Authority and the Discourse of Modernity in Lamp at Midnight

When, in the dramatic scene of the meeting of Cardinals in the Palace of the Inquisition, Pope Urban VIII raises the question as to the uses of "authority," (2,35)1 he voices an issue that may well be said to be central to Lamp at Midnight. The word "authority" is used about a dozen times throughout the play; even more important, it connotes a recurring topos of dramatic conflict, as when writing in the form of "Galileo's book" is perceived as a challenge to institutionalized authority. This is the case when Galileo's treatise is by the same Pope declared as "detrimental to the faith" in that, among other things, it "will damage the authority of the Church." (2,9) In order to guard "the sanctity of our authority," (2,34) Father Firenzuola goes to the extreme of demanding more than the prohibition of the book, namely its burning. Here as elsewhere the conditions of institutionalized authority are made to appear vulnerable; they are threatened by a text inspired by the explosive insights of the new science. And they can be undermined from within the language of the Church. Paradoxically, the "authority of the Catholic Church" can be jeopardized, when the Pope's own signature may endanger it ("were I to sign this document I would be placing the future authority of the Catholic Church in grave danger;" 2,35). Again, writing even the Pope's writing of his own holy name can appear potentially subversive to the conservation of authority at least as long as this writing collides with what are considered the overriding interests of a daunting institution, including its power to enforce obedience, loyalty, and devotion.