“I hear from Rome that his Eminence Cardinal Antonio Barberini and the French ambassador have seen his Holiness and tried to convince him that I never had the least idea of perpetrating so sacrilegious an act as to make game of his Holiness, as my malicious foes have persuaded him, and which was the primary cause of all my troubles.”[277] Pieralisi is acquainted with these words, and seeks to weaken their indisputable force as evidence in a lengthy disquisition; but an impartial critic only sees in this the apologist of Urban VIII., who desires, at all hazards, to shield him from the suspicion of having been actuated in the matter of Galileo’s trial by personal motives, which will always be recognised in history as a fact, though it is also an exaggeration of some historians to maintain that it was the actual starting-point of the whole process, Urban having wished to revenge himself for this assumed personal insult.[278] No, it had its effect, but was not the chief motive. The Jesuits had inspired the Pope with the opinion that the “Dialogues” were eminently dangerous to the Church, more dangerous and abhorrent even than the writings of Luther and Calvin,[279] and he was highly incensed at the representation that Galileo had shamefully outwitted Father Riccardi, Mgr. Ciampoli, and even his Holiness himself, in obtaining the licence. Offended majesty, the determination to guard the interests of the Church and the authority of the Bible, indignation at Galileo’s assumed cunning, and annoyance at having been duped by it,—these were the motives which impelled Urban VIII. to the deed called the institution of the trial of the Inquisition against Galileo. CHAPTER IV. _DISCOVERY OF THE ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION OF 1616._ Symptoms of the Coming Storm.—The Special Commission.—Parade of Forbearance.—The Grand Duke intercedes for Galileo.—Provisional Prohibition of the “Dialogues.”—Niccolini’s Interview with the Pope and unfavourable Reception.—Report of it to Cioli.—Magalotti’s Letters.—Real Object of the Special Commission to find a Pretext for the Trial.—Its Discovery in the Assumed Prohibition of 1616.—Report of the Commission and Charges against Galileo.