It is said that Galileo, as he rose from his knees, stamped on the ground, and whispered to one of his friends, _E pur si muove_--(It does move though).
Copies of Galileo's sentence and abjuration were immediately promulgated in every direction, and the professors at several universities received directions to read them publicly. At Florence this ceremony took place in the church of Sta. Croce, whither Guiducci, Aggiunti, and all others who were known in that city as firm adherents to Galileo's opinions, were specially summoned. The triumph of the "Paper Philosophers" was so far complete, and the alarm occasioned by this proof of their dying power extended even beyond Italy. "I have been told," writes Descartes from Holland to Mersenne at Paris, "that Galileo's system was printed in Italy last year, but that every copy has been burnt at Rome, and himself condemned to some sort of penance, which has astonished me so much that I have almost determined to burn all my papers, or at least never to let them be seen by any one. I cannot collect that he, who is an Italian and even a friend of the Pope, as I understand, has been criminated on any other account than for having attempted to establish the motion of the earth. I know that this opinion was formerly censured by some Cardinals, but I thought I had since heard, that no objection was now made to its being publicly taught, even at Rome."
The sentiments of all who felt themselves secured against the apprehension of personal danger could take but one direction, for, as Pascal well expressed it in one of his celebrated letters to the Jesuits--"It is in vain that you have procured against Galileo a decree from Rome condemning his opinion of the earth's motion. Assuredly, that will never prove it to be at rest; and if we have unerring observations proving that it turns round, not all mankind together can keep it from turning, nor themselves from turning with it."
The assembly of doctors of the Sorbonne at Paris narrowly escaped from passing a similar sentence upon the system of Copernicus. The question was laid before them by Richelieu, and it appears that their opinion was for a moment in favour of confirming the Roman decree. It is to be wished that the name had been preserved of one of its members, who, by his strong and philosophical representations, saved that celebrated body from this disgrace.