CHAPTER V.—GROWTH OF OPPOSITION.
Galileo had now an influential following, many of his pupils being themselves professors by this time and aiding in the spread of his ideas. But on the other side were very many more enemies, not only the professors who pinned their faith to Aristotle, but also the Jesuits who had supported Scheiner's claims, certain Churchmen who feared the progress of free thought, and many other people who objected to anything of the nature of an innovation. These now about the year 1612 seem to have decided to join forces and choose a new line of attack, being unable to disprove Galileo's facts and arguments by meeting him on his own ground. They raised the popular cry that the Church was in danger, and that Galileo's astronomical views were contrary to Scripture. The leading authorities at Rome did not initiate this. Several of them in fact, including the before-mentioned Cardinal Barberini, openly expressed their admiration of Galileo's work. But an Aristotelian professor suggested to the Grand Duke's mother, on a certain occasion when Galileo's pupil Castelli had been extolling his master's astronomical discoveries, that these discoveries were doubtless genuine, but that Galileo's inference that the earth rotated on its axis and revolved about the sun could not be true, as it was contrary to Scripture, which plainly states that God "made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved". Castelli objected to bringing the Bible into the question, but being challenged, he took up
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