The Sleepwalkers (171 page)

But
the
letter
is
also
interesting
for
other
reasons.
In
a
single
breath,
Galileo
four
times
evokes
Truth:
friend
of
Truth,
investigating
Truth,
pursuit
of
Truth,
proof
of
Truth;
then
apparently
without
awareness
of
the
paradox,
he
calmly
announces
his
intention
to
suppress
Truth.
This
may
partly
be
explained
by
the
mores
of
late
Renaissance
Italy
("that
age
without
a
superego"
as
a
psychiatrist
described
it);
but
taking
that
into
account,
one
still
wonders
at
the
motives
of
his
secrecy.

Why,
in
contrast
to
Kepler,
was
he
so
afraid
of
publishing
his
opinions?
He
had,
at
that
time,
no
more
reason
to
fear
religious
persecution
than
Copernicus
had.
The
Lutherans,
not
the
Catholics,
had
been
the
first
to
attack
the
Copernican
system
–
which
prevented
neither
Rheticus
nor
Kepler
from
defending
it
in
public.
The
Catholics,
on
the
other
hand,
were
uncommitted.
In
Copernicus'
own
day,
they
were
favoufably
inclined
towards
him
–
it
will
be
remembered
how
Cardinal
Schoenberg
and
Bishop
Giese
had
urged
him
to
publish
his
book.
Twenty
years
after
its
publication,
the
Council
of
Trent
re-defined
Church
doctrine
and
policy
in
all
its
aspects,
but
it
had
nothing
to
say
against
the
heliocentric
system
of
the
universe.
Galileo
himself,
as
we
shall
see,
enjoyed
the
active
support
of
a
galaxy
of
Cardinals,
including
the
future
Urban
VIII,
and
of
the
leading
astronomers
among
the
Jesuits.
Up
to
the
fateful
year
1616,
discussion
of
the
Copernican
system
was
not
only
permitted,
but
encouraged
by
them
–
under
the
one
proviso,
that
it
should
be
confined
to
the
language
of
science,
and
should
not
impinge
on
theological
matters.
The
situation
was
summed
up
clearly
in
a
letter
from
Cardinal
Dini
to
Galileo
in
1615:
"One
may
write
freely
as
long
as
one
keeps
out
of
the
sacristy."
⁷
This
was
precisely
what
the
disputants
failed
to
do,
and
it
was
at
this
point
that
the
conflict
began.
But
nobody
could
have
foreseen
these
developments
twenty
years
earlier,
when
Galileo
wrote
to
Kepler.

Thus
legend
and
hindsight
combined
to
distort
the
picture,
and
gave
rise
to
the
erroneous
belief
that
to
defend
the
Copernican
system
as
a
working
hypothesis
entailed
the
risk
of
ecclesiastical
disfavour
or
persecution.
During
the
first
fifty
years
of
Galileo's
lifetime,
no
such
risk
existed;
and
the
thought
did
not
even
occur
to
Galileo.
What
he
feared
is
clearly
stated
in
his
letter:
to
share
the
fate
of
Copernicus,
to
be
mocked
and
derided;
ridenduss
et
explodendum
–
"laughed
at
and
hissed
off
the
stage"
are
his
exact
words.
Like
Copernicus,
he
was
afraid
of
the
ridicule
both
of
the
unlearned
and
the
learned
asses,
but
particularly
of
the
latter:
his
fellow
professors
at
Pisa
and
Padua,
the
stuffed
shirts
of
the
peripatetic
school,
who
still
considered
Aristotle
and
Ptolemy
as
absolute
authority.
And
this
fear,
as
will
be
seen,
was
fully
justified.

4.
Early Quarrels

Young
Kepler
was
delighted
with
Galileo's
letter.
On
the
first
occasion
when
a
traveller
left
Gratz
for
Italy,
he
answered
in
his
impulsive
manner:

"Gratz, October 13, 1597.

Your
letter,
my
most
excellent
humanist,
which
you
wrote
on
August
4,
I
received
on
September
1;
it
caused
me
to
rejoice
twice:
first
because
it
meant
the
beginning
of
a
friendship
with
an
Italian;
secondly,
because
of
our
agreement
on
the
Copernican
cosmography...
I
assume
that
if
your
time
has
permitted
it,
you
have
by
now
become
better
acquainted
with
my
little
book,
and
I
ardently
desire
to
know
your
critical
opinion
of
it;
for
it
is
my
nature
to
press
all
to
whom
I
write
for
their
unvarnished
opinion;
and
believe
me,
I
much
prefer
even
the
most
acrimonious
criticism
of
a
single
enlightened
man
to
the
unreasoned
applause
of
the
common
crowd.

I
would
have
wished,
however,
that
you,
possessed
of
such
an
excellent
mind,
took
up
a
different
position.
With
your
clever
secretive
manner
you
underline,
by
your
example,
the
warning
that
one
should
retreat
before
the
ignorance
of
the
world,
and
should
not
lightly
provoke
the
fury
of
the
ignorant
professors;
in
this
respect
you
follow
Plato
and
Pythagoras,
our
true
teachers.
But
considering
that
in
our
era,
at
first
Copernicus
himself
and
after
him
a
multitude
of
learned
mathematicians
have
set
this
immense
enterprise
going
so
that
the
motion
of
the
earth
is
no
longer
a
novelty,
it
would
be
preferable
that
we
help
to
push
home
by
our
common
efforts
this
already
moving
carriage
to
its
destination...
You
could
help
your
comrades,
who
labour
under
such
iniquitous
criticism,
by
giving
them
the
comfort
of
your
agreement
and
the
protection
of
your
authority.
For
not
only
your
Italians
refuse
to
believe
that
they
are
in
motion
because
they
do
not
feel
it;
here
in
Germany,
too,
one
does
not
make
oneself
popular
by
holding
such
opinions.
But
there
exist
arguments
which
protect
us
in
the
face
of
these
difficulties...
Have
faith,
Galilii,
and
come
forward!
If
my
guess
is
right,
there
are
but
few
among
the
prominent
mathematicians
of
Europe
who
would
wish
to
secede
from
us:
for
such
is
the
force
of
Truth.
If
your
Italy
seems
less
advantageous
to
you
for
publishing
[your
works]
and
if
your
living
there
is
an
obstacle,
perhaps
our
Germany
will
allow
us
to
do
so.
But
enough
of
this.
Let
me
know,
at
least
privately
if
you
do
not
want
to
do
it
in
public,
what
you
have
discovered
in
support
of
Copernicus..."