There were, indeed, mutterings from time to
time on the theological side, but there was no great demonstration
against the system until 1616. Then, when the Copernican doctrine
was upheld by Galileo as a _truth_, and proved to be a truth by his
telescope, the book was taken in hand by the Roman curia. The
statements of Copernicus were condemnned, "until they should be
corrected"; and the corrections required were simply such as would
substitute for his conclusions the old Ptolemaic theory.
That this was their purpose was seen in that year when Galileo was
forbidden to teach or discuss the Copernican theory, and when were
forbidden "all books which affirm the motion of the earth."
Henceforth to read the work of Copernicus was to risk damnation,
and the world accepted the decree.[124b] The strongest minds were
thus held fast. If they could not believe the old system, they must
_pretend_ that they believed it;--and this, even after the great
circumnavigation of the globe had done so much to open the eyes of
the world! Very striking is the case of the eminent Jesuit
missionary Joseph Acosta, whose great work on the _Natural and
Moral History of the Indies_, published in the last quarter of the
sixteenth century, exploded so many astronomical and geographical
errors.
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