Galileo had humbly submitted, had witnessed the issue of the decree of 5th March by the august council; he knew that the only correct doctrine of the system of the universe had been reduced to the shadow of a hypothesis, and yet he could not make up his mind to leave the capital of the hierarchy where such a slap in the face had been given to science. The story told in most works on Galileo, that though he had submitted to the Holy Office he afterwards used his utmost endeavours to effect a reversal of the decree, is another of the firmly rooted and ineffaceable mistakes of history. It originated in the reports of the Tuscan ambassador, Guiccardini, to the Grand Duke.[151] This diplomatist, who was no great friend of Galileo’s, found himself in an awkward position; he had been, on the one hand, enjoined by his sovereign to support Galileo as far as it lay in his power, while on the other he knew that the influential female members of the house of Medici were very anxious to maintain the good relations of Tuscany with the Holy See; and he tried to extricate himself from this dilemma by urgently seeking to effect the recall of the inconvenient guest to Florence. This object runs through all the ambassador’s despatches to Cosmo II. He could not depict in colours too glaring the passion, fanaticism, and pertinacity with which, in spite of all advice to the contrary, Galileo defended the Copernican cause at Rome, though he was thereby doing it more harm than good. The long report of Guiccardini to the Grand Duke, of 4th March, 1616,[152] held to be authentic by most of Galileo’s biographers, is couched in this tone. Among other things a dramatic scene is narrated which was the immediate cause of the condemnation of the Copernican system. Cardinal Orsini, one of Galileo’s warmest friends, to whom the Grand Duke had sent an autograph letter of introduction, had spoken to the Pope in favour of Galileo in the consistory of 2nd March. The Pope replied that it would be well if he would persuade Galileo to give up this opinion. Orsini then tried to urge the Pope further, but he cut him short, saying that he had handed over the whole affair to the Holy Office. No sooner had Orsini retired than Bellarmine, the celebrated Jesuit theologian, was summoned to the Pope, and in the conversation that ensued it was determined that this opinion of Galileo’s was erroneous and heretical.