“We do not want you to renounce anything—not now,” Bellarmine said. “Word, of course, will indeed spread about your discoveries and your theories. We know that from the Instruments. We cannot stop that. Nor do we want to. What we want is to make sure, as much as possible, that word reaches the people at the right time, in the right way—when their souls are ready to accept it.”
“But how?” Galileo asked.
Bellarmine put his hand on Galileo’s shoulder. “Leave the details to us. You can continue writing and publishing as you have been doing—but try to take care to make sure you distinguish between science and its explanation of appearances, and faith and its explanation of the way things truly are. In time, you will write your Dialogo—you have already read it, so you will have an advantage.” Bellarmine smiled a beatific smile. “Who knows, perhaps some of our very discussions in the past few days will find their way into that fine book.”
Galileo nodded. “Yes.”
“Do not worry,” Bellarmine said. “We will provide you with instructions—detailing just when you should write your treatises, just when you should appear obstinate, just when you should give in. Leave it all to us.”
“Yes,” Galileo said.
“A fine wine,” Bellarmine said, and offered a glass to Barberini.
“And a fine day too, judging by your countenance,” Barberini replied. “I take it all went well with Galileo. I told you the Instruments were the best way to proceed.”
“Well, we must be aware of the deceptively easy wisdom of hindsight,” Bellarmine said. “Our brethren showed Bruno the Instruments too, and his reaction was very different from Galileo’s. He was uncontrollable. He had to be burned, as you know. Just a year after I had become a Cardinal. That was terrible. It should never have happened. It must never happen again.”
“But you seem sure that Galileo is on the right path,” Barberini said.
“Oh, I am very sure of that,” Bellarmine replied.
Barberini looked at him with just the slightest quizzical expression.
“You know, our people are constantly studying the Instruments—our small, select group—trying to understand how they work, the limits of what they convey, where they might have come from,” Bellarmine explained. “We have learned some things. The texts sometimes change—very slightly, but we have made records of originals, of some of the listings, and, once in a while, we notice something new, something that was not there before.”
“Yes, I believe I heard of that fluctuation,” Barberini said. “Almost as if events we have influence over here have some effect on the texts in the Instruments. Well, that makes sense, does it not, because we in the past are of course creating our future.”
Bellarmine smiled. Barberini definitely had not only the family, and the wealth, but the intellect to be Pope.
“That is so,” Bellarmine said.
“So, something in the Instruments, some change in the text, perhaps, tells you that we are on the right path with Galileo?” Barberini pressed.
“Yes,” Bellarmine replied. “I checked all of the listings under my name just this morning—I do that from time to time. And I found a new one—one I am sure had not been there before.”
“Yes?”
“It seems to have been authored almost 400 years from now,” Bellarmine said.
“Yes?”
“It is a brief piece, in fictional form—like many of our contemporary dialogues—entitled, ‘Advantage, Bellarmine.’ ”