The pious preface was laughed
at from one end of Europe to the other. This roused the enemy; the
Jesuits, Dominicans, and the great majority of the clergy returned
to the attack more violent than ever, and in the midst of them
stood Pope Urban VIII, most bitter of all. His whole power was now
thrown against Galileo. He was touched in two points: first, in his
personal vanity, for Galileo had put the Pope's arguments into the
mouth of one of the persons in the dialogue and their refutation
into the mouth of another; but, above all, he was touched in his
religious feelings. Again and again His Holiness insisted to all
comers on the absolute and specific declarations of Holy Scripture,
which prove that the sun and heavenly bodies revolve about the
earth, and declared that to gainsay them is simply to dispute
revelation. Certainly, if one ecclesiastic more than another ever
seemed _not_ under the care of the Spirit of Truth, it was Urban
VIII in all this matter.
Herein was one of the greatest pieces of ill fortune that has ever
befallen the older Church.
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