Fallen Order: Intrigue, Heresy, and Scandal in the Rome of Galileo and Caravaggio by Karen Liebreich

Author:Karen Liebreich [Liebreich, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2017-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ‘Galileo is the most important man in the world’

Father Francesco [Michelini] di San Giuseppe of the Pious Schools thinks that all things are made of atoms, and not of material and form, as Aristotle and all the others believe. He holds this to be true doctrine and publicly teaches it.

He also believes that the earth moves and the sun is still, holding this doctrine and others of Signor Galileo to be so true, that he thinks all others are false and worth nothing. He is very opposed to Aristotle, calling him very ignorant, and calling Signor Galileo an oracle. He preaches that the said Galileo is the most important man in the world and gives him other magnificent titles. Not only Father Francesco, but also his pupils, Fathers Ambrogio [Ambrogi], Clemente [Settimi], Carlo [Conti] and Angelo [Morelli] think and feel the same, and these fathers claim to be the most wise and intelligent fathers, and they mock the other religious and consider them ignorant.

They have managed to get the Grand Duke, and then Prince Gian Carlo to believe this philosophy too ... and he [Michelini] is teaching Prince Leopoldo not only these opinions, but others. They call it new philosophy and certain science and they have set up a school and want it to be taught, so the Grand Duke has said they are looking for scholars to teach, who are clever and poor, and they will give them a salary, as in fact Father Francesco has already done for two of them.

In order to achieve this school I know they have kept what books they could from Signor Galileo ... and if Your Reverence confiscates the chest, which is in the classroom where Father Clemente teaches mathematics, you will see that this is true.

Often he has talked to me about the doctrines and opinions of Signor Galileo, and particularly that the earth moves and the sun is still, and he thinks it is so true, even though it has been condemned as false that he said with his own mouth that His Holiness [the Pope] wronged Signor Galileo by condemning him, saying that he was motivated by an insult which he thought Signor Galileo had written ... [by casting Urban as Simplicius to promote the Aristotelian view in his Dialogue] and that when His Holiness understood that and was annoyed and angry, and also encouraged by Signor Galileo’s competitors, particularly the Jesuits, he condemned these opinions of his as false. But Father Francesco says that His Holiness was wrong to condemn Signor Galileo.

Father Clemente claims that the world had no beginning and that everything was created and regulated by the Heavens and that there is no other creator or governor.

Father Ambrogio says that all bodies are composed of atoms. On the occasion I talked to him about colours he said there are no colours, which would conflict with one of the accidents that we profess about the most holy [Eucharist].

All the above-named say that there is no

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