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course uttered the compulsory abjuration, extorted fromhim with the same degree of free choice as the purse ofthe traveller by the pistol of the highwayman. Heswore that the motion of the earth is heretical, and thathe abjured all heresy. Moreover, as he rose from hisknees he is said to have whispered in the ear of a friend,“ E pur si muove."

It has been asked by some writers, in discussing thenarrative of this disgraceful and revolting transaction,what result the church could expect from an extortedoath, and a compulsory abjuration, which might not befelt binding; and from a confession under fear of tor-ture, which could be worth nothing. This, however, isto mistake the nature and object of the tribunal and theoffence. The Inquisition was not a court of justice totry heresy as a crime ; but rather a sort of spiritualboard of health, whose office was to apply a salutaryremedy, possibly a painful one, to stop the contagion oferror, and, if possible, to restore the heretic to the paleof salvation. The object was not conviction, but sub-mission ; not truth, but profession: this being onceobtained, by whatever means, the sole end was accom-plished.

The inquisitors took unusual pains to publish Galileo ’srecantation all over Europe , thinking, no doubt, theywere administering a complete antidote to the Copernicanheresy. And a friar denounced his opinions from thepulpit, with a miserable pun upon the text, “ Viri Galileei,quid statis in coelum suspicientes.”

Actual imprisonment was continued only four days ;when the victim was remanded to Nicolini’s residence:ultimately he was ordered to be confined at Sienna; andthis was considered to be fulfilled by a residence in thepalace of the archbishop l’iecolomini, which, after afew months, was allowed to be exchanged for his ownvilla at Arcetri . It is true, his advanced age andincreasing infirmities alone would almost have confinedhim to his house ; so that the sentence was little more

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