In 1624 Galileo went to Rome once more and had several audiences with the new Pope, who received him in a most friendly manner, but absolutely refused to remove the embargo from Copernican doctrines. We may conclude from the evidence of the sympathy he displayed that this was a matter more of policy than conviction. Ecclesiastical authority was being assailed in many directions, and it was felt that its strongest bulwark must be the Bible. To admit the possibility of error in the Bible itself was unthinkable, and as to the translation and interpretation of it, any suggestion of even uncertainty would appear to weaken the authority of the Church dignitaries who took the responsibility for the accepted language and interpretation. The Pope's argument, as given to Galileo, was that if anything stated in Scripture appeared to present insuperable difficulty, it must not be called impossible, or else there would be an implicit limitation of Omnipotence. The acceptance of this argument would at once demolish all Galileo's plausible hypotheses, and he returned to Florence disappointed of his main object, though bearing many evidences of the Pope's personal favour, in the form of valuable gifts, and the promise of a pension for his son. This pension was subsequently transferred to Galileo himself, as Vincenzio refused to undertake the religious exercises which were a condition of acceptance. Moreover, Galileo's friend and patron Cosmo dei Medici having died in 1624, the Pope warmly commended Galileo to the new Grand Duke Ferdinand, now a boy of thirteen, eulogising not only the philosopher's services to science but also his religious sentiments.
It was during this visit to Rome that Galileo was shown a microscope. He speedily grasped the principle and proceeded to make better ones, with image not inverted, just as he had in the case of the telescope without
