Father Lorini also, professor of ecclesiastical history at Florence, afterwards a ringleader of the base intrigues against Galileo and an informant against him, wrote to him 5th November, 1612,[80] to deny a report that he had publicly preached against Galileo. He only confessed to having given it as his opinion, in a conversation about the two systems, that the View of this _Ipernic_, or whatever his name might be, appeared to be contrary to Holy Scripture. Galileo wrote in a letter of 5th January, 1613,[81] to Prince Cesi: “The good man is so well acquainted with the author of these doctrines that he calls him _Ipernic_. You can see how and by whom poor philosophy suffers.” It appears also from the same letter that Galileo was now well aware of the intrigues being carried on against him in Florence, for he says among other things: “I thank you and all my dear friends very much for your anxiety for my protection against the malice which is constantly seeking to pick quarrels even here, and the more so since the enemy is so near at hand; but as they are but few in number, and their ‘league,’ as they call it among themselves, is but of limited extent, I laugh at it.” CHAPTER IV. _ASTRONOMY AND THEOLOGY._ Treatise on Floating Bodies.—Controversy with Scheiner about the Solar Spots.—Favourable reception of Galileo’s work on the subject at Rome.—Discussion with the Grand Duchess Christine.—The Bible brought into the controversy.—Ill-fated Letter to Castelli.—Caccini’s Sermon against Galileo.—Lorini denounces the Letter to the Holy Office.—Archbishop Bonciani’s attempts to get the original Letter.—“Opinion” of the Inquisition on it.—Caccini summoned to give evidence.—Absurd accusations.—Testimony of Ximenes and Attavanti in Galileo’s favour. While the storm which was to burst over Galileo’s head was thus slowly gathering, he was making important progress in the departments of physics and mechanics. His treatise on the motion of floating bodies led to very important results.[82] In it he again took the field against the Peripatetic philosophers, and refuted the assertion of Aristotle that the floating or partial immersion of bodies in water depended chiefly on their form, for by his approved method of studying the open book of nature he clearly showed the error of that opinion. In this work Galileo laid the foundations of hydrostatics as mostly held to this day. The old school rose up once more to refute him, as a matter of course; but their polemics cut a pitiful figure, for the champions of antiquated wisdom had in their impotence mostly to content themselves with wretched sophisms as opposed to Galileo’s hard facts, and as a last resort to insist on the authority of Aristotle.