Even then the old
conscientious hostility burst forth: the Inquisition was besought
to prevent such honours to "a man condemned for notorious
errors"; and that tribunal refused to allow any epitaph to be
placed above him which had not been submitted to its censorship.
Nor has that old conscientious consistency in hatred yet fully
relented: hardly a generation since has not seen some ecclesiastic,
like Marini or De Bonald or Rallaye or De Gabriac, suppressing
evidence, or torturing expressions, or inventing theories to
blacken the memory of Galileo and save the reputation of the
Church. Nay, more: there are school histories, widely used, which,
in the supposed interest of the Church, misrepresent in the
grossest manner all these transactions in which Galileo was
concerned. _Sancta simplicitas_! The Church has no worse enemies than
those who devise and teach these perversions. They are simply
rooting out, in the long run, from the minds of the more thoughtful
scholars, respect for the great organization which such writings
are supposed to serve.
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