CHAPTER VII.
EVIL REPORT AND GOOD REPORT.
Galileo had humbly submitted, had witnessed the issue of the decree of 5th March by the august council; he knew that the only correct doctrine of the system of the universe had been reduced to the shadow of a hypothesis, and yet he could not make up his mind to leave the capital of the hierarchy where such a slap in the face had been given to science. The story told in most works on Galileo, that though he had submitted to the Holy Office he afterwards used his utmost endeavours to effect a reversal of the decree, is another of the firmly rooted and ineffaceable mistakes of history. It originated in the reports of the Tuscan ambassador, Guiccardini, to the Grand Duke.[1]
This diplomatist, who was no great friend of Galileo's, found himself in an awkward position; he had been, on the one hand, enjoined by his sovereign to support Galileo as far as it lay in his power, while on the other he knew that the influential female members of the house of Medici were very anxious to maintain the good relations of Tuscany with the Holy See; and he tried to extricate himself from this dilemma by urgently seeking to effect the recall of the inconvenient guest to Florence. This object runs through all the ambas-
- ↑ Pietro Guiccardini had relieved his predecessor, Giovanni Sicculini, of his post on 14th May, 1611, when Galileo was still at Rome. Guiccardini remained there till 27th November, 1621.
