The results of his work were published from time to time, and in 1632 the labor of his life was given to the world in the form of a book entitled, "The Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems," in which were incorporated all his views on natural science, and his arguments in favor of rejecting many of the old theories of the universe and accepting the new.

And now the unpopularity which had always followed him found a new object for its hatred.

The book was received with the most intense ill-will by Galileo's enemies, many of whom occupied high positions in philosophical circles, and possessed an unbounded influence with the dignitaries of Church and State, and the "Dialogue of the Systems" was made the means of bringing the quarrel between the old and new philosophies to an issue.

The hatred of years had at last found its opportunity, and Galileo was summoned to Rome to answer the charge of heresy in teaching the doctrines of Copernicus, which were assumed by the Church to be in opposition to the revealed word of God.

Galileo was seventy years old, and his life had been spent in reverent study of the works of nature, but the conclusions he arrived at differered from those accepted by the theologians of the day, and his long and faithful devotion to science, and all his splendid discoveries, were simply regarded by his enemies as the work of a man who dared to dispute the holiest tenets of the Church, and to offer a scientific creed as opposed to the sacred beliefs of the Aristotelian philosophers.

The Inquisition, which was then the judicial tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church, examined Galileo upon his religious and scientific views, and pronounced them impious and heretical, and called upon him to renounce and abjure the most cherished convictions of his soul, or suffer the penalty that attended any persistent opposition to the Holy Office.

The subject of Galileo's abjuration has always been a matter of dispute, some contending that it was exhorted from him while undergoing torture at the hands of the officers of the Inquisition, and others claiming that the terms of abduration were dictated by the inquisitors themselves, and are not to be considered as expressing the recantation of Galileo.

But, however that may be, it is certain that an abjuration, that was considered sufficiently condemning by his enemies, was sworn to by Galileo in the presence of the officers of the Inquisition, and that his recantation saved him from imprisonment, and perhaps death.

The well-known anecdote that when Galileo rose from his knees after signing the abjuration he stamped the ground and whispered to one of his friends—"It [the world] does move, though"— is without foundation. Although copies of his abjuration were immediately circulated throughout Italy, and were ordered to be read in the universities, the Copernican system still kept its hold upon the minds of all advanced thinkers, and Galileo was still regarded as its most powerful advocate.

The fact that his abjuration did not cost him the respect and admiration of his friends, is sufficient evidence that it was obtained under circumstances that reflect little credit on the supporters of the Church, and admits the probability that, even in this terrible crisis, Galileo maintained his character as an uncompromising advocate of the new school of thought; and his judges can only place his whole brave and consistent life against the questionable practices of the Inquisition, to give a balance largely in his favor.

Galileo died in 1642, having been blind for five years before his death.

The malice of his enemies followed him to the end, and he was denied the privilege of making a will, and of burial in consecrated ground.

But this petty spite could not interfere with the sentence passed upon him by all the unbiased thinkers of his own and succeeding ages, that his life was one of noble devotion to his work, and that through his influence scientific inquiry was first led into the pure ways of reasonable thought, and the world of nature more fully and clearly revealed, and endowed with new and unimagined beauty.