plura, quod potest fieri per p auciora' (It is vain to expend
many means where a few are sufficient)."[2]


The work was widely circulated, and it was received with an
interest which bespeaks a wide-spread undercurrent of belief in
the Copernican doctrine. Naturally enough, it attracted immediate
attention from the church authorities. Galileo was summoned to
appear at Rome to defend his conduct. The philosopher, who was
now in his seventieth year, pleaded age and infirmity. He had no
desire for personal experience of the tribunal of the
Inquisition; but the mandate was repeated, and Galileo went to
Rome. There, as every one knows, he disavowed any intention to
oppose the teachings of Scripture, and formally renounced the
heretical doctrine of the earth's motion. According to a tale
which so long passed current that every historian must still
repeat it though no one now believes it authentic, Galileo
qualified his renunciation by muttering to himself, "E pur si
muove" (It does move, none the less), as he rose to his feet and
retired from the presence of his persecutors. The tale is one of
those fictions which the dramatic sense of humanity is wont to
impose upon history, but, like most such fictions, it expresses
the spirit if not the letter of truth; for just as no one
believes that Galileo's lips uttered the phrase, so no one doubts
that the rebellious words were in his mind.

After his formal renunciation, Galileo was allowed to depart, but
with the injunction that he abstain in future from heretical
teaching. The remaining ten years of his life were devoted
chiefly to mechanics, where his experiments fortunately opposed