Without his sanction no action could have been taken.
True, the Pope did not formally sign the decree against the Copernican theory THEN; but this came later.

In 1664 Alexander VII prefixed to the Index containing the condemnations of the works of Copernicus and Galileo and "all books which affirm the motion of the earth" a papal bull signed by himself, binding the contents of the Index upon the consciences of the faithful.

This bull confirmed and approved in express terms, finally, decisively, and infallibly, the condemnation of "all books teaching the movement of the earth and the stability of the sun."(76) (76) See Rev.William W.Roberts, The Pontifical Decrees against the Doctrine of the Earth's Movement, London, 1885, p.

94; and for the text of the papal bull, Speculatores domus Israel, pp.

132, 133, see also St.
George Mivart's article in the Nineteenth Century for July, 1885.