Nothing could show the desperation of the retreating
party better than jugglery like this. The fact is, that in the
official account of the condemnation by Bellarmin, in 1616, he
declares distinctly that he makes this condemnation "in the name
of His Holiness the Pope."[163]
Again, from Pope Urban downward, among the Church authorities of
the seventeenth century the decision was always acknowledged to be
made by the Pope and the Church. Urban VIII spoke of that of 1616
as made by Pope Paul V and the Church, and of that of 1633 as made
by himself and the Church. Pope Alexander VII in 1664, in his bull
_Speculatores_, solemnly sanctioned the condemnation of all books
affirming the earth's movement.[163b]
When Gassendi attempted to raise the point that the decision
against Copernicus and Galileo was not sanctioned by the Church as
such, an eminent theological authority, Father Lecazre, rector of
the College of Dijon, publicly contradicted him, and declared that
it "was not certain cardinals, but the supreme authority of the
Church," that had condemned Galileo; and to this statement the
Pope and other Church authorities gave consent either openly or by
silence.
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