10.2 Tommaso caccini

Cosimo Caccini was born in Florence and chose the religious life before he had turned fifteen. Caccini chose the Dominican order and entered the monastery of San Marco. Here, a century earlier, Savanarola had been the prior, and the legacy of this monk's fiery sermons lived on. Caccini soon showed that he had a talent for preaching, and soon after his novitiate he was already preaching Lenten sermons in the church of Santa Maria Novella. As his reputation spread, he was invited by churches in other cities to perform the same office. Caccini was, however, a pale echo of Savanarola: his fanaticism was never divorced from personal ambition for advancement within the Dominican order. By his choice of the name Tommaso, he served notice that he wished to become the new Thomas Aquinas, the order's (and the Church's) greatest theologian. In fact, his published works were derivative and third-rate. For his inflammatory sermons he was disciplined by the Archbishop of Bologna as a scandal-maker.

Shortly after Galileo's arrival in Florence, Caccini fell in with the so-called "Pigeon League," named after Lodovico delle Colombe,

Caccini got his wish. He became Master and Bachelor of the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, and the wheels were set in motion that resulted, eighteen months later, in the condemnation of the Copernican theory. Lorini forwarded a mangled copy of Galileo's letter to Castelli to Rome, and Galileo then sent the correct original version to Rome as well. In March 1615 Caccini appeared on his own initiative before the Inquisition and gave depositions about Galileo and his views. In November, two other clerics mentioned in Caccini's deposition were examined in Florence. These depositions show how ignorant these men were, in fact, about Galileo's views. After reviewing the matter, the Holy Office decided not to take any actions other than having Galileo's letters on sunspots examined by its theological consultants. Their report, in February 1616, made the proposition of a stationary and central Sun formally heretical and the proposition of a non-central moving Earth "at least erroneous in faith."

From correspondence, it appears that Caccini kept working against Galileo behind the scenes, but apparently to no particular effect. His career, however, did progress. He became confessor to the nuns of the convent of Orsina, and then penitentiary at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. He was confined for some time in Viterbo, after which, through the help of his brothers, he was allowed to return to Florence where he became a high theologian of the Dominican order. As prior of the famous monastery of San Marco, he was active behind the scene in the events leading up to Galileo's trial in 1633. Caccini died in Florence in 1648.