1622. I make no reference to the case of Galileo, except this. I have pointed out (_Penny Cycl. Suppl._ "Galileo"; _Engl. Cycl._ "Motion of the Earth") that it is clear the absurdity was the act of the _Italian_ Inquisition--for the private and personal pleasure of the Pope, who _knew_ that the course he took would not commit him as _Pope_--and not of the body which calls itself the _Church_. Let the dirty proceeding have its right name. The Jesuit Riccioli,[158] the stoutest and most learned Anti-Copernican in Europe, and the Puritan Wilkins, a strong Copernican and Pope-hater, are equally positive that the Roman _Church_ never pronounced any decision: and this in the time immediately following the ridiculous proceeding of the Inquisition. In like manner a decision of the Convocation of Oxford is not a law of the _English_ Church; which is fortunate, for that Convocation, in 1622, came to a decision quite as absurd, and a great deal {97} more wicked than the declaration against the motion of the earth. The second was a foolish mistake; the first was a disgusting surrender of right feeling. The story is told without disapprobation by Anthony Wood, who never exaggerated anything against the university of which he is writing eulogistic history.
In 1622, one William Knight[159] put forward in a sermon preached before the University certain theses which, looking at the state of the times, may have been improper and possibly of seditious intent. One of them was that the bishop might excommunicate the civil magistrate: this proposition the clerical body could not approve, and designated it by the term _erronea_,[160] the mildest going. But Knight also declared as follows:
"Subditis mere privatis, si Tyrannus tanquam latro aut stuprator in ipsos faciat impetum, et ipsi nec potestatem ordinariam implorare, nec alia ratione effugere periculum possint, in presenti periculo se et suos contra tyrannum, sicut contra privatum grassatorem, defendere licet."[161]
That is, a man may defend his purse or a woman her honor, against the personal attack of a king, as against that of a private person, if no other means of safety can be found. The Convocation sent Knight to prison, declared the proposition _"falsa_, periculosa, et _impia_," and enacted that all applicants for degrees should subscribe this censure, and make oath that they would neither hold, teach, nor defend Knight's opinions.
The thesis, in the form given, was unnecessary and improper. Though strong opinions of the king's rights were advanced at the time, yet no one ventured to say that, {98} ministers and advisers apart, the king might _personally_ break the law; and we know that the first and only attempt which his successor made brought on the crisis which cost him his throne and his head. But the declaration that the proposition was _false_ far exceeds in all that is disreputable the decision of the Inquisition against the earth's motion. We do not mention this little matter in England. Knight was a Puritan, and Neal[162] gives a short account of his sermon. From comparison with Wood,[163] I judge that the theses, as given, were not Knight's words, but the digest which it was customary to make in criminal proceedings against opinion. This heightens the joke, for it appears that the qualifiers of the Convocation took pains to present their condemnation of Knight in the terms which would most unequivocally make their censure condemn themselves. This proceeding took place in the interval between the two proceedings against Galileo: it is left undetermined whether we must say pot-kettle-pot or kettle-pot-kettle.
Liberti Fromondi.... Ant-Aristarchus, sive orbis terrae immobilis. Antwerp, 1631, 8vo.[164]
This book contains the evidence of an ardent opponent of Galileo to the fact, that Roman Catholics of the day did not consider the decree of the _Index_ or of the _Inquisition_ as a declaration of their _Church_. Fromond would have been glad to say as much, and tries to come near it, but confesses he must abstain. See _Penny Cyclop. Suppl._ "Galileo," and _Eng. Cycl._ "Motion of the Earth." The author of a celebrated article in the _Dublin Review_, in defence of the {99} Church of Rome, seeing that Drinkwater Bethune[165] makes use of the authority of Fromondus, but for another purpose, sneers at him for bringing up a "musty old Professor." If he had known Fromondus, and used him he would have helped his own case, which is very meagre for want of knowledge.[166]
Advis a Monseigneur l'eminentissime Cardinal Duc de Richelieu, sur la Proposition faicte par le Sieur Morin pour l'invention des longitudes. Paris, 1634, 8vo.[167]
This is the Official Report of the Commissioners appointed by the Cardinal, of whom Pascal is the one now best known, to consider Morin's plan. See the full account in Delambre, _Hist. Astr. Mod._ ii. 236, etc.
