The result of the consultation was, however, to deliver the letter to Barberini. Niccolini reported to Galileo on 6th November,[306] that he had received it in a very friendly spirit, and was altogether very kindly disposed towards him. The ambassador does not doubt that a delay will at any rate be granted, that Galileo may make the journey to Rome with less inconvenience.[307] We learn from a document in Gherardi’s archives, that Galileo’s petitions were discussed at a sitting of the Congregation of the Holy Office held on 11th November, in presence of the Pope, but that he would not grant them, and decreed that Galileo must obey, and ordered that the Inquisitor at Florence should be written to that he might compel Galileo to come to Rome.[308] Niccolini, meanwhile, was unwearied in trying to get Galileo’s proposals accepted. He went to Cardinal Ginetti, who was a member of the Congregation and in high favour with the Pope, and to Mgr. Boccabella, assessor of the Holy Office, and represented to both Galileo’s great age, his failing health, and the peril to his life of a journey through quarantine and plague. But as both prelates, on whom as members of the Holy Office strict secrecy was imposed, “only heard what he had to say, and answered nothing,” Niccolini went to the Pope himself, to make one more attempt. Having as he thought put the imperious pontiff into the best of humours, by assuring him that the unfortunate _savant_ was ready to render prompt obedience to every command, he laid all the circumstances before him, and used all his eloquence to awaken pity for the infirm old man. But in vain. Niccolini asked at last whether his Holiness had not seen Galileo’s letter to Cardinal Barberini; and he said he had, but in spite of all that the journey to Rome could not be dispensed with. “Your Holiness incurs the danger,” replied Niccolini, “considering Galileo’s great age, of his being tried neither in Rome nor Florence; for I assure your Holiness that he may die on the way under all these difficulties combined with so much anxiety.” “He can come very slowly (_pian piano_) in a litter, with every comfort, but he really must be tried here in person. May God forgive him for having been so deluded as to involve himself in these difficulties, from which we had relieved him when we were cardinal.” This was the Pope’s stern reply to the ambassador’s urgent representations. And when he remarked that it was the sanction given to the book here which had occasioned all this, because from the signature, and the orders given to the Inquisitor at Florence, they felt quite secure, and had proceeded without scruple, Urban broke out into violent complaints about the conduct of Father Riccardi and Mgr. Ciampoli, and repeated that it was a question of a most pernicious doctrine.[309]