lever in motion, first to suppress this revolutionary book, and then to compass the ruin of the author.
Riccardi himself remarked to Count Magalotti at that time: "The Jesuits will persecute Galileo with the utmost bitterness."[1]
Besides, they found welcome allies in the overwhelming majority of the rest of the clergy. With them the theological considerations we have mentioned formed the motive. And the louder the applause with which the independent scientific world greeted Galileo's latest remarkable work, the fiercer burnt the flame of ecclesiastical hate. There can be no doubt that the full significance of the "Dialogues" had not been apprehended by any of the censors to whom they had been submitted. This is obvious from the fact that they seriously thought that the diplomatic preface, and a few phrases in the work itself, would suffice to make it appear innocuous. The commotion made by the book in the scientific and theological world convinced them of their mistake.
Meanwhile, Galileo in Florence gave himself up to unmixed delight at the brilliant success of his "Dialogues." His learned friends and followers, such as Fra Bonaventura Cavalieri, Giovan Batista Baliani, Castelli, Fra Fulgenzio Micanzio, Alfonzo Antonini, Campanella, and many others, expressed to him in repeated letters, and often with genuine enthusiasm, their admiration of his splendid work;[2] not one of them had any foreboding that it was to bring its grey-headed author before the bar of the Inquisition; and Galileo himself least of all. He expected violent opposition from his scientific opponents, and was prepared to engage in the contest, but he considered himself quite secure from ecclesiastical persecution. Had not influential personages at Rome, Cesi, Mgr.
