waste by the plague, and spent her nights as the guest of three churches that had vied for that honor. The holy image depicted Mary seated on a throne, wearing a red dress and jeweled crown, holding the baby Jesus in the folds of her blue lap robe. About her neck, real necklaces—one of pearls, the other of precious stones—embossed the flat surface of the icon, the whole of which stood inside a red frame rounded at the top like an archway. Eight men carried the poles holding the ornate canopy above the Madonna, and at least another twelve shared the weight and the glory of bearing the table on which her venerated form rested.
When leaving Florence, Suor Maria Celeste recounted, “the image of the Most Holy Madonna of Impruneta came into our Church; a grace truly worthy of note, because she was passing from the Piano [dei Giullari], so that she had to come this way, going back along the whole length of that road you know so well, Sire, and weighing in excess of 700 libbre [about one-quarter ton] with the tabernacle and adornments; its size rendering it unable to fit through our gate, it became necessary to break the wall of the courtyard, and raise the doorway of the Church, which we accomplished with great readiness for such an occasion.”*
In the weeks following the Madonna’s visit, the death toll from the plague alternately dipped and climbed, so that the full extent of the miracle she had wrought did not become clear until September 17, 1633, when the authorities declared Florence officially free of contamination. In early June, however, as the day of Galileo’s judgment approached, Suor Maria Celeste still heard word of seven or eight plague fatalities every day. And Signor Rondinelli warned her that the open country around Rome would be closed to travelers for the summer months as a further precaution to preserve the safety of the Holy City. If Galileo were not allowed to leave the embassy in the very near future, he would be stuck there at least until autumn.
In mid-June she once more cautioned her father against hasty departure, urging him to stay put, away from “these perils, which in spite of everything continue and may even be multiplying; and in consequence an order has come to our Monastery, and to others as well, from the Commissioners of Health, stating that for a period of 40 days we must, two nuns at a time, pray continuously day and night beseeching His Divine Majesty for freedom from this scourge. We received alms of 25 scudi from the commissioners for our prayers, and today marks the fourth day since our vigil began.”
All the worry Suor Maria Celeste expended over the plague danger facing her father was unoccasioned, however, since the Inquisition had no intention of releasing Galileo any time soon.
On June 16, Pope Urban VIII presided over a meeting of the cardinal inquisitors. Urban had absorbed the official report summarizing the Galileo affair from the first accusations against the philosopher in 1615, through the publication of his book, up to his recent defense and plea for mercy. Now His Holiness demanded that Galileo be interrogated “on intent"—to determine, technically by torture if necessary, his true purpose in writing the Dialogue. The book itself could not escape censure in any case, the pontiff averred, and would assuredly be prohibited. As for Galileo, he would have to serve a prison term and perform penance. His public humiliation would warn all Christendom of the folly of disobeying orders and gainsaying Holy Scripture dictated by the mouth of God.
“To give you news of everything about the house,” Suor Maria Celeste wrote on June 18, unaware of the awful turn of events in Rome,
I will start from the dovecote, where since Lent the pigeons have been brooding; the first pair to be hatched were devoured one night by some animal, and the pigeon who had been setting them was found draped over a rafter half eaten, and completely eviscerated, on which account La Piera assumed the culprit to be some bird of prey; and the other frightened pigeons would not go back there, but, as La Piera kept on feeding them they have since recovered themselves, and now two more are brooding.
The orange trees bore few flowers, which La Piera pressed, and she tells me she has drawn a whole pitcherful of orange water. The capers, when the time comes, will be sufficient to suit you, Sire. The lettuce that was sown according to your instructions never came up, and in its place La Piera planted beans that she claims are quite beautiful, and coming lastly to the chickpeas, it seems the hare will win the largest share, he having already begun to make off with them.
The broad beans are set out to dry, and their stalks fed for breakfast to the little mule, who has become so haughty that she refuses to carry anyone, and has several times thrown poor Geppo so as to make him turn somersaults, but gently, since he was not hurt. Sestilia’s brother Ascanio once asked to ride her out, though when he approached the gate to Prato he decided to turn back, never having gained the upper hand over the obstinate creature to make her proceed, as she perhaps disdains to be ridden by others, finding herself without her true master.
On the morning of June 21, ushered into the chambers of the commissary general for the fourth and final time, Galileo endured his examination on intent by Father Maculano.
Q: Whether he had anything to say.
A: I have nothing to say.
Q: Whether he holds or has held, and for how long, that the Sun is the center of the world and the Earth is not the center of the world but moves also with diurnal motion.
A: A long time ago, that is, before the decision of the Holy Congregation of the Index, and before I was issued that injunction, I was undecided and regarded the two opinions, those of Ptolemy and Copernicus, as disputable, because either the one or the other could be true in Nature. But after the said decision, assured by the prudence of the authorities, all my uncertainty stopped, and I held, as I still hold, as most true and indisputable, Ptolemy’s opinion, namely the stability of the Earth and the motion of the Sun.
Having been told that he is presumed to have held the said opinion after that time, from the manner and procedure in which the said opinion is discussed and defended in the book he published, indeed from the very fact that he wrote and published the said book, he was asked therefore to freely tell the truth whether he holds or has held that opinion.
A: In regard to my writing of the published Dialogue, I did not do so because I held the Copernican doctrine to be true. Instead, deeming only to confer a common benefit, I set forth the physical and astronomical reasons that can be advanced for each side; I tried to show that neither set of arguments has the force of conclusive demonstration in favor of the one opinion or the other, and that therefore to proceed with certainty one had to resort to the decisions of higher teaching, as one can see in many passages in the Dialogue. So for my part I conclude that I do not hold and, after the determination of the authorities, I have not held the condemned opinion.
Having been told that from the book itself and the reasons advanced for the affirmative side, namely that the Earth moves and the Sun is motionless, he is presumed, as it was stated, to hold Copernicus’s opinion, or at least to have held it at the time, therefore he was told that unless he decided to proffer the truth, one would have recourse to the remedies of the law and to appropriate steps against him.
A: I do not hold this opinion of Copernicus, and I have not held it after being ordered by injunction to abandon it. For the rest, I am here in your hands; do with me what you please.
And he was told to tell the truth, otherwise one would have recourse to torture.
[XXV]
Judgment
passed on
your book
and your person
Despite the hopes of Galileo and his supporters that his affair would end quietly in a private admonition—with his Dialogue merely “suspended until corrected,” as Copernicus’s book had been—the sentence pronounced on Wednesday, June 22, publicly convicted him of heinous crimes.
The cardinal inquisitors and their witnesses gathered that morning in the Dominican convent adjoining the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, in the center of the city, where they typically held their weekly meetings. Up a spiral staircase, into a room with a frescoed ceiling, came Galileo, led before them to hear the results of their deliberations.
We say, pronounce, sentence, and declare that you, Galileo, by reason of the matters which have been detailed in the trial and which you have confessed already, have rendered yourself in the judgment of this Holy Office vehemently suspected of heresy, namely of having held and believed the doctrine which is false and contrary to the Sacred and Divine Scriptures, that the Sun is the center of the world and does not move from east to west and that the Earth moves and is not the center of the world; and that one may hold and defend as probable an opinion after it has been declared and defined contrary to Holy Scripture. Consequently, you have incurred all the censures and penalties enjoined and promulgated by the sacred Canons and all particular and general laws against such delinquents. We are willing to absolve you from them provided that first, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, in our presence you abjure, curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Church in the manner and form we will prescribe to you.
Furthermore, so that this grievous and pernicious error and transgression of yours may not go altogether unpunished, and so that you will be more cautious in future, and an example for others to abstain from delinquencies of this sort, we order that the book Dialogue of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by public edict.
We condemn you to formal imprisonment in this Holy Office at our pleasure. As a salutary penance we impose on you to recite the seven penitential psalms once a week for the next three years. And we reserve to ourselves the power of moderating, commuting, or taking off, the whole or part of the said penalties and penances. This we say, pronounce, sentence, declare, order and reserve by this or any other better manner or form that we reasonably can or shall think of. So we the undersigned Cardinals pronounce.
Even though the opinion of Copernicus had been rescued from the shame of heresy in 1616, Galileo, for his exposition of Copernicus, now stood “vehemently suspected of heresy” himself.
Only seven of the ten inquisitors affixed their signatures to the sentence. Francesco Cardinal Barberini, the strongest advocate for clemency among them, pointedly stayed away from the session and declined to sign. Also absent was Gaspare Cardinal Borgia, who perhaps used this occasion to reproach Pope Urban further for his pro-French behavior in the Thirty Years’ War—or to thank Galileo for the suggestions he once offered the Spanish government on solving the longitude problem by observing the moons of Jupiter. Laudivio Cardinal Zacchia, one of the first cardinals to whom Grand Duke Ferdinando wrote in defense of Galileo, also withheld his signature, for reasons equally unknown. Perhaps he was ill that day and could not attend.
The Holy Tribunal presented Galileo its draft text of an abjuration for him to speak aloud. But in reading it first silently to himself, he discovered two clauses so abhorrent that he could not be convinced, even under the circumstances, to concede them: One suggested he had lapsed in his behavior as a good Catholic, the other that he had acted deceitfully in obtaining the imprimatur for the Dialogue. He had done nothing of the kind, he said, and the officials granted his request to strike these references from the script.
Dressed in the white robe of the penitent, the accused then knelt and abjured as ordered:
I, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei, Florentine, aged 70 years, arraigned personally before this tribunal, and kneeling before You, Most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors-General against heretical depravity throughout the Christian commonwealth, having before my eyes and touching with my hands the Holy Gospels, swear that I have always believed, I believe now, and with God’s help I will in future believe all that is held, preached, and taught by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. But whereas—after having been admonished by this Holy Office entirely to abandon the false opinion that the Sun is the center of the world and immovable, and that the Earth is not the center of the same and that it moves, and that I must not hold, defend, nor teach in any manner whatever, either orally or in writing, the said false doctrine, and after it had been notified to me that the said doctrine was contrary to Holy Writ—I wrote and caused to be printed a book in which I treat of the already condemned doctrine, and adduce arguments of much efficacy in its favor, without arriving at any solution: I have been judged vehemently suspected of heresy, that is, of having held and believed that the Sun is the center of the world and immovable, and that the Earth is not the center and moves.
Therefore, wishing to remove from the minds of your Eminences and of all faithful Christians this vehement suspicion justly conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally all and every error and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. And I swear that for the future I will never again say nor assert in speaking or writing such things as may bring upon me similar suspicion; and if I know any heretic, or person suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor or Ordinary of the place where I may be. I also swear and promise to adopt and observe entirely all the penances which have been or may be imposed on me by this Holy Office. And if I contravene any of these said promises, protests, or oaths (which God forbid!), I submit myself to all the pains and penalties imposed and promulgated by the Sacred Canons and other Decrees, general and particular, against such offenders. So help me God and these His Holy Gospels, which I touch with my own hands.
I, the said Galileo Galilei, have abjured, sworn, promised, and bound myself as above; and in witness of the truth, with my own hand have subscribed the present document of my abjuration, and have recited it word by word in Rome, at the Convent of the Minerva, this 22nd day of June 1633.
Final lines of Galileo’s handwritten confession to the Inquisition
I, Galileo Galilei, have abjured as above, with my own hand.
It is often said that as Galileo rose from his knees he muttered under his breath “Eppur si muove” (But still it moves). Or he shouted out these words, looking toward the sky and stamping his foot. Either way, for Galileo to voice such undaunted conviction in this hostile encounter would have been beyond foolhardy, not to mention that the comment suggests a defiant feistiness beyond his means to muster then and there. He may have said it weeks or months later, in front of other witnesses, but not on that day. He sustained his condemnation in the Convent of the Minerva as a breach of the promises made him in exchange for his cooperation. For he believed in his own innocence; he had admitted committing a “crime” only because his confession had been part of a deal.
Within days, Cardinal Barberini successfully softened Galileo’s sentence by changing the place of his imprisonment from the dungeons of the Holy Office to the Tuscan embassy in Rome. Then Ambassador Niccolini entreated Pope Urban to pardon Galileo and send him home to Florence. Galileo, he explained to bolster his plea, had agreed to take in his widowed sister-in-law, who was even now preparing to depart from Germany along with her eight children, and had nowhere else to turn.
Urban rejected the idea of the pardon, but he consented to let Galileo leave Rome at last. With Cardinal Barberini’s intervention, Galileo was consigned for the first five months of his prison term to th
e custody of the archbishop of Siena, who had already offered to send his personal litter to ensure safe, speedy conveyance to his palace.
The Dialogue duly appeared on the next published Index of Prohibited Books, in 1664, where it would remain for nearly two hundred years.
MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND BELOVED LORD FATHER
JUST AS SUDDENLY and unexpectedly as word of your new torment reached me, Sire, so intensely did it pierce my soul with pain to hear the judgment that has finally been passed, denouncing your person as harshly as your book. I learned all this by importuning Signor Geri, because, not having any letters from you this week, I could not calm myself, as though I already knew all that had happened.
My dearest lord father, now is the time to avail yourself more than ever of that prudence which the Lord God has granted you, bearing these blows with that strength of spirit which your religion, your profession, and your age require. And since you, by virtue of your vast experience, can lay claim to full cognizance of the fallacy and instability of everything in this miserable world, you must not make too much of these storms, but rather take hope that they will soon subside and transform themselves from troubles into as many satisfactions.