crown of shit

OLD CARDINAL: Aren’t they out yet? Can’t they reach a decision on that paltry matter? Christopher Clavius ought to know his asronomy after all these years. I am informed that Mr. Galilei transfers mankind from the center of the universe to somewhere on the outskirts. Mr. Galilei is therefore an enemy of mankind and must be dealt with as such. Is it conceivable that God would trust this most precious fruit of His labour to a minor, frolicking star? Would He have sent His Son to such a place? How can there be people with such twisted minds that they believe what they’re told by the slave of a multiplication table?

FAT PRELATE (quietly to CARDINAL): The gentleman is over there.

OLD CARDINAL: So you are the man. You know my eyes are not what they were, but I can see you bear a striking resemblance to the man we burned. What was his name?

MONK: Your Eminence must avoid excitement the doctor said . . .

OLD CARDINAL (disregarding him): So you have degraded the earth despite the fact that you live by her and receive everything from her. I won’t have it! I won’t have it! I won’t be a nobody on an inconsequential star briefly twirling hither and thither. I tread the earth, and the earth is firm beneath my feet, and there is no motion to the earth, and the earth is the center of all things, and I am the center of the earth, and the eye of the Creator is upon me. About me revolve, affixed to their crystal shells, the lesser lights of the stars and the great light of the sun, created to give light upon me that God might see me–Man, God’s greatest effort, the center of creation. “In the image of God created He him.” Immortal . . . (His strength fails him and he catches for the MONK for support.)

MONK: You musn’t overtax your strength, Your Eminence.

At this moment the door at the rear opens and CHRISTOPHER CLAVIUS enters followed by his ASTRONOMERS. He strides hastily across the hall, looking neither to right nor left. As he goes by we hear him say–

CLAVIUS: He is right.

Deadly silence. All turn to GALILEO.

OLD CARDINAL: What is it? Have they reached a decision?

No one speaks.

MONK: It is time that Your Eminence went home.

The hall is emptying fast. One little MONK who had entered with CLAVIUS speaks to GALILEO.

LITTLE MONK: Mr. Galilei, I heard Father Clavius say: “Now it’s for the theologians to set the heavens right again.” You have won.

Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo