The archbishop begs Castelli, therefore, to let him see the original letter in the handwriting of Galileo.

Castelli declines.

The archbishop then, while, as is now revealed, writing constantly and bitterly to the Inquisition against Galileo, professes to Castelli the greatest admiration of Galileo's genius and a sincere desire to know more of his discoveries.

This not succeeding, the archbishop at last throws off the mask and resorts to open attack.
The whole struggle to crush Galileo and to save him would be amusing were it not so fraught with evil.

There were intrigues and counter-intrigues, plots and counter-plots, lying and spying; and in the thickest of this seething, squabbling, screaming mass of priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals, appear two popes, Paul V and Urban VIII.