WereturnnowtothesequeloftheGalileocase。
HavinggainedtheirvictoryoverGalileo，livinganddead，havingusedittoscareintosubmissiontheprofessorsofastronomythroughoutEurope，conscientiouschurchmenexulted。Loudwastheirrejoicingthatthe“heresy。”the“infidelity“the“atheism“
involvedinbelievingthattheearthrevolvesaboutitsaxisandmovesaroundthesunhadbeencrushedbythegreattribunaloftheChurch，actinginstrictobediencetotheexpressedwillofonePopeandthewrittenorderofanother。Aswehaveseen，allbooksteachingthishatedbeliefwereputupontheIndexofbooksforbiddentoChristians，andthatIndexwasprefacedbyabullenforcingthiscondemnationupontheconsciencesofthefaithfulthroughouttheworld，andsignedbythereigningPope。
Thelossestotheworldduringthiscompletetriumphoftheologywereevenmoreseriousthanatfirstappears：onemustespeciallybementioned。TherewastheninEuropeoneofthegreatestthinkersevergiventomankind——ReneDescartes。
Mistakenthoughmanyofhisreasoningswere，theyborearichfruitageoftruth。Hehadalreadydoneavastwork。Histheoryofvortices——assumingauniformmaterialregulatedbyphysicallaws——asthebeginningofthevisibleuniverse，thoughitwasbutaprovisionalhypothesis，hadendedthewholeoldtheoryoftheheavenswiththevaultedfirmamentandthedirectionoftheplanetarymovementsbyangels，whichevenKeplerhadallowed。