the said Divine Wisdome surpasseth all humane Judgment and Conjecture But that that self same God who hath indued us with Senses Discourse and Understanding hath intended laying aside the use of these to give the knowledg of those things by other means which we may attain by these so as that even in those Natural Conclusions which either by Sensible Experiments or Necessary Demonstrations are set before our eyes or our Understanding we ought to deny Sense and Reason I do not conceive that I am bound to believe it and especially in those Sciences of which but a small part and that divided into Conclusions is to be found in the Scripture Such as for instance is that of Astronomy of which there is so small a part in Holy Writ that it doth not so much as name any of the Planets except the Sun and the Moon and once or twice onely Venus under the name of Lucifer For if the Holy Writers had had any intention to perswade People to believe the Dispositions and Motions of the Coelestial Bodies and that consequently we are still to derive that knowledge from the Sacred Books they would not in my opinion have spoken so little thereof that it is as much as nothing in comparison of the infinite admirable Conclusions which in that Science are comprized and demonstrated Nay that the Authours of the Holy Volumes did not only not pretend to teach us the Constitutions and Motions of the Heavens and Stars their Figures Magnitudes and Distances but that intentionally albeit that all these things were very well known unto them they forbore to speak of them is the opinion of the Most Holy Most Learned Fathers and in S. Augustine we read the following words It is likewise commonly asked of what Form and Figure we may believe Heaven to be according to the Scriptures For many contend much about those matters which the greater prudence of our Authors hath forborn to speak of as nothing furthering their Learners in relation to a blessed life and which is the chiefest thing taking up much of that time which should be spent in holy exercises For what is it to me whether Heaven as a Sphere doth on all sides environ the Earth a Mass ballanced in the middle of the World or whether like a Dish it doth onely cover or overcast the same But because belief of Scripture is urged for that cause which we have oft mentioned that is That none through ignorance of Divine Phrases when they shall find any thing of this nature in or hear any thing cited out of our Bibles which may seem to oppose manifest Conclusions should be induced to suspect their truth when they admonish relate deliver more profitable matters Briefly be it spoken touching the Figure of Heaven that our Authors knew the truth But the H. Spirit would not that men should learn what is profitable to none for salvation And the same intentional silence of these sacred Penmen in determining what is to be believed of these accidents of the Celestial Bodies is again hinted to us by the same Father in the ensuing 10. Chapter upon the Question Whether we are to believe that Heaven moveth or standeth still in these words There are some of the Brethren that start a question concerning the motion of Heaven Whether it be fixed or moved For if it be moved say they how is it a Firmament If it stand still how do these Stars which are held to be fixed go round from East to West the more Northern performing shorter Circuits near the Pole so that Heaven if there be another Pole to us unknown may seem to revolve upon some other Axis but if there be not another Pole it may be thought to move as a Discus To whom I reply that these points require many subtil and profound Reasons for the making out whether they be really so or no the undertakeing and discussing of which is neither consistent with my leasure nor their duty vvhom I desire to instruct in the necessary matters more directly conducing to their salvation and to the benefit of The Holy Church From which that we may come nearer to our particular case it necessarily followeth that the Holy Ghost not having intended to teach us whether Heaven moveth or standeth still nor whether its Figure be in Form of a Sphere or of a Discus or distended in Planum Nor whether the Earth be contained in the Centre of it or on one side he hath much less had an intention to assure us of other Conclusions of the same kinde and in such a manner connected to these already named that without the dedermination of them one can neither affirm one or the other part which are The determining of the Motion and Rest of the said Earth and of the Sun And if the same Holy Spirit hath purposely pretermitted to teach us those Propositions as nothing concerning his intention that is our salvation how can it be affirmed that the holding of one part rather than the other should be so necessary as that it is de Fide and the other erronious Can an Opinion be Heretical and yet nothing concerning the salvation of souls Or can it be said that the Holy Ghost purposed not to teach us a thing that concerned our salvation I might here insert the Opinion of an Ecclesiastical Person raised to the degree of Eminentissimo to wit That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how we shall go to Heaven and not how Heaven goeth But let us return to consider how much necessary Demonstrations and sensible Experiments ought to be esteemed in Natural Conclusions and of what Authority Holy and Learned Divines have accounted them from whom amongst an hundred other attestations we have these that follow We must also carefully heed and altogether avoid in handling the Doctrine of Moses to avouch or speak any thing affirmatively and confidently which contradicteth the manifest Experiments and Reasons of Philosophy or other Sciences For since all Truth is agreeable to Truth the Truth of Holy Writ cannot be contrary to the solid Reasons and Experiments of Humane Learning And in St. Augustine we read If any one shall object the Authority of Sacred Writ against clear and manifest Reason he that doth so knows not what he undertakes For he objects against the Truth not the sense of the Scripture which is beyond his comprehension but rather his own not what is in it but what finding it in himself he fancyed to be in it This granted and it being true as hath been said that two Truths cannot be contrary to each other it is the office of a Judicious Expositor to study to finde the true Senses of Sacred Texts which undoubtedly shall accord with those Natural Conclusions of which manifest Sense and Necessary Demonstrations had before made us sure and certain Yea in regard that the Scriptures as hath been said
those errors into which through ignorance I may run in this Discourse of matters pertaining to Religion but I farther declare that I desire not in these matters to engage dispute with any one although it should be in points that are disputable for my end tendeth onely to this That if in these considerations besides my own profession amongst the errours that may be in them there be any thing apt to give others an hint of some Notion beneficial to the Holy Church touching the determining about the Copernican Systeme it may be taken and improved as shall seem best to my Superiours If not let my Book be torn and burnt for that I do neither intend nor pretend to gain to my self any fruit from my writings that is not Pious and Catholick And moreover although that many of the things that I observe have been spoken in my own hearing yet I shall freely admit and grant to those that spake them that they never said them if so they please but confess that I might have been mistaken And therefore what I say let it be supposed to be spoken not by them but by those which were of this opinion The motive therefore that they produce to condemn the Opinion of the Mobility of the Earth and Stability of the Sun is that reading in the Sacred Leaves in many places that the Sun moveth that the Earth standeth still and the Scripture not being capable of lying or erring it followeth upon necessary consequence that the Position of those is Erronious and Heretical who maintain that the Sun of it self is immoveable and the Earth moveable Touching this Reason I think it fit in the first place to consider That it is both piously spoken and prudently affirmed That the Sacred Scripture can never lye when ever its true meaning is understood Which I believe none will deny to be many times very abstruce and very different from that which the bare sound of the words signifieth Whence it cometh to pass that if ever any one should constantly confine himself to the naked Grammatical Sence he might erring himself make not only Contradictions and Propositions remote from Truth to appear in the Scriptures but also gross Heresies and Blasphemies For that we should be forced to assign to God feet and hands and eyes yea more corporal and humane affections as of Anger of Repentance of Hatred nay and sometimes the Forgetting of things past and Ignorance of those to come Which Propositions like as so the Holy Ghost affirmeth they were in that manner pronounced by the Sacred Scriptures that they might be accommodated to the Capacity of the Vulgar who are very rude and unlearned so likewise for the sakes of those that deserve to be distinguished from the Vulgar it is necessary that grave and skilful Expositors produce the true senses of them and shew the particular Reasons why they are dictated under such and such words And this is a Doctrine so true and common amongst Divines that it would be superfluous to produce any attestation thereof Hence me thinks I may with much more reason conclude that the same holy Writ when ever it hath had occasion to pronounce any natural Conclusion and especially any of those which are more abstruce and difficult to be understood hath not failed to observe this Rule that so it might not cause confusion in the mindes of those very people and render them the more contumacious against the Doctrines that were more sublimely mysterious For like as we have said and as it plainly appeareth out of the sole respect of condescending to Popular Capacity the Scripture hath not scrupled to shadow over most principal and fundamental Truths attributing even to God himself qualities extreamly remote from and contrary unto his Essence Who would positively affirm that the Scripture laying aside that respect in speaking but occasionally of the Earth of the Water of the Sun or of any other Creature hath chosen to confine it self with all rigour within the bare and narrow literal sense of the words And especially in mentioning of those Creatures things not at all concerning the primary Institution of the same Sacred Volume to wit the Service of God and the salvation of Souls and in things infinitely beyond the apprehension of the Vulgar This therefore being granted methinks that in the Discussion of Natural Problemes we ought not to begin at the authority of places of Scripture but at Sensible Experiments and Necessary Demonstrations For from the Divine Word the Sacred Scripture and Nature did both alike proceed the first as the Holy Ghosts Inspiration the second as the most observant Executrix of Gods Commands And moreover it being convenient in the Scriptures by way of condescension to the understanding of all men to speak many things different in appearance and so far as concernes the naked signification of the words from absolute truth But on the contrary Nature being inexorable and immutable and never passing the bounds of the Laws assigned her as one that nothing careth whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operating be or be not exposed to the Capacity of Men I conceive that that concerning Natural Effects which either Sensible Experience sets before our eyes or Necessary Demonstrations do prove unto us ought not upon any account to be called into question much less condemned upon the testimony of Texts of Scripture which may under their words couch Senses seemingly contrary thereto In regard that every Expression of Scripture is not tied to so strict conditions as every Effect of Nature Nor doth God less admirably discover himself unto us in Nature's Actions than in the Scriptures Sacred Dictions Which peradventure Tertullian intended to express in those words We conclude God is known first by Nature and then again more particularly known by Doctrine by Nature in his Works by Doctrine in his Word preached But I will not hence affirm but that we ought to have an extraordinary esteem for the Places of Sacred Scripture nay being come to a certainty in any Natural Conclusions we ought to make use of them as most apposite helps to the true Exposition of the same Scriptures and to the investigation of those Senses which are necessarily conteined in them as most true and concordant with the Truths demonstrated This maketh me to suppose that the Authority of the Sacred Volumes was intended principally to perswade men to the belief of those Articles and Propositions which by reason they surpass all humane discourse could not by any other Science or by any other means be made credible than by the Mouth of the Holy Spirit it self Besides that even in those Propositions which are not de Fide the Authority of the same Sacred Leaves ought to be preferred to the Authority of all Humane Sciences that are not written in a Demonstrative Method but either with bare Narrations or else with probable Reasons and this I hold to be so far convenient and necessary by how far
for the Reasons alledged admit in many places Expositions far from the Sense of the words and moreover we not being able to affirm that all Interpreters speak by Divine Inspiration For if it were so then there would be no difference between them about the Senses of the same places I should think that it would be an act of great prudence to make it unlawful for any one to usurp Texts of Scripture and as it were to force them to maintain this or that Naturall Conclusion for truth of which Sence Demonstrative and necessary Reasons may one time or other assure us the contrary For who will prescribe bounds to the Wits of men Who will assert that all that is sensible and knowable in the World is already discovered and known Will not they that in other points disagree with us confess this and it is a great truth that Eaquae scimus sint minima pars corum quae ignoramus That those Truths which we know are very few in comparison of those which we know not Nay more if we have it from the Mouth of the Holy Ghost that Deus tradidit Mundum disputationi eorum ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus ab initio ad finem One ought not as I conceive to stop the way to free Philosophating touching the things of the World and of Nature as if that they were already certainly found and all manifest nor ought it to be counted rashness if one do not sit down satisfied with the opinions now become as it were commune nor ought any persons to be displeased if others do not hold in natural Disputes to that opinion which best pleaseth them and especially touching Problems that have for thousands of years been controverted amongst the greatest Philosophers as is the Stability of the Sun and Mobility of the Earth an opinion held by Pythagoras and by his whole Sect by Heraclides Ponticus who was of the same opininion by Phylolaus the Master of Plato and by Plato himself as Aristotle relateth and of which Plutarch writeth in the life of Numa that the said Plato when he was grown old said It is a most absurd thing to think otherwise The same was believed by Aristarchus Samius as we have it in Archimedes and probably by Archimedes himself by Nicetas the Philosopher upon the testimony of Scicero and by many others And this opinion hath finally been amplified and with many Observations and Demonstrations confirmed by Nicholaus Copernicus And Seneca a most eminent Philosopher in his Book De Cometis advertizeth us that we ought with great diligence seek for an assured knowledge whether it be Heaven or the Earth in which the Diurnal Conversion resides And for this cause it would probably be prudent and profitable counsel if besides the Articles which concern our Salvation and the establishment of our Faith against the stability of which there is no fear that any valid and solid Doctrine can ever rise up men would not aggregate and heap up more without necessity And if it be so it would certainly be a preposterous thing to introduce such Articles at the request of persons who besides that we know not that they speak by inspiration of Divine Grace we plainly see that there might be wished in them the understanding which would be necessary first to enable them to comprehend and then to discuss the Demonstrations wherewith the subtiler Sciences proceed in confirming such like Conclusions Nay more I should say were it lawful to speak my judgment freely on this Argument that it would haply more suit with the Decorum and Majesty of those Sacred Volumes if care were taken that every shallow and vulgar Writer might not authorize his Books which are not seldome grounded upon foolish fancies by inserting into them Places of Holy Scripture interpreted or rather distorted to Senses as remote from the right meaning of the said Scripture as they are neer to derirision who not without ostentation flourish out their Writings therewith Examples of such like abuses there might many be produced but for this time I will confine my self to two not much besides these matters of Astronomy One of which is that of those Pamphlets which were published against the Medicean Planets of which I had the fortune to make the discovery against the existence of which there were brought many places of Sacred Scripture Now that all the World seeth them to be Planets I would gladly hear with what new interpretations those very Antagonists do expound the Scripture and excuse their own simplicity The other example is of him who but very lately hath Printed against Astronomers and Philosophers that the Moon doth not receive its light from the Sun but is of its own nature resplendent which imagination he in the close confirmeth or to say better perswadeth himself that he confirmeth by sundry Texts of Scripture which he thinks cannot be reconciled unlesse his opinion should be true and necessary Neverthelesse the Moon of it self is Tenebrose and yet it is no lesse lucid than the Splendor of the Sun Hence it is manifest that these kinde of Authors in regard they did not dive into the true Sence of the Scriptures would in case their authority were of any great moment have imposed a necessity upon others to believe such Conclusions for true as were repugnant to manifest Reason and to Sense Which abuse Deus avertat that it do not gain Countenance and Authority for if it should it would in a short time be necessary to proscribe and inhibit all the Contemplative Sciences For being that by nature the number of such as are very unapt to understand perfectly both the Sacred Scriptures and the other Sciences is much greater than that of the skilfull and intelligent those of the first sort superficially running over the Scriptures would arrogate to themselves an Authority of decreeing upon all the Questions in Nature by vertue of some Word by them misunderstood and produced by the Sacred Pen-men to another purpose Nor would the small number of the Intelligent be able to repress the furious Torrent of those men who would finde so many the more followers in that the gaining the reputation of Wise men without pains or Study is far more grateful to humane Nature than the consuming our selves with restless contemplations about the most painfull Arts. Therefore we ought to return infinite thanks to Almighty God who of his Goodness freeth us from this fear in that he depriveth such kinde of persons of all Authority and reposeth the Consulting Resolving and Decreeing upon so important Determinations in the extraordinary Wisdom and Candor of most Sacred Fathers and in the Supream Authority of those who being guided by his Holy Spirit cannot but determin Holily So ordering things that of the levity of those other men there is no account made This kinde of men are those as I believe against whom not without Reason Grave and Holy Writers do so much
the Receptacles of the Imagination of the Memory and of the Understanding So that which represents it self to the meer sight is as nothing in comparison and proportion to the strange Wonders that by help of long and accurate Observations the Wit of Learned Men discovereth in Heaven And this is the substance of what I had to consider touching this particular In the next place as to those that adde That those Natural Propositions of which the Scripture still speaks in one constant tenour and which the Fathers all unanimously receive in the same sense ought to be accepted according to the naked and literal sense of the Words without glosses and interpretations and received and held for most certain and true and that consequently the Mobility of the Sun and Stability of the Earth as being such are de Fide to be held for true and the contrary opinion to be deemed Heretical I shall propose to consideration in the first place That of Natural Propositions some there are of which all humane Science and Discourse can furnish us only with some plausible opinion and probable conjecture rather than with any certain and demonstrative knowledge as for example whether the Stars be animated Others there are of which we have or may confidently believe that we may have by Experiments long Observations and Necessary Demonstrations an undubitable assurance as for instance whether the Earth and Heavens move or not whether the Heavens are Spherical or otherwise As to the first sort I doubt not in the least that if humane Ratiocinations cannot reach them and that consequently there is no Science to be had of them but only an Opinion or Belief we ought fully and absolutely to comply with the meer Verbal Sense of the Scripture But as to the other Positions I should think as hath been said above That we are first to ascertain our selves of the fact it self which will assist us in finding out the true senses of the Scriptures which shall most certainly be found to accord with the fact demonstrated for two truths can never contradict each other And this I take to be a Doctrine orthodox and undoubted for that I finde it written in Saint Augustine who speaking to our point of the Figure of Heaven and what it is to be believed to be in regard that which Astronomers affirm concerning it seemeth to be contrary to the Scripture they holding it to be rotund and the Scripture calling it as it were a Curtain determineth that we are not at all to regard that the Scripture contradicts Astronomers but to believe its Authority if that which they say shall be false and founded only on the conjectures of humane infirmity but if that which which they affirm be proved by indubitable Reasons this Holy Father doth not say that the Astronomers are to be enjoyned that they themselves resolving and renouncing their Demonstrations do declare their Conclusion to be false but saith that it ought to be demonstrated That what is said in Scripture of a Curtain is not contrary to their true Demonstrations These are his words But some object How doth it appear that the saying in our Bibles Who stretcheth out the Heaven as a Curtain maketh not against those who maintain the Heavens to be in figure of a Sphere Let it be so if that be false which they affirme For that is truth which is spoke by Divine Authority rather than that which proceeds from Humane Infirmity But if peradventure they should be able to prove their Position by such Experiments as puts it out of question it is to be proved that vvhat is said in Scripture concerning a Curtain doth in no vvise contradict their manifest Reasons He proceedeth afterwards to admonish us that we ought to be no less careful and observant in reconciling a Text of Scripture with a demonstrated Natural Proposition than wâ—th another Text of Scripture which should sound to a contrary Sense Nay methinks that the circumspection of this Saint is worthy to be admired and imitated who even in obscure Conclusions and of which we may assure our selves that we can have no knowledge or Science by humane demonstration is very reserved in determining what is to be believed as we see by that which he writeth in the end of his second Book de Genesi ad Litteram speaking whether the Stars are to be believed animate Which particular although at present it cannot easily be comprehended yet I suppose in our farther Progress of handling the Scriptures we may meet with some more pertinent places upon which it will be permitted us if not to determin any thing for certain yet to suggest somewhat concerning this matter according to the dictates of Sacred Authority But novv the moderation of pious gravity being alwaies observed vve ought to receive nothing rashly in a doubtful point least perhaps vve reject that out of respect to our Errour vvhich hereafter Truth may discover to be in no vvise repugnant to the Sacred Volumes of the Old and Nevv Testament By this and other places if I deceive not my self the intent of the Holy Fathers appeareth to be That in Natural questions and which are not de Fide it is first to be considered whether they be indubitably demonstrated or by sensible Experiments known or whether such a knowledge and demonstration is to be had which having obtained and it being the gift of God it ought to be applyed to find out the true Sences of the Sacred Pages in those places which in appearance might seem to speak to a contrary meaning Which will unquestionably be pierced into by Prudent Divines together with the occasions that moved the Holy Ghost for our exercise or for some other reason to me unknown to veil it self sometimes under words of different significations As to the other point Of our regarding the Primary Scope of those Sacred Volumes I cannot think that their having spoken alwaies in the same tenour doth any thing at all disturb this Rule For if it hath been the Scope of the Scripture by way of condescention to the capacity of the Vulgar at any time to express a Proposition in words that bear a sense different from the Essence of the said Proposition why might it not have observed the same and for the same respect as often as it had occasion to speak of the same thing Nay I conceive that to have done otherwise would but have encreased the confusion and diminished the credit that these Sacred Records ought to have amongst the Common People Again that touching the Rest and Motion of the Sun and Earth it was necessary for accommodation to Popular Capacity to assert that which the Litteral sense of the Scripture importeth experience plainly proveth For that even to our dayes people far less rude do continue in the same Opinion upon Reasons that if they were well weighed and examined would be found to be extream trivial and upon Experiments either wholly false
or altogether besides the purpose Nor is it worth while to go about to remove them from it they being incapable of the contrary Reasons that depend upon too exquisite Observations and too subtil Demonstrations grounded upon Abstractions which for the comprehending of them require too strong an Imagination Whereupon although that the Stability of Heaveu and Motion of the Earth should be more than certain and demonstrated to the Wise yet nevertheless it would be necessary for the conservation of credit amongst the Vulgar to affirm the contrary For that of a thousand ordinary men that come to be questioned concerning these particulars its probabâ—e that there will not be found so much as one that will not answer that he thinketh and so certainly he doth that the Sun moveth and the Earth standeth still But yet none ought to take this common Popular Assent to be any Argument of the truth of that which is affirmed For if we should examine these very men touching the grounds and motives by which they are induced to believe in that manner and on the other side should hear what Experiments and Demonstrations perswade those few others to believe the contrary we should finde these latter to be moved by most solid Reasons and the former by simple appearances and vain and ridiculous occurrences That therefore it was necessary to assign Motion to the Sun and Rest to the earth lest the shallow capacity of the Vulgar should be confounded amused and rendred obstinate and contumacious in giving credit to the principal Articles and which are absolutely de fide it is sufficiently obvious And if it was necessary so to do it is not at all to be wondred at that it was with extraordinary Wisdom so done in the Divine Scriptures But I will alledge further That not onely a respect to the Incapacity of the Vulgar but the current Opinion of those times made the Sacred Writers in the points that were not necessary to salvation to accommodate themselves more to the received use than to the true Essence of things Of which S. Hierom treating writeth As if many things were not spoken in the Holy Scriptures according to the judgement of those times in which they were acted and not according to that which truth contained And elsewhere the same Saint It is the custome for the Pen-men of Scripture to deliver their Judgments in many things according to the common received opinion that their times had of them And S. Thomas Aquinas in Job upon those words Qui extendit Aquilonem super vacuum appendit Terram super nihilum Noteth that the Scripture calleth that space Vacuum and Nihilum which imbraceth and invironeth the Earth and which we know not to be empty bat filled with Air Neverthelesse saith he The Scripture to comply with the apprehension of the Vulgar who think that in that same space there is nothing calleth it Vacuum and Nihilum Here the words of S. Thomas Quod de superiori Haemisphaerio Coeli nihil nobis apparet nisi spatium aëre plenum quod vulgares homines reputant Vacuum loquitur enim secundum existimationem vulgarium hominum prout est mos in Sacra Scriptura Now from this Place I think one may very Logically argue That the Sacred Scripture for the same respect had much more reason to phrase the Sun moveable and the Earth immoveable For if we should try the capacity of the Common People we should find them much more unapt to be perswaded of the stability of the Sun and Motion of the Earth than that the space that environeth it is full of Air. Therefore if the sacred Authors in this point which had not so much difficulty to be beat into the capacity of the Vulgar have notwithstanding forborn to attempt perswading them unto it it must needs seem very reasonable that in other Propositions much more abstruse they have observed the same stile Nay Copernicus himself knowing what power an antiquated custome and way of conceiving things become familiar to us from our infancy hath in our Fancy that he might not increase confusion and difficulty in our apprehensions after he had first demonstrated That the Motions which appear to us to belong to the Sun or to the Firmament are really in the Earth in proceeding afterwards to reduce them into Tables and to apply them to use he calleth them the Motions of the Sun and of the Heaven that is above the Planets expresly terming them the Rising and Setting of the Sun and Stars and mutations in the obliquity of the Zodiack and variations in the points of the Equinoxes the Middle Motion Anomalia Prosthaphaeresis of the Sun and such other things which do in reality belong to the Earth But because being joyned to it and consequently having a share in every of its motions we cannot immediately discern them in her but are forced to refer them to the Celestial Bodies in which they appear therefore we call them as if they were made there where they seem to us to be made Whence it is to be noted how nenessary it is to accommodate our discourse to our old and accustomed manner of understanding That in the next place the common consent of Fathers in receiving a Natural Proposition of Scripture all in the same sense ought to Authorize it so far as to make it become a matter of Faith to believe it to be so I should think that it ought at most to be understood of those Conclusions onely which have been by the said Fathers discussed and sifted with all possible diligence and debated on the one side and on the other and all things in the end concurring to disprove the one and prove the other But the Mobility of the Earth and Stability of the Sun are not of this kinde For that the said Opinion was in those times totally buried and never brought amongst the Questions of the Schools and not considered much less followed by any one So that it is to be believed that it never so much as entered into the thought of the Fathers to dispute it the Places of Scripture their own Opinion and the assent of men having all concurred in the same judgement without the contradiction of any one so far as we can finde Besides it is not enough to say that the Fathers all admit the stability of the Earth c. Therefore to believe it is a matter of Faith But its necessary to prove that they have condemned the contrary Opinion For I may affirm and bide by this That their not having occasion to make satisfaction upon the same and to discuss it hath made them to omit and admit it onely as current but not as resolved and proved And I think I have very good Reason for what I say For either the Fathers did make reflection upon this Conclusion as controverted or not If not then they could determin nothing concerning it no not in their private thoughts and their incogitance
doth not oblige us to receive those Precepts which they have not so much as in their intentions enjoyned But if they did reflect and consider thereon they would long since have condemned it if they had judged it erroneous which we do not find that they have done Nay after that some Divines have began to consider it we find that they have not deem'd it erroneous as we read in the Commentaries of Didacus a Stunica upon Job in Cap. 9 v. 6. on the words Qui commovet Terram de loco suo c. Where he at large discourseth upon the Copernican Hypothesis and concludeth That the Mobility of the Earth is not contrary to Scripture Withal I may justly question the truth of that determination namely That the Church enjoyneth us to hold such like Natural Conclusions as matters of Faith onely because they bear the stamp of an unanimous Interpretation of all the Fathers And I do suppose that it may possibly be that those who hold in this manner might possibly have gone about in favour of their own Opinion to have amplified the Decretal of the Councils which I cannot finde in this case to prohibit any other save onely Perverting to Senses contrary to that of Holy Church or of the concurrent consent of Fathers those places and those onely that do pertain either to Faith or Manners or concern our edification in the Doctrine of Christianity And thus speaks the Council of Trent Sess. 4. But the Mobility or Stability of the Earth or of the Sun are not matters of Faith nor contrary to Manners nor is there any one that for the stablishing of this Opinion will pervert places of Scripture in opposition to the Holy Church or to the Fathers Nay Those who have writ of this Doctrine did never make use of Texts of Scripture that they might leave it still in the breasts of Grave and Prudent Divines to interpret the said Places according to their true meaning And how far the Decrees of Councills do comply with the Holy Fathers in these particulars may be sufficiently manifest in that they are so far from enjoyning to receive such like Natural Conclusions for matters of Faith or from censuring the contrary Opinions as erronious that rather respecting the Primitive and primary intention of the Holy Church they do adjudge it unprofitable to be busied in examining the truth thereof Let your Highness be pleased to hear once again what S. Augustine answers to to those Brethren who put the Question Whether it be true that Heaven moveth or standeth still To these I answer That Points of this nature require a curious and profound examination that it may truly appear whether they be true or false a work inconsistent with my leasure to undertake or go thorow with nor is it any way necessary for those whom we desire to inform of things that more nearly concern their own salvation and The Churches Benefit But yet although in Natural Propositions we were to take the resolution of condemning or admitting them from Texts of Scripture unanimously expounded in the same Sense by all the Fathers yet do I not see how this Rule can hold in our Case for that upon the same Places we read several Expositions in the Fathers Dionysius Areopagita saying That the Primum Mobile and not the Sun stand still Saint Augustine is of the same Opinion All the Celestial Bodies were immoveable And with them concurreth Abulensis But which is more amongst the Jewish Authors whom Josephus applauds some have held That The Sun did not really stand still but seemed so to do during the short time in which Israel gave the overthrow to their Enemies So for the Miracle in the time of Hezekiah Paulus Burgensis is of opinion that it was not wrought on the Sun but on the Diall But that in short it is necessary to Glosse and Interpret the words of the Text in Joshua when ever the Worlds Systeme is in dispute I shall shew anon Now finally granting to these Gentlemen more than they demand to wit That we are wholly to acquiesce in the judgment of Judicious Divines and that in regard that such a particular Disquisition is not found to have been made by the Ancient Fathers it may be undertaken by the Sages of our Age who having first heard the Experiments Observations Reasons and Demonstrations of Philosophers and Astronomers on the one side and on the other seeing that the Controversie is about Natural Problems and Necessary Dilemma's and which cannot possibly be otherwise than in one of the two manners in controversie they may with competent certainty determine what Divine Inspirations shall dictate to them But that without minutely examining and discussing all the Reasons on both sides and without ever comming to any certainty of the truth of the Case such a Resolution should be taken Is not to be hoped from those who do not stick to hazzard the Majesty and Dignity of the Sacred Scripture in defending the reputation of their vain Fancies Nor to be feared from those who make it their whole businesse to examine with all intensness what the Grounds of this Doctrine are and that only in an Holy Zeal for Truth the Sacred Scriptures and for the Majesty Dignity and Authority in which every Christian should indeavour to have them maintained Which Dignity who seeth not that it is with greater Zeal desired and procured by those who absolutely submitting themselves to the Holy Church desire not that this or that opinion may be prohibited but onely that such things may be proposed to consideration as may the more ascertain her in the safest choice than by those who being blinded by their particular Interest or stimulated by malitious suggestions preach that she should without more ado thunder out Curses for that she had power so to do Not considering that all that may be done is not alwayes convenient to be done The Holy Fathers of old were not of this opinion but rather knowing of how great prejudice and how much against the primary intent of the Catholick Church it would be to go about from Texts of Scripture to decide Natural Conclusions touching which either Experiments or necessary Demonstrations might in time to come evince the contrary of that which the naked sense of the Words soundeth they have not only proceeded with great circumspection but have left the following Precepts for the instruction of others In points obscure and remote from our Sight if we come to read any thing out of Sacred Writ that with a Salvo to the Faith that we have imbued may correspond with several constructions let us not so farre throw our selves upon any of them with a precipitous obstinacy as that if perhaps the Truth being more diligently search't into it should justly fall to the ground we might fall together with it and so shew that we contend not for the sense of Divine Scriptures but our own in that we
would have that which is our own to be the sense of Scriptures vvhen as vve should rather desire the Scriptures meaning to be ours He goeth on and a little after teacheth us that no Proposition can be against the Faith unlesse first it be demonstrated false saying T is not all the while contrary to Faith until it be disproved by most certain Truth which if it should so be the Holy Scripture affirm'd it not but Humane Ignorance supposed it Whereby we see that the senses which we impose on Texts of Scripture would be false when ever they should disagree with Truths demonstrated And therefore we ought by help of demonstrated Truth to seek the undoubted sense of Scripture and not according to the sound of the words that may seem true to our weaknesse to go about as it were to force Nature and to deny Experiments and Necessary Demonstrations Let Your Highnesse be pleased to observe farther with how great circumspection this Holy Man proceedeth before he affirmeth any Interpretation of Scripture to be sure and in such wise certain as that it need not fear the encounter of any difficulty that may procure it disturbance for not contenting himself that some sense of Scripture agreeth with some Demonstration he subjoynes But if right Reason shall demonstrate this to be true yet is it questionable whether in these words of Sacred Scripture the Pen-man would have this to be understood or somewhat else no lesse true And in case the Context of his Words shall prove that he intended not this yet will not that which he would have to be understood be therefore false but most true aad that which is more profitable to be knovvn But that which increaseth our wonder concerning the circumspection wherewith this Pious Author proceedeth is that not trusting to his observing that both Demonstrative Reasons and the sense that the words of Scripture and the rest of the Context both precedent and subsequent do conspire to prove the same thing he addeth the following words But if the Context do not hold forth any thing that may disprove this to be the Authors Sense it yet remains to enquire Whether the other may not be intended also And not yet resolving to accept of one Sense or reject another but thinking that he could never use sufficient caution he proceedeth But if so be we finde that the other may be also meant it vvill be doubted which of them he would have to stand or which in probability he may be thought to aim at if the true circumstances on both sides be weighed And lastly intending to render a Reason of this his Rule by shewing us to what perils those men expose the Scriptures and the Church who more respecting the support of their own errours than the Scriptures Dignity would stretch its Authority beyond the Bounds which it prescribeth to it self he subjoyns the ensuing words which of themselves alone might suffice to repress and moderate the excessive liberty which some think that they may assume to themselves For it many times falls out that a Christian may not so fully understand a Point concerning the Earth Heaven and the rest of this Worlds Elements the Motion Conversion Magnitude and Distances of the Stars the certain defects of the Sun and Moon the Revolutions of Years and Times the Nature of Animals Fruits Stones and other things of like nature as to defend the same by right Reason or make it out by Experiments But it s too great an absurdity yea most pernicious and chiefly to be avoided to let an Infidel finde a Christian so stupid that he should argue these matters as if they were according to Christian Doctrine and make him as the Proverb saith scarce able to contain his laughter seeing him so far from the Mark. Nor is the matter so much that one in an errour should be laught at but that our Authors should be thought by them that are without to be of the same Opinion and to the great prejudice of those whose salvation we wait for sensured and rejected as unlearned For when they shal confute any one of the Christians in that matter vvhich they themselvs thorovvly understand and shall thereupon express their light esteem of our Books hovv shall these Volumes be believed touching the Resurrection of the Dead the Hope of eternal Life and the Kingdom of Heaven vvhen as to these Points vvhich admit of present Demonstration or undoubted Reasons they conceive them to be falsly vvritten And how much the truly Wise and Prudent Fathers are displeased with these men who in defence of Propositions which they do not understand do apply and in a certain sense pawn Texts of Scripture and afterwards go on to encrease their first Errour by producing other places less understood than the former The same Saint declareth in the expressions following What trouble and sorrow weak undertakers bring upon their knowing Brethren is not to be expressed since vvhen they begin to be told and convinced of their false and unsound Opinion by those vvho have no respect for the Authority of our Scriptures in defence of vvhat through a fond Temerity and most manifest falsity they have urged they fall to citing the said Sacred Books for proof of it or else repeat many vvords by heart out of them vvhich they conceive to make for their purpose not knovving either what they say or vvhereof they affirm In the number of these we may as I conceive account those who being either unwilling or unable to understand the Demonstrations and Experiments wherewith the Author and followers of this Opinion do confirm it run upon all occasions to the Scriptures not considering that the more they cite them and the more they persist in affirming that they are very clear and do admit no other senses save those which they force upon them the greater injury they do to the Dignity of them if we allowed that their judgments were of any great Authority in case that the Truth coming to be manifestly known to the contrary should occasion any confusion at least to those who are separated from the Holy Church of whom yet she is very solicitous and like a tender Mother desirous to recover them again into her Lap Your Highness therefore may see how praeposterously those Persons proceed who in Natural Disputations do range Texts of Scripture in the Front for their Arguments and such Texts too many times as are but superficially understood by them But if these men do verily think absolutely believe that they have the true sence of Such a particular place of Scripture it must needs follow of consequence that they do likewise hold for certain that they have found the absolute truth of that Natural Conclusion which they intend to dispute And that withal they do know that they have a great advantage of their Adversary whose Lot it is to defend the part that is false in regard that he
another conceipt thereof they would meet peradventure as many others that accord with it and haply would judge that the Holy Church doth very appositly teach That God placed the Sun in the Centre of Heaven and that thereupon by revolving it in it self after the manner of a Wheel He contributed the ordinary Courses to the Moon and other Erratick Stars whilst that she Sings Coeli Deus sanctissime Qui lucidum Centrum Poli Candore pingis igneo Augens decoro lumine Quarto die qui flammeam Solis rotam constituens Lunae ministras ordinem Vagosque cursus Syderum They might say that the Name of Firmament very well agreeth ad literam to the Starry Sphere and to all that which is above the Planetary Conversions which according to this Hypothesis is altogether firme and immoveable Ad litteram the Earth moving circularly they might understand its Poles where it 's said Nec dum Terram fecerat flumina Cardines Orbis Terrae Which Cardines or Hinges seem to be ascribed to the Earth in vain if it be not to turn upon them FINIS AN ABSTRACT OF THE Learned Treatise OF JOHANNIS KEPLERUS The Emperours Mathematician ENTITULED His Introduction upon MARS IT must be confessed that there are very many who are devoted to Holinesse that dissent from the Judgment of Copernicus fearing to give the Lye to the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures if they should say that the Earth moveth and the Sun stands still But let such consider that since we judge of very many and those the most principal things by the Sense of Seeing it is impossible that we should alienate our Speech from this Sense of our Eyes Therefore many things daily occur of which we speak according to the Sense of Sight when as we certainly know that the things themselves are otherwise An Example whereof we have in that Verse of Virgil Provehimur portu Terraeque urbesque recedunt So when we come forth of the narrow straight of some Valley we say that a large Field discovereth it self So Christ to Peter Duc in altum Lanch forth into the Deep or on high as if the Sea were higher than its Shores For so it seemeth to the Eye but the Opticks shew the cause of this fallacy Yet Christ useth the most received Speech although it proceed from this delusion of the Eyes Thus we conceive of the Rising and Setting of the Stars that is to say of their Ascension and Descension when at the same time that we affirm the Sun riseth others say that it goeth down See my Optices Astronomiae cap. 10. fol. 327. So in like manner the Ptolomaicks affirm that the Planets stand still when for some dayes together they seem to be fixed although they believe them at that very time to be moved in a direct line either downwards to or upwards from the Earth Thus the Writers of all Nations use the word Solstitium and yet they deny that the Sun doth really stand still Likewise there will never any man be so devoted to Copernicus but he will say the Sun entereth into Cancer and Leo although he granteth that the Earth enters Capricorn or Aquarius And so in other cases of the like nature But now the Sacred Scriptures speaking to men of vulgar matters in which they were not intended to instruct men after the manner of men that so they might be understood by men do use such Expressions as are granted by all thereby to insinuate other things more Mysterious and Divine What wonder is it then if the Scripture speaks according to mans apprehension at such time when the Truth of things doth dissent from the Conception that all men whether Learned or Unlearned have of them Who knows not that it is a Poetical allusion Psal. 19. where whilst under the similitude of the Sun the Course of the Gospel as also the Peregrination of our Lord Christ in this World undertaken for our sakes is described The Sun is said to come forth of his Tabernacle of the Horizon as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber rejoycing as a Giant to run a Race Which Virgil thus imitates Tithono croceum linquens Aurora cubile For the first Poets were amongst the Jews The Psalmist knew that the Sun went not forth of the Horizon as out of its Tabernacle yet it seemeth to the Eye so to do Nor did he believe that the Sun moved for that it appeared to his sight so to do And yet he saith both for that both were so to his seeming Neither is it to be adjudged false in either Sense for the perception of the Eyes hath its verity fit for the more secret purpose of the Psalmist in shadowing forth the current passage of the Gospel as also the Peregrination of the Son of God Joshua likewise mentioneth the Vallies on or in which the Sun and Moon moved for that they appeared to him at Jordan so to do And yet both these Pen-men may obtain their ends David and with him Syracides the magnificence of God being made known which caused these things to be in this manner represented to sight or otherwise the mystical meaning by means of these Visibles being discerned And Joshua in that the Sun as to his Sense of Seeing staid a whole day in the midst of Heaven whereas at the same time to others it lay hid under the Earth But incogitant persons onely look upon the contrariety of the words The Sun stood still that is The Earth stood still not considering that this contradiction is confined within the limits of the Opticks and Astronomy For which cause it is not outwardly exposed to the notice and use of men Nor will they understand that the onely thing Joshuah prayed for was that the Mountains might not intercept the Sun from him which request he expressed in words that suited with his Ocular Sense Besides it had been very unseasonable at that time to think of Astronomy or the Errours in Sight for if any one should have told him that the Sun could not really move upon the Valley of Ajalon but onely in relation to Sense would not Joshuah have replyed that his desire was that the day might be prolonged so it were by any means whatsoever In like manner would he have answered if any one had started a question about the Suns Mobility and the Earths Motion But God easily understood by Joshuahs words what he asked for and by arresting the Earths Motion made the Sun in his apprehension seem to stand still For the summ of Joshuahs Prayer amounts to no more but this that it might thus appear to him let it in the mean time be what it would of it self For that it s so seeming was not in vain and ridiculous but accompanied with the desired effect But read the tenth Chap. of my Book that treats of the Optick part of Astronomy where thou shalt finde the Reasons why the Sun doth in this manner seem to all mens thinking to
after another Systeme to the discovery of which he doth very earnestly exhort them Now can there a better or more commodious Hypothesis be devised than this of Copernicus For this Cause many Modern Authors are induced to approve of and follow it but with much haesitancy and fear in regard that it seemeth in their Opinion so to contradict the Holy Scriptures as that it cannot possibly be reconciled to them Which is the Reason that this Opinion hath been long supprest and is now entertained by men in a modest manner ad as it were with a veiled Face according to that advice of the Poet Judicium populi nunquam contempseris unus Ne nullis placeas dum vis contemnere multos Upon consideration of which out of my very great love towards the Sciences and my ardent desire to see the encrease and perfection of them and the Light of Truth freed from all Errours and Obscurities I began to argue with my self touching this Point after this manner This Opinion of the Pythagoreans is either true or false If false it ought not to be mentioned and deserves not to be divulged If true it matters not though it contradict all as well Philosophers as Astronomers And though for its establishment and reducement to use a new Philosophy and Astronomy founded upon new Principles and Hypothese should be constituted For the Authority of Sacred Scripture will not oppose it neither doth one Truth contradict another If therefore the Opinion of Pythagoras be true without doubt God hath disposed and dictated the words of of Holy Writ in such a manner that they may admit an apt sense and reconciliation with that Hypothesis Being moved by these Reasons and the probability of the said Opinion I thought good to try whether Texts of Sacred Scripture might be expounded according to Theological and Physical Principles and might be reconciled to it so that in regard that hitherto it hath been held probable it may in after times coming without scruple to be acknowledged for true advance it self and appear in publick with an uncovered Face without any mans prohibition and may lawfully and freely hold a Sacred intelligence with Holy Truth so earnestly coveâ—ed and commended by good Men. Which designe having hitherto been undertaken by none that I know wil I am perswaded be very acceptable to the Studious of these Learnings especially to the most Learned Galilaeo Galilaei chief Mathematician to the most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany and John Kepler chief Mathematician to his Sacred and invincible Majesty the Emperour and to all that Illustrious and much to be commended Accademy of the Lynceans whom if I mistake not are all of this Opinion Although I doubt not but they and many other Learned Men might easily have found out these or the like Reconciliations of Scriptural expressions to whom nevertheless I have thought fit in respect of that profession which I have undertaken upon the faith of my soul and the propensity that I have towards Truth to offer that of the Poet Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magistri And in testimony of my esteem to them and all the Learned to communicate these my thoughts confidently assuring my self that they will accept them with a Candor equal to that wherewith I have written them Therefore to come to the business All Authorities of Divine Writ which seem to oppose this Opinion are reducible to six Classes The first is of those that affirm the Earth to stand still and not to move as Psal. 92. He framed the round World so sure that it cannot be moved Also Psal. 104. Who laid the Foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever And Ecclesiastes 1. But the Earth abideth for ever And others of the like sense The second is of those which attest the Sun to move and Revolve about the Earth as Psal. 19. In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun which cometh forth as a Bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his Course It cometh forth from the uttermost part of the Heaven and runneth about unto the end of it again and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof And Ecclesiast 1. The Sun riseth and the Sun goeth down and hasteth to the place where he arose it goeth towards the South and turneth about unto the North. Whereupon the Suns Retrogradation is mentioned as a Miracle Isaiah 38. The Sun returned ten degrees And Ecclesiasticus 48. In his time the Sun went backward and lengthened the life of the King And for this reason it is related for a Miracle in the Book of Joshuah that at the Prayers of that great Captain the Sun stood still its motion being forbidden it by him Josh. 10. Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon Now if the Sun should stand still and the Earth move about it its station at that time was no Miracle and if Joshuah had intended that the light of the day should have been prolonged by the Suns splendour he would not have said Sun stand thou still but rather Earth stand thou still The third Classis is of those Authorities which say that Heaven is above and the Earth beneath of which sort is that place of Joel chap. 2. cited by S. Peter in Acts. 2. I will shew wonders in Heaven above and signes in the Earth beneath with others of the like purport Hereupon Christ at his Incarnation is said to come down from Heaven and after his Resurrection to have ascended up into heaven But if the Earth should move about the Sun it would be as one may say in Heaven and consequently would rather be above Heaven than beneath it And this is confirmed For that the Opinion which placeth the Sun in the Centre doth likewise place Mercury above the Sun and Venus above Mercury and the Earth above Venus together with the Moon which revolves about the Earth and therefore the Earth together with the Moon is placed in the third Heaven If therefore in Spherical Bodies as in the World beneath signifies no more than to be neer to the centre and above than to approach the Circumference it must needs follow that for making good of Theological Positions concerning the Ascension and Descension of Christ the Earth is to be placed in the centre and the Sun with the other Heavens in the Circumference and not according to Copernicus whose Hypothesis inverts this Order with which one cannot see how the true Ascension and Descension can be consistent The fourth Classis is of those Authorities which make Hell to be in the Centre of the World which is the Common Opinion of Divines and confirmed by this Reason That since Hell taken in its strict denomination ought to be in the lowest part of the World and since that in a Sphere there is no part lower then the Centre Hell shall be as it were in the Centre of the World which being of a Spherical Figure it must
ascribes to the Earth Ends and Foundations which yet it hath not to the Sea a Depth not to be fathomed to Death which is a Privation and consequently a Non-entity it appropriates Actions Motion Passions and other such like Accidents of all which it is deprived as also Epithites and Adjuncts which really cannot suit with it Is not the bitternesse of Death past 1 Sam. 15. 32. Let death come upon them Psal 6. He hath prepared the Instruments of Death Psal. 7. 14. Thou raisest me from the gates of Death Psal. 84. In the midst of the shadow of Death Psal. 23. Love is strong as Death Cant. 8. 9. The First-Born of Death Job 18. 13. Destruction and Death say c. Job 28. 22. And who knows not that the whole History of the rich Glutton doth consist of the like phrases of Vulgar Speech So Ecclesiasticus Chap. 27. vers 11. The godly man abideth in wisdome as the Sun but a fool changeth as the Moon and yet the Moon according to the real truth of the matter no wayes changeth but abides the same for ever as Astronomers demonstrate one half thereof remaining alwayes lucid and the other alwayes opacous Not at any time doth this state vary in it unlesse in respect of us and according to the opinion of the Vulgar Hence it is cleer that the holy Scripture speaks according to the common form of speech used amongst the unlearned and according to the appearance of things and not according to their true Existence In like manner Genes 1. in the description of the Creation of all things the Light is said to be made first of all and yet it followeth in the Text And the Evening and the Morning made the first day and a little after the several Acts of the Creation are distinguished and assigned to several days and concerning each of them it is said in the Text And the Evening and the Morning made the second day and then the third day the fourth day c. Hence many doubts arise all which I shall propound according to the common Systeme that it may appear even from the Hypothesis of that Systeme that the sacred Scripture sometimes for the avoyding of emergent difficulties is to be understood in a vulgar sense and meaning and in respect of us and not according to the nature of things Which distinction even Aristotle himself seemeth to have hinted when he saith * Some things are more intelligible to us others by nature or secundum se. First therefore If the light were made before heaven then it rolled about without heaven to the making of the distinction of Day and Night Now this is contrary to the very doctrine of these men who affirm that no Coelestial Body can be moved unlesse per accidens and by the motion of Heaven and as a knot in a board at the motion of the board Again if it be said that the Light was created at the same time with Heaven and began to be moved with Heaven another doubt ariseth that likewise opposeth the foresaid common Hypothesis For it being said that Day and Night Morning and Evening were made that same is either in respect of the Universe or onely in respect of the Earth and us If so be that the Sun turning round according to the Hypothesis of the Common Systeme doth not cause the Night and Day but only to opacous Bodies which are destitute of all other light but that of the Sun whilst in their half part which is their Hemisphaere and no more for that the Suns light passeth over but one half of an opacous Body unless a very small matter more in those of lesser bulk they are illuminated by the Suns aspect the other half remaining dark and tenebrose by reason of a shadow proceeding from its own Body Therefore the distinction of dayes by the light of heaven according to the description of them in the sacred Scriptures must not be understood absolutely and secundum se and Nature her self but in respect of the Earth and of us its inhabitants and consequently secundum nos 'T is not therefore new nor unusual in sacred Scripture to speak of things secundum nos and only in respect of us and secundum apparentiam but not secundum se and rei naturam or Absolutely and Simply And if any one would understand these Days of sacred Scripture not only secundum nos but also secundum naturam as circulations of Coelestial Light returning to the self same point from whence it did at first proceed so as that there needs no respect to be had to Night or to Darknesse for which sole reason we are fain to imbrace the Interpretation of sacred Scripture secundum nos In opposition to this we may thus argue If the sacred Scripture be understood to speak absolutely of iterated and successive circulations of light and not respectu nostri as if these words Evening and Morning had never been inserted which in their natural acceptation denote the Suns habitude to us and to the Earth For that the Morning is that time when the Sun begins to wax light and to rise above the Horizon in the East and become visible in our Hemisphaere and Evening is the time in which the Sun declines in the West and approacheth with its light neerer to the other opposite Horizon and Hemisphaere which is contiguous to this of ours But the word Day is a Co-relative to the word Night From hence therefore it evidently appeareth that these three words Evening Morning and Day cannot be understood of a Circulation of Light secundum se and absolutè but only secundum nos and respectu nostri and in that sense indeed the Morning and Evening do make the Night and Day In like manner Gen. 1. 16. it is said God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night and the Stars Where both in the Proposition and in the specification of it things are spoken which are very disagreeing with Coelestial Bodies Therefore those words are in that place to be interpreted according to the foresaid Rules namely according to the third and fourth so that they may be said to be understood according to the sense of the vulgar and the common way of speaking which is all one as if we should say secundum apparentiam and secundum nos vel respectu nostri For first it is said in the Proposition And God made two great Lights meaning by them the Sun and Moon whereas according to the truth of the matter these are not the Greater Lights For although the Sun may be reckoned amongst the Greater the Moon may not be so unless in respect of us Because amongst those that are absolutely the Greater and a little lesser than the Sun nay in a manner equal to it and far bigger than the Moon we may with great reason enumerate Saturn or some of the Fixed Stars of the first
MATHEMATICAL Collections and Translations In two TOMES THE SYSTEME OF THE WORLD IN FOUR DIALOGUES Wherein the Two GRAND SYSTEMES OF PTOLOMY and COPERNICUS are largely discoursed of And the REASONS both Phylosophical and Physical as well on the one side as the other impartially and indefinitely propounded By GALILEUS GALILEUS LINCEUS A Gentleman of FLORENCE Extraordinary Professor of the Mathematicks in the UNIVERSITY of PISA and Chief Mathematician to the GRAND DUKE of TVSCANY Englished from the Original Italian Copy by THOMAS SALUSBURY ALCINOUS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SENECA Inter nullos magis quam inter PHILOSOPHOS esse debet aequa LIBERTAS LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOURNE MDCLXI To the most Serene Grand DUKE OF TUSCANY THough the difference between Men and other living Creatures be very great yet happly he that should say that he could shew little less between Man and Man would not speak more than he might prove What proportion doth one bear to a thousand and yet it is a common Proverb One Man is worth a thousand when as a thousand are not worth one This difference hath dependence upon the different abilities of their Intellectuals which I reduce to the being or not being a Philosopher in regard that Philosophy as being the proper food of such as live by it distinguisheth a Man from the common Essence of the Vulgar in a more or less honourable degree according to the variety of that diet In this sence he that hath the highest looks is of highest quality and the turning over of the great Volume of Nature which is the proper Object of Philosophy is the way to make one look high in which Book although whatsoever we read as being the Work of Almighty God is therefore most proportionate yet notwithstanding that is more absolute and noble wherein we more plainly deserne his art and skill The Constitution of the Vnivers among all Physical points that fall within Humane Comprehension may in my opinion be preferred to the Precedency for if that in regard of universal extent it excell all others it ought as the Rule and Standard of the rest to goe before them in Nobility Now if ever any persons might challenge to be signally distinguished for Intellectuals from other men Ptolomey and Copernicus were they that have had the honour to see farthest into and discourse most profoundly of the World 's Systeme About the Works of which famous Men these Dialous being chiefly conversant I conceived it my duty to Dedicate them only to Your Highness For laying all the weight upon these two whom I hold to be the Ablest Wits that have left us their Works upon these Subjects to avoid a Solecisme in Manners I was obliged to address them to Him who with me is the Greatest of all Men from whom they can receive either Glory or Patrociny And if these two persons have so farre illuminated my Understanding as that this my Book may in a great part be confessed to belong to them well may it also be acknowledged to belong to Your Highness unto whose Bounteous Magnificence I owe the time and leasure I had to write it as also unto Your Powerful Assistance never weary of honouring me the means that at length I have had to publish it May Your Highness therefore be pleased to accept of it according to Your accustomed Goodness and if any thing shall be found therein that may be subservient towards the information or satisfaction of those that are Lovers of Truth let them acknowledge it to be due to Your Self who are so expert in doing good that Your Happy Dominion cannot shew the man that is concerned in any of those general Calamities that disturb the World so that Praying for Your Prosperity and continuance in this Your Pious and Laudable Custome I humbly kiss Your Hands Your Most Serene Highnesses Most Humble and most devoted Servant and Subject GALILEO GALILEI To the Noble and most perfectly Accomplished Sr. JOHN DENHAM Knight of the Noble Order of the BATH And Surveyor General of his Maties Works c. SIR I Humbly begge your Pardon for bringing this Book under your Protection Were it a VVork of my own or I any thing but the Translatour I should master my Thoughts to a meaner Dedication But being a Collection of some of the greatest Masters in the VVorld and never made English till now I conceived I might sooner procure their VVelcome to a person so eminent for Noble Candor as well as for all those Intellectual Excellencies wherewith Your Rich Soul is known to be furnished I resolv'd to be as kind to this Book as I could and seriously considering which way to effect it I at last concluded to prefix Your Name whom His Majesty and all his Subjects who have a higher Sense and Judgement of Excellent Parts know best able to defend my Imperfections And yet I confess there 's one thing makes against me which is your eminent Integrity and great Affection to Truth whereby my Lapses in a VVork of this Nature might justly despair of Shelter but that the Excellency of Your Native Candor strives for Predominancy over all Your great Abilities For 't is all-most impossible to think what Your Matchless VVit is not able to Conquer would Your known Modesty but give leave therefore Galileus Kepler and those other Worthies in Learning are now brought before You in English Habit having chang'd their Latine Italian and French whereby they were almost Strangers to our Nation unless to such as You who so perfectly master the Originals I know you have so much and great imployment for His Majesty and his good Subjects that I shall not robb you of another Minutes loss besides the liberty of subscribing my Self SIR Your Honours Most Humble and Most obedient Servant THOMAS SALUSBURY MATHEMATICAL COLLECTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS THE FIRST TOME IN TWO PARTS THE FIRST PART Containing I. GALILEUS GALILEUS His SYSTEM of the WORLD II. GALILEUS His EPISTLE to the GRAND DUTCHESSE MOTHER concerning the Authority of Holy SCRIPTURE in Philosophical Controversies III. JOHANNES KEPLERUS His Reconcilings of SCRIPTURE Texts c. IV. DIDACUS à STUNICA His Reconcilings of SCRIPTURE Texts c. V. P. A. FOSCARINUS His Epistle to Father FANTONUS reconciling the Authority of SCRIPTURE and Judgments of Divines alledged against this SYSTEM By THOMAS SALUSBURY Esq. LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOURN MDCLXI MATHEMATICAL COLLECTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS THE FIRST TOME THE FIRST PART Containing I. GALILEUS GALILEUS His SYSTEME of the World II. GALILEUS his EPISTLE to the GRAND DUTCHESSE Mother concerning the Authority of Sacred SCRIPTURE in Phylosophical Controversies III. JOHANNES KEPLERUS his Reconcilings of SCRIPTURE Texts c. IV. DIDACUS a STUNICA his Reconcilings of SCRIPTURE Texts c. V. P. A. FOSCARINUS his Epistle to Father FANTONUS reconciling the Authority of Sacred SCRIPTURE and Judgments of Divines alledged against c. By THOMAS SALUSBURY Esq. LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOURNE MDCLXI READER MAthematical Learning to speak nothing
shall forbear to exasperate and attempt to reconcile such persons to this Hypothesis as devout esteem for Holy Scripture and dutifull Respect to Canonical Injunctions hath made to stand off from this Opinion and therefore for their sakes I have at the end of the Dialogues by way of supplement added an Epistle of Galileo to Her Most Serene Highness Christina Lotharinga the Grand Dutchesse Mother of Tuscany as also certain Abstracts of John Kepler Mathematician to two Emperours and Didacus à Stunica a famous Divine of Salamanca with an Epistle of Paulo Antonio Foscarini a learned Carmelite of Naples that shew the Authority of Sacred Scripture in determining of Philosophical and Natural Controversies hoping that the ingenious impartial Reader will meet with full satisfaction in the same And least what I have spoken of the prohibiting of these Pieces by the Inquisition may deterre any scrupulous person from reading of them I have purposely inserted the Imprimatur by which that Office licenced them And for a larger account of the Book or Author I refer you to the Relation of his Life which shall bring up the Reare in the Second Tome What remains of this is that Excellent Discourse of D. Benedetto Castelli Abbate di San Benedetto Aloysio concerning the Mensuration of Running Waters with other Treatises of that Learned Prelate of the Superintendent Corsini Some may alledge and I doe confess that I promised to publish the Life of Galileo in this place But the great miscarriages of Letters from some Friends in Italy and else where to whom I am a Debtor for several Remarques from whom I daily expect yet greater Helps concerning the History of that famous Personage these disappointments I say joyned with the undeniable Request of some Friends who were impatient to see Castelli in English together with a consideration of the disproportionate Bulk that would otherwise have bin betwixt the two Volumes perswaded me to this exchange This deviation from my Promise I hope is Venial and for the expiating of it I plead Supererrogation having in each Tome made so large Aditions though to my great expense that they make neer a third part more than I stood by promise bound to Publish That this is so will appear by comparing the Contents I here prefix with the Advertisment I formerly Printed For not to mention those Epitomes of Kepler and à Stunica the whole second and following Books of Castelli were not come to my hands at the time of my penning that Paper yet knowing how imperfect the Volume would be without them they being partly a supplement to the Theoremes and Problemes which the Abbot had formerly Printed and partly experiments that had procured him and his Doctrine a very great Reputation knowing this I say I apprehended a necessity of publishing them with the rest and hope that if you think not the service I have done therein worth your acknowledgement you will yet at least account the encrease of my expence a sufficient extenuation of the Trespass that those Additions have forced me to commit upon your Patience in point of Time As for the second Tome I have only this to assure the Generous Readers 1 that I am very confident I shall be much more punctual in publishing that than for the reasons above related I was able to be in setting forth this 2 that they shall not be abused in advancing of their moneys as hath bin used in the like case by selling the remaining Copyes at an under rate and 3 that I have a very great care that no disesteem may by my means arise unto this way of publishing Books for that it is of excellent use in ushering Great and Costly Volumes into the World To say nothing of the disadvantages of Translations in general this of mine doubtless is not without it's Errours and oversights but those of the Printer discounted I hope the rest may be allowed me upon the score of Human Imbecilitie The truth is I have assumed the Liberty to note the Mistakes in the Florid Version of Berneggerus in the Margent not so much to reproach him as to convince those who told me that they accounted my pains needless having his Latine Translation by them The like they said of the whole two Tomes but they thereby caused me to question their Understanding or Veracity For some of the Books were yet never extant As for instance the Mechanicks of Monsieur Des Cartes a Manuscript which I found amongst the many other Rarities that enrich the well-chosen Library of my Learned and Worthy Friend Dr. Charles Scarburgh the Experiments of Gravity and the Life of Galileo both my own Others were included in Volumes of great price or so dispersed that they were not to be purchased for any money as those of Kepler à Stunica Archimedes Tartaglia and the Mechanicks of Galileo And the remainder though easyer to procure were harder to be understood as Tartaglia his notes on Archimedes Torricellio his Doctrine of Projects Galileo his Epistle to the Dutchesse of Tuscany and above all his Dialogues de Motu never till now done into any Language which were so intermixt of Latine and Italian that the difficulty of the Stile joyned with the intricatnesse of the Subject rendered them Unpleasant if not wholly Vnintelligible to such as were not absolute Masters of both the Tongues To conclude according to the entertainment that you please to afford these Collections I shall be encouraged to proceed with the Publication of a large Body of Hydrography declaring the History Art Lawes and Apendages of that Princely Study of Navigation wherein I have omitted nothing of note that can be found either in Dudley Fournier Aurigarius Nonius Snellus Marsennus Baysius Morisetus Blondus Wagoner abroad or learnt amongst our Mariners at home touching the Office of an Admiral Commander Pilot Modellist Shipwright Gunner c. But order requiring that I should discharge my first Obligation before I contract a second I shall detein you no longer in the Portall but put you into possession of the Premises Novemb. 20. 1661. T. S. THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION Judicious Reader THere was published some years since in Rome a salutiferous Edict that for the obviating of the dangerous Scandals of the present Age imposed a seasonable Silence upon the Pythagorean Opinion of the Mobility of the Earth There want not such as unadvisedly affirm that that Decree was not the production of a sober Scrutiny but of an illinformed Passion one may hear some mutter that Consultors altogether ignorant of Astronomical Observations ought not to clipp the Wings of Speculative Wits with rash Prohibitions My zeale cannot keep silence when I hear these inconsiderate complaints I thought fit as being thoroughly acquainted with that prudent Determination to appear openly upon the Theatre of the World as a Witness of the naked Truth I was at that time in Rome and had not only the audiences but applauds of the most Eminent Prelates of
that Court nor was that Decree Published without Previous Notice given me thereof Therefore it is my resolution in the present case to give Foraign Nations to see that this point is as well understood in Italy and particularly in Rome as Transalpine Diligence can imagine it to be and collecting together all the proper Speculations that concern the Copernican Systeme to let them know that the notice of all preceded the Censure of the Roman Court and that there proceed from this Climate not only Doctrines for the health of the Soul but also ingenious Discoveries for the recreating of the Mind To this end I have personated the Copernican in this Discourse proceeding upon an Hypothesis purely Mathematical striving by all artificial wayes to represent it Superiour not to that of the Immobility of the Earth absolutely but according as it is mentioned by some that retein no more but the name of Peripateticks and are content without going farther to adore Shadows not philosophizing with requisit caution but with the sole remembrance of four Principles but badly understood We shall treat of three principall heads First I will endeavour to shew that all Experiments that can be made upon the Earth are insufficient means to conclude it's Mobility but are indifferently applicable to the Earth moveable or immoveable and I hope that on this occasion we shall discover many observable passages unknown to the Ancients Secondly we will examine the Coelestiall Phoenomena that make for the Copernican Hypothesis as if it were to prove absolutely victorious adding by the way certain new Observations which yet serve only for the Astronomical Facility not for Natural Necessity In the third place I will propose an ingenuous Fancy I remember that I have said many years since that the unknown Probleme of the Tide might receive some light admitting the Earths Motion This Position of mine passing from one to another had found charitable Fathers that adopted it for the Issue of their own wit Now because no stranger may ever appear that defending himself with our armes shall charge us with want of caution in so principal an Accident I have thought good to lay down those probabilities that would render it credible admitting that the Earth did move I hope that by these Considerations the World will come to know that if other Nations have Navigated more than we we have not studied less than they that our returning to assert the Earths Stability and to take the contrary only for a Mathematical Capriccio proceeds not from inadvertency of what others have thought thereof but had we no other inducements from those Reasons that Piâ—ty Religion the Knowledge of the Divine Omnipotency and a consciousness of the incapacity of mans Vnderstanding dictate unto us With all I conceived it very proper to express these conceits by way of Dialogue which as not being bound up to the riggid observance of Mathematical Laws gives place also to Digressions that are sometimes no less curious than the principal Argument I chanced to be several years since at several times in the Stupendious Citty of Venice where I conversed with Signore Giovan Francesco Sagredo of a Noble Extraction and piercing wit There came thither from Florence at the same time Signore Filippo Salviati whose least glory was the Eminence of his Blood and Magnificence of his Estate a sublime Wit that fed not more hungerly upon any pleasure than on elevated Speculations In the company of these two I often discoursed of these matters before a certain Peripatetick Philosopher who seemed to have no geater obstacle in understanding of the Truth than the Fame he had acquired by Aristotelical Interpretations Now seeing that inexorable Death hath deprived Venice and Florence of those two great Lights in the very Meridian of their years I did resolve as far as my poor ability would permit to perpetuate their lives to their honour in these leaves bringing them in as Interlocutors in the present Controversy Nor shall the Honest Peripatetick want his place to whom for his excessive affection towards the Commentaries of Simplicius I thought fit without mentioning his own Name to leave that of the Author he so much respected Let those two great Souls ever venerable to my heart please to accept this publick Monument of my never-dying Love and let the remembrance of their Eloquence assist me in delivering to Posterity the Considerations that I have promised There casually happened as was usuall several discourses at times between these Gentlemen the which had rather inflamed than satisfied in their wits the thirst they had to be learning whereupon they took a discreet resolution to meet together for certain dayes in which all other business set aside they might betake themselves more methodically to contemplate the Wonders of God in Heaven and in the Earth the place appointed for their meeting being in the Palace of the Noble Sagredo after the due but very short complements Signore Salviati began in this manner The CONTENTS of the FIRST TOME PART THE FIRST Treatise I. GALILEUS GALILEUS his SYSTEME of the WORLD in Four DIALOGUES II. HIS EPISTLE to her SERENE HIGHNESSE CHRISTIANA LOTHERINGA GRAND DUTCHESSE of TUSCANY touching the Ancient and Modern DOCTRINE of HOLY FATHERS and JUDICIOUS DIVINES concerning the AUTHORITY of SACRED SCRIPTURE in PHYLOSOPHICAL CONTROVERSIES III. JOHANNES KEPLERUS his RECONCILINGS of TEXTS of SACRED SCRIPTURE that seem to oppose the DOCTRINE of the EARTHS MOBILITY abstracted from his INTRODUCTION unto his LEARNED COMMENTARIES upon the PLANET MARS IV. DIDACUS A STUNICA a learned SPANISH DIVINE his RECONCILINGS of the said DOCTRINE with the TEXTS of SACRED SCRIPTURE abstracted from his COMMENTARIE upon JOB V. PAULUâ— ANTONIUS FOSCARINUS a CARMELITE his EPISTLE to SEBASTIANUS FANTONUS the GENERAL of his ORDER concerning the PYTHAGOREAN and COPERNICAN OPINION of the MOBILITY OF THE EARTH and STABILITY OF THE SUN and of the NEW SYSTEME or CONSTITUTION of the WORLD in which he reconcileth the TEXTS OF SACRED SCRIPTURE and ASSERTIONS of DIVINES commonly alledged against this OPINION A Table of the most observable Persons and Matters mentioned in the First Part. PART THE SECOND I. D. BENEDICTUS CASTELLUS ABBOT OF S. BENEDICTUS ALOYSIUS his DISCOURSE of the MENSURATION OF RUNNING WATERS The First BOOK II. HIS LETTER to GALILEUS representing the state of the Lake of PERUGIA in TUSCANY III. HIS GEOMETRICAL DEMONSTRATIONS of the MEASURE of RUNNING WATERS IV. HIS DISCOURSE of the MENSURATION OF RUNNING WATERS The Second BOOK V. HIS CONSIDERATIONS concerning the LAKE OF VENICE In two DISCOURSES VI. HIS RULE for computing the quantity of MUD and SAND that LAND-FLOODS bring down to and leave in the LAKE of VENICE VII HIS LETTER to Father FRANCESCO DI S. GIVSEPPE wherein at the instance of PRINCE LEOPALDO he delivereth his judgment concerning the turning FIUME MORTO a River near PISA in TUSCANY into the SEA and into the River SEARCHIO VIII HIS second LETTER in answer to certain OBJECTIONS proposed and DIFFICULTIES observed
think a greater part should rather be imployed than a lesser 105 PRINCIPLES By denying Principles in Sciences any Paradox may be maintained 28 Contrary Principles cannot naturally reside in the same Subject 211 PROJECT c. The Project according to Aristotle is not moved by virtue impressed but by the Medium 130 Operation of the Medium in continuing the Motion of the Project 131 Many Experiments and Reasons against the Motions of Projects assigned by Aristotle 132 The Medium doth impede and not conferre the Motion of Projects 134 An admirable accident in the Motion of Projects 135 Sundry curious Problems touching the Motion of Projects 137 Projects continue their Motion by a Right Line that follows the direction of the Motion made together with the Projicient whilst they were conjoyned therewith 154 The Motion impressed by the Projicient is onely in a Right Line 170 The Project moveth by the Tangent of the Circle of the Motion preceeding in the instant of Seperation 172 A Grave Project assoon as it is seperated from the Projicient beginneth to decline 173 The Cause of the Projection encreaseth not according to the Proportion of Velocity encreased by making the Wheel bigger 189 The Virtue which carrieth Grave Projects upwards is no lesse Natural to them than the Gravity which moveth them downwards 211 PTOLOMY c. Inconveniences that are in the System of Ptolomy 309 Ptolomies System full of defects 476 The Learned both of elder and later times dissatisfied with the Ptolomaick System 477 PYTHAGORAS c. Pythagorick Mistery of Numbers fabulous 3 Pythagoras offered an Hecatombe for a Geometrical Demonstration which he found 38 Pythagoras and many other Ancients enumerated that held the Earths Mobility 437 468 R RAYS Shining Objects seem fringed and environed with adventitious Rays 304 REST. Rest. Vide Motion Rest the Infinite degree of Tardity 11 RETROGRADATIONS Retrogradations more frequent in Saturn lesse frequent in Jupiter and yet lesse in Mars and why 311 The Retrogradations of Venus and Mercury demonstrated by Apollonius and Copernicus 311 S SATURN Saturn for its slownesse and Mercury for its late appearing were amongst those that were last observed 416 SCARCITY Scarcity and Plenty enhanse and debase the price of all things 43 SCHEINER Christopher Scheiner the Jesuit his Book of Conclusions confuted 78 195 seq 323 A Canon Bullet would spend more than six dayes in falling from the Concave of the Moon to the Center of the Earth according to Scheiner 195 Christopher Scheiner his Book entituled Apelles post Tabulam censured and disproved 313 The Objections of Scheiner by way of Interrogation 336 Answers to the Interrogations of Scheiner 336 Questions put to Scheiner by which the weaknesse of his is made appear 336 SCIENCES In Natural Sciences the Art of Oratory is of no use 40 In Natural Sciences it is not necessary to seek Mathematical evidence 206 SCRIPTURE c. The Caution we are to use in determining the Sense of Scripture in difficult points of Phylosophy 427 Scripture studiously condescendeth to the apprehension of the Vulgar 432 In dicussing of Natural Questions we ought not to begin at Scripture but at Sensible Experiments and Necessary Demonstrations 433 The intent of Scripture is by its Authority to recommend those Truths to our beliefe which being un-intelligible could no other wayes be rendered credible 434 Scripture Authority to be preferred even in Natural Controversies to such Sciences as are not confined to a Demonstrative Method 434 The Pen-men of Scripture though read in Astronomy intentionally forbear to teach us any thing of the Nature of the Stars 435 The Spirit had no intent at the Writing of the Scripture to teach us whether the Earth moveth or standeth still as nothing concerning our Salvation 436 Inconveniencies that arise from licentious usurping of Scripture to stuffe out Books that treat of Nat. Arguments 438 The Literal Sense of Scripture joyned with the universal consent of the Fathers is to be received without farther dispute 444 A Text of Scripture ought no lesse diligently to be reconciled with a Demonstrated Proposition in Philosophy than with another Text of Scripture sounding to a contrary Sense 446 Demonstrated Truth ought to assist the Commentator in finding the true Sense of Scripture 446 It was necessary by way of condescension to Vulgar Capacities that the Scripture should speak of the Rest and Motion of the Sun and Earth in the same manner that it doth 447 Not onely the Incapacity of the Vulgar but the Current Opinion of those times made the Sacred Writers of the Scripture to accommodate themselves to Popular Esteem more than Truth 447 The Scripture had much more reason to affirm the Sun Moveable and the Earth Immoveable than otherwise 448 Circumspection of the Fathers about imposing positive Senses on Doubtful Texts of Scripture 451 T is Cowardice makes the Anti-Copernican fly to Scripture Authorities thinking thereby to affright their Adversaries 455 Scripture speaks in Vulgar and Common Points after the manner of Men. 462 The intent of Scripture is to be observed in Places that seem to affirme the Earths Stability 464 Scripture Authorities that seem to affirm the Motion of the Sun and Stability of the Earth divided into six Classes 478 Six Maximes to be observed in Expounding Dark Texts of Scripture 481 Scripture Texts speaking of things inconvenient to be understood in their Literal Sense are to be interpreted one of the four wayes named 81 Why the Sacred Scripture accommodates it self to the Sense of the Vulgar 487 SEA The Seas Surface would shew at a distance more obscure than the Land 49 The Seas Reflection of Light much weaker than that of the Earth 81 The Isles are tokens of the unevennesse of the Bottoms of Seas 383 SELEUCUS Opinion of Seleucus the Mathematician censured 422 SENSE He who denieth Sense deserves to be deprived of it 21 Sense sheweth that things Grave move ad Medium and the Light to the Concave 21 It is not probable that God who gave us our Senses would have us lay them aside and look for other Proofs for such Natural Points as Sense sets before our Eyes 434 Sense and Reason lesse certain than Faith 475 SILVER Silver burnished appears much more obscure than the unburnished and why 64 SIMPLICIUS Simplicius his Declamation 43 SOCRATES The Answer of the Oracle true in judging Socrates the Wisest of his time 85 SORITES The Forked Sylogisme called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 29 SPEAKING We cannot abstract our manner of Speaking from our Sense of Seeing 461 SPHERE The Motion of 24 hours ascribed to the Highest Sphere disorders the Period of the Inferiour 102 The Sphere although Material toucheth the Material Plane but in one point onely 182 The Definition of the Sphere 182 A Demonstration that the Sphere toucheth the Plane but in one point 183 Why the Sphere in abstract toucheth the Plane onely in one point and not the Material in Concrete 184 Contact in a Single Point is not
supposed by the Authour Galileo to be perfectly Ordinate 10 The Sensible World 96 It hath not been hitherto proved by any whether the World be finite or infinite 293 If the Centre of the World be the same with that about which the Planets move the Sun and not the Earth is placed in it 295 WRITING Some Write what they understand not and therefore understand not what they Write 63 The Invention of Writing Stupendious above all others 88 Y YEAR The Years beginning and ending which Ptolomy and his Followers could never positively assign is exactly determined by the Copernican Hypothesis 469 THE END OF THE TABLE THE Ancient and Modern DOCTRINE OF Holy Fathers AND Iudicious Divines CONCERNING The rash citation of the Testimony of SACRED SCRIPTURE in Conclusions meerly Natural and that may be proved by Sensible Experiments and Necessary Demonstrations Written some years since to Gratifie The most SERENE CHRISTINA LOTHARINGA Arch-Dutchess of TVSCANY By GALILAEO GALILAEI A Gentleman of Florence and Chief Philosopher and Mathematician to His most Serene Highness the Grand DVKE And now rendred into English from the Italian BY THOMAS SALUSBURY Naturam Rerum invenire difficile ubi inveneris indicare in vulgus nefas Plato LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOURN 1661. TO Her most Serene HIGHNES THE Gran Duchess Mother SOme years since as Your most Serene Highness well knoweth I did discover many particulars in Heaven that had been unseen and unheard of untill this our Age which as well for their novelty as for certain consequences which depend upon them clashing with some Physical Propositions commonly received by the Schools did stir up against me no small number of such as professed the vulgar Philosophy in the Universities as if I had with my own hand newly placed these things in Heaven to obscure and disturb Nature and the Sciences who forgetting that the multitude of Truths contribute and concur to the investigation augmentation and establishment of the Arts and not to their diminution and destruction and at the same time shewing themselves more affectionate to their own Opinions than to Truth went about to deny and to disprove those Novelties of which their very sense had they but pleased to have intentsly beheld them would have rendered them thorowly assured And to this purpose they alledged sundry things and published certain Papers fraughted with vain discourses and which was a more gross errour interwoven with the attestations of the Sacred Scriptures taken from places by them not rightly understood and which did not any thing concern the point for which they were produced Into which errour perhaps they would not have run if they had but been advertised of a most profitable Document which S. Augustine giveth us concerning our proceeding warily in making positive determinations in points that are obscure and hard to be understood by the meer help of ratiocination where treating as we of a certain natural conclusion concerning Celestial Bodies he thus writes But now having evermore a respect to the moderation of pious Gravity we ought to believe nothing unadvisedly in a doubtful point lest we conceive a prejudice against that in favour to our Errour which Truth hereafter may discover to be no wise contrary to the Sacred Books either of the Old or New Testament It hath since come to pass that Time hath by degrees discovered to every one the truths before by me indicated and together with the truth of the fact a discovery hath been made of the difference of humours between those who simply and without passion did refuse to admit such like Phaenomena for true and those who to their incredulity had added some discomposed affection For as those who were better grounded in the Science of Astronomy and Natural Philosophy became satisfied upon my first intimation of the news so all those who stood not in the Negative or in doubt for any other reason but because it was an unlookt-for-Novelty and because they had not an occasion of seeing a sensible experiment thereof did by degrees come to satisfie themselves But those who besides the love they bore to to their first Errour have I know not what imaginary interess to render them disaffected not so much towards the things as towards the Author of them not being able any longer to deny them conceal themselves under an obstinate silence and being exasperated more than ever by that whereby those others were satisfied and convinced they divert their thoughts to other projects and seek to prejudice me some other wayes of whom I profess that I would make no more account than I have done of those who heretofore have contradicted me at whom I alwaies laugh as being assured of the issue that the business is to have but that I see that those new Calumnies and Persecutions do not determine in our greater or lesser Learning in which I will scarce pretend to any thing but extend so far as to attempt to asperse me with Crimes which ought to be and are more abhorred by me than Death it self Nor ought I to content my self that they are known to be unjust by those onely who know me and them but by all men whatsoever They persisting therefore in their first Resolution Of ruining me and whatsoever is mine by all imaginable waies and knowing how that I in my Studies of Astronomy and Philosophy hold as to the World 's Systeme That the Sun without changing place is situate in the Centre of the Conversion of the Celestial Orbes and that the Earth convertible about its own Axis moveth it self about the Sun And moreover understanding that I proceed to maintain this Position not onely by refuting the Reasons of Ptolomy and Aristotle but by producing many on the contrary and in particular some Physical pertaining to Natural Effects the causes of which perhaps can be by no other way assigned and others Astronomical depending upon many circumstances and encounters of new Discoveries in Heaven which manifestly confute the Ptolomaick Systeme and admirably agree with and confirm this other Hypothesis and possibly being ashamed to see the known truth of other Positions by me asserted different from those that have been commonly received and therefore distrusting their defence so long as they should continue in the Field of Philosophy for thâ—se respects I say they have resolved to try whether they could make a Shield for the fallacies of their Arguments of the Mantle of a feigned Religion and of the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures applyed by them with little judgment to the confutation of such Reasons of mine as they had neither understood nor so much as heard And first they have indeavoured as much as in them lay to divulge an opiniou thorow the Universe that those Propositions are contrary to the Holy Letters and consequently Damnable and Heretical And thereupon perceiving that for the most part the inclination of Mans Nature is more prone to imbrace those enterprizes whereby his Neighbour may
although unjustly be oppressed than those from whence he may receive just incouragement it was no hard matter to find those Complices who for such that is for Damnable and Heretical did from their Pulpits with unwonted confidence preach it with but an unmerciful and less considerate injury not only to this Doctrine and to its followers but to all Mathematicks and Mathematicians together Hereupon assuming greater confidence and vainly hoping that that Seed which first took root in their unsound mindes might spread its branches and ascend towards Heaven they went scattering rumours up and down among the People That it would ere long be condemned by Supreme Authority and knowing that such a Censure would supplant not onely these two Conclusions of the VVorlds Systeme but would make all other Astronomical and Physical Observations that have correspondence and necessary connection therewith to become damnable to facilitate the business they seek all they can to make this opinion at least among the vulgar to seem new and peculiar to my self not owning to know that Nicholas Copernicus was its Authour or rather Restorer and Confirmer a person who was not only a Catholick but a Priest Canonick and so esteemed that there being a Dispute in the Lateran Council under Leo X. touching the correction of the Ecclesiastick Calender he was sent for to Rome from the remotest parts of Germany for to assist in this Reformation which for that time was left imperfect onely because as then the true measure of the Year and Lunar Moneth was not exactly known whereupon it was given him in charge by the Bishop of Sempronia at that time Super-intendent in that Affair to search with reiterated studies and pains for greater light and certainty touching those Coelestial Motions Upon which with a labour truly Atlantick and with his admirable Wit setting himself again to that Study he made such a progress in these Sciences and reduced the knowledge of the Coelestial Motions to such exactnesse that he gained the title of an Excellent Astronomer And according unto his Doctrine not only the Calendar hath been since regulated but the Tables of all the Motions of the Planets have also been calculated and having reduced the said Doctrine into six Books he published them to the World at the instance of the Cardinal of Capua and of the Bishop of Culma And in regard that he had re-assumed this so laborious an enterprize by the order of The Pope he dedicated his Book De Revolutionibus Coelestibus to His Successour namely Paul III. which being then also Printed hath been received by The Holy Church and read and studied by all the World without any the least umbrage of scruple that hath ever been conceived at his Doctrine The which whilst it is now proved by manifest Experiments and necessary Demonstrations to have been well grounded there want not persons that though they never saw that same Book intercept the reward of those many Labours to its Authour by causing him to be censured and pronounced an Heretick and this only to satisfie a particular displeasure conceived without any cause against another man that hath no other interest in Copernicus but only as he is an approver of his Doctrine Now in regard of these false aspersions which they so unjustly seek to throw upon me I have thought it necessary for my justification before the World of whose judgment in matters of Religion and Reputation I ought to make great esteem to discourse concerning those Particulars which these men produce to scandalize and subvert this Opinion and in a word to condemn it not only as false but also as Heretical continually making an Hipocritical Zeal for Religion their shield going about moreover to interest the Sacred Scriptures in the Dispute and to make them in a certain sense Ministers of their deceiptful purposes and farthermore desiring if I mistake not contrary to the intention of them and of the Holy Fathers to extend that I may not say abuse their Authority so as that even in Conclusions meerly Natural and not de Fide they would have us altogether leave Sense and Demonstrative Reasons for some place of Scripture which sometimes under the apparent words may contain a different sense Now I hope to shew with how much greater Piety and Religious Zeal I proceed than they do in that I propose not that the Book of Copernicus is not to be condemned but that it is not to be condemned as they would have it without understanding it hearing it or so much as seeing it and especially he being an Author that never treateth of matters of Religion or Faith nor by Reasons any way depending on the Authority of Sacred Scriptures whereupon he may have erroniously interpreted them but alwaies insists upon Natural Conclusions belonging to the Celestial Motions handled with Astronomical and Geometrical Demonstrations Not that he had not a respect to the places of the Sacred Leaves but because he knew very well that his said Doctrine being demonstrated it could not contradict the Scriptures rightly and according to their true meaning understood And therefore in the end of his Epistle Dedicatory speaking to The Pope he saith thus If there should chance to be any Mataeologists who though ignorant in all the Mathematicks yet pretending a skill in those Learnings should dare upon the authority of some place of Scripture wrested to their purpose to condemn and censure this my Hypothesis I value them not but shall slight their inconsiderate Judgement For it is not unknown that Lactantius otherwise a Famous Author though mean Mathematician writeth very childishly touching the Form of the Earth when he scoffs at those who affirm the Earth to be in Form of a Globe So that it ought not to seem strange to the Ingenious if any such should likewise now deride us The Mathematicks are written for Mathematitians to whom if I deceive not my self these Labours of mine shall seem to add something as also to the Common-weale of the Church whose Government is now in the hands of Your Holiness And of this kinde do these appear to be who indeavour to perswade that Copernicus may be condemned before his Book is read and to make the World believe that it is not onely lawfull but commendable so to do produce certain Authorities of the Scripture of Divines and of Councils which as they are by me had in reverence and held of Supream Authority insomuch that I should esteem it high temerity for any one to contradict them whilst they are used according to the In stitutes of Holy Church so I believe that it is no errour to speak so long as one hath reason to suspect that a person hath a desire for some concern of his own to produce and alledge them to purposes different from those that are in the most Sacred intention of The Holy Church Therefore I not onely protest and my sincerity shall manifest it self that I intend to submit my self freely to renounce
inveigh and of whom in particular S. Hierom writeth This Scilicet the Sacred Scripture the talking old woman the doting old man the talkative Sophister all venture upon lacerate teach and that before they have learnt it Others induced by Pride diving into hard words Philosophate amongst Women touching the Holy Scriptures Others Oh shameful Learn of Women what they teach to Men and as if this were nothing in a certain facility of words I may say of confidence expound to others what they understand not themselves I forbear to speak of those of my own Profession who if after Humane Learning they chance to attain to the Holy Scriptures and tickle the ears of the people with affected and Studied expressions they affirm that all they say is to be entertained as the Law of God and not stooping to learn what the Prophets and Apostles held they force incongruous testimonies to their own Sense As if it were the genuine and not corrupt way of teaching to deprave Sentences and Wrest the Scripture according to their own singular and contradictory humour I will not rank among these same secular Writers any Theologists whom I repute to be men of profound Learning and sober Manners and therefore hold them in great esteem and veneration Yet I cannot deny but that I have a certain scruple in my mind and consequently am desirous to have it removed whilst I hear that they pretend to a power of constraining others by Authority of the Scriptures to follow that opinion in Natural Disputations which they think most agreeth with the Texts of that Holding withall that they are not bound to answer the Reasons and Experiments on the contrary In Explication and Confirmation of which their judgement they say That Theologie being the Queen of all the Sciences she ought not upon any account to stoop to accomodate her self to the Positions of the rest less worthy and inferior to her But that they ought to refer themselves to her as to their Supream Emperess and change and alter their Conclusions according to Theological Statutes and Decrees And they further add That if in the inferior Science there should be any Conclusion certain by vertue of Demonstrations or experiments to which there is found in Scripture another Conclusion repugnant the very Professors of that Science ought of themselves to resolve their Demonstrations and discover the falacies of their own Experiments without repairing to Theologers and Textuaries it not suiting as hath been said with the dignity of Theologie to stoop to the investigation of the falacies of the inferior Sciences But it sufficeth her to determine the truth of the Conclusion with her absolute Authority and by her infallibility And then the Natural Conclusions in which they say that we ought to bide by the meer Authority of the Scripture without glossing or expounding it to Senses different from the Words they affirm to be Those of which the Scripture speaketh alwaies in the same manner and the Holy Fathers all receive and expound to the same Sense Now as to these Determinations I have had occasion to consider some particulars which I will purpose for that I was made cautious thereof by those who understand more than I in these businesses and to whose judgements I alwaies submit my self And first I could say that there might possibly a certain kinde of equivocation interpose in that they do not distinguish the preheminences whereby Sacred Theologie meriteth the Title of Queen For it might be called so either because that that which is taught by all the other Sciences is found to be comprized and demonstrated in it but with more excellent means and with more sublime Learning in like manner as for example The Rules of measuring of Land of Accountantship are much more excellently contained in the Arithmatick and Geometry of Euclid than in the Practises of Surveyours and Accomptants Or because the Subject about which Theologie is conversant excelleth in Dignity all the other Subjects that are the Matters of other Sciences As also because its Documents are divulged by nobler waies That the Title and Authority of Queen belongeth to Theologie in the first Sense I think that no Theologers will affirm that have but any in-sight into the other Sciences of which there are none as I believe that will say that Geometry Astronomy Musick and Medicine are much more excellently and exactly contained in the Sacred Volumes than in the Books of Archimedes in Ptolomy in Boetius and in Galen Therefore it is probable that the Regal Preheminence is given her upon the second account namely By reason of the Subject and the admirable communicating of the Divine Revelations in those Conclusions which by other means could not be conceived by men and which chiefly concern the acquist of eternal Beatitude Now if Theologie being conversant about the loftiest Divine Contemplation and residing for Dignity in the Regal Throne of the Sciences whereby she becometh of highest Authority descendeth not to the more mean and humble Speculations of the inferior Sciences Nay as hath been declared above hath no regard to them as not concerning Beatitude the Professors thereof ought not to arrogate to themselves the Authority to determin of Controversies in those Professions which have been neither practised nor studied by them For this would be as if an Absolute Prince knowing that he might freely command and cause himself to be obeyed should being neither Phisitian nor Architect undertake to administer Medicines and erect Buildings after his own fashion to the great endangering af the lives of the poor Patients and to the manifest destruction of the Edifices Again to command the very Professors of Astronomy that they of themselves see to the confuting of their own Observations and Demonstrations as those that can be no other but Falacies and Sophismes is to enjoyn a thing beyond all possibility of doing For it is not onely to command them that they do not see that which they see and that they do not understand that which they understand but that in seeking they finde the contrary of that which they happen to meet with Therefore before that this is to be done it would be necessary that they were shewed the way how to make the Powers of the Soul to command one another and the inferior the Superior so that the imagination and will might and should believe contrary to what the Intellect understands I still mean in Propositions purely Natural and which are not de Fide and not in the Supernatural which are de Fide I would entreat these Wise and Prudent Fathers that they would withal diligence consider the difference that is between Opinable and Demonstrative Doctrines To the end that well weighing in their minds with what force Necessary Illations oblige they might the better ascertain themselves that it is not in the Power of the Professors of Demonstrative Sciences to change their Opinions at pleasure and apply themselves one while to one side and another
while to another and that there is a great difference between commanding a Methametitian or a Philosopher and the disposing of a Lawyer or a Merchant and that the demonstrated Conclusions touching the things of Nature and of the Heavens cannot be changed with the same facility as the Opinions are touching what is lawful or not in a Contract Bargain or Bill of Exchange This difference was well understood by the Learned and Holy Fathers as their having been at great pains to confute many Arguments or to say better many Philosophical Fallacies doth prove unto us and as may expresly be read in some of them and particularly we have in S. Augustine the following words This is to be held for an undoubted Truth That we may be confident that whatever the Sages of this World have demonstrated touching Natural Points is no waies contrary to our Bibles And in case they teach any thing in their Books that is contrary to the Holy Scriptures we may without any scruple conclude it to be most false And according to our ability let us make the same appear And let us so keep the Faith of our Lord in whom are hidden all the Treasures of Wisdom that we be neither seduced with the Loquacity of false Philosophy nor scared by the superstition of a counterfeit Religion From which words I conceive that I may collect this Doctrine namely That in the Books of the Wise of this World there are contained some Natural truths that are solidly demonstrated and others again that are barely taught and that as to the first sort it is the Office of wise Divines to shew that they are not contrary to the Sacred Scriptures As to the rest taught but not necessarily demonstrated if they shall contain any thing contrary to the Sacred Leaves it ought to be held undoubtedly false and such it ought by all possible waies to be demonstrated If therefore Natural Conclusions veritably demonstrated are not to be postposed to the Places of Scripture but that it ought to be shewn how those Places do not interfer with the said Conclusions then it s necessary before a Physical Proposition be condemned to shew that it is not necessarily demonstrated and this is to be done not by them who hold it to be true but by those who judge it to be false And this seemeth very reasonable and agreeable to Nature that is to say that they may much more easily find the fallacies in a Discourse who believe it to be false than those who account it true and concludent Nay in this particular it will come to passe that the followers of this opinion the more that they shall turn over Books examine the Arguments repeat the Observations and compare the Experiments the more shall they be confirmed in this belief And your Highness knoweth what happened to the late Mathematick Professor in the University of Pisa Who betook himself in his old age to look into the Doctrine of Copernicus with hope that he might be able solidly to confute it for that he held it so far to be false as that he had never studied it but it was his fortune that as soon as he had understood the grounds proceedings and demonstrations of Copernicus he found himself to be perswaded and of an opposer became his most confident Defender I might also nominate other Mathematicians who being moved by my last Discoveries have confessed it necessary to change the formerly received Constitution of the World it not being able by any means to subsist any longer If for the banishing this Opinion and Hypothesis out of the World it were enough to stop the mouth of one alone as it may be they perswade themselves who measuring others judgements by their own think it impossible that this Doctrine should be able to subsist and finde any followers this would be very easie to be done but the business standeth otherwise For to execute such a determination it would be necessary to prohibite not onely the Book of Copernicus and the Writings of the other Authors that follow the same opinion but to interdict the whole Science of Astronomy and which is more to forbid men looking towards Heaven that so they might not see Mars and Venus at one time neer to the Earth and at another farther off with such a difference that the latter is found to be fourty times and the former sixty times bigger in surface at one time than at another and to the end that the same Venus might not be discovered to be one while round and another while forked with most subtil hornes and many other sensible Observations which can never by any means be reconciled to the Ptolomaick Systeme but are unanswerable Arguments for the Copernican But the prohibiting of Copernicus his Book now that by many new Observations and by the application of many of the Learned to the reading of him his Hypothesis and Doctrine doth every day appear to be more true having admitted and tolerated it for so many years whilst he was lesse followed studied and confirmed would seem in my judgment an affront to Truth and a seeking the more to obscure and suppresse her the more she sheweth her self clear and perspicuous The abolishing and censuring not of the whole Book but onely so much of it as concerns this particular opinion of the Earths Mobility would if I mistake not be a greater detriment to souls it being an occasion of great scandal to see a Position proved and to see it afterwards made an Heresie to believe it The prohibiting of the whole Science what other would it be but an open contempt of an hundred Texts of the Holy Scriptures which teach us That the Glory and the Greatnesse of Almighty God is admirably discerned in all his Works and divinely read in the Open Book of Heaven Nor let any one think that the Lecture of the lofty conceits that are written in those Leaves finish in only beholding the Splendour of the Sun and of the Stars and their rising and setting which is the term to which the eyes of bruits and of the vulgar reach but there are couched in them mysteries so profound and conceipts so sublime that the vigils labours and studies of an hundred and an hundred acute Wits have not yet been able thorowly to dive into them after the continual disquisition of some thousands of years But let the Unlearned believe that like as that which their eyes discern in beholding the aspect of a humane body is very little in comparison of the stupendious Artifices which an exquisite and curious Anatomist or Philosopher finds in the same when he is searching for the use of so many Muscles Tendons Nerves and Bones and examining the Offices of the Heart and of the other principal Members seeking the seat of the vital Faculties noting and observing the admirable structures of the Instruments of the Senses and without ever making an end of satisfying his curiosity and wonder contemplating
Stadia or furlongs The Cause and Reason of whose Motion neither Ptolomy nor any other Astrologers could ever comprehend And yet the Reasons of these things are most plainly explained and demonstrated by Copernicus from the Motion of the Earth with which he sheweth that all the other Phaenomena of the Universe do more aptly accord Which opinion of his is not in the least contradicted by what Solomon saith in Ecclesiastes But the Earth abideth for ever For that Text signifieth no more but this That although the succession of Ages and generations of Men on Earth be various yet the Earth it self is still one and the same and continueth without any sensible alteration For the words run thus One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh but the Earth abideth for ever So that it hath no coherence with its Context as Philosophers shew if it be expounded to speak of the Earths immobility And although in this Chapter Ecclesiastes and in many others Holy Writ ascribes Motion to the Sun which Copernicus will have to stand fixed in the Centre of the Universe yet it makes nothing against his Position For the Motion that belongs to the Earth is by way of speech assigned to the Sun even by Copernicus himself and those who are his followers so that the Revolution of the Earth is often by them phrased The Revolution of the Sun To conclude No place can be produced out of Holy Scripture which so clearly speaks the Earths Immobility as this doth its Mobility Therefore this Text of which we have spoken is easily reconciled to this Opinion And to set forth the Wonderful power and Wisdome of God who can indue and actuate the Frame of the Whole Earth it being of a monstrous weight by Nature with Motion this our Divine pen-man addeth And the pillars thereof tremble As if he would teach us from the Doctrine laid down that it is moved from its Foundations AN EPISTLE Of the Reverend Father PAOLO ANTONIO FOSCARINI A CARMELITE Concerning The PYTHAGORIAN and COPERNICAN Opinion OF The Mobility of the EARTH AND Stability of the SVN AND Of the New Systeme or Constituion OF THE WORLD IN WHICH The Authorities of SACRED SCRIPTVRE and ASSERTIONS of DIVINES commonly alledged against this Opinion are Reconciled WRITTEN To the most Reverend FATHER SEBASTIANO FANTONI General of the Order of CARMELITES Englished from the Original BY THOMAS SALVSBVRIE So quis indiget sapientia postulet à Deo Jacobi 1. versu 5. Optaevi datus est mihi sensus Sapientiae 7. versu 7. LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOVRN MDCLXI To the Most Reverend Father SEBASTIANO FANTONI General of the Order of CARMELITES IN obedience to the command of the Noble Signore Vincenzo Carraffa a Neapolitan and Knight of S. John of Jerusalem a person to speak the truth of so great Merit that in him Nobility of Birth Affability of Manners Universal knowledge of Arts and things Piety and Vertue do all contend for preheminence I resolved with my self to undertake the Defence of the Writings of the New or rather Renewed and from the Dust of Oblivion in which it hath long lain hid lately Revived Opinion Of the Mobility of the Earth and Stability of the Sun in times past found out first by Pythagoras and at last reduced into Practice by Copernicus who likewise hath deduced the Position of the Systeme and Constitution of the World and its parts from that Hypothesis on which Subject I have formerly writ to You Most Reverend Sir But in regard I am bound for Rome to preach there by your Command and since this Speculation may seem more proper for another Treatise to wit a Volume of Cosmography which I am in hand with and which I am daily busie about that it may come forth in company with my Compendium of the Liberal Arts which I have already finished rather than now to discuss it by it self I thought to forbear imparting what I have done for the present Yet I was desirous to give in the mean time a brief account of this my Determination and to shew You Most Reverend Father to whom I owe all my indeavours and my very self the Foundations on which this Opinion may be grounded least whilst otherwise it is favoured with much probability it be found in reality to be extreamly repugnant as at first sight it seems not onely to Physical Reasons and Common Principles received on all hands which cannot do so much harm but also which would be of far worse consequence to many Authorities of sacred Scripture Upon which account many at their first looking into it explode it as the most fond Paradox and Monstrous Capriccio that ever was heard of Which thing proceeds only from an antiquated and long confirmed Custome which hath so hardened men in and habituated them to Vulgar Plausible and for that cause by all men aswell learned as unlearned Approved Opinions that they cannot be removed one step from them So great is the force of Custome which not unfitly is stiled a second Nature prevailing over the whole World that touching things men are rather pleased with delighted in and desirous of those which though evil and obnoxious are by use made familiar to them than such wherewith though better they are not accustomed and acquainted So in like manner and that chiefly in Opinions which when once they are rooted in the Mind men start at and reject all others whatsoever not only those that are contrary to but even all that ever so little disagree with or vary from theirs as harsh to the Ear discoloured to the Eye unpleasant to the Smell nauseous to the Tast rough to the Touch. And no wonder For Physical Truths are ordinarily judged and considered by men not according to their Essence but according to the prescript of some one whose description or definition of them gaines him Authority amongst the vulgar Which authority nevertheless since 't is no more than humane ought not to be so esteemed as that that which doth manifestly appear to the contrary whether from better Reasons lately found out or from Sense it self should for its sake be contemned and slighted Nor is Posterity so to be confined but that it may and dares not only proceed farther but also bring to light better and truer Experiments than those which have been delivered to us by the Ancients For the Genius's of the Antients as in Inventions they did not much surpass the Wits of our times so for the perfecting of Inventions this Age of ours seems not only to equal but far to excell former Ages Knowledge whether in the Liberal or Mechanical Arts daily growing to a greater height Which Assertion might be easily proved were it not that in so clear a case there would be more danger of obscuring than hopes of illustrating it with any farther light But that I may not wholly be silent in this point have not the several Experiments of Moderns in many things stopped the mouth
Magnitude such as Canopus otherwise called Arcanar in the end of a River or the Little Dog in the mouth of the Great Dog or the Foot of Orion called Rigel or his Right shoulder or any other of that Magnitude Therefore the two great Lights are to be understood in respect of us and according to vulgar estimation and not according to the true and reall existence of such Bodies Secondly in the specification of the Proposition it is said The greater Light to rule the Day hereby denoting the Sun in which the verbal sense of Scripture agreeth with the Truth of the Thing For that the Sun is the Greatest of all Luminaries and Globes But that which followeth immediately after And the lesser Light to rule the Night meaning the Moon cannot be taken in the true and real sense of the words For the Moon is not the lesser Light but Mercury which is not only much lesser than the Moon but also than any other Star And if again it be said That the Holy Text doth not speak of the Stars but onely of the Luminaries for that presently after they are mentioned apart And the Stars and that what we say is true touching the comparison of the Stars amongst themselves but not in respect of the Luminaries namely the Sun and Moon This reply doth discover a man to be utterly ignorant in these Studies and such who having not the least smattering in them doth conceive an absurd and erroneous Opinion of the Coelestial Bodies For the Moon and Sun considered in themselves and as they appear to us if they should be a far greater distance from us than indeed they are would be no other nor would appear to us otherwise than Stars as the rest do in the Firmament But Great Luminaries they neither are nor seem to be save only in respect of us And so on the other side the Stars as to themselves are no other than so many Suns and so many Moons yet are so far remote from us that by reason of their distance they appear thus small and dim of light as we behold them For the greater and lesser distance of heavenly Bodies caeteris paribus doth augment and diminish their appearance both as to Magnitude and Light And therefore the words which follow in that place of Genesis And the Stars as distinguishing the Stars from the Sun and Moon are to be taken in no other acceptation than that which we have spoken of namely according to the sense of the Vulgar and the common manner of speech For indeed according to the truth of the matter all Coelestial Bodies being shining Globes are of a vast bigness to which if we should be so neer as we are to the Moon they would seem to us of as great yea a greater magnitude than the Moon As likewise on the contrary if we were as far distant from the Sun and Moon as we are from them both Moon and Sun would shew but as stars to us And yet the splendor of the Sun would doubtless be greater intensivè than that of any other star For although it should be granted that some stars as those of the Fixed that twinkle do shine of themselves aud by their own nature as the Sun that derives not its light from others which yet remains undecided and doubtful and borrow not their light from the Sun Nevertheless since the brightness of none of the stars may be compared with the Suns splendour which was created by God first and before all other Luminaries in the highest kind of Light it would therefore notwithstanding follow that none of those stars although placed in the same proximity to us with the Sun and therefore appearing to us of the same Magnitude as the Sun can bestow upon us so much Light as we receive from the Sun As on the contrary the Sun at the same remotenesse from us as they are would indeed as to its Magnitude appear to us as one of those stars but of a splendour much more intense than that of theirs So that now the Earth is nothing else but another Moon or star and so would it appear to us if we should behold it from a convenient distance on high And in it might be observed in that variety of Light and Darkness which the Sun produceth in it by making Day and Night the same difference of Aspects that are seen in the Moon and such as are observed in tricorporate Venus in like manner also 't is very probable that the same might be discerned in other Planets which shine by no light of their own but by one borrowed from the Sun What ever therefore may touching these matters be delivered in the sacred Leaves or the common speech of men dissenting from the real truth it ought as we have said before absolutely to be received and understood secundum vulgi sententiam communem loquendi concipiendi stylum And so to return to our purpose if all this considered the Pythagorian opinion be true it will be easie according to the same Rule to reconcile the authority of sacred Scriptures with it however they seem to oppose it and in particular those of the first and second Classis scilicet by my first Maxime For that in those places the holy Records speak according to our manner of understanding and according to that which appeareth in respect of us For thus it is with those Bodies in comparison of us and as they are described by the vulgar and commune way of humane Discourse So that the Earth appears as if it were standing still and immoveable and the Sun as if it were circumambient about her And so the Holy Scripture is used in the Commune and Vulgar way of speaking because in respect of our sight the Earth seems rather to stand fixed in the Centre and the Sun to circumvolve about it than otherwise as it happens to those that are putting off from the Banks of a River to whom the shore seems to move backwards and go from them but they do not perceive which yet is the truth that they themselves go forwards Which fallacy of our sight is noted and the Reason thereof assigned by the Opticks upon wich as being strange to and besides my purpose I will not stay and on this account is Aeneas brought in by Virgil saying Provehimur portu terraeque urbesque recedunt But it will not be amiss to consider why the sacred Scripture doth so studiously comply with the opinions of the Vulgar and why it doth not rather accurately instruct men in the truth of the matters and the secrets of Nature The Reason is first the benignity of Divine Wisdome whereby it sweetly accomodates it self to all things in proportion to their Capacity and Nature Whence in Natural Sciences it useth natural and necessary causes but in Liberal Arts it worketh liberally upon Generous Persons after a sublime and lofty manner upon the Common People familiarly and humbly upon the Skilful
Hypothesis Hell is supposed to be placed amongst the very dreggs of the Elements and in the Centre of the Earth it self for the confinement and punishment of the damned Therefore we ought not for want of Reasons to trifle away time in vain and impertinent strife about words since their true Sense is clouded then with no obscurity and in regard that it is very clear to any man indued with a refined Intellect and that hath but an indifferent judgment in the Liberal Arts and especially in the Mathematicks that the same or not very different Consequences do flow from both these Opinions By these Maxims and their Interpretations it appears that the Pythagorick and Copernican Opinion is so probable that its possible it may exceed even the Ptolemaick in probability and since there may be deduced from it a most ordinate Systeme and a more admirable and mysterious Hypothesis of the World than from that of Ptolomy the Authorities of Sacred Scripture and Theological Tenents in the mean while not opposing it being opportunely and appositely as I have shown how they may be reconciled with it And since that by it not only the Phoenomena of all the Coelestial Bodies are most readily â—alved but also many Natural Reasons are discovered which could not otherwise but with extream difficulty have been found out And since it last of all doth open a more easy way into Astronomy and Phylosophy and rejecteth all those superfluous and imaginary inventions produced by Astronomers to the end only that they might be able by them to render a reason of the so many and so various Motions of the Coelestial Orbs. And who knows but that in that admirable composure of the Candlestick which was to be placed in the Tabernacle of God he might out of his extraordinary love to us have been pleased to shaddow forth unto us the Systeme of the Universe and more especially of the Planets Thou shalt make a Candlestick of pure Gold saith the Text of beaten work shall it be made his Shaft and his Branches his Bowls his Knops and his Flowers shall be of the same Here are five things described the Shaft of the Candlestick in the midle the Branches on the sides the Bowls the Knops and the Flowers And since there can be no more Shafts but one the Branches are immediatly described in these words Six Branches shall come out of the sides of iâ— three Branches out of the one side and three Branches out of the other side Happly these six Branches may point out to us six Heavens which are moved about the Sun in this order Saturn the slowest and most remote of all finisheth his course about the Sun thorrow all the twelve Signes of the Zodiack in thirty Years Jupiter being nearer than he in twelve Years Mars being yet nearer than him in two Years The Earth which is still nearer than he doth perform the same Revolution together with the Orbe of the Moon in the space of a Year that is in Twelve Months Venus which is yet nearer than all these in 9 Months And last of all Mercury whose vicinity to the Sun is the greatest of all accomplisheth its whole conversion about the Sun in eighty Dayes After the description of the six Branches the sacred Text proceeds to the description of the Bowls the Knops and the Flowers saying Three Bowls made like unto Almonds with a Knop and a Flower in one Branch and three Bowls made like Almonds in the other Branch with a Knop and a Flower this shall be the work of the six Branches that come out of the Shaft And in the Candlestick sball be four Bowls made like unto Almonds with their Knops and their Flowers there shall be a knop under two branches of the same and a Knop under two Branches of the same and a Knop under two Branches of the same which together are six Branches proceeding from one Shaft The truth is the shallownesse of my understanding cannot fathome the depth of all the Mysteries that are couched in this most wise disposure of things neverthelesse being amazed and transported with admiration I will say Who knows but that those three Bowls like unto Almonds to be represented on each of the Branches of the Candlestick may signifie those Globes which are apter as is this our Earth for the receiving than emitting of Influences Perhaps also they denote those Globes of late discovered by the help of the Optick Telescope which participate with Saturn Jupiter Venus and possibly also with the other Planets Who knows likewise but that there may be some occult proportion between these Globes and those Mysterious Knops and Lilies insinuated unto us in the sacred Scriptures But this shall here suffice to bound humane Presumption and to teach us to exspect with an Harpocratick silence from Time the Indice of Truth a discovery of these Mysteries Solomon made ten Candlesticks by the same Patern of Moses which he placed five on one hand and five on another in the Temple erected by him in honour of the most High God which very thing doth also without all question contain most abstruse significations Moreover that Apple of the Knowledg of Good and Evil prohibited our first Parents by God is not without a Mystery which some say was an Indian Figg In which these things are to be observed First That it is replete with many Kernels every one of which hath a particular Centre Secondly Though of it self it be hard and solid yet about its Circumference it is of a more rare and tenuouse substance herein resembling the Earth which though in its Centre and those parts which are nearest to it it be stony Metallick and compact yet the nearer one approacheth to the Circumference its parts are seen to be the more rare and tenuouse and withall it hath another body more rare than its own namely the Water above which there is yet another more subtil than all the rest of inferiour Bodyes that is to say the Aire The same Representation with that of the Indian Figg is held forth to us by the Malum Punicum or Pomegranate with its innumerable polycentrick Stones or Kernels all which in the parts more remote from their Centre and nearer approaching towards the Circumference are of a substance so subtil and rare that being but lightly compressed they in a manner wholly convert into a most tenuose Liquor or juice Of which fruit it pleased Divine Wisdom to make mention and ordained that its Figure should be imbroidered and wrought with a needle in the sacerdotal Garment of Aaron Beneath saith God upon the hem of it thou shalt make Pomegranates of blew and of purple and of scarlet round about the border thereof and Bells of gold between them round about a golden bell and a pomegranate a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the Robe round about And that this was a Mystical Representation of the Worlds Effigies is
averred by Solomon saying For in the long Garment that he had on was the whole World and in the foure rows of the stones was the Glory of the Fathers graven and thy Majesty in the Diadem of his Head The same likewise is signified to us by the Grape and in like manner by all other Fruits but especially the Figg Grape and Pomegranate whence these three are almost alwayes placed together in the Sacred Scriptures So Numb 20. the People of Israel complain against Moses and Aaron Wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place where there can grow no Seed neither is there either Figgs or Vines or Pomegranates Intimating that these kinds of Fruits were preferred by them for their excellency before all others And in Joel The Vine is dryed up and the Figg-tree languisheth the Pomegranate-tree the Palm-tree also and the Apple-tree even all the Trees of the field are withered because joy is withered away from the Sons of Men. Likewise in Haggai Is the seed yet in the Bud and hath as yet the Vine and the Fig-tree and the Pomegranate and the Olive-tree brought forth In like manner in Deuteronomie the Land of Promise is commended to be A Land of Wheat and Barly and Vines in which grow Figg-trees and Pomegranates and Olive-trees c. And in the Structure of the Temple undertaken by Solomon upon Divine Inspiration the Chapiters of the Pillars were adorned with several rowes of Pomegranates which particular is mentioned not in one but many places of Holy Writ Yea and sometimes accidentally and occasionally the Holy hath Ghost aenigmatically represented this most admirable and Most Wise Structure of the World the Order of the Heavens and the disposure of Creatures Spiritual and Corporeal by Emblems Parables and Figures least they should be as it were dazled and blinded by the refulgent splendor of so excellent an Object Hence we see that in these Doctrinal Dubious Points we may discourse in such manner by help of the Holy Scripture as is meet for the understanding of the Prophets which seeing they are very obscure they shall be fully understood and may be aptly applyed only then when they shall be fulfilled and not before So also when once the true Systeme of the Universe is found out then and noâ— till then the meaning of these Figures and Aenigma's shall be made known unto us Thus before the coming of the Son of God had discovered unto us the Mystery of the Holy Trinity none were able to comprehend or imagine what was concealed under those words In Principio creavit Elohim Coelum Terram for that they did not see how the Noun Plural Elohim which is as much as to say Dij Gods should be joyned with the Verb Singular Creavit But the Mystery of the Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons in God being revealed it was presently known that the Singular Number Creavit had reference to the Unity of Essence in regard that the Works of the Trinity ad extra are indivisible and the Plural Elohiâ— to the Persons Who I pray in elder times could have found out this Mystery And thus the Name of God is thrice repeated in Psal. 67. God even our God shall blesse us God shall blesse us c. Which at first might seem a Pleonasme and superfluous repetition but afterwards it was evident that David did there set out the Benedictions of several Persons implyed to wit the Father Son and Holy Ghost Innumerable Examples of the like kind may be found in the Sacred Leaves Therefore to conclude I will say with David Psal. 92. Oh Lord how glorious are thy Works thy thoughts are very deep an unwiseman knoweth not and a fool doth not understand these things These are the particulars that I have thought fit to offer as a Divine concerning the not-improbable Opinion of the Mobility of the Earth and Stability of the Sun which I hope will be acceptable to you Reverend Sir out of the love and diligence wherewith you persue Virtue and Learning But to the end that you may also receive an account of my other Studies I hope very shortly to publish in Print my Second Tome Of the Institutions of all Learnings which shall containe all the Liberall Arts as I have already signified in that Syntax and Spicimen by me heretofore put forth and published under your Name The other five following Tomes by me promised which shall treat of Phylosophy and Theology are not altogether so forward nevertheless they will be speedily finished In the mean time there will come forth my Book Concerning Oracles now finished together with a Treatise Of Artificial Divination And for a pledge thereof I send you at this time annexed to this Epistle a Tract Concerning Natural Cosmological Divination or of Natural Prognosticks and Presages of the Changes of Weather and other things which fall within the compasse of Nature God grant you all Happinesse NAPLES from the Covent of the Carmelites Jan. 6. 1615. Most Reverend Sir Your Most Humble Servant PAOLO ANTONIO FOSCARINI FINIS Imprimatur P. ANT. GHIBERT Vic. Gen. JOANNES LONGUS Can. Cur. Archiep. Neap. THEOL Vidit MATHEMATICAL COLLECTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS THE SECOND TOME THE SECOND PART Containing I. D. BENEDICTUS CASTELLUS his DISCOURSE of the MENSURATION of RUNNING WATERS II. His Geometrical DEMONSTRATIONS of the Measure of RUNNING WATERS III. His LETTERS and CONSIDERATIONS touching the Draining of FENNS Diversions of RIVERS c. IV. D. CORSINUS His RELATION of the state of the Inundations c. in the Territories of BOLOGNA and FERRARA By THOMAS SALUSBURY Esq. LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOURNE MDCLXI OF THE MENSURATION OF RUNNING WATERS An Excellent Piece Written in ITALIAN BY DON BENEDETTO CASTELLI Abbot of St. BENEDETTO ALOYSIO and Professour of the Mathematicks to Pope URBAN VIII in ROME Englished from the Third and best Edition with the addition of a Second Book not before extant By THOMAS SALUSBURY LONDON Printed by WILLIAM LEYBOURN 1661. THE AUTHOURS EPISTLE TO Pope VRBAN VIII I Lay at the Feet of your Holinesse these my Considerations concerning the MENSURATION OF RUNNING WATERS Wherein if I shall have succeeded being a matter so difficult and unhandled by Writers both Ancient Modern the discovery of any thing of truth hath been the Effect of Your Holinesses Command and if through inability I have missed the Mark the same Command will serve me for an Excuse with Men of better Judgment and more especially with Your Holinesse to whom I humbly prostrate my self and kisse Your Sacred Feet From ROME Your Holinesses Most humble Servant BENEDETTO A Monk of Cassino AN ACCOUNT OF THE Authour and Work DON BENEDETTO CASTELLI the famous Authour of these ensuing Discourses of the Mensuration of Running Waters is descended from the Worshipful FAMILY of the CASTELLII and took his first breath near to the lake