[I.] I shall first review some Astronomers, Philosophers, and Theologians, who have condemned the hypothesis of Copernicus in rather express formulas.

[Margin: Tycho. — Tassoni.]

Tycho (in the epistles, p. 147) judges it “Absurd, and contrary to Sacred Scripture.” Alexander Tassoni (book 4 of the Various Contemplations, q. 25) asserts it to be “Against nature, against sense and the Physical reasons, against Astronomy and Mathematics, and against Religion.”

[Margin: Mersenne. — Gassendi.]

But Marin Mersenne (in the questions on Genesis, ch. 1, verse 10, art. 7) so reproves it, that nevertheless he denies it has hitherto been condemned as a heresy by the Catholic Church. Pierre Gassendi (at the end of the second epistle On motion impressed by a transferred mover) indeed condemns and repudiates that opinion, but adds: “Not that I therefore esteem it to be an article of Faith, etc.”

[Margin: Scheiner.]

But our [own father] Scheiner (in the Mathematical Disquisitions, pp. 28 and 35) [judges] the Copernican motion “to be beyond all belief, nor able to be defended without innumerable absurdities” — from which it follows, first, that many passages of Sacred Scripture, and the common formulas of speaking of the Astronomers, would have to be twisted into a perverse sense without any necessity, since in the plain sense all things can be most conveniently defended.

[Margin: Delfino. — Kircher.]

From the Franciscan family, John Antony Delfino (in the book On the celestial globes and motions, ch. 18) calls the opinion of the earth’s motion “foolish, insipid, and long ago hissed off [exploded] from the schools.” But others mark it with graver censures: for Athanasius Kircher (in his Magnes [Magnet], p. 539) affirms it to be “Dangerous in [matters of] Faith.”

[Margin: Lipsius. — Tellez.]

Nay, Justus Lipsius (book 2 of the Physiologia, disputation 19) — which Georgius Polaccus also reports in his Anticopernicus Catholicus (assertions 1 and 45) — and, with Lipsius, our [father] Balthasar Tellez (in the Summa of Philosophy, part 2, disputation 16, section 2) call the opinion of the earth’s motion “Heresy.”

[Margin: Serarius. — Tanner.]

Which Nicolaus Serarius of our Society also does (on ch. 10 of Joshua, question 14), where, speaking of Copernicus, he says: “But although, that they might escape all reprehension, he dedicated these his revolutions to the Supreme Pontiff Paul III, yet these hypotheses, if they were seriously asserted as true, I do not see in what manner they could be immune from heresy. For Scripture always assigns rest to the Earth, and motion to the Sun and the Moon; or if ever those heavenly bodies stand still, it signifies that this comes to pass by a great miracle.” Besides, Adam Tanner, a most learned Theologian of our Society (in the dissertation On the heaven, question 9), says that it is a certain and true assertion that the stars, not the earth, are moved from East to West, and that the opposite was condemned as heresy or error by Philastrius and Diodore of Tarsus, and that after the decree of the Cardinals it can no longer safely be defended.

[Margin: Froidmont. — Acarisius.]

Likewise Froidmont (in his Vesta) and Acarisius (in his [own work]) subscribe to the same censures, which we shall presently draw forth from the decree of the Cardinals.

[Margin: Inchofer.]

Melchior Inchofer of our Society (in his Syllepticus tract, from ch. 8 to 12) judges: first, “that there is a unanimous consent of the Fathers that the Sun is moved”; second, “that it is of Faith that the Sun is moved circularly”; third, “that it is more probable that it is of Faith that the Earth is at the center of the world and is not moved” — of faith, I say, at least indirectly, inasmuch as from its opposite there follows something contrary to faith, namely that the passages of Scripture asserting the Sun’s motion and the Earth’s stability are false.

[Margin: Polacco. — Pineda. — Lorini.]

With whom Georgius Polaccus agrees in all things, in his Anticopernicus Catholicus (assertions 126, 127, 128, 129, 130). Our Pineda (on ch. 1 of Ecclesiastes, p. 114) calls the opinion of the earth’s motion “an absurd falsity,” which same falsity Lorini of our Society asserts to have been demonstrated by himself from the divine letters, in…

[…continues on p. 496 (PDF 531) with the catchword “in” — Lorini’s demonstration and the further dossier of condemnations leading to the decree of the Cardinals.]

(printed p. 496 — Chapter XL continues: Riccioli wholly subscribes to the Sacred Congregation’s censure as passed for most prudent and just causes, then introduces the documentary dossier he reproduces verbatim. The Decree under Paul V of 5 March 1616 is given in full — Copernicus and Zúñiga suspended until corrected, Foscarini wholly prohibited — followed by the 1620 Monitum and the beginning of the Emendation of Copernicus’s assertive passages into hypothetical wording.)

[Header: BOOK IX. SECTION IV. — 496]

[Margin: The Author’s own judgment.]

…[Lorini, on] the same first chapter of Ecclesiastes. [For my own part,] I dare neither add anything to, nor subtract anything from, the censure passed upon this opinion by the Sacred Congregation of Cardinals — which censure I will report a little below — but I wholly subscribe to that same [censure], as pronounced for most prudent and most just causes.

[II.] There now follows a copy of the Decree under Paul V against the books of Copernicus, of Diego de Zúñiga, and of Paolo Antonio Foscarini — extracted from the Chancery of the Holy Office of the Inquisition at Rome, of which Tanner too (in the dissertation On the heaven, question 9) reports a great part — to which we shall subjoin the Emendation of Copernicus’s books, promulgated at Rome in the year 1620, and the Abjuration to which Galileo was compelled in the year 1633 under Urban VIII (a copy of which the Most Reverend Father Pallavicino, Inquisitor of Mantua, showed to us, and which Georgius Polaccus likewise recites in his Anticopernicus Catholicus, after assertion 123, from the epistle of the Most Eminent Cardinal of Sant’Onofrio sent in the same year to the Most Reverend Inquisitor of Venice).

Extract of the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Most Eminent Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, issued under Paul V on the 5th of March of the year 1616.

And because it has also come to the notice of the aforesaid Congregation that that false Pythagorean doctrine — wholly adverse to the Divine Scripture — concerning the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun, which Nicolaus Copernicus (in On the Revolutions of the heavenly Orbs) and Diego de Zúñiga (on Job) also teach, is now being spread abroad and received by many: as may be seen from a certain printed Letter of a certain Carmelite Father, whose title is “Letter of the Reverend Father Master Paolo Antonio Foscarini, Carmelite, upon the opinion of the Pythagoreans and of Copernicus concerning the mobility of the Earth and the stability of the Sun, and the new Pythagorean System of the World” (at Naples, by Lazzaro Scoriggio, 1615), in which the said Father attempts to show that the aforesaid doctrine concerning the immobility of the Sun in the center of the World and the mobility of the Earth is consonant with truth and not adverse to Sacred Scripture: — therefore, lest an opinion of this kind creep further to the ruin of Catholic truth, [the Congregation] has decreed that the said books of Nicolaus Copernicus (On the Revolutions of the orbs) and of Diego de Zúñiga (on Job) are to be suspended until they be corrected; but the book of Father Paolo Antonio Foscarini, Carmelite, is wholly to be prohibited and condemned; and that all other books likewise teaching the same are to be prohibited — as by the present decree it respectively prohibits, condemns, and suspends them all. In faith of which, the present decree was signed and fortified by the hand and seal of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal of S. Cæcilia, Bishop of Albano, on the 5th day of March 1616. At Rome, from the Press of the Apostolic Chamber, in the year 1616.

P. Bishop of Albano, Cardinal of S. Cæcilia.

Place ✠ of the Seal.

Registered, Folio 90. Fr. Francesco Magdaleno Capiferreo, of the Order of Preachers, Secretary.

Admonition of the Sacred Congregation to the Reader of Nicolaus Copernicus, and the Emendation, Permission, and Correction.

Although the writings of Nicolaus Copernicus, the noble Astronomer, On the Revolutions of the World were judged by the Fathers of the Sacred Congregation of the Index to be utterly prohibitable, for this reason — because he does not hesitate to treat the principles concerning the position and motion of the terrestrial globe (repugnant to Sacred Scripture and to its true and Catholic interpretation, which in a Christian man is least of all to be tolerated) not by way of hypothesis, but to build them up as most true: nevertheless, because there are in them many things most useful to the Commonwealth, by unanimous consent [the Fathers] came into this opinion, that the works of Copernicus, printed up to this day, should be permitted — as they have permitted them — yet with these passages corrected (according to the emendation set out below), in which he disputes of the position and motion of the Earth not by way of hypothesis, but by way of assertion. But those [copies] which shall hereafter be printed are to be permitted only with the aforesaid passages emended (as follows), and with an admonition of this kind prefixed to Copernicus’s preface.

Emendation of the passages which, in Copernicus’s books, have seemed worthy of Correction.

In the Preface, near the end. There, at “If perhaps,” delete all, down to the word “these our labors,” and so adapt it: “Moreover, these our labors.”

In Chapter 6 of Book 1, page 6. There, “If however more attentively.” Correct: “If however we should consider the matter more attentively, it makes no difference whether we suppose the Earth to be in the middle of the World, or outside the middle, so far as concerns the saving of the appearances of the celestial motions; for every…” etc.

In Chapter 8 of the same Book. This whole chapter could be expunged, since it treats expressly of the truth of the Earth’s motion, while it dissolves the ancients’ arguments proving its rest. Since, however, it seems to speak problematically, that satisfaction may be given to students and the sequence and order of the book remain entire, let it be emended as below. First, on p. 6, delete the little verse “Why then…,” down to the word “we shall be carried,” and let the passage be thus corrected: “Why…

[…continues on p. 497 (PDF 532) with the catchword “ergo” — the completion of the corrected text of Copernicus’s Book 1, ch. 8.]

(printed p. 497 — Chapter XL continues the documentary dossier: the 1620 Emendation of Copernicus is completed, with the corrected hypothetical wordings of Book I chapters 8–11 and Book IV chapter 10. There follows the Letter of the Cardinal of Sant’Onofrio to the Inquisitor of Venice (2 July 1633) recounting Galileo’s condemnation and abjuration, and the opening of the Sentence against Galileo with the names of the ten Cardinals of the Congregation; the Sentence proper continues on p. 498.)

[Header: ON THE SYSTEM OF THE MOVED EARTH — 497]

…[continuation of the corrected text of Copernicus, Bk I ch. 8:] “Why then can I not grant mobility to that form of [the Earth], and rather [hold] that the whole world glides by — whose limit is unknown and cannot be known — and that the things which appear in the heaven behave just as if the Virgilian Aeneas were saying [it]?”*

Secondly, p. 7, the verse “I add.” Let it be corrected in this manner: “I add also that it is no more difficult to ascribe motion to the thing contained and located, which is the Earth, than to the container.”

Thirdly, on the same page, at the end of the Chapter, the verse “You see.” It is to be deleted, down to the end of the chapter.

In Chapter 9, page 7. The beginning of this chapter, down to the little verse “For because so.” Correct: “Since therefore I have assumed that the Earth is moved, I now think it must be seen whether several motions also can fit it, for…” etc.

In Chapter 10, page 9. The little verse “Proinde [Accordingly].” Correct thus: “Accordingly, we are not ashamed to assume [it]”; and a little below, there, “this is rather verified in the Mobility of the Earth.” Correct: “this is consequently verified upon the mobility of the Earth.” On page 10, at the end of the chapter, delete those last words: “So great indeed is this divine fabric of the Best and Greatest God.”

In Chapter 11. Let the title of the chapter be adapted in this way: “On the Hypothesis of the threefold motion of the Earth, and its demonstration.”

In Book 4, Chapter 10, page 122. In the title of the chapter, delete the words “of these three heavenly bodies,” because the Earth is not a heavenly body, as Copernicus makes it [to be].

Fr. Francesco Magdaleno Capiferreo, of the Order of Preachers, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation. At Rome, from the Press of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber, 1620.

Letter of the Most Eminent Cardinal of Sant’Onofrio to the Reverend Father Inquisitor of Venice.

MOST REVEREND FATHER,

Although the Treatise of Nicolaus Copernicus On the Revolutions of the heavenly Orbs was suspended by the Congregation of the Index — for the reason that in it is maintained that the Earth is moved, and not the Sun, but that this [the Sun] stands in the center of the World (which opinion is contrary to Sacred Scripture) — and although it had been forbidden by this Holy Congregation to Galileo Galilei of Florence to hold, defend, or teach in any way, by word or by writing, the said opinion: nevertheless the same Galileo dared to compose a book entitled “Galileo Galilei, Lynx-eyed” [the Dialogue]; and, not making known the said prohibition, he extorted a license to publish it in print (as in fact he did publish it); and, supposing at the beginning, the middle, and the end of it that he wished to treat hypothetically of the aforesaid opinion of Copernicus, nevertheless (although he could in no way treat of it) he treated of it in such a manner that he rendered himself vehemently suspect of adherence to such opinion. Wherefore, having been Inquisited and shut up in the prison of the Holy Office, by the sentence of these Most Eminent my Lords he has been condemned to abjure the said opinion, and to remain in formal prison at the pleasure of their Eminences, and to perform other salutary penances; as Your Reverence will see in the subscribed copy of the sentence and abjuration, which is sent to you, that you may notify it to your Vicars, and that knowledge of it may reach them, and all Professors of Philosophy and Mathematics: in order that, knowing in what manner it has been dealt with the said Galileo, they may comprehend the gravity of the error committed by him, that they may avoid it, and likewise [avoid] the penalties which, by falling into it, they would have to suffer. For a close, may the Lord God preserve Your Reverence. At Rome, the 2nd of July 1633.

Of Your Reverence, As a Brother, The Cardinal of Sant’Onofrio.

Sentence against Galileo, and his Abjuration.

[Margin: The names of the Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation.]

WE: Gaspar, of the Title of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, Borgia. Brother Felice Centini, of the Title of S. Anastasia, called “of Ascoli.” Guido, of the Title of S. Maria del Popolo, Bentivoglio. Brother Desiderio Scaglia, of the Title of S. Carlo, called “of Cremona.” Brother Antonio Barberini, called “of Sant’Onofrio.” Laudivio Zacchia, of the Title of S. Pietro in Vincoli, called “of San Sisto.” Berlingero, of the Title of S. Agostino, Gessi. Fabrizio Verospi, of S. Lorenzo in Panisperna, called “Priest.” Francesco Barberini, of S. Lorenzo in Damaso; and…

[…continues on p. 498 (PDF 533) with the catchword “Mar-” (Marzio Ginetti, the tenth Cardinal) — and the body of the Sentence against Galileo.]

(printed p. 498 — Chapter XL continued: the verbatim Sentence against Galileo (1633). The cardinal-list concludes and the body of the Sentence opens: it recounts the 1615 denunciation of Galileo for holding that the Sun is immovable and the Earth moves, the Qualifiers’ censure of both propositions, the 1616 injunction delivered through Cardinal Bellarmine, and the offense of the 1632 “Dialogue”; it then reports Galileo’s interrogation under oath and his production of Bellarmine’s testimony in his defense.)

[Header: BOOK IX. SECTION IV. — 498]

…Marzio [Ginetti], of S. Maria Nuova, Ginetti, Deacon. By the Mercy of God Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, in the whole Christian Commonwealth Inquisitors-General against heretical pravity, specially deputed by the Holy Apostolic See.

[Margin: The form of the Sentence against Galileo.]

WHEREAS you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged 70 years, were denounced in the year 1615 to this Holy Office, for holding as true a false doctrine taught by many — namely, that the Sun is the center of the World and immovable, and that the Earth is moved, with a daily motion also; likewise that you had certain disciples whom you taught the same doctrine; likewise that you kept up a correspondence concerning it with certain German Mathematicians; likewise that you had brought to light certain Letters entitled “On the Solar Spots,” in which you explained the same doctrine as true; and that to the objections which were continually made against you, drawn from Sacred Scripture, you would reply by glossing the said Scripture according to your own sense; — and whereas afterward there was exhibited [to the Congregation] a copy of a writing in the form of a Letter, said to have been written by you to a certain former disciple of yours, and in it, following the hypotheses of Copernicus, you include several propositions against the true sense and authority of Sacred Scripture:

Wishing therefore that this Holy Tribunal should provide against the inconveniences and harms which were proceeding hence, and were growing to the ruin of the Holy Faith: by command of Our Lord [the Pope] and of the Most Eminent Lords Cardinals of this supreme and universal Inquisition, the two propositions concerning the stability of the Sun and the motion of the Earth were qualified by the Theological Qualifiers, as below:

That the Sun is the center of the World, and immovable by local motion, is a proposition absurd, and false in Philosophy, and formally heretical: because it is expressly contrary to Sacred Scripture.

That the Earth is not the center of the World, nor immovable, but is moved, and with a daily motion also, is likewise a proposition absurd, and false in Philosophy, and, theologically considered, at least erroneous in Faith.

But since it pleased [the tribunal] for the time to deal benignly with you, it was decreed in the Holy Congregation, held before Our Lord on the 25th day of February of the year 1616, that the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Bellarmine should enjoin you to recede altogether from the said false doctrine; and, should you refuse, that the Commissary of the Holy Office should command you to abandon the said doctrine, and that you might not be able to teach it to others, nor defend it, nor treat of it; and that, if you did not acquiesce in this command, you should be cast into prison: and in execution of this same Decree, on the following day, in the Palace, before the aforesaid Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, after you had been benignly admonished by the same Lord Cardinal, a command was laid upon you by the Lord Commissary of the Holy Office then in office, in the presence of a Notary and Witnesses, that you should altogether desist from the said false opinion, and that in the future it should not be lawful for you to defend it, or teach it in any way, either by word or by writing; and, having promised obedience, you were dismissed.

And, that so pernicious a doctrine might be wholly removed, and might not creep further to the grave detriment of Catholic truth, a Decree issued from the Sacred Congregation of the Index, by which the books that treat of such doctrine were prohibited, and it was declared false, and altogether contrary to Sacred and Divine Scripture. And whereas afterward there had appeared a book, printed at Florence in the year just past, whose title-page showed you to be its author — the title being “Dialogue of Galileo Galilei on the two chief Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and the Copernican” — and whereas the Sacred Congregation had learned that, by the printing of the said book, the false opinion concerning the motion of the Earth and the stability of the Sun was daily gaining ground more and more: the aforesaid book was diligently examined, and there was openly detected in it a transgression of the aforesaid command which had been intimated to you — inasmuch as in the same book you had defended the aforesaid opinion, already condemned and declared such to your face: since in the said book, by various circumlocutions, you strive to persuade [men] that you leave it undecided and expressly probable; which likewise is a most grave error, since in no way can an opinion be probable which has already been declared and defined to be contrary to the Divine Scripture.

Wherefore, by our command, you were summoned to this Holy Office, in which, being examined under oath, you acknowledged the said book to be written by you and committed to the press. You likewise confessed that you had begun to write the said book about ten or twelve years ago, after the command had been made to you as above. Likewise that you had sought a license to publish it, yet without signifying to those who granted you such a faculty that a command had been laid upon you not to hold, defend, or teach such doctrine in any way.

You confessed likewise that the writing of the said book is in several places so composed that the Reader might think the arguments brought for the false side to be so set forth that, by their force, they could rather constrain the understanding than be easily refuted; excusing yourself, that you had fallen into an error so foreign (as you said) to your intention, because you had written in the form of a dialogue, and on account of the natural complacency which everyone has in his own subtleties, and in showing himself more clever than men commonly are, ingenious even in favor of false propositions and discourses of an apparent probability.

And when a suitable term had been assigned to you for making your defense, you produced a testimony in the autograph of the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Bellarmine — procured, as you said, by you, that you might defend yourself against the calumnies of your enemies, who were saying that you had abjured and been punished by the Holy Office: in which testimony it is said that you had not abjured, nor been punished, but only that there had been notified to you the declaration made by Our Lord and promulgated by the Sacred Congregation of the Index, in which is contained that the doctrine concerning the motion of the Earth and the stability of the Sun is contrary to the Sacred Scriptures, and therefore it could not be de-…

[…continues on p. 499 (PDF 534) with the catchword “fendi” — “…it could not be de-fended nor held”; the conclusion of the Sentence, the seven signing Cardinals, and the opening of Galileo’s Abjuration.]

(printed p. 499 — Chapter XL continued: the close of the Sentence against Galileo and the opening of his Abjuration. The tribunal finds the Bellarmine testimony aggravates rather than helps his cause, declares him vehemently suspect of heresy, prohibits the “Dialogue,” and condemns him to formal prison with penitential psalms as penance; seven cardinals subscribe. The Abjuration then begins with Galileo’s profession of Catholic faith and acknowledgment of having written the offending book despite the injunction.)

[Header: ON THE SYSTEM OF THE MOVED EARTH — 499]

…[and therefore it could not be de-]fended nor held. Wherefore, since mention is not there made of the two particulars of the command — namely “to teach” and “in any way” — it is to be believed that, in the course of fourteen or sixteen years, these had slipped from your memory, and that for this very cause you kept silent about the command when you sought the faculty to commit the book to the press; and that this was said by you not to excuse the error, but rather that it might be ascribed to vain ambition rather than to malice. But this very testimony, produced for your defense, has aggravated your cause the more, since in it the said opinion is said to be contrary to Sacred Scripture, and yet you dared to treat of it, to defend it, and to persuade [men of it] as probable: nor does the faculty, artfully and craftily extorted by you, avail you, since you did not make manifest the command laid upon you.

But since it seemed to us that you had not pronounced the whole truth concerning your intention, we judged it necessary to come to a rigorous examination of you, in which (without prejudice to anything which you had confessed and which had been adduced against you above concerning your said intention) you answered in a Catholic manner. Wherefore, having seen and maturely considered the merits of this your cause, together with your aforesaid confessions and excuses, and whatever else was of right to be seen and considered, we have come to the underwritten definitive sentence against you.

Invoking therefore the Most Holy name of Our Lord JESUS CHRIST and of His most glorious Mother, ever-Virgin MARY: by this our definitive sentence, which, sitting in tribunal, by the counsel and judgment of the Reverend Masters of Sacred Theology and Doctors of both Laws, our Consultors, we deliver in these writings concerning the cause and causes controverted before us between the Magnificent Carlo Sincero, Doctor of both Laws, Fiscal Procurator of this Holy Office, of the one part, and you, Galileo Galilei, the accused, here inquisited, examined, and confessed as above, of the other part: we say, pronounce, judge, and declare that you, the aforesaid Galileo, by reason of the things adduced in the process and which you have confessed as above, have rendered yourself vehemently suspect of heresy to this Holy Office — that is, of having believed and held a doctrine false and contrary to the Sacred and Divine Scriptures, namely, that the Sun is the center of the orb of the Earth and is not moved from East to West, and that the Earth is moved 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 to be contrary to Sacred Scripture; and consequently that you have incurred all the censures and penalties established and promulgated by the Sacred Canons and other Constitutions, general and particular, against such delinquents. From which it is our pleasure that you be absolved, provided that first, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, you, before us, abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, in the form which shall be presented to you by us.

And, that this your grave and pernicious error and transgression may not remain altogether unpunished, and that you may be more cautious hereafter, and be an example to others, that they may abstain from offenses of this kind, we decree that the book of the Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by public edict; and we condemn you to the formal prison of this Holy Office for a time to be limited at our pleasure; and by way of salutary penance we enjoin you that, for the next three years, you recite once a week the seven penitential psalms: reserving to ourselves the power of moderating, changing, or wholly or in part removing the aforesaid penalties and penances.

And thus we say, pronounce, declare by sentence, decree, condemn, and reserve, in this and in every other better mode and form which by right we can and ought.

So we pronounce, We the undersigned Cardinals:

F. Cardinal of Ascoli [Felice Centini]. G. Cardinal Bentivoglio. F. Cardinal of Cremona [Desiderio Scaglia]. Fra Antonio, Cardinal of Sant’Onofrio [Barberini]. B. Cardinal Gessi. F. Cardinal Verospi. M. Cardinal Ginetti.

ABJURATION OF GALILEO.

I, GALILEO, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged 70 years, brought personally to judgment, and kneeling before you, Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords Cardinals, Inquisitors-General against heretical pravity throughout the whole Christian Commonwealth: having before my eyes the most holy Gospels, which I touch with my own hands, I swear that I have always believed, and now believe, and, with God’s help, will in the future believe, all that the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church holds, preaches, and teaches. But because — after I had been juridically enjoined by this Holy Office, with a command, that I should altogether abandon the false opinion which holds that the Sun is the center of the World and immovable, and that the Earth is not the center and is moved, and that I could not hold, defend, or teach in any way, by word or by writing, the aforesaid false doctrine; and after it had been notified to me that the aforesaid doctrine is repugnant to Sacred Scripture — I wrote and committed to the press a book, in which I treat of the same doctrine already condemned, and adduce reasons with great efficacy in fa-…

[…continues on p. 500 (PDF 535) with the catchword “fauo-” — “…in fa-vor of it”; the remainder of Galileo’s Abjuration formula.]

(printed p. 500 — the end of Section IV. Galileo’s Abjuration concludes with his sworn renunciation of the condemned doctrine, recited at Rome, 22 June 1633. Riccioli then closes the Section: a “Conclusion” presenting it as an Apology for the Sacred Congregation’s censures, written for love of truth and reverence for the Church, and a “Single Conclusion” that the Earth rests immovable at the center while the Sun moves, proved from Scripture, the Cardinals’ condemnation, and physico-mathematical evidence. Section V begins on p. 501.)

[Header: BOOK IX. SECTION IV. — 500]

…[I adduce reasons with great efficacy in] favor of it, without bringing forward any solution; therefore I have been judged vehemently suspect of heresy, namely, that I have held and believed that the Sun is the center of the World and immovable, and that the Earth is not the center and is moved.

Therefore, wishing to remove from the minds of Your Eminences, and of every Catholic Christian, this vehement suspicion rightly conceived against me, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and generally every other error, heresy, and sect contrary to the aforesaid Holy Church; and I swear that in the future I will never again say or assert, by word or by writing, anything on account of which a like suspicion might be had of me; but, if I shall know any heretic or anyone suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor and Ordinary of the place in which I shall be. I swear, moreover, and promise that I will fulfill and observe wholly all the penances which have been or shall be imposed on me by this Holy Office. And should it happen that I contravene (which God avert) any of my said promises, protestations, and oaths, I subject myself to all the penalties and punishments which have been ordained and promulgated by the Sacred Canons and other Constitutions, general and particular, against such delinquents. So help me God, and these His holy Gospels, which I touch with my own hands.

I, Galileo Galilei aforesaid, have abjured, sworn, promised, and bound myself as above; and in witness thereof, with my own hand I have subscribed this present writing of my abjuration, and have recited it word for word at Rome, in the Convent of the Minerva [Santa Maria sopra Minerva], on this 22nd day of June of the year 1633.

I, Galileo Galilei, have abjured as above, with my own hand.

Conclusion of This Section.

Thus far concerning the Arguments on both sides, and the Censures against the asserters of the Immobility of the Sun and the Motion of the Earth. How justly and prudently those Censures were passed, and how undeservedly certain men speak against them, or do not yet acquiesce in them, is plain from what has been said in this whole Section from chapter 4 onward. And this Section — as the part of this volume and of my work which I have most especially aimed at — I, with the greatest thanksgiving, congratulate myself on having, by God’s help, brought to its wished-for end; for I desired that it should be as it were an Apology for the Sacred Congregation of the Cardinals, who pronounced the aforesaid censures from the tribunal: not so much because I should think that so high a summit of Authority and Eminence stood in need of this my labor, especially among Catholics, as for the love of the Truth — to be persuaded of by anyone, even a non-Catholic — and out of a certain signal zeal and study for keeping Sacred Scripture whole and entire; and finally, for that [reverence] which I owe, by my own particular Institute, toward the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, in Reverence and Observance.

Be it then THE SINGLE CONCLUSION, and the only one to be embraced in this controversy.

It is to be asserted absolutely that the Earth rests naturally Immovable at the center of the World, and that the Sun is moved around it with a motion both Diurnal and Annual.

It is proved: first, because the opposite is manifestly repugnant to Sacred Scripture taken according to the letter (as it must be taken, so long as there is no absurdity), as we have shown from chapter 36 to 39 inclusive; secondly, because the opposite was condemned as Heretical — or, as concerns the Earth’s motion, at least as Erroneous in Faith — by the Sacred Congregation of the Cardinals deputed by the Supreme Pontiffs Paul V and Urban VIII, as is plain from the preceding chapter 40; and lastly, because the opposite is contrary to Physical evidence and to certain Physico-Mathematical demonstrations, according to what has been said more than once, especially in chapter 35.

[A decorative tailpiece woodcut (grotesque foliage flanking an IHS monogram) closes Section IV here.]

[End of Section IV, “On the System of the Moved Earth.” The catchword “SECTIO” points to Section V, “On the Harmonic System of the World” (De Systemate Mundi Harmonico), which begins on p. 501 (PDF 536) — beyond the scope of this Section IV translation.]