May 26, 1616
We, Roberto Cardinal
Bellarmine,
having heard that it is calumniously reported that Signor Gallileo
Galilei has
in our hand abjured and has also been punished with salutary penance,
and being
requested to state the truth as to this, declare that the said Galileo
has not
abjured, either in our hand, or the hand of any other person here in
Rome, or
anywhere else, so far as we know any opinion or doctrine held by him;
neither
has any statuary penance been imposed on him; but that only the
declaration
made by the Holy Father and published by the Sacred Congregation of the
Index
has been notified to him, wherein it is set forth that the doctrine
attributed
to Copernicus, that the Earth moves around the Sun, and that the Sun is
stationary in the centre of the world and does not move from east to
west, is
contrary to the Holy Scriptures and therefore cannot be defended or
held. In witness whereof we have written
and
subscribed these presents with our hand this twenty-sixth day of May,
1616.
Source: Arthur Koestler, Sleepwalkers (1959).
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