"Therefore, having seen and maturely considered the merits of your
cause, with your said confessions and excuses, and every thing else
which ought to be seen and considered, We have come to the
underwritten final sentence against you.
"Invoking, therefore, the most holy name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
and of His Most Glorious Virgin Mother Mary, by this Our final
sentence, which, sitting in council and judgment for the tribunal of
the Reverend Masters of Sacred Theology, and Doctors of both Laws,
Our Assessors, We put forth in this writing touching the matters and
controversies before Us, between The Magnificent Charles Sincerus,
Doctor of both Laws, Fiscal Proctor of this Holy Office of the one
part, and you, Galileo Galilei, an examined and confessed criminal
from this present writing now in progress as above of the other
part, We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo,
by reason of these things which have been detailed in the course of
this writing, and which, as above, you have confessed, have rendered
yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy Office of heresy: that is
to say, that you believe and hold the false doctrine, and contrary
to the Holy and Divine Scriptures, namely, that the sun is the
centre of the world, and that it does not move from east to west,
and that the earth does move, and is not the centre of the world;
also that an opinion can be held and supported as probable after it
has been declared and finally decreed contrary to the Holy
Scripture, and consequently that you have incurred all the censures
and penalties enjoined and promulgated in the sacred canons, and
other general and particular constitutions against delinquents of
this description. From which it is Our pleasure that you be
absolved, provided that, first, with a sincere heart and unfeigned
faith, in Our presence, you abjure, curse, and detest the said
errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to
the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, in the form now shown to
you.
"But, that your grievous and pernicious error and transgression may
not go altogether unpunished, and that you may be made more cautious
in future, and may be a warning to others to abstain from
delinquencies of this sort, We decree that the book of the dialogues
of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by a public edict, and We condemn
you to the formal prison of this Holy Office for a period
determinable at Our pleasure; and, by way of salutary penance, We
order you, during the next three years, to recite once a week the
seven penitential psalms, reserving to Ourselves the power of
moderating, commuting, or taking off the whole or part of the said
punishment and penance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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