At the same time it was necessary to mark, in some emphatic manner,
the serious offence which had been committed, so that it might serve
both as a punishment to Galileo and as a warning to others. It was
accordingly decreed that he should be condemned to imprisonment in
the Holy Office during the pleasure of the Papal authorities, and
that he should recite once a week for three years the seven
Penitential Psalms.
Then followed that ever-memorable scene in the great hall of the
Inquisition, in which the aged and infirm Galileo, the inventor of
the telescope and the famous astronomer, knelt down to abjure before
the most eminent and reverend Lords Cardinal, Inquisitors General
throughout the Christian Republic against heretical depravity. With
his hands on the Gospels, Galileo was made to curse and detest the
false opinion that the sun was the centre of the universe and
immovable, and that the earth was not the centre of the same, and
that it moved. He swore that for the future he will never say nor
write such things as may bring him under suspicion, and that if he
does so he submits to all the pains and penalties of the sacred
canons. This abjuration was subsequently read in Florence before
Galileo's disciples, who had been specially summoned to attend.
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