Galileo and his Judges

Before entering on any details relating to Galileo’s life and works, I propose to give a brief sketch of the progress of astronomical knowledge up to his time; for without this, one cannot appreciate correctly the value of his contributions to science, a value exaggerated or underrated by different writers, each according to his respective bias.

The primitive conception of the Earth as a vast plain with the ocean flowing round it, and the solid firmament in the sky above it, with the Sun, Moon, and Stars driven across by some mysterious agency, need not be noticed from an astronomical point of view; it appeared naturally in ancient poetry and in the forms of speech adopted and continued by popular usage; but it is not necessary to dwell upon it.

The first astronomers with whom we are acquainted were the Greeks, though it is said by some writers that the Chaldeans and Egyptians were really the original astronomers of the ancient world, and what the Greeks knew was borrowed from them.

The vast majority of men from the earliest times down to the birth of Galileo believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe, round which the Sun, Moon, and Stars revolved every twenty-four hours; round which, also (as careful observers had perceived), the Sun had an annual motion, progressing through the various signs of the zodiac; moreover, it had been noticed that the planets moved round the Earth, though at widely differing periods.

Yet there had been some few men, exceptionally gifted, who had guessed (and truly so) that the popular conception was a wrong one. It is said that the old Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, taught his disciples that the Sun was the real centre of our system, and that the Earth and planets circulated round it; but he does not seem to have openly and explicitly published his doctrine, though the tradition of his having so taught has always existed. If he taught it, however, he stands almost alone among the ancients. There were two great authorities in particular, whose opinion carried immense weight, and who were both decided in holding that the Earth was the centre, and the Sun a revolving planet. The first of these, Aristotle, has exercised an influence over succeeding generations which is simply marvellous. How vast was the weight of his name as a philosopher in the age of the schoolmen is well known to every one who has ever glanced at the greatest work of the greatest intellect of that age, the “Summa” of St. Thomas Aquinas. This celebrated writer quotes him as “philosophus,” in his opinion the philosopher par excellence, and besides his general appreciation of him as thus shown, he wrote an elaborate treatise on the “Astronomy” of Aristotle.

Nor has this influence been confined to the schoolmen; it has remained ever since, even to this day and in this country, where in the University of Oxford his great work on ethics is still a standard book of study. At the time of Galileo, such was the reverence felt towards his authority in Italy and in Rome, that the Peripatetici, as those who specially belonged to his school were called, were probably quite as indignant with the revolutionary astronomer for disregarding the teaching of their philosopher, as for going counter to the literal interpretation of Scripture.