The Roman Inquisition. Thomas F. Mayer
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and “more, the cardinals of the Holy Office” had “persuaded” Galileo to quiet down and keep his opinion to himself lest it appear that he had come to Rome “to be scarred.” The ambassador did not think that Galileo would suffer personally “because as a prudent man he will want and believe what holy church wants and believes.” Guicciardini did not really believe that. Instead, he stressed how dangerous Rome was for Galileo, especially under a pope “who abhors learning and these clever men and cannot stand to listen to these novelties and subtleties.” Everybody tried to accommodate his ideas to the pope’s and, if he had any brains, say the opposite of what he thought. Galileo in particular faced a number of friars who were constantly intriguing to destroy him. Galileo should therefore immediately cut short his stay in Rome. Then the ambassador implicitly threatened the grand duke, reminding him obscurely about what had happened in similar Florentine cases of interest to the Inquisition in the past. One of those was surely Rodrigo Alidosi’s, which was still running, although it had nothing whatsoever to do with ideas.159 I see no reason to run such risk, harped Guicciardini, merely to satisfy Galileo. His “passion” threatened to bring down anyone who supported him. Guicciardini meant the new Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici, about to come to Rome. It would do incalculable damage if he failed to endorse the proceedings of the Inquisition, “the foundation and base of religion and the most important congregation in Rome.” Guicciardini then revealed the depth of his own ignorance—as well as his negative attitude to “clever men”—by warning that anybody who dabbled in matters “astrological or philosophical” would get into big trouble, again because Paul was such an anti-intellectual blockhead and everybody tried to imitate him. Neither Guicciardini’s characterization of the pope nor that of his court came anywhere near reality. True, the books stuffing the pope’s new apartments in the Quirinal Palace may have been about the law, but they were still books. And all those cardinals hosting Galileo’s extravaganzas were hardly trying to act like “fat-headed ignoramuses,” in Guicciardini’s crude phrase. Nevertheless, his point sank in, and the letters from Florence took on a much more cautious tone.
Gucciardini sent his dispatch just a moment too soon. The next day, Saturday 5 March, the Index publicly handed down its judgment against Copernicus.160 This directly violated Paul’s order of 3 March that the master of the sacred palace issue the decree. That official did not even sign it. Instead it bore the signatures of Sfondrato in almost his last appearance in the congregation’s records, together with that of the Index’s brand-new secretary. Perhaps as a result of the rivalry between secretary and master (as well as Sfondrato’s indifference), the text of the decree of 5 March looks as if it were put together during a boxing match. Its syntax leaves in doubt the fate of the other two books bracketed with Foscarini’s. The only certainty came at his expense, a point driven home when his printer was chased down by the Inquisition a few months later.161
Otherwise, there was a great deal of confusion over who had done the deed and what deed it was. Most people decided the Inquisition had issued both the order to Galileo (right) and the decree banning Copernicus (wrong), and quite a few collapsed one into the other (also wrong).162 Again, what mattered was perception; on that ground putting the Inquisition in charge and making its principal target Galileo was exactly accurate. Antonio Querenghi offered one of the most graphic accounts of what happened, writing that Galileo’s ideas had gone up in “the smoke of alchemy” in the face of the “infallible dogmas” expressed in the Index decree.163 Everyone whose heads had been set spinning by the controversy could relax and no longer worry about being “so many ants on a big ball going through the air.” Galileo had once written satire with Querenghi, and it shows in his friend’s sarcasm now. Galileo’s original attacker Niccolò Lorini copied out the decree and triumphantly waved it around Florence. His leader Ludovico Delle Colombe gleefully put out the same news.164 Yet at the same time Galileo and his supporters brushed off what happened.165 In a letter the day after the Index acted, Galileo blithely ignored his interview with Bellarmino and Seghizzi, offhandedly telling the Florentine secretary of state that he had not put a letter into the last weekly post because there was nothing to report!166 Instead, Galileo crowed that Tommaso Caccini had suffered another defeat. None of this has anything to do with me, he added. Galileo was always good at seeing things his way, but this interpretation is nothing short of weird. He must have begun to worry his handlers in Florence, since he continued that he was expecting Cardinal de’ Medici’s arrival to clear everything up. With transparent alarm, the secretary of state replied by ordering Galileo back home.167 The Florentine authorities could be forgiven if they began to wonder just what their men in Rome were drinking when two of their cardinals, Orsini and del Monte, both reported that Galileo had triumphed unreservedly.168
Five days later Galileo went to see the pope.169 He told Paul the story of his coming to Rome, complete with juicy details of his enemies’ plotting. He acted worried. Paul assured him that neither he nor “the whole congregation [of the Inquisition]” believed a word of those allegations. The pope guaranteed Galileo that he would be safe as long as he, Paul, lived, repeating this “consolation” several times. In case the pope was not good enough, Galileo also noted that Federico Cesi favored him. What parallel universe had Galileo moved into? Since there is no other evidence of his meeting with the pope, it is not impossible that he at the very least heavily embroidered it if he did not invent it. And how he could think that Cesi, a mere marquess albeit a smart one, could in any way be on the same level as the pope beggars the imagination. Ten days later Galileo serenely pronounced the matter closed, expecting the quick republication of the revised Copernicus.170 He may have got this news from the man charged with correcting the book, Caetani, who may have been suffering from a lower grade form of the same optimistic psychosis as Galileo. In actual fact it was four years before the revision was ready, and a new edition was never published. Shortly after Galileo’s letter, back in the real world, the Index cranked out letters to all Inquisitors ordering them to publish the decree, and Bellarmino published another book that made crystal clear where his thoughts were.171 It was called De aeterna sanctorum felicitate (On the Eternal Salvation of the Saints).172 Together with On the Mind’s Ascent to God, it could not be more obvious that Bellarmino was concentrating all his energies on heaven as the reward of the just, not as an astronomical phenomenon.
And what of Caccini? His brother Matteo, last seen being terrified that Tommaso would ruin the family’s prospects, now vaunted the great reputation he had made by besting Galileo.173 Matteo probably got this assessment straight from Tommaso, but he did check carefully with others about the extent of his brother’s success. It included at least one tangible reward. By late summer Cardinal Nephew Scipione Borghese had got him the job of penitentiary of Santa Maria Maggiore, the church on which Paul V lavished particular attention and of which Millini was archpriest.174 The post paid 400 scudi a year (about half what Galileo got as the grand duke’s mathematician). Tommaso was also in good odor with the Dominican general.
Caccini had not finished with Galileo. In October 1616 Matteo feared that Caccini meant to publish a book, possibly about the stars.175 In early 1619 the news or at least rumor was worse. Under guise of a preaching assignment, Caccini had actually resurrected his “intrigues” against Galileo, as another Florentine friar told Matteo.176 A few months later Matteo thought Caccini meant to return to Florence in order to “terrebbe qualche persona più a segno,” which odd phrase Antonio Ricci-Riccardi interpreted as keeping surveillance on Galileo.177 The last we hear of Caccini “persecuting” Galileo is in a letter from Benedetto Castelli condoling with Galileo over the news that Caccini was going about saying Galileo had escaped only because of the protection of princes.178 Although he would never be a second Aquinas (to put it mildly), Caccini eventually became a client of Urban VIII’s cardinal nephew, Francesco, one of the key actors in the second phase of Galileo’s trial. He also published several books, mostly pastiches of other authors’ work, including Storia del primo concilio niceno (History of the First Nicene Council) (Lucca: Pellegrino Bidelli, 1637) that he sent Barberini.179
CHAPTER 4
The Legal Meaning of 1616: The Jurisprudence and Use of Admonitions and Precepts